#bc I am used to reading arabic

[itssideria]

Genuine question, really not sure what to do/who to vote for- uh do you have any suggestions? Protesting yes, but what now- today's like endless bad news

hey, anon.

i'm assuming you're referring to my post on the 'vote blue no matter what' gang — i wrote that in a complete (and justified) fit of anger. i should start by saying i am not american, or palestinian — i am an arab who grew up in an arab country, though, and all of us have long since grown sickened and enraged with american imperialism.

my honest answer? i don't know. i'm not american. i'm not a politician. maybe i'm some horrifically idealistic piece of shit but i just think that brazenly funding a genocide, lying about it, and then bombing the only country that tries to prevent it should earn you the death penalty, but oh well.

@/fairuzfan has posted a lot about this — she's a palestinian in the states. not tagging her bc we aren't mutuals. she has stated that she won't vote in the presidential elections at all, but rather at local levels and congress. one person has stated that they are engaging in activism more than ever, forming communities, movements, working their way up. other people will be voting for a third party candidate they agree with, such as Cornel West or Claudia de la Cruz — you can read up on their stances for yourself, i'm not active in US politics. some will threaten to withhold their vote from Biden, whether they are serious of pretending, as that may scare him into changing his tactics.

none of these are foolproof. most of them prevent nothing. i am aware that for americans this shit feels like life and death — it's what all of you say, every four years.

however, and i cannot state this enough, i am so past the point of caring. my entire region has been fucking devastated by your nation. egypt can't threaten suez access because it'll get invaded. yemen and syria and iraq are dealing with past and current bombing. the entire fucking gulf sucks your country's dick to get oil money to build vanity projects and hire more slave labour. and palestine? palestinian blood will run thick with the weight of the crimes the us committed against them.

for once in their stable, unaffected fucking lives, i want americans to pretend—pretend!—the rest of the world exists. for ONCE, i want americans to say "fuck this, he committed genocide, i will never write his name on my ballot". for ONCE, i want americans to sacrifice something, ANYTHING—you barely live under a democracy as is. poc americans report no improvement under biden compared to trump. white queer people think they'll be protected and so shout at the need to throw the developing world under the bus.

there are no good options. but dear God, just don't put the name of the man funding a genocide on your fucking ballot. it didn't save anyone four years ago. it won't now.

[crheativity]

Started thinking about what pet names all the boys would give you (excluding standard ones like babe/baby and darling and love and stuff) and this is what I came up with-

(Some of these have been in fics I've read bur I am currently sick as a dog and don't remember where, so credit where credit is due!)

Heartslabyul-

Riddle: His Rose/Rosebud/Petal. Might use Strawberry if he can not get flustered by using it

Ace: Cherry (he mentions liking cherries at some point)

Deuce: Bluebell/Bluebird (no clue why I thought of it but this is so frickin cuuute 🥺)

Cater: Presh (originally it was his Diamond, then his Precious, then Presh for short)

Trey: Honey or Sugar if he was feeling endeared, but if he was messing around he'd use different ingredients (egg, flour, butter, etc. Oyster sauce is one of his favourites when teasing too)

Savannaclaw-

Leona: I could only think of catnip, kitten or pillow so pick your poison 💀

Jack: His mate (most people think you are just homies at first bc of it but then they realise)

Ruggie: Sweetpea/Dandelion/other (edible) flowers

Octavinelle-

Azul: Angelfish

Jade: Pearl

Floyd: Shrimpy!!1!1!!

Scarabia-

Kalim: Princess/Sunflower

Jamil: Gem/Albibi (baby in Arabic. Idk much about that one, I've seen people say he'd use it though)

Pomefiore-

Vil: Sweet potato Fair one

Rook would have a new one every two minutes and each time it would be a paragraph in French describing how beautiful you are

Epel: Apple blossom (shortened to Apple or blossom)

Ignihyde-

Idia: Player 2 he'd also use discord kitten to tick you off

(Also Ortho will now call you Neesan)

Diasomnia-

Malleus: MY child of man

Lilia: Little bat

Sebek: TOLERABLE

Silver: Fawn

If you guys have any other thoughts lmk, I'm curious to see what others think 👀👀

[horreurscopes]

So, I could be out-of-bounds here since I think you meant it as dark humor, but what did you mean in the tags of that 'israel-hamas war' post? I suspect you(and op) are criticizing that framing because Israel is obviously demolishing much more than 'Hamas'(and probably doing a terrible job of actually targeting terrorists- they seem content to reduce Gaza to rubble even if the brass of Hamas escapes). I'm guessing that by saying "joining the Israel-Hamas war on the side of Hamas" you mean, if they're going to conflate Palestinians with Hamas unilaterally, then you're saying, whatever the media wants to call Palestinian civilians- you still support them. I am asking anyways though bc, given reports of increasing antisemitic activity in the US and Europe, I am worried about the potential for blurring lines between the cause of Palestinian civilians and the alt-right individuals who are likely masking their antisemitism in the context of being anti-Zionist. Although Israel's government has been the source of Palestinian loss for decades, (it seems to me that) even joking about supporting terrorism is enough to reinforce the persuasion that Israeli/Palestinian Jews and Palestinian Arabs must be mutually-exclusive peoples. I don't think it's fully rational per se(tho I'm not claiming to have all the relevant information myself, and I'm white US American goyim so like- grain of salt-), but I think that existential fear is the incredible hurdle facing Zionist Jews. (Idc too much about the opinions of non-Jewish Zionists bc I don't grant that they are dealing with the same emotional complications at this time, although that doesn't stop me from arguing w my acquaintances abt their callous acceptance of US/Israeli propaganda.) I just think..... isn't it overall harmful to allow anti-semitic rhetoric, even used sarcastically, to enter the genuine humanist cause for Palestinian liberation? Or, have I misunderstood, and you actually are not in opposition to Hamas, or something else I didn't think of?

hi! thank you for approaching the question thoughtfully and with curiosity, i really appreciate it. i was being kind of flippant with that meme, but this is the only ask i'm going to reply to on the matter given that i am neither jewish nor arab, so i'm going to answer in earnest:

hamas is a political resistance movement with an armed wing, much like the black panthers party was, and like the bpp, a large part of the organization is dedicated to social welfare and civic restoration.

they have stated that they are not against judaism, but against the zionist project. they openly support political solutions.

labeling hamas a terrorist group is a propaganda tactic used by the united states and israel to justify the horrors of settler colonization.

hamas is palestine, a part of it, even if palestinians like any other demographic on earth, are not a unified, single-minded people. to declare hamas a separate entity falls prey to the imperialist lie that there is an enemy to fight "fairly" within the people they are displacing and exterminating.

am i rejoicing in the deaths of israelis? of course not. killing civilians and taking civilian hostages is a war crime, whether it is committed by the opresor or the oppressed. the israeli government is not its people, and many jews, within israel as well as in the US, are bravely risking their lives to publicly dissent the criminal acts of the israeli government. all loss of human life is a tragedy.

no one should ever be faced with the choice between annihilation and murderous violence after exhausting all other forms of peaceful protest and being massacred like animals.

but why is it that we consider a resistance group formed within a population with a median age of eighteen a terrorist group, and not the IDF, a US-backed military force with an annual budget of twenty billion dollars?

i am currently reading hamas and civil society in gaza by sara roy to learn more about hamas and the history of israel in palestine. i'll remember to post more excerpts which i am admittedly terrible at.

but all of the information above can be found by reading wikipedia. investigating with duckduckgo searches (not gonna pretend google isn't prioritizing propaganda, to be fair), and reading reliable news coverage like aljazeera and the many journalists who are at risk of, or have lost their lives, reporting on the ground.

i have also appreciated reading posts from @determinate-negation @opencommunion @fairuzfan @ibtisams and @bloglikeanegyptian amongst others

in conclusion:

[feluka]

Hi, I don’t rlly know how to explain this but I’ll try haha.

I recently found out I have Egyptian and specifically Coptic ancestry, through family tree making, matching with cousins, gedmatch, dna testing, etc and now personal confirmation from family/ancestors.

The problem is idrk who was the Coptic ones in my family as my dad died when I was four and I’ve had no contact with his family at all since. I know it came from his mother, but I can’t even give you her name let alone where she was from, or anything. Although I want to learn more and reconnect and eventually find out who they were exactly. It’s just hard because my dad’s living family has no contact w us and since he’s dead, it’s been hard to get records as well.

I would like to learn more about Coptic culture and Egypt in general but I am worried about people considering me a ‘culture thief’ since I only recently. found this out a few months ago but didn’t really have 100% confirmation until like 2 weeks ago. And even though I can prove genetically I have ancestry Coptic I can’t really say who my ancestors were which would probably make some skeptical.

Especially because I am African American and there already exists a rift between Egyptians and AAs bc of hoteps who claim Egyptian culture/claim Egyptians are just Arabs who ‘stole’ Egyptian culture. I want to be respectful but I’m unsure how to navigate this.

I guess I’m asking if you have any idea how I should move forward, or if you know of any resources to learn more? I want to be respectful, but I would also love to start to reconnect even if I don’t know where my ancestors were exactly from other than ‘Egypt’.

Hello! First of all, this is both a very respectful and a very personal ask, so I want to thank you for trusting me with that. I hope my answer can help you find peace with the matter a little.

Instead of trying to figure out if the overall sentiment of trying to reconnect is harmful or not, because there's really no answer to that in and of itself, and instead stop at every individual action taken to reconnect and asking: could this be harming anybody?

For example, if you'd like to pick up Coptic language lessons, could this action possibly be harmful to anyone? Not really. Is reading about Coptic culture and engaging with what survived of it in modern day harmful? I don't think so.

The only possible thing that I can think of that might be harmful is, I have awful experiences with certain diaspora Copts who have never really engaged with the community nor know much of it, who suddenly butt in conversations about Coptic politics in Egypt like they're an expert on it despite never having been or known anything about it themselves, but from the way you've written this ask I doubt you're the kind of person to do that anyway, seeing as you're being very respectful and that you recognize that there's some dissonance in your experience (which there's no shame in, but the self awareness is helpful as a guide of when to participate and when not to!)

I don't know if I said this before on this blog but, to my knowledge, the matter of the hotep subculture entails far more than just questioning the Egyptian identity, and seeing as I'm neither African American nor Black at all, I don't think it's my place to comment on it. I invite any of my Black followers to contribue to intra-community discussion in the reblogs/comments for you to read, though!

All I can promise you is that even if the notion that the population of Egypt was displaced rather than converted during the Arab conquest of Egypt is false, there still are Black Egyptians and there always have been. Sadly I'm sure there will always be people who try to make you feel like a pretender, but that is true of so many things and regardless of what you do, so always remember thay Black people have always been part of Egypt's history, and that nobody is entitled to know your personal details or family history and you don't need to disclose anything you're not comfortable with to prove anything to them.

As for resources, there's always a lot on Egyptology in general, so the specific topics that would be helpful to be aware of are: modern history of Copts (or Copts post the Arab Conquest of Egypt), the persecution of Copts, the decline of the Coptic language and the efforts to revive the language. The last two are especially pertinent nowadays.

Lastly you can always ask other Copts! I may not have all the answers but I'm sure between me and my followers we can find something helpful for you if you're trying to find a specific resource of have more questions. (The scarcity of resources is something we *all* have to deal with, even us here in Egypt, I'm afraid, but it's not a lost cause! You'd be surprised how much is out there on internet archives.)

I hope you have a lovely day. ♥️

[cluelessbees]

through the whole time I’ve been following you I’ve never once seen you say anything about Palestine before. Since the news broke about Hamas killing Israelis, rightfully so you’ve shared posts etc about it all and it seems like posting about st/byler is the last thing you wanna think about rn. Which is fine! But lately its just seeming like you’re doing it to prove to everyone how smart and informed/outraged you are about the conflict and how dare anyone talk about anything else… in one of your recent reposts you tagged that all the Palestinians that have died in the 75 years shouldn’t be forgotten (they shouldn’t! What’s been done is awful) and fuck anyone who doesn’t wanna read about it bc it makes them feel bad. I would be more willing to agree with you on the things you say/repost if I’d seen you post about it before… but you haven’t. I’ve never seen you talk about Palestine before on your byler based acc (bc you’re here to talk abt byler!) but suddenly it’s like you’re some social justice warrior who can’t bare to talk about byler bc the Israel/Palestine conflict has been brought to attention again on social media. Others who have reposted things have still posted abt things they like in between bc they know the small things they share won’t make a big difference but they want to show they still care whereas yours seems performative at this point.

I'm going to stay as calm as possible here.

Go unfollow me if you don't want to see anything about Palestine. That's it. Point blank. I don't need your validation or your follow or whatever.

Just because I've never talked about the issue before online doesn't mean it isn't an important issue to me. I'm an Arab. I hear news about this every week. I grew up hearing about Palestinians being kicked out of their homes, being bombed, being killed. Every Ramadan I read articles of Palestinians being beaten and killed for praying in Masjid Al-Aqsa.

I have friends who are Palestinians refugees, who can't even return to Palestine. I have a teacher that left my highschool to go back to Gaza to be with her mom. And I have no fucking idea if she's alive right now.

This is everyday for me. And I was so used to the world not caring. Up until a few years ago saying you were pro-Palestine would lead to so much hate.

But the world is talking about it now. And I will not stay silent. I will not let misinformation spread. I will not let Israel destroy Palestine's image. I will not let anyone forget about their lives. They were people. They are my people. They are my friends, my teachers, my family.

Go fuck yourself if you think this is me being performative or me showing off my knowledge. Do you fucking know why I have this knowledge???? Why I know so much?? I grew up with this.

I'm literally an Arab. I can't believe I have to fucking say this so many times. I'm not white or whatever. This is literally all I can think about right now. The Arab community (which I'm a part of) in my university are setting up donations, wearing the Palestinian Kuffeyah in solidarity, talking about this whenever and however we can. This is what it means to be Arab. We are not going to shut up about it.

I am watching my region enter a war. I literally live in the Middle East. I am watching people online call my people terrorists, barbaric, subhuman, animals. What do you expect me to do? Watch and pretend that I'm white or some shit?

OH and because you're thinking I'm just now caring

Here's fucking screenshots of my chats with friends.

Just because I've never talked about it here before doesn't mean I've never cared about the issue. You don't know me stop acting like you do.

Fuck everyone who thinks this way. I don't care if you support or follow my account. I will talk about Palestine until my dying breathe. My love for Palestine is ingrained in my DNA. It is the fabric of my soul.

It's free Palestine, until Palestine is fucking free.

[mushibashiraas]

djsjxjsj i hope i'm not late?? i probably am. aaaa my own faultcjxjsj [but] i haven't written for my fave disney nrc malewife (/j ily, jamil bbg—) in a while. but i forgot the contest either ends on the 10th?? or submissions close on the 10th aka. i missed the deadline?? aaaaa for submissions to @merotwst 's and @cvlutos 's #jamilsummercontest (here) aaaaaa also was this also an excuse to write for najma/write some najma-jamil brother-sister action? uhhhh looks away. LISTEN. i love them! the crumbs we got of their interactions are still on my mind aaaaaa lastly, am i also using this fic as an opportunity to brainrot about the new spiderverse movie and its album? yes.

mention of the ramshackle prefect (gn!yuu). but it'll mainly be about jamil and najma bc i love his sister almost as much. spoilers for al'ab naariya story, scarabia chapter plot, jamil's backstory, and maybe???? a spoiler for the new spiderverse movie?? if you squint. also really bad arabic.... i tried.... other than that, i present very cute, soft fluffy letters between reader and jamil detailing their lives apart during summer break (assuming the scalding sands' fireworks festival is in the summer. aaaa).

jamil could practically see (name)'s red face as they read his letter briefly written amidst the asim family chaos.

Dearest (Name),

Kalim and Najma were disappointed you couldn't join me this year for Summer break. I actually had to stop him from convincing his father into sending for you personally... Camels, elephants, and all. You're welcome!

Despite that, they wish you all well. My mother is insisting I return to NRC after break with some of her homemade shawarma. And please tell Grim that there will be enough for him as well.

The fireworks were beautiful but it wasn't the same without you by my side, ya nujumi. I missed turning to the side and seeing your smiling face, eyes alight with a childlike wonder. My heart swells with remembering that first Al'ab Naariya. You turned back to me urging me to join you and the others to dance.

Najma just asked what I was smiling about. I tried to lie but the smug look on her face told her all she needed to know. She'd like to also say a few words.

Hello, (Name)! My older brother is laying on his bed right now screaming into his pillow. Ya ummi and I are laughing right now; she has never laughed so hard in a long time. Yesterday the Asims gave us the afternoon off to enjoy the bazaar. You should see the haul Jamil brought home for you and Grim. There's— lotliIItLyjkq

Sorry, ya shamsi. Najma does not know what she's talking about. I got them as gifts for her— ljyIL

Jamil is lying! He is so red right now, (Name)! I want to take a picture to send you but he took my phone! So awful, right? Ah, the Asims are calling for us and abina is about to bring out the belt if we don't resume our work soon.

My apologies, ya qamar, but as Najma said, I have to return to work. There are rumors from the other servants that Kalim is "missing." He's probably with the animals in the garden. I will write to you again shortly. You are always in my thoughts, (Name), ya hubi. Make sure to not stay up too late talking to Ace and Deuce. Take your medicine and potions and eat at least two full meals a day (I know you're not a fan of breakfast). Don't forget to drink plenty of water too.

With Love,

Jamil Viper.

he wanted to write more and tell them all about the new stalls selling mouthwatering foods, soft, vibrant, assorted silks, and other painted, colorful wares he saw at the bazaar. he wanted to tell her about the concert he miraculously got tickets to for one of their favorite music artists. there was also the pet parrot his parents finally let him get! it had to stay on the asims' property. but kalim said he'd personally look after iago for jamil.

there was also a new playlist he made the other night after coming home from a movie he and his sister went to see. jamil lays in bed thinking of his sister's latest fictional crush and thinking of all the things he'd do to keep his girl and her father while living his best life doing what he loved. jamil wished that were him. he wished he could have (name) by his side, still please his family, and see the world. he wanted to learn about the magic and cultures of other lands in twisted wonderland.

wishes and reality are two separate things, though. and the chance of them intersecting and wishes becoming reality was slim. for now, though, he was content and letting things be. he'll find kalim, drag him to his next meeting with possible mergers and other clients, read the evening itinerary to kalim, go home, help with dinner, wash and dry najma's hair for her, bathe, and go to bed.

....that was the original plan. however, najma must have thought it funny to hide his headphones after she finished her chores and homework.

"what are you looking for, brother?"

jamil glared at the girl leaning against his door frame as he rifled through the belongings on his desk. "you know exactly what i am looking for. drop the act, najma!"

"not until you write another letter to (name)." she grinned and crossed her arms over her chest, straightening her posture.

"huh?!" he stuttered.

"it was written all over your face. you wanted to write and tell them more about everything that you saw and experienced yesterday and today. ever since you came home from school with your friends and (name), you've changed. mom and dad haven't stopped talking about it; they think i went to bed but i can hear them. they aren't as quiet as they think." the younger sister laughed at jamil's stunned face. "you don't know all this since you sleep like that one princess in those fae tales. i've caught you snoring a few times, actually. wanna hear it? i can show you if you don't believe m—"

jamil grabs najma's phone again before she can pull up the videos. "just—! give me back my headphones. and i'll write to (name)."

"nah," najma shrugged and walked off. "letter first. mom and dad are out finishing up some business with kalim's parents in their estate. you can blast your music all you want."

groaning in exasperation, he still couldn't deny that he'd rather have sent (name) a proper letter rather than the one he mailed earlier that afternoon.

normally, he and (name) would text each other or call. but one magic carpet ride after a rough exam, they told him about how they used to write letters to their childhood friends whenever they'd change schools. so the first time jamil and (name)'s other night raven college friends went home for holiday break, he started writing letters to them. and ever since that sweet, thoughtful surprise, whenever they were apart, jamil'd write letters to them while they'd send back recipe cards with handwritten notes featuring the story behind each food. sometimes they'd drop details about their family back home or include tiny magic trinkets or bits of stationary sold at sam's shop. a note and a smiley face tied around each item: "saw this and thought of you, ya qamar. ;p"

bringing himself back to reality, jamil sat down and began another letter. with this one, though, he made sure not to leave out a single detail of his day. softly he smiled as he included lines from old poets and added in folded star maps, photos of a dog he saw sitting outside a cafe, a tea bag from the little old lady next door. but this time — instead of signing off with a simple "With Love" like his last letter — he penned a lyric from their favorite song, nodding his head to the music as it played from his speakers.

"Your my star, hubi. My one light. We gon' link up, just like the rumors."

Jamil Viper.

VOCAB:

ya shamsi: my sun

ya qamar: my moon

ya nujumi: my stars

hubi/ya hubi: love/my love

ya ummi: my mother

abina: our father

— is2g if i got the arabic vocab wrong, i am going to cry. @softbajis djsjsj idk if this is right or notdjdjdj i am so upset. oh well....?

[what-shitfuckery-is-this-ew]

I remember when I was talking to someone about a book character (who shall remain nameless bc I don't want opinions on that character messing up my point), and I said "from an outside perspective they look like a murderer" and they told me that 'from an outside perspective' is a technique oppressors use to show the victims as the bad guys. And it's true. From an outside perspective the character I was talking about looked like the bad guy. But they were only defending themselves from people who tried to kill them.

You're absolutely right. Context is always going to be important because people don't live in a vacuum.

Sure Palestine may look like the villain, if you strip the context behind the HAMAS attack, the hostages, etc,

But if you remember that Hamas was an organisation made initially by Israel as a way to throw Palestinian political forces into dissaray and sow conflict, then what picture do you see?

If you remember that Palestine lives under occupation (with Israel controlling their food, water, electricity, medicine, etc) and has went through displacement and genocide since 1947, then what picture do you see?

If you remember that Zionism wasn't a religious creation, then what picture do you see? Sure Zionism is mentioned, but in Herbrew it's a different word from the one they use now. The Zionism we refer to is a nationalist movement founded by Theodor Herzl, and later continued by Ze'ev Jabotinsky, who wrote in his essay: "Zionism is a colonising adventure and it therefore stands or falls by the question of armed force. It is important to build, it is important to speak Hebrew, but, unfortunately, it is even more important to be able to shoot—or else I am through with playing at colonization". Sure Jewish people need a safe place to exist free from anti-semitism - but creating that space through colonisation and hurting other Semite groups will never be ok.

If you remember the racism that founded Israel and continues today, then what picture do you see? Do you not care of the Beta Jews who were forcibly sterilised or the Arab Jews who are treated as second class citizens?

If you remember that Media outlets are using pictures of Palestinian children as Israeli children, lying, using stereotypes and using fake ai generated images of beheaded children, what picture do you see? If you remember how Israelis refer to Palestinians as animals. If you rememeber that Israeli's watched with popcorn in their hands cheering at the IDF bombing Palestine, then what picture do you see?

If you remember that Hamas holds IDF soldiers hostage in order to free the Palestinian people, the children included hostage to Israel, both in open air prison and in jails without being told their 'crimes' then what picture do you see? If you're not willing to read the article the stats: 5200 Palestinians are in Israeli jails, including 33 women, 170 minors and more than 1200 placed under administrative detention.

If you remember that. if you remember the colonisation. Then you see a different picture. But how will you see that full picture without the media?

If you remember the genocide. if you remember the colonisation. Then you see a different picture. If you research youself, (because trust me when i say this is just a small amount of the horrors that Palestine is forced to endure), you will find what the media has hidden. The full picture.

FROM RIVER TO SEA PALESTINE WILL BE FREE

[serica-e]

this idea has been brewing, so here are some aspectss i would personally rewrite ab romano.

that does not mean canon sucks, but since i am southern italian i want to make a character that depicts my experience better, using stereotypes that come from the south itself rather than the north-

all under a read more

WORK

i am not gonna replace his negative thoughts  towards work into a more positive way bcs its fine, not to want to work, so i still think he does not like to but he is still quite dilligent.

he will complain sure! and has a bit of a messier workplace, but still does try to organize said space.

he tends to follow deadlines bcs i think i made LIa a procrastinator so i do not wanna make every single southerner the same. but i think they all kinda follow that when they are all together they kinda tend to rather than give themselves a specific time, they set a more generic one, like noon for example and you can come like 12.10, 12.30, etc, bcs we do that, a lot.

inferiority complex

look, this is kinda of an harder topic to handle, bcs there is an inferiority complex we do think everything north of us, is better, but its not on the aspects himaruya put.

from what i noticed there is quite a lot of thinking the north is more organized or more clean, or less conservative. but there is such a strong love for southern italy too.

we are very prideful of our culture and art, like my  teacher telling me caserta was prettier for versailles, and we love that we are warm while we view northeners as snobs,there are wrong assumptions about our languages, like potraying them as dirty but i think making romano just suffer being always “worse” than his bro is not completely true

i think romano complains a lot ab it with his fellow southeners, but he is quite defensive with the northeners, he has a sense of competion towards his brother, because he feels like he is not enough, that the south is not enough, he tries to overcompensate by acting more dilligent, and perfectionist with his art.

also i want to potray a two sided inferiority complex rather than it just being romano’s bcs i find it interesting

he is enough obv, he is my perfect baby boy :’)

SOCIAL LIFE

romano is the kind of rep for us introverted southeners, but i think mainly with him its that he is grumpy and does not talk much with the other nation, but a complete ray of sunshine with his family (not feli thooo) and people.

i am not making him so angry and rude  bcs i feel like hima making him half arab and be the angrier and ruder in comparision to the whiter brother who is tendencially nice was weird, also why i do not want to potray romano as just being worse, but rather something h feels like due to how he was treated.

i think as i said he is more cold, and does not rlly like to talk to stranger, tho when he is the south he still does small talk, not at the level that rosa does lmao tho, inspired by me n my aunt going out and her talking with everyone.

he is more awkward than not! he does not rlly know what to say but you can truly see him shine when he is with people he loves, becausehe becomes a chatterbox , and you can see him smile and laugh more as well.

[psychologeek]

Random questions Google can't help me with:

(even if you don't know, reblog could help a LOT in getting to "the person who knows". So thank you 😊)

1. Islam - How likely it is that Jason use the Hijra (hijaric?) Calander during his time with the LoA🤔

2. Geo-history: spoken languages in Western Asia around 1,300-1,500? Doesn't have to be spesific by years, just sort of. I try to get the possible location, language, religious and calander for some things.

3. what language do the All-caste speak?

Current thoughts:

LoA!

Probably somewhere in the Zagros Mountains? Maybe in the Iranian part. They do speak Arabic, but also Urdo, parasian and pashto. The main Dialect is Arabic, bc it's Ras Al-Ghul og language and that's how he taught his students.

(Also - mybe related to religious? Muslim probably (DoB ~1,300). And iirc being able to read the Qur'an properly has important meaning? I AM NOT MUSLIM PLZ CORRECT ME).

It has a lot of hiding places, wondering tribes, and places to grow food. Going to missions can hide as wonderers.

All-caste!

In the Himalayas, but "Himalayas" is f* HUGE.

WHERE??? Bhutan? China? India? Nepal? Pakistan?

[dykefaggotry]

I am once again getting on my soapbox as someone with a history degree that people should actively learn history and NUANCED history so we don’t end up with blindly made wack ass statements like osama was right. like, newsflash, if you’ve ever studied modern / 20th century middle eastern history, you’d already know that most arab political figures are pro-palestine, this isn’t shocking and the US gov’t isn’t hiding this from you!!!! we learned about this in my college, not even graduate level, classes about middle eastern history. this whole situation is like “oh america is evil for the atomic bomb (true), so japan did nothing wrong (ignoring japan’s own history of brutal colonization and war crimes)” 

GENUINELYYYYYY. it's insane. like yes anyone outside of the united states in the global south fucking hates the united states. for very valid reasons. he is not the only one you don't need to get your goddamn political ideals from osama bin laden 😭 and specifically in the letters everyone is talking about they're talking about them bc he mentions israel/palestine. and they're like oh shit it was about THAT? like no? like they are genuinely just skim reading two fucking letters and deciding he was some cool radical leftist who was right about everything bc he says "America loves The Jews" like. babes what are we doing.

hate yall. please open some history books and stop getting your political ideals off goddamn tiktok.

[myaoiboy]

for the fic writers ask game: 7 & 19!!

7. your preferred writing fonts

almost always arial just by default. I find sans serif fonts a lot easier to read at smaller point sizes than serif fonts (supposedly that's usually a dyslexic thing but I can definitely confirm my brother is dyslexic and I am not).

HOWEVER I recently changed my go-to font to Noto Sans Arabic and that's been a major game changer, I don't have to make the arabic font like twice the size of the english to read it anymore, and the noto sans english more or less looks like normal arial.

oh yeah i also have my word processor set to dark mode, thanks libre office

19. the most interesting topic you’ve researched for a fic

good question, anything that happens in the last ~30 years I have a handful of wikipedia articles open with global events around the right time to make sure that whatever I'm suggesting either happened or is reasonable (I suck at remembering when things actually happened so even like...when I was writing in the era of the recession I had to have wikipedia open lmao). Recently included and then removed a line about the guy who threw his shoes at Bush.

probably my favorite though is anything to do with queer culture in the 70s/early 80s. straight people seem to think none of us existed until the AIDS crisis, or that gay people were "more respectable back in the day" but my favorite book about queer liberation is from the 70s.

...or local folktales and appalachian witchcraft and herbalism type stuff. my grandfather taught me a lot but i fill in the blanks with semi-fact-based research and appalachian snavid is real, to me

Historically I've been pretty paranoid about researching anything too weird bc my parents used to have a packet tracker on the router. Now that I have a VPN I'm still paranoid about it though lmao.

[urlocallsimp]

Am i the only one that sees a potential ship between Namor x Layla El Faouly... HEAR ME OUT, Maybe not realistically (i mean im not saying it will happen in the mcu) but just in general yk..

Idk i was looking at Layla's superhero costume earlier and the neck reminded me of Namor's collar jewlery piece and that sparked the ship. Maybe im biased bc Moonknight was my fav phase 4 series and i loved Layla sm bc she's our first arab superhero as im arab/north african whatever u wanna call it. And Wakada Forever became my fav movie from phase 4 and im loving namor sm too. So i just wanna combine these two.

The way i imagine them meeting is through Wakanda

Where we left off in Moonknight, it seemed like Layla stayed back in Egypt and became a local superhero in there. Aaand from what i heard The Thunderbolts movie is gonna be about a team that tries to attack wakanda for vibranium (I could be wrong) and the way i like to imagine it is Wakada tries to assemble a team of superheroes too (yes ik they have amazing technology + the dora milaje are a force so they don't need super heroes but.. Bear w me) so like maybe they hear about a local (by local i mean in africa) girlie that seems to be a hero but doesn't work for any organization or group or smth so they're like maybe we can recruit her or smth? Afterall their morals kinda align even w Namor bc Layla hates colonizers and hates people who steal her country's artefacts so..

And she is Taweret's avatar. The Black Panther is kiiinda like Bast's avatar but yeah this is all to link her to Wakanda and from there to Namor... Idk don't take this too seriously this could be just an idea for a fanfic or smth (feel free to use it just tag me i'd love to read it bc i haven't seen this ship anywhere)

Oh i forgot to mention... yeah im aware she's married to Marc but idk the show didn't clarify if they got divorced or no.. So..

[sherryzade]

Hit me with those music recs, darling, my family forbid nonAmerican music when I turned 14 lest it make me Less Well Assimilated and I need to catch up

i gotchu friend, it's a crime that u were robbed of experiencing arab music and we must right this injustice !!!!

pls note that its late and i am who i am meaning i will gush endlessly abt my love for arab music and culture so there is a read more. also i'm MUCH less familiar with farsi and persian music than i am with arab music so i can't give many recs for that but spotify has a nice persian essentials playlist and a contemporary farsi playlist, and rly if you look up iranian/persian/farsi music, you will find a TON.

dammi falasteeni (my blood is palestinian) by mohammad assaf ⁠— [youtube w translation] ⁠— i think this is like. THE quintessential arab song. the unofficial palestinian national anthem. absolutely no one is normal about this song, and why would you be when it slaps so hard? a huge symbol of palestinian resistance, and recently removed from spotify for "antisemitism" (huge lie, the song is just a celebration of palestine)

nassam alayna el-hawa (the wind blew over us) by fairuz ⁠— [spotify] [translation] ⁠— fairuz is one of the most iconic arab singers and she drops classic after classic. her music is v traditional and i always joke that it's old ppl music (bc all arab parents adore her) but she's universally beloved. also translation note: in arabic, "hawa" i.e. wind is a metaphor for love!

yalla tenam reema (let reema sleep) — [spotify] [translation] ⁠— very popular levantine lullaby that feels like home 🥲❤ lots of versions of this song exist, but this is the most popular. fun fact: i forgot abt this song for a long time until i read it in a book documenting syrian culture and it unlocked hidden childhood memories.

sah sah (wake up) by nancy ajram ⁠— [spotify] [translation] ⁠— nancy ajram is a rly popular contemporary arab musicians, very hip w the youngins on the tikky takky, and her music is a blend of traditional arab elements with western pop! very fun, very upbeat, immaculate vibes

lamma bada yatathana ⁠— [spotify] [translation] ⁠— ik i said fairuz is "old ppl music (affectionate)", but this song is like. about 800 years old so it takes the cake lol. it's from ye olde andalusia, so lots of versions of it exist. the singer here is lena chamamyan, a syrian singer whomst i adore.

cha'am (damascus) by lena chamamyan ⁠— [spotify] [translation] ⁠— i have to include this song in particular bc i'm incapable of listening to it without tearing up. it's about the experience of being displaced from syria, and lena sings it with so much emotion that it's just. very cathartic and painful and beautiful all at once.

el hantoor by saad el soghayar ⁠— [spotify] [translation] ⁠— this song is so unbelievably cute and also like. the VIBES. what else is there to say. i, too, wanna ride a carriage around egypt.

el tannoura (the skirt) by fares karam ⁠— [spotify] [translation] ⁠— listen. yes this song feels a little sexist but like. it fucks so hard and it is my feminist kryptonite. also, PS on the translation: it says that he calls her "conceited" but imo that's not a great translation. the song more has a vibe of "oh she's hot shit and she knows it," but its not like outright insulting. you could very much make the argument that this song is not objectifying and more just sex positive.

the police are not ours by jowan safadi ⁠— [spotify] [translation] ⁠— remember kids: acab applies to west asia too !!!

boshret khair (good tidings) by hussain aljassmi ⁠— [spotify] [translation] ⁠— gang i'm so normal about this song (lie). literally such a bop with such a lovely message about solidarity among your countrymen and beyond. if i wasn't so busy shaking ass i'd be crying. s tier song, this is what healthy patriotism looks like !!

hadal ahbek (i will still love you) by issam alnajjar ⁠— [spotify] [translation] ⁠— this song blew up on the tikky takky and i mean. for good reason. so catchy, so wholesome, so romantic. literally no notes, its a perfect song.

fawda (chaos) by carole samaha ⁠— [spotify] [translation] ⁠— absolutely banging song with the sole message of "get these drama queens away from me, god i need to breathe" and she's so real for that

holm (dream) by emel ⁠— [spotify] [translation] ⁠— tbh i just stumbled across this song and thought it was dope, but just now i checked the singer's about page on spotify and i need to listen to more of her stuff cause she's got an amazing history. she's a tunisian singer and was a huge voice for the tunisian revolution. her voice is fr angelic, so its dope to know that she's an incredible person on top of being an incredible singer.

fuqaati (my bubble) by ruba shamshoum ⁠— [spotify] [translation + interview] ⁠— this is a very small niche artist but she's literally so talented and has a more jazzy style than the other recs on this list so !! i had to include her bc her style is super unique and pretty. also we always hype up palestinian artists in this household !!

there's literally no shortage of dope arab music basically, this is literally just a sampling of my faves. spotify has a bunch of dope arab music playlists that they update weekly and if you like the general sound then i highly recommend listening to more of it! also even though arab music def has its own like. unique sound, there's tons of artists that do tons of various genres. there's arab jazz, arab reggae, arab rap, etc etc etc, we love cultural exchange and cultural appreciation, amen

[capcavan]

Dear Cap-senpai, how does one come up with a cool, original and cohesive AU idea for AFTG? I want to write for these characters, but I have no idea where to even start. - Sincerely, a struggling writer

I am really honoured that you ask, because I see myself as mess I am just very devoted mess Making any sort of story is always the same no matter if you do fully original work or something based on pre existing IP You need to pick topic you enjoy this way you will have fun developing it it will make it feel like fun activity not work or effort. Ok lets take the Rikoi au as example bc my brain is right here right now general idea is ,, Riko as mermaid" now the question is how do i make the concept of mermaid tie into his family history i tie it into his design, i try to consider his background and possibly how his culture could tie into it - rikos family backstory - Japanese koi - i could read up some Japanese stories about koi to get even deeper - swamping number from arabic 1 to japanese to fit the theme bit more - moving moriyamas all the way back to Japan to have more traditional looking garden/pond environment for him so this is Riko but every universe and story need supporting cast [your cast can be 1-2 character it can be 5-20 or more how much you can handle but having more character makes your world and story feel more alive ] so now we have renee who because of her canon background witch charity becomes part of meer rescues team foxes who are half way house become meer sanctuary aaron and andrew who are the most different twins ever become 2 different species neils father who is piece of shit is still a piece of shit! <3 ilu nathan it's all about finding loose parallels! you don't have to tie things that way but finding things that tie your new AU yo canon even slightly will help other people understand the new dynamics and find something to relate to taking into account their love for original work when designing a story even for 1 character try to spend at least a bit to think of the world around them - aftg is actually great example of this - our main narration is made by neil who spoon feeds us very limited amount of information but in EC nora explained in much more detail how the whole world around him functions and motivations of other characters- we wouldn't knew those informations but nora wrote those books taking them into account this is why the relationships character formed have so much depth I also watch a lot of youtube videos about story analysis for video games and enjoy listening to essays about characters motivations !

[thesherrinfordfacility]

:D hi again!! oh goodness im so excited about this whole shooting stars/rain symbolism im delighted you feel the same!!! and i absolutely agree with you about crowley taking the blame so to speak? thinking about the difference between aziraphale having doubts and crowley having questions - i should rewatch that scene but i think there's something interesting to examine there. i feel like we've attributed aziraphale's 'bad boy' streak and crowley's kind heart to just inherently being Them, but your idea that aziraphale was the one who was supposed to fall is SO intriguing to me in that aspect heheh >:]

about metatron: i think the main associations are, at least islamically the link between the prophet ezra/uzair (the different names are the anglicised and arabic spellings :)) like you mentioned and metatron being the angel of the veil. there's definitely a lot more discussion in jewish literature but i am not even a little bit qualified to talk about that :( further reading for the both of us i think! in terms of GO i doubt the prophet links will be explored - potentially the idea that the prophet ezra and therefore metatron? has been historically viewed as the son of God? however from what i know of islam and can tell from judaism that theory is pretty universally denied because of the absolute divinity of God (has no partners, no children etc etc)

the book of life! yes so we have uh a version of the angel/devil on your shoulder except we believe they're two angels who don't influence you but just write down all your good and bad deeds - these are compiled on the day of judgement and given to you in the right/left hand depending on your final judgement. not sure about any scratching out though! once you're judged, its heaven or hell and your earthly deeds are no longer needed. oh, and as far as i know, only humans have a book of deeds.

oh and also i am incredibly intrigued by your theories about the Fall and what aziraphale & crowley do or don't remember - i am sort of hedging my bets on the idea that early demon crowley didn't remember much about being an angel, and slowly got his memories back, potentially on purpose rather than a gradual return ("it hurts to remember" "i know. do it anyway.") - 🌙

hey 🌙anon!!!✨ ahhhh glad that it interested you!!!

metatron: noted, i definitely need to do some further reading, to see where things align!!! but thank you for clarifying ezra/uzair, that was confusing me slightly, but that makes sense✨

book of deeds: mhmm cool, that matches up from what i understood from research, that's good! interesting to know though that only humans have them... because that might (?) support my thoughts on what the BoL means for angels (ie i don't think it means what michael, beelzebub, and crowley think it to mean in s2... and instead for angels writes out angels' angelicness/causes them to fall).

im still somewhat in two minds about crowley's memory; i do think that there may be missing parts about the fall specifically (whether instigated by heaven or bc of the trauma, not sure!), but i do think some of crowley's 'missing memories' like re: furfur might just be down to AWCW being a bit of a knob, and didnt bother to remember anyone... crowley (well, both of them are tbh) is a unreliable narrator in my eyes, so it may well be a mix of everything!!!

thank you again for this, i really do appreciate it!!!✨💕

[queenie-says-free-palestine]

Hi! I came across your blog and wanted to offload some feelings, I hope you don't mind.

I've been kinda aware of the situation in Palestine for a few years now (However I am sure that there is A LOT more I don't know) I'm from Western Europe, I'm sure you're aware of how little concern there was and is for Palestinian here. My stomach just dropped when I turned on the news this past weekend. The first thing I saw was the Israeli president proclaiming war. I felt horrified, I knew that whatever Hamas had done, the Palestinian people would be punished for it. It's terrible what happened to the Israeli people, of course, but the entire western world doesn't seem to acknowledge, accept or even care about the fact that those in Palestine are living in an 'Apartheid system'

I've seen videos of kids being 'roughed up' by Israeli military, old people forced from homes they've lived in for generations. They have been suffering for decades like this. Why is it okay for them to be treated like this? Because they're brown? Muslim? I'm sorry if that's a controversial thing to say, but I can't think of any other reason for it. It is both heartbreaking and infuriating.

I wish the western world just cared, if only a little bit. We have been bombarded with 'Israel the victim' narrative, there is some reporting about what they are doing to Gaza (cutting aid etc) and it's generating a little sympathy but not enough to change the overall narrative. Those who publicly support 'Free Palestine' are painted as antisemitic at best, a terrorist sympathizer at worst.

I'm sick of it!

Forgive me if I've got anything wrong here, but this is the opinion I've come to from what I've seen/read. Feel free to correct me.

Thanks for letting me vent.

sorry, i meant to reply to this when you sent it but ive been so busy 😭😭

im glad you feel that my blog is a safe space to vent :) and no worries, im fine w you feeling the need to spill all this. if anything im somewhat honored you chose my blog !

i will be expanding on some notes you said, but trigger warning for graphic depictions of violence. also notable that if people will get triggered at the very ideas of these things, at seeing them as words or on screens, then imagine those who face this in their every day lives, who have faced this every day for decades. you can choose not to read and not get triggered and move on. they dont have a choice.

the first thing id mention is that you mention how the condemnation is "why is it okay for them to be treated like this? because theyre brown? muslim?" and as a brown muslim, yes this is exactly why its okay for them to be treated like this. the west has made it clear for decades that muslims are terrorists or plane hijackers or bombers and they should be disciplined and indoctrinated, and arabs are either oil money bilionaires or robbers or sex objects who live in tents and dont use cars because they have camels. thats why white ukrainians are defending themselves but brown palestinians are terrorists

but also keep in mind that minorities such as arab christians are just as threatened, especially due to a lack of awareness about the fact that theres actually a large number of christians in arabia, and the christian communities in the middle east are some of the oldest in the world, with the ones in palestine able to date back to the birth of the church. in fact, arab christians are almost condemned more than arab muslims because people tend to blow them off because theyre arab christian and somewhat alien to other people.

not to mention that people have the nerve to say palestinians should die bc the majority are muslims and want to kill infidels and queers. what of the queer palestinians? im friends with palestinians irl and two of them are queer. are they excused from the massacre but their families should die? and its sad that this next sentence might be controversial, but even homophobes dont deserve to be slaughtered. yes, i said it.

next, this is smth that angers me, not what you said, but the fact that its so unknown. youve seen videos of "kids being 'roughed up' by israeli military, old people forced from homes theyve lived in for generations". i promise you, anon, this is the tip of the iceberg. scroll far enough, esp on twitter under the hashtag #freepalestine. the things ive seen will stay with me forever. the things youll see if you look far enough, i promise, you wont be able to comprehend how people who witness this every day can still have the will to live.

if you scroll far enough, youll see videos of women screaming in pain as they watch their homes getting bulldozed. youll see a video of a hearing impaired palestinian girl running, only to get hit in the face w a stun grenade. shes only eleven years old. youll see videos of a boy, only about six, eyes wide and staring off, silent as the person holding the camera urges him to speak and shakes him. youll see a father crying over his sons body after finding it among the dead. youll see a boy running through a crowd, screaming and crying for his dad, only to find his fathers corpse being held up by the people in front. youll find people being pulled out from rubble. youll find a boy pointing at his little sister and saying "look at the blood on her feet." youll see videos of people being held hostage in al aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in islam, by the idf. they did nothing but pray. youll see a man holding a dead fetus, saying that its mother was killed. youll see a father vlogging what life is like in gaza, he buys gifts for his daughters for eid but they keep hiding under pillows thinking that theyre going to get bombed and he has to reassure them and hug them. he died a few days later. youll see two children being held by an idf soldier as they cry and swear they havent done anything. youll see a palestinian girl gesturing towards destroyed buildings behind her and saying "you see all of this. what do you expect me to do, fix it? im only ten." youll see a woman talking about how her two and a half year old son, who was shot by israeli soldiers, was loved by everyone and he loved everyone. youll see a group of men in the middle of prayer, refusing to stop even when they hear israeli missiles hitting. they flinch but they dont stop praying. 

and what of the incidents that didnt get recorded? these are just from the last decade or so. what of the sixty five years before that? this is what i call terrorism. the hijabi on your flight is not a terrorist. the zionists who tells people to leave the land they grew up in, the land their ancestors grew up in? THATS who the the terrorist here.

and even those who dont get killed are terrorized. there are people who have to sign in with checkpoints any time they enter or leave their own home. theyre arrested by the idf for no reason and interrogated for hours.

i would also like to add a point. palestinians arent punished for hamas's crimes. palestinians are punished for being palestinians. people could argue that "oh, israels trying to attack hamas, the civilians are collateral damage, thats inevitable in war!!!"

bull. shit.

okay fine, lets assume that, ethically speaking, its morally just to level all of gaza with the aim of exterminating hamas. lets assume that its not morally questionable to do so, and lets assume that it doesnt violate international law. let me steal the argument of bassem youssef from when he debated w piers morgan:

lets assume hamas doesnt exist. lets assume theres a world where hamas doesnt exist in palestine, and lets call this world the west bank. ... whats the excuse for killing palestinians in the west bank?

(he said smth of the sort, im not sure these were his exact words)

why would you kill palestinians in the west bank, where there isnt hamas, and say that its "collateral damage" from a war w hamas? its thinly veiled racism, i promise you

the slightly more fortunate news is that the world seems to be waking up. there are protests, even in the west, in support of palestine. al jazeera news has an article abt places that have held protests in solidarity w palestine (the link is here) and a lot of them are in western/european countries. even jews are protesting, i remember seeing a video (its kinda old tho maybe two years old ??) of a jewish guy saying "we are embarassed of whats happening in the state of israel, in the jewish name" and that palestinians "shouldnt give up the struggle" (the video is here)

unfortunately, where i live, no protests can be held, but maybe if theres any near you, anon, you can show some love by attending :) and if there arent then you can simply donate (only if you can, obviously)

sorry this ramble is so long hahaha its just that your ask allowed me to let out some bottled up feelings of my own