#and about coming to resolve he has the agency and strength to not allow these things to deter him from purpose and place in the world.

[captainofthetidesbreath]

[blows a kiss out to sea] for the Mighty Nein pirates arc

[coochiequeens]

“In one game [Johnson] had seven blocked shots. That means seven shots, typically closer to the basket so much more likely to go in, were blocked by the guy who is taller than every other girl on the floor, can jump higher and likely is significantly stronger.  In what world is this even remotely fair to other Vermont Division IV girls?” And Warner cautioned that there is a greater chance of injury to female players when they compete against males

A girls basketball team has withdrawn from the Vermont Division IV state tournament after refusing to compete against a team with trans-identified male player.

The Mid Vermont Christian School Eagles (MVCS) forfeited their playoff game against the Long Trail School Mountain Lions (LTS) after learning that LTS star player Rose Johnson is male. 

In an email sent to the Vermont Valley News, MVCS head of school Vicky Fogg wrote: “We believe playing against an opponent with a biological male jeopardizes the fairness of the game and the safety of our players. Allowing biological males to participate in women’s sports sets a bad precedent for the future of women’s sports in general.”

Long Trail School is a private prep school located in Dorset, Vermont. Johnson, who stands 6’1, is the tallest member of their basketball team and a standout when it comes to blocking shots, according to Mountain Lions coach Courtney Stasny. In an interview conducted earlier this month, Stasny boasted about Johnson’s athletic prowess.

“Rose brings such a great energy to the floor. We nicknamed her Rose ‘not in my house’ Johnson because she just does not let anything come through the lane,” Stasny said.

In a game against Proctor High School, Johnson blocked six shots while also scoring six points. Proctor player Aubrey Lanning lamented after their 47- 43 loss to LTS, saying: “Rose guards the whole post.”

Professional coach and fitness expert Aaron Warner objected to Johnson’s participation in girls’ basketball in the Vermont Daily Chronicle: “In one game [Johnson] had seven blocked shots. That means seven shots, typically closer to the basket so much more likely to go in, were blocked by the guy who is taller than every other girl on the floor, can jump higher and likely is significantly stronger.  In what world is this even remotely fair to other Vermont Division IV girls?”

Warner cautioned that there is a greater chance of injury to female players when they compete against males: “Bone mass, lean mass, cardiac output, strength capacity, work capacity and kinesiological potential all heavily advantage males.  This is why men’s competition records (i.e. sprinting, jumping, weight lifting) dwarf women’s…Add to this fact that men are larger, faster and stronger than women and the potential for males injuring girls increases dramatically in competition.”

In October, a North Carolina school district voted to forfeit all girls volleyball games against a rival school that featured a trans-identifying male player over safety concerns after he injured a girl on an opposing team with a forcefully-spiked ball to the face. Video that went viralshowed the girl collapsing to the ground after being hit with the ball. She reportedly suffered head and neckinjuries and long-term concussion symptoms.

Vermont state law includes “gender identity” along with “sex” as a protected characteristic which can not be discriminated against by places of public accommodation in regard to their “accommodations, advantages, facilities and privileges.” 

The Vermont Agency of Education’s Best Practices for Schools Regarding Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students policy states: “Generally, students should be permitted to participate in physical education and sports in accordance with the student’s gender identity. Participation in competitive athletic activities and sports will be resolved on a case-by-case basis.” The policy also addresses the use of locker rooms, stating that transgender players should be allowed to use the locker room of their choosing based on their self-declared gender identity. 

Lauren Thomas, assistant executive director for the Vermont Principals Association, said “I have received calls (from schools) asking for best practices and how to go forward knowing they were going to play a team with a transgender female on it. We just supported our stance and our best practices through our inclusivity statement.”

Due to the forfeiture by MVCS, Long Trail School will move directly to the quarterfinals in the state tournament.

By Jennifer Gingrich Jennifer is a news contributor at Reduxx. A radical feminist and lifelong leftist, she is a passionate advocate for the rights of women and girls to single-sex spaces. She is originally from Brooklyn, New York, and now resides in New England.

A bio male wasn’t just allowed to play on a girls team he was given a position that made it very easy to take advantage of a male body.

PROCTOR — Long Trail was behind by nine points (22-13) at halftime but came back with a stirring effort over the final 16 minutes for a 47-43 victory over Proctor in girls basketball action at the Almo Buggiani Gym on Tuesday night.

The comeback was special but what was even sweeter for the Mountain Lions was that the victory came against Proctor.

“We had never ever beaten Proctor in anything,” Long Trail’s Camilla Marcy through a wide smile after leading the Mountain Lions with 14 points.

If the Mountain Lions had their energy up, the Phantoms might not have had much of that commodity left, playing back-to-back nights after the long trip to Twinfield.

“We don’t have a lot of depth and playing back-to-back is a lot to ask,” Proctor coach Joe McKearin said.

The night started well enough for the Phantoms. Isabel Greb drained a 3-point field goal and then knocked down two free throws for a 5-0 lead.

Marcy answered with her own 3. It was 5-3 and the tone was set. This would be a battle enveloped in a charged atmosphere.

The Phantoms stretched their lead to 13-7 by the end of the first quarter and took that 22-13 advantage into the half.

But the opening minutes of the third quarter was a precursor. Olivia Cole-Bugay and Aimee Wildman struck from the outside to pare the lead to 22-17.

Cadence Goodwin broke LT’s little run by scoring on a putback but the Mountain Lions kept charging. Rose Johnson scored on a putback and Cole-Buguay muscled inside for a hoop that sliced the lead to 24-21.

The Phantoms tried to separate themselves from LT again and when Emma Palmer drilled a 3-pointer it cushioned the lead to 29-21.

But Long Trail was not going away. The much taller Mountain Lions sometimes got two, three or even four shots on a possession and Johnson, at 6-foot-1, was a presence in the post with six blocked shots

Johnson showed a nice touch by swishing an 8-footer that tied the game at 29-29 before Marcy scored down low to give the visitors their first lead.

Long Trail took a 36-31 lead into the fourth quarter.

Makayla French knocked down a hoop that drew the Phantoms into a 37-37 tie.

Alyssa Sargent then got the bucket that put the gang from Dorset in front for good.

Still, the Phantoms were in it until the end. Palmer converted a layup off a turnover that cut the lead to 45-43 but Lanning drove to the hoop with 25 seconds to go to account for the final score.

While Marcy said this group of athletes had never beaten Proctor, she did feel that the narrow 38-36 loss in Dorset earlier this season gave them confidence and showed them it was possible.

The contest was intense and both coaches received a warning.

“It was intense,” Lanning said of the atmosphere. “It was a little bit intimidating.”

Marcy, a junior, said her teammates have “taken a big step every year since they were freshmen.”

“We were down by nine points at the half, but I told them that they play hard and are aggressive so let’s go execute that in the second half,” Long Trail coach Courtney Stasny said.

The Mountain Lions double-teamed Greb and held her to 14 points, well below her average.

Jenna Davine followed her in scoring for the Phantoms with 12 points and Palmer and Goodwin tossed in six each.

Following Marcy in scoring for the Mountain Lions were Cole-Bugay and Molly Luikart with eight points apiece and Johnson with six.

All the blocked shots by Johnson had to be in the Phantoms’ heads whenever taking the ball to the rim.

“Rose guards the whole post,” Lanning said.

The Phantoms fell to 6-10 and the Mountain Lions improved their record to 10-6.

Marcy felt the team had some good momentum until they got derailed by Arlington in the previous game.

“Now, I think we have that momentum back,” she said.

That is something they can take into Thursday’s home game against Bellows Falls.

It sounds like the team has tall and talented players women players but the journalist didn’t even mention other biological advantages Johnson has that enables him to block so many shots.

[symbolisminliterature]

Underground Railroad

Colson Whitehead

The Underground Railroad is a historical speculative fiction that uses symbolism and motifs to illustrate ideas about historical African American identity with a particular focus on enslaved people and their fight for freedom and the challenges they faced. There are two opposing major symbols within the text that I shall focus on with a focus on how these shape ideas about the identity of the characters.

Cora’s garden is a key symbol when it comes to the identity of her character. It is described as her ‘inheritance’, passed down to her from Ajarry and Mabel after she runs away. The garden represents Cora’s sense of self and a place where she can have her own agency, where she can feel like she can feel in control as she has spent her life as an enslaved woman. The garden is a place where she ‘owned herself for a few hours’, which symbolises how a garden is a place of reclaimed identity. Furthermore, the garden provides a sense of hope for Cora and acts as a symbol of freedom and strength. It was passed down to her from two other point of view characters in the novel, Ajarry and Mabel, both of whom die before they achieve their freedom. However, through the symbolic presence of the garden, their strength and resolve are symbolically passed on to Cora, providing a sense of hope and highlighting the strength of her character, allowing her to feel a strong sense of identity for who she is, where she came from and whom she wishes to be. 

Through the use of the Griffin Building, ‘Whitehead’s novel breaks down the Eurocentric notions of progress and development and positions the whole of US racial history as an extension of its colonial economy’ and thus he is able to blur the line between the past and the present and forces us to consider how far removed these two eras truly are, and calls into question ‘our understand and relationship with history’, particularly black American history which has so often been chronicled by non-black people. It reminds us that all narratives are a construction including those we would deem historical narratives such as black history and black enslavement in America. The Griffin building in this narrative is described as a ‘twelve-story skyscraper […] one of the tallest buildings in the nation’, making it a historical anachronism in this narrative. It serves to preserve a ‘state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power’. It ensures that the characters are constantly feeling that they are being kept under surveillance. It is a bureaucratic prison that conducts experiments on black people. In its entirety, the Griffin Building is a symbol of how America has forged its way to modernity through the exploitation of black people. It acts as a juxtaposition to Cora’s garden. Where the garden is a symbol of hope and promise of freedom where Cora can reclaim her identity, the Griffin building serves to act as a tangible symbol of oppression and exploitation. Thus, Whitehead illustrates the struggle of black people trying to reclaim their own identity and agency when the very foundation of modern society is built on their exploitation. 

[ghooostbaby]

deeeep dive into why and how wei wuxian and lan wangji love each other, complete each other, are the inverse reflection of each other’s deeply hidden internal selves mirrored through the other’s external self, lan wangji’s inner wildness that he has to conceal and protect recognizing and loving wei wuxian’s outer wildness, wei wuxian’s deep, fuddy-duddy morality and values that he conceals with an elaborate subterfuge of jokes, mischief, and bravado, seeing and loving in lan wangji the ability to say no that it was never safe for him to express directly, “between you and me there is no need for thank you and sorry”

oh and a slight diversion midway through into a manifesto on WEI WUXIAN IS NOT INSECURE the whole story is about a society where being liked is ESSENTIAL for survival and it is actually completely perilous not to be liked, and his “people pleasing” is a skill and tool for his survival especially as an orphan and proven to be a necessary one when he stops doing it and STOPS SURVIVING

after the cut discussing the very interesting dynamics of consent in general in the novel, but not going into the consensual non-consent kink stuff till the last paragraph if you need to avoid for any reason.

I've been thinking about how Lan WangJi sees in Wei WuXian the exterior, unfettered expression of the wildness Lan WangJi holds in him and protects with rigid codes of conduct, propriety and outward dignity.

I have had this sense that these two are mirrors, either one reflecting the hidden, interior (and unallowed) self of the other. but it seemed more clear from Lan WangJi's side, especially knowing about his history with his mother and the spicy side that emerges when he drinks and in the extras.

I also - just... the way this whole story shows how romantic love is truly this longing for your self, to become yourself, to become the thing you're not allowed to be, seeing in that person the expression of whatever it is you can't become and longing for it, protecting it, joining with it as closely as you can without ever being able to let it live inside your own body.

On the surface it seems a lot more difficult for Wei WuXian to find a piece of his soul in Lan Wangji. I think its a bit too simplistic to see whatever draws Wei WuXian to Lan Wangji as a reverse-psychology sort of craving of acceptance from the only one who won't give it, pushing and pushing against this impenetrable boundary that he needs to break to feel assurance that no matter what he can make anyone accept him.

And he is SO drawn - in a mind boggling way, in the teenage flashbacks Lan WangJi rudely and aggressively throws him off over and over and Wei WuXian cannot keep away! Even when he talks about how boring Lan WangJi is, he never stops trying to be around him and talk to him.

I've seen discussions of the way Wei WuXian has always relied on the goodwill of others to survive, and that his placating of others to survive is a character flaw. Although that seems only halfway true. 

As a young child he didn't have anyone's goodwill for a while and he survived, and it seems like he can always find a way to survive from whatever means and sometimes very limited resources he has at his disposal. Doing what he has to do to become powerful enough to survive losing his core and being thrown into the burial mounds slowly costs him the goodwill of everyone around him - and what happens to him as a result shows how much placation was a truly necessary for someone without the protection of biological/hereditary family bonds.

(Don’t get me started on how his loss of his golden core and his development of demonic cultivation to give himself power by ‘unnatural methods’ through the use of a musical instrument is a metaphor for disability and the way ableist society sees the use of accessibility devices and tools. Actually please DO get my started haha.)

Wei WuXian is so charismatic and seems very used to getting what he wants and needs on the strength of that. He pushes a lot of boundaries and seems pretty confident and flexibly prepared to handle the consequences, whether beatings or harsh words. But he does work so hard to make others feel good, good with him, good with themselves.

When he is in the cave with Lan WangJi, Wei WuXian is described as "like one who forgets all past pain as soon as the wound heals". He can't resist coming up beside Lan WangJi and talking to him again and again after every time Lan WangJi pushes him off, only finally staying away when Lan WangJi bites him (and he still keeps trying to talk to him after a little bit!) and then calls him an awful person (!!! Bad Wangji! :(((( ). In the end, when Lan WangJi (very minimally) discloses what happened to his sect and his father, and even cries, because of all the defences/assaults Lan WangJi has put up Wei WuXian can't do anything or say anything to help and feels miserable.

Lan WangJi just absolutely refuses to allow Wei WuXian to take care of him - and I began to wonder maybe that’s what Wei WuXian actually really likes about him? Why he is unable to resist coming up to Lan WangJi again and again? Maybe because Lan WangJi refuses to let Wei WuXian appease him. He’s not trying to crack Lan WangJi to get to this impenetrable place of approval and acceptance. In a way he can’t quite understand, Lan WangJi is a respite for Wei WuXian from the constant work to be the one who pleases.

And  how different this is to how Wei WuXian is (or has to be) with Jiang Cheng when he wakes up in Lotus Pier after the cave. Jiang Cheng gets so down and really really needs Wei WuXian to do what he does so well (and wasn’t allowed to do with Lan WangJi) - chasing Jiang Cheng down while being injured and reassuring him about all his insecurities about his father's acceptance and becoming a sect leader and Wei WuXian's own abilities excelling his - and at first Jiang Cheng is pushing him away, but he really does need Wei WuXian to do all this to feel better.

Wei WuXian is described as not wanting to be lonely, and not wanting to see other people unhappy, and he keeps trying to push and pull with whatever he has to not be lonely and lift the mood for those around him. I don't think it's a kind of codependency or insecurity. It’s not that Wei WuXian is afraid to say no, in fact I would say he doesn't do anything he doesn't want to do, but he must always do it creatively, with humour. Similarly to Nie Huaisang, he uses a persona of foolishness to give himself a covert agency.

I also think I'm writing this because I don't like seeing this discussed as a sad bean character flaw for him to always need to be liked - its a strategy, its a tool, its how he survives and excels. Doesn’t the whole story prove how essential being liked is to a human’s survival? And he is so so good at being liked, in making others happy, even when he is refusing to do what others want from him that he doesn't want to do, he does it in a way that deflects criticism, with a smiling bravado that never says what it truly means and has people writing him off as shameless or foolish or just endearing himself toward them despite themselves.

He is always at work really, with jokes and flattery or mischief and teasing, to get the resources he wants and needs. Case and point, when he makes a big coquettish show for mianmian, definitely not being "people pleasing" for her, but the group of girls around them all find it funny and cute and in the end she gives him a perfume sachet which ends up being a valuable resource for later. Or the time he outright tells Jiang Cheng that if you give the girls some lotus seeds they'll remember you and return the favour in the future. (Also notice how his interactions with girls seen as flirtatious are actually strategic resource-gathering acts.) These are the skills he has developed to meet his own needs. (THIS IS NOT A CHARACTER FLAW. I REPEAT.) He takes what he needs and steals from the Lotus Pier markets knowing it'll be paid for, he lives like he never know when his next windfall will come from so he'll take what he can when he can find it. Like Jiang Fengmian said, if there is no guarantee of a meal in the future then today's meal should still be enjoyed. It’s how Wei WuXian said to Nie Huaisang at Cloud Recesses, you have to find ways to make your own fun out of whatever you have. So he gets kicked out of class, goes fishing, gets alcohol, he pursues his own pleasure. He actually is quite insistent of his own agency and right to choose, he just can never directly say no.

And that little detail that Wei WuXian always tucks coins into his clothes just in case, that makes him able to buy food when he and Jiang Cheng are on the run... breaks my heart and reveals so much about the way Wei WuXian is constantly at work on ensuring his own survival and never takes for granted whether he is safe (he knows he never is). 

I've seen some people talking about Wei WuXian sacrificing so much for his brother and sister out of a need to be accepted out of a chronic sense of insecurity. But isn’t this just true? Doesn't he live in a world where being accepted is absolutely essential for survival? Doesn’t this whole story show the cruelty of a social system based on networks of hereditary/biological family that closes out and scapegoats any outsiders, and that without biological family connections that can enclose around you, you can never truly be safe if not constantly working to earn acceptance? (And then beautifully ends with the way a gay romantic relationship that queers marriage/family/etc disrupts all this and creates safety and inclusion for Wei WuXian without needing a normative family.) (AKA romantic love does not resolve some internal personal problem in Wei WuXian but disrupts and refuses and rebels against the problem of SOCIETY.) (*breathes heavily*)

And that’s why Lan WangJi is magnetizing to Wei WuXian. Lan WangJi is always saying no. Although what Lan WangJi sees in Wei WuXian is an exterior wildness, Wei WuXian is not really out of control so much as he is playing and caring and supplicating and showing off and pleasing people to get the resources and the acceptance he needs to live his life. He has firm values and desires that he can never outwardly state, only creatively spinning plates to distract and deflect while he refuses what goes against his values, protects who he cares for, or takes what he needs to in order to survive/thrive. Lan WangJi embodies an exterior of resoluteness and direct agency that Wei WuXian doesn't have the luxury of. And he's so drawn to him for his ability to repeatedly say no, to refuse to get along, or make others laugh, make other people happy, but just simply follow what he thinks is right.

Wei WuXian’s outward wild movement protects an inward stillness. He is an exterior of people-pleasing around an interior of refusal. He is an exterior of youthful rebellion around an interior of unflinching morality. He sees in Lan WangJi the outward expression of his stillness, his morality, his resistance that he can't express, that he's had to protect.

FYI after the cut gets more into the dynamics of consent in the story, and the last paragraph directly talks about consensual non-consent kink play in wangxian’s relationship.

When Wei WuXian is with Lan WangJi, there is no work to be done. Lan WangJi cannot be swayed by him, and so there's no point vying for resources or favors. Lan WangJi will either give him everything or refuse him everything based on who he is, it does not matter what Wei WuXian does and he can't do anything that will change Lan WangJi’s mind. Someone he literally can't win over. After the resurrection, they are often in an adorable tug of war, where Wei WuXian tries to take care of Lan WangJi, while Lan WangJi won't allow him to but demands to care of Wei WuXian right back. Actually, Lan WangJi insists that Wei WuXian take everything he wants or needs from him and is even angry when he doesn't take or when Wei WuXian tries to offer a gesture in return, even something as simple as a thank you Lan WangJi won't accept. It’s kind of adorable how frustrated Wei WuXian is in doing this thing he's learned that he needs to do, and just... so confused by Lan WangJi, and has to find a way to please this person who aggressively refuses to be pleased and is ONLY pleased by Wei WuXian being pleased.

(Not to mention the way Wei WuXian delights in finding that Lan WangJi can’t say what he wants, and they have sort of these chaotic cohesive both-being-so-pleased-by-working-hard-to-please each-other moments where Wei WuXian is letting Lan WangJi please him by finding out what pleases Lan WangJi and giving it to him.)

The wildness Lan WangJi had always hidden within himself is something he sees as just as dangerous as Wei WuXian thinks of his desire to refuse. He saw his mother be socially alienated, shunned, and eventually die because of her wildness. His ability to survive in the world, aka to be accepted by his family, is contingent on him being able to control this inner wildness. From a young age (re: Phoenix Mountain kiss) he could only understand his sexual desires for Wei WuXian as something repulsive or dangerous that had to be repressed and controlled, and that the only way he could imagine his desires as possible was as non-consensual. His secret gay desires were never available to him as anything but something monstrous.

Importantly, it’s not like everyone else other than Lan WangJi are all vampires cruelly demanding Wei WuXian’s constant sacrifice. Wei WuXian is always vibrantly, charismatically offering so much, before anyone has asked. It’s Wei WuXian who creates this kind of relationship for himself again and again. It’s Lan WangJi who simply refuses - he refuses to charmed, to be cared for. And so in the end Lan WangJi becomes the one person who Wei WuXian feels doesn't need anything from him. When he says he's eating the corpse's fruit to save Lan WangJi money and Lan WangJi says that will never be necessary. Or when Wei WuXian asks what toy he should win for Lan WangJi at the market game, and Lan WangJi says anything Wei WuXian gets will be the one he wants. (XD stahhhhp it’s too sweet !!!) He really just wants Wei WuXian to be, to exist, to spend his life discovering his own desires and allow Lan WangJi to help satisfy them, he doesn't want anything from Wei WuXian other than him living - happy and safe.

It takes someone like Lan WangJi to refuse Wei WuXian’s aggressive generosity, it’s definitely not an easy thing to say no to Wei WuXian, dazzling or annoying people so chaotically before they even realize there’s something to say no to. The sacrifice he gives to Jiang Cheng, he never even offers a choice - and perhaps it would have been too much for Jiang Cheng to accept if he had the chance.

Lan WangJi’s statement "Between us there is no need for thank you and sorry" seems like one of the most important sentences in the novel, and you can’t help but noticed the way “sorry” and “thank you” is littered meaningfully through the book. What is owed, what the characters owe to each other, the give and take, touches every part of the story (down to wangxian's erotic explorations!).

When Jiang Cheng talks to Wei WuXian at the Guanyin temple he makes a lot of contradictory statements about what Wei WuXian owes, what he was given, what he took, what he (Wei WuXian still) is owed in return. Wei WuXian, according to Jiang Cheng, took everything from the Jiang clan, and paid them back with their deaths. The Jiang clan give him his life when they took him in, and he owed Jiang Cheng service for the rest of his life as the right hand to the sect leader, that’s what Wei WuXian had promised anyway. At the same time, Wei WuXian sacrificed everything (his golden core) to Jiang Cheng, by giving everything he was taking one more thing - Jiang Cheng’s right to even be angry at him. Jiang Cheng had taken everything from Wei WuXian. Everything that happened around Wei WuXian after could be said to be because of the loss of his golden core, which Jiang Cheng might be said to be responsible for. But he never asked for it, maybe he never would have wanted it. He wishes Wei WuXian told him, but Jiang Cheng never told Wei WuXian his golden core was melted while he was sacrificing himself to save Wei WuXian. He wants Wei wuxian to say sorry, but that makes him feel pathetic. And Jiang Cheng says sorry too. It’s a mess of paradoxes, and in the end somehow it seems like the scales are balanced in the most hollow, dismal way.

What is owed, what is given, what is taken ... Wei WuXian has never been part of a family. He has always had to say thank you and sorry for everything he's taken. Wei WuXian himself admits that he used "thank you" as a way to enforce distance between himself and Lan WangJi. Lan WangJi's point i think is that they belong to each other, Wei WuXian is his, and he is Wei WuXian's, unconditionally. The way that Jiang Cheng speaks of him in the Guanyin temple (admittedly I read a fan translation and this is very nuanced, related to slight variations of grammar), even when Jiang Cheng clearly is so broken by the loss of Wei WuXian from his life, he talks about Wei WuXian as an outsider. It is what MY family gave to YOU, never what you took from our family. But at one point Wei WuXian was part of their family - but he takes too much, and becomes an ex-disciple, not a brother. Wei WuXian’s inclusion as a Jiang was always conditional. 

Even when Wen Qing and Wen Ning leave him to go take the blame for qiongqing path they tell him "thank you and sorry", drawing a line between them and him, so he doesn’t even belong to these people who he sacrificed everything for. The way Wei WuXian acted when he was younger, he was always keenly aware of this - he always knew that he didn’t belong to anyone, no one is going to protect him unconditionally. And after first escaping the Burial Mounds, he is done pretending. When Lan WangJi warns him about what a demonic cultivation path will do to his heart, Wei WuXian replies: “After all, on the topic of how my heart is, what could other people know about it? Why should other people care about it?” He is done pleasing. Nothing has changed really, he still belongs to no one and is alone, but now he is angry about it, and instead of saying thank you and sorry he is going to become too powerful to be at anyone's mercy. And then we see in the story afterward what happens to people who don't say thank you and sorry.

The whole point I think is the impossibility of choice, the impossibility of consent in this society. If he didn't forgo the behaviour his social acceptance was conditional on, he wouldn't have survived the burial mounds. But once he becomes powerful enough to survive and get revenge on the Wens, he is socially outcast. Except he was already outcast from the beginning.

And so how do Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi find a way through all that to a life together where all their desires are possible, where Wei WuXian can say no while also being pleasing (safe) to others, and Lan WangJi can indulge in his wild desires while still being good? The answer is kinky sex!

It is kind of miraculous and beautiful how Wei WuXian finds a way to say no, while simultaneously pleasing Lan WangJi, giving pleasure, while taking it, saying no, and knowing his refusal is not just tolerated, but gives Lan WangJi pleasure, knowing Lan wangji and knowing the painful belief Lan WangJi holds within that his desires are unacceptable and unspeakable, and that Wei WuXian can take care of Lan Wangji in a secret little way and please him and give everything to him by craving this wildness in Lan WangJi while at the same time he gets to say no again and again , and it won't push Lan WangJi away, he can refuse everything while at the same time be totally pleasing and thus safe, and also for Lan WangJi, Wei WuXian's pleasure at saying "no" while still being held onto, that he genuinely wants to be fucked even while begging Lan WangJi to stop (and the many ways he does give his consent for this throughout, especially their first time), allows Lan WangJi the ecstatic feeling that this idea that his sexual desires are only possible through force are not just something his lover forgives him for but something his lover is SO turned on by, and that he has consent for his fantasies of non-consent, Wei WuXian has the same fantasies from the other side, he is doing what he is supposed to while doing what he shouldn't, and actually these monstrous feelings in him allow him to take care of Wei WuXian in a way that he needs - that they both need - and all these impulses that are so wrong with Wei WuXian become very right and a way to do good. And they are just both so perfect and perfect for each other and I love them and I am so happy for them to have a long kinky life together.

[onewingeddragonqueen]

One of the things I absolutely detest about Game of Thrones is the portrayal of women, and how it goes out of its way to take any misogyny in the books and make it much worse. In particular, I’m thinking about how this effects Gilly.

In the books Gilly is intelligent and self sufficient. She knows survival, and she does it well. It’s her knowledge that gets her and Sam to Castle Black. It’s her resolve to protect her baby that allows her to identify Jon Snow as 1) a man who would help her and could be trustworthy, and 2) a man who has access to power that could help her. Obviously it isn’t that simple, but just from her knowledge and observations she’s able to draw those conclusions. Gilly is a character with her own desires and her own agency and intellect and I absolutely love her so much. In her relationship with Sam (even without considering romance aspects) they reinforce each other’s strengths, and at no point does Gilly make Sam feel lesser for not being the typical Westerosi masculine man, nor does Sam not look down upon Gilly for not meeting the misogynistic standards of Westeros. It’s honestly really amazing to me to see a rendition of what I’d argue is the book smart-street smart duo in two people who have found each other and found themselves in each other.

Samgilly brainrot aside

I hate the fact that the cursed TV show takes this character who already doesn’t have enough interiority outside of her relationship to the men in her life (Gilly POV when George??) and make her into a damsel in distress. An exotic one who’s untamed and stupid in that hot way (gross), but a damsel nonetheless. When Gilly is allowed to make demands it’s for Sam’s needs.

In S4 Ep9, we get Sam and Jon at the top of the wall preparing for Mance’s attack. Jon and Sam talk about sex, and its clear that Sam is thinking about Gilly. When asked if he and Gilly had ever ‘done it’, Sam says that he hadn’t because she had just had a baby, and because “she never offered.” Like?? Gilly’s trauma isn’t even considered at all. Gilly’s context isn’t considered, and its worse because its coming at the cost of Sam’s character.

Sam later talks with Maester Aemon and its revealed that Sam is reading about Wildling attacks and the horrors they bring, and they discuss Gilly and ~love is the death of duty.~ Maester Aemon tells Sam to get some rest, and when Sam comes up from the library he hears Gilly at the south gate demanding to be let in, having fled from Mole’s Town after it was sacked.

This is infuriating and confusing. Not only is there no south gate, the book makes a point to say that there are no walls to defend Castle Black to the south and they have to construct one. So it would make sense that Gilly would ask to be let in, but all of the people from Mole’s Town had already fled to Castle Black by this point! In the show Gilly begs Sam to not let the Watch send her away since she’s a woman, but in the books not only are there women refugees, Zei was a sex worker from the brothel and she wields a crossbow and fights beside Jon!

This isn’t even to mention the fact that Sam and Gilly weren’t there when Styr’s forces attacked the Wall, Gilly was never sent away to Mole’s Town, they created a problem to put Gilly in distress at the expense of both her and Sam’s character arcs.

I could go on and on about how they messed Gilly over. From the moment she was introduced, she was treated like a useless naive little girl. Her lack of formal education is treated as a joke. Her past is treated as a joke, when it’s even acknowledged. Gilly absolutely deserved better.

[caffeinatedseri]

The Strength of Selfishness

Each character in BSD has a degree of selfishness or selflessness in themselves, but the way this concept is executed opens discussion on the nuance of “selfishness,” or specifically the flaws in believing selfishness is an inherently bad trait.

Atsushi

Atsushi fits the description of selflessness, but I’d argue that he’s actually more selfish than he thinks he is (keeping in mind that being selfish isn’t necessarily a bad thing).

Akutagawa points out how Atsushi will needlessly risk his life in order to protect others, which sounds like a pretty heroic act, but it comes with a cost. Atsushi isn’t invincible, especially at this point in the story when he hasn’t fully mastered his ability, but his insistence on protecting others puts him in constant danger.

At the end of the day, Atsushi would have a greater chance of surviving many of the dangerous situations he puts himself into if he was more selfish by protecting himself before others.

However, Atsushi is also somewhat selfish in his motivations for acting so virtuously. 

Once again, Akutagawa points out how Atsushi only acts this way because of his deeply rooted belief that he has to risk his life for someone else in order to give his life value. You could argue that Atsushi only saves others as an attempt to prove to himself that he’s worthy, an inherently selfish motive. If Atsushi actually died, he would be endangering the people he could save in the future.

Selfishness also includes self-centeredness. Particularly with Akutagawa, Atsushi’s tendency to focus solely on himself becomes especially noticeable. Atsushi constantly doubts himself and his strengths; he also ignores his privileges and the struggles of others, particularly when he can’t completely understand them — hence why he views Akutagawa so harshly but sees Kyouka and Lucy as people who need to be saved. 

Despite all of this, Atsushi still creates a positive impact in other people’s lives. His innately selfish motivation is what drives him to protect others, and he ultimately succeeds in doing that (case in point Kyouka and Lucy again). 

Akutagawa

Akutagawa is pretty similar to Atsushi in how his past led to his inevitably selfish motives, but his manifests in a different way. 

Akutagawa has to be selfish to protect himself, due to a mix of his past prior to joining the mafia and Dazai’s teachings that collectively reinforced the belief that if he’s weak, he can’t survive.

This results in Akutagawa taking other people’s lives, a direct contrast to how Atsushi saves others, in order to prove his worth as a strong individual that deserves to live. However, this sentiment narrowly crosses the line of hypocrisy when Akutagawa does the very same thing that he criticized Atsushi for: looking for value in his life through other people.

Akutagawa also unnecessarily risks his life in order to prove his strength, which is arguably more dangerous and selfish than what Atsushi does. 

When Akutagawa fights Hawthorne, he practically eggs on Hawthorne to kill him, or at the very least fight with the intent to kill. Akutagawa was also injured before entering this fight, so running away would’ve been all the more reasonable than continuing to fight.

Drawing another parallel to Atsushi, Akutagawa has that very same resolve of risking his life unnecessarily to prove his worth. 

It’s undeniable that Akutagawa has killed many people — which is arguably extremely selfish — and loss of life really isn’t something that I want to push as morally correct. However, I would like to push the idea of redemption: finding a way to escape this messy lifestyle. I sincerely doubt that the incessant cycle of killing is any good for Akutagawa, or that it’s the life that he wants to have. 

With Atsushi and Akutagawa, both of their character arcs will develop accordingly to this balance of selfishness and selflessness.

Ranpo

Ranpo is characterized in a slightly selfish way, but this mindset comes with good reason (relating to Ranpo’s past). 

When Atsushi was kidnapped, Ranpo places priority on protecting the agency. If he were to meddle with Atsushi’s problem, which was technically a personal issue, then the agency as an organization would be put at risk. This isn’t necessarily a “wrong” mindset, but it is self-centered.

Of course, this is one of many examples to showcase Ranpo’s arrogance, but his arrogance is actually a form of self-protection. 

“So his father knew, after all. He understood that Ranpo possessed an extraordinary gift. He knew his son had the special ability to observe, remember, and uncover the truth in the blink of an eye. That was why he sealed it away. He didn’t want Ranpo to go astray, to ever hurt others and make the world his enemy.  His father wanted Ranpo to learn virtue and what’s right just like any ordinary person until he had grown up with good judgment and knowledge.” —  LN 3, “The Untold Origins of the Detective Agency”

Before Ranpo met Fukuzawa, he was just a young, lost boy who didn’t recognize his extraordinary talents. His parents taught him to be modest to allow him to develop as a normal person, but he never truly understood who he was in comparison to other people because he was orphaned at a young age.

Thus, Ranpo had to embrace his superiority, in an albeit dramatic way, in order to accept the world and himself. If he believed that people weren’t as intelligent as him, then he wouldn’t have to hate himself for feeling like an outsider to a world he doesn’t understand. 

Similarly to Akutagawa, Ranpo’s selfishness isn’t born out of hatred or negligence for others, it’s simply a survivalist instinct. 

Dazai

Dazai’s case is a little trickier to define, but I feel that he’s changed a decent amount throughout the series. I’ve seen some people argue that Dazai only helps others because of Oda’s dying wish, which would make his motivations for doing so inherently selfish. This rings true for Dazai before becoming a part of the agency, but I’d say he’s changed a lot just from interacting with the other agency members.

Dazai’s shown to be capable of the selflessness that involves risking your life for others, but because he’s Dazai, he’s most likely never going to actually die (he has taken necessary precautions to make sure he doesn’t die like in Dead Apple). In this case, Dazai was willing to risk his life for intel from Fyodor, similar to how he got captured by the PM intentionally for intel on Atsushi.

What he says here is especially important: “Certainly, people are sinfully stupid. But what’s so wrong about that?” The Dazai that was once isolated from others, that lacked a sense of direction and purpose in life, has grown one step closer to finding that purpose.

It’s no secret that character to character relationships have a big impact on everyone in BSD, but it’s especially relevant for Dazai who’s growth comes from learning about human nature. He and Fyodor both share a level of super intelligence that ostracizes them from the rest of society, which consequently makes them incapable of understanding other people.

Dazai’s statement here just shows how he’s willing to look past people’s mistakes — yes, they may be sinful and/or stupid, but that’s just a part of human nature.

And in this case, he acts in a stupid way by risking his life for someone else. Yes, it may be stupid, but this selflessness is also a part of being human.

I’d also like to add that Dazai was somewhat selfish in leaving the PM so suddenly after Oda’s death. As an executive, he undoubtedly had some responsibilities to handle, and not to mention Chuuya who was dragged into the mafia because of him in the first place. However, leaving the mafia was ultimately better for his development, and you could argue that the PM is doing just fine with Mori remaining as the leader. Thus, Dazai is another example of how selfishness isn’t harmful in nature.

Mori

On the topic of Mori, he’s a character who outright acknowledges his selflessness as a necessity for the mafia’s advancement.

As I mentioned before, selflessness is a stereotypically heroic trait, but it’s flipped around in BSD. You see protagonists with greater selfish convictions than the antagonists, who live their life based on this idea of selflessness. 

Of course, just because Mori is an antagonist, this doesn’t mean that selflessness is an innately “evil” trait. In fact, this selflessness is how he grows his organization and gains respect from his subordinates. Mori’s selflessness is used for the benefit of everyone else in the PM (ignoring the obvious crimes that the mafia commits of course).

Oda

Oda is often seen as the role model example for a “good man,” in the world of BSD — which is true to a certain extent. We certainly know how he was selfless in a multitude of scenarios, from saving the orphans at the Dragon’s Head Conflict, to his resolve to not kill anyone, and his push for Dazai to leave the mafia. 

However, I’d like to discuss Oda’s selfishness. Oda was well-aware of Dazai’s issues during Dark Era, and he seemed like the only person who would understand Dazai at that level. Despite this, he still chose to die. 

“(Dazai) is just a child who’s too smart. Just a crying child who’s been left alone in the darkness, a world of nothingness far emptier than the world we can see.”

— LN 2, “Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era”

Oda is an idealist first and foremost; when reality fails to match his ideals, it becomes unbearable for him to continue living on. 

Oda was selfish in his conviction to die, because he knew he could’ve done more for Dazai, but he chose to leave him with a dying wish rather than staying with him to potentially fill that void of loneliness.

(I’d like to mention that Oda wasn’t wrong for his choice, because Dazai ended up on the right path in the end. It was simply an act of selfishness that ended for the better).

Kunikida

Kunikida is an idealist, much like Oda, but he also draws close to being a realist at certain moments.

Kunikida shares the same selfless resolve as Atsushi: to save everyone. His ideals seem unbreakable to the point where he would risk his life and succeed in the end no matter what, purely because he’s just that committed towards his goals.

This treads closely to Atsushi’s selfishness. In this case, for Kunikida, it’s somewhat a part of his self-fulfilling prophecy to make his ideals come true, but he acts selflessly because of these ideals that he believes in. 

An important thing to note here is Fyodor’s grin, because Fyodor — as an idealist — is well aware of the fact that the greater the ideals, the loftier these ideals become in reality. 

“By that very logic, then Miss Sasaki was not responsible for any of these recent events! She didn’t even want a world in which all criminals are rightly judged! She only— Tell me, Dazai! Was it right for her to die? Is this the ideal world I’ve sought for…”

— LN 1, “Osamu Dazai’s Entrance Exam”

At the end of the Azure Messenger Arc, Kunikida realizes the flaws in his ideals when he fails to uphold them. By trying to save both Rokuzou and Sasaki, he ended up losing the both of them. No matter how hard he tried to save them, there was no possible way for him to achieve the level of “justice” that he desired.

This teaches an incredibly valuable lesson to Kunikida that shifts his mindset towards a more selfish direction.

Kunikida’s experience leads him to teach Atsushi, another person strongly motivated by ideals, to not follow the same path as him. You could interpret this as a sign of Kunikida’s declining resolve, but I prefer to view it as another form of self-preservation.

Kunikida very well understands the pain that comes from not meeting his ideals, which could easily affect to Atsushi considering how difficult it would be to save Kyouka.

The scene in which Kunikida goes to save Atsushi parallels what Kunikida told him previously: “Your boat can only carry one person. If you let someone beyond salvation come aboard, you will only drown together.”

Notice how Kunikida is in a boat with plenty of space, but out of fear that his ideals won’t be upheld, he’ll lower them to an lesser standard. Instead of trying to save two people, he settles for one, despite the fact that he has the capacity for two. 

This instance is a moment of selfishness from Kunikida, an act of self-preservation to prevent the inevitable pain that comes with unmet ideals. 

However, Atsushi subverts his expectations by pushing himself to save Kyouka regardless of his sinking boat, because Atsushi’s own ideals motivate him to do so. Kunikida teaches Atsushi to be careful with the balance of selfishness and selflessness; Atsushi teaches Kunikida the beauty in being selfless.

[hacawijo]

Oh YEAH 😂 We’re Allowed to Just Support Our Ships Because We Like Them (Or, some reasons why I WANT Elriel to be endgame)

Tagging alternate ships because I want to hear from others why they love the ships they love!

Last night I asked myself a question I haven’t asked about a ship in a really long time: Why do I ship it (Elriel)? 

I think that fans and shippers get so mired in evidence and proving that something will or won’t happen that we forget to sometimes just think about why we are in fact so passionate about the ships we like. Don’t get me wrong, I love evidence and theory and proof and close-reading posts - I’ve made a bunch, I’ll continue to make them, and I love reading them - but I’ve forgotten that it doesn’t always have to be about proving myself right or others wrong or about the great conversations/debates I have with other respectful, whip-smart shippers. 

So, this post isn’t really about why I THINK Elriel will happen, it’s about why I WANT Elriel to happen. And I would love to hear the same from others about their own ships (Elriel, Gwynriel, Elucien, Vucien, or otherwise!).

1. As far as I can tell, it’s what the characters want. I really love Elain and Azriel. I think that Elain is different from pretty much every other Maas heroine and I’m always interested to see how she reacts to things. I also admire that she embraces small acts of kindness and thoughtfulness over grand gestures. I think that Elain’s love language is often thankless, and that’s something I want to learn more about. I also love Azriel. I especially love his relationships with Feyre and Nesta, and that, similarly to how I feel about Elain, I’m never exactly sure how he will react to something. 

Setting aside those things, and many other little bursts of personality and character that I’ve enjoyed, I also think that both Elain and Azriel have suffered greatly in their lives, and I just want them to be happy. From everything I’ve read, it seems like the thing that is going to make both of them happy is if they are able to spend their lives together as partners. 

Don’t get me wrong, I deeply care about Lucien and Gwyn as well (more thoughts on their characters in other posts will be coming). I want Lucien to be chosen and to feel valued and essential to another person’s life, and I want him to have a real home. I want Gwyn to continue to have agency over her life and claim the things she wants to claim (whether they be skills or friendships or recognition or what-have-you). But, as I see it, the scenario in which the most characters whom I love will be happy in the longterm is if Elain and Azriel are together. Which leads me to number...

2. I want Lucien and Gwyn to have their own stories, and as it stands right now, there is no way for Elucien or Gwynriel not to have a bunch of space taken up by Elriel. Angst has been established and it will need to be resolved before any endgames beside Elriel can happen. I don’t want the first half of Elucien or Gwynriel’s story to low-key be about Azriel and Elain. I want Gwyn to avoid that car crash altogether and have something totally new and her own. Obviously it’s more complicated for Lucien - he will be involved in Elriel no matter what because he is Elain’s mate. But from what I can tell, Elain just doesn’t want to be with him, and I don’t believe that Lucien wants someone who doesn’t want to be with him (again, I’m not trying to prove anything in THIS post, this is just what I think based on my readings of the books 🙃). 

What’s more, I’m definitely not convinced that Lucien has any feelings for Elain beyond the mating bond - I don’t think they’re compatible. I think Lucien is good at talking to and figuring people out and that he likes to banter and flirt and be in the middle of things. I think it’s possible that pre-cauldron Elain could have vibed with that, but post-cauldron Elain is a different person. She is often content to listen and love and take up her own little corner of the world (and it’s not just being meek, she stands up to Nesta and PROTECTS that little corner of the world when it is threatened both then and when it comes to danger from outside forces). I just think Elain and Lucien would each be happier with someone else, and I think that Elain’s choice should be respected, and it’s pretty clear to me that she’s choosing Azriel right now.

You might be saying that Feysand’s early life was steeped in the angst and  resolution of Tamlin and Feyre’s relationship, but here’s why it seems different to me. Feyre and Rhys’s relationship felt so separate from Feyre’s relationship with Tamlin because he was an antagonist in that story. In this case, any kind of love triangle/rhombus/word cloud is going to be tangled and far messier because all of the characters involved are beloved. And, Feysand had 2.5 whole books to build their story - whichever of the couples I’ve just talked about that end up endgame will pretty much only have one book and second- and third-hand hints that range from fairly numerous (Elriel) to hardly developed at all. 

3. I want a love that flies in the face of the mating bond. I’m kind of over the mating bond thing. I think that I loved Feysand because Rhys and Feyre grew to love each other alongside their bond. Feyre fell in love with Rhys without knowing that she was his mate, and the mating bond was like a fulfillment of that love, that love was not really a fulfillment of the mating bond. Cassian and Nesta actually feels like a much more traditional mating bond story, in that they were deeply connected from minute one. The angst in that relationship came from Nesta’s inner turmoil and need for growth and independence to know and accept herself.

I’m ready for a bond that doesn’t work! I’m ready for some great people (who are apparently very different from a lot of previous nobility and significant figures in the courts of Prythian when it comes to respecting agency and being kind) who don’t let the cauldron dictate their lives to them. I don’t want to watch Lucien and Elain succumb to the bond, and I don’t really want Azriel to be chosen because of a mating bond with Gwyn. I want him to be chosen above a mating bond. And I want Elain to do the choosing! 

4. I want to see Elriel because I think a relationship between them would be wholly different from Feysand and Nessian - and I don’t think that’s as true with Elucien and Gwynriel. I think that Lucien is more similar to Rhys and Cassian attitude-wise than Azriel and I think that Gwyn is more similar to Feyre and Nesta attitude-wise than Elain. I want to read about a love between two people who aren’t sassy and flirty and bold. Not that I don’t LOVE those ships as well, but I like it when Sarah does something a little different. Elorcan, for example, is one of my absolute favorite ships of all-time partially because it feels totally different from everything else in Throne of Glass (albeit in a different way). 

I want to see how someone as kind and thoughtful and modest and romantic as Elain handles her intense lust and the massive potential for conflict and harm in pursuing a relationship with Azriel (and to be clear I don’t want to see her treat Lucien like trash, I want to see her use strengths that belong only to her to prevent harm that might have otherwise occurred if the bond was between Lucien and another). I want to see how someone as closed-off, controlled, cynical, and often melancholy as Azriel handles desire that contradicts his loyalties and the qualities on which he prides himself, and how he handles someone who sees him- really sees him, and just makes him un-complicatedly happy. 

5. Also, as I said,  I’m not going to get far into evidence or proof, but I do think the bread crumbs are pointing toward Elriel, and I do like to be right lol

Thank you for reading, as always I want comments and dialogue and thank you for being fans of these books with me!

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

Today the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol asked eight federal agencies for records. The chair of the committee, Representative Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), gave the agencies two weeks to produce a sweeping range of material that showed the committee is conducting a thorough investigation of the last days of the Trump administration.

Thompson sent letters to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which keeps the records for the government; the Defense Department; the Department of Homeland Security; the Interior Department; the Department of Justice; the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); the National Counterterrorism Center; and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

While the House had previously asked the National Archives for all the records it had covering the events and federal actors involved in the events of January 6 itself, the select committee is using a much wider lens. It has asked the departments not just for records covering January 6, but also for those reaching back as far as April 1, 2020, to see if the Trump administration had plans to contest and ultimately, should he lose, overturn the election.

The committee has asked the departments for any records about plans to derail the electoral count, organize violent rallies, declare martial law, or use the government positions to overturn the election results. It has also asked for any “documents and communications” about foreign influence in the 2020 election through social media and misinformation.

And then there was this tidbit. The last items the committee asked NARA to produce were: “All documents and communications related to the January 3, 2021, letter from 10 former Defense Secretaries warning of use of the military in election disputes.”

That letter, which was published in the Washington Post and signed by all ten of the living former defense secretaries, warned that “[e]fforts to involve the U.S. armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory. Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic.” The letter reminded then–acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller and his subordinates that they were “each bound by oath, law and precedent to facilitate the entry into office of the incoming administration, and to do so wholeheartedly. They must also refrain from any political actions that undermine the results of the election or hinder the success of the new team.”

It was an extraordinary letter, and its authors thought it was important enough to write it over the holidays, for publication three days before the January 6 electoral count. The driving force behind the letter was former vice president Dick Cheney.

Cheney’s daughter Liz Cheney (R-WY) sits on the House select committee.

Trump has threatened to invoke executive privilege to stop the release of the documents.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said the committee’s action proved it is not looking for truth but rather is engaging in politics. The committee asked NARA for records of communications between the president and “any Member of Congress or congressional staff.” This will sweep in McCarthy, who had a heated conversation with Trump on the phone as rioters invaded the Capitol. “They come for members of Congress, they are coming for everybody,” he said.

But, in fact, such a sweep is precisely how scholars actually figure out what has happened in historical events. Limiting research before you know the lay of the land simply obscures the larger picture.

Just such a limiting view is on the table for the Republicans right now as they are proposing to investigate President Biden’s exit from Afghanistan if they regain control of the House in 2022, saying it “makes Benghazi look like a much smaller issue.”

The first days of the evacuation after the Afghan army crumbled and the Taliban swept into control of the country in nine days were chaotic, indeed, but since August 14, the U.S. has evacuated more than 82,300 people, bringing out 19,000 people yesterday alone. It has evacuated at least 4500 U.S. citizens and has sent more than 20,000 emails and made more than 45,000 phone calls to Americans who had notified the embassy they were in the country (since Americans do not have to register with the embassy, it is unclear how many citizens are there). A rough estimate says there are probably 500 U.S. citizens who want to leave, while another 1000 are not certain or want to stay.

Today, Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave a press conference pointing out that the evacuation “is one of the largest airlifts in history, a massive military, diplomatic, security, and humanitarian undertaking,” and noted that “[o]nly the United States could organize and execute a mission of this scale and this complexity.”

Blinken said that the success of the airlift to date has been “a testament both to U.S. leadership and to the strength of our alliances and partnerships.” He reiterated that the Biden administration is not abandoning Afghanistan but is shifting its focus from military power to diplomacy, cybersecurity, and financial pressure. He said that the administration has worked hard to build alliances and that the U.S. will continue to work with allies both in Afghanistan and elsewhere going forward. He pointed out that the Taliban has made both public and private assurances that they will continue to allow people to leave the country, and that 114 countries—more than half of the countries in the world—have warned the Taliban that they must honor that commitment.

Tonight, it appears the situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating. Russia, which backed the Taliban in its struggle against the U.S. and which originally said Taliban control would restore stability to Afghanistan, has begun to evacuate its citizens from Kabul. And tonight, the U.S. government warned of security threats and urged U.S. citizens to leave the area around the airport immediately. According to a State Department spokesperson: "This is a dynamic and volatile security situation on the ground.”

When asked by a reporter about investigations into the evacuation, Blinken said he and the president accepted responsibility for it. He seemed fine with scrutiny of the last few months but suggested that that period should not be looked at in isolation if we are going to learn from our experience in Afghanistan. “[T]here will be plenty of time to look back at the last six or seven months, to look back at the last 20 years,” he said, “and to look to see what we might have done differently, what we might have done sooner, what we might have done more effectively.  But I have to tell you that right now, my entire focus is on the mission at hand.”

Today, President Biden signed into law H.R. 3642, the “Harlem Hellfighters Congressional Gold Medal Act,” giving the Congressional Gold Medal to the 369th Infantry Regiment, commonly known as the “Harlem Hellfighters,” in recognition of their bravery and outstanding service during World War I.

In that war, the 369th Infantry was made up of 2000 Black men, 70% of whom were from Harlem. Since many white men in Jim Crow America refused to serve with their Black comrades, army leaders assigned the unit to the French Army, where, although they still wore the U.S. uniform, they were outfitted with French weapons.

Sent into the field, they stayed out for 191 days, the longest combat deployment of any unit in the war. At the Second Battle of the Marne and Meuse-Argonne, the unit had some of the worst casualties of that mangling war, suffering 144 dead and about 1,000 wounded. “My men never retire, they go forward or they die,” said their commander, Colonel William Hayward. Germans called them the “Bloodthirsty Black Men.” The French called them “hell-fighters.” A month after the armistice, the French government awarded the entire 369th the Croix de Guerre.

And now, in 2021, the unit has, at long last, been awarded a U.S. Congressional Gold Medal.

Sometimes it takes a while, but accurate history has a way of coming out.

—-

Notes:

https://january6th.house.gov/news/press-releases/select-committee-issues-sweeping-demand-executive-branch-records

https://january6th.house.gov/sites/democrats.january6th.house.gov/files/20210825%20Exec%20Branch%20One%20Pager.pdf

https://thehill.com/homenews/532486-idea-for-former-defense-secretaries-warning-to-pentagon-originated-from-cheney-perry

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/10-former-defense-secretaries-military-peaceful-transfer-of-power/2021/01/03/2a23d52e-4c4d-11eb-a9f4-0e668b9772ba_story.html

https://january6th.house.gov/sites/democrats.january6th.house.gov/files/NARA.8.25.pdf

https://news.yahoo.com/january-6-committee-issues-sweeping-records-requests-to-federal-agencies-170505915.html

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/20/politics/house-republicans-afghanistan-biden-benghazi/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/january-6-committee-trump/2021/08/25/cd356794-059a-11ec-a654-900a78538242_story.html

https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-on-afghanistan/

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/08/25/politics/january-6-house-documents-investigation/index.html

http://werehistory.org/harlem-hellfighters/

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/08/24/storied-harlem-hellfighter-regiment-receive-congressional-gold-medal.html

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/25/1031088877/as-many-as-1-500-americans-in-afghanistan

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[lynettethemadscientist]

MysMe Fantasy AU

SPOILER WARNING: these character backstories include lots of canon details.

Centaur!V

A majestic and proud race, the centaurs characterize themselves as first and foremost, practical. Their prudence is their strength. However, although Jihyun Kim’s father is a centaur, his mother was a dryad.

The dryads, unlike centaurs, are more emotionally-driven and free-spirited. V’s father chose V’s mother because of her artistic prowess and high reputation. Unfortunately, the process of birthing a centaur child from a dryad womb severely injured V’s mother and ensured that she could never pursue her artistry again. Because of this, V’s father abandoned her and took her child, believing her to be useless.

Eventually, V’s mother found a way to reconnect with her son. V then found himself torn between two worlds. His father raised him to deny his dryad heritage and live a pragmatic, business-minded life. But his mother understood his soul’s desire to express itself through art.

Sadly, before V could fully come to realize who he was and how to reconcile his two conflicting natures, his mother perished in a fire, saving his life in the process.

V distanced himself from his father and pursued his art, but he felt empty and without purpose.

When he met Rika, he thought at last he had found what he was looking for.

Naga!Rika

The serpentine race is resented among most other races, as they are a natural predator for most of them. While most naga children are insulated from the negative effects of societal rejection due to strong familial bonds, Rika had no such advantage. Her adoptive parents hated and abused her. And she was resented and mistreated by all who met her.

As she grew older, she learned to use her hypnotic gaze and seductive charm to conceal her predatory aura and become an almost magnetic presence to those around her.

But the damage had already been done. Her mask enabled her to make friends, but it could not scrub away the festering darkness that would warp her mind.

Furthermore, she couldn’t help but realize that no one truly loved her, they only loved how she presented herself.

When she met V, she thought at last she had found what she was looking for.

Drider!Luciel

Like nagas, the drider race is also commonly hated due to their predatory disposition. Saeyoung Choi, along with his twin brother Saeran, were the result of a politician impregnating a drider. Not wanting anyone to know about his scandalous tryst, he intended to murder his children, but their mother kept them from his reach. She gouged money from their father in exchange for her silence. And she harshly abused her children.

Unlike his brother, Saeyoung was permitted by their alcoholic mother to go outside on errands. He started attending a local church. Not long after, a centaur and a naga approached the drider child, warning him of a strange man that appeared to be spying on him.

Luciel was slow to trust the couple but he was grateful for their warning as he knew the strange man must have been sent by his father. V and Rika ensured that no one followed the child home. Additionally, Rika noticed Luciel’s malnourishment and began sending food home with him, which he would promptly give to his twin brother.

Eventually, Luciel would come to tell V and Rika about his and his brother’s predicament.

In an attempt to remove him and his brother from their parents’ grasp, V instructed Luciel to study coding. He had connections to an espionage agency that would be able to hide Luciel’s identity and make use of his arachnid attributes. Unfortunately, entering the agency meant that Luciel would have to sever all personal connections.

At first, Luciel refused, not wanting to be separated from his twin. He only agreed after V promised him that he would rescue his brother and assured him that it was the only way to keep the two of them safe from their father.

Luciel would spend the next several years working only to survive and to keep his brother safe, completely unaware that V had failed to keep his promise.

Drider!Saeran

Because Saeran was never allowed to leave his home, he was faced with constant verbal and physical abuse from his mother. As a result, his exoskeleton was unnaturally frail and he felt useless and weak compared to his brother.

When his mother was particularly vindictive, she would tear off one of his legs and he would have to wait months until his next molt to get it back.

Saeran felt hopeless and miserable. The only thing keeping him going was his brother and the promise he made that someday they would escape that house together.

When Saeyoung didn’t come home one day, Saeran fell into despair and their mother punished him severely, beating and starving him nearly to death.

Saeran endured two more months in that house, believing his brother was dead and soon he would be too, before V and Rika finally arrived. They were appalled at the sight of him. He had only 5 legs left. He could hardly stand and his throat was so dry he could barely speak.

Eventually, the couple managed to wrest the child away from his mother and take him to live with them.

Unbeknownst to V, Rika began to prey on Saeran’s frailty and insecurity. She wanted to use Saeran to build a haven for those like them. She believed that the outcasts and the abused were unable to survive in normal society. And she wished to encourage those who followed her to embrace their predatory natures, to let their fear and anger become a vengeful passion. She wished to give them purpose and happiness. And she would do so by force if necessary.

Vampire!Jumin

The vampires are a legacy race, usually heading large business empires that have existed for centuries. When a vampire chooses to retire from his position, it is passed down to his chosen heir. This heir may or may not be related by blood, but they are always related by bite. The most traditional of the vampire patriarchs establish an heir by taking a human wife and producing children. The wife is turned after the desired amount of offspring are born. Those who choose not to take a human wife instead choose a human apprentice. When the apprentice or child has proven himself to be a worthy heir, they are turned by their sire.

Jumin Han has already been turned, but his mother never was. In fact, his father divorced her and over the course of even a few decades has chosen many other human women to be his mate. None of them lasted very long.

Though Jumin did maintain a good relationship with his father, he resolved to never be a victim of fickle emotions like him. He isolates his heart against others, preferring to stifle his emotions and focus on his work.

His only respite from his emotional repression is his beloved cat, which was a gift from V, his childhood friend, and Rika.

Faery!Jaehee

Not much is known about the faery race. They remain an ominous presence to beings bound to the physical realm. The nature of these ethereal beings seems to range from ambivalent to malicious.

Jaehee Kang was a changeling. Her parents resented the replacement of their human daughter but raised Jaehee as a human anyways.

Jaehee grew up determined to establish herself as a proper member of society, despite her fae lineage. She excelled in her studies and was always a very distinguished hard-worker.

Jumin Han took note of her diligence, but his primary reason for choosing her as his secretary was that she wasn’t human and thus would not fall under the lecherous eye of his father.

When she was in high school she relaxed by hiking. Being in the mountains felt far more natural to her than being around other people. But after she entered college, she took a chance on watching a local production of a musical play. She quickly became entranced by the actor Zen. He was surpassingly beautiful and graceful. And the tenor of his voice as he sang touched her soul in a way that she had yet to experience. He was nothing less than enchanting to her. His performances felt like a glimpse of her true home.

Werewolf!Zen

Similar to vampires, werewolves characterize themselves by their family legacies. However, werewolves are more frequently tradesman, often priding themselves on their physical prowess or craftsmanship.

There are usually 4-6 pups in each litter, and each pup is expected to learn the trade of their mother or father from an early age. By the time they reach age 14, they are productive member of the family business.

Hyun Ryu was born in a litter of only two, so a lot was expected of him and his brother. Hyun’s brother adjusted easily into his role, but Hyun did not.

Hyun was an exceptionally beautiful child. His mother, fearing that he would pursue a career in entertainment, verbally abused him. She often called him ugly and chided him for his appearance.

Hyun found himself entirely disinterested in his family’s trade, and instead preferred to hone his singing skills or practice acting. When his parents demanded that he abandon these pursuits, he ran away from home.

Zen was barely able to make ends meet at first, taking on multiple small roles and at times resorting to the use of his wolf-form to intimidate people for money. But eventually his talents became more recognized and he was able to land larger roles.

Rika dearly loved Zen’s performances and hoped to further his career by establishing connections for him through the RFA. Zen was wary of her at first, but after V saved Zen from a nearly fatal motorcycle accident, Zen decided to join. Thankfully, there was no lasting damage from the crash due to Zen’s lycanthropy.

Merman!Yoosung

The merpeople have a particularly individualistic culture, usually encouraging their young ones to pursue whatever futures they desire and expecting them to be independent at a relatively early age. They do have their own schools, but their fry often attend schools on the surface, as it opens more career opportunities and proficiency on two legs is considered a desirable skill for merpeople to learn.

Yoosung Kim started his schooling on the surface later than most. He didn’t even touch dry land until high school. He had a lot of trouble adjusting and felt rather unsteady and aimless until he met his adoptive cousin Rika. She guided him in the ways of the land and taught him the importance of building relationships with others.

Upon hearing of Rika’s suicide, Yoosung fell into despair and disbelief. Yoosung relied on Rika a lot and the news of her death was extremely devastating for him. She was his mentor, his motivation, and his only real friend. And she was gone. Eventually Yoosung would fall into depression, unable to even attend his college classes even though he had been a star student in high school.

[the-final-sif]

 I lied, I’m not actually clearing out my inbox today b/c someone left a super amazing comment on ‘a soft tongue and sharp teeth’ and so I’m going to write an analysis/breakdown/ramble of all the things I had going on in that fic because I want to and it’s one of my favorite bnha fics.

Warning! Discussion of suicidal thoughts/self-sacrificial suicide/kidnapping/child death/general fucked upness we see in BNHA ahead.

The entire story is about how children with strong quirks are seen and treated as tools/weapons by adults in BNHA’s universe. They’re forced to grow up too quick, to fight to defend themselves or surrender to that fate. I wanted to tackle this through the eyes of one such child who we’ve seen subjected to that by both heroes and villains.

Katsuki is the focus of the story, he’s the only one whose given a name throughout the story, and he’s one of only two characters allowed to “Speak”, that’s because this is his story, his and the child’s. The fundamental core of his story is that he is the one who gets to decide it. He would rather die than allow anyone else to control him or his story, so he and the child are the only ones allowed to actually speak in it.

Pronouns only ever refer to one character. He/him = Katsuki. She/her = Momo. They/them = the child (I’ll talk more about why in a minute).

One of the primary metaphors of the story is Katsuki holding his sharp teeth over his tongue. Katsuki has notable sharper teeth in the manga, and here they also represent his general willingness to fight. His anger, his guarded nature, his strength. His tongue represents himself, his agency, and his story.

Katsuki gets his quirk, and the moment he does in the story, others demand it from him. It starts with just his friends who demand he keep showing it off, something he’s happy to do and which seems harmless. Then it slowly escalates when more powerful people start taking notice.

This manifests in many ways, the attempted kidnappings, the sports festival, people around him trying to forced him into change one way or another and him refusing.

Katsuki also starts the theme of ‘biting his tongue’ early on in the story. Here, it actually has two meanings that converge into the same core theme. He metaphorically bites his tongue when he refuses to tell anyone about what happened to him, because he no longer trusts anyone after what happened. Only himself. Later, he resolves to more literally bite his tongue to take his own life if he’s ever unable to escape. So he can’t be turned into a weapon.

In both cases, for Katsuki, biting his tongue is him denying other people any say in his story on the most ultimate level. He refuses to tell anyone else what happened to him, because it is his story, and by telling it, other people could turn it into their own narratives. So they won’t hear it at all. Similarly, by killing himself he’d be taking control over his own story in the most final way possible. He can’t be used as a tool or a weapon if he’s dead. So that’s his final solution, if he has no other way out, then he will end his story there to stop them from taking it from him. 

Or at least, he refuses to tell his story until he meets someone who truly understands it. The child.

We have a city being destroyed, and a few more characters come into play. The most important two are Momo and Hawks, with mentions of Eri.

Momo has also had people try to use her for her quirk her entire life. She’s been reduced down to it by a lot of people, but has managed to at least somewhat overcome that with her intelligence. Still, her understanding of what it’s like is why she’s the third pronouned character and why she’s the one whose able to figure out how to communicate with the child.

Hawks is a case where he was turned into a weapon/tool by adults. He gave in and gave up his freedom. He understands the pain of it, at least on some level. That’s why he’s noted as one of the few people able to enter the bubble of destruction without harm. Because he kind of understands. But he’s not able to pass through safely like Katsuki, and he’s not the one the child wants because he gave in. Hawks gave up on his freedom, so he can’t really understand the choice the child is making.

Eri is another case where a child was turned into a weapon. The bullets made from her blood are the proposed solution, and they don’t work because of who they were created from. 

All these characters lead to Katsuki entering the bubble of destruction enclosing the city. Katsuki is the one allowed to enter because he understands.

His journey is broadcast outwards, as a gift to him from the child. Because the child understands how hard it is to tell this story, and so they give Katsuki a platform to tell it where nobody can take his story from him. Nobody else can interject, interrupt, or try to change it.

All anyone else is allowed to do is listen to it and accept Katsuki’s story as he presents it.

Also I’m going to note that I use the repetition of Katsuki’s age a lot here because I want to hammer home how young all these children are as they’re forced into these fates.

When Katsuki reaches the child, he notes that the child does not have sharp teeth. This is meant to mean that the child did not have Katsuki’s same willingness to fight back/lash out, not until it was too late and they’d gotten a serious head injury, one that caused them to lose control over their quirk.

The child is bound too, which tells Katsuki that someone had tried to kidnap them. He understands upon seeing them what’s going on, that the child had adults try to turn them into a tool/weapon. Since they’re no longer able to control their quirk properly, the child made the choice to overuse their quirk until it killed them rather than allow themselves to be turned into a tool/weapon.

I want to note that the child is never described in any detail physically. They/them are used for the child the entire time. They are never given a name, hair color, eye color, etc. That’s all on purpose. Because this child is meant to be every child forced into this situation, who’ve had to make this choice. They could be any child, because this issue is so prevalent in bnha. 

In his effort to make the child feel less alone, Katsuki tells his own story to them, about how adults don’t listen when you say no, and about how he’d fought back and made them. He tells his own story, making himself vulnerable for the first time in a long time, because he knows he can trust this child not to take his story away from him.

Likewise, the child trusts Katsuki with their story too. They ask him to tell their story like he tells his, not the story of a victim, but the story of a hero, and he does.

Katsuki then offers comfort the only way he knows how, by singing a lullaby that he remembers from before he got his quirk. Bringing back memories of a time before adults saw them as tools, as weapons, as nothing more than their quirks.

He offers them one last chance to be a child, to be a person, to be human again. To be treated as they should’ve been the entire time.

Katsuki clings onto the child long after their gone, finally crying and unable to let go and accept their death because not only is it tragic, but it’s his very first time seeing his own story from the outside. It’s the first time he realizes how fucked up all of this really is, well and truly.

Aizawa enters here, earlier in the story he was the only one to protest Katsuki entering the bubble. He’s often one of the few characters in BNHA who actually treats these children like children, who protests against sending them out into the field, who protects them.

In the end, he’s only one person though, and he tries, he tries so hard, but he can only do so much. Often times all he can be is there to comfort them afterwards.

Aizawa still tries, he sits with Katsuki, he lets him cry, and he comforts Katsuki. Treating him like a child, because Katsuki still is one.

Very purposefully, Aizawa does not say anything here. There’s nothing he can say that will make things better, so instead he stays silent and lets Katsuki/The Child tell their stories and have that control. Rather than trying to shift it by telling them everything’s okay when it’s not.

Afterwards, everyone is left shaken by their sudden understanding of Katsuki’s world. But Katsuki isn’t because this is just his life.

To him, as hard as it was, this is just a reality of life. He hates everyone who forces children to make these choices, the circumstances of the choice are tragic. But the choice itself is not to him. It’s the heroic thing to do. It’s powerful. It’s maintaining your own agency and humanity against all else.

We see this when he meets the child’s parents, he makes sure they know who the hero was that day. He holds to his promise and keeps telling the child’s story how they wanted it told.

When Katsuki’s answering how he’s moving on, you’ll notice I used “their” to describe the child in his eyes. That was very much so on purpose and goes back to the idea of the child he encountered being symbolic for every child that’s been forced to make this choice.

After all of this, we finally get to the sweet pea flower Katsuki finds after he’s gone through his grief and started moving forward again.

So, sweet pea flowers mean goodbye, but with a grateful/happy tone to them. It’s meant as both a ‘thank you’ to Katsuki from the child for sharing his story and comforting them in their last moments, but it’s also meant as a reassurance that this was a happy ending for them. This was their choice, that they made to keep power over their own story. It’s a choice that hurt them to make, but it was still theirs. They don’t regret it.

The flower is crystal rather than organic matter so it won’t die. It’s a permanent reminder for him, an endless symbol of their story and choices that will live on after them.

As such, Katsuki puts the flower in with his will. Because he understands the meaning, and he wants to pass it along. If he dies, he’ll be going out on his own terms. And he won’t regret it. His story will be his until the end.

 Okay this has gotten very long, and I didn’t even get to everything.

Anyways, a soft tongue and sharp teeth is my favorite short bnha story I’ve written, I was basically possessed while writing it, and there’s like 10 million little details in it that I’m very proud of. 

thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Magnetar eruptions in nearby galaxies On April 15, 2020, a brief burst of high-energy light swept through the solar system, triggering instruments on several NASA and European spacecraft. Now, multiple international science teams conclude that the blast came from a supermagnetized stellar remnant known as a magnetar located in a neighboring galaxy. This finding confirms long-held suspicions that some gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) - cosmic eruptions detected in the sky almost daily - are in fact powerful flares from magnetars relatively close to home. "This has always been regarded as a possibility, and several GRBs observed since 2005 have provided tantalizing evidence," said Kevin Hurley, a Senior Space Fellow with the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, who joined several scientists to discuss the burst at the virtual 237th meeting of the American Astronomical Society. "The April 15 event is a game changer because we found that the burst almost certainly lies within the disk of the nearby galaxy NGC 253." Papers analyzing different aspects of the event and its implications were published on Jan. 13 in the journals Nature and Nature Astronomy. GRBs, the most powerful explosions in the cosmos, can be detected across billions of light-years. Those lasting less than about two seconds, called short GRBs, occur when a pair of orbiting neutron stars - both the crushed remnants of exploded stars - spiral into each other and merge. Astronomers confirmed this scenario for at least some short GRBs in 2017, when a burst followed the arrival of gravitational waves - ripples in space-time - produced when neutron stars merged 130 million light-years away. Magnetars are neutron stars with the strongest-known magnetic fields, with up to a thousand times the intensity of typical neutron stars and up to 10 trillion times the strength of a refrigerator magnet. Modest disturbances to the magnetic field can cause magnetars to erupt with sporadic X-ray bursts for weeks or longer. Rarely, magnetars produce enormous eruptions called giant flares that produce gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light. Most of the 29 magnetars now cataloged in our Milky Way galaxy exhibit occasional X-ray activity, but only two have produced giant flares. The most recent event, detected on Dec. 27, 2004, produced measurable changes in Earth's upper atmosphere despite erupting from a magnetar located about 28,000 light-years away. Shortly before 4:42 a.m. EDT on April 15, 2020, a brief, powerful burst of X-rays and gamma rays swept past Mars, triggering the Russian High Energy Neutron Detector aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft, which has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2001. About 6.6 minutes later, the burst triggered the Russian Konus instrument aboard NASA's Wind satellite, which orbits a point between Earth and the Sun located about 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) away. After another 4.5 seconds, the radiation passed Earth, triggering instruments on NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, as well as on the European Space Agency's INTEGRAL satellite and Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) aboard the International Space Station. The eruption occurred beyond the field of view of the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, so its onboard computer did not alert astronomers on the ground. However, thanks to a new capability called the Gamma-ray Urgent Archiver for Novel Opportunities (GUANO), the Swift team can beam back BAT data when other satellites trigger on a burst. Analysis of this data provided additional insight into the event. The pulse of radiation lasted just 140 milliseconds - as fast as the blink of an eye or a finger snap. The Fermi, Swift, Wind, Mars Odyssey and INTEGRAL missions all participate in a GRB-locating system called the InterPlanetary Network (IPN). Now funded by the Fermi project, the IPN has operated since the late 1970s using different spacecraft located throughout the solar system. Because the signal reached each detector at different times, any pair of them can help narrow down a burst's location in the sky. The greater the distances between spacecraft, the better the technique's precision. The IPN placed the April 15 burst, called GRB 200415A, squarely in the central region of NGC 253, a bright spiral galaxy located about 11.4 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor. This is the most precise sky position yet determined for a magnetar located beyond the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite of our galaxy and host to a giant flare in 1979, the first ever detected. Giant flares from magnetars in the Milky Way and its satellites evolve in a distinct way, with a rapid rise to peak brightness followed by a more gradual tail of fluctuating emission. These variations result from the magnetar's rotation, which repeatedly brings the flare location in and out of view from Earth, much like a lighthouse. Observing this fluctuating tail is conclusive evidence of a giant flare. Seen from millions of light-years away, though, this emission is too dim to detect with today's instruments. Because these signatures are missing, giant flares in our galactic neighborhood may be masquerading as much more distant and powerful merger-type GRBs. A detailed analysis of data from Fermi's Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) and Swift's BAT provides strong evidence that the April 15 event was unlike any burst associated with mergers, noted Oliver Roberts, an associate scientist at Universities Space Research Association's Science and Technology Institute in Huntsville, Alabama, who led the study. In particular, this was the first giant flare known to occur since Fermi's 2008 launch, and the GBM's ability to resolve changes at microsecond timescales proved critical. The observations reveal multiple pulses, with the first one appearing in just 77 microseconds - about 13 times the speed of a camera flash and nearly 100 times faster than the rise of the fastest GRBs produced by mergers. The GBM also detected rapid variations in energy over the course of the flare that have never been observed before. "Giant flares within our galaxy are so brilliant that they overwhelm our instruments, leaving them to hang onto their secrets," Roberts said. "For the first time, GRB 200415A and distant flares like it allow our instruments to capture every feature and explore these powerful eruptions in unparalleled depth." Giant flares are poorly understood, but astronomers think they result from a sudden rearrangement of the magnetic field. One possibility is that the field high above the surface of the magnetar may become too twisted, suddenly releasing energy as it settles into a more stable configuration. Alternatively, a mechanical failure of the magnetar's crust - a starquake - may trigger the sudden reconfiguration. Roberts and his colleagues say the data show some evidence of seismic vibrations during the eruption. The highest-energy X-rays recorded by Fermi's GBM reached 3 million electron volts (MeV), or about a million times the energy of blue light, itself a record for giant flares. The researchers say this emission arose from a cloud of ejected electrons and positrons moving at about 99% the speed of light. The short duration of the emission and its changing brightness and energy reflect the magnetar's rotation, ramping up and down like the headlights of a car making a turn. Roberts describes it as starting off as an opaque blob - he pictures it as resembling a photon torpedo from the "Star Trek" franchise - that expands and diffuses as it travels. The torpedo also factors into one of the event's biggest surprises. Fermi's main instrument, the Large Area Telescope (LAT), also detected three gamma rays, with energies of 480 MeV, 1.3 billion electron volts (GeV), and 1.7 GeV - the highest-energy light ever detected from a magnetar giant flare. What's surprising is that all of these gamma rays appeared long after the flare had diminished in other instruments. Nicola Omodei, a senior research scientist at Stanford University in California, led the LAT team investigating these gamma rays, which arrived between 19 seconds and 4.7 minutes after the main event. The scientists conclude that this signal most likely comes from the magnetar flare. "For the LAT to detect a random short GRB in the same region of the sky and at nearly the same time as the flare, we would have to wait, on average, at least 6 million years," he explained. A magnetar produces a steady outflow of fast-moving particles. As it moves through space, this outflow plows into, slows, and diverts interstellar gas. The gas piles up, becomes heated and compressed, and forms a type of shock wave called a bow shock. In the model proposed by the LAT team, the flare's initial pulse of gamma rays travels outward at the speed of light, followed by the cloud of ejected matter, which is moving nearly as fast. After several days, they both reach the bow shock. The gamma rays pass through. Seconds later, the cloud of particles - now expanded into a vast, thin shell - collides with accumulated gas at the bow shock. This interaction creates shock waves that accelerate particles, producing the highest-energy gamma rays after the main burst. The April 15 flare proves that these events constitute their own class of GRBs. Eric Burns, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, led a study investigating additional suspects using data from numerous missions. The findings will appear in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Bursts near the galaxy M81 in 2005 and the Andromeda galaxy (M31) in 2007 had already been suggested to be giant flares, and the team additionally identified a flare in M83, also seen in 2007 but newly reported. Add to these the giant flare from 1979 and those observed in our Milky Way in 1998 and 2004. "It's a small sample, but we now have a better idea of their true energies, and how far we can detect them," Burns said. "A few percent of short GRBs may really be magnetar giant flares. In fact, they may be the most common high-energy outbursts we've detected so far beyond our galaxy - about five times more frequent than supernovae." IMAGE....The giant flare, cataloged as GRB 200415A, reached detectors on different NASA spacecraft at different times. Each instrument pair established its possible location in different swaths of the sky, but the bands intersect in the central part of the bright spiral galaxy NGC 253. This is the most precise position yet established for a magnetar located well beyond our galaxy. CREDIT NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona

[tamakiamajikistentacles]

To Die For {Katsuki Bakugo}

A/N: This has been in the works for months and I made sure I’d have it done for Blasty’s birthday 💥 After all, what better way to celebrate than with like, 9.1k of dad-to-be Bakugo? So ayyy happy birthday Katsuki, 4/20 explode it 💥💥💥

"Who would be stupid enough to come after us? We're the Bakugo's!"

He wished she had never said it, even if it was a joke at the time. He wished the thought had never even crossed her mind. The stupid woman was too optimistic for her own damn good and of course the universe had decided to give a huge middle finger to their little family in the worst way.

It was somewhat astounding that it had taken that long for something terrible to happen, really. Seven years together, three of them married, but the eighth month of pregnancy was the tipping point. Of-fucking-course.

Any other time in their lives she would be able to protect herself, no doubt in his mind, but now? She couldn’t use her quirk because there was no telling if the life energy it drew from to create her weapons and shield would harm the baby and neither of them were willing to risk that in any way. Her quirk, Ki, allowed her to harness her own life energy and transfer it into the shape of tangible objects, bursts of offense, or to another person for energy restoration; it was as useful as it was dangerous.

With a huge stomach she couldn’t just rely on her physical strength alone, and a miniscule part of him wondered if she thought it was the only way, would she use her quirk to try and fight back if the only other option was death? No, the overwhelmingly large part of him knew, she wouldn’t. She would fight physically without her quirk as a last resort but she wouldn’t endanger the tiny life inside of her in such an unknown way. She had been out of action of damn near a year now, her quirk dormant since the day they made their decision to start their own family. The doctor’s assessment of how her quirk could affect pregnancy was horrifying and she had resolved not to use her quirk from that moment until after their child was swaddled safely in Katsuki’s arms and at least ten meters away.

Her dedication to having a family was what made everything worse in his opinion. She had taken time off from hero work to get pregnant, be pregnant, and would take even more time off for the beginning of their daughter’s life. The highest ranking she had held was 22nd and it was just as she had announced her leave from active duty as a pro, and realistically both she and Katsuki knew that ranking would never recover; it couldn’t once she took her pre-planned schedule of reduced patrols and days on call for villain attacks.

Everything had been planned and there were backups to backup plans because they knew that not everything could go according to their plans despite how well-thought out they were but this was just sickening.

He had been on desk duty at the agency with both Kirishima and Sero which meant it was more relaxed, and even Bakugo could appreciate that every once in a while now that he wasn’t foaming at the mouth to prove himself as a hero. He was ranked 4th and it was the highest he had ever been, but he was the youngest person in the Top Five, just behind the old, aging bastard Endeavor, the still annoyingly plucky Hawks, and his personal favorite of those ahead of him, Mirko. Despite his pride in his current position, he was still determined to make it to Number One, and he knew he would, especially when he would have a little one all his own to inspire; “I did this for you,” a phrase he had at the ready for the day that ranking would be announced.

Desk duty was a part of that journey to the top whether he liked it or not. The good part about desk duty days, especially with Kirishima, were that lunch could truly be an hour long and spent at the ramen bar a block away from the agency. Their spicy miso ramen was his favorite and it made the jabs at his palate worth listening to as his mouth watered at the visible heat that could be seen rising from his bowl.

It was after lunch that he and the others were pulled aside into one of the affectionately named war rooms, all three expecting to be told to suit up and head out to respond to a call for backup. The last thing they could have ever predicted, though, was to be greeted by a solemn-looking man in a uniform with a corrections logo on his lapel.

The man stumbled through apologies and excuses as he explained that three high risk villains being transported from their correctional facility to a higher security institution had managed to disarm and disorient their escorts which allowed them to escape. A folder with profiles on each of them was slid in front of the three heroes.

Metal Morph – Quirk: Steel Claws – Retractable steel claws extend from his cuticles at will.

Harpy – Quirk: Avian – Has the beak, talons, and wingspan of a bird while maintaining some physically human characteristics.

Star – Quirk: Drain – By touching another living thing with all five fingers, he can drain their energy to whatever degree he wants, ranging from sleepy exhaustion to death.

Bakugo recognized them immediately from the takedown roughly two months prior. He had been the one to work out their plan of attack since the ringleader Star’s quirk acted similar to his wife’s whose own weaknesses he understood well. All in all it had been a quick and efficient job, the usual threats spewing from the defeated thugs as they were led away in quirk cancelling handcuffs. Generally those threats didn’t bother him, and at the time they hadn’t. “I’ll get you for this, Ground Zero, just you wait,” was pretty standard, but breaking out of custody was not and that’s what had him internally panicking.

Getting him back didn’t necessitate harm to him directly, not when it was a well-known fact that he was married to a fellow hero who had publicly announced her plans to step away from hero work to start a family.

Midway through the more in-depth recounting of the escape, he abruptly stood up. “I have to make a phone call.”

Several of the suits in the room began to protest when Kirishima snapped, “Three villains who threatened to get back at him just escaped and his wife is eight months pregnant, I think he has the right to make a damn call to see if she’s alright.

Bakugo heard him as he continued out the door and into the hallway, grateful that he didn’t have to dignify the idiots with his breath. He was too wound up, his heart pounding as he first texted Jiro to go to his apartment; his old classmate lived in the same complex and he knew she was home that day, so having her go as backup for his wife was only logical. Then he called his wife’s phone, every fiber of his being on edge as he waited for her usual greeting, a playful threat to get back to work that never came.

Pure unfiltered panic coursed through him when he pulled the phone from his ear to hang up only to find a text from Jiro asking why she should be going to his empty apartment. When he called her, she explained that she’d stopped by ten minutes earlier with no answer, assumed his wife had set out to satisfy a lunchtime craving, and gone back to her own apartment. He explained what had happened with the villains and she went back to his apartment, her spare key in hand. She didn’t even get a chance to finish her sentence when she told him of the broken balcony window and his wife’s cell phone still on the kotatsu before he ended the call and ran back into the conference room.

They knew, just based on his expression, that the worst possible scenario had already begun to unfold.

As soon as the briefing was over, Bakugo went into his office and sat down at his desk. His first instinct was to go in blasting anything that moved but he had to think it through, this wasn’t the time to go in and rain explosions without thinking. His wife and his daughter were at stake, and he had to be rational or it could mean that they wouldn’t…

The open-ended thought alone had him grabbing the small wastepaper bin and shoving his head into it so he could vomit his meal back up.

Panting hard, he made the decision to fight. He didn’t trust anyone but himself to head a rescue operation but that would take time to coordinate and he didn’t have time, he had a wife and unborn child being held hostage by villains with quirks that could do nothing but harm to the both of them. He’d taken out more than three villains on his own before and with the addition of who he was fighting for he knew he could sure as hell do it again.

He gathered the last pieces of his hero costume and shoved it into its carrying case that had been its travelling home since UA. Desk days meant being on call so he was dressed in a decent portion of his costume already, needing only his knee pads, gauntlets, mask, and neck piece to be ready for action. Pulling a hoodie over his head, he drew the strings tight and slid a pair of sunglasses on.

Ignoring the shouts of his friends and other agency members he breezed out of the building with his phone in one hand and his costume case in the other. He headed towards the train station, his destination only a thirty-minute trip.

Sitting in a deserted section of the train car, he kept his eyes glued to the open tracking app on his screen, his own orange dot updating coordinates every few seconds as he rocketed across several neighborhoods. The other dot, his wife’s, was stationary.  

When they were married, they agreed that given the nature of their hero work there would be times where they could potentially be held hostage or transported via quirk to different locations. Neither of them wanted any sort of repeat of Katsuki’s experience during the training camp of first year; they hadn’t been together at the time, but it was hard on both of them nonetheless. So it was decided that their wedding rings would hold tracking devices so small that no one but them knew they were there. It linked up to an app that showed their locations to one another and could then be used for rescue and extraction.

In the three years since their wedding it had only been used by him to tease her about how often she went to the bakery four blocks west of their apartment building on her days off. Now he was thanking every star in the sky that they had decided on the small backup plan.

When the stop came he moved quickly to follow the tracker towards the dot that hadn’t moved since he left the agency. The coordinates led him towards a more suburban area that tapered off for two blocks before a large billboard advertising a new housing development came into view—move in date for next spring, applications being accepted now.

At the billboard is where he added the last pieces of his costume, the case and his civilian clothes set aside like so many times before; they always made their way back to him. Tightening his mask, he heard footsteps approaching him and he whipped around, palms crackling as he readied for a fight.

“Hell of a hello for someone here to help,” Kirishima laughed through hardened features, well aware of his partner’s potential reaction. He was dressed in his full hero costume looking every bit as ready for a fight as the blonde.

Bakugo relaxed his stance, a hard look set on his face. “How did you find me? I disabled the location on my comm when I got on the train.”

Kirishima held up his phone as his hardening retreated, his features back to normal. “Your wife gave me the tracking info for both of you. Great idea, honestly. Backup is coming too, we’ll probably just need to send out the exact info once we find where they are in this development.”

“The fuck you follow me for?”

“To have your back like I always have. And just like I always have before too, I’m ignoring you telling me that you don’t need me. So tell me your plan so I don’t get in your way.”

“I blast them to hell, you get her out,” he said simply. “Don’t let them touch her.”

“You can count on me,” he assured him, and Bakugo knew that he could. He knew that if anyone was going to come after him and watch his back, it would be Kirishima. He knew the redhead would sooner die than let him down, especially with a mission like this. To die for his best friend’s family would be a manly way to go—a hero’s way.

“Let’s move.”

They continued follow the tracking app deeper into the housing development, the wooden signs staked in the front yards bearing the lot numbers. It was eerie almost, the cookie cutter western style homes looking like something out of an American teen movie but still and quiet, no traffic noise or general sounds of habitation.

It was at lot number nineteen that placed Bakugo’s dot almost directly over his wife’s, and he tilted the phone screen towards Kirishima, nodding towards the door of the house. Moving closer, there were still no sounds from inside, and the quiet continued when they entered the building, quickly and methodically clearing each room one by one. When they found nothing in the general living spaces they descended into the basement, and still they didn’t find her.

Seeing Bakugo’s growing frustration and panic, Kirishima leaned a hand against the stone wall of the small basement, the cool, rough texture grounding him enough to try and think of what they may have missed. Until he felt it shift.

Eyes wide, he caught Bakugo’s attention and pressed harder on the wall to move it even more. He realized it was a door, the break in the walls not visible in the limited light, and it led to a small corridor towards what had to be an offshoot.

“Me first,” Bakugo told him lowly, a hand on his shoulder as he passed him. “Stay out of sight until I attack, then do everything you can to get her the fuck out.”

He nodded, determined. “They won’t touch her.”

Voices could be heard on the other side of the short corridor, the angry feminine one bringing relief like no other to the both of them. She was alive and she was pissed by the sound of it, insults flying from her mouth like bullets from a gun.

Kirishima hung back in the shadows just beyond where the dim lights of the other room could reach as Bakugo entered, completely visible to two of the villains standing around his angry wife across the room had they not been watching her. The ringleader only a few steps to his right had yet to notice his presence either.

“You’ve got a mouth on you,” he said, a grimace on his lips.

“And guess where the fuck she learned it from, shithead.”

All eyes turned to him, his wife’s looking relieved as a hand raised to push her hair out of her eyes.

“Well look who found us,” Star said airily.

Bakugo snarled, provoked by the indifferent tone, and prepared to strike. A body knocked into him as he moved to rush the cocky son of a bitch, sending him into the wall hard. He could taste iron on his lip but his resolve to kick the shit out of the one responsible for taking away his wife and daughter was stronger than a little bit of blood.

“None of you are walking away from this,” he said, spitting to the side as he regained his footing. “I’ll blow each and every one of ya straight to hell.”

With a shake of his head, Star met his gaze. "I'm going to make your life hell, Ground Zero."

The pro hero chuckled, thumbing at the trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth.

"There's only one person allowed to make my life hell and she's gotten pretty good at it over the past seven years. You've got no chance, asshole."

The villain hummed sinisterly. “It’s going to be so satisfying watching your face as I drain the life out of her and that little leech in her stomach. I can drag it out, too. It’s usually more fun for me that way.”

Bakugo’s lips curled into a sneer, and he launched himself straight at Star with a quick burst from his palms. He’d have to be careful to avoid full contact with five fingers but he was versatile in battle, his attacks varied enough to be suitable for any range. He’d keep close but just out of reach, his midrange moves likely to be more than enough to blow the asshole away.

His issue came in the form of the bird one, Harpy, that was running interference to keep him away from Star who had no offense other than close range. Fine, he could keep two of them at bay.

Across the open area Kirishima was now in the room, entering into a stare down with the villain called Metal Morph, the blue haired man ready to keep him away from Bakugo’s wife who sat back against the stone wall, hands wrapped protectively around her stomach.

“If you surrender now, you can walk away unharmed,” Kirishima offered the villain. “No matter what you choose, you’ll be taken into custody. Make it easy on yourself.”

With a chuckle as the only response, the villain leapt towards him with steel claws drawn. He hardened his upper body easily and crossed his arms to block the slashes, digging his heels into the packed earth floor to stay balanced from the blow. He then charged Metal Morph, his arms taking on his Unbreakable form, having managed to master the move to the point where he could harness it in certain areas instead of his whole body.

Each of them being close range fighters, they were fairly even in terms of intensity, but Kirishima’s skill was unmatched. Within moments he was able to subdue him after a hard hit with an Unbreakable fist sent him flying into a wall, knocking him out as his head bashed against the stone and his body slid down to slump onto his left side.

Releasing his quirk, Kirishima turned to Bakugo’s wife and held out a hand to her, helping her up from her place on the ground. “Are you alright? Are you hurt? Is the baby okay?”

“We’re okay,” she said hoarsely. “They’ve barely even touched me aside from when they took me from the apartment. No hits, no falls. I’ve played nice to make sure nothing happened.”

“Good, that’s good,” he murmured. “I’m gonna take you out of here, backup shouldn’t be far out. Bakugo can handle those two. Do you mind if I pick you up? It’s probably faster, no offence.”

She nodded with a grin. “Get me the fuck out of here.”

He smiled as he scooped her up, careful to hold her steady but not too tight. Turning to the corridor he started towards it, glancing to Bakugo who was flung backwards, and he was fighting himself not to hesitate. He had his orders, he had to get her out—

The villain Harpy crashed into him and made him stumble, but he kept his hold on her and regained his footing. He couldn’t harden his entire body without cutting her with the way he held her and if he let her down the villain could take her. His mind raced with his next move as he felt her shift her legs off of his arm and to the ground, freeing his left side as his right kept her shielded.

Kirishima swung his arm back as he felt the shift in the air from Harpy flying towards him again, hoping to knock him away or off balance. He managed to hit the birdlike man in the temple which caused him to crumple to the ground, but not before he had sunk his talons over his shoulder and dug them in deep.

Pain exploded in his shoulder and he cried out, his hold around her waist dropping as he doubled over to clutch at his shoulder. His knees gave out and he sank to the ground, shock creeping across his skin as blood flowed from the cuts with each beat of his heart.

She knelt down next to him, guiding his head onto her lap. Basic first aid wasn’t much to wounds like this but it could slow the bleeding and buy them time until backup arrived. She just hoped it would be enough.

"Shit, Kirishima, you gotta be okay," she said, ripping the bottom of her dress to create a bandage to help stop the bleeding. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck!"

She wound the ripped pieces of cloth around his left side, his eyes hazy and unfocused. Little whimpers of pain escaped his lips as she pulled the fabric tight against the wound and pressed down firmly.

“Baby girl B,” he breathed out, wincing as he registered the pressure against his shredded shoulder. “Are you both…?”

She nodded, biting her lip. “We’re okay, Kirishima, we’re okay. You took the hit, and they never even touched us.”

He swallowed, nodding as his face scrunched in pain, his eyes closed. Sharp teeth bit into his bottom lip and his right hand balled into a fist.

Bakugo, who had seen the hit, froze at the sight of all the blood on his partner from where he had landed from Harpy’s last attack. It took only a beat for him to see his wife go to the redhead and begin tending to him, but it was a beat too long for him to have lost focus.

Five chilled fingers pressed against his exposed bicep and immediately his entire being felt like lead, his body leaning heavily against the wall. With all his strength he turned his head to see Star’s hand dropping from his arm, a self-satisfied smirk painted across his face. He stepped a few paces back, head cocked as if admiring his handiwork, and Bakugo decided in that moment what had to be done to end this.

“Real shame about Red Riot,” Star said in mock sadness. “Willing to die for his partner’s little whore wife to be saved only for her, the parasite you put in her, and him all to die right in front of your eyes.”

Bakugo’s heart picked up speed, his blood pumping the anger through his veins as he slowly uncurled his right palm and turned it out towards the monologuing villain. It never failed to get them into trouble, fuckin’ amateur.

“I won’t kill you, though, Ground Zero,” Star continued, “no, I’m going to make you watch them die. The three people you care about the most all dead and it’ll be on you.”

“None of them are dying today,” he ground out, palm heating.

Star smirked. “You heroes are all too—”

An explosive stream burst from his palm—a smaller version of his AP Shot designed to work like a blowtorch—and hit the villain in front of him in the thighs causing his knees to buckle, pitching him forward onto his hands and knees in front of Bakugo.

“You villains are all so fucking stupid.”

He shakily raised his right arm, fatigue crawling over his bones and his muscles screaming at the weight of his gauntlet.

“You came into my home, kidnapped my pregnant wife, made your cronies injure my partner, and had plans to kill the three most important people in my life—the three people who make up my fucking family.”

He opened his extended palm, aiming for the now pleading villain in front of him.

"You come after me and I'll kill ya," Bakugo breathed, his left forefinger hooking into the pin of the gauntlet, "but you come after my family and I'll fuckin' destroy you."

On his final word, he pulled the pin.

A massive explosion rocked the open space, the heat being felt on her cheeks as she turned away from the blast, curling herself around Kirishima to shield him from debris without taking the pressure off of his wounds. It would do no good for Katsuki to win the fight but lose his best friend.

Her ears were still ringing when the smoke around them began to clear, and she leaned harder into Kirishima’s shoulder. He gave a soft grunt at the pressure and his jaw twitched as he clenched his teeth. His eyes were still closed, and she could feel the tight coil of his body relaxing, panic running through her at the realization that he was slipping into unconsciousness.

From across the room she heard a shout of her name, “Are you injured? Is the baby okay? What about Kirishima—"

"I’m fine Katsuki, but how far out is backup?" she replied, hands slipping against bloodied skin. "He's in a bad way, Katsuki. I... I don't know how much more blood he can lose!"

His eyes widened as he finished snapping the capture cuffs onto Star, abandoning the crumpled villain and sprinting the short distance to her, dropping down to his knees beside her.

“Fuck! My comm was wrecked when I first came in, where’s his? He usually keeps it in these stupid gears,” he rambled, opening the compartment of his shoulder piece, careful not to jostle him or bump her hands.

Practically on cue, Kirishima's communication device radioed that teams were arriving at that moment and needed a pinpointed location. Bakugo grabbed it from within the compartment and brought it up to relay the info, his hands shaking slightly as he pressed the button to speak.

"This is Ground Zero, current location is an offshoot of the sub-basement of lot number nineteen. Red Riot's down and needs medics fucking stat, he's lost a lot of blood. The villains have been handled with use of potentially deadly force to protect all parties. Hostage is safe and unharmed."

She looked toward him, panic evident in her eyes as Kirishima's head lolled to his right, breath shortened to small puffs against her thigh.

"C'mon, Shitty Hair, don't do this," he muttered, gloved hands cradling the redhead's face. "You don't get to die today."

She continued the pressure on the wound, her heart hammering against her ribcage.

"You listen to me and you listen good, Kirishima," her husband continued, his teeth gritted, "I'll be fucking damned if you bleed out on my wife and don't get to meet my daughter. The hell am I supposed to tell her, huh? That you saved her and her mother but your stupid ass got killed doing it?"

"Katsuki," she whispered, eyes starting to sting as the sound of reinforcements arriving began to grow louder.

He glanced up at her, eyes wild and desperate. "No! He needs to know he's an idiot if he dies!" He looked back down to the redhead. "The day I got married you were so excited to be my best man and there's more I need you to do, you asshole! You gotta be here to-to be Uncle Ei for my baby girl! And I want you to be her godfather! I don't fucking trust anyone else to take care of my kid if something happens to us!"

Tears tracked down her cheeks as she watched his head bow, blonde hair obscuring his masked face further.

"You gotta fight," he murmured so softly she almost didn't hear amidst the shouting beyond the corridor. "You got me back at Kamino. You got my wife and daughter back now. You gotta fight so my daughter can meet the best friend I've ever had. C'mon, Ei. Just fight."

His words faded into the air between them, still for only a moment before the first responders appeared around the rubble and broke into smaller groups to tend to both Kirishima and the villains. Two others approached the couple once they moved back from their friend, Bakugo’s arms wrapped securely around her and hugging her close to him.

“I’m fine,” she started as one of them opened their mouth to begin a verbal assessment. “My forearm is a little scraped up so that will need tended to but other than that I’m unharmed. I just want to make sure the stress hasn’t had any adverse effects on the baby.”

They nodded, pulling out supplies to start treating the scrape and asking some follow up questions. Their partner turned to Bakugo and was also cut off before they even began.

“Cuts and scrapes. Gonna have a few bruises. They can patch me up at the hospital,” he said, tone final. As far as he was concerned, his wife, daughter, and best friend were much more important to be tended to.

His eyes slid over the responder’s shoulder to where a small crowd was around Kirishima, four men and one woman. The men were assessing him and applying more pressure to the wound, muttering flowing between them. The woman was calm in comparison, rigging up what Bakugo recognized as a small, portable transfusion apparatus to her own arm before working on fastening the other end to Kirishima’s.

“Blood type?” she prompted as she worked.

“O,” one of the men responded. It was common practice to send all relevant medical information to the responders heading towards a scene where pros were involved, a useful trove of information that allowed quick, informed decisions to be made when there were serious injuries.

“He’s high risk with this sort of trauma as a type O,” the woman informed them before finishing the setup in his arm, “but you know I’m not the type to lose a cute redhead.”

Bakugo wanted to snap at her to do her damn job, not flirt with his unconscious, possibly fucking dying if he was so damn high-risk partner, but a squeeze to his hand brought him back to the fact that he had his two girls to look after.

“He’s gonna be okay,” she assured him with a steady voice.

“He sure as fuck better be,” he grunted, fingers intertwining with hers as they were approached to provide statements. Neither of them were eager to stay back for them despite only needing ten minutes max between the two, but they both knew that Kirishima needed to be taken immediately and it would be easier in the long run for him if they provided everything they could now.

So as the redhead was taken out through the corridor and to the local medical facility, they ran through their accounts quickly, her abduction, hours held captive, and the fight between the heroes and villains that had one in critical condition pouring out as clinical and thorough as possible. With promises of a formal report once Kirishima was released from the hospital, Bakugo began to lead her out of the area, frustrated that they weren’t with Kirishima and afraid that something could be wrong with the baby despite his wife assuring him that nothing had physically happened to cause damage.

The fear didn’t melt away until they were at the hospital in an exam room with the strong, steady heartbeat of his daughter echoing through the small space. It calmed him down exponentially to hear the doctor tell them that everything was alright, that mom and baby were both just as they should be. So with that knowledge and the fact that Kirishima was in surgery to repair his shoulder and ensure there was no further damage, he allowed himself to be treated, the few cuts and scrapes he had sustained cleaned and bandaged.

Once he was finished, they headed towards the private recovery area to wait for Kirishima to be out of surgery, Bakugo’s knee bouncing for the entirety of the half hour leading up to a doctor asking if they were there for Eijirou Kirishima. They were told that he was stable and would recover just fine, but physical therapy would likely be necessary. The scarring he mentioned with a grimace made the couple snort—Kirishima had always thought that scars from hero work were “the manliest badge of honor a guy could receive!”

They were granted permission to wait in his room for him to wake up, something the doctor said could take a while based on how much blood he had lost. The immediate transfusion at the scene had definitely helped, but his body needed time to heal from what it had gone through.

While Bakugo understood that, he was still anxious when two hours later Kirishima’s eyes remained closed and his breathing even.

"He should've woken up by now," he muttered, arms crossed tight over his chest as he stared at his unmoving partner.

"Katsuki, he lost a lot of blood. His body's been through a lot, so I think it's okay that he's still out. The doctor said he's stable."

"Until he's awake and giving us that dumbass smile of his, I won't be happy."

"You know, I think Kirishima would prefer you focus on other important things while he's lying here in stable condition."

He fixed her with a hard stare. "What in the fuck could be more important than my best friend and partner not waking up after almost bleeding out in your lap?"

She shrugged. "I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm in labor so I figured you may want to deal with that."

"What the hell did you just say?" he whispered, voice soft.

"I started having contractions when they came to tell us he was out of surgery," she admitted. “They weren’t that close together and I knew you’d want to try and wait for him to wake up, so I didn’t mention it. But now, I think it would be best to get me admitted because they’re way more intense and have been slowly getting closer together for about half an hour now.”

Bakugo closed his eyes for a moment and blew out a breath. “With the amount of pure fucking chaos today has been, I’m not even surprised.”

“You’re not mad?”

“Babe, I don’t think I have any room for anger in me right now with all the fucking worry,” he chuckled darkly. “But I’m the one who needs the least amount of attention. C’mon, you need a room and one of those baby heartbeat belt things, right? Let’s go.”

She watched him stand up and head for the door, throwing a glance back at Kirishima’s unconscious form one last time, and stood to join him, her hands clasped beneath her belly as she reached him. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and guided her through the off-white hallways. His calm demeanor was surprising, but more helpful than she could imagine.

As she was set up in the maternity room he stood by her side waiting for instruction from either her or the doctor, very unsure of what he was supposed to be doing at this stage. All the parenting books and articles he had (secretly) read just advised to do as he was asked but no one had asked him to do anything. He hoped that over the course of her labor he would be given a task, something to do to feel useful.

And they did, the tasks asked of him over the next few hours being small: calling friends and family, helping her into and out of bed as she walked around the room, fetching her cold compresses, massaging her sore legs. Whatever made it easier on her, he would do.

Her contractions had built in intensity throughout the night and into the early morning hours, her whimpers of pain tearing at his heart, but she continued to grit her teeth and keep calm. He was relieved when she was able to sleep even if it was only for an hour or two. It was at least some time where her discomfort wasn’t at the forefront of her mind. It also allowed him some time to begin outlining the report on the previous day’s events, a task he had no desire to complete but one he would rather finish as soon as possible if it meant he could begin his paternity leave quickly.

By noon she was dilated eight centimeters, in an intense amount of pain, and practically foaming at the mouth with the desire to start pushing. He tried to comfort her, reassuring her that it would soon be time to start pushing and they would meet their daughter which she found endearing more than anything; it wasn’t often that he was the one trying to calm her down.

To keep the time passing and her attention focused on him instead of the pain and waiting he talked to her about anything he could think of. He talked about the lunch he had with Kirishima and Sero the previous day and brought up memories of their days at UA when they were younger and dumber but not blind to the evils of the world. At one point they discussed names for the baby, a topic that up until then had been volatile at best. The same conclusion was drawn every time: “I have to see her to know what her name should be.”

Finally, at almost three o’clock in the afternoon, it was time for her to begin pushing.

For over an hour she pushed, her refusal for any help with pain something she resolved to revisit for any future children. Katsuki didn’t leave her side, his hand clasped tightly in hers and giving her all the encouragement she could ever need with curse words peppered in just as expected. She would’ve been disappointed if his coaching was anything else.

And suddenly it was over, her body belonging only to her again for the first time in nearly a year. It was over and another Bakugo had entered the world, her volume easily betraying her heritage as Katsuki cut the cord with a dazed expression on his face. He was speechless, watching as the little girl was taken to the other side of the room to be cleaned and weighed and swaddled while his wife continued with the delivery of placenta and receiving her stitches. While he didn’t leave her side, his eyes remained on the small baby as if he was afraid that she would disappear if he wasn’t looking at her.

As quickly as the room had filled with doctors and nurses, it was empty just as fast once everything was over and the tiny child was placed in her mother’s arms.

His wife let out a choked sob of a laugh as the last nurse exited the room with a reminder to buzz if they needed anything, glassy eyes trained on the little girl in her arms. She repositioned the edges of the blanket around her with shaky hands and a wobbly smile.

“Look at her, Katsuki,” she whispered, her voice wavering. “Look, she has your eyes!”

He couldn’t stop staring at the blotchy-faced little blonde in his wife’s arms, her nearly-too-light-to-see brows furrowed as she stared up at them wailing. She definitely had his eyes, the bright red even looking indignant at the fact that she wasn’t as warm as she had been for the last so many months.

“She’s… she’s finally here,” she continued. “We have a daughter, we’re parents.”

He felt emotion bubbling in his chest and he wasn’t sure if it was purely the exhaustion from being awake for a day and a half or the fact that his child was safely swaddled in the love of his life’s arms or the fear that his best friend was so close to never being able to meet his daughter, or likely a combination of everything. Regardless, he knew that this was a day he would never forget for the rest of his life, for both the good and the bad it had brought.

“Can I hold her?” he asked as he finally found his voice, rough as it may be with the emotions swirling beneath his skin.

She sobbed out another laugh, eyes misty as she beckoned him closer. “She’s your daughter, of course you can hold her.”

He didn’t respond, only wiping his nervous hands on his pants before leaning forward and allowing his wife to gently set the newborn in his arms. Hyperaware of how his hands supported her, he sat back in his chair and looked down at the slowly calming child in his arms.

His child, he reminded himself, his daughter with the woman crazy enough to stick by him for so many years. Somehow he had ended up with the both of them in spite of the unforgivable words he spoke as a teenager, the anger had used as a weapon for so long, and all the other mistakes he had made in his life.

A small huff of a laugh escaped him as he moved a hand to rest atop the blanket bundled around her. She was fascinating to him, red eyes and just a smidge lighter than his ashy blonde hair so easily traceable to him but surprising nonetheless. It was surreal to be holding her, finally, after so long watching her mother’s belly grow and speaking to the taut skin that was her first home, and he could only continue to laugh quietly in disbelief.

“I’m your dad,” he managed to tell her between giggles. “I’m your dad and one day I’m gonna be the highest ranked hero to all of Japan, but I’m always gonna be your number one hero, yeah? You and your mom gotta be my biggest fans.”

Having been discreetly taking pictures of the moment, his wife began to tear up again at his words. Never once had she imagined a scene like this when they were teenagers and began dating during their second year at UA, but watching it unfold right before her eyes was more than she could have ever hoped for. Katsuki would be happy when they finally met their daughter, she’d always known that throughout the past few months, but this was better than any other reaction she could dream of.

“We’ll always cheer the loudest,” she said with a watery smile.

He looked up at her, the grin still on his face. “You damn well better.”

They were both in awe at the little girl and the influence she held over them already, the next hour being spent still in disbelief at the fact that she was finally with them and able to be held close, kissed, and fawned over.

It was soon after that Bakugo’s parents arrived, excited to see the newest member of the family and eager to hear the fine details of the previous day’s ordeal with the villains. They fit right into their roles as doting grandparents, Masaru taking on an even softer tone than usual to speak to the tiny girl in his arms and Mitsuki cooing affectionately how much she looked like her daddy. Bakugo held so much pride in the little family he had built for himself, watching his parents interact with his daughter stirring within him the desire to be different, be better with her than they were with him. She would be great, but she would be humble.

He was happy that his parents could see how far he’d come, from explosive little brat to a hero with a family, explosions still prominent but saved for work alone. It was nice too for him to see them happy and proud of him, the phrase not something he had heard from them in a long time. Everything felt right, at peace, except for one obvious missing piece.

His parents stayed until visiting hours were over and left after many hugs and promises to help whenever they needed. That was also comforting to know they were near and able to help them if the need arose, her own family from much farther away and unable to come as quickly should they need grandparents’ intervention.

Bakugo blinked sleepily as he finished changing his daughter out of one tiny white hospital onesie and into another, grateful that his parents had been able to grab their hospital bags and bring them in so he didn’t need to leave the hospital himself. A day and a half with no sleep was beginning to catch up with him.

“Katsuki, you should sleep,” his wife said as she watched him scoop the baby up. “You didn’t nap when I did while I was in labor which means you’ve been awake for nearly 36 hours straight. You need to rest.”

He shook his head as he cradled their daughter close. “S’okay, I can stay up with her tonight, you’ve been through way too much in the last two days. Plus I’ll be able to get news about Kirishima as soon as there is any.”

“Baby girl is tired, I could probably get her to sleep if I feed her. She’s due to eat anyway so why don’t you go sit with Kirishima for a bit and if he’s not awake soon, come back up and rest.”

He sighed, glancing down at the wriggling little blonde in his arms. It felt like no matter what he decided he was going to be away from someone he cared about and feeling guilty.

“Gimme that baby,” she playfully demanded, beckoning him closer. “Sit with Kirishima then get your ass back up here to cuddle us.”

“I… yeah, okay,” he relented, moving to set the baby in her arms. He ran a hand through the tufts of hair on her head, one finger drifting down to run over a chubby cheek. “I’ll be back soon okay? I’m taking my phone so if you need me, text me.”

“Say bye to daddy, baby girl,” she giggled, taking her little hand and waving it cutely at him.

With a smile and a kiss to his wife, he headed out the door and to the elevators, the distance he put between himself and the maternity room feeling so much larger than he could ever anticipate. But still he walked, intent on at least seeing his best friend and hoping that he would be able to bring the happy news of his daughter’s birth.

He entered the room quietly and took a seat in the same chair he had been in when his wife had said she was in labor. That moment a day ago felt like another lifetime entirely. In a way it was, it was a life where he didn’t have his daughter in his arms, when her life in the outside world had yet to begin.

Alone with his thoughts, he watched Kirishima’s steady, even breaths, the bandages over his shoulder crossing his chest and having just enough give to ensure it wasn’t constricting his breathing. Surely he would see the bandages as another one of those manly badges of honor he always spoke of, and Bakugo would readily agree. His decision to go into a three-on-one fight wasn’t the best and without Kirishima, things would likely be very different. He didn’t want to dwell on it; it wasn’t what happened, and it could never happen again.

So he settled in to wait, slowly sliding down in the plastic chair as time ticked by on the clock above the door. He didn’t expect his partner to be out this long and he was worried. All of the good he had experienced in the last day wouldn’t feel complete, not truly, until he was seeing the goofy, sharp smile of his best friend. He wanted, no, needed him to wake up. And within forty minutes, when he saw red eyes open tiredly, he felt like he could finally breathe fully again.

When Kirishima regained consciousness and heard the distinctive beeps of hospital equipment, he didn’t even need to open his eyes to know that he and Bakugo’s mission had more than likely been successful. The soreness in his left shoulder was bearable so he’d been healed and if he was in a hospital bed then that meant that reinforcements had come and retrieved them.

Slowly blinking, he let out a sigh at the brightness of his room.

“Nice of you to finally wake your ass up.”

Turning to his right, he spotted a very exhausted Bakugo slumped down in a visitor’s chair.

“How—” he cut himself off, voice cracking weakly. He cleared his throat and tried again, “How long have you been here?”

Grunting, he sat forward. “In the hospital, a little more than a day. In your room, this time, about an hour.”

Kirishima furrowed his brows. “This time? Where else were you? Shouldn’t you be with your wife? Wait- is she here too? Is she hurt? Did something happen after I went down? Is the baby—”

“Shut up, Shitty Hair,” he groaned, rubbing a hand over his face before levelling the redhead with a tired look. “I took care of the villain after you passed out and reinforcements came in time to get your ass here to get your shoulder taken care of. We were both treated for minor cuts and we came here to wait for you to wake up, but she ended up going into labor, so I was with her for that. She’s fine and so’s my baby girl. They’re both asleep right now up on the third floor.”

“Baby girl B is here?” Kirishima whispered.

Bakugo’s lips quirked up into a soft smile. “Yeah, she’s here safe and sound. Little bit of a lighter blonde than me but she’s got my eyes without a doubt.”

“Bro, congrats, I can’t believe she’s here!” he said happily, his eyes stinging with the threat of tears. “What did you guys name her? When can I visit her? Did your parents already stop by? Have—”

“You gotta slow down with the questions, Kirishima. I’ve been awake for almost two days straight,” he grunted, no heat behind the words. “You can come up and see her as soon as you’re discharged which should be quick if you call in a nurse. My parents were here for about two hours after she was born but they headed home already. Visiting hours ended at seven but you get a special pass to come back with me for a bit tonight.”

Kirishima had never hit the call button for a nurse so quickly in his life.

Within twenty minutes, he had been checked over by the attending physician and officially discharged with orders not to return to the field for three weeks, a recommendation for physical therapy, and a bounce in his step as he followed his best friend to the elevators. He had been given a special visitors badge that allowed him in the maternity ward despite visiting hours being long over and not having a wife and child of his own to be with; generally he wouldn’t let his pro hero status be used to bend the rules like that, but considering he was about to meet his best friend since high school’s newborn daughter for the first time after a dramatic rescue, he decided that one time couldn’t hurt. Bakugo had been the one to ask for it anyway, so it wasn’t entirely on Kirishima in the first place.

His excitement was bubbling beneath his skin as he walked behind Bakugo towards the room his little family was assigned to. When they stopped at room 304, a quick but soft knock on the open door was all that needed to be done to announce their presence.

“Look, honey, daddy’s back,” his wife cooed to the small bundle gathered in her arms as she sat on the bed. She looked tired, but her smile never faltered as she glanced up to the two men. “Kirishima, I’m glad you’re alright. C’mon in, you’ve got someone who’s been waiting to meet you.”

The redhead cautiously walked forward with Bakugo who reached out to take the baby from her. Turning back, Bakugo gave him a wide grin.

“Alright, baby girl,” he murmured, tucking the blankets away from her face, “open those pretty eyes for me, there’s someone here to see you.”

Kirishima caught his first glimpse of her face, smooth skin and chubby cheeks surrounded by the minty green of the blanket she was swaddled in. Just as he’d been told, her hair stood out as paler than her father’s, but when her eyes fluttered open and he could see the bright red he’d always associated with Bakugo, he had to hold back the tears.

“’S a little Bakubaby,” he managed to laugh, his voice caught in his throat at the sight of the tiny child.

“Hold out your arms,” Bakugo instructed, placing his daughter in his hold when he complied. He watched proudly as Kirishima cradled her to his chest, then started to speak, his eyes on his friend but his words to his daughter, “Now, baby girl, I want you to meet your Uncle Ei. He’s the one who helped me make sure you and mama were safe, because he’s my best friend and has had my back since we were teenagers. He’s always gonna have your back too, you know. That’s what godfathers do, after all.”

That was the breaking point for Kirishima’s tears as he whispered out a choked, “Really?”

Bakugo nodded, chuckling. “Yeah. No one else I trust to look after my kid if something were to happen to us. You’d raise her right.”

He sniffled, then smiled back down at the tiny blonde. “Yeah, I… I’ll do my best for her no matter what. Did… did you two decide on a name for her yet?”

Bakugo glanced back, bringing his wife into the moment.

“We did,” she said, catching Kirishima’s attention. “We wanted to give her a name with meaning, and we decided that the most meaning we could find was in the man who helped make sure that she made it into the world. So, Kirishima, meet your goddaughter Kira Bakugo.”

[maxparkhurst]

SHADOW’S WARMTH

It was cold outside. Winter’s frost fogged the stained-glass window and only shadows cast from the fragmented light broke the chamber’s monotonous sprawl. Despite all his layers, Augustine shivered. He adjusted the crate of potions in his arms, vials chiming in alarm, and followed his sister through the Cathedral’s entry arch. Their echoing footfalls heralded their path through the pews. His steps sounded far off, muted beneath the dull buzz in his head. Fatigue nestled itself in the space between his shoulder blades, sickly sweet as it pulled the muscles taut. It made his arms quake beneath the weight of their delivery. He wasn’t sure when this sudden case of shakes began or if it’d ever leave.

Augustine kept his gaze trained on the small of Max’s back. Unlike some, he found no solace in the home of the Light. If anything those cold, empty pews sent a shiver down his spine. To believe in fate written by a sole force was to revoke one’s own agency in the coming of destiny. If he were to believe in anything, he believed in their work and the help it’d provide to those less fortunate. Thus, instead of raising his eyes to the angelic depictions splayed on stained glass he turned to his mentor for guidance.

Max walked with the same composure she always possessed. Those unaccustomed to her measured smile and level voice found his sister to be enigmatic. They approached her with wary eyes and shifting feet. Such was the case with the deacon who met them half-way.

“Master Parkhurst.” He dipped his head to Max, wringing his hands within the trenches of his belled sleeves. A pleasant, albeit weary, smile touched his lips when he turned to Augustine. “And son?”

Augustine mustered a meager grin. He wondered if it looked as fake as it felt.

“Apprentice,” Max corrected. She inclined her head to the deacon as she breathed a laugh. There wasn’t any emotion placed in the gesture. As with most things, the laugh was for display only. Something to fill the silence and lighten the air. “It’s good to see you in good health, Brother Matthews.”

Brother Matthews shifted on his heels, sending ripples through the hem of his diaconal vestments. Augustine imagined those flowing robes should bring a modicum of comfort to his restless soul. Quite the contrary. The gentleman hardly filled them out. Only the knobs of his shoulders poked through the dense fabric. Everything else? Lost beneath yards of cloth.

The deacon doesn’t wear the robes, he drowns in them.

“As good as I can be in these troubling times,” Brother Matthews chittered, running his fingers through an already thinning hair line.

His scalp visible through wisps of hair startled Augustine. This deacon could only be a few years older than him. Yet here this gentleman stood with less hair than perhaps what he started with at the beginning of the year. Stress must’ve aged him. Augustine grimaced and stole a glance up at his own locks. Had he faith in some deity, he’d pray to keep his hair once everything finally settled.

“...the potions?”

Augustine blinked. In his tired stupor, he missed the deacon’s question. The beginnings of a crimson blush crept up his neck as he scrambled for an answer. Luckily, Max stepped in.

“Yes,” she mused, coaxing the crate from Augustine’s grip, “They are.” She adjusted it in her arms, rattling the vials inside, and dipped her head to Brother Matthews. “If you’ll lead the way, Brother?”

Brother Matthews looked between the siblings before obliging with a nod.The hem of his robes fluttered as he drifted down the row of pews, looking almost spectral in the waning light. He paused at a stairwell’s threshold and beckoned. “This way…” he murmured.

Max stole a glance up at Augustine. Concern glistened in her eye as they made their descent down into the church’s underbelly. He tried to dissuade her skepticism with a forced smile. It merited a quirked brow followed by humoring silence. She hastened to fall in step with the deacon, lowering her voice so that they may converse in private. It suited Augustine just fine. If anything, he appreciated the momentary solitude. It allowed his thoughts to settle for the first time in over a week.

Has it really only been a week?

Augustine hugged his shoulders. He felt as if he lived two life times while toiling through this whole mess. With the brisk shake of his head, he dismissed the thought. Instead, he focused his gaze on the cobble stone and counted each step down into the lower levels. Only the faint glow cast from torches illuminated the long stretch of shadows. Each step deeper in the darkened veil seemed to put the deacon on edge. His shoulders buckled. His steps quickened. And he wouldn’t stop stealing suspicious glances at them over his shoulders.

For someone as old as you, Augustine mused, You shouldn’t be so scared of the dark.

Augustine simply didn’t understand. He grew more at ease the further from the Light they traveled. Warmth from the torches’ flames started to seep into his chilled bones. His arms slid down to hug his stomach as he cocked his head back, feeling the cobblestone walls brush against his shoulders. Small and dark. He closed his swollen eyes and heaved a sigh. Memories, vague and diluted images, lapped against the foreground of his scattered thoughts. The touch of fire… Press of stone… Long, dark shadows… If he let it, the memory could wash over him. Swallow him whole and cast him far from this cold, hellish nightmare. Send him to a simpler time. A time when he was small. And all he had to worry about was the next page read from Max’s lips as they nestled in the corner of their father’s forge.

He could be there if he fed the memory. Let it grow and consume his waking thoughts. All he needed to do was stoke its flame.

But there was work to be done…

He pushed the memory aside and opened his eyes. The stairwell led down into a hewn stone chamber. Smaller than the Cathedral’s grand hall but bigger than their apartment. Perhaps at some point it housed their clergy’s tomes and relics. Now bedrolls dominated what little space was available. Families huddled atop these meager homes, each in a different stage of misery. Some were mourning. Some were frightened. And some simply watched him pass with a blank stare.

Augustine paused and canted his head. A voice lifted in song. His heart ached from how sweet it sounded. He tossed a way-ward glance over his shoulder, watching as the deacon joined Max in offloading vials onto a workman’s table. They’d be fine without him. He shuffled his way through the huddled masses, following that melodic voice through the winding desolace.

“We cannot thank you enough for your contribution.”

Brother Matthews voice.  Spoken just a notch above a whisper. His quivering drawl broke the teen’s concentration for a split second. Augustine didn’t need to look at his sister to hear the cordial smile gracing her lips. She always spoke in the same tone; pleasant and unwavering.

“We’re only doing our part. Just as the church is doing theirs…”

Augustine allowed their conversation to fade into the background. Scanning the room, he listened for the voice. So sweet. It’d been days since he last heard another human being’s voice, much less hear one in song. He hadn’t realized how much he missed the sound of people. His heart yearned to hear child’s mirth and city bustle. To hear the town crier and to listen to the lady’s chitter. To feel warmth and life again in the city. For now, it’d settle for this voice. One so delicate...That it possessed him to follow it until he found its source.

“Awake, our souls; away with fears… … let every trembling thought be gone; Awake and run toward thy heavenly light, … And imbue me with cheerful courage.”

The girl’s hair glimmered in the torch’s dim light, glistening pale like silver thread. She bowed her head as she knelt on the cold stone. Dressed in nothing but a tattered dress, she shivered as she breathed each word. She spoke with a lyrical somberance which captivated Augustine. He watched her in awe until she caught sight of him. She balked, a hiccup catching in her throat.

Augustine bristled. “Y-your song!” he stammered, curling into himself, “It was… It was lovely.”

Her demur countenance darkened. “It’s not a song,” she murmured, “It’s a prayer.” Her gaze dropped to the floor. “I’m praying for courage…”

“Praying for courage?” he echoed.

“Yes.” The girl pursed her lips, turning her gaze back on Augustine. He felt his face warm as she searched him with wide, doe eyes. No shame resided in them, only resolve punctuated by the furrow of her brow. “The Prayer of Awakened Souls. Don’t you know it?”

Augustine shook his head. “I’m afraid not...”

“Why not?”

The question caught him off guard. A disquiet smile touched his lips as he tucked either hand in a pocket. He chewed on the question before shrugging. “The Light is viewed differently in Kul’tiras,” he professed, “There are Tidesages who blessed the ships and waters. As far as the Holy Light…” He averted his gaze. “Well. I figured it was only used by paladins…”

“By Paladins…” she echoed, flashing him a teasing smirk, “So they can smite their foes?”

Augustine bristled. He rubbed the nape of his neck. “M-maybe…”

The girl hummed with amusement. She scooted over on and beckoned Augustine to sit. “The Light,” she explained, settling back, “Is used for so much more. It can be wielded by anyone. You. Me. Even an infant. It grants those who believe in it strength.”

Augustine sat cross-legged and quirked a brow. “But the Light exists…It’s part of this world, just like arcane and nature magic. Believing or not, it’s an irrefutable fact.”

“There’s a difference…” She took his hands in her own.  “Between believing in its existence and believing in it…” She pressed both their hands to his chest. “When you truly embrace it. Its warmth will fill you.”

In his palms, he held his chittering heart. He searched for such faith in each pulse. His smile softened. He found no Light in his chest. It only harbored the crackle of a still borne fire. “I think I understand now…”

Augustine nodded thoughtfully as turned to steal a glance over his shoulder. The conversation between Max and the deacon looked to have drawn to a close. Shadows danced off her lithe form as she crossed the chamber, coming to stop just before him. She looked between him and the girl.

“It’s time to go, Augustine.”

The girl released his hands and curled into herself. “Augustine,” she murmured, brushing back an errant lock of hair, “That’s a nice name.” She summoned a demur smile. “I will pray that the Light gives you strength.”

Such a strange sentiment that he found oddly comforting. Augustine returned the smile as he rose to his feet. “I appreciate it…” A twang of guilt touched his heart. He couldn’t offer words of comfort. Not in the way her expectant gaze asked.

For his gifts of strength came in the form of tiny vials and mason jars.

Previous Chapter: What We Can

[a-crimson-lion]

I Need To Stop Reading Into Things…😂

Yet again for @kiricookie .

[Check out this post first.]

So… we’re here again. Lord forgive me, I’m back on my bulls***.

Okay, jokes aside, I really should stop doing these things, but I am a stubborn individual. Plus, I wanna see how our notes compare, and try to have more civil discussions on the internet than I see on average. I’d reblog, but again, your post is already long as is (not incredibly long, but still), and I’d rather not occupy dashboard space more than I need to.

Alright, I think I’ve said my piece. Let’s talk about your post…

Oof. Starting right in the heart of the issue, really.

I am aware that Izuku is… incredibly likeable. I am aware that some of his issues, while perceived by some as noble, are heavily problematic and probably need to get sorted out before the boy gets a close audience with death. I am also aware that some of his habits are less than courteous in some circumstances, though like you said, Izuku has the benefit of having no malicious intent when it comes to these actions, even if they can come off as annoying.

Now, regarding Katsuki’s snail pace development… I get what you’re trying to say, but that doesn’t make it come off as any less frustrating...

As much as I want to believe that Katsuki’s upbringing in society is what’s stunted his growth so badly, I wish the narrative was more willing to show it. All we’ve gotten of Katsuki’s past are flashbacks from Izuku, remarks during the visit to the Bakugo household, and the “raised with violence” line from the Remedial Course arc. Now this understandably paints a pretty terrible picture, but uh… what has Katsuki done to try to fix it? How has Katsuki tried to demonstrate that his upbringing wasn’t justified? Why is he imitating the behaviors he supposedly despises, that supposedly keep him held back, instead of trying to find a workaround? I’ve only seen a few growth/redemption arcs of antagonistic characters, but even if the arcs took long, there was always an ultimate reason for doing so. And Katsuki doesn’t have that. At least, not yet.

It’s been implicitly established that Katsuki’s growth will be the mother of all slowburns. I’ve mentioned it in this old post of mine, but this is doing Katsuki no favors, at least for me. Now don’t get me wrong, I love myself a flawed character, but there’s only so much I can stomach before a flawed character becomes less “flawed” and more “asshole.” I personally believe that his true growth doesn’t get started until “Deku vs. Kacchan 2” (Episode 61), but if we really wanna consider that “Bakugo’s Start Line” (Episode 8) is his… well, start line, then that only makes it worse. Because again, his character arc is, as we’ve established, slow. But the fact that it’s slow enough for several other character arcs to transpire (Shoto, Tenya), as well as slow enough to allow “background characters” some significant development and return to relevancy (Eijiro, Hitoshi), I start wanting to stop holding my breath for his arc’s supposedly inevitable conclusion. Now I know you personally consider the suspense a positive, but it’s the opposite for me. I’d chalk it up to impatience, but again, MULTIPLE character arcs have transpired, and a few have been far more believably gradual compared to Katsuki’s.

While it is impressive that Katsuki was willing to pour out his feelings to Izuku, I’d like to argue that it wasn’t as… well, sentimental. Remember that society and Izuku’s peers before UA regarded him as the lowest of the low. The weakest, the most worthless. “The pebble in the path.” Considering that Katsuki lost the Training Exercise AND technically got outsmarted by Izuku, who was considered this until VERY RECENTLY, I’d imagine that’d be one hell of a blow to his ego. It is still significant that he’s willing to talk to Izuku about this, but it’s not exactly because he’s humbling himself. It’s because he’s begrudgingly admitting that he’s not the best, and it’s been well established that he HATES not being the absolute best. And I don’t know about you, but suddenly getting your high expectations crushed after years of nothing but “positive reinforcement” should not be made as big of a deal as it is here. I’m not saying to get over it, because you’ll never get over it, you have to live with it and learn from it, but don’t make it seem like it’s the end of the world and a half like Katsuki did in that scene. Plus, didn’t he essentially reaffirm that he was going to do what he planned to do from the start of his tenure at UA? I mean, good on him for his dedication, but you’d think the guy would want to take a step back and actually try to learn from others if they were so impressive.

Now, the DC Superhero franchise falls in and out from my radar at times, but I don’t think Katsuki and Batman are a good comparison for the point you're trying to make. Yes they both use violence, and yes they’re both intimidating, but for entirely different reasons. Batman uses fear tactics because he finds them efficient; I don’t know what they’re doing with his character nowadays, but from what I can gather in his earlier incarnations, Batman’s not out for blood. Vengeace, sure, but he doesn’t waste time getting there beating the snot out of his enemies. He takes care of them, sends them off, and keeps on trucking. Before they tried making him even more edgy, he didn’t kill and he kept away from firearms because he was well aware of any issues he had. He may not be a goodie two-shoes like most heroes, but he does show definitive empathy in some of his earlier incarnations. Remember, Batman was the kid who lost his parents to injustice. That was his entire reason for taking up the cowl, for becoming more than Bruce Wayne. In the Justice League Unlimited Episode “Epilogue,” he has the option to kill Ace, a teen villain with dangerously growing psychic powers. He doesn’t do that. He takes the seat next to Ace as she begins to die. He offers his support as Ace has to confront the terrifying realization that she is dying. He’s helping another scared kid, because he knows what it’s like.

That’s heroism. That’s Batman.

Katsuki’s motivations and actions aren’t as sympathetic. Him lashing out isn’t for anything strategical; early on in the series and even after his “Start Line,” up until the Endeavor Agency Arc, I believe, Katsuki’s sole motivations are victory and bloodlust. Even if it seems like he’s growing more chivalrous with his resolve, he backslides so many times back into the angry loudmouth trope its hard to want to keep hope, because if he can backslide multiple times before, what’s to stop him from backsliding again? It ruins the suspense for some people. And people are intimidated by Katsuki, but that’s because he’s borderline unhinged. I’d be scared s***less too if a pyrokinetic powerhouse was gunning on me with his eyes glowing like the fires of Hell as he radiated killing intent (an exaggeration, but still). I have yet to see Katsuki use this intimidation “tactic” of his beyond the fact that he appears to be enjoying it, either.

Alright, enough of that, let’s analyze that penultimate question: why hate Katsuki? If you asked me early on, I would say that yes, I don’t like him because he hurts Izuku. But as I’ve continued looking throughout the series, I now say that I don’t like him because, contrary to what he says, virtually everything is handed to him. Most of the time, its people mistaking his battle thirst as chivalrous determination, whether it be against a villain or just a standard opponent. He never tries to make himself any more “likeable,” and while Class 1-A is quick to call him out for this in the USJ Arc, by the Sports Festival they’re all flocking to him, and I have yet to understand any proper reasoning for this. It’s less like Katsuki proving there’s more to him than meets the eye and earning the respect of his peers, and more so that people latch on to the abstract concept of Katsuki’s coolness and strength, and he just begrudgingly tolerates them from there.

I mean, Eijiro was wholeheartedly against Katsuki’s actions during the Battle Trial, yet by the USJ the difference is night and day, and it doesn’t help that he’s interpreting Katsuki’s desire to beat up villains as “faith in his classmates.” Shoto was abused by Endeavor, so the fact that he can’t at least draw some comparisons between Katsuki and his sperm donor is slightly concerning, and while I want to chalk it up to his stunted social skills, I feel like Hori and/or his editors trying to shove in a friendship to increase their overall likeability (especially Katsuki’s) is more likely. Don’t even get me started on the hoops they jump through in the Joint Training Arc. Not even gonna touch that…

Okay, finally made it to the last paragraph. So, here’s something about me you may or may not like: I don’t like people dying, good or bad. Unless their actions are comparable to that of Satan, or at least close, then they shouldn’t get the axe. Why?

Because a dead person can’t change… and a dead person can’t suffer.

Believe me, even though I’ve fallen off the bandwagon a long time ago, I want Katsuki to change for the better. And he can’t do that if he’s dead. The manga’s most recent arc has been hella frustrating because of that, and no spoilers, but the two deaths that did occur did not leave me in high spirits. Hawks, Shigaraki, you both are on thin f***ing ice I swear. So no, lucky for you, I do NOT want to see Katsuki dead just because he happens to be an ass. What I wanna see is proper repercussions that go beyond being a villain hostage and having everyone else’s potential trauma downplayed for the sake of giving Katsuki more sympathy points.

Also, I’m well aware Katsuki’s death would absolutely ruin Izuku. I am also well aware that it is one of the few concrete facts I hate with nearly every fiber of my body. Not because of what it says about Izuku…

...but because I am sick and tired of Katsuki continuing to be the arrogant s*** he is, whether it be his genuine feelings or merely a front. I am sick of the fact that for as smart and aware that someone like him is, he still insists on trying to act like a badass when there is no need or overall expectation to do so. I am sick that he continues to decide to put himself and others in jeopardy, all for the purpose of maintaining his ego. I am sick that he gets all this support, all this help, and yet his development is still worse than a snail’s pace, and the narrative continues to keep letting him off with love taps and leaving him unfairly unprepared for the kill shot.

...maybe Katsuki deserves to get better. But is this really the best way to do it? Really?

Thanks for listening. Hope you got something from all of that.

-Crimson Lion (24 August 2020)

[ameth18blog]

Unexpected Encounters. Chapter 6: Aggretopia - Call From Acquaintances

Back in Japan, at Gori's apartment, the calls were still going on for the inhabitants of Zootopia and Japan.

Nick and Judy had their respective phones in hand, and they were on a video call. In Judy's were her parents Stu and Bonnie, and in Nick's was her mother Mrs. Wilde. Ironically, Nick's mother and Judy's parents were in the same place, in Mrs. Wilde's apartment, since a few hours before Stu and Bonnie had come to visit the city of Zootopia to keep her company after Nick, Judy, Jack, Finnick and the kids went to Japan.

"Are you completely sure that everything is fine?" said Mrs. Wilde.

"We haven't seen them appear in public since the attack on the news so we are concerned," Bonnie said.

"The kids are fine?" Stu asked.

"Yes, they are fine" Nick replied.

"They are playing in the other room," Judy said.

"I think we should go over there to see that everything is okay," Bonnie said.

"There is no need for them to do that. We assure you after that nothing has happened" said Nick.

"Besides the ticket is quite expensive, this trip we did thanks to Jack if you don't remember" said Judy.

"Okay we'll take his word for it, but after this, they could call us at least twice a day to find out they're okay," said Mrs. Wilde.

Nick and Judy looked at each other and responded in unison "It's a promise."

"Well, before closing we want to know where the others are," said Stu.

"Well, Finnick is ordering room service, while Jack is talking to his boss about an important work matter," Judy said lying partly so they wouldn't know what was really going on and wouldn't worry.

"And the children are playing in the other room. Do you want to talk to them?" Nick asked.

Stu, Bonnie, and Mrs. Wilde nodded.

Nick, passed his phone to Judy as she got up from the couch and went to find Nicole and Jerry. It didn't take long once he brought them in, he put Nicole on his lap and Jerry on Judy's lap. After that he took the phone back from him.

"Hello grandfather, hello grandmothers" said both children when they saw the fox and the two rabbits on cell phones.

"Hello children, how are things there?" asked Mrs. Wilde.

"We're fine" they both said with a smile.

Although the adults through the phone could see that the children, although they didn't say so, it could be seen that they were still a little scared by the lived experience.

"And tell me, they've made friends there," Bonnie asked.

"Oh yes, we first met Koka and Hana, they are 6 years old and from here from Japan" Nicole said.

"Then we met Speed, Flora, Alex, Locke II and Pachacamac II, they are a little older than us, but they are nice" said Jerry.

"Great to hear that. And have you played many games with them?" Stu replied.

At that Nicole and Jerry began to tell them all the games they have played and how they had fun. Seeing all about it, which made them forget the scare they had hours before, which was just what the adults on the phones wanted.

Despite the unusual relationship between Nick, Judy and Jack; Stu, Bonnie, and Mrs. Wilde accepted the relationship as they wanted their respective children to be happy. Even over the years the three of them had become honorary father figures to Jack, as his biological parents died when he was 10 years old. This relationship led to even Mrs. Wilde seeing Jerry as just another grandson and he seeing her as a grandmother despite not being related in a blood or legal way, and even her treatment with him was exactly the same as her treatment with Nicole.

And the children's conversation with their grandmothers and grandfather went on for a while longer, as there were many things they wanted to tell them.

Meanwhile, elsewhere Jack was talking to the head of the agency he worked for. She was a female mouse that had pale beige fur, a black nose, and blue eyes. She is wearing a tight black business dress.

"So that's what happened, the heroes who saved us are looking for those emeralds to be able to return to their universe" said the striped rabbit.

"And according to what you told me, Agent Savage, that Dr. Eggman also comes from the same universe the heroes came from," said the female mouse.

"In part that is accurate, since he lives in the same dimension as them, but his birthplace is another dimension inhabited by beings like him known as humans."

"Are those human beings dangerous like him?"

"No, most of them are peaceful beings, but without the help of the chaos emeralds they couldn't reach this universe. So there is no need to worry about that".

"But according to them, there are beings from two other universes who came here."

"Yes there are, but we haven't found them, so they can be anywhere in the city."

"When will the search for the chaos emeralds and the beings of the other universes begin?"

"As of tomorrow, after what happened today, I don't think the city is calm enough to facilitate the search. Besides, it's getting late here".

"I understand, well, thanks to the photos you send of the chaos emeralds that you have there, we can start investigating about them, we will also start looking for traces of Eggman."

"Well, that will be very helpful."

"Agent Savage, I know this sudden event will cause you to be unable to take the vacation that you planned to start today, but as soon as all of this problem is resolved, then it will be granted at the originally agreed vacation time."

"Thank you so much Mrs".

"Don't even mention it, as you know, you is one of the best agents in the agency, you has even come to match his parents. They would be proud of you if they could see you now."

Jack was quiet for a few seconds. He remembered his parents, and the moment when gave the sad news that they had died and he had been orphaned.

"By the way, Agent Savage, taking into account what happened, we can remove your children from that place and keep them in the agency until everything is safe there. And they could come back to you when this is all over. "

"Don't worry about that, we already have everything under control, and taking into account what they went through, I don't think it's a good idea to separate them from us."

"Okay I understand, well that's all for the moment."

"Over and out".

After the call ended, Jack went with Nick, Judy, and the children to make sure that Judy's parents and Nick's mother didn't worry about him as well.

On the other side of the room Retsuko and Haida were trying to calm down Retsuko's mother and grandmother. One because she was angry at how easily Koka was allowed to get close to that evil being and the other because she was scared of what would have happened if the heroes had not appeared. They had already spoken with Retsuko's father who was out of town, he was easy to deal with and he was already quite calm when they closed the call, but with the women of the family it was another story. Even though they didn't have the speaker on, you could still hear their voices through cell phones.

"Retsuko, that was very dangerous, what were you thinking, you are her mother. You are supposed to protect him" said Retsuko's mother.

"Seeing what happened on television left me so scared that I almost had a heart attack," said Retsuko's grandmother.

Retsuko was among annoyed by her mother's comment that if it weren't because there were people she just met in that place at the same time she would have started singing Death Metal with all the strength she could, and at the same time she was nervous about her grandmother, who despite being strong for her age, was still worried that something like that was going to happen to her.

Haida tried to calm his mother-in-law and his grandmother-in-law. But it was impossible. But the worst came in a brief moment.

"Taking into account what has happened, we have both decided to move in with you for a while" said Retsuko's mother.

Retsuko's grandmother nodded.

Retsuko and Haida got nervous hearing that. They remembered that after Retsuko got pregnant, but before Haida and Retsuko got married, they both came to live with them and last but not least they had a schedule for what they had to do. He had a hard time even preventing them from throwing away things of value to them like Haida's bass or Retsuko's microphone. Even after the wedding and after Koka was born they stayed a while longer to make sure everything would be okay.

Although Retsuko and Haida loved them both, they could sometimes get a bit heavy, which is why they sometimes needed to get away from them to de-stress, with Retsuko singing Death Metal and Haida accompanying her playing bass.

"But the hassle is not necessary," Haida said.

"It's not a bother, what's more, we are already outside you apartment, and we're going to go inside," said Retsuko's grandmother.

"With what key? We have the only key to the house," Retsuko said.

"Oh, we sent for a copy of the key a few months ago," Retsuko's mother said.

"It can't be, she did it again" Retsuko said mentally.

"Well, we are waiting for you at home, don't delay, in the meantime we will prepare dinner" said Retsuko's mother and she ended the call without letting Retsuko and Haida answer.

They both went blank. There would be no going back.

Ookami and Fenneko had already talked to Fenneko's parents, but now they were taking care of social media, as they were receiving a lot of messages from their co-workers and acquaintances. Since there were so many, they were divided in half.

But there were two troublemakers: Tsunoda and Kabae. Both didn't stop asking question after question about what had happened, in the case of Tsunoda because she wanted to take selfies with the heroes to upload them on her social network to have more followers and on Kabae's side she wanted to know everything she needed to tell to her acquaintances both inside and outside the company.

It was a huge amount of time until they were able to try to calm them both down.

"Wow, that was tiring. Those two are hard to make them stop" said Fenneko.

"Yes, but you would imagine what the situation would be like if the two of them were here right now" said Ookami.

"Yeah, I just hope the two of you don't team up to find out... Oh no!"

"What's wrong Fenneko?"

"If they team up it could be dangerous, when I teamed up with Kabae a few years ago when Retsuko was dating Tadano, we were about to describe them, if it weren't because he leaked on social media first. So if it is a bigger event like this, it will surely not take long to discover it".

"You have to keep up appearances as much as possible at work," Washimi and Gori said suddenly, who had already finished their respective calls.

"That's easy to say, but not easy to do," Fenneko said.

"And more if everyone saw us on the news" said Ookami.

"All they have to say is that when we escaped from the restaurant the heroes left without saying a word," said Washimi.

"And don't show any emotions about it if they ask more questions," Gori said.

"Well, we'll have to try. We have no choice, since at the end of the day we cannot stop going to work" said Ookami.

"Besides, I will talk with the CEO so that the company prohibits talking about this issue so that it doesn't disturb employees who were involved in that situation against their will," said Washimi.

"Well, that would be very nice of you," Fenneko said.

"Well, in the end we are all friends, we always do each other favors when we need them most" said Gori.

...

Meanwhile in the detective agency in some unknown place on the planet, the boss had been in a meeting with her agents where she was talking to them about Dr. Eggman and the plans he had, they needed to investigate all over the planet to find his guard. Once located, her mission would be to take him and his robots prisoner and take them into custody.

From afar, observing the gathering, was a light tan fur and blue-eyed vixen wearing a turquoise short-sleeved shirt, blue overalls; which she carried a toolbox. She wondered what had happened so that all the agency agents were together at the same time.

Suddenly her phone started ringing.

"Hi, this is Skye. Oh, it's your Finnick, how's your vacation going? Yes, I'm at work right now. Do you want me to keep an eye on Judy's parents and Nick's mother so they don't leave Zootopia? Why? Oh, now I get it. Well, I'll take care of that, right now. Goodbye".

[rabidfirefoxfan]

Thor 1966 - Vol (207) - Loki Comic Read Through

Classic Loki Masterpost:    Rating: Mod (great)

Plot: Loki takes over a Halloween party and tries to destroy Thor.

Favorite Moments:

At the beginning of this Comic, it Halloween. The local town decides to celebrate Halloween with a parade float.

OMG, it’s the Avengers. When did Thor and Cap grow perfect stashes. (Superman and Batman are second compared to Avengers)

The cosplayers and some locals go to house in the middle of the woods to party. Loki has controlled the host but continues to party so he can blend in and prepare for Thor.

Thor, Sif, and Valkyrie arrive in the local woods in pursuit of Absorbing Man. While looking, the Absorbing Man ambushes Thor and throws Thor into a pond. Sif tries to help, but Valkyrie stops her.

(Oh, that‘s where the Sif x Valkyrie ship start. Eh, better chemistry than Sif and Thor and these two spend more time with each other.)

Valkyrie carries Sif away like a purse letting Thor fight Absorbing Man. Thor throws his hammer at Absorbing Man, knocking him over. However, this attack also allows Absorbing Man to gain the power of the Hammer. Absorbing Man, or Crusher Creel, uses this power to attack which results in the Earth to shattering and Rocks to fall of top of both of them. This leaves Thor half buried in rock and Creel only shunned.

Back to the Fight, Creel is about to use his ball and chain to finish Thor off. Thor is able to grab Creel’s leg and throw him up in the air. This gives Thor enough Time to grab Mjolnir to free himself and fly up to meet Creel. Thor gets the upper hand and Throws Creel in the Water, causing him to dissolve.

See, this is why I thing Absorbing Man is a dumb villain. He’s strength is just as much his weakness. Couldn’t you just pour Water on him and he would be instantly defeated? I guess this means he’s dead, but if begin a gas blob in space didn’t get him, I’d doubt this would either.

Thor is upset about Creel’s “Death” but then hears This.

The slow realization of Thor face, just perfect.

Thor: No, it can’’t Be!!!!

Ah, I love that build-up and pay-off. Also, Loki sitting on the tree with two cute Dogs at his heels makes him look really impressive.

Loki: See Thor, I’m back. And Look, I got puppies. Get him Boys.

The Dogs attack Thor, but Thor is able to blow them away a Whirlwind.

Then Loki and Thor start talking, with usual results. Well, its something.

I think Loki is a bit Salty about Thor and Odin. Not that I’d blame him, seem like a lot of BS to deal. It’s already been established that Asgard did expect Loki to become Evil so is it any wonder that he only fulfilled their expectations.

Loki has Mind-controlled the entire Cosplayer party and will use their Souls to power his plan.

And Plans to use this sword to Kill Thor.

Sif and Valkyrie see Loki and Thor’s Fight. Sif wants to join, but Valkyrie stops her. Suddenly, Karnilla appears. Karnilla offers that she’ll help Thor because he wants to help Balder in return for Sif’s help.

Sif refuses because she doesn’t want Karnilla to turn Thor into a puppet.

Loki’s sword has been enhanced by Magnog, which causes injury to Thor when it touches his skin.

During his onslaught with Loki starts complain that Odin gave all of his affection to Thor and how Loki wanted more Love while Thor responds that Loki did get Love and all of this is in Loki head.

With what we have seen in the Comics, I do lean towards Loki’s side. In a previous Issue, when Loki was growing up Asgard did show a strong preference for Thor and disdain for Loki. Loki was strong in Magic and Thor and great physical strength. However, Loki has said that Odin specifically has favored Thor and .... sort of. Perhaps it was different while Thor and Loki were growing up. However, in the comics before this issue, Odin has mostly been a D**k and banishes Thor and whoever over the dumbest shit. Say ANYTHING against Odin and he’ll banish you and send all of Asgard to fight you. Odin once banished Thor because he couldn’t be bother to explain the top-secret mission to Thor and instead was like “Your Banished. Do this thing and don’t come back till your done” “What Thing” “Shut Up and Get.” Thor, with his Strong ideals, has had many arguments with Odin. Most of Thor’s and Odin interactions to this point have been ... Tense. The times where Odin was nicest to Thor was when Odin held Thor while Thor Died due to Hela’s contract and When Odin Forgot that Thor was there and was reminiscing about the Good-old days. So, Loki may have a point that Odin was nicer to Thor, but it’s not Like Odin was ever a good dad to either of them. So, Thor might have some point that Loki was imagining some of those “Good days” because they may have not been as Rosy for Thor and Loki might think.

Back to the Comic. Loki has separated Thor from his hammer for 30 seconds and in another 30 seconds Thor will turn into Blake allowing Loki to kill Blake.

Sif panics, agrees with Karnilla’s bargain to save Thor. 

Karnilla summons a Rainstorm which revives Thor’s strength. This allows Thor to summon Mjolnir and continue their fight. (I’d like to think that Karnilla knows that Loki is weak when wet, as established in J.I.M. 85, and just throws a water on Loki whenever she wants to momentarily stun him.)

Thor and Loki fight during the storm. With Thor’s revived Strength, Thor uses a Thunderbolt to attack Loki’s sword. This does free all the people trapped under Loki’s spell, However....

The attack has Left Loki Blind!!!

Loki flees and runs off a cliff. Thor and Valkyrie meet up where Valkyrie informs Thor and Karnilla has taken Sif, never to return.

Thoughts on Comic:

OMG, I love Loki’s intro in this comics. The slow build-up tease and then the epic scene with Loki setting on a tree with Two Dogs. Just great. Also, this is one of the first comics where Loki also talks with Thor about some of his issues. None of them are addressed and Loki is in a worse situation by the end of this issue, but it’s something.

I didn’t like how the comic resolved. Thor is saved by his girlfriend but then needs to save her in another issue. The solution wasn’t something Thor did/ though up/ earned. It’s because Karnilla bothered to help. Somehow, it takes away a lot of Thor’s agency.

Sif/ Valkyrie and Karnilla don’t really do anything besides talk about how awesome Thor is and saving him last second. It’s not really any worse than what the Warriors’ Three usually do but it’s not really that interesting.