#i was a newly made leader and given a small team of 7

[heckitall]

One | Two | Three

-

you ever need someone outside your family

to make you have the hard conversations

whether you want it or not

cuz same

-

also! warm water/ice/smelling something strong (like lemons!) can help ground people who are having a panic/flashback

i swear by the warm mug of water

[theangrycomet]

black and white 3: Gym Challenge

Unova is the only region to show more than 8 gyms in both the games and the anime so I think it’s be awesome to have the be the first to have more than 8 gyms for the player to challenge.

New Things

Pick up the trend of having no set Gym Order, but have the player able to pick from 3 home towns, one on each peninsula(?). Typically what ever gyms closest to it would be the player’s “First” gym but it isn’t entirely necessary to do so.

The hometown of the player is based on the Starter selected, as Prof. Bianca (Aspen) has shipped the pokemon to you with a note to meet her to get a newly minted pokedex.

Traveling across Unova is made easier as you can travel around across Unova via Gear Station early on OR the newly introduced Braviary/Mandibuzz Taxi

the Taxi Cab drivers and Depot Agents hate each others guts with a BURNING passion

There is also the Cirrus Ferry: boat that transports people from Virbank to Castelia and vice-versa

here’s where you would see Roxie’s dad as Captain as one of the boats, having found this a more reliable source of income than fishing

HERE YOU GET FISHING ROD

The Gyms

You only need 8 badges but Each Gym offers a TM/HM that the player may or may not want/need to explore Unova

The number of Gym Badges a player has determines the difficulty of the Gym Trainers and the Gym Leader’s Team (like how it’s implied to be in the manga/anime)

Rough idea on the Leveling:

0 badges (>15)

1 badge (>20)

2 badge (>23)

3 badge (>26)

4 badge (>30)

5 badge (>35)

6 badge (>40)

7 badge (>45)

8 badge (50-60)

Lenora:

TM: Roar 

Nacrene Gym is now fully open now that she is off maternity leave (hence her gyms absence in BW 2) 

Trainer is initially given a tour by a small child (who proudly presents the gym leader, their mom)

Player still has to face the Book puzzles

Hawes is battle before Lenora as the “final line” 

Burgh: 

TM: Struggle Bug

Striaton Trio: (more confident now that they trained themselves up since BW2) 

TM: Hidden Power

if returned to post Gym Battle, Cilan can assess friendship and/or affection levels (reference to Cilan’s anime role as “pokemon connesiur”

Work Up can be found nearby the gym

Marshal:

TM: Rock Smash

decided he wanted to help more trainers one on one 

So he stepped down opened up a new Gym/training facility (beating him grants access to IV/EV training stuff like in XY)

one of Gym Trainers named Stephon with a Sawk, referencing the Anime Character

Can Mega-Evolve his mien-shiao

Clay: 

TM: Bulldoze

connect to Lian via Black Aguirite

Team Plasma tries to steal the few pieces he has but gets their asses handed to them with some help with the player

mentions it’s a incredibly rare mineral he’d recently found a small vein

he hasn’t seen since he was a kid

he knows it’s an evolutionary item but he hasn’t a clue as to what pokemon it’s for (lost knowledge he supposed)

His gym is the only a way to get Augirite (and by extension Kleavor) in game

Elesa:

TM: Volt Switch

Skyla: 

TM: Acrobatics

Roxie: 

TM: Venoshock

Has a toxtricity she caught when touring with a galarian singer(Piers)

Koffing’s evolved into Wheezing (possibly galarian!wheezing?”

Rematch postgame, she has a Hisiuan Sneasel from a friend who recently came back home

Brycen: 

TM: Frost breath 

he is contemplating retirement both as a gym leader and an actor,

Iris: 

TM: Dragon Tail

Drayden fully retired- he can be seen around Opelucid city or at Gear Station checking in on the lone Subway Boss (Post game he can be battled at Gear Station)

Marlon: 

TM: Scald

Establish friendship with Roxie through their shakers fishing background

Connect to Iscan by 

showing a tank of white striped Basculin (he is part of a program attempting to bring them back as a breeding pair had been “discovered” recently)

Diamond clan pentagon decorating some old family heirlooms as well as the pearl clan circle

defeating Marlon in a rematch will grant you White Striped Basculin

only way in game to get Basculegion

NEW Steel Type Gym:

TM: Flash Cannon

NEW Rock Type Gym: 

TM: Smack Down

NEW Fairy Type Gym: UNOFFICIAL

TM: Dazzling Gleam

Not a very popular gym between the gym leader’s personality and the general disinterest Unovan’s have towards the fairy typing (this is the lands of Dragons)

Gym leader with the LEAST amount of Unova Native pokemon (Whimsicott and a mega-Evolving Audino)

Only gym struggling to get recognition from the league

Gym badge is not recognized by the league BUT it’s the only place where you can get fairy type TM’s 

Elite Four: (60-65)

Alder

Shauntal

Cheren- the position was offered up to him when Marshal stepped down (as Grimsley still has a few warrants he needs to clear up) 

Caitlin

Champion: N (>65)

Darmanitan

Zoroark

I don’t know on the rest tbh

Probably combine from various teams

DOES NOT USE POKEBALLS- instead calls them forward like in Legends Arceus

[thelordofdarkreunion]

Watchers in the Shadows

Another plot important story, with the what I am terming the Shadowed Lords.  I have also found a solution to the very important question of “How to make sure the Inquisition just doesn’t murder everyone.”  I own none of these characters.  Enjoy.

“History requires two parties - the historian and their audience.  Without that, one is just talking to oneself.  So kindly stop screaming and you might learn something.” - Trazyn the Infinite, guiding human guests through the Prismatic Gallery

“It is our duty to protect those who are important to future events, those who might save the face of the galaxy, those chosen by prophecy - blah blah blah.  I’m just here to kill things.”  -Revenant

Aboard the Novus Galactica

The Watch Fortress was a miracle of human technology and ingenuity.  This particular one was mobile, a great boon for its occupants.  As soon as diplomats and Inquisitors were dispatched to these strange, newly found galaxies, it had been deemed by the High Lords of Terra that a permanent force of Throne Agents should be stationed in each.  Unfortunately for the Imperium of Man, and, perhaps fortunately for everyone else, they were currently only able to transfer a small amount of the resources they wanted to one singular galaxy.  At the moment.  The time would come when they would fully operate there, the agents of the Imperium hiding in every shadow, behind every crevice, always watching, always waiting.  The fight against the xeno, mutaint, and heretic never ended, after all, and these new galaxies provided ample examples of each.  

The newly anointed Lady Inquisitor Amberley Vail stood on the tiled stone floor of the Watch Fortress, looking out high cathedral windows into the black void of space.  Inquisitors were all technically equals, though in practice some were more equal than others.  Senior and powerful Inquisitors were given the honorary prefix Lord or Lady to denote that they were, in fact, just a little more equal than their peers.  Since she had been the first to discover, and make contact with these eight new galaxies, it would be her duty to oversee all investigations in them.  A great honor.  

At the time, though, Vail would just be investigating each one in turn until more Inquisitors could be spared.  Already she was given her choice in team, and her retinue was here, with more hand-picked agents to come.  And, of course, the operatives the High Lords and Ordo Xenos had seen fit to give her.  With the technology found in these new places, she could now contact the High Lords directly, if necessary, and they could monitor her progress.  As such, they had seen it fit to grant the Watch Fortress a cadre of Officio Assassinorum operatives, one from each Temple.  They were in cryo storage below, except the Vanus operative, currently hard at work gathering every scrap of data she could.  

Should she require pure power instead of singular agents, a Kill Team of the dreaded Deathwatch was on hand.  They were newly formed and called up, but each member was hand-chosen by the Inquisition, and, if rumors were to be believed, the Custodian Guard themselves.  Right now, they were settling into their new home, their weapons drills already ringing through the training spaces.  The Kill Team also served a second, more sinister purpose: if Vail was to go rogue for whatever reason, they had orders to hunt her down and destroy her.  She harbored no illusions of their ability, and, of course, had no intention of turning traitor.  Better had fallen than her, though, so she did appreciate the contingency.  

At the moment, more Marine heavy weaponry and armored vehicles were on the way, along with a regiment of Inquisitorial Storm Troopers.  More things to be added to the armory of the Imperium in this new galaxy.  

Vail paced, then went to her cognator, located next to the Vanus operative, still absorbed in her work.  She sat down, and began to type.  Secrets would be revealed, and the Inquisition would act upon them.

Unknown Location

The room was dark, as it always was, only illuminated by the blinding glory of a nearby star.  No one came here, no one knew of its existence except two organizations.  Two organizations that almost none knew of.  A massive man, power armored bulk hidden by a simple white robe, sword strapped on to his chest, stood side by side with another individual clad in black armor and greatcoat.  A tight fitting black helmet with glowing red lenses covered the second’s face, and as it spoke, the voice that emanated from within was corrupted and rendered untraceable.

“We must begin.  Our list is complete.”

“Unorthodox, yes, but it must be this way,” spoke the second, a reverberating deep base echoing from beneath he white hood.  “What of Inquisitor Vail?  Should she find… certain things, it would not bode well for our plans.” 

“I am handling it as we speak.  Drake shows promise.  It was good to act that quickly, but in the end, the Shadow Broker, the Mechanicus, the Inquisition, the Scoundrels, ONI, the ISB… none of them are good enough to face us.  Vail will hear no word of it.  Stability will be preserved.  Just as we must preserve the Scoundrels themselves.”

“Indeed.  It must be restated: they are key to future events.  I suggest we get moving.”  With a nod to each other, the two figures disappeared into the shadows.

Unknown Planet

The ground was icy and cold, some dead world in the middle of nowhere.  It didn’t even have a name, so remote it had never been discovered.  Of course, there were those who could find it, should they really wish to.  One such individual stood here, examining strange patterns in the snow.  Well-groomed black hair tumbled down to his shoulders, held in place by a circlet of gold.  Despite the bone-numbing cold, the man did not shiver, black and green tunic still in the frigid air.   A heavy crack of displaced air sounded behind him, and the black haired man turned around, smiling softly to himself. 

“Ah.  Can I help you?” he said in a polite and cultured voice.  The two figures, one massive and wearing a white robe, the other of medium height and wearing a black coat, stepped forward.  The black haired man stood, noting the weapons, the size, the strangeness of these newcomers.

“Loki of Asgard.  We have need of your skills,” responded a metallic and synthesized voice from the black coated silhouette’s mask.  This elicited a small, oh-so-sly smile from the black haired man.  

“Yes.  I’m sure a great many people do.  What’s in it for me?”

“Name your price,” came a deep, reverberating voice.  Loki thought quietly to himself, then spoke.

“Done,” replied the tall figure.  

“Now, what do you need me for?” asked Loki.

Hammond Robotics Lab-77431

A metallic abomination of red and grey stood above Dr. Marshall.  It was humanoid, but all metal; unnaturally tall and spindly.  He squirmed quietly, inching away from it on the cold surface of the laboratory floor.  Blood was splattered messily over the surface of computer banks and grey plastic workstations.  Marshall silently prayed that the guards were on their way.  He had just enough time to press the panic button as the… thing slaughtered the two guards and his three colleagues.  Now it stood over him, head tilted at an unnatural angle.  

“No one is coming to save you.  No one ever was.”  It’s voice was horrible, gravely, and grating.  Marshall whimpered.  It spoke again.  “You can beg for mercy.  It won’t help, but go on.”

“Please… please.  I don’t even know what you are!  Why would you want to kill me?”  The thing snarled and pinned Marshall to the wall with one metallic hand.  

“You made me a killing machine.  Who am I to argue with programming?”  The abomination’s synthetic eyes seemed to glow.  “Look into my eyes.  I want to remember this.”  

“No!  NO!  No-”  The begging cut out with a horrifying, gurgling scream as the thing ripped out his throat.  It gave a malicious laugh.  A new voice spoke.  

“Revenant.”  It was a statement.  “We have need of your services.”  Revenant turned around with a snarl, only to find himself face to face with three of the most odd individuals he’d ever seen.  A smooth faced, black haired man in a green and black surcoat, smirking at him.  A figure in a black coat and black armor, it’s face hidden behind a mask with glowing red lenses.  A giant, wearing a white robe, with a sword strapped to its back, its face hidden behind the robe’s cowl.  

“Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you where you stand?” sneered Revenant.  

“If you can, which I doubt,” replied the black haired man.  The figure in the coat held up a gauntleted hand.  

“We have need of your services,” it repeated.  “As payment, we can fix you or kill you.  Your choice.  But you must do as we say.”  Revenant seemed to consider the deal.  

“Done,” he replied eventually.  

“Good.  Now, there’s work to be done.”  

Star Wars Galaxy

Belsavis

Imperial Outpost Planet

The New Republic had, in its infinite wisdom, sent a team of commandos to capture a small Imperial outpost planet in the middle of smack-dab nowhere.  Sargent Underwilth was quite displeased by this, as had the entirety of the rest of her commando group, from Private Nikeer all the way up to the Captain.  It would be a long, boring, and completely useless mission, and for what purpose?  Grab a completely insignificant Imperial fort that could house a battalion and a group of shuttles at the absolute maximum?  Why?  Send soldiers to die for that?  She hated High Command for it.  Hate-d.  Past tense.  At the present moment, she was cursing the name of every single New Republic official she could remember, from the major who had briefed them to Princess Leia herself.  Saying things had gotten a bit out of hand would be the understatement of the millenia.  

“I need fire at 1-2-7-4!  Immediate effect, whatever you’ve got!” screamed the comms chatter.  The Imperial stormtroopers crouched next to her looked warily in the direction of the lieutenant whose scream was cut short over the comms.  Captain Pai, the commando leader, was dead.  Major Vekk, commander of the Imperial garrison, was now in charge of both the stormtrooper and commando contingent.  Underwilth had never thought she would be fighting side by side with stormtroopers.  They were terrible shots and propaganda-fueled idiots, holding on to the crumbling remnants of a tyrant.  Desperate times, though, called for desperate measures.  She nodded at her mixed group of Republic and Imperial soldiery, and, as one, they stepped over the ledge of the wall they were crouched behind.  A withering storm of blaster bolts rent the air, many going wide as their users panicked.  It was enough though.  

The bolts slammed into the metal abomination, many ricocheting harmlessly off its bones with high pitched pings!  Underwilth had no idea what these things were, or why they were here.  The commando team had landed, everything going well, and had infiltrated the fortress, only for an army of metal skeletons to show up.  They were spindly and humanoid in appearance, with elongated skulls and arms much thinner than a human.  Their odd appearance didn’t matter, though.  Horrible weapons had rotated, spitting sickly green beams of light at the now combined defenders.  Everything that was touched by those beams died.  Captain Pai was disintegrated where he stood.  Atomized without a sound.  

The defenders had fought back with everything in their arsenal.  Blasters didn’t work.  Grenades didn’t work.  Cryo bombs didn’t work.  Only massive, coordinated firepower would stop these undying invaders. 

Scorch marks appeared on the metal skeleton that Underwilth’s group drowned in fire.  More and more blaster bolts found their mark, staggering it.  Underwilth screamed at them to keep firing.  Eventually, slowly, it toppled into the dirt.  Underwilth’s group let out a great cheer.  It died in their throats when they saw what was happening.  The metal abomination, light faded from its eyes and limbs blown off, glowed with the same sickly green light as its eyes and weapons.  Limbs reattached themselves.  Blaster pockmarks faded.  Internal wiring affixed itself.  It stood, and glowing green eyes snapped on once more.  

Beneath the Surface of Belsavis

Trazyn the Infinite, Overlord of the Nihilakh Dynasty, Archoevist of Solomance, and Curator of the Prismatic Galleries walked through the underground tomb complex covered by the Imperial outpost.  He had come to... acquire the artifacts, weapons, and species in the tomb underneath.  Unfortunately, a group of the idiotic humans that inhabited this galaxy had decided to build a fortress right on top of it.  He didn’t even spend the processing power wondering about the humans.  Mere insects.  His soldiers were there to defend his archaeological expedition, and if the humans wanted to attack them, well, that was their problem.  

Trazyn was, quite frankly, disappointed over this particular galaxy.  It wasn’t that there weren’t ancient and important treasures to plunder: no, far from it.  The things he could find here almost rivaled his own galaxy.  Almost.  It wasn’t that.  

It was that the people of this place had absolutely zero appreciation for history.  It was utterly infuriating.  Trazyn was the historian.  The lives of entire species meant nothing to him.  He was as old as the stars themselves, able to see eons as they stretched out in front of him.  The reason he did any of this in the first place was to preserve history before time or battle erased it.  His entire planet was one massive museum, with exhibits stretching back some 60 billion years before the planet Earth even existed.  But these people?  They didn’t teach history.  Didn’t preserve history.  To borrow a human expression, didn’t give one singular, flying fuck about it.  His mind frowned in distaste over the crude word.  It was nevertheless true.  The inhabitants of this place had merely forgotten the Old Republic, the government that ruled the galaxy only thirty years ago.  The Jedi Knights were myths.  The Clone Wars were bedtime legends.  Trazyn ground his metal teeth in frustration.  Thirty years.  That was a microsecond.  That was about the time a standard Necron court case lasted.  Even the humans, short-lived insects that they were, should remember that long.  After all, they usually lived between sixty to a hundred, did they not?  Simply no respect for the past here.  

The other galaxies were not like this.  The humans of one galaxy even remembered events some two thousand years prior.  That galaxy was the one with the Makers.  A battle between gods and demons.  He had already been to a Maker lab, and taken the dark artifact from the homeworld of the Celzex.  Along with half the guard on duty at the time.  And the throne.  They wouldn’t miss it.  Probably.  

He was getting off track.  Despite the idiots of this place not knowing what it was, this place was magnificent.  The architecture, the stone, the instriptions and technology… oh, yes.  If Trazyn had still possessed a mortal body, he would be grinning like a buffoon now.  He wanted everything.  

The tomb had once belonged to the Rakata Infinite Empire.  He sneered at the name. 

“There can only be one Infinite, and only one Infinite Empire.  And you, my friends, are no longer among the living,” he told a statue.  The Empire had, at its apex, controlled a great deal of the galaxy and possessed technologies and ancient wonders not seen since.  An entire species, called the Esh-Ka, had been trapped here in status for nigh thirty millenia by the ancient Rakata.  Nothing compared to Trazyn, but he appreciated the gesture of the long dead civilization nonetheless.  Ancient Rakata warlords, soldiers, status, glyphs, tablets, weapons, enemies, technology… everything.  This was a prison world, and the Rakata built it to last.  Now, though… now it was Trazyn’s time to shine.  He took everything he could, the walls and massive scripts cut away by his personal bodyguard.  Everything went into tesseract labyrinths.  These were small black cubes, about the size of Trazyn’s fist.  They pulsed with darkness, ever wishing to suck things into their voids.  These cubes were gateways to pocket dimensions, and Trazyn had long used them to capture specimens from his museum.  

He hummed as he worked, nearly giddy with excitement.  If there had been any watchers, they would have found the sight of the ancient necron lord almost dancing with exhilaration to be quite funny.  As he loaded the last of the Rakata imprisoned within the tomb, there was a flash of green light behind him.  It’s coloration was similar to the eyes and weaponry of the necrons, yet only the discharge of his bodyguards’ gauss flayers could have made such a sight, and Trazyn knew for a fact none of them had.  He whirled around, only to be met with a very strange sight.  

Four individuals stood between him and his guards.  One was obviously a synthetic, tall and spindly with red and grey limbs.  This one glowered mechnicgly at Trazyn, but he laughed it off.  You didn’t know a good glower until you’ve stood on the wrong side of a Star God.  The second was human, smirking from behind shoulder length black hair and a black and green tunic.  The third waas masked, armored, and coated, and stood at simple attention, unbothered by the necrons that lowered their gauss flayers at its back.  The last, though…

“Lord Cypher,” said Trazyn with a bow.  The massive man in white noticeably stiffened.  “A pleasure to have you here.  Ah, yes.  I know who you are, of course.  Don’t be surprised.  You would make a fine addition to my collection,” he mused.  Trazyn looked up, noticeably more perky.  “Is that why you’re here?  Have you come to give yourself up?  Ready to be a part of history?”  The massive man, Cypher, glared at him.  

“We have need of your help, Lord Trazyn.  After you are…” he looked around, noticing the completely empty walls of the tomb, “Done here, we wish to speak with you.  Your… expertise is necessary.”  Trazyn grinned, the necrodermis teeth of his death mask coming together.  A necron grinning was a very bizarre sight.  

“Ah, you flatter me, Lord Cypher.  And from one who has bedeviled the Imperium for ten thousand years and fought the Deceiver himself, such flattery is most appreciated.  However,” Trazyn gestured around, “As you can see, my work consumes me.  I’m afraid history stops for no one.  Except you.”  He held out a tesseract labyrinth, his voice flowing with mischief.

“Wait!” replied Cypher.  “We have need of your help,” he repeated.  “If you do not join us, then events will transpire that will result in the eventual destruction of reality,” he stated calmly, as if he were simply talking about the weather.  “It might not happen now, or later, or even in a century, or millenia, but I know for certain it will happen.  Everything you hold dear, everything you have worked so hard for over these billions of years, will be gone.  If you help us, we will most likely succeed, and in payment we will offer to you the greatest treasures in the universe.”  Cypher held out a hand.  “So what say you, Trazyn the Infinite?  Are you ready to change history for once, instead of just cataloging it?”  Trazyn pondered a moment, his neural circuitries firing faster than any mortal could keep up.  Eventually, he took the hand.

“I accept.”

And there we are.  I hope you enjoyed it, and if you have any comments, criticisms, concerns, questions, or requests, feel free to contact me!  Wherever you are, have a great day!

[renaerys]

All right Anon. Since my blog was hacked and I had to delete and remake it, I know I lost some Tumblr-exclusive posts from back in ye olde Naruto heydays. Here’s a TobiIzu prompt I did for my friend Nicole called “Eclipse” that I managed to dig up in my Google Drive. It is 2013 quality (i.e., without the benefit of 7 years’ additional experience, so I’m sorry about that), but this is how it appeared as originally posted. Hopefully this is what you were looking for! :)

Eclipse (TobiIzu)

Generations later they would talk about Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara, the eternal rivals and fiercest of friends who created a kingdom and nearly destroyed it with their own hands.  They would talk about Uzumaki Mito and how she saved them from themselves for as long as a person can be saved, going so far as to seal Hashirama’s love and Madara’s hatred within herself.  But the sun and the moon have shadows even if no one can see them beyond the blinding light.

Senju Tobirama did not always hate the Uchiha.  Some he even grew to depend upon.  Every yin needs a yang.  

“Suiton: Suishouha!”

At seven years old, Tobirama was well on his way to achieving notoriety as an heir to the illustrious Senju clan.  His prowess with water techniques was unheard of at his age, and his father was more than happy to reap that advantage in any way possible.  In a world where a mother’s protests fall upon deaf ears, Tobirama became more comfortable with the wails of his dying enemies than the sweet songs his mother used to sing at night as he fell asleep.  

“Hhhnnngg!”

Strangled cries of those unlucky enough to be swept away with the deluge gurgled, unintelligible, as water filled lungs and doused fires.  Tobirama drew his short sword and followed the path of his technique, searching for any Uchiha that had survived the flood.  What he did not expect to find was one unharmed and charging straight for him.

“Damn you!”

The clang of steel made his ears ring as a young Uchiha soldier slammed into him with all the might in his small body.  Twin daggers sparked against Tobirama’s own weapon, and he stumbled backwards under the shock force.  Overpowered, he had to roll with his attacker’s momentum to avoid slitting his own throat.  On their feet and panting for air, Tobirama got a look at his opponent and the fury boiling in his red eyes.

Red eyes.

“Sharingan...”

The unnamed Uchiha shook with rage.  “You killed him.  You killed my little brother with that, and now I’m gonna kill you!”

A flurry of hand seals had Tobirama taking a step back, unsure of what was coming until the Uchiha boy inhaled a deep breath and released a great mass of roiling fire.  It careened straight for him at impossible speed, and Tobirama had to turn tail and run.  His boots sloshed in the mud created from his earlier technique and an idea struck.  Channeling his chakra, he called upon the muddy water beneath his feet to rise up behind him in like a shield.  The collision with the great fireball was stunning.  Steam hissed and mud melted, the water mixed in with it barely enough to keep the fire at bay.  

“Tobirama!”

Butsuma’s familiar voice was a welcome sound.  He and a young Itama joined his second son just as fire and water fizzled into a mess of charred mud and the smell of bog.  Tobirama brandished his short sword at his attacker, ready to deliver the killing blow now that his father was watching.

“Izuna, that’s enough.”

Everyone knew Uchiha Tajima, the leader of the Uchiha clan, by face and name.  He placed a hand on the boy’s—Izuna’s—shoulder in silent warning.  

“He killed Kemuri!” Izuna said, taking a step forward with every intention of burning Tobirama alive.

Tajima did nothing to betray whatever he felt about the loss of one of his sons.  It didn’t surprise Tobirama much.  Lives were expendable.  If the leader of a great clan were to break down every time he lost men, he would have no time to fight between the mourning.  Tobirama shifted, thoughts wandering to his younger brother standing next to him.  What if it had been him?

“I suppose I should thank you,” Tajima said, dark eyes fixed on Tobirama and a cruel smirk threatening to bloom.  “Your actions have awakened Izuna’s Sharingan.”

Tears fell from Izuna’s transformed eyes and Tobirama had to wonder.  Had he done this?  Had he given his enemy a better weapon?

“Let’s end this, Butsuma,” Tajima said.  “You’ve lost enough men for one day.”

“I should say the same for you,” Butsuma said, one hand on the hilt of his katana.

Tajima’s smirk widened.  “Until next time, old friend.”

Izuna held Tobirama’s gaze, red on red as a promise of vengeance sealed in brother’s blood passed between them.  Tobirama found himself leaning closer to his own brother, a silent warning.  

“Tobirama,” Butsuma said once the Uchiha had withdrawn.  “The next time we clash with the Uchiha, kill that boy.  Forget about the others.  Do you understand me?”

“Yes, Father.”

“We can’t afford to let that one grow stronger now that he has the Sharingan.”

The battlefield was a wasteland of mud, soot, and maimed corpses.  Uchiha and Senju alike lay in piles, their armor warped with heat and some bloated from drowning.  It was always the same story when they crossed paths, and no one ever seemed to get the upper hand in the long run.  Destined to fight forever, Tobirama sometimes wondered about the point of it all.  But Butsuma was right.  If the stories were true, the Sharingan could mean the difference between a win and a loss for the Senju.  

And so Senju Tobirama resolved to ensure Uchiha Izuna’s death the next time they crossed paths.  

xxx

The day Kawarama died Tobirama was fourteen and still struggling to make good on the promise he’d made his father.  Madara had set the field aflame, and Hashirama’s animate wood had only made it worse.  Ever the faithful right hand, Tobirama shielded the newly christened Senju leader with his body, hands poised in the fortieth and final seal of the water dragon technique.  

“Tobi!” Hashirama said, worry and relief melted together as his little brother bought him precious time to regroup.  

But light never strays far from its faithful shadow.  Tobirama barely had to time to block the knife to his throat, hissing as it nicked the unprotected skin below his chin.  Izuna had a tendency to sneak up on him like this.  It made double-teaming Madara impossible.

“Now we’re even,” Izuna said as he pushed harder, screeching metal hurting Tobirama’s ears as they vied for dominance.

In a dirty move, Tobirama kicked hard, forcing Izuna to leap backwards to avoid a blow to the stomach that could have cost him.  Fire and water, brother for brother.  To say water could douse fire was to underestimate the heat of Izuna’s hatred.  

“We’ll never be even!” Tobirama said, redirecting his water dragon technique.  

Sharingan spiraled red and black, red and black, and a piercing scream filled the area.  Tobirama yelped, hands burning as though the skin were flayed off his palms.  Sparks jumped across the body of his water dragon, the electricity having cut deep welts in his hands that blistered and smoked.  Izuna, drenched from head to toe and panting, crackled with lightning.

“Lightning trumps water,” he said, water dripping from his long ponytail.  

The fighting never stopped.  Senju and Uchiha were doomed to repeat history, of this Tobirama was certain.  Every time they clashed, more and more of their ranks fell under enemy fire and water, lightning and earth.  There was no end to the slaughter and the power, each side becoming stronger only to discover the other catching up.  

It wasn’t until Hashirama called a temporary ceasefire that Tobirama realized he’d never actually had a conversation with Izuna that didn’t involve them trying to kill each other.  Negotiations were a farce when the Uchiha were involved as far as he was concerned.  And yet, while Hashirama and Madara exchanged terms that everyone knew would never be enough to satisfy both sides, Tobirama and Izuna waited outside the chambers, silent and itching to hurt each other out of ingrained habit.

“This will never work, you know,” Tobirama said after nearly a half hour of silent brooding.  “It never has before.”

He didn’t know why he’d decided to comment on something so futile.  It was obvious to both of them without him pointing it out.  Uchiha and Senju would never see eye to eye.  There was too much bad blood between them now to reconcile.  Hashirama was delusional and Madara was perhaps even more insane to hear out this ludicrous negotiation.  Izuna did not respond right away, and Tobirama scowled.  He should have known better.

“...And yet, they never stop trying.”

Izuna kept his dark gaze to the ground ahead, torches lending a soft glow to his angular features as they waited on either side of the door to the chambers.  All around them, crack patterns danced upon carved stone with each flicker of firelight.  There was no one around—Tobirama and Izuna had made sure their brothers would not be disturbed—and yet they spoke in hushed tones.

“It’s useless,” Tobirama said.  “After all the Uchiha have done, there will be no forgiving.”

“Ah, and you’re an innocent bystander in all this.  Hypocrite.”

The hilt of Tobirama’s sword called to him with an almost audible hum.  A part of him wanted nothing more than to drive it through Izuna’s precious eyes right there and now.  And yet, he paused.

“You’ve become more vicious over the years,” he said, finally voicing what he’d long suspected.  “The older we get, the more hateful you are.  Not that I’d expect anything less from an Uchiha.”

Izuna chuckled.  “And you’ve become cantankerous.  You’re just getting older.”

Murmuring filtered through the heavy wooden doors despite the soundproofing.  It did not bode well for their brothers’ talk.  Still, they would not move until summoned.  They had set aside their mutual animosity and bad blood for this, and neither would betray his brother and leader.  If nothing else, they shared that fierce loyalty.

“This will never work,” Tobirama said at last.

“Tell them that.  They’re living in a dream world in there.  But they’ll wake up.  They always do.  Hard to sleep when people are screaming all around you.”

“Is that all it is then?  A dream.”

“What else would it be?  You killed my brother and I killed yours, just like our fathers before us and their fathers before them.  The sooner you accept that the better.”

Tobirama frowned.  He didn’t like agreeing with Izuna, his brother’s murderer and the bane of his existence for as long as he could remember.  He couldn’t help but think that with Izuna out of the way, Madara would stand no chance against Hashirama and himself.  

“Funny, isn’t it,” Tobirama said.  “We hate each other, and yet we understand each other perfectly.  There is no one who knows my sentiments the way you do.”

“You don’t know this hatred,” Izuna said, averting his eyes once more to stare into the gloom.  “...This hatred is a curse.”

“Curses can be broken.”

Izuna bared his teeth in a smile, and when he met Tobirama’s gaze once more it burned like the fire illuminating the room.  This Sharingan was different, and Tobirama half drew his sword upon instinct.  

“There’s no cure for this curse,” Izuna said, making no move to attack.  “It will kill me, and it will kill you, too.  That’s the only certainty in this world.”

Tobirama was about to ask him what he meant by that when the doors burst open.  

“—can’t ever reach a compromise this way!” Hashirama shouted from within.

Madara stormed out.  “Who would take those terms?  You’re as stupid as you look.  Nothing’s changed.”

Izuna and Tobirama exchanged a look before the former tailed after his irritable brother.  Hashirama emerged soon after, youthful features twisted in frustration and a little despair.  It didn’t suit him at all, but Tobirama kept that thought to himself.  

“At least he didn’t attempt to attack you this time,” he said instead.

“I just don’t understand, Tobi.  I know he agrees with me, I just know it.  But he’s so stubborn!  He just won’t give into anything.”

“He’s an Uchiha.”  He’s not your brother.

“You make it sound like they’re another species.”

“They are.”

Hashirama sighed and rubbed his eyes.  “They’re not.  They’re just...  Madara’s just looking out for them, that’s all.  We’re not so different from them in the end.”

Tobirama said nothing to that.  For the first time in his life, he found he could not refute it with complete certainty.

xxx

“What did you mean?”

Blood fell to the ground as Tobirama’s short sword made contact with Izuna’s cheek, so light and delicate.  The Uchiha sneered and pulled back, wiping it with a free hand.  

“About what?”  He fired off a rapid round of hand seals even as he questioned his eternal opponent.

“About the curse that can’t be broken.”  

A searing jet of fire careened toward Tobirama at high speed, and if not for the grueling training he’d forced upon himself he would not have survived it.  With only a single hand seal he created a water dragon from out of thin air to defend him, catching the fire before it could incinerate him where he stood.  The collision birthed a wall of steam, hissing like a brood of angry snakes as fire and water clashed in an age old battle, neither able to overwhelm the other without taking equal damage.  At seventeen, they were still stuck in a stalemate.

Forced to shout over the roar of their attacks Izuna said, “Love and hate aren’t so different.  The more I hate, the stronger I become.  And you make it so easy!”

Tobirama grit his teeth and pushed more chakra into his technique.  The water dragon became engorged, slowly but surely pushing back the fire.  He would have to be careful lest Izuna resort to lightning.  That trick would only work once.  All of a sudden, the air around Tobirama became heavy with heat, drawing sweat and turning his cheeks red.  A low rumble resounded from the other side of the clash until black tongues peeked out from amidst the orange flames.  They grew into thick shadows and slithered into the maw of his dragon, evaporating the water on contact.  Alarmed, Tobirama swore and attempted to up the power.

It was no use.  Stygian flames reared up and consumed his dragon until they forced him to release his technique and leap to safety.  He’d never seen anything like it.  Far hotter than any normal fire, there was something spectral about those flames.  

“Izuna!”

He stood rooted to the spot, gaze slowly shifting.  Tobirama felt a cold chill creep up his spine at the sight of his longtime rival with blood falling from his eyes like tears.  

“There’s no cure for this curse.”

“This is what we are, Tobirama,” he said, drawing his twin daggers and advancing.  “You and I...we’ll never escape it.  Now fight me!”

No one would talk about their battles in the histories.  Hashirama and Madara would change the landscape with their power, and Tobirama and Izuna would be there to pick up the pieces.  Shadows follow their celestial masters, hiding behind the light.

xxx

“There’s something about the Uchiha that I think you need to know.”

Hashirama looked up from the paperwork he was reading by the light of a thick tallow candle outlining the terms of an alliance with the wealthy Uzumaki clan.  He’d insisted on doing it himself even though Tobirama was better with this sort of thing.  In any case, it mattered little.  Uzumaki Mito, their closest contact and the clan representative, would smooth out any kinks Hashirama overlooked.  

“Must we talk about this now?  I know your opinion of them already, and I’m tired—”

“I think there’s a reason they are the way they are.”

Hashirama put down his pen and gave his brother his full attention.  “Of course there is.  We’ve wronged them for generations, as they’ve wronged us.  It’s not like they’re doing this for fun.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Tobirama said, thinking on how best to phrase it.  “They...  It’s like they grow stronger the more they hate.”

“...I would assume so.  Hatred is a powerful motivator.”

“No, I mean, they become physically stronger.  That new Sharingan isn’t normal.  You know it.”

Hashirama smiled a little.  “Well, it’s certainly nothing to sneeze at.”

“Izuna said they were cursed.  That I don’t understand his hatred.”

“You were speaking with Izuna?  I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say anything to him that didn’t involve a death threat.”

Tobirama stared at the wall of the small tent set up on the outskirts of Uzushiogakure, the Senju’s current outpost.  His shadow flickered under the light of the candles, erratic.  

“You don’t know this hatred.”

Why do you always have to be so stubborn?

“This won’t last forever,” he said.  “One day, it will catch up to us.  That’s what curses do.  They fester.”

Hashirama was silent for a long while, and he wondered if his brother understood.  “Then we’ll break the curse.  That’s what I’ve been trying to do for so long.  We’ll do it, Madara and I together.  We will.”

“There’s no cure for this curse.”

The sun and the moon would always be the stuff of fancy, leaving the ugly truths of the world to the darkness of shadows.  Tobirama left his brother to his dreaming without another word.

xxx

Years later they would talk about how Madara finally came around and made peace with Hashirama.  They would talk about how Mito smoothed relations between the two leaders as a voice of reason and gentle influence.  They would never speak of this day, the total eclipse of shadow over light, the first step into the abyss.  Not until it was too late to turn back.

“Izuna!” Madara screamed in the distance.

His blood was surprisingly warm for someone so coldhearted.  It caressed Tobirama’s hand, loosening the grip about the hilt of his sword.  Even as he plunged it deeper through Izuna’s chest, his free hand came up to push too-long bangs out of his eyes.  Gone was the angry red of the Sharingan.  A cough drew bloody spittle.

“T-Tobirama...”

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.  They were equals, Senju and Uchiha, yin and yang.  One could not exist without the other.  One had no meaning without the other.  A tight feeling in his throat made it hard to talk without his voice cracking.

“You were supposed to avoid that,” Tobirama said, kneeling them on the ground and supporting Izuna’s weight.  “Any idiot could have avoided that.”

“I’m n-not an idiot.”

He was angry.  So angry.  “Damn you.  Damn you to hell.”

Izuna smirked, blood dribbling down his chin.  “Then I’ll wait for you there.”

Tears burned as Tobirama felt Izuna grip the hilt of his sword, only blood separating them.  That was always how it had been.  They were connected in every way but by blood, and in death he was sure of it.

“I suppose...you do know me...best.”

“Izuna, I—”  I’m sorry.

“I know.  I kn-know.”

Madara and Hashirama were running toward them, coming to their aid for the first time.  The world was upside down.  It should have been Madara, not Izuna.  Shadows are incorporeal.  They cannot die.

I am not my brother.

Izuna pushed the sword deeper and twisted it, dark eyes glazing over with the shock of pain.  And still he smiled.  Tobirama had never seen him smile.  Hot tears dripped onto his hand, mixing with Izuna’s blood.

“Maybe...curses can be b-broken...after all.”

Not like this.

He was gone before their brothers could reach them.

xxx

It was a beautiful day in the Hidden Leaf Village.  The sun was warm and a light breeze carried the scent of wildflowers to Tobirama’s porch where he sat enjoying the lazy afternoon.  It was too hot for his Hokage regalia, so he’d discarded it over the back of his chair.  He sensed her long before she turned the corner onto the street leading to his small abode.

“Mito.”

The redhead smiled and took a seat next to him.  “Contemplating again, Hokage-sama?”

He stiffened.  “Please don’t call me that.”

“It’s your title.”

“It’s my brother’s title.”

Mito’s smile faltered.  “It’s yours now.  He would be proud.”

Tobirama sighed.  After all was said and done, he and Mito were the only ones left.  It made no sense.  How could shadows linger without light to guide them?  He supposed he would lose his mind if not for her.

“How do you do it?” he asked.  “Every day...how do you do it?”

Mito put a hand over her navel, perhaps without thinking, and Tobirama could almost see her eyes run red with the Kyuubi’s hatred as it tried to consume her.  How did one overcome something so potent?

“I remember what it was like to love,” she said.  “But it’s impossible without knowing hatred.  Otherwise, you can’t tell the difference.”  Knowing eyes as verdant as the forests her husband raised for them seemed to look right through him.  “Izuna understood that, and I know you do, as well.”

Tobirama clenched a fist at the memory of his late rival.  His enemy.  The only one who had ever understood him.  Darkness may give light a place to shine, but it can never receive the same courtesy in return.  They’d never needed it, anyway.

“I can’t be Hashirama.  I’ll never be like him.”

“You don’t have to be.  Just don’t forget him.  Any of them.”

How could I?

Mito smiled and rose to leave him in peace, but his voice stopped her.

“He was wrong, you know.  The Uchiha’s curse couldn’t be broken in the end.  That’s why I have to do what I’m doing.”

She watched him with an unreadable look in her eyes.  After all that she’d been through with Madara and Hashirama, he supposed she could understand better than most what it meant to live with a curse.  

“You’re wrong.  You succeeded where Hashirama failed.  Stop blaming yourself for saving him.”

He let her go, too stunned to refute her statement.  He could not, just as he could not bring himself to disdain Uchiha Kagami when he saw so much of his uncle in him.  And he wondered if Izuna had seen Konoha, would he have smiled the way he’d smiled in death?

The sun began its descent toward the horizon.  Soon, the fireflies would be out and children would run through the streets to chase them, their laughter filling the air.  Tobirama would watch from the shadows as he always did.  

“You and I have the best view of the light from where we stand in the shadows.”

He sighed, a smile fighting to spread.  It was easy to imagine Izuna next to him here, his silent companion in the darkness even now.  He never really was alone in the end.

“Yes, we do.”

[thearkhound]

Ganbare Goemon Production Material Museum Part 2: The Odd Shogun Magginess

The second part of the Ganbare Goemon production material museum from the now-defunct official site. This entry covers the second Super Famicom game in the series, Ganbare Goemon 2: Kiteretsu Shōgun Magginess (The Odd Shogun Magginess), released on December 22, 1993, an entry which introduced Sasuke as a playable character (he was a boss in the first SFC game), as well as the giant mech Goemon Impact.

Note: The recently-released fan-translation uses the spelling “ McGuinness” for the titular antagonist, but I decided to go with Magginess, since that’s the spelling they used on the filename. I’m not sure if the character’s name actually has an official romanized spelling (feel free to point it out if he does).

Production Tidbits

Yamauchi: Wow! This brings me back! At the time when Shōgun Magginess was being made I was drawing minor enemy characters.

Ebisu: What games did you worked on before being involved with Goemon ?

Yamauchi: I worked on the TwinBee series. Do you know Pop’n TwinBee? There’s a girl named Madoka in that game. She was named after me.

Ebisu: Seriously!? I don’t think anyone who bought that game would’ve even imagined such a character being named after an old guy.

Yamauchi: Who are you calling an “old guy”? Anyway, let’s talk about Goemon.

Ebisu: Well, Shōgun Magginess was my first directorial assignment, so I was pretty passionate about it. We were creating various groundbreaking gameplay systems and such. We did things like this and like that. It was so amazing!

Yamauchi: I don’t know what’s amazing, but I drew various stuff like Goemon Impact.

Ebisu: When we started development we only had three programmers, including myself, as well as three graphic designers, including yourself.

Yamauchi: It was a really small team in retrospect. But by the end of development our team grew to around 20 people.

Ebisu: That’s right. We wanted to put in stuff like that Xexex minigame, but we didn’t have anyone who could do it. So we ended up asking for people from the other teams around us to help us out. It got to the point that even my senior development manager got involved with the programming. It’s not something I would think about now.

Yamauchi: At that time newly-hired designers were required to bring over a floppy disk to the head of the development department and show off a screen of the townspeople. (laughs) Even now I don’t go there often, since I would be facing the boss. (laughs)

Ebisu: Me neither. I don’t do retakes. (laughs)

Yamauchi: Are we posting concept art and documents for the boss characters once again? We don’t seem to have anything else.

Ebisu: Yeah, I wish I had kept better track of my documents.

Concept Art Gallery

Sumo Robo 

HP: 40 (60 in 2P Mode)

Description: A medium-sized mecha prepared by Marble Red, who loves sumo.

Techniques:

Vacuum Hand-Slap: A strong hand-slap that has a longer reach than it looks.

Buchikamashi: He rushes towards the opponent after posing in a stance.

Appearance: Area 1-4 - Sumo Castle (sub-boss)

Senshuraku

HP: 300

Description: Marble Red’s beloved giant robot. Despite being a self-proclaimed sumo fan, he doesn’t seem to be particularly skilled, with his main technique being a plainly named Hari-te (hand-slap) attack...

Techniques: Head-butt, Hari-te Bomber, Mage Bomber

Appearance: Area 1-6 - Dosukoi Plains (boss)

Kabuki Returns

HP: 250 (415 in 2P Mode)

Description: After being defeated by Goemon and Ebisumaru in the previous game he was recruited by Marble Blue in hopes of getting his revenge someday. He had most of his body modified into a karakuri mecha and has (apparently) improved.

Techniques:

Marble Bullets: Bombs which he launches with the Tsuzura box he carries on his back.

Poisonous Fog: A poisonous mist that he spits out from his mouth bit by bit.

Homing Wig: A flying wig that flies towards the player’s current position.

Appearance: Area 2-5 - Kabuki Castle (boss)

Tasogare Ichigō

HP: 10 (invulnerable while the hell’s candle burns)

Description: A mecha built by Marble Yellow, who likes to entertain people. He was been built to perform three kinds of shadow puppets functions, but none of them were particularly well-received to be honest, so they were given hostile characteristic as well.

Techniques:

Shadow Puppet Skill - The shadow puppets that he makes take form and attack the player. He has three types of shadow puppets: A dog, a cat and a black kite (that somehow sounds like a crow).

Appearance: Area 3-5 - Washoku Castle (sub-boss)

Sharekobe

HP: 300

Description: A giant lightweight mecha created by Marble 5 based on their prior experience with Senshuraku. The spinning top he stands atop on was idea suggested by Marble Green, who loves toys, and is one of the key features of this mech.

Techniques: Spinning Top Attack, 6x Marble Bullets, Deserter Spirit Ball, Otadutsu Kick

Appearance: Area 3-7 -Susono River (boss)

Omen Ninja

HP: 300 (500 in 2P mode)

Description: A multi-functional mecha that Marble Green came up with. However, he can only perform one function depending on the mask he’s currently wearing.

Techniques:

Unmasked: Jumping, Shuriken

Neko Mask: Axe

Kitsune Mask: Kick

Hyotokko Mask: Ninja Beam

Appearance: Area 4-7 - Kokeshi Castle (boss)

Mikoshi Tengu

HP: 500

Description: It was originally built by Marble Black, leader of the Marble 5, for Magginess’s Japanese Conquest Memorial Parade, but was modified for combat. It is equipped with a pair of Kadomatsu Launchers, a newly-developed weapon that can be remote-controlled.

Techniques: Elehand Attack, Nose Barrage, Double Elehand Attack, Kadomatsu Launcher, Thorn Barrage, Rapid Barrage

Appearance: Area 5-5 Magginess’s Army Underground Tunnel (boss)

Shogun Magginess & His Floating Kettle

HP: 100 (165 in 2P mode)

Description: He is actually a robot decoy built by the real Magginess to attract the attention of his enemies. His coolness factor is said to be 20% higher than the real deal himself.

Techniques:

Kettle Laser: A laser beam fired from the bottom of the floating pot.

Purple Umbrella: An umbrella-shaped bomb that explodes when it hits the ground.

Red Umbrella: An umbrella that opens up in mid-fall.

Kettle Attack: A charging attack.

Appearance: Area 6-4 - Magginess’s Castle Tower (boss)

Goemon Impact (Evil Version)

Description: A version of Impact that was successfully (or so it seems) hijacked after it was abandoned by Goemon and his friends. He pilots it alongside Omicchan.

Techniques:

Koban Snot Attack: Aims and shoots at the player.

Karakuri Punch: Three consecutive attacks are launched.

Kiseru Pipe Bomb: Impact inhales the smoke of the Kiseru Pipe and exhales. It doesn’t do any direct damage to the player, but it can cause them to fly high in the sky.

Marble Shells: Explosives thrown by members of the Marble 5.

Appearance: Area 6-4 - Magginess’s Castle Tower (boss)

[limelocked]

ramble about ocs i havent drawn yet and only some have picrews so gonna just show them yet

Uchiha Yokumo is born in the warring states period around the same time as the third hokage and is around 12 when the first hokage “kills” Uchiha Madara, born during war and taught to be distrustful this is where he starts plotting to leave the village, he enlists in the newly created ninja training institution and graduates three years later. Observant about the world around him at 20 years old he  predicts a war, a year later the first great shinobi war wages, he “goes missing” during a mission guarding the border and is presumed dead

Yokumo hastely rotates the Uchiha clans symbol to look like a red crescent on a white moon, he takes the name Kadzuki and vows to never use the sharingan against an opponent again, this to blend in. He travels the border countries to the land of Fire for almost two years until someone in the land of grass tells him that the war ended the same year it started. He settles in a small village and at 25 marries Kusanagi Asaro, a seamstress and weaver and have their first child the same year, they name their daughter Tenjo. 

Their second child, a son named Jiyuro, is born with heavy complications a year and a half later leaving Asaro bedridden for months. When learning of this later in life Jiyuro will develop a false belief that his father hates him. Two years later the last son is born with equal or greater complications, he is named Chiban.

Aged 6 Tenjo watches her father use jutsu against bandits that threaten the village. She tells Jiyuro (5) and Chiban (3). Tenjo and Jiyuro agree to do whatever it takes to be as cool as their dad. They nag at Yokumo to teach them and they start their basic training a year later under the excuse of self defense. Two years later when Tenjo turns 9 she starts  doing “missions” in the village for spare change and goodwill, something her brothers join in on quickly and Asaro names them Team Yokumo.

Yokumo and Asaro are around 40, Tenjo is 12, Jinyuro is 11 and Chiban is 9 when the second great war starts. Tenjo and Jiyuro has awakened their sharingans and want to protect the village but Asaro and Yokumo forbids them and tells them about the sharingan, they are only to use them in defense of the self or the team and the sharingan shall never be used unless its life or death. They are assigned their first real mission that they should evacuate the villagers should forces invade.

Three uneasy years pass until shinobi enter their village which is destroyed as a impromptu battlefield, due to the efforts of Team Yokumo there are no casualties and the small village population moves north to set up again. Yokumo and Asaro become the official leaders of the village, something Yokumo hates and Asaro humbly accepts. At least 5 years pass without incident before the war is over, though Tenjo and Jiyuro bugs their father to teach them to use the sharingan  effectively during this time. He relents and Chiban gains an inferiority complex due to him not being able to awaken sharingan, Asaro cheers him up and suggests becoming a genjustu expert to surpass and help his siblings. Once the war is over he is able to  use precise to trick an enemies vision to not see his siblings use sharingan. Yokumo and Asaro are around 48 when the war ends, Tenjo is 20, Jiyuro is 19 and Chiban is 17.

Jiyuro moves in with his partner Pantama Hoshi.

Tenjo has a daughter with Hatsunaio Ha’ame at age 21, they name her Renge and promise their lives to each other. Once Ha’ame learns about the sharingan a year later his mission is over and he attempts to flee in the night to report about the ninja team without a hidden village. Tenjo kills him and obtains the Mangekou Sharingan as well as trust issues and depression. The family vows to take care of Renge together.

Hoshi and Jinyuros (22) daughter is born and named Nishi, the same year Chiban (20) becomes the adoptive father of Yamatora Seihos five year old son Usagi.

The next year news arrive that the third great war has begun. The siblings worry about their parents aging and Yokumos ability to lead them when hes around 52 years old. Yokumo officially names Tenjo as the heir of the clan and the leader of the team until they gain subordinates of their own.

Tenjo (24) meets Tsumashin Aishika and while distrusting him greatly he becomes a family friend, Yokumo admits his trust for Aishika. A year later Hoshi and Jiyuro (24) have their son Takuhi

The village lives domestically away from the war and Tenjo (28) grows to trust and love Aishika, they have a daughter named Hotoki that present complications for Tenjo during delivery but like her mother she makes it through. A year later through many arguments and worries they decide to have a third child, Tenjo arguing that is Asaro could make it through three kids then so should she.

She gives birth to Makato but dies less than a week after the birth due to complications. A similar vow is made to care for Hotoki and Makoto as the whole clan. Renge (9) who was being taught jutsu by her mother is confused by the death. Jiyuro creates Team Tenjo consisting of Renge (9), Nishi (7) and Takuhi (5). Renge throws herself into training and shows chakra natures to Nishi and talks about how her paper crinkles because shes a natural lightning style user, when she shows Jiyuro holding the paper in her other hand it cuts in two.

News travels with a group of attacked shinobi that the war was over two years ago, Team Tenjo and Chiban apologizes and the misunderstanding is cleared up, Yokumo gets news of the near destruction of Konoha by kyubi, he tells the clan about tailed beasts and dedicates himself to telling them everything he knows about the ninja world and art. Renge is named the heir to head of clan.

Three years passes mostly uneventfully, the kids grow and train, taking on missions and even getting a few requests outside the village by traders. Team Tenjo nag at Jiyuro to be allowed into the chunin exams but are forbidden from doing so until one in their team can use Chibans ability of genjutsu. They try to get Chiban to teach them but Seiho has given birth to twins, two daughters named Hikame and Yorukoi. Team Tenjo takes in Hotoki (5) as a new student. Usagi (15) feels left out by his half siblings and takes up Asaros craft.

Renge (13), Nishi (11) and Takuhi (9) convince Jiyuro (32) to let them take the chunin exam if they can take him down.

Renge (15) has learned to use her kekkei genkai, its components (lightning and wind) as well as being able to use the families fire style, Nishi (13) specializes in sealing and summoning and Takuhi (11) has with great care taken up Chibans craft with genjutsu as well as being a solid decent in taijutsu. They take down Jiyuro at a weak moment and he acknowledges them as full ninja, allowing them to do the chunin exam. 

Yokumo (62) forbids it though as hes gotten the news that the Konoha Uchiha branch has been slaughtered and that other than the Kadzuki clan there are only two people left alive with the sharingan and one of them is a rogue ninja. He decides to finally tell the “heads” (Aishika, Renge, Hoshi, Jiyuro, Seiho and Chiban) about WHY they should never show the sharingan and why they should now never enter Konoha and preferably the land of fire, they are now the head family of the sharingan and the greatest chance of uchiha survival cuz the 7 year old runt survivor must have been only luck

[eldunea]

god ok i haven’t even started anakin’s blog yet but i already have his entire pokéverse thought out here i go

ORIGINS.

anakin was born in my fakémon region of preuzien to an enslaved old prussian (prūsai) family. in real life the old prussians were exterminated but in the pokémon world they were made the slaves of the junker ruling class. when the allies came into germany after wwii they tried to put a stop to this but unfortunately were not entirely successful.

as in canon, he has no biological human father, he’s like……the universe’s kid or something, it’s where he gets his insane powers from. in this verse he is also definitely a chosen one, but don’t take that to mean he isn’t a douche because he still totally is

like in canon he was a racer, but he didn’t race pods he raced dragons. his master knew he could make big bucks off him from an early age due to his abilities so according to prussian custom he was put on a dragon before he could learn to walk and learned how to ride that way. 

he speaks three languages: german, prūsiskai (the old prussian language) and english. his inability to speak japanese has been a weakness of his that he wants to improve on, and so he is studying that as well.

his first pokémon was a racing noivern that he named majjis, which is old prussian for “corn.” she loves her name and he didn’t even change it after he went vader, it was real fucking obvious which one of “team sith” would go back to the light side when all the other admins named their pokémon stuff like “void devourer” and “bone crusher” and here was darth vader with his ace named fucking. corn. he is currently 36 and starting from like age 10 he never lost a single race while riding corn until he was finally defeated by his son luke.

also like in canon, he won his freedom in a race but was unable to free his mother. much like lotor at the age of 12, anakin had the sense to get the fuck out of preuzien, but unlike lotor, nothing pressing dragged him back. he went to make a name for himself as a trainer and racer around the world, and also became the world’s strongest psychic.

he did go back to prussia briefly to rescue his mom. by that point shmi had been brutally beaten for refusing to give sexual favors to her master, and died in anakin’s arms. enraged, he slaughtered the entire family that had enslaved him.

DESCENT AND REDEMPTION.

as in canon, he was tormented by prophetic dreams of his lover padmé amidala dying and was corrupted by sheev palpatine to join the sith order (colloquially referred to as “team sith”), a criminal organization in orre that stole some of team snagem’s shadow-turning techniques and aimed to do it on a grander scale. palpatine’s goal was to build something known as the shadow star, a weapon so powerful that when aimed at a planet, it could turn all beings shadow, even arceus. the sith order would then use shadow control techniques to rule the world. but one thing that palpatine was also obsessed with was the search for immortality, which is how he baited anakin into joining him--by promising he could save the one he loved.

when anakin became darth vader, he allowed palpatine to turn him into a SHADOW HUMAN, just like all the other team sith admins. this means that much like a shadow pokémon, the door to his heart was sealed and much of his original personality was subsumed into just. this roiling inner turmoil of anger and violence. formally, nobody knew that star trainer and dragon racer anakin skywalker was actually underground crime lord darth vader, but they could all tell that something was really, really wrong because he started becoming colder and more withdrawn to his fans that he had formerly loved. 

nobody guessed that he had become a shadow, however, because they all attributed his change in personality to the cybernetic enhancements he had been given. by this point he had lost half his head and three of his limbs in battle, and so they were replaced with prosthetics and his artificial brain was enhanced with programming for metagross supercomputers. metagross are known for being assholes who think more like machines than living beings, so it was easy for his adoring fans to believe that anakin’s change of personality was no fault of his own.

he was purified by his children, luke and leia. they were battling rivals who later discovered that they were twins and figured out who their father was. meeting them, he felt human again for the first time when he was around them…then they told him they wanted to defeat the evil darth vader and darth sidious and restore balance to orre, and he was just. well this is awkward.

his first instinct was to just kill his children but something held him back. so instead of killing them, he accompanied them on pointless missions that would ultimately lead them nowhere near close to defeating him and sidious--just to keep them distracted. little did he know, the more he fought alongside them and spent time with them, the more his heart gauge was emptied and the closer he became to purification.

much like a shadow pokémon, the more he was purified, the more his body and brain resisted it. finally the temptation to stay shadow became too strong, at which point he told his kids he was vader, locked them up, and turned them over to sidious to dispose of them. they managed to escape, however, after which there was a double battle of luke and leia vs. vader and sidious. the twins found themselves quickly overwhelmed, and sidious was about to kill them--when the sight of the two children about to die in front of them instantly emptied the remainder of anakin’s heart gauge. finally feeling real love again for the first time in years, anakin killed his master and saved his twins. luke and leia then took him to a purification chamber to be fully restored.

CURRENT STATUS.

anakin has returned to preuzien to become one of its strategic gym leaders. his gym’s theme is sky battles, which are fought only by pokémon that can stay airborne such as flying-types and those with the ability to levitate. though this may seem to be restrictive, anakin can still fight with a diverse mixture of pokémon.

he’s actually a league member in two regions: preuzien, aka german prussia, and prutenia, the newly-instated old prussian nation. essentially he’s a diplomat but in many ways he’s the wrong choice because……darth vader, have you fucking met him? however, lotor deliberately chose someone who was angry and undiplomatic to fulfill this role because he wanted to make it very clear to the german prussians that the rights and sovereignty of the prūsai are completely non-negotiable and there is a guy in the prutenian league who will happily beat the shit out of anyone who says otherwise.

he and lotor have a very strained relationship. on one hand anakin has healed a lot since he left the sith, and he is very concerned because he sees lotor going down the same path as he did. but on the other hand he still has a long way to go yet acts like he’s 100% redeemed when he lectures lotor, and lotor sees right through this…then when lotor calls anakin out on the fact he still has issues, anakin gets all pissy. also, anakin correctly suspects that lotor is using him as an ally for his “chosen one” status, inviting him to the league and giving him a second chance in spite of him being vader because he wants to get on the legendaries’ good side by treating their chosen one well. basically them being colleagues is an Angry Bastard Disaster that they need a lot of sorting through if they are ever going to be on truly good terms.

one time anakin straight up “force choked” lotor using his psychic powers in a fit of rage. lotor taunted him by choking out the words “vader…you haven’t changed.” this could easily have led to lotor’s death, as anakin was highly emotionally charged, but instead of snapping his neck psychically at that moment he dropped him to the floor and left the room. a sign of hope in their relationship perhaps?

honestly he’s? still a fucking mess??? like just because he left the sith doesn’t mean his issues are over. he’s still angry over his mother’s death and over padmé’s death, and now he’s angry that he let palpatine manipulate him and suffers from crippling guilt that he nearly killed his two kids. not to mention psychologically he’s part machine now so he has forgotten how to be human in some ways, and it’s in this way that he still hasn’t stopped being vader.

he doesn’t feel love for anyone except his twins, majjis, and padmé. he feels small likings toward other people and pokémon and he is trying to turn that into something deeper, but he’s still extremely stunted.

he gets terribly impatient with humans when they’re not as precise or as exacting as he is. in the og movies darth vader hated anything that he perceived to be incompetence, and anakin is the same way…except now that he’s part metagross, his standard of “competence” is so far above anything humans can do that he inevitably gets irritated and lashes out at people just for being human.

he’s lost all interest in “the little things.” he doesn’t appreciate the warmth of a sunny day or the coolness of a soft breeze or seeing a pretty looking bug on the sidewalk or anything like that, the only thing he is fixated on 24/7 is sharpening his intellect. he’s kind of like sabrina in that way.

MISC.

this would be his battle theme, full stop.

he has an aegislash variant that is basically a lightsaber: the hilt is metal but the blade is pure energy. 

he is an overprotective dad and in that way he’s kind of a hypocrite, because of how he was once the biggest threat to his kids before he reformed. he gets rEAL FUCKING ANGRY when leia starts dating han solo, saying he’s just a street rat from orre and he’ll eventually stab her in the back and she’s like do i need to remind you of how you almost killed us?

he doesn’t need to hold out his hand to force choke someone bc that’s not how psychic powers in pokéverse work, he just does it because he’s a dramatic little bitch

he eventually has five grandchildren, all of which he gets overprotective toward. on luke’s side: ben skywalker. on leia’s side: jaina, jacen, anakin and ren solo. and if you thought him disliking han solo was bad, you should see his reaction when ren starts dating palpatine’s granddaughter rey…he just tENSES any time he’s around her saying i sense a great potential for evil in her and his kids are like oh really, well we’ve been sensing that in YOU ever since we met you and we don’t judge, so………damn i hate canon reylo but i mean it could work in an AU where kylo ren was never evil

[likexporcelain]

A Crack in Everything (Chapter 7/8) - Jonerys

Summary: Six years after their high school romance ended in emotional ruin, Daenerys Targaryen runs into Jon Snow by chance on Valentine's Day, forcing old memories to resurface. This sudden reunion could be cathartic, but it could also deepen the cracks already in their hearts. The question Daenerys grapples with is, will this all be worth it in the end?

Rating: Explicit

First 7 chapters up on Ao3 -- find more tags/warnings/notes there

The paper where my fingers pinched the check became damp with sweat despite the chilly room temperature. A tear had slipped from my cheek to land on the memo line where Robb had scribbled “Take care of yourself cuz.” I couldn't even allow myself a chuckle at the irony. I lowered the checks back into the kitchen drawer and pushed it shut. When my water glass was empty, I set it by the sink and padded across the hall to the bathroom, larger than mine but more old fashioned with tile instead of linoleum floors, a porcelain pedestal sink instead of a cheap plywood vanity, and a rusted claw-foot tub surrounded by a blue shower curtain instead of a skinny shower stall with a glass door. A little window above the toilet gave the room some morning light. I peed, then washed my hands and looked for mouth wash or maybe even an unopened toothbrush.

In the medicine cabinet, the first thing I saw were pill bottles. Lots of them. I couldn't help myself. I turned the bottles one by one so I could see each label. Heavy duty pain killers, not yet finished, but the bottles hadn't been refilled in months. An empty bottle of antibiotics. Klonopin, unfinished, recently refilled.

“Hey.”

With a start, I flipped around. Jon stood in the doorway in only his boxers, rubbing an eye with the back of his hand.

“Hi,” I replied softly. “Sorry. I was snooping a little.”

“It's okay.” He stepped into the bathroom and put his arms around me. I returned the embrace with my cheek against his shoulder, breathing in his stale morning scent like it was a newly bloomed rose.

“We take the same anxiety meds.”

He chuckled against my hair. “It's almost like we're related or something.”

Leaning back, I gave him a pointed look, though my mouth was smiling. “So we're making jokes about it now? I suppose that's progress.”

“Sorry.”

“Don't be.” I pulled Jon close again, hands splayed across his back. “We should be able to talk about it with each other. I don't like it, but I don't want to pretend with you either. We can't change who we are.”

My face turned warm as I stood against him, feeling my eyes begin to water again. His hand smoothed down my hair behind my head in slow strokes.

“What are you thinking about?”

“My family.” I sniffled, but that couldn't keep the first tear from falling. “My mom. My dad. Rhaegar. Do you think he really loved your mother?”

A stretch of silence was Jon's response and I wanted to take back the question. I leaned back against the sink and brought my arms around myself instead, but Jon's hand never left my hair, sliding down to twist the ends around his fingers.

“I don't know,” he eventually said. “I don't think my mom would have loved someone who didn't deserve it, though.”

“I hope you're right. I know he did bad things, but I don't want to believe he was a bad person. He must have been a little bit good, right?”

Jon nodded, but seemed unsure. I suppose we'd never be sure.

To break the solemn mood I'd started the day off with, I offered a small smile and said “I found your money drawer.”

His cheeks pinked as his head shook. “Robb. . . worries about me. And you know, in the Stark family, when you worry about someone, you send them money. He doesn't like me living on my own.”

“Has it been hard?”

“No. It's been nice being alone actually. Too nice. I think I want to be done with that now.”

Stepping forward, I brought my mouth to his, but before our lips could touch, I leaned back. “Do you have an extra toothbrush?”

He left the bathroom and managed to bring me back a brand new one, still in the package, from the closet of the tiny bedroom. We brushed our teeth side by side, and as mundane as the act was, it felt oddly intimate. A glimpse into what life would be like if I finally got to live with Jon Snow. Then we showered together – just showering, aside from the occasional open-mouthed kiss under the spray of water. I turned my back to Jon and he washed my hair. I wondered how long it would take to grow to the length it was in high school. Jon wouldn't say it, but I knew he preferred it long, and so did I.

After toweling off and throwing on a t-shirt and track pants, Jon told me he was going downstairs to smoke. I nodded and kissed him before he went, then began to dress myself, putting on my same khaki pants from yesterday but stealing one of Jon's black hoodies instead of wearing my Martell's yellow polo shirt. I had work again at noon, but I made the executive decision to call in sick. I wasn't sure if Daario believed me or not on the phone, but I didn't really care. Normally, fake-calling in sick would have given me a panic attack, but this time I was as calm as could be, because I knew that once I hung up, I would get to spend the rest of the day, and night, with Jon.

After sliding my phone into my pocket and slipping on my sneakers, I decided to get some air myself and left the apartment, heading down the stairs and through the secondary front door that lead out to the stoop in front of the building. Jon was sitting at the top of the steps, flicking ashes into a Folgers can. When I shut the door behind me, he turned and offered me a smile.

“You're so beautiful,” he told me as I sat down beside him. My arm went around his and I rested my cheek on the curve of his shoulder.

“Hush.”

After Jon put out his cigarette, we remained on the stoop, sitting together in comfortable silence. A man in pajamas was walking his dog across the street. A couple of joggers were on their way toward the nearest path to the beach. Light Sunday morning traffic interrupted the songs of birds perched in trees along the sidewalk. A few minutes went by before Jon said “I've been thinking about something.”

“That's a good sign,” I gently teased.

“I've been thinking that we should get married. If we get married, I can transfer my G. I. Bill to you and you can go back to school for free.”

And that was how Jon Snow proposed to me. Sitting on the steps outside his apartment, eyes watching the world in front of us with his hand holding mine. I lifted my head and blinked at him, wondering if he had taken some of those pain pills without me noticing, but he looked calm and when he turned to me, his eyes were clear and unwavering.

“Jon. . .” My heart did a flip in my chest. “I don't need you to pay for me to go to school. That's not what I want. I don't want anything from you except you.”

“If we're going to be together, you're going to get things from me, Daenerys. That's just how it works.”

“I don't have anything to give you.”

“That's a joke, right?” He leaned in and pressed a kiss to my temple. “When you're making bank as a world famous whatever it is you want to be, I'll finally get to fulfill my lifelong dream of being the world's sexiest domesticated househusband.”

I snorted a laugh, grinning ear to ear.

“Besides,” Jon continued, voice turning serious again, “I wouldn't be paying for it. The Army would be paying for it. I almost died for those assholes. I had to watch friends die for them, and watch them die all over again almost every fucking night while I sleep. The least they can do is pay for you to go to school. You were always supposed to go to school.”

I slid my hand out of his so that I could put my arm around his back. “That money is supposed to be for you, Jon. You deserve it more than I do.”

“That's not true. And either way, I'm not going to college. I don't want to go to college. I never did.” A corner of his mouth lifted as he said “I'm an Assistant Team Leader at Whole Foods. Full-time. Twenty whole dollars an hour. I've got a 401k account and health insurance. Not to brag or anything, but I'm doing alright for myself, even without a degree. . . If you don't want to marry me, though, I would understand.”

“I've wanted to marry you since high school,” I said softly. “We can't, though. We never can. It. . . It isn't legal.”

“Who would know?”

“Your uncle. Robb. Whoever else they told. Sam, if you told him.”

“They would never tell anyone. And I never told Sam. I never told anyone. Not even those psychiatrists I had to see while I was in the hospital.”

“What about the DNA test?” I asked, my voice barely audible.

* * * * *

I hadn't even known about a DNA test until days after that evening at the Stark residence. It was a Saturday and I had spent the whole morning pacing around my apartment, trying to find anything I could sell that would earn me some decent money. Unfortunately, the only thing I owned of real value was my laptop, which I needed to complete my final class projects and also as a method of finding quick jobs. I had posted ads for everything from babysitting to dog walking to house cleaning. Anything that would give me an immediate paycheck.

There was a knock on my door and it startled me because no one ever knocked on my door unless I was expecting a maintenance guy. Of course, I usually scheduled those visits for when I wouldn't be home, leaving a key under the 'Welcome' mat, preferring the possibility of being robbed to the possibility of something worse happening while alone in my apartment with a stranger. When I opened the door, however, it wasn't a middle aged man standing in the hallway. It was Jon.

This was the first time I'd seen him since we sat at Ned Stark's table. He hadn't been at school and I knew it was because he didn't want to see me. Despite my nerves, I had asked Sam if he'd heard from Jon, worrying beyond worry that Jon had told his friend what had happened.

“Some sort of family crisis,” Sam had replied, and his expression suggested that he wasn't lying for my benefit. “He didn't really elaborate, but I don't think he's coming back. I'm surprised he didn't tell you.”

“I think that we broke up,” I replied before quickly leaving the conversation to find a private place to cry.

Family emergency indeed. It was emergent that he stay away from me, his family member, less he be reminded of all the things we had done together – all those things once viewed as signs of affection between young lovers, now warped into something sinister and taboo. Our relationship was now a character flaw. I was the perverted aunt, and he the molested nephew. Did it not matter that we were ignorant? Were we not redeemable? Was I a monster for loving him still, for wanting to be with him regardless? Was my attraction to him romantically and physically supposed to vanquish just like that? Apparently, his had.

But then he came to my door that Saturday and he looked sad and nervous and like he hadn't slept in days, and the optimistic part of me wondered if he had come to apologize and take me in his arms, to tell me it was okay and that we would figure this out together.

The first words out of his mouth after I let him inside, though, were “Apparently my uncle had a DNA test done just after I was born.”

I wasn't sure what I was supposed to say in response to that, so I replied with a change of subject. “You haven't been at school.”

“No, I'm taking all of my finals independently. My uncle set it up. I've decided to actually try, though, so I'm pretty sure I'll be able to graduate at least. Which is good, because you have to have a high school diploma to enlist in the Army.”

“What?”

“I'm going to join the Army. As soon as I have my diploma.”

I had been so shocked I barely understood the words the first time he spoke them, but after the second time, it felt like the room was spinning. This was the opposite of what I had planned for us. We were supposed to stay together. Me at Caltech, him working or starting at a city college, us spending every weekend together until we could afford to get a nice apartment of our own. I knew that Jon was horrified by what we'd learned the other day, but I hadn't thought he was so disgusted by me that he needed to join an organization that would take him to another side of the planet for however many years.

“Don't,” was all my voice could get out.

“I have to.”

“No, you don't.”

“I do, Daenerys. I can't be here anymore. I need to be somewhere else, away from everyone.”

“Away from me.”

I wanted him to say no, even if it was a lie, but Jon had never lied to me. “Yes,” he confirmed.

Quickly, I turned around, hand covering my mouth as tears began to fall. That was when I realized that this would be the last time I'd ever see Jon. I had fallen in love, and now it was ending. I thought back to that popular saying about how experiencing a true love was worth all the pain. In that moment, I disagreed. I wished I had never met Jon. Because now I was ruined, doomed to love a man who couldn't even stand to live on the same continent as me.

Facing the wall, I said “You don't have to go. You hate me now, and that's okay. I won't call you or text you, and if I ever see you I'll turn and walk the other way. You don't have to go.”

“I'm not leaving because I hate you. I'm leaving because I love you.”

Maybe the words should have eased my suffering, but they didn't. They made me confused and angry on top of all the sad. I turned to face him and met his eyes. They were red like mine, but he was doing a better job of keeping in his tears.

“If you love me, then stay. Stay with me.”

“Stay?” he asked. “Didn't you hear me? There's a DNA test. We're related. You're my aunt, Daenerys. My fucking aunt.”

“It doesn't matter!”

“How can it not fucking matter?!”

It was the first and only time I'd ever heard him yell, and it was to yell at me. I felt my body wilting, dying. Jon turned away from me this time, wiping at his face where his emotions had finally won over.

“Why did you even come here?” I asked, voice turning dull and quiet. “To hurt me?”

It took him a few moments to turn back to me. When he did, his hand slid from his pocket and out with it, came an envelope. I knew what it was the second the white paper came into view, but I decided to give Jon the benefit of the doubt, one last time. Maybe it wasn't what I knew it was. So, I let him hand it to me. But when I lifted the flap and pulled out the slip of paper inside, it may as well have been a Polaroid of him fucking another girl, because I felt just as betrayed, staring at a replica of the check I had refused to take from Robb. Just imagining the conversation that must have taken place after I left that evening made me sick to my stomach. Jon, Robb and Ned all sitting around the table discussing the sad case of Daenerys Targaryen – the pathetic little girl accidentally fucked her nephew if you can believe that, and now she's going to be homeless if we don't throw her a few bucks.

A tear slid from the apple of my cheek to stain a wet circle over the “five” in five-thousand just before I tore it up into little pieces. I heard Jon groan, no doubt thinking of how he would have to ask Ned for a fresh check.

“Daenerys, please,” he tried, exasperated, but I was done listening to him.

“Get the fuck out of here,” I told him, the little paper pieces falling from my hands to the carpet like confetti.

“Daenerys.” He took a step closer to me.

“I said, get the fuck out!” I demanded, shoving him away from me. “I don't want your fucking money! Get out of my apartment and don't come back! You're a fucking piece of shit like everyone else! All I wanted was you and you give me money! You said you needed me! You're a fucking liar!”

“I didn't lie. I do need you,” he said quickly, as I shoved him closer to the door. “That's why I have to go. I need to figure out how to stop needing you, Daenerys. I love you.”

“Well, I hate you!” I turned to my bed to where my Harvard sweatshirt was laid out, picked it up and shoved it against Jon's chest while I pushed him the rest of the way to the door. “You can have this back, too. You don't want me. Harvard doesn't want me. You can both fucking rot.”

I pulled the door open, and pushed Jon out of it.

“Daenerys --” he tried once more.

I interrupted him, shouting “Eat shit and die!” before slamming the door in his face. I fell to my knees, sobbing into my hands as quietly as I could, which wasn't quiet at all. “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you,” I whispered while I cried, but I wasn't saying it to Jon anymore. I was saying it to myself.

* * * * *

“There would be, like, a paper trail, or whatever, right?” I asked. “If there was a DNA test then that means that some lab somewhere has a record of analyzing our DNA.”

Jon shook his head. “Ned had it done discreetly. No names. Just samples. Mine and your brother's.”

While I was curious to know how Ned Stark had attained Rhaegar's DNA, it wasn't important enough to me to ask. Instead, I said “Ned would never let you marry me. He would tell someone if it meant keeping you away from me.”

“I'll talk to him.”

I laughed, genuine. “Remember what happened the last time you told me you'd talk to Ned?”

Smiling a bit bashfully, Jon nodded.

“We don't have to get married. We can still be together forever without getting married. I promise I'll go back to school. A state school and I'll apply for scholarships and aid.”

“My mom never got to marry the person she loved,” Jon then said. “I don't want us to be like them. I want us to be better. We deserve better. We never hurt anyone. My uncle will see that. I know he will.”

I wasn't sure why, after everything, but I believed him.

But then, like a divine intervention sent to destroy me once again, a black Lincoln pulled up in front of the building, causing Jon to mutter “This isn't good.”

When a man with a face I recognized, though older now, emerged from the driver's side door, I felt like I did sitting at that dining room table six years ago, like everything was about to come to an end. Jon stood and so did I, reflexively separating myself from my boyfriend – fiancee? – and shoving my hands into my hoodie pockets. Robb stopped at the bottom of the steps and looked up at his cousin, then at me. Even with surprise evident in his eyes and mouth as he took in the sight of me and Jon together again, Robb looked even more sophisticated and proper than the last time I saw him. I figured he'd be done with school by now and already started a fancy career, maybe following in his father's and grandfather's footsteps by becoming an attorney.

“Dany,” he said. “You cut your hair.”

Resisting the urge to bite a nail, I replied “Yes, but I'm growing it out again.”

He simply nodded, then turned his attention to Jon. “You haven't been answering my calls lately.”

“Yeah, I've been working a lot.”

“That's good. You're still not cashing the checks either.”

“I told you I wasn't going to.”

I had to try not to smile. It wasn't that I resented Robb – I never blamed him for anything – but it was nice to see Jon stand up for himself the way I had to.

Apprehensively, Robb climbed the steps, asking “Can we talk?”

Jon looked to me.

“I'll wait here. It's fine,” I told him. No matter what Robb had to say to Jon, I wasn't going to stand in the way of it happening. Like Jon said, we never hurt anyone. I would never try to turn Jon against his family the way Rhaegar seemed to do to Lyanna.

“We won't be long,” Robb assured without making eye contact.

Before Jon lead Robb up to his apartment, he put his hand on my hip and kiss me. Gentle, but lingering, loving, a kiss that could only be interpreted as romantic in nature. I wasn't sure if it was a show for Robb or an act of reassurance for me, but I was content either way, because either way, the kiss said that I was special to Jon and that nothing Robb would say to him upstairs would change anything between us. Still, though, I would be lying if I said I wasn't terrified the entire length of time I spent sitting on that stoop, watching the sun inch higher into the sky, checking Facebook on my phone for the first time in a year, wondering if any of my 43 “friends” would notice if I changed my status to 'In a Relationship.'

Fifteen minutes later, the outer front door to Jon's apartment opened once more. In my unease, I stood again, wrapping my arms around myself like the air was colder than it was.

“It was good seeing you again, Dany.” Robb managed a glance at me before descending the steps. Before he reached his car, though, I found my feet following him quickly.

“Robb,” I said after him.

Somewhat startled, he turned to face me. I noticed how much he looked like Ned now, but that didn't intimidate me.

“I'll make him answer your calls,” I said. “But, you don't have to worry so much. I'll take care of him for you.”

He smiled, even chuckled a bit, the awkward tension receding. “Alright. Well, good. He's my only cousin, you know. I thought you were going to ask me what I said to him.”

“I think I have an idea. I'm more interested to know what Jon said in response.”  

“It was pretty much the same thing he told me last month. Something along the lines of – Whether I'm with her or not, she's the love of my life, and nothing will ever change that.”

My cheeks flushed pink and my nose scrunched as I smiled bashfully down at my feet. After a moment, I picked my head back up and asked “Last month?”

“Yeah, he called me at almost midnight on Valentine's Day, completely interrupting my wife and I during – you know – saying that he talked to you again. He wanted my advice, and I gave it, but obviously he went and did the opposite.”

The information made my smile widen. “I know you don't approve, but --”

“It's not that I don't approve,” he interrupted calmly. “I like you. I've never not liked you, even in high school when everyone seemed to not like you. Even being a Stark knowing you were a Targaryen. But. . . You know. . .  You and Jon together, knowing what I know. . . It feels weird.”

“I know. But you should know that however weird it feels for you, it feels a thousand times more weird for us. So imagine how much we must love each other to be able to deal with it in order to be together. And then imagine how you might feel if you suddenly found out your wife was your aunt.”

Robb broke out in awkward laughter, bringing his hand to the back of his neck. “Yeah, I do not want to imagine that.”

“Congratulations, by the way.”

“Thanks. We actually have a baby now, too. Named after my father, but we all call him Eddie.”

“That's amazing,” I said wistfully, trying not to think about my own baby. “I wanted to ask you a favor actually. You probably tell your wife everything, as you should, but could you just not tell her that Jon and I are. . . you know? Could you not tell anyone?”

After a moment, Robb asked “Will you make Jon cash those checks?”

“You know I'm not going to do that.”

“Yeah, I know. I would never tell anyone anyway. It was never really any of my business. And even if I would, I suppose I owe you a favor.”

He didn't, but I nodded anyway.

After he had climbed back into his sleek sedan, I rejoined Jon at the top of the porch where he'd been waiting for me, partaking in another cigarette.

“Will you marry me if I quit smoking?” he asked once the smoke had left his parted lips.

I hugged him tight, breathing him in. I didn't mind the tobacco smell actually. I found it warm and quaint like a hearth in a log cabin or a grandfather's library while he lets you pick out any book you want, but I wasn't going to tell Jon that because I was going to need him to quit eventually, if he was going to live a long, happy life with me.

“I'll marry you if you buy me breakfast. Bonus points if it's waffles,” I answered, then pressed a gentle kiss to his mouth.

“What are the bonus points on top of marriage?”

I pursed my lips and averted my eyes to give off the impression of deep contemplation before replying “Lots of sex?”

Dropping his half-smoked cigarette into the Folgers can, Jon excitedly exclaimed “Waffles it is.”

[newstfionline]

Saturday, November 28, 2020

Inching toward exit (Reuters) U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he will leave the White House if the Electoral College votes for President-elect Joe Biden, the closest he has come to conceding the Nov. 3 election, even as he repeated claims of massive voter fraud. Speaking to reporters on the Thanksgiving holiday, Republican Trump said if Democrat Biden—who is due to be sworn in on Jan. 20—is formally declared the winner by the Electoral College, he will depart the White House. Asked if he would leave the White House if the Electoral College votes for Biden, Trump said: “Certainly I will. Certainly I will. And you know that.”

Schools struggle to stay open as quarantines sideline staff (AP) The infection of a single cafeteria worker was all it took to close classrooms in the small Lowellville school district in northeastern Ohio, forcing at least two weeks of remote learning. Not only did the worker who tested positive for the coronavirus need to quarantine, but so did the entire cafeteria staff and most of the transportation crew, because some employees work on both. The district of about 500 students sharing one building had resumed in-person instruction with masks and social distancing and avoided any student infections. But without enough substitute workers, administrators had no choice but to temporarily abandon classroom operations and meal services. “It boils down to the staff,” Lowellville Superintendent Geno Thomas said. “If you can’t staff a school, you have to bring it to remote.” Around the country, contact tracing and isolation protocols are sidelining school employees and closing school buildings. The staffing challenges force students out of classrooms, even in districts where officials say the health risks of in-person learning are manageable. And the absences add to the strain from a wave of early retirements and leaves taken by employees worried about health risks.

Pandemic pushes Peru's vital peasant farmers to the brink (AP) Under a punishing Andean sun, Nazario Quispe digs his plow into the soil where he is growing dozens of different potato varieties—uncertain when he will be able to afford the seeds and supplies to sow them again. Farmers like Quispe are responsible for the food that lands on 70% of Peruvian dinner tables, officials say, but months of pandemic lockdown and a souring economy have left many bankrupt and questioning whether to plant again. “If my savings dry up, how will I sustain myself?” asked Quispe, a father of five who grows 150 types of the tuber native to Peru from the Sacred Valley highlands. Across this South American nation an estimated 7 million peasants like the 51-year-old Quispe toil small plots of land to feed their families and earn a living. Strict quarantines early in the pandemic made transporting beans, potatoes and other crops to markets difficult. Prices plummeted as demand dropped. Official data shows the price for potatoes dropped at least 30% between March and July.

Brexit goes down to the wire: EU and UK say big differences remain (Reuters) The European Union and Britain said on Friday there were still substantial differences over a Brexit trade deal as the EU chief negotiator prepared to travel to London in a last-ditch attempt to avoid a tumultuous finale to the five-year Brexit crisis. With just five weeks left until the United Kingdom finally exits the EU’s orbit on Dec. 31, both sides are calling on the other to compromise on the three main issues of contention—fishing, state aid and how to resolve any future disputes. The two sides will shortly resume face-to-face negotiations after they had to be suspended last week when one of EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier’s team tested positive for COVID-19.

Police brutality in Paris (AFP) Three police officers were suspended following the release of footage that shows a brutal beating of a black music producer in his studio in Paris. The incident comes amid protests against police brutality in France, just days after another video showing the violent dismantling of a migrant camp shocked the country—and the government’s push to restrict filming police.

E.U. Border Agency Accused of Covering Up Migrant Pushback in Greece (NYT) Mounting evidence indicates that the European Union’s border agency has been complicit in Greece’s illegal practice of pushing back migrants to Turkey, according to documents obtained by The New York Times and interviews with officials. In at least one case, Frontex, as the E.U. border agency is known, is accused of having helped cover up the violations, when a crew said it was discouraged by agency officials from reporting that they had seen the Greek authorities setting a boatload of migrants adrift in Turkish waters. It has fueled suspicions that the agency, newly boosted in its role as upholder of the rule of law at E.U. borders, is not just sporadically aware of such abuses, but that it plays a role in concealing them. “We are seeing an erosion of the rule of law at the E.U. borders which is willful,” said Gerald Knaus, a migration expert. “This is deeply worrying because it is eroding the refugee convention on the continent on which it was created.” Refugee arrivals to the European Union peaked five years ago and have dropped drastically since, but thousands of asylum seekers, many fleeing the wars in Afghanistan and Syria, still attempt the crossing.

S. Korea agency says N. Korea executed people, shut capital (AP) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered at least two people executed, banned fishing at sea and locked down the capital, Pyongyang, as part of frantic efforts to guard against the coronavirus and its economic damage, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers Friday. Kim’s government also ordered diplomats overseas to refrain from any acts that could provoke the United States because it is worried about President-elect Joe Biden’s expected new approach toward North Korea, lawmakers told reporters after attending a private briefing by the National Intelligence Service. North Korea has maintained that it hasn’t found a single coronavirus case on its soil, a claim disputed by outside experts, although it says it is making all-out efforts to prevent the virus’s spread. A major outbreak could have dire consequences because the North’s health care system remains crippled and suffers from a chronic lack of medical supplies.

China slaps tariffs of up to 212% on Australian wine imports (CNN) Australian winemakers have been dealt a huge blow from China as tensions continue to spiral between the two countries. Chinese regulators announced Friday that they would impose heavy tariffs on Australian wines after finding preliminary evidence of dumping. Starting Saturday, China will begin slapping duties of between 107.1% and 212.1% on Australian wine imports, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement. The move places yet another hurdle in front of Australian businesses as relations worsen between Canberra and Beijing. Australia has upset China this year by calling for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. Beijing later targeted Canberra over trade, namely by suspending some imports of beef and slapping heavy tariffs on barley.

Lawmakers throw pig guts, punches on Taiwan parliament floor (AP) Lawmakers in Taiwan got into a fist fight and threw pig guts at each other Friday over a soon-to-be enacted policy that would allow imports of U.S. pork and beef. Premier Su Tseng-chang was due to give a regularly scheduled policy report to lawmakers on Friday morning about the pork policy when opposition party lawmakers from the Nationalist party, also known as the KMT, blocked his attempt to speak by dumping bags of pig organs. Legislators from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party attempted to stop them, resulting in chaos and an exchange of punches. President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration lifted a longstanding ban on imports of U.S. pork and beef in August, in a move seen as one of the first steps toward possibly negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with the U.S. The ban is due to be lifted in January. That decision has met with fierce opposition, both from the KMT and individual citizens.

Israel Army Preparing in Case U.S. Strikes Iran, Axios Says (Bloomberg) Israel’s government instructed the military to prepare for a possible U.S. strike against Iran during the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term, Axios reported, citing unidentified Israeli officials. The instructions were given because officials anticipate “a very sensitive period” prior to the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, and not because of any intelligence or assessment that the U.S. will order an attack, the report said. The New York Times reported earlier this month that Trump asked his top aides whether he could take action against Iran’s main nuclear site. According to the report, senior advisers including Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence dissuaded him, but he might still be looking at ways to strike Iranian assets and allies.

Iran scientist linked to military nuclear program killed (AP) An Iranian scientist named by the West as the leader of the Islamic Republic’s disbanded military nuclear program was killed Friday in an ambush on the outskirts of Tehran, authorities said. Iran’s foreign minister alleged the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh bore “serious indications” of an Israeli role, but did not elaborate. Israel, long suspected of killing several Iranian nuclear scientists a decade ago, declined to immediately comment. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once told the public to “remember that name” when talking about Fakhrizadeh. The killing risks further raising tensions across the Mideast, nearly a year after Iran and the U.S. stood on the brink of war when an American drone strike killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad. It comes just as President-elect Joe Biden stands poised to be inaugurated in January and will likely complicate his efforts to return America to a pact aimed at ensuring Iran does not have enough highly enriched uranium to make a nuclear weapon.

Ethiopians flee Tigray capital in fear of imminent assault (AP) People continued to flee the capital of Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region in fear of an imminent assault after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said the army had been ordered to move in for the “final phase” of an offensive to arrest the defiant regional leaders. Fighting reportedly remained well outside Mekele, a densely populated city of a half-million people who had been warned by the Ethiopian government of “no mercy” if they didn’t separate themselves from the Tigray leaders in time. Abiy on Thursday told residents to stay indoors and disarm as the army, with tanks, was given the order to move in. His government has vowed to protect civilians. Food and other supplies are running out in the Tigray region of 6 million people.

[canariessource]

im sorry im kinda new to comics, whats the connection between dinah lance and dinah drake? i didnt even know black canary was two different people. did they make her into a one person in new52 and rebirth?

Hey there! That’s okay, the timelines and character can be super confusing, so I’ll try to break it down for you. This might be a bit hard to explain, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask about other things!

(explained under the cut):

DC had three major “resets” to their continuity. 

First one was Crisis On Infinite Earths in 1985 (anything before that is called “Pre-Crisis” anything after is called “Post-Crisis”)

Second one was New 52 in 2011 (anything before that was “Pre-New 52″ / “Pre-Flashpoint” and also had “DCYOU” which was a small reboot but didn’t affect too much)

Third is Rebirth in 2016

Pre-Crisis, Dinah Drake was from Earth-Two, and was a member of the Justice Society Of America (the JL of that earth). She originally posed as a villain to take down criminals from the inside. 

Her father, Richard Drake, was a police officer. He wanted Dinah to also become a police officer one day when she grew up, so when she was little, he taught her basic police training (mostly fighting and flexibility). When Dinah became of-age (as they put it, she was “now a woman”), she applied for Gotham Police Academy, but was rejected because “they didn’t need anymore women”. That broke Richard and Dinah’s hearts. Richard had a partner, Larry Lance. Dinah met Larry and later in life they actually got married (so her name was changed to Dinah Drake-Lance). 

One day Richard passed away of a heart attack. With Dinah feeling as though she could do more and wanted to live up to her father’s wishes, she was inspired by mystery men like “Flash” and “Green Lantern”, she dawned a mask & costume, and became the very first Black Canary.

Later in life after her and Larry were married, they had a daughter. They named their daughter Dinah Laurel Lance. However, when DLL was born, she was cursed by the villain “The Wizard”, so every time she opened her mouth to cry, a super-sonic scream came hurdling out, destroying almost everything in it’s path. Dinah Drake and Larry couldn’t handle this and didn’t know what to do. So they somehow contacted DD’s friend “Johnny Thunder” (I say “somehow” because at this point Johnny had already passed away) to help take their baby Dinah Laurel Lance into the Thunder Realm (I believe that’s what it’s called??). Johnny agreed, and he took the baby there, but also changing Dinah Drake’s and Larry’s memory, so instead, they just thought their baby had passed away. 

By Johnny doing this, he put Dinah Laurel Lance’ body in suspension. Meaning, she was sleeping and unable to move, but her body was still growing/aging and she was still alive. 

About a decade or so later (or maybe 5 or more years, I’m not entirely sure), while fighting the villain “Aquarius”, Dinah was just about do die, but Larry jumped in front of her and was killed. After the battle was over, they buried Larry. At this time, the Earth-One Justice League was there helping the JSA fight Aquarius, so Dinah Drake asked the Earth-One Superman if he could take her back to Earth-One with him, because “[Earth-Two] has too many memories of Larry”. Kal agreed, took her back to Earth-One, and that became Dinah’s new home. 

HOWEVER, it was later found out that during the battle with Aquarius, not only did Larry die, but Dinah Drake also died. So from that point on, it was Dinah Laurel Lance as Black Canary. Dinah Drake had found out that Dinah Laurel Lance was still alive, she was just in a suspended animation (as I mentioned before). When Dinah Drake was dying, I believe Johnny gave her back her memories (about what really happened to DLL), and she wished that her memories would be placed inside her daughters and that she would live out the rest of her life as still being Black Canary. BUT, as her memories were placed inside Dinah Laurel Lance, DLL had no memory of DD dying, and believed she was Dinah Drake. She (thinking she was still DD) was the one that wanted to leave Earth-Two after she thought only her husband (who was actually her father), had passed away. 

So from that moment on, it was Dinah Laurel Lance as the Black Canary. It was around 1984 (a year before Crisis On Infinite Earths), and Dinah Laurel finally found out the truth; that she was Dinah Laurel Lance, the daughter of Dinah Drake-Lance and Larry Lance, and that both of them had passed away. After finding all this out, she still decided to stay on Earth-One because it was now her home. She also decided to be her own self, stop living as Dinah Drake, and dawned a new costume.

Post-Crisis, it’s the same story with Dinah Drake; her father trained her to become a police officer, the academy rejected her, met Larry Lance, Richard died and she dawned a mask and costume, Larry and her got married and had a daughter Dinah Laurel Lance. BUT, instead of them being on Earth-Two and Larry and Dinah Drake dying, they lived happily on Earth-One with their daughter, and DLL wasn’t cursed by The Wizard, she was born with a meta-gene that gave her a ultrasonic scream (a.k.a. she was a metahuman). Dinah Drake was Black Canary and a member of the Justice Society, but as she got older and after Larry died (I think he died on-duty), Dinah Drake stopped being Black Canary. 

Dinah Laurel was basically raised by the entire JSA, and thought of them all as her aunts and uncles. When Dinah Drake showed DLL what she used to be Black Canary, Dinah Laurel LOVED IT and wanted to carry on that legacy. However, DD didn’t want that life for her daughter, and forbid it. DLL, not listening to her mom, got the help of her uncle, Ted Grant (a.k.a. Wildcat) who was world champion boxer. He helped train Dinah Laurel in secret. When Dinah Drake found out about this (years later), she was furious. She never wanted the hero life for her daughter because she’s seen time and time again what it can do to someone. But of course, DLL and Ted didn’t listed to her, and when DLL was old enough, she took up the mantle of being the second Black Canary.

Dinah Drake and Dinah Laurel lost touch over the years and didn’t talk much. Over a decade later, Dinah Drake was passing away from cancer (radiation poisoning), and DLL went to see her in the hospital. They patched things up and DD even said she was very proud of her daughter for being a hero and loved her very much.

To answer your question if they made her into one person in the New-52: NO, they did not. They only combined their names, nothing else.

New-52, is suuuuper confusing. Dinah was born to her mother, Dinah Drake and an unknown father (still assuming his name was Larry Lance because in her solo series she confirmed her father was a detective/p.i.). Her birth name was Dinah Laurel Drake (although I think if her father was Larry she was still born Dinah Laurel Lance but used “Drake” as an alias). From what I understand, her mother left her when she was really young, and Dinah went from foster home to foster home. She ran away from an abusive home at a really young age, and was taken in and trained by her sensei, Desmond. 

After he passed away, she took over his do-jo and became the new sensei. One night, these ninja-like people attacked Dinah and her do-jo, destroying it. Dinah fought back with everything she had. She won. After she won the fight, agents swarmed her and asked her what her name was. They weren’t there for her, they were there for the people that attacked her, but she didn’t need any help. The agents that were there, were members of a secret task force known as “Team-7″, lead by Amanda Waller. The (field) team leader, Kurt, saw what Dinah did and asked if she would like to be recruited to become a member of “Team-7″ because of how skilled she was. Dinah agreed.

This team being led my Amanda Waller, obviously meant there was some catch. The team (including Dinah) were tested on. Dinah was given some sort of mix of random gene-changing things, and that led to Dinah having a ultrasonic scream she called her Canary Cry. She was officially recruited and was a valuable member of the team.

After spending a lot of time together, Dinah and Kurt (who’s last name happened to be “Lance”) fell in love. They eventually got married, and Dinah’s name was changed to Dinah Laurel Drake-Lance.

On one mission, they went to the island of Gamorra to stop an attack. Things got waaaay out of hand real quick. Dinah tried to save Kurt and her team by using her Canary Cry, but lost control of it and ended up killing Kurt and taking down the entire island of Gamorra.

After accidentally killing her husband, Kurt, Dinah was wanted by Amanda and the police for murder. Dinah (barely) escaped the island and went on the run, taking up the codename “Black Canary” (as far as it’s been confirmed, her mother was never the first Black Canary, she was only a master martial artist).

Years later, she met Evelyn “Ev” Crawford, who became her best friend, she also recruited Poison Ivy and Katana to become members of the newly-formed Birds Of Prey. Batgirl later joined.

DCYOU, was a very small reboot in DC’s continuity. In 2015, the Birds Of Prey disbanded, but not much had changed for Dinah, character wise. Her name (confusingly Dinah Laurel Drake-Lance) was never really explained in-detail, so you kinda had to read between the lines to understand it fully. 

In 2015 is also when her solo series launched. I personally thought the series was pointless, however, there are some key parts in the series that further explain her origin.

REBIRTH, is almost the same. Her mother was Dinah Drake and a master martial artist (still not the first Black Canary though), she went from foster home to foster home, was taken in by and trained by her sensei Desmond. There are some significant changes though. For example, she’s back to being a metahuman (and being born with her Canary Cry), and was born Dinah Laurel Lance. Or, at least, took the “Drake” out of her name so she’s back to being Dinah Laurel Lance. She’s close with Oliver again, and on really good terms with Barbara (Batgirl) and Helena Bertinelli (Huntress) in Batgirl and the Birds Of Prey.

Rebirth kinda reset the entire continuity again, with only keeping some things from New-52/DCYOU. They said it was almost like “going back to the basics” and “righting their wrongs”, so Rebirth is currently handling her pretty well.

If you’d like to read more about her, she’s currently in:

Green Arrow v7/Rebirth [next issue]

Batgirl and the Birds Of Prey [next issue]

Justice League Of America v5 [next issue]

Injustice 2 (she’s kinda spotty in here appearing whenever, and this is also an alternate universe)

I hope this helped! Again, if you have anymore questions, just ask!!

[junker-town]

We simulated a video game with the worst college basketball team ever, and got an instant classic

Seasons No. 2 and No. 3 in our quest to win a national title with Western Illinois in “College Hoops 2K8”

This is the continuation of our quest to a bring a college basketball national championship to Western Illinois University in the greatest simulated sports game ever made, College Hoops 2K8. In Part 1 of this series, I introduced what we’re doing here and ran through the first season. Here’s a Year 1 recap:

Finished the year 14-13 overall, with an opening-round loss in the Summit Conference tournament to UIPUI

Signed four three-star recruits who all project as freshmen starters, led by power forward Bud Richards (75 overall, C potential)

Earned three coaching achievement points, all of which were added to “charisma” to improve recruiting. Coach Rick — AKA Ricky Charisma — is maxed out as an A+ in the category after one year.

Let’s take a look at the roster to start out the year:

I’m going to have four freshmen starters after moving Cisse to small forward and Thompson to center, who both maintained their overall rating despite the position change. My team rating at the start of the year is now 75 overall. That’s tied for second best in the Summit behind leader Oral Roberts (77), and the same as North Dakota State and IUPUI.

I have four more scholarships to fill this year. Two bigs and two guards are on the agenda.

I visit three-star shooting guard Tracy Hehn, No. 151 overall and No. 48 at his position, and 6’10 power forward Jaja Blackwell, ranked No. 191 overall and No. 31 at his position, in my first week of recruiting. I officially offer both players the following week, and also extend offers to 6’4 small forward Lonnie Barrett (Mr. Basketball out of Iowa and ranked No. 180 overall) and center Daon Ward, 6’11 center out of Macon, Georgia, ranked No. 408 overall and No. 24 at his position. Seeing some sneaky upside in this kid given his size — 6’11 would be a massive center in the Summit League — and the fact he’s a double-double machine:

Time for my first game against Morehead State ... and I get smoked, 73-46. Yikes. My center Thompson finishes with 16 points and 11 rebounds on 6-of-13 shooting in his debut. Richards goes 0-1 with no points and two rebounds after playing only nine minutes because of foul trouble. Can only go up from here.

We beat Eastern Kentucky the next week for my first dub behind 13 points, three assists, and two boards from Cisse.

As the signing period starts, I’m leading and sitting pretty for Blackwell with his only offer. SMU leads for Hehn, but they haven’t offered yet. Nebraska has a big lead for Barrett with no offer, and Mercer has a big lead for Ward with no offer.

Meanwhile, we string together consecutive wins over NJIT and McNeese State. Look at that double-digit scoring out of the freshmen.

The early signing period comes to an end. The results are a bit of a mixed bag:

Bad news: Jaja Blackwell has multiple offers from other schools and has me way down on his list. I pull my offer to him. Barrett signs with Nebraska.

Good news: Mercer drops out for Ward, so I now lead for him, but only have 53 percent interest. Long way to go. I’m holding steady with Hehn, who still doesn’t have another offer.

With my newly freed up scholarship, I extend an offer to Wilbur Messy, a 6’3 shooting guard out of Fontana, California, who is ranked No. 132 overall and No. 40 among two guards. He doesn’t have an offer yet and has only received middling interest from mid-major schools like Middle Tennessee State, San Diego, and Pepperdine. Hoping I can convince a Cali kid to come to Macomb, Illinois — it’s beautiful here and the winters are, like, totally manageable. Trust me.

After a few rounds of recruiting him, I’m already making up ground:

I end up offering Jerald Sterley, the No. 130 overall player, with my other available scholarship. It’s a long shot, but he doesn’t have a ton of interest right now and has no offer. GW leads the way for the New Jersey native. Back on the court, I get an achievement point for winning an in-season tournament a week later, beating perennial powerhouse programs CSU Bakersfield and Sacramento State to do it. Cisse goes off for 22, four steals, three boards and assists in the win over Sacramento State, shooting 8-of-14 from the field and 4-of-5 from three. Feeling great about this kid.

I’m currently sweating bullets hoping SMU doesn’t offer Hehn as I close in on them in interest. We’re also desperate to land Ward at this point since he’s my only big man recruit.

We open up full conference play with two losses, to Oral Roberts (losing 67-52) and South Utah, who smokes us by 20. This is the downside to starting four freshmen, and also putting all my points in charisma rather than, like, tactical coaching.

Looks like not everyone is thrilled about my four freshmen starters: I have three veteran players unhappy. This is actually not a terrible thing early in legacy mode — if any of them decide to transfer, I will get a scholarship to offer in the spring. None of these guys are going to be essential for me moving forward.

We win both conference games the ensuing week, beating South Dakota State and Oakland. Richards goes for a double-double in both games, finishing with 16 points and 11 rebounds vs. SD State and 12 points, 10 rebounds with five stocks (steals + blocks) against Oakland.

I’m maxed out my flights on Hehn and still slightly trail SMU despite the fact they haven’t offered him yet. I’m putting the full court press (basketball term) on Ward. I desperately need a third big for next year and the pickings are slim if I don’t get him.

I beat UL-Calcutta for my third straight conference win, then lose to Fort Wayne by 20 to fall to 8-9 overall. I start flying to visit Messy. His AAU numbers aren’t great, but he would be the highest-ranking player I’ve ever landed and he doesn’t have much outside interest right now

Things head south quickly for Coach Rick over the next month. We lose five out of six in conference play before finally beating South Dakota State to stop the bleeding. My frosh point guard Wiedemann leads the way with 15 points, four assists, and 3-of-7 shooting from deep.

The late recruiting period is now over. Hehn still doesn’t have an SMU offer and has 100 percent interest in Western Illinois, so I should get him. Ward is looking promising too, as he still has no other offers.

We end up finishing in last place in the 10-team Summit at 10-18 overall and 5-13 in league despite starting the year as the second highest-rated team. I guess I need some coaching points.

I somehow didn’t even make the Summit Conference tournament. And just like that, Year 2 is over. Wiedemann leads the team in scoring with 9.7 points per game. Loving the supplemental playmaking out of Cisse on the wing, as well.

Sheesh, that was a trash year. If I blow it in Year 3, I’ll be on the hot seat, abd could even get fired. Let’s get some talent into Macomb this spring.

Michigan State wins the title behind the likeness of Travis Walton and Raymar Morgan. The biggest news of the offseason so far is my sophomore center No. 44 transfers out which opens up another scholarship. I still cannot believe I finished 10-18 this season after a strong first year.

I have three coaching points, and I spread them out in offense, defense, and teaching (a category that boosts the internal improvement of my players). I plan on boosting teaching next since charisma is maxed out. I also upgrade both my assistant coaches who are now B- teachers, hopefully that helps my guys progress faster.

I sign Hehn as the late signing period begins. Hell yeah. If that steal rate and three-point stroke are any indication, this guy is going to be a baller. Top-50 shooting guard, baby.

I offer power forward Manourou Mayer with my extra scholarship, No. 119 overall and No. 15 at his position. Kinda of a Hail Mary but I don’t see many better options. Maybe he won’t get that New Mexico offer and I can sweep in?

Sterley — the small forward I offered months ago — finally signs with GW. I offer point guard Jaison Waller, who had been on my target list for a while, because he has no other interest and is ranked No. 159 overall and No. 44 at his position. He has no AAU stats so maybe some programs are sleeping on him. This would be a great late-spring signing if I can make it happen.

I sign Ward the next week. Got a 6’11, 240-pound big coming to the Summit League. We still have three offers out there. Messy is coming down to the wire.

Messy! He signs the following week. Call me Two-Guard U. Huge get to land the No. 132 overall player despite the fact he doesn’t have super great numbers.

Doesn’t look like i’m going to get Mayer with one week left to go before the end of the signing period. Waller is also on the fence. I throw out a last-second offer to power forward Austin Fletcher, No. 204 overall. He likes UNC but if he doesn’t get an offer, maybe he signs with me?

He doesn’t, but I do get Waller. He could be my point guard of the future. I fill four of my five scholarships and have a nice mix of talent coming in next year. Here’s a look at my Year 2 recruiting class:

SG Wilbur Messy, No. 132 overall and No. 40 at his position.

SG Tracy Hehn, No. 151 overall and No. 48 at his position.

C Daon Ward, No. 408 overall and No. 24 at his position

PG Jaison Waller, No. 159 overall and No. 44 at his position

I set my schedule and sim through to Year 3.

Year 3

Here’s the first look at my roster.

I’m doing the “raised hands” emoji in real life right now. Messy and Hehn are both 74 overall as true freshmen and are tied for my second-best player. Waller is my first guy to have B- potential, so he should be really good eventually. I’m thinking I should redshirt Waller since I have some depth at guard. Going back and forth on if I should redshirt Ward, but I need a third big man so I’m going to keep him active.

I move Messy to small forward, and he goes up one to 75. Cisse is going to be sixth man this year. Rotation looks so much better. Still super young, but better.

My Leathernecks are rated as an 80 overall in Year 3. There’s no one better in the conference than a 75 (Oral Roberts and Oakland). Need a Summit tournament run this year. Need it!

I have two scholarships to work with for this year. I offer Jairus Dudley, a 6’9 power forward from Milwaukee, ranked No. 123 overall and No. 13 at his position. I also offer Giovanni Nelke, a 6’4 point guard from Santa Clara, ranked No. 112 overall and No. 40 at his position. There are few things I love in this sick, dark world more than tall point guards.

We win our first game against Samford, and then beat Murray State to start 2-0. Hehn is leading the team in scoring and he looks like a sniper from three-point range. I spend the next two weeks alternating wins and losses.

Signing week has started. I am the only school on Nelke’s board after the first signing period and I’m at 68 percent interest. I’m in a dogfight for Dudley. Would love to land both guys and wrap up recruiting early this year. Both look like studs. I throw a few centers on my recruiting list in case I miss out.

Aaaaaand Dudley gets an offer from Western Michigan, who he likes more than good ole WIU. I’m pulling that scholarship. Instead, we offer and visit Deke Van, the No. 15 center (No. 293 overall player) from San Antonio. This guy’s numbers are pretty sick: he’s a killer on the glass and has a knack for making big plays on defense.

Oh no: I get a message saying my boy Cisse is unhappy with his sixth-man role. I definitely don’t want to lose him to transfer after the season, so i give him a pep talk (you get 10 of these to use on the year).

We enter conference play at 7-4 overall after a back-to-back where I lose to Appalachian State but beat Florida Gulf Coast. Dunk City is but a dream at this point. Cisse responds with 16 points and four steals off the bench. This guy is nails.

Still, I get another message that says Cisse remains upset with his role. This is going to be a story throughout the year, I’m worried. We start conference play with a loss to Oakland, but then reel off three straight. My conference record improves to 5-1 before a loss to Oral Roberts.

We’re still the only school to offer Nelke, and now we’re up to 85 percent interest. Tight. Van has two schools in front of me — UTSA and Texas State — but he’s not super interested in either and I’m in third as his only offer. We’re gonna ride it out.

After eight games, I’m 6-2 in conference. I need a tourney bid this year, y’all.

I’m starting to catch fire now, going 6-1 in conference play over my next seven games, including a revenge win over Oakland off the back of a monster game from sophomore star Bud Richards, who finishes with a spicy 17 points, seven rebounds, and four blocks.

With a win over IUPUI in my last game, I hit 20 wins on the season and get another coaching improvement point. I conclude the regular season at 20-8 overall and a share of the regular-season conference championship with South Dakota State. Hell yeah.

The conference tournament has started. I’m the top seed playing North Dakota State. I’m an 81 overall, they’re a 70.

I win, 72-65, with four starters in double-figures, led by 14 points and 11 boards from sophomore center Ferdinand Thompson.

Next up, Oral Roberts.

Beat down — I win 68-45. Hehn is killing it with 15 points, four assists, and three steals. Thompson puts up 15 points and eight rebounds.

I’m onto the conference championship game against South Dakota State for an automatic bid in the NCAA tournament. They’re a 73, I’m an 81.

With my first March Madness berth on the line, I decide to actually watch this game. I start the game putting my controller in the middle instead of picking one side and settle down for a full game with 20-minute halves. My girlfriend is reading a book on the couch and is incredibly confused why I’m watching a video game without actually playing it. Only 37 more seasons to go, girl.

Let’s go!

Summit tournament championship game

Western Illinois is coming out hot. My sophomore point guard Weidleman is making it rain, scoring eight of my first 12 points by knocking down shots from the perimeter.

We hold a double-digit lead for most of the first half, but SD State closes on a little run. We’re going into halftime with a 42-35 lead, with Wiedemann leading the team in scoring with 13 points and Hehn dropping 10 points.

Halftime box score:

Hehn comes out of the break on absolute fire, draining four threes in five minutes. We can’t get a stop to save our life, though: South Dakota State is scoring on pretty much every possession and somehow keep matching Hehn on threes.

Somewhere in the second half, it all falls apart. SD State takes the lead on a jumper from their star, Assel, and it keeps building from there. By the time I start recording my TV, they hit a three-point to put them up 10 with just over two minutes left.

It really looks like the dream is going to die right here. What a bummer.

But then, Wiedemann and Messy start draining threes. We get a couple stops. Suddenly, Western Illinois has life.

We pull within one as I start recording the game again. My buddy Zach (AKA @ZM_Baseball) texts me asking for an update on the Western Illinois dynasty. I send him a Zoom link and we watch the end of regulation together.

Down five with 15 seconds left, we have ourselves an instant classic.

The baseline drive by Cisse to force overtime! A furious comeback for the Leathernecks at the end of regulation has Zach and I screaming. My poor girlfriend is bewildered.

Overtime is heart-racing — super tight the whole way. Please, enjoy the final 90 seconds.

Messy with the go-ahead jumper! How do they miss that baseline J for the win?

Western Illinois is going to the NCAA tournament

OMG — I’m sweating.

Final box score:

Absolute madness. I’m just so proud of my guys today (/weeps).

The party in Macomb rages on for the next week. We get a No. 13 seed in the NCAA tournament and draw an opening-round matchup against Florida. The Gators are a 97 overall. I am an 81.

I seriously consider watching this game too, but figure my team can’t compete with a powerhouse like Florida just yet. I sim it, and I get whooped.

Oh well. That was a hell of a third year. Arizona wins the national title.

My contract gets renewed for five years in the offseason. I get three coaching attribute points and put them all in teaching, so the guys on my roster should really start improving. Coach Rick is now a B in teaching, a C in offense and defense, and an A+ in charisma.

I also get my first job offer from Toledo, but I pass. That’s how we’re playing this dynasty. I’m Western Illinois all the way through.

I land both Nelke and Van immediately and recruiting is wrapped up. I am really happy with this class.

I set my schedule and sim forward to next year.

Here’s a first look at my roster for Year 4.

To be continued.

[sciencespies]

Imagining a World Where Soviets and Americans Joined Hands on the Moon

https://sciencespies.com/history/imagining-a-world-where-soviets-and-americans-joined-hands-on-the-moon/

Imagining a World Where Soviets and Americans Joined Hands on the Moon

The game of “what-if” is a popular one when it comes to historical events. Shows such as “The Man in the High Castle” speculate on what would have happened if the Axis Powers had won World War II, but historians also study more realistic possibilities. When it comes to the Space Race, culminating with the July 20, 1969 moon landing, alternative histories abound, including President Richard Nixon’s never-delivered speech on the occasion of mission failure.

Another speech, actually given, by President John F. Kennedy offers another opportunity to ask “What if?” Weeks before he died in 1963, Kennedy spoke before the United Nations, suggesting NASA cooperate with the Soviets on the goal of landing on the moon. While some believe Kennedy’s prevaricating on space exploration, and who should do it, was indicative of how much he saw space dominance as a key part of winning the Cold War, many have still wondered—had he lived, would Russians and Americans have walked on the moon together?

When it came to the space program, Kennedy had not initially been keen. He’d run for president advocating against spending money on space exploration, and in his first month in office, January of 1961, he’d argued in the State of the Union address that space might be a better place for cooperation than competition, stating “Today this country is ahead in the science and technology of space, while the Soviet Union is ahead in the capacity to lift large vehicles into orbit. Both nations would help themselves as well as other nations by removing these endeavors from the bitter and wasteful competition of the Cold War. The United States would be willing to join with the Soviet Union … to increase the exchanges of scientists and their knowledge.”

Yet three months later, Kennedy was in trouble. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was supporting Fidel Castro’s nascent communist government of Cuba, disturbingly close to American shores. The Bay of Pigs invasion to topple Castro, backed by Kennedy, had just ended in disaster and defeat. It was a humiliating foreign policy failure. Kennedy needed something to regain his stature on the world stage, and upstage Khrushchev.

Fortunately, or perhaps coincidentally, the era of human spaceflight had just begun.

On April 12, 1961, the Soviet Union launched Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space, into orbit around the Earth. America was three weeks away from sending its first astronaut, Alan Shepard, into space, on a much smaller rocket. For the Soviets, the victory was clear. At a celebration for Gagarin, writes William Taubman in Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, the Soviet leader boasted that “once-illiterate Russia” was now a powerful player in the race to conquer the next great frontier.

Kennedy saw an opportunity to turn a setback into a challenge with the space race. “If somebody could just tell me how to catch up,” he reportedly said to his team, “Nothing is more important.” He asked his advisers how it could be done, and they told him that with the Soviets already ahead, any goal had to be incredibly ambitious and audacious. Only then could both countries be considered to be starting from the same point. Kennedy understood, and agreed.

In a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961, Kennedy delivered a speech that surprised many who remembered his words from earlier in the year. “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth,” he declared, before asking for an additional $7 to $9 billion to fund the program. He made no mention of racing the Soviets, but the implication was obvious. It did not mean, however, that Kennedy did not continue to talk both of cooperation and competition for the rest of his presidency.

In June of 1961, only ten days after his remarks before Congress, Kennedy and Khrushchev met for the first—and only—time in Vienna. Kennedy did not press home his point of racing to the moon. Instead, he invited the Soviet leader to join America in a cooperative lunar venture. Khrushchev turned him down, dismissing Kennedy as a lightweight, unprepared politician, a fact Kennedy himself seemed to acknowledge—“Worst thing in my life. He savaged me,” the president apparently said after the meeting. Khrushchev, in his memoirs, remembered that at their last meeting during the days-long summit, “Kennedy was very gloomy. He was not preoccupied but actually glum. When I looked at the expression on his face, I sympathized with him and felt sorry for him.”

Kennedy’s ever-changing use of the space program for potential political gain also matched Khrushchev’s. In the NASA publication “The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project,” the Soviet leader’s style at the time was summarized thusly: “There appeared to be two Khrushchevs: one, a ‘coexistentialist’ eager for enhanced intercourse between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.; dropping hints … about the necessity for a virtual alliance of the two powers; the other, a militant Communist and bully ready to cash in on each and every weakness and hesitation of the West.”

Kennedy may have simply been matching his opponent’s approach. It was an ever-changing, delicate balancing game for both leaders. Each championed themselves as forward-looking, while defusing aggressive actions that could lead to war.

In early 1962, Khrushchev congratulated Kennedy on America’s first mission to place a human (astronaut John Glenn in this case) in orbit. “If our countries pooled their efforts—scientific, technical, and material—to master the universe,” he said, “this would be very beneficial for the advance of science and would be joyfully acclaimed by all peoples who would like to see scientific achievements benefit man and not be used for ‘Cold War’ purposes and the arms race.”

Kennedy responded positively, but the list of possible collaborations was limited to weather satellites, spacecraft tracking and science experiments. Human space missions were mentioned only as a vague, possible future item. Sharing more rocket technology, after all, meant sharing military secrets. But as productive conversations and agreements on what was possible were made between officials of both nations, the possibilities widened.

In late September of 1963, Kennedy met with Jim Webb, the head of NASA. The president previewed the remarks he would make at the United Nations about greater cooperation with the Soviets in space and inquired if Webb would be able to turn NASA in this new direction if needed. Kennedy had been advised that, if such a plan was followed, the ambitious end-of-the-decade lunar landing deadline could be eased. In fact, Kennedy thought, he could argue that it was the breakneck competition itself that had enticed the Soviets to cooperate. Webb told the president that it was possible, though according to historian Robert Dallek, “Webb bristled at Kennedy’s policy directives, interrupting and speaking over the president” and encouraging him to consider moon landing as just a small part of space exploration. Two days later, Kennedy made his speech, describing “a joint expedition to the moon.”

It did not go as Kennedy had hoped. The Soviet press ignored the story, and Soviet officials did not comment. Public reaction in America was sharply divided; the idea seemed dead in the water.

Shortly after Kennedy’s assassination, Congress passed an appropriations bill stating that no money would be given to any international moon program. President Lyndon Johnson, newly in office, assertively championed the space race for the rest of the decade, and by the time he left office in 1969, an American moon landing that year was a virtual certainty.

The question many ponder is: Would Kennedy have pushed harder for a cooperative moon program had he not been killed? The evidence suggests he would have only if it had been politically expedient. At the time of his assassination, the concept was divisive and generally unpopular. Serious talks on cooperation only began after the Apollo 11 mission, when a race no longer mattered, culminating in crewed American and Soviet spacecraft docking in orbit in 1975.

Today, the joint Russian and American International Space Station is a wonderful example of where such collaboration can lead, and a reminder of Kennedy’s efforts at the beginning of the Space Age to always keep the door of collaboration open, even when faced with a fearsome competitor.

#History

[thechasefiles]

The Chase Files Daily Newscap 8/7/2018

Good Morning #realdreamchasers! Here is The Chase Files Daily News Cap for Sunday 5th August 2018. Remember you can read full articles by purchasing Daily Nation Newspaper (DN), via Barbados Today (BT) or Barbados Government Information Services (BGIS).

INNISS ARRESTED, CHARGED IN US – Former Minister of Industry and Commerce Donville Inniss is in hot water in the United States. The outspoken 52-year-old politician was arraigned on money laundering charges in a US court today and released on US$50 000 bond. According to the United States Department of Justice’s official website, Inniss was arrested in Florida last Friday and was arraigned today before United States Magistrate Judge Julie Sneed in the Middle District of Florida at the federal courthouse in Tampa. Inniss has been accused of accepting bribes from a Barbadian insurance company in 2015 and 2016 when he was a public official.  According to the Department of Justice, Inniss was a legal permanent resident of the United States during the time of the charged conspiracy. Efforts to reach the former minister tonight proved futile. (DN)

MIA: BRING BACK THE ’POT – Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has indicated the Crop Over Festival needs to be re-examined for ways in which it can be improved. Sharing her thoughts on the festival when she made a stop at the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc.’s Black Rock stall yesterday, the Prime Minister said thought should be given to reintroducing Cohobblopot, which was discontinued in 2015. “I think we need to examine the festival, where we are. There are things that will always continue to be the same,” Mottley said. But she noted Cohobblopot for her was “not just a show” but “always an attitude to Barbados’ development, building the best out of us by putting all of us together and coming up with something that is unique to the Bajan.” This is why she thought it should be back on the calendar, while consideration should be given to adding new events, considering the interests of the generations of Barbadians who will be exposed to the festival in the future. (DN)

SMALL TAKES TOP AWARD – Twice is nice. Designer Kevin Small has once again taken the Robert Weekes Award for Best Festival Designer in the Republic Bank Grand Kadooment. The young bandleader for Fifth Element brought Street Talk for his theme this year. Since he won best band for Junior Kadooment he has the most value points needed to cop the prestigious award. His prize this year is a car from MQI and $7 500 cash. Small also copped 11 other individual prizes including Small band Of The Year, Traditional, Presentation Of The Year,  Most Colourful Small band, Community Costume and Best Individual Male which he wore himself, among others. He placed third in Best Band On The Road.   (DN)

LIL RICK'S MUDDA SALLY TAKES TUNE OF THE CROP – Tune Of The Crop belongs to Lil Rick. The hitmaker can claim supremacy this year in the National Cultural Foundation’s Crop Over festival. Musically that is. Apart from the Pic-O-De-Crop competition which he didn't not enter, he has placed first (Sweet Soca), tied with himself for first second and third (Foreday Morning Jam) and now can claim the Tune Of The Crop title. He placed first with Mudda Sally, earning himself $7 500. He then placed third with True Story, adding $2 000 to the tally for today. Mikey squeezed in between to take second place with Feting Family, earning himself $5 000. Mikey is also the People’s Monarch and Party Monarch for 2018. (DN)

GRAND PROPOSAL FOR ALEX AND INGRID – Visitor Alex Petalas today made a grand gesture to his girlfriend Ingrid Robinson when he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him during the Republic Bank Grand Kadooment. On top of the Aura truck, in front of hundreds of revellers, Petalas expressed his unadulterated love for Robinson before asking her the question at approximately 1:11 p.m. She responded with a loud yes, and her response was met with loud cheers and applause from those on the truck as well as those on the ground, after the deejay offered congrats over the mic. The newly engaged Robinson stood staring at her ring in awe for several minutes while wiping tears away. The couple are visiting from San Francisco and played mas with Aura today and said they thoroughly enjoyed it, as it was the perfect celebration for their engagement.  (DN)

SECURITY, SANITATION ON THEIR TOES – Security and sanitation crews were on the ball as usual yesterday during the Republic Bank Grand Kadooment. Police and soldiers were spotted all along the routes, ably supported by the men and women of the Roving Response Team. “Basically our role as emergency responders is to assist any agency, whether it be medical or logistical, through the Department of Emergency Management. We also give accurate reports on the number of bands which have passed,” said responder Stephen Niles, who was posted at the Brighton staging area. He said it had been quiet up to 1 p.m., but cautioned that things usually got hectic later in the day. “People start to get drunk and misbehave and then there are medical issues,” he said. By the end of the day and up to press time, police had reported only minor incidents. As for the annual clean-up, the Sanitation Service Authority was seen along Black Rock, St Michael, around 7 p.m. collecting the plastic bottles, pieces of costumes and general refuse. Supervisor Rudolph Bascombe estimated it would take them another hour and a half to finish but assured they were on schedule. (DN)

PM RAPPED FOR ACCEPTING UNIVERSITY – Some irate Dominicans have harshly criticised Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley for accepting the relocation of Ross University School of Medicine. One even called for the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to sanction the newly elected leader for what has been termed an “act of economic aggression” against a sister nation. Last Friday, hours after Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit announced Ross University would be leaving Dominica after 40 years, Mottley and Adtalem Global Education president and chief executive officer Lisa Wardell were in turn revealing Barbados would be the new home of the American university. Dominicans expressed their anger and disappointment on social media. What made the cut even worse, one argued, was that it happened after Skerrit flew to Barbados and met with the new Prime Minister following the May 24 General Election, which the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) won by a clean sweep of the 30 seats at stake. (DN)

For daily or breaking news reports follow us on Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter & Facebook. That’s all for today folks. There are 148 days left in the year. Shalom! #thechasefilesdailynewscap #thechasefiles# dailynewscapsbythechasefiles

[newestbalance]

Turkey’s Democratic Opposition Tests Cracks in Erdogan’s Iron Grip on Voters

ISTANBUL — When President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called early elections two months ago, he seemed assured of victory. But as Sunday’s vote approaches, the man who has transformed Turkey over 15 years in power appears increasingly vulnerable.

The question will be, just how vulnerable is he?

The vote will be watched far beyond Turkey’s borders for what it will decide about the direction this country of 80 million — whether it continues down the path of populist authoritarianism with Mr. Erdogan, or takes a turn for democratic change.

A skillful politician with a fervent support base, Mr. Erdogan still leads in the polls. But dissatisfaction over a sudden downturn in the economy is spreading. So is alarm over Mr. Erdogan’s increasing authoritarianism, which, if he wins, will be given even freer rein under a newly strengthened presidency.

“A strong Turkey needs a strong leader,” Mr. Erdogan bellowed to the crowd of several hundred thousand in his final Istanbul campaign rally last Sunday. “May God let us continue on this path by becoming more powerful.”

Whether Mr. Erdogan can secure the outright victory he wants by gaining 50 percent of the vote — avoiding a runoff — may depend on how deeply the wariness and unhappiness with his rule have unsettled his core supporters.

In particular, the collapse of agriculture, a plunge in the value of the lira and a sudden rise in food prices may deliver Mr. Erdogan a shock at the polls, opposition party workers say. Much of the president’s base of support has been among conservative rural people.

“I am hesitant this time,” said Bulut, who sells fresh juice from a cart near Istanbul’s ferry docks. He gave only his first name for fear of repercussions. He said he had voted for the governing party over the past 16 years but complained angrily about the deteriorating economy.

“No jobs,” he said. “I am here for 22 years, it became worse gradually. Our money has no value anymore.”

If 7 to 8 percent of formerly loyal voters abandon the president’s Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P., the governing party will lose, said Ozer Sencar, who runs the independent Metropoll polling agency.

There are already signs of defections, Mr. Sencar said, noting that some of them had voted against Mr. Erdogan in last year’s referendum to expand the powers of the presidency, which passed only narrowly.

“This is the group that will determine the fate of the election,” he said.

Most of the group are conservative Islamists among the Kurds who are disappointed that Mr. Erdogan failed to keep his promise to make peace with Kurdish separatists, Mr. Sencar said.

Four opposition parties — the Republican People’s Party, the Good Party, the Felicity Party and the tiny Peoples’ Democratic Party — have formed an alliance to maximize their assault against Mr. Erdogan.

But the state of emergency Mr. Erdogan snapped in place almost two years ago after a failed coup has allowed the government to tilt the playing field greatly in its favor.

Mr. Erdogan has used the extra powers to jail political opponents, including nine Kurdish members of Parliament and dozens of Kurdish party officials, as well as 70,000 students and activists and tens of thousands of members of the military and public employees. Demonstrations are banned, and access to national television is tightly controlled.

The Kurdish candidate, Selahattin Demirtas, has campaigned from prison, where he is being held while he awaits trial on terrorism charges. He relies on a team of lawyers to relay his messages on social media. And last week he was permitted to record a single campaign speech inside prison that was aired on the state-run Turkish Radio and Television, or T.R.T.

A former interior minister, Meral Aksener, is barred from using large rally sites and has barely been seen on television — most of which is controlled by the government or its allies.

Muharrem Ince, the closest challenger to Mr. Erdogan, fares slightly better, appearing on some television channels but still barred from T.R.T.

Over the past six weeks, Mr. Erdogan has enjoyed 181 hours of national television airtime, while Mr. Ince was allowed 15 hours, Ms. Aksener three hours and the rest one hour or less, according to the Supreme Board of Radio and Television.

It is Mr. Ince who has been Mr. Erdogan’s main target, smeared by “fake news” campaigns by government supporters. But he has parried the attacks with humor and a hopeful message and has started drawing crowds to match those of Mr. Erdogan.

Yet there is no doubt that Mr. Erdogan’s persona has dominated the campaign. His campaign posters are the largest and most numerous. His rallies are broadcast live on virtually every television channel. And his voice is heard everywhere.

He also controls all the levers of power, rules by decree under a state of emergency and can count on a tame judiciary and presidential guard.

Government employees are ordered to attend Mr. Erdogan’s rallies — and give him their vote if they value their jobs — opposition campaigners say — and journalists in media outlets, which are mostly owned by allies of the president, are given guidelines on what to write.

But signs of disaffection are visible. Supporters declare their love for Mr. Erdogan, yet many start leaving his rallies halfway through his long-winded speeches.

The former Islamist allies who have turned against the president are the most outspoken.

Temel Karamollaoglu, leader of the small Felicity Party, criticizes Mr. Erdogan for betraying his religion by letting corruption and injustice invade his government. He is set to draw away 2 to 3 percent of Mr. Erdogan’s conservative religious following.

“You cannot have one man with all the power,” Mr. Karamollaoglu told supporters in the town of Sakarya. “You cannot expect any justice from judges receiving orders from the top.”

The party has produced some of the most surprising campaign ads, passed around on social media. One shows workers in a tailor’s shop packing away plaid jackets similar to those that Mr. Erdogan wears. The sign on the door says: “Boss gone crazy. Closeout sale.”

The Republican People’s Party, which has a long tradition of secularism, has added several Islamists to its party list to build an Islamist alternative to Mr. Erdogan’s A.K.P.

One of the co-founders of the A.K.P. with Mr. Erdogan, a former deputy prime minister, Abdullatif Sener, is running for Parliament on the Republican People’s Party list in the conservative city of Konya.

He stunned villagers during meetings in a farming district with strident criticism of Mr. Erdogan, the likes of which is never heard in the mainstream media.

“If you cannot buy food and clothes for yourself, it means the economy is not growing,” he told them, disputing government claims of 7 percent growth.

He accused Mr. Erdogan of neglecting Turkey’s agriculture to make money on deals importing foodstuffs.

“You want to farm your land but this government made us completely dependent on imports,” he said. “All they think of is ransacking the country.”

A shopkeeper in the village of Cayhan told Mr. Sener that villagers were too scared to tell the truth but that almost all were going to switch their support away from Mr. Erdogan.

“Something is going to happen,” said Bulent Ecevit Tatlidil, a member of the executive bureau of the Republican People’s Party who is from the farming district.

Outrage over a sudden paucity of onions has even hit the main television news. Ms. Aksener accused Mr. Erdogan of treason for his neglect of agriculture.

“One million are jobless,” she told a rally in Istanbul. “The fields are empty, livestock is finished. To wipe out Turkish agriculture is treason.”

Yet the opposition is also bracing for every manner of obstruction, including fraud and violence.

Mr. Sener’s campaign office in Konya was attacked last week by members of the local youth wing of the A.K.P., who slashed a poster of Mr. Sener and smashed campaign cars.

The election observer mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has noted in a preliminary report that the president enjoys favorable conditions, while other parties face obstructions to campaigning and a pervasive atmosphere of fear in the Kurdish areas of the southeast.

The opposition parties are fielding 100,000 volunteers to observe voting in every polling station but face multiple challenges as regulations have been changed to allow unstamped ballots to be counted, and some polling stations have been closed and voting moved to other locations.

In the southeast, violence has already broken out; an election dispute led to the deaths of three people in the town of Suruc. Some analysts speculated that the clash was about how to fix the vote for Mr. Erdogan.

The Kurdish vote, which represents about 10 percent, is particularly important for both sides.

If Mr. Demirtas’s People’s Democratic Party, or H.D.P., can pass a 10 percent threshold, it could rob Mr. Erdogan of a majority in Parliament.

If the party wins less than 10 percent of the vote, its votes will be distributed to the other parties, which would most likely help Mr. Erdogan secure a majority.

In a sign of how crucial the Kurdish vote is, Mr. Erdogan urged party members to make sure the H.D.P. vote remained below 10 percent.

In a video posted inadvertently over social media last week, he told a closed gathering of regional party members to watch H.D.P. voters.

Then he asked his supporters to “mark their opponents,” suggesting that by doing so they would be doing “a special job that I believe may bring us a very different result.”

The post Turkey’s Democratic Opposition Tests Cracks in Erdogan’s Iron Grip on Voters appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2MSWdCq via Everyday News

[dragnews]

Turkey’s Democratic Opposition Tests Cracks in Erdogan’s Iron Grip on Voters

ISTANBUL — When President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called early elections two months ago, he seemed assured of victory. But as Sunday’s vote approaches, the man who has transformed Turkey over 15 years in power appears increasingly vulnerable.

The question will be, just how vulnerable is he?

The vote will be watched far beyond Turkey’s borders for what it will decide about the direction this country of 80 million — whether it continues down the path of populist authoritarianism with Mr. Erdogan, or takes a turn for democratic change.

A skillful politician with a fervent support base, Mr. Erdogan still leads in the polls. But dissatisfaction over a sudden downturn in the economy is spreading. So is alarm over Mr. Erdogan’s increasing authoritarianism, which, if he wins, will be given even freer rein under a newly strengthened presidency.

“A strong Turkey needs a strong leader,” Mr. Erdogan bellowed to the crowd of several hundred thousand in his final Istanbul campaign rally last Sunday. “May God let us continue on this path by becoming more powerful.”

Whether Mr. Erdogan can secure the outright victory he wants by gaining 50 percent of the vote — avoiding a runoff — may depend on how deeply the wariness and unhappiness with his rule have unsettled his core supporters.

In particular, the collapse of agriculture, a plunge in the value of the lira and a sudden rise in food prices may deliver Mr. Erdogan a shock at the polls, opposition party workers say. Much of the president’s base of support has been among conservative rural people.

“I am hesitant this time,” said Bulut, who sells fresh juice from a cart near Istanbul’s ferry docks. He gave only his first name for fear of repercussions. He said he had voted for the governing party over the past 16 years but complained angrily about the deteriorating economy.

“No jobs,” he said. “I am here for 22 years, it became worse gradually. Our money has no value anymore.”

If 7 to 8 percent of formerly loyal voters abandon the president’s Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P., the governing party will lose, said Ozer Sencar, who runs the independent Metropoll polling agency.

There are already signs of defections, Mr. Sencar said, noting that some of them had voted against Mr. Erdogan in last year’s referendum to expand the powers of the presidency, which passed only narrowly.

“This is the group that will determine the fate of the election,” he said.

Most of the group are conservative Islamists among the Kurds who are disappointed that Mr. Erdogan failed to keep his promise to make peace with Kurdish separatists, Mr. Sencar said.

Four opposition parties — the Republican People’s Party, the Good Party, the Felicity Party and the tiny Peoples’ Democratic Party — have formed an alliance to maximize their assault against Mr. Erdogan.

But the state of emergency Mr. Erdogan snapped in place almost two years ago after a failed coup has allowed the government to tilt the playing field greatly in its favor.

Mr. Erdogan has used the extra powers to jail political opponents, including nine Kurdish members of Parliament and dozens of Kurdish party officials, as well as 70,000 students and activists and tens of thousands of members of the military and public employees. Demonstrations are banned, and access to national television is tightly controlled.

The Kurdish candidate, Selahattin Demirtas, has campaigned from prison, where he is being held while he awaits trial on terrorism charges. He relies on a team of lawyers to relay his messages on social media. And last week he was permitted to record a single campaign speech inside prison that was aired on the state-run Turkish Radio and Television, or T.R.T.

A former interior minister, Meral Aksener, is barred from using large rally sites and has barely been seen on television — most of which is controlled by the government or its allies.

Muharrem Ince, the closest challenger to Mr. Erdogan, fares slightly better, appearing on some television channels but still barred from T.R.T.

Over the past six weeks, Mr. Erdogan has enjoyed 181 hours of national television airtime, while Mr. Ince was allowed 15 hours, Ms. Aksener three hours and the rest one hour or less, according to the Supreme Board of Radio and Television.

It is Mr. Ince who has been Mr. Erdogan’s main target, smeared by “fake news” campaigns by government supporters. But he has parried the attacks with humor and a hopeful message and has started drawing crowds to match those of Mr. Erdogan.

Yet there is no doubt that Mr. Erdogan’s persona has dominated the campaign. His campaign posters are the largest and most numerous. His rallies are broadcast live on virtually every television channel. And his voice is heard everywhere.

He also controls all the levers of power, rules by decree under a state of emergency and can count on a tame judiciary and presidential guard.

Government employees are ordered to attend Mr. Erdogan’s rallies — and give him their vote if they value their jobs — opposition campaigners say — and journalists in media outlets, which are mostly owned by allies of the president, are given guidelines on what to write.

But signs of disaffection are visible. Supporters declare their love for Mr. Erdogan, yet many start leaving his rallies halfway through his long-winded speeches.

The former Islamist allies who have turned against the president are the most outspoken.

Temel Karamollaoglu, leader of the small Felicity Party, criticizes Mr. Erdogan for betraying his religion by letting corruption and injustice invade his government. He is set to draw away 2 to 3 percent of Mr. Erdogan’s conservative religious following.

“You cannot have one man with all the power,” Mr. Karamollaoglu told supporters in the town of Sakarya. “You cannot expect any justice from judges receiving orders from the top.”

The party has produced some of the most surprising campaign ads, passed around on social media. One shows workers in a tailor’s shop packing away plaid jackets similar to those that Mr. Erdogan wears. The sign on the door says: “Boss gone crazy. Closeout sale.”

The Republican People’s Party, which has a long tradition of secularism, has added several Islamists to its party list to build an Islamist alternative to Mr. Erdogan’s A.K.P.

One of the co-founders of the A.K.P. with Mr. Erdogan, a former deputy prime minister, Abdullatif Sener, is running for Parliament on the Republican People’s Party list in the conservative city of Konya.

He stunned villagers during meetings in a farming district with strident criticism of Mr. Erdogan, the likes of which is never heard in the mainstream media.

“If you cannot buy food and clothes for yourself, it means the economy is not growing,” he told them, disputing government claims of 7 percent growth.

He accused Mr. Erdogan of neglecting Turkey’s agriculture to make money on deals importing foodstuffs.

“You want to farm your land but this government made us completely dependent on imports,” he said. “All they think of is ransacking the country.”

A shopkeeper in the village of Cayhan told Mr. Sener that villagers were too scared to tell the truth but that almost all were going to switch their support away from Mr. Erdogan.

“Something is going to happen,” said Bulent Ecevit Tatlidil, a member of the executive bureau of the Republican People’s Party who is from the farming district.

Outrage over a sudden paucity of onions has even hit the main television news. Ms. Aksener accused Mr. Erdogan of treason for his neglect of agriculture.

“One million are jobless,” she told a rally in Istanbul. “The fields are empty, livestock is finished. To wipe out Turkish agriculture is treason.”

Yet the opposition is also bracing for every manner of obstruction, including fraud and violence.

Mr. Sener’s campaign office in Konya was attacked last week by members of the local youth wing of the A.K.P., who slashed a poster of Mr. Sener and smashed campaign cars.

The election observer mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has noted in a preliminary report that the president enjoys favorable conditions, while other parties face obstructions to campaigning and a pervasive atmosphere of fear in the Kurdish areas of the southeast.

The opposition parties are fielding 100,000 volunteers to observe voting in every polling station but face multiple challenges as regulations have been changed to allow unstamped ballots to be counted, and some polling stations have been closed and voting moved to other locations.

In the southeast, violence has already broken out; an election dispute led to the deaths of three people in the town of Suruc. Some analysts speculated that the clash was about how to fix the vote for Mr. Erdogan.

The Kurdish vote, which represents about 10 percent, is particularly important for both sides.

If Mr. Demirtas’s People’s Democratic Party, or H.D.P., can pass a 10 percent threshold, it could rob Mr. Erdogan of a majority in Parliament.

If the party wins less than 10 percent of the vote, its votes will be distributed to the other parties, which would most likely help Mr. Erdogan secure a majority.

In a sign of how crucial the Kurdish vote is, Mr. Erdogan urged party members to make sure the H.D.P. vote remained below 10 percent.

In a video posted inadvertently over social media last week, he told a closed gathering of regional party members to watch H.D.P. voters.

Then he asked his supporters to “mark their opponents,” suggesting that by doing so they would be doing “a special job that I believe may bring us a very different result.”

The post Turkey’s Democratic Opposition Tests Cracks in Erdogan’s Iron Grip on Voters appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2MSWdCq via Today News

[party-hard-or-die]

Turkey’s Democratic Opposition Tests Cracks in Erdogan’s Iron Grip on Voters

ISTANBUL — When President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called early elections two months ago, he seemed assured of victory. But as Sunday’s vote approaches, the man who has transformed Turkey over 15 years in power appears increasingly vulnerable.

The question will be, just how vulnerable is he?

The vote will be watched far beyond Turkey’s borders for what it will decide about the direction this country of 80 million — whether it continues down the path of populist authoritarianism with Mr. Erdogan, or takes a turn for democratic change.

A skillful politician with a fervent support base, Mr. Erdogan still leads in the polls. But dissatisfaction over a sudden downturn in the economy is spreading. So is alarm over Mr. Erdogan’s increasing authoritarianism, which, if he wins, will be given even freer rein under a newly strengthened presidency.

“A strong Turkey needs a strong leader,” Mr. Erdogan bellowed to the crowd of several hundred thousand in his final Istanbul campaign rally last Sunday. “May God let us continue on this path by becoming more powerful.”

Whether Mr. Erdogan can secure the outright victory he wants by gaining 50 percent of the vote — avoiding a runoff — may depend on how deeply the wariness and unhappiness with his rule have unsettled his core supporters.

In particular, the collapse of agriculture, a plunge in the value of the lira and a sudden rise in food prices may deliver Mr. Erdogan a shock at the polls, opposition party workers say. Much of the president’s base of support has been among conservative rural people.

“I am hesitant this time,” said Bulut, who sells fresh juice from a cart near Istanbul’s ferry docks. He gave only his first name for fear of repercussions. He said he had voted for the governing party over the past 16 years but complained angrily about the deteriorating economy.

“No jobs,” he said. “I am here for 22 years, it became worse gradually. Our money has no value anymore.”

If 7 to 8 percent of formerly loyal voters abandon the president’s Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P., the governing party will lose, said Ozer Sencar, who runs the independent Metropoll polling agency.

There are already signs of defections, Mr. Sencar said, noting that some of them had voted against Mr. Erdogan in last year’s referendum to expand the powers of the presidency, which passed only narrowly.

“This is the group that will determine the fate of the election,” he said.

Most of the group are conservative Islamists among the Kurds who are disappointed that Mr. Erdogan failed to keep his promise to make peace with Kurdish separatists, Mr. Sencar said.

Four opposition parties — the Republican People’s Party, the Good Party, the Felicity Party and the tiny Peoples’ Democratic Party — have formed an alliance to maximize their assault against Mr. Erdogan.

But the state of emergency Mr. Erdogan snapped in place almost two years ago after a failed coup has allowed the government to tilt the playing field greatly in its favor.

Mr. Erdogan has used the extra powers to jail political opponents, including nine Kurdish members of Parliament and dozens of Kurdish party officials, as well as 70,000 students and activists and tens of thousands of members of the military and public employees. Demonstrations are banned, and access to national television is tightly controlled.

The Kurdish candidate, Selahattin Demirtas, has campaigned from prison, where he is being held while he awaits trial on terrorism charges. He relies on a team of lawyers to relay his messages on social media. And last week he was permitted to record a single campaign speech inside prison that was aired on the state-run Turkish Radio and Television, or T.R.T.

A former interior minister, Meral Aksener, is barred from using large rally sites and has barely been seen on television — most of which is controlled by the government or its allies.

Muharrem Ince, the closest challenger to Mr. Erdogan, fares slightly better, appearing on some television channels but still barred from T.R.T.

Over the past six weeks, Mr. Erdogan has enjoyed 181 hours of national television airtime, while Mr. Ince was allowed 15 hours, Ms. Aksener three hours and the rest one hour or less, according to the Supreme Board of Radio and Television.

It is Mr. Ince who has been Mr. Erdogan’s main target, smeared by “fake news” campaigns by government supporters. But he has parried the attacks with humor and a hopeful message and has started drawing crowds to match those of Mr. Erdogan.

Yet there is no doubt that Mr. Erdogan’s persona has dominated the campaign. His campaign posters are the largest and most numerous. His rallies are broadcast live on virtually every television channel. And his voice is heard everywhere.

He also controls all the levers of power, rules by decree under a state of emergency and can count on a tame judiciary and presidential guard.

Government employees are ordered to attend Mr. Erdogan’s rallies — and give him their vote if they value their jobs — opposition campaigners say — and journalists in media outlets, which are mostly owned by allies of the president, are given guidelines on what to write.

But signs of disaffection are visible. Supporters declare their love for Mr. Erdogan, yet many start leaving his rallies halfway through his long-winded speeches.

The former Islamist allies who have turned against the president are the most outspoken.

Temel Karamollaoglu, leader of the small Felicity Party, criticizes Mr. Erdogan for betraying his religion by letting corruption and injustice invade his government. He is set to draw away 2 to 3 percent of Mr. Erdogan’s conservative religious following.

“You cannot have one man with all the power,” Mr. Karamollaoglu told supporters in the town of Sakarya. “You cannot expect any justice from judges receiving orders from the top.”

The party has produced some of the most surprising campaign ads, passed around on social media. One shows workers in a tailor’s shop packing away plaid jackets similar to those that Mr. Erdogan wears. The sign on the door says: “Boss gone crazy. Closeout sale.”

The Republican People’s Party, which has a long tradition of secularism, has added several Islamists to its party list to build an Islamist alternative to Mr. Erdogan’s A.K.P.

One of the co-founders of the A.K.P. with Mr. Erdogan, a former deputy prime minister, Abdullatif Sener, is running for Parliament on the Republican People’s Party list in the conservative city of Konya.

He stunned villagers during meetings in a farming district with strident criticism of Mr. Erdogan, the likes of which is never heard in the mainstream media.

“If you cannot buy food and clothes for yourself, it means the economy is not growing,” he told them, disputing government claims of 7 percent growth.

He accused Mr. Erdogan of neglecting Turkey’s agriculture to make money on deals importing foodstuffs.

“You want to farm your land but this government made us completely dependent on imports,” he said. “All they think of is ransacking the country.”

A shopkeeper in the village of Cayhan told Mr. Sener that villagers were too scared to tell the truth but that almost all were going to switch their support away from Mr. Erdogan.

“Something is going to happen,” said Bulent Ecevit Tatlidil, a member of the executive bureau of the Republican People’s Party who is from the farming district.

Outrage over a sudden paucity of onions has even hit the main television news. Ms. Aksener accused Mr. Erdogan of treason for his neglect of agriculture.

“One million are jobless,” she told a rally in Istanbul. “The fields are empty, livestock is finished. To wipe out Turkish agriculture is treason.”

Yet the opposition is also bracing for every manner of obstruction, including fraud and violence.

Mr. Sener’s campaign office in Konya was attacked last week by members of the local youth wing of the A.K.P., who slashed a poster of Mr. Sener and smashed campaign cars.

The election observer mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has noted in a preliminary report that the president enjoys favorable conditions, while other parties face obstructions to campaigning and a pervasive atmosphere of fear in the Kurdish areas of the southeast.

The opposition parties are fielding 100,000 volunteers to observe voting in every polling station but face multiple challenges as regulations have been changed to allow unstamped ballots to be counted, and some polling stations have been closed and voting moved to other locations.

In the southeast, violence has already broken out; an election dispute led to the deaths of three people in the town of Suruc. Some analysts speculated that the clash was about how to fix the vote for Mr. Erdogan.

The Kurdish vote, which represents about 10 percent, is particularly important for both sides.

If Mr. Demirtas’s People’s Democratic Party, or H.D.P., can pass a 10 percent threshold, it could rob Mr. Erdogan of a majority in Parliament.

If the party wins less than 10 percent of the vote, its votes will be distributed to the other parties, which would most likely help Mr. Erdogan secure a majority.

In a sign of how crucial the Kurdish vote is, Mr. Erdogan urged party members to make sure the H.D.P. vote remained below 10 percent.

In a video posted inadvertently over social media last week, he told a closed gathering of regional party members to watch H.D.P. voters.

Then he asked his supporters to “mark their opponents,” suggesting that by doing so they would be doing “a special job that I believe may bring us a very different result.”

The post Turkey’s Democratic Opposition Tests Cracks in Erdogan’s Iron Grip on Voters appeared first on World The News.

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