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bucky-barnes-diaries · 3 years

Text

Leaving Home

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Captain America: The First Avenger

Pairing: 1940s! Bucky Barnes x Female! Reader

Summary: Bucky gets enlisted. Him and reader have a magical last night together.

Word Count: 1445

Warnings: NSFW, 18+, minors DNI, slight angst, unprotected sex, mention of bodily fluids

Authors Note: not everything may be accurate to the 1940s, war or Bucky’s story. My apologies! Enjoy loves <3

Main Masterlist | Bucky Barnes Masterlist

You are waiting at your small New York home in anticipation if your husband managed to enlist in the army or not. On one side, you were happy for James because this was something he had wanted to do for a while, but on the other hand, you were anxious and worried about him traveling to an unknown country raging with war and destruction.

You waited on the couch with a book in hand for him to arrive. The book had been on page 52 for a while as you didn’t manage to take in what you were reading while you waited. The clock on the wall showing that it was well over 3 o’clock. He was supposed to be home way before that. Where was he? Your leg was bouncing up and down in a fast rhythm as the nerves started to take over when he wasn’t on time. It must be the traffic, or maybe he got held up with something else?

The handle of the doorknob turning made you snap up from the book your face was buried in. “Hey, doll, I’m home.” A smile was brightening your complexion at finally hearing his voice filling the quiet house. You got up, smoothing out your dress, to meet him at the door. “Hi, honey. How did the-” You didn’t need to finish the question, as the grin on his face and the uniform were the equivalents to him getting enlisted.

The smile from you dropped just by an inch when you realized what this meant. “You got your orders?” “Yep. The 107th, Sergeant James Barnes, shipping out to England first thing in the morning.”

The slight smile you had left turned into a frown in hearing the news that he’s departing already tomorrow. You thought you would have a little more time before he left for months on end. “Why so early? Where’s the rush?” “I’m sorry, honey, I know it’s on short notice. I wish I could stay longer.” He closed the short distance between you two to take your hands in his bigger ones, laying a kiss upon them.

“I’ve made arrangements for you and me to have one magical last night together in the city as an apology to you.” The promise of a beautiful last evening with the man of your dreams brightened your spirit immensely. “Show me the way then, Sergeant.”

Later...

“Keep your eyes closed. Trust me. Don’t open them yet.” You always trusted him, so obeying his order was in no way a problem for you. His hand held yours as you walked up some stairs in what felt like all eternity. “Where are you taking me, Bucky?” “You’ll see. We’re almost there. Just hang on.” He opened a heavy door, and the bustling noise of the streets of New York was heard faintly in your ears. The tiniest of a cool breeze felt on your skin, indicating that you were pretty high up.

“Now open them.” The sight your eyes met when they opened was magical. James had set up a fairytale date on the rooftop for you. Twinkling lights, wine, sweets, and just now, you heard the soft music of Frank Sinatra playing from the radio. “This is so beautiful,” you gasped excitingly, “sweetheart, you didn’t have to do this all for me.” He didn’t lie when he said it would be an enchanting night.

“Of course I did. Everything for my beautiful wife. Now come dance with your husband.” His hand was held out for you to take up on the offer. Dancing with your husband? Nothing could be better than that. James pulled you flush against him as his hand rested at the small of your back, the other one finding your hand to hold.

The calm sway of your bodies was pleasing. His words that were only meant for you whispered ever so softly in your ear, making butterflies emit from within you.

Once in a while, he would spin you around, which made both of you laugh out in glee. The dress you were wearing was twirling around, and you had never looked more beautiful in his eyes. This was the picture of you he would imagine when he was abroad and felt alone and scared without you by his side. His beautiful wife being as carefree as she had ever looked. The laugh he would remember from you would fill his head up at night, making him sleep that much better.

The rest of the night was spent with drinks, sweets, and even more dancing ending with you and him sitting on the blankets and pillows scattered on the tile floor.

Your faces inches from one another as you talked about everything and nothing. His hand that had a grasp on the back of your naked thigh giving off a squeeze and caress ever so often had your mind racing to some hot and heavy thoughts.

James felt the sinful energy radiating off you, and he didn’t think for another second in kissing you. Lips were moved against each other in hurried sync, desperate to feel one another.

He pushed you down to lay on the back while he found his place on top of you where he belonged. The passion of his lips moved to that sensitive spot connecting your neck and shoulder, kissing and loving on the skin there. The sensation made you shudder in delight and let out a whimper of satisfaction. After some time, they travel to the top of your breasts. Kissing, sucking, and biting on the flesh. If he could, he would spend the rest of his life worshiping your body every second of every day.

“Is someone going to see us?” You asked in a panic when you remembered where you were. He looked around. It seemed relatively safe for his liking. “Don’t worry, princess. No one will see us.” It looked like he was sure, and that was the signal you needed to continue.

Clothes were removed all the way to feel all up on one another. Once he pushed inside of you, a gasp of pleasure escaped your open lips. The feel of his length filling you up was intoxicating as he slammed his hips against yours over and over again.

Legs were enclosed around his hips to force him more into your tightness. Your nails were making marks on his back when they dragged downwards as you were close to completion.

“Let go for me, baby,” he growled in your ear.

He didn’t need to tell you twice. Your eyes fluttered shut, and your back arched high in the sky as waves after waves of pleasure came over you. The feel of you pulsating around him brought him to the finish line just a few moments later.

The next morning…

It was time to say goodbye, and you had promised yourself not to cry. You wanted to be strong and brave for him, so he didn't need to worry about leaving you all alone for months on end. But you couldn’t help it when a few tears escaped when the car to pick him up pulled in front of the house. The last moment of you two on the porch exchanging words of love was interrupted.

“This is goodbye, doll.” “Oh, Bucky!” Your arms slung around his body to feel him one last time. The tears from you wetting his uniform some, as the side of your face rested against his chest, taking the last advantage to listen to the beats of his steady heart.

“Hey, look at me.” His fingers lifted your chin to look into his crystal blue eyes one last time. “Don’t cry,” the pad of his thumb whipped as good as they would the tears that were falling, “it’s going to be ok. I promise.” “Please just come back to me,” you begged in a whisper.

He knew he couldn’t promise something he didn’t know of. He wished he could with his whole being that he would come home safe and sound to his love. “I will fight through hell to try and come back to you, my love, that I will promise you.”

His lips found yours one last time in a kiss that held so many emotions. Love, fear, desperation, need. “Goodbye, Y/N.” He picked up his bags and took a seat in the car. One last time he took a look at you through his window. Sending you a warm smile in your direction for you to remember him. You watched and waved until the car was no longer in sight, begging the universe to bring him home in one piece.

Credit @ firefly-graphics for the wonderful divider

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khantoelessar · 3 years

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Hogan’s timeline prior to Stalag 13

The purpose of this meta is to make an attempt at trying to fit Robert Hogan’s timeline pre-Stalag 13 to match something close to that of the actual historical timeline of World War II. I’m not saying this is actual canon, more like suggesting a possibility to stimulate conversation about Hogan’s timeline before being shot down and also an interest in World War II itself.

There are going to be holes in my theory. I’m well aware of this. However, trying to fit Hogan’s Heroes canon timeline to actual historical timeline is like trying to piece it together with baling wire, duct tape and glue. But that is half the fun anyway.

So on we go.

Our first semi-confirmed date for the series is the pilot episode which tells us it is the winter of 1942.

We also have a semi-confirmed date from A Tiger Hunt in Paris that “Frank Dirken” escaped Stalag 13 December 1942. Now America entered the war when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour on 7 December, 1941. Roosevelt officially declared war on Germany on 11 December, 1941.

But actual hostilities did not commence right away. There was the problem of getting all those men and material across the Atlantic but also, and I mean no disrespect to the Americans when I point this out, but due to America’s neutrality and non-intervention policy a majority of those in uniform at that time had no combat experience.

What this means in terms of Robert Hogan’s past prior to Stalag 13 is that it greatly constricts the time Hogan would have had to fight if he had first arrived in Britain with the rest of the USAAF. The first of the US 8th Air Force didn’t arrive in Britain until 12 May, 1942. (1) The first joint RAF/USAAF bombing raid was in the Netherlands on 4 July, 1942 (2) and the first solo US bombing raid in Europe was on 17 August, 1942, over Rouen. (3)

This would leave at the very most seven months for Hogan to not only establish his reputation as a bomber commander but also get shot down and then get the Stalag 13 operation up and running. In “Happiness is a Warm Sergeant” Le Beau says:

Le Beau: “Maybe we can tame [Kreb]. If he likes strudel.”

Hogan: “Come on. It took us six months to get Schultz to look the other way.”

Le Beau couldn’t have gotten the ingredients to make the strudel that is Schultz’s main bribe prior to the operation being set up, not from a POW camp.

Then there was the raid on the submarine base in Breman mentioned in “Two Nazis for the Price of One.”

Hogan: “I supposed you’re talking about the bombing mission I flew against your secret submarine base in Breman.”

There were three raids on Breman between May and December of 1942. 3-4 June, 25 – 28 June and 19 November. However there were other raids prior to that. (4)

One more interesting detail that I want to add before putting forward my theory as to Hogan’s timeline is that the first of the B17 flying fortresses saw action in Britain when the RAF used them to bomb Wilhelmshaven on 18 July, 1941. (5)

So here’s my theory. Hogan was flying for Great Britain before the US entered the war. There have been fanfics written on this which I highly recommend. However there is one snag with them. Hogan could not have been enlisted in the US Army Airforce when he did so. Not only was the US officially neutral in the war until 7 December, 1941 but it was illegal for US citizens to fly for Great Britain under America’s neutrality laws. But many did so by sneaking across the border into Canada with false papers, claiming to be Canadian or of other nationalities and travelling to Britain to join the RAF. (6) I think it is worth taking a moment to honour the courage of those men and what they risked. In the beginning the United States did not take these transgressions lightly as this story posted on the Warfare History Network attests.

“As they boarded the train for Montreal, the two Americans tried to look as inconspicuous as possible. They were well aware that if they were caught they would be in trouble. At the very least, they would be sent back to the United States. There was also the possibility that they could be sent to prison, as well as fined more money than they had seen in their entire lives.

At the Canadian border, the train stopped and several sinister looking officials got on board. They wanted to know where the two were going and why.

“We’re on our way to Montreal to see a cousin who runs a fish hatchery,” was the reply. One of the unsmiling officials—probably an FBI agent—wanted to know if they were fliers. “Don’t be silly. Do we look like fliers?”

The officials were apparently satisfied by the reply. One of them opened the suitcases of the two travelers and rummaged through the top layer of clothing. He did not look any deeper. If he had, he would have found what he was looking for—flying helmets, goggles, and logbooks. Instead, he closed the lid and wished the young fellows a pleasant trip.

The two Americans, Eugene “Red” Tobin and Andy Mamedoff, were not smuggling contraband. They were going to Canada to enlist in the air force of a foreign country which, in the early weeks of 1940, was against the law. “The Federal Bureau of Investigation kept a pretty close check on all Americans going to Canada,” Red Tobin later said, “so we had to watch our step.”

You can read the rest of the article here. (7)

The men who chose to go to Canada risked not only fines and imprisonment but also loss of their citizenship. (8)

It wasn’t until 19 November, 1941 that Britain officially revealed that there were three squadrons of American pilots called the Eagle Squadrons. (9)

Another fact the prohibits Hogan being part of the USAAF prior to the American entry is that prior to the war America had start to build up its own armed forces. (10) It began on 15 June, 1940. By 7 December, 1941 they had over 2 million in all branches. (11) This means that the USAAF was in desperate need of competent and skilled pilots to not only lead attacks but also to train new ones in its Air Corp tactical school. (12)

Combine these and I think it highly unlikely that the USAAF would have turned a blind eye to one of its best and most brilliant tactical pilots and officers to go AWOL to fight for a foreign country, especially at a time when the isolationist movement was strong.

There is another route open to Hogan having fought for the RAF and even during the Battle of Britain that I would like to explore here as a possible . . . let’s say, alternative headcanon.

He could have taken the route mentioned earlier by those other Americans, crossing the border into Canada, getting training there and then going onto Britain. I can see Hogan doing something like this. In the face of the news of repeated atrocities being committed by the Nazis and his country refusing to get involved, I can see Hogan taking on a false identity and slipping across the border in order to join the fight.

But this is also the same reason I think that Hogan was not allowed to go AWOL from the US Army. It would have violated Roosevelt’s Neutrality Laws, even though he declared,

This would have crossed to far over that line, to have an American USAAF officer openly fighting with the British, especially after Hogan started gaining fame as a war ace and bomber commander. If he was so feared by the Nazis that Biedenbender was jumped from Colonel to General;

Biendenbender: “You see I am the reason you are now here as a prisoner of war.” Hogan: “Thanks.” Biendenbender: “When the bombing raids of the squadron you commanded started to become . . . oh slightly annoying to the Third Reich I was assigned to study your tactics, to get inside your head, I know everything about you . . . so I was able to predict precisely the planning of your last bombing raid on Hamburg in which you were shot down, and I, hah, I was shot up to a General.”

then his fame would definitely have spread to the Commonwealth and then to America.

This is why I put forward the possibility that Hogan never enlisted in the USAAF. Also, Wikipedia states “None of the Eagle Squadron pilots had previously served in the USAAF and did not have US pilot wings.” (14)

There is the option that Hogan never joined the Eagle squadrons directly but flew for the RAF separately. First of all, according to the Wikipedia site (13) none of the Eagle squadrons flew bombers, let alone B17s. Also, in the episode “Some of Their Planes are Missing” and “Funny Thing Happened on the Way to London” we are told that Hogan was attached to the RAF.

If we take this into account when we look at Hogan’s timeline, we get a lot more room for Hogan to have accomplished all that he did. If he snuck across the border into Canada under a false identity prior or during the Battle of Britain which was July through September 1940 (15) he would have over a year of experience, including making his bombing runs on Breman before being finally transferred over to the USAAF and the 504th bomb squadron once America entered the war. The same Wikipedia site quoted before also states that the ranks in the RAF were transferred after some negotiations to the nearest equivalent rank.

There is another detail from the series that supports Hogan’s story links to Britain and the RAF over that of the USAAF and that is the fact that he reports to London, not Washington. Almost all his links to the Allies are British. There are a few Americans, General Barton in “The General Swap”, General Tilman in “How to Cook a German Goose with Radar”, the captain of that submarine in “The Pizza Parlour” and we do see the alliance of the British and the Americans in “Easy Come, Easy Go”.

But other than that all of his contacts and command structure that he reports to are British. There is no mention of the OSS or of Washington. When Hogan is flown back to England for the briefing before D-Day in “D-Day at Stalag 13” the General (we are not given a name) is British, not American and the “old man” they refer to is Churchill, not Roosevelt.

General: “Even to tell you this much this much had to be cleared at the highest level of intelligence, the Old Man himself.”

Hogan could have been one of those Americans who crossed the border into Canada, got false papers there and traveled to Britain to joined the RAF. He didn’t join the Eagle Squadrons (although I can see him qualifying on the spitfires because they were one of the best planes out there) because he’d been transferred to Bomber Command. When America entered the war, he transferred to the USAAF with the equivalent rank of Colonel and put in charge of the 504th bomb group (even though in reality the 504th flew in the Pacific theatre and not the European one and was part of the 20th Air Force) because by then his reputation had long since proceeded him. He was part of the US mass bombing raid on Ploesti on 12 June, 1942 (16) but was shot down after that and was transferred to Stalag 13 just about the same time as Klink, who (I’m assuming was there to solve the massive escape problems) as we are told in “The Kommadant Dies at Dawn”

Hogan: “Are you kidding, before I arrived you had so many escapes they were going to put a revolving door at the front gate.”

Now like I said this headcanon is not water proof. There are some holes that I can’t fill.

Hogan does say that he was assigned to the Pentagon in “Klink vs the Gonculator”

As mentioned previously, I don’t think the Army would have let him go AWOL to fight for a foreign country if he was already an officer.

On the other hand I should point out that he was talking to Klink and was running one of his cons on him. It is also possible that he was assigned briefly to the Pentagon after Pearl Harbour but before he was shot down. His experience and connections in the RAF would have been invaluable. So maybe this possible headcanon of mine still holds water.

There are also other people who could have taken this path to the war and that is Kinch and every other black POW in Stalag 13.

The Tuskegee Airmen, the only black American squadron in World War II were first deployed overseas in North Africa on 24 April, 1943. (17) That’s too late for Kinch and the other black POWs to be shot down and sent to Stalag 13.

But while the American forces were segregated Canada and Great Britain weren’t quite so insistent on it. They couldn’t afford to be. This is not to say there wasn’t discrimination. Both Canada and Britain did have discriminatory practices (18) (19) that limited enrollment to all but the most general positions to those not of white European descent. But in practice a person of colour’s ability to not only enlist but to serve in a role beyond that of support personal depended very much on the recruitment officer as shown in this story.

“In 1939 the so-called colour bar that prevented black people from serving in the British forces was formally lifted, largely because the Second World War meant that the Army, Navy and Air Force needed to recruit as many men as possible.

The lifting of the bar didn’t necessarily mean it was easy for would-be West Indian recruits to get in however.

There were people who would try three or four times to get in, or pay their own passage to come to Britain from the Caribbean.

Another route in was via the Royal Canadian Air Force. Canada may have been freezing cold but it was considered to be a warm and tolerant place for prospective black servicemen.

Billy Strachan couldn’t get into the RAF, so he sold his trumpet and used the money to pay his own passage to travel through U-boat-infested seas to London. He arrived at Adastral House in Holborn and declared his desire to join the RAF. The corporal at the door told him to “piss off.”

Happily however, an officer walked past who turned out to be rather more welcoming. He asked Strachan where he was from, to which Strachan replied “I’m from Kingston.”

“Lovely, I’m from Richmond” beamed the officer.

Strachan explained that he meant Kingston, Jamaica.

Shortly after that, he was training for aircrew.”

He went on to do a tour as a navigator in Bomber Command, then retrained as a pilot and flew with the 96th squadron.” (20)

See this link for the full story.

There were black fighter pilots in the RAF as shown in the links above. Not only that there were women of colour as well, such as Lilian Bader who joined the WAAF and Noor Inayat Khan who was one of the Special Operations Executive’s top agents in France. (21)

This is not to say that there wasn’t discrimination against people of colour in Canada and Britain. There certain were as the websites quoted here show.

But the racism was not as bad or as extreme as it was in the United States. People of colour could fill high ranking and highly visible prominent positions in the Second World War as shown in this article here. (22)

So this is a route that Kinch, Baker and the other black POWs could have taken to Stalag 13. Sneaking across the border, getting fake papers, training in Canada and then heading to Britain.

One of the holes in this possible theory is the issue of their uniforms. Unlike the American pilots who were white the black Americans pilots (if there were any) would not have been have been given equivalent rank in the USAAF or even been allowed to fly in the Eagle Squadrons once they were transferred to the USAAF. America was adamant on segregation, as shown here, (23) something that caused extreme tension in Britain.

While there was racism in Britain towards people of colour the racial hatred demonstrated towards black servicemen by the American G.I.s came as a shock to the British population. (24)

Hogan could have protested segregation all he wanted, demanded Kinch be allowed to fly until he was blue in the face (assuming he and Kinch did know each other as implied in “Prince of the Phone Company” episode).

Kinch: “Hogan?” Hogan: “Robert. Hogan.” Kinch: “Ha Ha! Of course! I went to school with this man in America.”

The Americans would not allow an integrated air force. At best Kinch and the other black pilots would have been sent back to the States to join the Tuskegee airmen.

At this point there are two routes open for Kinch and the other black POWs to have been in Stalag 13 in time to help Hogan start his operation. One, they had been shot down prior to the arrival of the 8th Army USAAF in Britain by 12 May 1942.

The second option is that they remained with the RAF instead of transferring to the USAAF. As this article point out some of the Eagle Squadron members decided to remain with the RAF instead of transferring to the USAAF. (25)

So my theory for a possible route could work for Kinch as well as for Hogan. They could have both snuck into Canada as civilians, got official training and then joined the RAF. Hogan joined bomber command and gained his reputation as a war ace and tactician then joined the USAAF after America entered the war. Kinch was either shot down on a mission just before 12 May 1942 or remained with the RAF and was shot down later. Hogan flew several more missions until Bienderbender overwhelmed him. The Red Cross would have notified Britain about Kinch and the others and Britain in turn would have notified the US who in turn would have had the American Red Cross send the black POWs American uniforms.

This may have led to a reduction in rank for Kinch. The role of navigator (originally titled observer in the RAF) which he fills in “Hogan throws a birthday party”,

was usually filled by commissioned officer, see link (26), but could hold any rank from airman second class to Group Captain. The rank of flight sergeant in the RAF is the equivalent of a Master Sergeant in the USAAF. But if Kinch held a rank higher than that (which seems likely given the skill and high level of responsibility) then his being a sergeant in Stalag 13 would have meant a reduction in rank.

But as I said, this is just speculation on my part in an attempt to try and put the canon of Hogan’s Heroes into something that fits the actual historical timeline. I freely admit that there are holes in my theory.

Which is why I’m saying that this theory of mine is put forward as a possible alternative route that Hogan, Kinch and the other black POWs could have taken to get to Stalag 13 and leave them enough time for them to do all that they did and I hope it stimulates discussion and thought and (not to sound like I’m getting on a soap box here but I love research) a desire to research World War 2 for interest in the subject. Certainly that is what Hogan’s Heroes did for me.

Sources

1. World War II Database: https://m.ww2db.com/event/today/05/12/1942

2. History.net: https://www.historynet.com/first-usaac-raf-joint-combat-mission-july-4th-1942.htm

3. World War II today: https://ww2today.com/17th-august-1942-the-usaaf-makes-its-first-raid-on-occupied-europe

4. Bombing of Bremen in World War II: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Bremen_in_World_War_II

5. World War II Database: https://ww2db.com/aircraft_spec.php?aircraft_model_id=4 \

6. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-British_personnel_in_the_RAF_during_the_Battle_of_Britain#United_States

7. Warfare History Network: https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2017/01/18/americans-in-the-royal-air-force/

8. Royal Air Force Museum: https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/online-exhibitions/americans-in-the-royal-air-force/eagle-squadrons/

9. WWII: The Complete War Report. Directed by Various. Mill Creek Entertainment. 2017

10. Not Even Past: https://notevenpast.org/inching-towards-war-military-preparedness-in-the-1930s/

11. National World War II Museum: https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/student-resources/research-starters/research-starters-us-military-numbers

12. The US Army Airforces in World War 2: https://media.defense.gov/2010/Nov/05/2001329898/-1/-1/0/aaf_wwii-v1-2.pdf (pages 85 & 142)

13. Teaching American History: https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/radio-address-delivered-by-president-roosevelt-from-washington/

14. Wikipedia: Eagle Squadrons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Squadrons

15. Britannica.com: https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Britain-European-history-1940

16. 142nd wing : https://www.142fw.ang.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1211286/redhawk-reflections-on-the-first-american-mission-in-europe-1942/

17. Tuskegee Airman: https://www.tuskegee.edu/Content/Uploads/Tuskegee/files/TUSKEGEE_AIRMEN_CHRONOLOGY12.2011.pdf (page 9)

18. Historyhit.com: https://www.historyhit.com/was-the-raf-especially-receptive-to-black-servicemen-in-world-war-two/

19. CBC.ca: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/black-canadians-second-world-war-1.5793974

20. Historyhit.com: Was the RAF Especially Receptive to Black Servicemen in World War Two? | History Hit

21. Second World War Experience Centre: https://war-experience.org/lives/noor-inayat-khan-soe/

22. Royal Air Force Musuem: https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/online-exhibitions/pilots-of-the-caribbean/across-the-commands/

23. Royal Air Force Museum: https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/online-exhibitions/pilots-of-the-caribbean/answering-the-call/the-second-world-war-1939-to-1945-segregation/

24. Theconversation.com: https://theconversation.com/black-troops-were-welcome-in-britain-but-jim-crow-wasnt-the-race-riot-of-one-night-in-june-1943-98120

25. The National Interest: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/these-americans-flew-royal-air-force-during-world-war-ii-168713

26. Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Bomber_Command_aircrew_of_World_War_II

#Hogan's Heroes #Colonel Robert Hogan #Sargeant James Kinchlow #Colonel Klink #World War 2 #World War 2 timeline #racism #segregation #Nazi Germany #RAF #USAAF

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bisexualhobi · 3 years

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"they’re going to do everything in their power to convert the existing army to support whatever group and products they sell next" It's gradually working bc I have seen many armies willingly throw bts under the bus to defend the company. "Bts aren't overworked", "they're about to faint from exhaustion uwu they love us so much", "we love watching bts getting filmed 24/7 even when they faint, get stitches without anesthesia and cry bc they want us to see the human side of them" and other bs.

yeah, atp an overwhelming majority of armys (specially the ones that are active on twt - arguably their biggest segment) are not fans of bts for the sake of the members. they are fans of the bts Brand and the company and feel an undying loyalty to hybe because they truly genuinely think hybe is a snowflake "not like other companies" fighting the forces of Evil Asian Corrupt Men. like i'm not saying supporting other kpop companies is any better, if you wanna support hybe or sm it makes no difference but the fact that they see hybe as this Savior of kpop when in reality they are literally the elon musk and jeff bezos equivalent of it is fucking insane.

brand loyalty is incredibly hard to achieve. ppl will support a company for a certain product, and if they stop selling that product people go off to look for another alternative. but when you reach brand loyalty that means a certain base of customers will stick with you no matter what you sell them - be it a golden egg or a bag of dogshit. examples of companies with strong brand loyalty besides disney include starbucks, apple, coca-cola and sephora. hybe is well underway to achieve this - whether it's sustainable in the long run will depend on how they maneuver bts' enlistment.

#asks

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script-a-world · 4 years

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(sorry this is long) I'm creating a fantasy matriarchal society that's a combination of like America post WW2 and like the amazons/valkyries crossed with magical girls. I could use some help figuring out the gender dynamics, since part of my goal is to use the swap to highlight some inequalities that still exist in our gender expectations today by flipping them. I'm trying to figure out if it's better to have the men be primary caregivers (1/?)

since there’s no reason to assume that the gender that gives birth has to be the caregivers) or if I should go the “matriarchal society would value childrearing above other jobs” route. Some thoughts I had: Women are the main magic-users in society (magical girl/amazons blessed directly by the god who rules the city with power)and that perhaps all young women are expected to go through military service of some sort before becoming matrons, politicians and doctors. (2/?)

Maybe women are associated with Life and Death and “important duties” that revolve around them, including duties regarding both killing and saving lives. So healing, leading armies, fighting, hunting, childbirth (possibly care?) and politics are feminine jobs, while “lesser duties” that revolve more around menial labor are relegated to men (manual labor, maintenance, ‘uneducated’ jobs, support jobs like scribe and secretary, cooking, cleaning, perhaps some jobs like fashion design or art). (3/?)

Do you think this is a good balance? What are some other ways I could divide gender roles? The world situation is a magical land with about early 20th century level tech (trains and private schools and like phones/radios).Also, what is the best way to objectify men in this society? I was thinking of making it so men are seen as useless/only for the purpose of providing sexual pleasure and siring children to women. (4/?)

They don’t’ actually create children or take the ‘important jobs’ (the poor dears just don’t have the brains for it, they’re too simple and direct, men don’t have the emotional maturity to handle serious issues, they lack empathy, they only want sex anyway so it’s not like you need to worry about their emotional needs, etc). I’d love some suggestions on how a society like this might work or if there are other ways to divide the gender roles, (5/?)

as well as some ways men might experience objectification in society. How would fashion be different, and how would this society put pressure on men to look or act in certain ways (and women as well). Any suggestions? Thanks, and sorry for the long question(6/?)

Mod Miri Note: If you have a question that requires multiple asks, please use the google form! That way there’s no risk of parts of the question being lost.

Tex: “Do you think this is a good balance?” No, I do not. I disagree with the notion that a group of people ought to be objectified, neglected, abused, pigeon-holed, or otherwise mistreated under the guise of inversion as a way to tout a certain prescription of thought. I think this methodology perpetuates stereotypes, and with stereotypes come all the -isms that are used as excuses to treat people poorly just because they’re different from the originating group.

I’m going to be radical and say “none of the above”. There’s a few reasons for my answer, but aside from the brief overview in the previous paragraph, let me go through and try responding to all of your points in a more precise manner.

Let’s start with American culture post WWII - and I’m going to assume that, because of this choice, you’re working from an American perspective. This is important! But I’ll handle that detail in a bit.

Post-WWII culture is heavily influenced by WWII culture. For women, this meant enlistment in the military, as well as filling the gaps in the domestic labor force left by men being shipped off (History.com, The Atlantic). Their service in the military - quite often voluntary - was as critical and crucial as their domestic work (Wikipedia 1, Wikipedia 2, Wikipedia 3). They usually received lower pay than men, true (though interestingly the women in the UK were often treated better; Striking Women), though governments of the time admitted that without women the war effort would have crumpled.

Rosie the Riveter is a popular piece of propaganda (where it was also considered patriotic for women to join the workforce and military service; National Women’s History Museum), but don’t let that dissuade you from thinking that women were not recognized for other types of work during the war. Many women in the US were recognized for their military service (USO), and other women’s histories endure today - Lyudmila Pavlichenko (Wikipedia), Vitka Kempner (Wikipedia), and Virginia Hall (Wikipedia). I’m going to toss in the official synopsis of Queen Elizabeth II’s involvement in her own military to round things out (The Royal Family), complete with a picture of her in uniform (Wikipedia).

Many women after the war went back to strictly domestic duties, and I think that parallels their wartime efforts - both situations are of the “all hands on deck” type, but the play of gender roles here means that the duties of a functioning society are divvied up by different functional spheres - and make no mistake, men and women relied on each other equally as much to cover the gaps, despite the sexism inherent in modern Western society. The difference between war and non-war time cultures was that the latter wasn’t necessarily cultivated by patriotism that could unite the different “factions”. The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History gives a thorough examination of this topic.

The following era - typified by the birth of the Baby Boomer generation - saw a marked increase in economic prosperity (Wikipedia). With that came increased social mobility for women (Citation 1), usually catalyzed by the actions of their fathers (Citation 2). This may typically be achieved by consistent, conscientious public policy formation (Citation 3). In short, many cultures - if they haven’t already - are realizing that it’s good for business to let women control how they participate in society and the flow of money.

In the US, this was precipitated by the boom of social development (American History; archived version). Aside from the Truman administration negotiating price fixing to prevent inflation, a significant factor was the passing of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (AKA the G.I. Bill). This primarily benefited the Greatest Generation, though other pertinent legislation by the 79th Congress benefited the Silent Generation onwards: the Fair Deal, Revenue Act of 1948, Taft-Hartley Act, Employment Act of 1946, National School Lunch Act, and Hobbs Act.

It’s debatable how well this impacted long-term economic development, considering the almost immediate rise of McCarthyism in the US in 1947, which was heavily intertwined with the Truman Doctrine that precipitated the Cold War. The results of the war, at least economically, were… mixed (Wikipedia 1, Wikipedia 2). I have no doubt that this impacted the social mobility of women in all affected countries - which is all of them, but I’m sure hairs could be split on this if you wish.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s tackle the Amazons.

The modern, popular interpretation (that is slow to be shaken by archaeological evidence) is mostly mythological (Wikipedia). While some ideas are thrown in the way of a Minoan Crete ancestry to the myth, there are more similarities drawn to the Scythian and Samartian cultures on the Eurasian Steppe (CNET). It’s possible that instead of the equally-extreme pole end of the gender dichotomy that is patriarchy-matriarchy, the Scythians just scandalized the Athenians with a comparatively more fluid society (Smithsonian Magazine).

As for Valkyries… there’s been a revival of them in pop culture, probably as a net-casting to see what’s out there aside from Amazons. TVTropes covers the many, many ways media utilizes them as a trope, to varying degrees of mythological and cultural accuracy. As they state, valkyries are a form of psychopomp, as they decide who among the battlefield’s dead will go to Valhalla (ruled by Odin) or Fólkvangr (ruled by Freya). Freya seems to have assumed the “type” (as opposed to characteristics salient to a particular individual) of a valkyrie, as the female counterpart the warrior archetype. To wit, Freya herself may be a type (Wikipedia).

Here’s where the issue gets thorny - modern popular understanding of valkyries, and by extension Scandinavian women, is skewed through the modern lens.

@fjorn-the-skald has a lovely series called Viking History: Post-by-Post, or An Informal Crash Course & A Historical Guide to the Vikings, that typically focuses on medieval Iceland. In his post “Lesson 13.c - Women in the Viking Age, Part III: Were Women “Vikings”?”, discusses the particular penchant of modern times to romanticize and/or skew history to their own biases - in this instance, how medieval Icelandic women functioned in their culture, as well as how valkyrie myths play into this.

The TL;DR of that is: “viking” women were a societal anomaly, the battlefield was a male domain (and they were expected to die on it), a woman’s prowess of the domestic sphere was highly respected to a level often equivalent to men, and the domestic sphere was the sphere of commerce. Scandinavian culture prized strong women, just as they prized strong men, and their culture rested upon the concept of different genders having their own distinct, complementary, and equal domains.

Fjörn builds upon this history in an ask about gender roles outside the usual dichotomy of male-female. Valkyries, and shield-maidens, may be classed as a third gender in medieval Scandinavian culture, because women were temporarily occupying the male role in their society. While valkyries are of divine origin, shield-maidens are not, though they seem to have taken on a supernatural bent by performing feminine qualities while living in the male sphere (something that they can literally wear, by the donning of their armor).

That probably comes across as distasteful to, especially, a modern American perspective, but many ancient cultures are like that. There’s a footnote on that ask about links to a contemporary perspective of same-sex relationships, as well, to round out that talking point.

With those historical and mythological details discussed, let’s move on to magical girls.

Interestingly, the genre and trope derive from the American TV show Bewitched (Nippon.com). Its evolution reflected Japan’s changing tone about female sexuality, focusing on girls. Magical Girl doesn’t seem to be intended to attract the male gaze in a sexual light - and in fact was generated as a form of female empowerment by by way of growing up (TVTropes), but it seems to happen anyways (TVTropes).

Magical girls, as a genre, originated in the 1960s - the archetypical Sailor Moon encompasses not only magical girls, but also the kawaii aesthetic. Kawaii, incidentally, followed after the magical girl trope, and plays upon women performing as girls in society.

As magical girls are intended for young girls, a demographic known as shōjo, it is considered a subgenre of the target audience. Please note that shōnen'ai (Fanlore) and yaoi (Fanlore) are also subgenres of shōjo.

For some context, the adult female target audience is known as josei, the young adult men is known as shōnen, and adult male audience is known as seinen. Many manga and anime are often misattributed to the wrong category, so it helps to know which is which, and why.

Kumiko Saito argues (through an unfortunately paywalled article that I’m more than willing to disseminate to those without JSTOR access) that magical girls reinforce gender stereotypes as well as fetishize young female bodies. She argues this point more eloquently than I can, so I’ll be quoting a few sections below.

Page 148 (7 of 23 on the PDF):

The 1960s “witch” housewife theme waned quickly in the United States, but various cultural symbolisms of magic smoothly translated into the Japanese climate, leading to Japans four-decade-long obsession with the magical girl. Bewitched incorporated the concept of magic as female power to be renounced after marriage, thereby providing “a discursive site in which feminism (as female power) and femininity has been negotiated” (Moseley 2002, 403) in the dawning of Americas feminist era. Japans magical girls represented a similar impasse of fitting into female domesticity, continued to fascinate Japanese society, and came to define the magical girl genre. In direct contrast to the American heroines Samantha and Jeannie, however, whose strife arose from the antagonism between magic (as power) and the traditional gender role as wife or fiancée, the magical girls dilemma usually lies between female adulthood and the juvenile female stage prior to marriage, called shõjo. In other words, the magical girl narratives often revolve around the magical freedom of adolescence prior to the gendered stage of marriage and motherhood, suggesting the difficulty of imagining elements of power and defiance beyond the point of marriage. In fact, these programs were broadcast exactly when the rate of love-based marriage started to surpass that of miai (arranged marriage),4 which implies that the magical girl anime, founded on the strict ideological division between shõjo and wife/mother, may have been an anxious reaction to the emergent phase of romance.

Page 150 (9 of 23 on the PDF):

The combination of magical empowerment and shõjo-ness framed by the doomed nature of transient girlhood naturally created ambivalent, messages in Akko-chan as well. In the societal milieu in which Japan was undergoing the politically turbulent era of Marxist student movements at the largest scale in the postwar era, Akko-chan’s super- human ability to transform into anyone (or anything) is quite revolutionary, implying a sense of women’s liberation. Despite this potential, her metamorphic ability never threatens gender models, as she typically dreams of becoming a princess, a bride, or a female teacher she respects. The use of magic is also largely limited to humanitarian community services in town. Akko-chan’s symbolic task throughout the series focuses on how to steer her power to serve her friends and family, leading to the final episode in which she relinquishes magic to save her father. Akko-chan embraces the cross-generic mismatch between the radical idea of empowering a girl with superhuman ability and the hahamono [mother genre] sentimentalism idealizing women’s self-sacrifice. All in all, the new setting adopted in this series, that a mediocre girl accidentally gains magic, became a useful mechanism for the underlying theme that the heroine is foredoomed to say farewell to magic in the end. This rhetorical device transforms latent power of the amorphous girl into the reappreciation of traditional gender norms by equating magic with shõjo-hood to be given up at a certain stage.

Saito discusses the thematic shifts in the magical girl subgenre in the 1980s to a more sexualized view, and the according rise of both an older audience and otaku fans, the latter of whom, she clarifies, make a habit of recontextualizing canon to categorize characters into stereotypes that are stripped of the majority of their original context.

On pages 153-154 (12-13 of 23 on the PDF):

The conventions of the magical girl genre transformed significantly against this paradigm shift. Both Minky Momo and Creamy Mami originally targeted children, recording a decent outcome in business and eventually leading to the revival of the genre. Because the plots are directly built on the genre clichés, however, the jokes and sarcasm of many episodes appear comprehensible only to adult viewers equipped with the knowledge of the Töei magical girls. The intrigue of these programs largely lies in the way they parody and mock the established genre conventions, especially the restrictive function of magic and the meaning of transformation. The genre is now founded on the expectation that the adult viewer has acquired a diachronic fan perspective to fetishize both the characters and the text’s meanings.

Creamy Mami presents the story of fourth-grader Yū, who gains magical power that enables her to turn into a sixteen-year-old girl. Yū’s magical power is more restrictive than Momo’s, for her superhuman capacity simply means metamorphosis into her adult form, who happens to become an idol singer called Mami. Given that the magic’s ability is self-oriented cosmetic effect and bodily maturation, the heroine’s ultimate goal by means of magic is to grow old enough to attract her male friend Toshio, who neglects Yū’s latent charm but falls in love with the idol Mami. The series concludes when Yū loses her magic, which correlates to Toshio’s realization that Yū is his real love. Mami’s thematic messages teach the idea that magic does not bring much advantage or power after all, or rather, magic serves as an obstacle for the appreciation of the truly magical period called shõjo. The heroine gains magic to prove, although retroactively, the importance of adolescence preceding the possession of “magic” that enables (and forces) female maturation.

It’s noted in the article that the 1990s-2000s period received criticism for showing a physical maturation of girls, so codified euphemisms via garment changes such as additional frills and curled hair were used instead. This “third-wave” magical girl challenged standing norms of its predecessors by doing things such as likening adult responsibilities (“childrearing and job training”) as a sort of game, as well as the transformation implying that the character’s power is in being herself, something that juxtaposes previous norms.

Due to shifting power dynamics and other changes in Japan’s culture, it became more common for boys to become magical girls as well, further separating the magical girl concept from a strict reflection of gender roles. As such, Japanese culture - insofar as my English-based research can guide me - no longer immediately implies a direct and distinct correlation between magical girls and the female gender.

An analysis of Puella Magi Madoka Magica (PMMM) by Tate James (2017; PDF) discusses an additional dimension of the magical girl genre. Two pertinent points of the piece is that 1.) PMMM dismantles archetypes pitting women against girls, and 2.) PMMM reinforces the gender stereotype that the best type of girl is a passive girl.

Now for the issue you’ve raised about who ought to be the primary caregiver of children.

Consistent, immediate, and continuous interaction between a mother and her child benefits both of them (Citation 4, Scientific American 1, Live Science, Citation 5, Scientific American 2, UNICEF, WHO). Mothers have a distinct neurobiological makeup that predisposes them toward caring for infants (Citation 6), and likewise infants have a predisposed preference to their mother’s voice and heartbeat (Citation 7). I would like to think that is sufficient evidence as to why nearly all cultures encourage mothers as the primary caregivers.

This said, cultivation of a father-child dyad is immensely beneficial to the child (Citation 8, Citation 9), and can alleviate the effect of maternal depression on the child (ScienceDaily). Partnered men residing with children have lower levels of testosterone but a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and adiposity (Citation 10). It’s interesting to note that higher prolactin levels in the mother’s breastmilk has a correspondingly higher level of sociosexual activity with their partner in cotton-top tamarins, which stimulates pair bonding (Citation 11), as well as in other species (Citation 12).

Paternal postpartum depression is recently recognized in fathers, to severe and reverberating deleterious effects on themselves and their family (Citation 13). Screening tools for detecting depression in Swedish fathers is not sufficiently developed, and many men may be passed over despite reaching cut-off suggestions in other criteria for depression (Citation 14).

It has been observed that while human mother and fathers have the similar oxytocin pathways, the exhibit different parenting behaviours when exposed to elevated levels of oxytocin - primarily that fathers will react with high stimulatory behaviour and exploratory play (Wikipedia).

Men being socialized in a culture of stoicism and an encouraged reaction pattern to violence have poor mental health that can culminate into death and other long-term effects (Citation 15). Suicide in the US is currently the leading cause of death at time of posting this response, that the total suicide rate increased 31% from 2001-2017, and in 2017 male rates were nearly four times higher than females (NIMH).

On the topic of magical culture: it’s incredibly difficult to research because it’s a component of overall culture, and one that��s not typically available to strangers/foreigners/the uninitiated. As such, a lot of authors default to what they already know. It’s not a bad thing, but if someone wants to reach outside their comfort zone, they’re going to have some trouble.

I’m going to go off the three, four-ish, cultures you’ve already come to us with: American, Scandinavian, Scythian/Samartian, and Japanese just to round things out.

For a very, very rough overview of America, we have:

Native Americans of the contiguous US

Hawai’i

Alaska

Whatever the colonizing peoples brought over (including, but not limited to, English, Scottish, Irish, Norwegian, German, and Italian)

Whatever the myriad cultures of Africa brought over as slaves

Hispanic

NB: I’ve put Hawai’i and Alaska as separate items because they’re not part of the contiguous US.

European settlers were of a few groups:

The merchants working on charters

Indentured servants from the merchants’ homelands

Slavs

Immigrants in post-colonial eras

This is an important distinction because 1.) contemporary culture matters a lot politically, 2.) how people came to the US determined how they and their family were treated, and 3.) the contemporary job culture determined their social class.

(Slavs, as a note, are the origin of the English word “slave”, something that Western Europeans historically liked to propagate.)

I’m not going to go into the details of everything the US has to offer in terms of cultural diversity aside from a nudge in the direction of Santería. What you pick up to research is up to you.

Scandinavian folk magic is known as “trolldom” (Swedish-language Wikipedia), and the region was known for their cunningfolk. Please note that klok/-a, klog/-e, and related words relates to the English word cloak, and these people are so named because wearing one was an integral part of how they interacted with the supernatural.

The InternetArchive has a book (albeit in Swedish) about the history of magic in Sweden, which is available in multiple formats. If you’d prefer to have something in English, you can either buy this book, or inform your library you’d like to them to buy it for you.

I’m a little surprised you hadn’t mentioned either the völva (Swedish Wikipedia, English Wikipedia) or seiðr (Wikipedia), as they’re quite a well-known part of Scandinavian folk culture. Fjörn, as always, is my first stop for this area of research, with the post “Lesson 7 - Viking Spirituality”, the Víkingabók Database, the tag of Old Norse words, and the post “Norðurbók: A List of the Tales and Sagas of Icelanders” as incredibly good starting points. I encourage you to peruse them, especially because the words you learn will help you be more precise during research.

The Scythian culture is quite far reaching, as they had occupied most of the Eurasian Steppe during the Iron Age, and much of this area can be found in modern-day countries such as Russia, Iran, and China, among others. Because of how far their peoples spread out, the Scythians intermixed with their neighbors, and as such there are sub-groups to the culture.

The Sarmatians were more Russian, as that’s where a large amount of their territory laid, and were absorbed into early Slavic culture. Both their and the overall Scythian language group is eastern Iranian.

In order to help you orient yourself, here’s a map from Wikipedia:

Description: Historical spread of Iranian peoples/languages: Scythia, Sarmatia, Bactria and the Parthian Empire in about 170 BC (evidently before the Yuezhi invaded Bactria). Modern political boundaries are shown to facilitate orientation.

Japanese magical culture is intrinsically tied to their religion, and as such it would be beneficial to read about Shintoism and Japanese Buddhism. The wiki for Japanese mythology is a thorough primer, though if you get stuck, then I’m sure @scriptmyth would be glad to help you on not only this culture, but others.

As for the jobs you’ve proposed - I’m going to jump right into scribes because the irony of that is it’s historically a male-dominated job, and is the progenitor of jobs such as “public servants, journalists, accountants, bookkeepers, typists, and lawyers”. It is, with even greater irony, European women that are noted in Wikipedia, and that medieval women are increasingly thought to have played an integral part in manuscript writing (New Scientist, Science Advances).

I’m not the best person to ask for medieval culture, unfortunately, so you’ll need someone more knowledgeable than me on the subject to direct you to the finer points.

The wiki for women in war links to a lot of lists, so I would suggest poking around for historical references by era (that will likely lead to by culture) to orient yourself on how women have participated in war in the past. There’s quite a bit of mythology to be found there, as well, so if you pick up some specific goddesses you get stuck on, then pop over to @scriptmyth.

Likewise, the wiki for women in government is an interesting read, as is women in positions of power. Since both are primarily modern-times oriented, I would suggest looking at the list of queens regnant for a more historical perspective. I would have difficulty giving you more than that, as you would need to pinpoint your reference cultures first.

As history often neglects women’s contributions to society if they weren’t a ruler or similarly powerful ruler - and, frankly, that frequently applied to men as well the further back you go - I’m going to toss a couple of starting points at you for the area of medicine:

Women in medicine § Ancient medicine - Wikipedia

Women in medicine - Science Museum: History of Medicine

One thing to keep in mind is that as goalposts changed for medicine - the standardization of knowledge and the need to attend a medical school to be legally allowed to perform medicine - the availability of women to participate went down.

Another is that medicine, historically, relied upon herbal medicine, and Wikipedia itself notes that there’s a heavy overlap with food history - something that’s traditionally a domain of women. This abstract by Marcia Ramos‐e‐Silva MD, PhD, talks about Saint Hildegard von Bingen, and the first page available tells you that medieval women were in charge of quite a lot despite not being allowed to participate in the male-dominated sphere of war. The Herbal Academy dips briefly into not only the saint, but other historical aspects of herbalism that might interest you.

The wiki of women in the Middle Ages, along with that of Hildegard of Bingen, nicely rounds out this particular topic.

I need to bring out the fact that Ancient Egypt was and is well-known for the equality and respect afforded to their women - in the interest of staying on subject, particularly in the field of medicine (Ancient History Encyclopedia). Isis was well-known as a goddess of healing (Wikipedia), an aspect she has in common with goddesses in many other cultures (Wikipedia). As an added side-note, Merit Ptah in her popularly-known context has been concluded to be an inflated misunderstanding - and misconstrued interpretation - of a historical figure with significant fabrication (LiveScience, Oxford).

The presence of women in medicine fluctuated in every culture, an in ancient times often shared some correlation with the use of magic (Citation 16). Healing, historically, has a high correlation with the supernatural - and if you care to look, women are usually responsible for the domain of the supernatural. (Or at least the feminine part, which was complementary and complemented by the masculine part.)

I’m going to hop back to politics real quick to bring up abbesses, particularly the social power they exercised as women heading religious orders. An article by Alixe Bovey for the British Library gives the TL;DR of medieval women and abbeys, though if you’d like something with a bit more detail, Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535 by Eileen Edna Power is also available.

Abbeys, with their rise and fall, are important to modern American culture. Midwives, to be even more particular, have the most direct impact. In Western Europe, a midwife may under certain circumstances perform baptisms. This was a debated topic of its time, as baptisms were rituals of the Church, and the Church had strict regulations allowing only men to perform their rituals.

During the 1500s - and up to the 1800s, in some cases - midwives were defamed to be witches. You’ll notice that this corresponds to a standardization of medical knowledge, with its corresponding legal restrictions on who may practice medicine. For the Church, the politics playing behind the scenes of midwifery and female physicians fluctuated with their observations about women’s power relative to their own (Citation 16).

Malta is an excellent case study of this phenomenon (Citation 17), and encapsulates the movement of witchcraft accusations that took place throughout this period - something historians noted as corresponding to the rise of Protestantism (ThoughtCo). There’s some debate that the increasing orientation to wages in contemporary economy facilitated this adverse behaviour against women, as well as various other social pressures as politically mitigated by the Catholic Church (Wikipedia).

As the practice of medicine was segregated according to sex - male patients to male physicians, female patients to female physicians - there were proportionally fewer men in trades such as midwifery than women despite the medieval shift toward male encroachment of territory (Wikipedia). This corresponding money- and thus male-oriented intrusion into the female sphere of medicine can be seen with the invention of the obstetric forceps (JSTOR). The rising culture of appropriation constituted the witchcraft trials that, incidentally, influenced American culture during their colonization years.

A pertinent name to remember for American history of the witchcraft trials is Margaret Jones, a Puritan midwife and the first person to be accused of witchcraft in the trails taking place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Wikipedia).

The Salem Witch Trials, as an offhand note, could well be an anomaly due to ergotism (Citation 18).

One thing I’m willing to bend on - a little bit - is manual labor, but mostly because you’re describing something very similar to what’s already been invented: corvée labor. There’s plenty of other forms depending on what culture you’re going for, though unlike what you’re proposing, does not necessarily imply the direct and permanent subjugation of people.

I will absolutely quibble with the idea of “uneducated” labor equating to “less valuable” labor - universities offer non-vocational degrees, typically in the areas of research and/or religion, and guilds were created as a means of quality control (that unfortunately got out of hand and committed crimes such as rent-seeking). Women in guilds were a thing, vulnerable to the same fluctuations as their other occupations outside the house.

If we are defining “uneducated” labour as “menial” labour, then this set of occupations inherently varies by culture, as does its relative weight of importance. One example of this would be writing; it may be menial but important, whereas holding negotiations could be a “major” role but wouldn’t exist without the support of workers “less than” them.

Correspondingly, gender divisions may not necessarily mean an assignation of “lesser” or “greater” when compared against each other. In medieval Europe, at least, the creation of textiles was split along the general lines of spinning and weaving. Women held the former (hence “spinster”), and men held the latter. Spinning was often not formalized into guilds then, but it was an important cornerstone of the economy that could support entire families. A guest post on The Freelance History Writer’s blog seems to indicate that this gender division was due to influence by the Bible, which seems to corroborate with the history of both professions as detailed on Wikipedia - the further back we go, and also the less connected to Christianity, the more textile work women presided over. This granted them greater control over their presence in society, since the selling of textiles was useful leverage to support themselves and others.

A similar discrepancy can be found with agriculture. Hamer women in Ethiopia are traditionally the one to cultivate sorghum, a cornerstone crop to their diet, and they exhibit preferences in which varieties they grow according to criteria such as which is easiest to grind and long-term storage feasibility (Citation 19). Accordingly, there’s been an increasing orientation around the growing of crops rather than the pastoralist habits of their men, with trading standards occuring at one goat for one Dore (“pile of maize or sorghum”) (Citation 19).

A study examining the male sphere of hunting within a society discusses the various cultural implications of defendable vs non-defendable meat sharing, with respect to how the meat is distributed and its corresponding social range (e.g. immediate social circle vs entire community), something I find interesting given that the kilocalories obtained from meat is roughly equal to that of the female sphere-acquired agriculture/gathering (Citation 20). The division of labour along gender lines when it comes to food flow in a community seems, historically, to be both comparable and compatible to each other - a recurring theme with many of the topics I’ve already covered.

Gender roles in their historical perspective - especially the further back you go - are often complimentary to each other, and are an economical way to divide up the burden of maintaining a society to a functional level. There are plenty of exceptions to this (see: third genders), as well, and many cultures exhibit the idea that a productive person is good for society; their roles may look a little different from the person next to them, and not only is the work considered equal in terms of importance, but also with a bit of poking around, you’ll find that few cultures have harsh punishments for anyone “stepping outside” their predicted roles.

Men are already objectified plenty. That their treatment by society looks different than women’s, or other genders, is by no means an excuse to sweep things under the room and pretend that they have it best - or worse, purposefully ostracize them in a fictional work to further mock, ridicule, and isolate them. This contributes to the societal issues in your culture that you wish to address, and stems from a uniquely pervasive perspective from modern American culture that differs from many other cultures in the world.

TL;DR - The way you wish to objectify men is already being done, especially in American culture. It is harmful, and will have an impact that will reach further than you might anticipate. This approach is counterproductive to your goals, and the cultures/media you cite either directly contradict your beliefs of said sources or otherwise undermine your beliefs. It is vastly more productive to take a deeper look at the origins of the issues you wish to address in your writing, as well as the reference material that you wish to use. Learning perspectives outside your native culture will benefit you immensely, and the results could surprise you.

Citations

Citation 1 - PDF - Doepke, M., Tertilt, M., Voena, A.. (2012). “The Economics and Politics of Women’s Rights,” Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 339-372, 07.

Citation 2 - PDF - Fernández, R.. (2014). “Women’s rights and development,” Journal of Economic Growth, vol 19(1), pages 37-80.

Citation 3 - PDF - Duflo, E. (2012). “Women’s Empowerment and Economic Development”, Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 50, No. 4: 1051-79.

Citation 4 - PDF - Crenshaw J. T. (2014). “Healthy Birth Practice #6: Keep Mother and Baby Together- It’s Best for Mother, Baby, and Breastfeeding.” The Journal of perinatal education, 23(4), 211–217. doi:10.1891/1058-1243.23.4.211

Citation 5 - Faisal-Cury, A., Bertazzi Levy, R., Kontos, A., Tabb, K., & Matijasevich, A. (2019). “Postpartum bonding at the beginning of the second year of child’s life: the role of postpartum depression and early bonding impairment.” Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology, 1-7.

Citation 6 - PDF - Bornstein, M. H., Putnick, D. L., Rigo, P., Esposito, G., Swain, J. E., Suwalsky, J. T., … & De Pisapia, N. (2017). “Neurobiology of culturally common maternal responses to infant cry.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(45), E9465-E9473.

Citation 7 - PDF - Webb, A. R., Heller, H. T., Benson, C. B., & Lahav, A. (2015). “Mother’s voice and heartbeat sounds elicit auditory plasticity in the human brain before full gestation.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(10), 3152-3157.

Citation 8 - PDF - Pan, Y., Zhang, D., Liu, Y., Ran, G., & Teng, Z. (2016). “Different effects of paternal and maternal attachment on psychological health among Chinese secondary school students.” Journal of Child and Family Studies, 25(10), 2998-3008.

Citation 9 - PDF - Brown, G. L., Mangelsdorf, S. C., & Neff, C. (2012). “Father involvement, paternal sensitivity, and father-child attachment security in the first 3 years.” Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43), 26(3), 421–430. doi:10.1037/a0027836

Citation 10 - PDF - Lee T Gettler, Mallika S Sarma, Rieti G Gengo, Rahul C Oka, James J McKenna, Adiposity, CVD risk factors and testosterone: Variation by partnering status and residence with children in US men, Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, Volume 2017, Issue 1, January 2017, Pages 67–80, https://doi.org/10.1093/emph/eox005

Citation 11 - PDF - Snowdon, C. T., & Ziegler, T. E. (2015). “Variation in prolactin is related to variation in sexual behavior and contact affiliation.” PloS one, 10(3), e0120650.

Citation 12 - Hashemian, F., Shafigh, F., & Roohi, E. (2016). “Regulatory role of prolactin in paternal behavior in male parents: A narrative review.” Journal of postgraduate medicine, 62(3), 182–187. doi:10.4103/0022-3859.186389

Citation 13 - PDF - Eddy, B., Poll, V., Whiting, J., & Clevesy, M. (2019). “Forgotten Fathers: Postpartum Depression in Men.” Journal of Family Issues, 40(8), 1001-1017.

Citation 14 - PDF - Psouni, E., Agebjörn, J., & Linder, H. (2017). “Symptoms of depression in Swedish fathers in the postnatal period and development of a screening tool.” Scandinavian journal of psychology, 58(6), 485-496.

Citation 15 - Pappas, S. (2018, January). “APA issues first-ever guidelines for practice with men and boys.” Monitor on Psychology, 50(1).

Citation 16 - PDF - Kontoyannis, M., & Katsetos, C. (2011). “Midwives in early modern Europe (1400-1800).” Health Science Journal, 5(1), 31.

Citation 17 - PDF - Savona-Ventura, C. (1995). “The influence of the Roman Catholic Church on midwifery practice in Malta.” Medical history, 39(1), 18-34.

Citation 18 - PDF - Woolf, Alan. (2000). “Witchcraft or Mycotoxin? The Salem Witch Trials. Journal of toxicology.” Clinical toxicology. 38. 457-60. 10.1081/CLT-100100958.

Citation 19 - PDF - Samuel, T. (2013). “From cattle herding to sedentary agriculture: the role of hamer women in the transition.” African Study Monographs, Suppl. 46: 121–133. [Alternate PDF link]

Citation 20 - PDF - Gurven, Michael & Hill, Kim. (2009). “Why Do Men Hunt?.” Current Anthropology. 50. 51-74. 10.1086/595620.

Further Reading

Harry S Truman § Domestic Affairs - Wikipedia

Marshall Plan - Wikipedia

Interstate Highway System - Wikipedia

Medieval Icelandic Law (The Grágás) – Women’s Rights: On Reclaiming Property during Separation. By @fjorn-the-skald

Fjörn’s Library

“Notes on Valkyries and the like?” by @fjorn-the-skald

Fjörn’s chronological tag on women

Epigenetic correlates of neonatal contact in humans - Development and Psychopathology

Feral: So, obviously, everything Tex just said- round of effing applause!

I do want to hone in on one specific part of your ask, “since part of my goal is to use the swap to highlight some inequalities that still exist in our gender expectations today by flipping them” and direct you to this blog post on Mythcreants specifically addressing the Persecution Flip Story and why it’s not a great idea from a social justice perspective.

Happy reading!

#pylons #matriarchal society #gender dynamics #deseretgear

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scarletta-ec · 4 years

Text

Original Sin Story: Re_Crime

[AFTERWORD]

So this is mainly mothy talking about the original book so I guess this means I get to go through my process. More or less just my patch notes from this build of Original Sin Story: Crime.

Part 1

First, I made Maria a little older when she was caught in a storm. I wanted to distance Levia from lightning and make Maria a more Miku-ish age rather than a typical Rin age.

Basically, I’m increasing Levia’s association with wind instead of lightning.

Next was Miroku’s name. I don’t know, it’s an alright name but it feels weird for a surname from later EC being a first name of a not-Jakokuese character here. I first renamed him Nemanja, but then found a Slavic G- name I liked, Gavriil. It’s an equivalent to “Gabriel” which is the name of an archangel.

I liked the first few chapters so not too much has changed. It got exponentially more and more divided from the source material as the book quality went down.

I haven’t changed too much of the worldbuilding or politics cause that is not my strong point, lol. It’s serviceable so I let it be.

I added a description of curled platinum blond hair for Irta Li because I think he should look like Alucard.

Changed the “gear” system of time to “period” since that term is an actual expression of time and is not used in-universe/in the book for this purpose.

Changed Adam and Gammon’s reactions to being late. I just feel maybe Adam shouldn’t be so smug and Gammon such an ass.

I didn’t change anything about Vaju, but his description makes me think of the Capitol elite from The Hunger Games.

Part 2

Didn’t feel like settling on “Mogura” or “Mole People” for those people who dig up Second Period relics, so I just titled them Excavators.

Kept the magic car cause it’s pretty dope and it made my friend go feral cause she predicted it.

Genderbent Raiou into Raijoou because I always imagined the Zvezdas as matriarchal and instead of switching it so Raiou was the late parent, I just said screw it, Eve gets two moms.

I like the idea of Horus Solnste being his own character but there’s really no way to make it work without even more rewrites so he’s still Seth here.

Raijoou’s wife still claims to have found Eve in a river. This is an in-story lie and a meta misdirection.

Added that Adam and Eve have a year to two year difference in age, but they’re both around 20.

I found the whale thing kind of dumb so I just made Catherine a “white blur under the waves” (i.e. a dead sunken body). I get it was a Jonah’s whale reference but I don’t think she needs to literally be a whale for her to fulfill that reference, like how Seth is never a literal snake.

Changed the mention of “THE White Army” to “A White Army”. Raisa mentions a test of her “Second Regiment”. I changed her from a Salem inheritor to a Vlad inheritor (who uses fire magic). This “Second Regiment” is an undead army that are all white, like the Netsuma humans of her First Regiment. Though the zombies are resistant to regular fighting, lightning gets them down quite easily.

I have to say, I wasn’t really chill with Meta being a Gilles inheritor when the info came out but the Red Devotees are so terrifying I couldn’t change it.

Salem inheritor fire is not fire magic. The Netsuma are not all Vlad inheritors like Raisa, but they are all skilled in the fire arts, that is, fire spells and weapons. The arts don’t cover blue flames, as only Salem inheritors produce that.

I made Eve a Held sect member from the start, for more conflict between her and Zellana as Zellana proceeds to be an asshole about Held. Since Nemu isn’t too close to the forest, Eve hasn’t seen Held for herself, so she tries not to cause so much of a fuss, aware she’s in a Levia sect majority place.

Part 3

Adam doesn’t have a direct memory of any river. He was just already out in the open as a very young child as far as he could remember.

Adam is still caught up in a storm like the original tsunami and is saved by Catherine.

Made Horus/Seth as less of a dick than he is, by him being unable to bring Adam to Maria (or reveal Adam as Maria’s son) since Maria’s visitors really are restricted and enforced.

It’s unclear if Horus really did update Maria on Adam’s condition as he claims, decide depending on how you want to see him.

Made Gammon and Adam’s relationship just a bit more pining-y, so when Gammon is drunk he just leans on Adam instead of the counter.

Changed the fucking STUPID Levia inheritor bullshit with Venom. Venom is now connected to Gilles Inheritors. Kept the dead body experimentation part so it’s uncomfortably close to the truth.

Made Adam a little less willing to commit homicide.

MADE ADAM KEEP HIS STUPID, GROSS PLAN ON THE BACKBURNER. HE DOESN’T GO THROUGH WITH IT.

Adam circumvents Seth for the recipe for Venom. This is very important.

Horus/Seth has told Adam about the river children, not telling Adam he is one of those. Adam thus assumes he must be one of them. This is further misdirection.

Raijoou is still a founding member of Apocalypse.

Seth isn’t around so much while Adam and Eve hang out, so as far as Adam is aware, Seth doesn’t know he’s using Venom. This is important as well.

Gammon flirts with Adam but slyly takes it back before he notices.

Adam is already paranoid that he’s given Eve too much Venom (this is unchanged from the source but still important for the payoff)

Scene with Catherine is unchanged, because I love her and this scene.

When Eve has the stillbirth, Seth implies something on Adam’s part is what caused it. The pieces all come together: Seth may have created Venom, but Adam went behind his back to get Venom, used it while trying to keep Seth from knowing about it, thus making this all Adam’s fault. Seth didn’t even convince him to use it, either.

Part 4

Seth gets a black eyes and is being creepy when pistol-whipped. Also his glasses were sent flying off his face.

Finally, Seth clears the meticulous shit I set up, lmao.

After Maria was rendered sterile and her twins were gotten rid of, she still wanted a child and enlisted Seth to make it happen.

The twins aren’t Adam and Eve. Seth kept the boy in cryostasis in Lunaca Labora for his destruction powers, and gave the girl to the Lighwatch Temple so he could keep a close eye on her. These are Amostia and Elluka, respectively.

Adam is essentially a tube-grown human. He’s not a ghoul child because he was made with two sets of DNA, Maria’s and a foreign man to obscure Adam’s phenotype.

Lunaca Labora is a large underground complex, with secret entrances spanning to and from many important capital buildings.

Thus, when Apocalypse bombed one of these buildings, this caused a collapse in the section of Lunaca Labora below it, the chaos in which Adam disappeared.

It was incidents like this that made Raijoou leave Apocalypse and take a wife in the quiet village of Nemu once again.

Horus had met both Raijoou and her wife, Inanna while searching Evillious.

I named her wife Inanna because I wanted a name that resembled “inazumi” to fit Raijoou’s lightning theme, in addition to Inanna meaning “lady” and “heaven/sky”, and being a Sumerian goddess equated to Ishtar.

Without Raijoou’s input, Inanna enlisted Horus to make them a child, she she couldn’t have any, and of course not with Raijoou.

Eve is fashioned the same way as Adam- made with two sets of DNA donated by Inanna and Raijoou.

She was a backburner project so she was finished about a year after both Adam and Meta. Seth had also made Eve a HER carrier.

Since Raijoou is a Held inheritor, Eve ended up as one, too. Noticing this early in her development, it got Seth interested in making ghoul children with inheritor abilities.

Seth is still a shitty father, but I made it less..... cartoonishly horrible. Not better, just less awful. Seth is already a twisted guy, so he tried raising Adam the way he himself was raised, the only way he could think of: purely for their intelligence. Seth had gifted child syndrome, I’m calling it.

Seth tried making Gilles inheritor ghoul children specifically because they were hard to make. If he could get them correctly, he could make any kind of inheritor.

When he failed, he melted down their compositions since they were now useless. This is where Venom really comes from.

His first success was Meta, which opened the door for more inheritors.

Seth would have preferred Cain and Abel be born alive, as he swapped the God Seed for Seeds of Malice when they were first conceived. (Notice how Seth just always has it with him and is the first to brandish it, even in OSS: Crime?) Eve being a HER carrier would have increased Cain and Abel’s chances of being born with HERS.

They did indeed die because Eve had too much Venom. Not because of some really gross lazy ass-pull of a plot twist. That’d be crazy, right?

Eve was actually immune to Venom because as the Held inheritor test tube human Seth made, her own powers cancelled Venom’s powers out.

But even though the drug did not affect her mind, it was still in her bloodstream.

Normally, that’s not a problem, but Venom’s side effects in a pregnant person include deformities in the developing fetus(es) that can kill in utero (the same general reason Gilles Inheritors were so hard to make)

Eve still went mad after the stillbirth, which is not because of all the Venom in her bloodstream, the trauma activated the self-hypnosis (another Held inheritor power) she uses throughout the series. It’s a self defense tactic to protect her from the death of her children, by making her think they are alive and well.

That hypnosis will last a VERY long time, it’s in constant action like a flexing muscle, though its effects waver. I imagine it’d make her kind of despondent or tired since she’s just constantly using her inheritor powers without even realizing it.

Seth is definitely puppeting all these disasters but Cain and Abel’s deaths are on Adam’s hands.

Part 5

RAISA AND META ARE ACTUALLY FRIENDS, LIKE MOTHY ORIGINALLY SAID.

I mean honestly they’re like casual, informal girlfriends. It’s like they never actually asked the other out but when they spar for fighting practice they pin each other a lot. They just like being near each other. Looking at each other. They drink together a lot.

I made Meta not such a bitch about Raisa, too. Like, Jesus Christ, mothy. Meta is now worried for Raisa because she’s such a hellbeast in battle, not cause she hates her for [404 REASON NOT FOUND].

Meta didn’t really have any impression of Raisa when Pale suggested they recruit her, mainly agreeing because it beefed up their forces, coming to know her because they had since lived together with the rest of Apocalypse.

Meta finds Raisa’s scar (particularly around her mouth) distracting because they aren’t covered up behind a mask like they usually are.

Raisa literally climbs onto Meta’s bed and probably over Meta so they can be face to face.

Meta’s almost not even listening, cause Raisa’s hair is like a glowing white next to her red face. Meta, please stop thinking about how pretty your girlfriend is and listen.

Instead of completely pointless amnesia, Meta simply wishes to not dwell on her past. It’s more of a conscious effort to repress that time of her life than actual locked-away memories.

To nonamnesiac Meta, her life really only meant something once she was around 20.

HEY, INSTEAD OF CHILD META BEING ASSAULTED, LET ME PROPOSE:

Much like Adam, Meta had nothing to do but wander around the country, though she more often broke into homes and stole than he did.

Her Gilles inheritor charms allowed her to weasel her way out of trouble, but she always thought people went easy on her because she was a homeless child.

Her powers/the genuine pity of onlookers sometimes allowed her to SCP-1076 her way into a home, but she always felt out of place and would usually end up running away again.

Meta was caught up in an attack by Apocalypse but as the action was winding down, Pale found her and recruited her, her murdering a hostage as a sort of initiation.

The Royal Capital Army’s armor can’t be breached by Raisa’s fire. This is important later on.

Meta is done zoning out so she hugs Raisa to make her stop shouting.

Some very subtle rewording that implies Meta wasn’t dressed before Raisa left the room. Not necessarily naked, but maybe in whatever nightclothes she had. I imagine just lingerie though.

Milky is dressed as she usually is, on top of the covers while Pale is under them.

Made Meta less so goddamn spiteful about Milky??

Basically Meta and Pale kind of joke with each other about their other partners, Raisa and Milky respectively. Apocalypse is a big ol’ polycule, minus Yegor. Cause he’s a creep.

Kept the cute stuff Meta thinks about Pale... who’d have thought their relationship would be the least garbage out of the original book?

Changed a little bit about Pale’s music box tinkering. He’s not making something, he’s taking it apart. Though he plans to put it back together to get better at making things.

Meta is still thinking about Raisa so she accidentally brings her up when they’re discussing the mole in the group.

Meta genuinely doesn’t think Raisa is the mole, and defends her when Pale asks if she’s implying something.

The woman Meta comes across is still? Eve? I have no goddamn idea why it can’t be her in the original so, you’re welcome mothy, I fixed it.

The fog and fighting has knocked out Adam, whom Eve is cradling. The fog is a byproduct of Venom so it doesn’t affect Meta nor Eve.

Eve is so stressed, so hypnosis is going into overdrive to the point she can’t even get her children’s names right. or she could just be so upset that she’s slurring her words.

Raisa has somehow come into intel that says Yegor is the mole and is conspiring to capture Meta, so she abandoned her trip north to warn or help Meta.

Raisa is not immune to Venom, but the mask she uses to cover her scars is helping filter some of it out so she’s still lucid enough to yell to Meta.

The fog has overtaken most of the scene, Eve has escaped with Adam, and Capital Army forces are closing in on Meta.

Raisa tackles Meta to the ground in an effort to cover her and unleashes an explosion (that ends up knocking the both of them out) in an effort to keep them away.

Elluka is older on account of being Maria’s twin daughter. She’s still quite youthful anyways.

Removed the second period legacy room mumbo jumbo. It can just be a Third Period anti-magic room.

Yegor Asayev looks like V from V For Vendetta, because I said so.

Instead of dying like a punk and offscreen no less, Raisa was killed immediately after her stunt to protect Meta. Remember, her fire can’t penetrate the army’s armor. She was aware of this but it was all she could think to do, or to do at all.

Yegor doesn’t know how Raisa caught wind of his betrayal and wonders if he has a mole of his own. I don’t either. It’s for intrigue!!

Made Meta more... emotional. Cause she kind of seemed not to care too much. Like obviously she was angry and defeated but since in this version, someone she loved, Raisa, died protecting her, all in vain, she’s even more griefstricken.

Meta and Elluka are friends by the barest means. Meta tried scaring her to get what she wanted, but Meta ends up giving her advice. This is how it was in the original but I still want to highlight it.

Instead of a pendant, Seth’s plan and map is kept in a glass bottle on Meta’s person.

Seth remains a little shit in this scene because he’s honestly the best part of the original book.

Elluka still cries for Meta, because of their rapport. God, I just think it’s so sweet.

Kept the baby Pale thing. I mean in the original it was probably added to make the age gap between Elluka and Kiril less YIKES, but I wasn’t quite sure how to take it out. Even if Elluka is older in this continuity, I think Pale being de-aged doesn’t hurt.

Hansel and Gretel are preemies!

Clearly something is up with Gammon, so I added he’s being tying his hair differently and smiling more often.

Since it was traveling into Maria’s maze that marked this changed, I changed his hair tie from high to low to match Irina’s low braid to suggest Maria might be in there.

I think it’s weird if Gammon himself was just kind of removed from the story by another character in his body so I made it ambiguous as to whether he’s still in there or not.

Looking at the babies forces Meta to think about her own childhood.

Meta can’t drain the tanks without letting the babies fall, so she dives inside, disconnects them from their support tubes and breaks them from the inside.

Yes, I’m aware the strength needed to break the glass would have to be fucking IMMENSE since it can handle the pressure from containing a building’s worth of heavy fluid, but shut up, Meta is buff in this continuity. Besides, the glass probably isn’t made to withstand sharp, repeated points of stress from the inside as opposed to the designed entire surface area pressure. I’m sure someone who’s into physics is reading this and pulling their hair out and I’m sorry. Not sorry enough to fix it. sdfghj

I want the incident that allowed Adam to escape to be the same one Meta escaped in, but I have NO idea if I can make that work in the timeline. I sure which there was a goddamn calendar system for this, mothy.

I have no idea what the hell mothy is talking about with Levia’s blessing, but anyways I kept it vague about how the babies are immune to the Venom fog. The wording is more in line with what we hear during Lust Arc when IR is talking about Mikulia’s immunity to Sateriasis’ lust spell.

Part 6

Kept the fourth wall breaking with Eve. That shit’s too great.

Definitely made the pre-demonic Venom Sword Raisa’s sword that they confiscated.

Eve picks up her Held worshiping habits again. They technically never went away but it was hard to do deep in Levianta.

Part 7

Adam doesn’t recognize Meta. To be honest, I can’t tell if he DOES recognize her in the original or not. But for sure here, he doesn’t point her out as Meta.

Adam is kind of silently panicking, so he just says sorry for every movement of the shovel he makes to bury her.

The time placements are all over the place in this chapter, just ignore it.

Eve’s self-hypnosis is still in full effect when they escape deep into Elphegort.

I sort of added a whole scene? More like I took stuff from other scenes and added enough to make it its own scene.

Her hypnosis was in complete swing when she came in the door, but Adam and the reality of Meta’s death finally broke it. Her denial from now on is normal self-denial, not the result of an inheritor ability defense mechanism.

Even though Eve has, on some level, acknowledged her wrongdoing and the reality of things, she still finds comfort in the babies.

I know earlier I made Adam less willing to commit homicide but I find his even just contemplating infanticide darkly humorous. Like, what the fuck, Adam? Of course he doesn’t follow through on it, though.

Kept Gretel being weirdly conscious of everything while Hansel is just a normal baby. I love the idea of Gretel being a creepy horror movie baby who knows more than she should and Hansel is just here vibing.

Remember that Adam thinks she’s done all this because he drugged her with Venom. He is indeed responsible for killing her unborn children with Venom, but he isn’t aware Venom hasn’t affected her mentally.

So Eve’s Original Sin is killing Meta and taking her babies, and Adam’s Original Sin is “ruining Eve” and thus killing her children.

Part 8

Added how Seth technically had Maria’s permission to do what he did, but he still took advantage of that, so even revealing that wouldn’t make him look good. It’s not officially reported cause it could lend him some credence.

Kept his edgy little manifesto because it makes me laugh.

Didn’t take out the Pale/Kiril thing because honestly that was an adequate turn of events.

Glossary

Levianta was founded by a cabal of mages who discovered Second Period artifacts. Magic is powerful, but requires time and preparation to use—however, the old technology streamlined the usage of magic, making it easier and more useful for technological advance. The woman who would become the first queen was named Alice Merry-Go-Round, and she is the one who realized this.

She hired people to dig up the technology in the temple, but was faced with resistance from the local populace, who revered Levia-Behemo using that temple. Alice put a wall around it in response, and this became the “first wall”. More walls were built and eventually this became a fortress.

Her followers named it Alicegrad, and Alice herself founded Levianta with herself as the queen. Still, they faced resistance from the natives. To appease them, Alice declared Levia-Behemo as the country’s god, and made a council of 12 people. Six of them were mages who served under her, and six were comprised of the local natives. Levianta grew prosperous.

When the first queen died, her daughter inherited her position and took on the name of Alice Merry-Go-Round herself. Since then, every queen has taken that name. The one who appears in the story is the seventh one.

Alices 1 through 4 are based on Alice of Human Sacrifice, broken by the Fifth one.

Loop Octopus and Vaju are of the 6 mage families in the senate. Asayev and Li are of the 6 native local families. The families are supposed to be equal, but there are great gaps between them. Example being Loop Octopus has taken much of Vaju’s wealth, and there are two Loop Octopuses on the senate now (Gammon and his younger brother, Nazar, the family’s heir).

Lighwatch is a place where they raise queen candidates, but also has things like jail cells and execution devices like Torcia Tower. Lighwatch collects girls with Levia inheritor powers. They are able to remove “malice” from people’s hearts, and also hear the “voice of god”. Yegor is able to tell them by sight, as he is an inheritor of Behemo, who can see another person’s inheritor powers. Zellana and Elluka are orphans.

There were different varieties of Ghoul Children when it came to the artificial personalities they had. “Clean” refers to those that have no memories, “Preset” refers to those that have pre-made false memories, and “Copy” refers to those that have identical memories to Seth.

Catherine was a marine scientist, and married to Gilles. They rode along in the Climb One. They had a son, but he was sickly and did not ride on the same ship as them.

For this reason she grew jealous towards female psychologist Rahab, whose two children were able to board the ship with her. When she realized that Rahab was having an affair with Gilles, her jealousy turned to rage. She conspired with Lich to kill Rahab, but in the end was killed by Lich, who she realized too late was really “malice” wearing his form.

So then, I guess I’m gonna have to fix Original Sin Story: Punishment, whether I want to or not. Can’t wait to see what fuckery awaits us in it.

#infoedit #story #fanfic #patch notes #original sin story #ec #evillious chronicles #is this salty? yes #get your daily dose of sodium here

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ofravensandgenesis · 4 years

Text

The Investment of an Antagonist - Part One

Entry 04. [Trigger warning content: post contains discussion of Far Cry 5 details including cannibalism, graphic violence, brainwashing, torture, child abuse mention, neglect, mentioned fatalistic/suicidal character pov, dark backstories, etc. Spoilers naturally. Part 01 of 03.] [Link to part two here.] [Link to part three here.] I was cooking dinner and had the sudden EUREKA moment of trying to figure out what exactly I want with regards to an antagonist for an original fic setting. Originally I was going to have a general state of conflict between two nations/city-states/etc on a larger, more impersonal scale, but that didn’t do anything to really interest me in that level of conflict. So I was thinking on why Far Cry 5′s villains and the conflict interests me so, and the eureka moment was realizing that they as villains have a personal stake in all this, and go about it in ways that are reflective of their stories. Specifically for the Seeds, it has me realizing it’s more interesting to me when the villain is acting due to personal motivations of an emotional nature and/or relating to their belief system, and in ways that compliment those internal motivations that can build out into or off of their backstories and other areas of the tale.

Like, it’s more than just a universally formulaic method of brainwashing for all of the people they kidnap during the Reaping (and before it, since it’s a cult and that means there’s a process of indoctrination, ie brainwashing.) All of the Heralds have their specific manner of doing so, and said methods are tailored to the particulars of each Herald’s backstory as is revealed to us.

— Jacob —

Jacob starves the Deputy and other “recruits,” exposes them to the elements, doesn’t give them enough water, keeps them near hungry and dangerous animals (pre-Judge wolves and Judges it seems.) He then gives them a bowl of raw meat that one can read as implied to be human flesh, particularly if Pratt’s anecdote about going hunting in what ends up being not-a-dream from online sources is taken into consideration, as mentioned in a previous writing-about-writing post. Link here to the audio, (credit and thanks to hopecountyradio,) transcription below: “I had a dream once that Jacob took me on a hunt. We shot some deer and he asked me to skin 'em. As I was cuttin’ ‘em open they changed. It wasn’t deer. I...I don’t think it was a dream.”

Obviously one can make some assumptions of Whitetail Militia imagery being used here, particularly given that one of the slides on the projector screens during the Trials includes a picture of Eli with antlers iirc (that may be only during the later trials or the last one, I am uncertain.) Ties right into the whole “the weak must be culled,” and “you are meat,” slogans Jacob’s got all over the place. The “only you” slogans and graffiti could also serve to foster the loneliness and isolation aspect of making the choice “to make the sacrifice” ie, the symbolic choice of killing Miller, or his surrogate equivalent in the case of everyone else that Jacob puts through his trials. I haven’t seen a lot regarding Miller’s ties to Jacob from in-game content but I could have missed something easily. The wiki labels Miller as Jacob’s friend, though I wish we had more detail on that. Most certainly, Miller was a member of Jacob’s unit, which based off of some reading and browsing on the internet, should still be a pretty close tie whether or not they were friends. The following speculation is based on my own interpretations of the matter and I have no history of serving in the Armed Forces, so if I’m mistaken or such feel free to drop me a line to let me know. Continuing: even if they theoretically hated each other’s guts, they were still a part of the unit, a part of the Army. That means they and their other brothers-in-arms lived together and fought together. They ate as a group, slept as a group, watched each others’ backs while on watch or during a firefight, fought along side each other, and did their best to keep each other alive while fulfilling the mission objective, working together as individuals brought together in a cohesive unit that also was a part of the whole. They all knew they had each others’ backs and that the others did the same for them in turn. Shifting between life-or-death situations and more peaceful times, it creates a bond and social structure that is very unlike most common, modern civilian social structures. There certainly at least seems to be a bit of culture shock in the US between the two environs, and Jacob seems to have experienced that, based on what we hear of his backstory in The Book of Joseph of having little to no support once back in civilian life (ie: deeply traumatized and staying in veteran hospitals until he ran out of money and ended up in homeless shelters) after being discharged from the Army. In the Armed Forces it’s about the group, rather than the individual. Imagine having that, knowing that, after being through all that Jacob has potentially been through. To have brothers in arms if not by blood by his side who he protects, who also protect him against the hostility of the world they’re fighting against. This is not to ding Joseph or John as characters by the way, all three of them were children at that point and shouldn’t have had to deal with any of that. Jacob loses what ties of family he holds dear with his blood brothers once he’s put into Juvie, perhaps makes friends there but is likely on his own once he’s out again, with very poor prospects given his history, and then he enlists. He’s alone and without support before he joins the military, and then suddenly he’s in an environment where there IS a form of support, and it’s predictable and structured down to the last bootlace (note: that’s a very broad statement and does not include variance and personal experiences, nor possible issues with potential power abuse or other flaws that might arise in such group structures.) Imagine Jacob being in the Army long enough to get used to that, to enjoy that aspect of it all, to share the camaraderie of bitching about the heat of the sun, sand in their socks, and getting yet another package of their least favorite MRE while trying to wheedle a trade with someone else for something better. Imagine him doing that with Miller, knowing how the other man likes the sugar cookie desserts in one MRE package and hates how the chocolate bars melt from the desert heat in another. Knowing what each others’ tells and bluffs are from playing poker on their down time while on a tour. Swapping stories about home...and noticing who doesn’t want to talk about the life they had before enlisting. Talking about the things they miss, the people they miss. Knowing who snores, who’s a light sleeper, all those things you learn when you’re in close proximity to a person for perhaps up to two years or so depending on deployment length. It could also be they’ve been deployed together more than once, as Jacob certainly went out on multiple tours per The Book of Joseph once again. Imagine Jacob knowing all of that and more about Miller. Then, day after day after day of being lost in the desert, with starvation eating away at their rationality, that hollow pain in their guts as their bodies start burning through their own cells and reserves to try to stay alive, running out of water and having to take chances with any drinking source they can find in the environment and having to expend precious energy to try or die early from dehydration, probably not sleeping well from the hunger, exhaustion, stress, possible enemy presence, dangerous wildlife... The brain starts shutting down real quick once we don’t have the resources it needs to run optimally. Some faster than others, but in Jacob and Miller’s case, their ordeal is definitely long enough to put them into that mindset of feeling that primal fear of a slow death by famine, weakness, scarcity. The psychological toll would have been heavy without a doubt, and that might’ve been compounded by experiences in Jacob’s childhood if his parents were not dutiful in buying food more regularly, which easily could be the case. Old Mad Seed needs more whiskey this month to fuel his raging, drunken fits of spewing biblical verses in a tyrannical fashion? There goes the money for the last few days of food. Easily could be how Jacob got into stealing candy (and likely also food in that case) for himself and his brothers. So Jacob would have a good idea of some of what’s coming down the pipe in that case. He knows how long the trip is, can reckon how fast the two can travel. Maybe he starts out hopeful in a grim way to start... ...but over time as things get more and more desperate (and it could be a familiar desperation he’s felt before as a kid going hungry, only worse,) “And I looked at Miller and I could tell we were as good as dead. And I accepted that. And in that acceptance...came clarity.” That clarity could very well be that Jacob decided that morality was futile if it meant you didn’t survive, which could very well be a very world-breaking revelation for him, since he is mentioned in his backstory to have had a praiseworthy sense of honor among other things. Certainly is potentially spirit breaking to go from being the older brother, the brother-in-arms who relied on and was relied on, who was trusted, to being a betrayer of that trust. A Judas, one could say, as he calls Pratt in his video after Pratt has helped the Deputy escape. And what does Jacob make the Deputy become, in relation to Eli? Eli, the man the Deputy was rescued by, was aided by, has been working alongside this entire time. Eli, who trusts and relies on the Deputy. Eli, who it could be said betrayed Jacob’s friendship with him by choosing not to hand over the Whitetail Militia and join Eden’s Gate (from Jacob’s perspective, based on his final fight dialogue.) “Hey. Only you could have gotten this close. Only you could have earned his trust. It was always only ever you. Good work. You did it. You passed your test. You made your sacrifice. But now...you’re alone. And you’re weak. And we know what happens to the weak.” That might seem contradictory at first, since in theory making the sacrifice should make one “strong” by Jacob’s line of reasoning, one might think. But the Deputy is a “traitor” now—to the Whitetail Militia by brainwashing (temporarily as we the audience know, pending Jacob’s death,) and to Jacob by choice, if one takes the following lines from Jacob into consideration: “You’ve forgotten your purpose, Deputy. You were on the path of the Chosen but now you’ve strayed. Fear did this to you, but don’t worry, I can help with that. I can remove your fear and give you strength. It’s not too late. Come back to me. Remember your purpose.” ”Deputy, know that I still have hope for you, but if you continue to support Eli and his merry band of cowards, that hope will cease to exist. Your judgement is cloudy because your mind is weak, but I have confidence you’ll make the right choice in the end. If not—you’ll all pay in blood.” Link to the audio for the above two lines here (credit and appreciation to hopecountyradio once more.) As with the other Seeds, Jacob starts out trying to persuade the Deputy to “see the light” and join the Project, but as with all of them, as the resistance meter rises and we draw closer to the final confrontation with him, he and the others abandon that idea in favor of trying to end the Deputy instead. So in this possible interpretation, it could be that Jacob views both the Deputy and Eli as traitors both. However...the two situations while both likely quite weighty with the Deputy being “the chosen one” to kick off the Collapse (or a herald of the Collapse if one wants to be cute with wording,) and Eli being an ex-good-friend or perhaps even ex-best-friend of Jacob’s, are potentially vastly different in emotional weight to Jacob. The Deputy is all tied up with this Collapse business, and while Jacob isn’t sure if Joseph talks to God, he does support him, what with being a Herald in the cult and all that. It involves the fate of the family, and in particular, Jacob’s family—his brothers and sister. Eli, however, Jacob has known for a while, likely years, back during the construction of the bunkers which Eli helped with, possibly and likely before then. I personally lean towards interpreting that as they struck up the beginning of a friendship, and Jacob hired Eli and his crew to help with the construction of the cult’s bunkers. Where they had their falling out is less clear as far as I’m aware. It could be it was during or after construction that Eli got a bad feeling about all of this Eden’s Gate business, or perhaps even as late as the beginning of the Reaping if that’s when Jacob gave Eli the “chance” to hand over his Whitetail Militia members, as mentioned in his final boss battle red-bliss section. That could’ve been the breaking point for Jacob and Eli, and if Jacob was expecting Eli to side with him due to friendship and perhaps some shared beliefs...perhaps Jacob took that...poorly. And by poorly I mean went full out on revenge of having Eli killed by betrayal of someone he’d chosen to trust—someone that Jacob had already gotten his hooks into. Someone Eli needed, in this fight against Jacob. Someone like the Deputy. The Deputy, who’s been put through starvation, exposure, and ingrained through conditioning and likely a liberal use of Bliss to facilitate said conditioning, to hunt. To train. To kill. To sacrifice. “You take away a man’s basic needs, and he will revert to his primordial instinct in just ten days.” [Chuckles.] “Ah, that’s a difficult thing to understand unless you’ve lived it...” This is what Jacob is putting the “recruits” and the Deputy through—his revelation. His experience. His choice. In the end as Jacob succumbs to his injuries, he is weak, he is dying, and he knows it, looking at the Deputy in his final scene. This time, he is the one who is sacrificed, by the Deputy, and in Jacob’s eyes by Joseph, to either try to end the chaos spread across the county, or to break a seal respectively. Jacob’s death is a means to an end—as Miller’s was. And Jacob “accepts that,” as he puts it. Does he accept it because now he’s betrayed the trust and faith of potentially two people he might’ve been close to? Miller, and then Eli? Is Jacob conditioning the Deputy during that red-bliss sequence of his boss fight to kill Jacob, based on how there are bliss-hallucinations of Jacob to shoot while destroying the beacons? There’s the generic Whitetail fighter, Judges, and Jacob himself scattered across the landscape before ending that sequence as far as I’m aware. Both Jacob and the Whitetail fighter present could be interpreted in this line of thinking as echoing the supposed betrayal of both sides and being “alone” against the world in a nightmarish fashion while Jacob potentially tries to break the Deputy through talking and said nightmare. The way Jacob talks though...is he strictly speaking to us, or is the Deputy actually a mirror as it were, with the things Jacob says being applicable to himself? “Don’t you find it ironic that everyone you try to help ends up worse off? Eli...Pratt...Tragedy just follows you. If you really wanted to keep people safe, be a hero...you’d just off yourself. Safer for everyone that way.” Is Jacob REALLY talking to us, or to himself through a medium? Through a glass darkly, as it were. He “tried” to “help” Eli and Pratt, in his twisted fashion, by trying to get Eli previously to join the Project and to make Pratt strong enough via brainwashing to also join the Project, which in Jacob’s perspective if he’s following his and Joseph’s dogma, is the only way to survive the Collapse. But Jacob has failed, repeatedly, to protect the people he held dear—his family. His friends. He’s become the threat they need protecting from. He has irrevocably perhaps proven to himself that under the right circumstances? He’s willing to betray people he holds dear for his own survival. Would he betray his family? That is the question, isn’t it. Perhaps Jacob fears finding out. Maybe he fears, that under the right circumstances, he would. Maybe that’s why he goes so willingly to be Joseph’s sacrifice, in part. Maybe having orchestrated Eli’s death, the death of yet one more person whom he was once friends with, yet one more person Jacob himself has betrayed, maybe Jacob doesn’t want to continue either. Maybe that’s the last straw, the nail in the coffin of underlying beliefs that Jacob is inherently not someone who can be fully trusted. Maybe he genuinely thought Eli would join him if given the chance. Maybe Jacob was still hollow and brittle as hell from the first time he’d killed a friend, when he killed Miller. All the Seeds bear the weight of their pasts heavily, and Jacob’s no exception. Jacob survived the first time, barely. He survived the second time, but not by long. He starts talking about his potential death at the Deputy’s hands quite early on during the red-bliss segment. Neither John nor Faith nor Joseph to my knowledge do so. Maybe he was waiting for the Deputy to be strong enough to finish what no one else could. Maybe that was what he wanted. “There’s no “win” for you here. It all ends bloody. For everyone. You die now, or you die later. It’s up to you. But either way? You won’t die a hero.” Perhaps that line from Jacob also is one of the things he fears most—dying without purpose. Dying being not a hero, a person who’s done good for others, but rather the opposite. Ironically so, given that he and his family are all in the torture and brainwashing business, but Jacob in particular gave up on being a good person a long time ago, I think, even by the cult’s standards. [Link to part two here.] [Link to part three here.]

#writing about writing #Far Cry 5 #FC5 #antagonists #villains #Jacob Seed #long post is long #character study #trigger warning content #tw content is listed at the top of the post #hopecountyradio

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inkerii · 5 years

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A HTTYD 3 AU

@hiccup-is-left-handed did a thing (which I cannot link because mobile) and I really don’t wanna hijack their post but credit where credit is due ok? Ok.

This got way out of hand, I apologize for the long post… Idk how to put it under a read more on mobile, heh <3

—

So. The Hidden World AU where Toothless and the Light Fury are friends/“just like me” sort of situation + Hiccup is the one captured:

• That add on where the beginning was dark and grimy, yes. • The Grimmel scene happens between him and a fallen drago. Drago desperately needs a new Alpha to control his dragon army, so he enlists Grimmel. • The Light Fury in the cage is not in fact our LF girl, but a young male, about Toothless’ age in HTTYD 1 • Grimmel’s comment about him is around the line of “Furies are social creatures”, so through that line we learn that Toothless would in fact crave a “pack” (I keep calling a group of furies a pack bear with me), except he doesn’t really know that yet.

• Toothless meeting this equivalent of yearling male would go the same way except the dynamic would be (as hiccup-is-left-handed mentioned) similar to spiderverse’s “you’re like me”– a connection but not a romantic one

• Grimmel would still attack Hiccup’s home, but his deathgrippers actually torch down a good deal of the village • Because of the grimy beginning we see this is just another attack and Berk’s people have been suffering (injuries, slings and stuff in the great hall scene) • a bigger deal is made out of them leaving, there’s probably a scene where Hiccup is sitting next to his father’s statue after the meeting and talking to it, asking for advice • Astrid comforts Hiccup there– you’d have time for this since we’d cut most of the Hesitant To Get Married subplot, it’s in fact treated as something to happen someday in the future but both agree with the current situation it’s best to postpone it • or maybe Valka, since because we’re removing the marriage subplot, she could still get One Good Scene with Hiccup. It would still be a little stiff between them, since she’s still relatively new at this mom thing, but they both try. It’s up to you. Either way, Hiccup is convinced they must leave now. • Personally, because I’m a nerd, I’d make the beginning of the scene about Hiccup telling one of them (Valka or Astrid, your call), about how when he were little he always wanted the glory, and to be a Hero to his tribe… But he has so many difficult choices to make and it’s hard. And Valka/Astrid comments that yes, indeed, some people win glory “easily”, how Hiccup would have gotten had he killed that Night Fury, others… Well, others like him need to become Heroes the Hard Way <3 • Probably a scene of the Berkians sadly looking back to their old island and and then forward to their new future

• The yearling doesn’t go back for Toothless, but (in Nova Berk) Toothless does pick up his scent and follows him to that beachy area Toothless tries to woo the LF in the actual movie • There we find out the yearling male has a sibling, a sister, and THAT would be our girl. He calls out to the mountains and she appears and makes a huge fuss about him being back (which gives them both some nice personalities as well as showing their devotion to each other)

• Toothless is in fact attracted to her, but it’s a very minor thing in the grand scheme of him meeting others like him • Toothless tries to join them, and like in the movie Hiccup tries to coach him through befriending these dragons which are so like him • LF girl still gets offended, Toothless still falls down from the tree. yearling LF is very amused at this but also very curious about the branch, so he picks it up and starts playing with it in a rather catlike fashion • Toothless decides to show them how HE plays with the branch, so he picks it up and starts drawing • It’s no big fancy drawing, just his usual scribbles, but both siblings are very intrigued and impressed by it • Toothless still growls at the LF when she tries to step on it, and she growls back (they do NOT get started on the best terms despite Toothless’ original attraction– it could even be read as him just being curious about the fact that she’s a female), but the young male does get it, so he hops around the lines like Hiccup did, grabs the stick and flies away • Following her brother’s example, the LF tries to get to Toothless by hopping around the scribbly lines • We’d get a similar scene to Hiccup hitting his back on toothless and looking up at him, except the LF just gazes at him and Toothless smiles a little at her • She in turn tried to copy his facial expression and smiles as well, and it’s -then- that they click • The siblings still find Hiccup, but Toothless stands between them and his friend so they just choose to leave instead • Toothless still falls on the water trying to follow them but he doesn’t glare at his lack of tail, just looks longingly up at them

• Hiccup does NOT make a new tailfin right away for Toothless. Instead, we get a very “See You Tomorrow” montage, except it’s with Toothless going between the dragons and Hiccup, and each time he learns something new about himself • You could also show Hiccup looking a bit down/feeling left off during this montage, but trying to be happy for Toothless • Eventually, Hiccup decides to make the new tailfin. The scene would go basically the same way except there’s a bigger moment for Toothless not wanting to leave Hiccup, he smells the old saddle and Hiccup comforts him, saying it’s okay. He would have explained to astrid the reason why he made the new tail is not cause Toothless “never had a reason to leave”, it’s just cause Toothless is discovering a new side of him and Hiccup wants him to be happy

• the “third date” scene would be mostly be a platonic scene between the three furies, where Toothless learns to harness lightning • The difference would be the young male gets separated from them for a bit, chasing after some bird or something (he’s young and excitable, also a personality point for him) • You’d then get a smaller version of a romantic scene, but you can clearly see that after that wrong first impression the LF and Toothless do seem to like each other. Still would get the scene of them flying up into the moon and Toothless kissing her, and the “wing holding”. That was cute, and I like that scene, but the romance would still be comparatively secondary • The young male would interrupt the “hand holding”, and that’s where they’d find the hidden world. Male goes in excitedly and toothless hesitates but LF cheerfully drags him down after her brother

• The Hiccup side of it remains the same. They go after Grimmel, there’s an emphasis on all the anti-dragon humans banding together to take down berk. • Grimmel’s villain speech gets a flashback in which we get a scene more akin to the one of the first Dragons movie, there’s a slight discrepancy compared to Grimmel’s words. In the flashback, Grimmel -hesitates- before killing a wounded, sleeping night fury (it could even be faking its sleep, kinda like how Toothless just closed his eyes and waited for death, but that might be too much for a kid’s movie), but eventually does kill it • All the riders make it out of Grimmel’s trap.

• Hiccup and Astrid still go after Toothless • the Hidden World scene is expanded upon. We actually get two things that Hiccup sees: one (and this is optional but a personal headcanon of mine) being the LF siblings introducing Toothless to small, wary, scarred group of night furies (complete with Hiccup’s awe at finding more of them but also his realization that HUMANS did that to those dragons, they’re scarred and crippled because of them) • The other would be that Toothless doesn’t have the time to meet them properly, he gets distracted by squabble between two groups of wild dragons over food. Toothless instinctively uses his alpha command to take one of the groups to another feeding location, avoiding a fight. • The dragons recognize Toothless as a benevolent Alpha, and bow to him. It’s then that Astrid says that “now that’s a king” line.

• Hiccup chooses to leave Toothless there (the shock and pain of the Night Fury survivors being a factor of Hiccup deciding Toothless is better off without him, and besides, we’ve been building up on that “Toothless prefers his new friends over me” issue Hiccup is dealing with) • The whole rumblehorn thing happens and Toothless still brings Hiccup home, but Toothless isn’t angry or anything. The two light Furies do follow them. Seeing them actually only hardens Hiccup’s resolve, and he essentially kicks Toothless out, but he’s lashing out out of hurt, worry, rejection, and overall being overwhelmed by his duties as a Chief (namely the very large group of vikings bent on destroying Berk due to their philosophy) and his love and worry for Toothless • Toothless does leave, looking hurt but he does. • Astrid tries to comfort Hiccup again, but this time he just wants to be alone. Once she leaves, Hiccup mourns a little, but then he’s suddenly shot with one of Grimmel's darts. Astrid sees him be taken, but it’s too late to rescue him

• Hiccup wakes up in a ship of the armada his mother had seen on Cloudjumper, and is surprised in a very angry way to see Drago there (we hadn’t seen him since the moment he lashes at Grimmel for letting the Berkians get away– but he does so in a logical and tactical way) • Drago wants the location of the Hidden World – something he probably got from Grimmel who overheard it during the raid on his lair – and he plans to use Hiccup for it • Remember when Hiccup was called a devil in the beginning of the movie? This scene would get its payback here!! In a very clear parallel to Dragons 1, Drago would shackle Hiccup and sail east, and in a very Stoick-esque way, tells him to “lead the way, [to the nest], little devil” • Y'know like what happened to Toothless in HTTYD 1

• Cut to Toothless in the Hidden World. He’s looking at his tail, rather forlorn and lost • The Lightfury comes to see him, looking rather affectionate- they’re a couple, it seems. Toothless looks to her and then to behind him, where the other Light/Night furies (and some other dragons in the background) are waiting for him • Toothless isn’t ready yet. He licks the LF (think of a “I have to” kiss on the cheek Hiccup gave Astrid in HTTYD 2), and flies towards the waterfall and out of the hidden world, back to Hiccup.

• Drago is sailing towards the general direction of the hidden world, guided by the direction Toothless flew off before he captured Hiccup • Hiccup is unable to free himself, but then he (and the antagonists) is surprised to see that Berk is flying towards the armada to free him, en masse. All seem determined to defend the Hidden World’s entrance from Drago’s fleet • It’s a nice shout out to both HTTYD 1, where that small team fought the read death, but also to how the vikings have changed, how Hiccup has changed them. A small team has become a whole village. • no one can quite get to Hiccup tho, but then Drago is surprised to find Toothless there, looking very very angry • Grimmel still threatens someone Toothless loves, but it’s Hiccup this time. For a brief moment, Toothless controls the dragons away from the fight, so Hiccup isn’t killed. Toothless cannot let Hiccup die. He can’t. He loves him too much. • Drago and Grimmel however, are distracted long enough for Toothless to grab Hiccup and flee– not by humans but by the whole group of light and night furies. It seems as though Furies are a very territorial species, and act as protectors of the hidden world.

• Grimmel still grabs the LF, Toothless still follows him with Hiccup. The whole thing that went down in the movie happens here. Grimmel dies. Toothless is rescued by the young, excitable LF Male, while our girl, who has always been more distrustful of Hiccup, saves his life. She does smile crookedly at him, that very Toothless smile she learned from him.

• Drago is still out there, though. Hiccup, Toothless and the dragon gang regroup while most of Berk still fights. Hiccup is alive, but feels lost, he always wanted to prevent a war and now a war has happened anyway • This is where Astrid comes in again, and where she repeats that “what are you going to do about it” line • The gang goes after drago– and surprise: Hiccup is using the old saddle, but Toothless still wears the new tailfin, one last big fight for the two of them: this time, while they’re still connected, they’re able to fight apart from each other– maybe it’s here that we get that sword/explosion/look between Hiccup and Astrid. Toothless is flying on his own, and Hiccup is fighting on his own as well. By mutual choice this time, knowing how their differences don’t affect their devotion to each other • The furies fight alongside Hiccup, Toothless and the Berkians, showing the beauty of cooperation and mutual respect between humans and dragons that do decide to work together… As well as allowing Hiccup one big flight with Toothless and other night furies, as was his dream for his friend. • Drago is defeated, and the army scatters (how it’s up to you, I’m still fond of the jailed idea, except Drago falls under water and drowns, or something. Idk. For a man who’s so determined to control and dominate, dying in a cage designed to control and rip freedom away would be pretty good poetic justice, but idk.)

• Hiccup and Toothless still part ways. Hiccup’s speech isn’t really about how his dream wasn’t the dragons’ dream. Instead, much like the books, he says that Humanity isn’t quite ready to share the world with them, and that Toothless needs to take them away for their own safety (basically the same message of the movie but sans the weird “hiccup is clinging to toothless” subplot.) • That heart-wrenching scene still happens pretty much the same way.

• The ending is also very much the same, the babies and stuff. We’d probably see more light furies and one or two night furies on the other rocks surrounding the hidden world– they still act as protectors. • the ending goes very much the same way: I’d just tweak the words a little to explain that this isn’t just about hiding the hidden world’s secret (though you do see that in a way, Hiccup and Berk = the Furies’ role, all are guardians of the Hidden World, kinda binding them together even if they are away), but also about spreading the message that one day humans and dragons (wildlife?) can coexist someday, and when We’re ready, the Dragons will one day return.

— ……. Well that was long. I’ve been furiously typing on my phone for a good hour and a half actually. My fingers are dead but I just love this idea so much.

Also very much Not Revised so forgive any grammar/spelling mistakes!

Sorry for like. Making this way too big, Hiccup-is-left-handed. I got way too excited about it :’D

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futurestarfleetcaptain · 5 years

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Starfleet Enlisted Personnel

So I have headcanons about Starfleet’s enlisted force. But this post is also going to include a lot of explanations for people who may be confused about the differences between officers and enlisted and how it all works. This is gonna be a long post and I am very sorry but I really felt the need to write this.

First off, I know some people say that Gene Roddenberry wanted Starfleet to be completely made up of commissioned officers with no enlisted ranks, but I couldn’t seem to find a source for that. (If you have a source, you’re welcome to provide me with one). Also like.... yeomen are enlisted and they were in TOS so like??? Even if that was his original intention, it seems to have been abandoned pretty early on. Besides that, enlisted personnel are referenced in the other series as well, including, most famously, Chief O’Brien. So. Anyway clearly there are enlisted members of Starfleet, they just don’t play a big role in the shows (other than O’Brien). Which means lots of room for headcanons!! So here we go.

Okay, so like. I have a lot of first-hand experience and knowledge about how ranks in the military work and Starfleet is the Federation’s acting military* and their ranks are based on the United States Navy so I’m gonna try to explain Navy ranks as I go, so just bear with me. (Also it should be noted that a lot of my experience with the military is with the Air Force and my Navy knowledge is mostly second-hand so I’m not like an Expert™️.) (Also also we’re not gonna get into warrant officers because warrant officers confuse me and there doesn’t seem to be any mention of them in the shows or on Memory Alpha.)

Okay so the first thing you need to know about military ranks is that officers ALWAYS outrank enlisted. Even a brand new officer fresh out of the academy outranks an enlisted member with 20 years experience. It’s just The Way That It Is. Now, a good officer will defer to the experienced enlisted and listen to their advice/allow them to take the lead, but the officer still calls the shots. Also there is this thing in the military called a “paygrade” which... probably doesn’t apply in Starfleet since they don’t get paid, but I’m going to reference them here since it makes it easier to see who outranks who and what-not.

So the enlisted paygrades are E-1 through E-9 and the officer paygrades are O-1 through O-10 (E for enlisted, O for officer). Each paygrade corresponds with a rank and each branch of the military has the same paygrades (albeit with different corresponding ranks) so as to make it easy to figure out who outranks who when interacting with other branches (again, usually not relevant in Starfleet since there are no other branches but it helps when they work with other organizations like the Bajoran Militia). So like, a chief petty officer in the Navy and a master sergeant in the Air Force are both E-7s, so they’re the same rank and get paid the same. But a captain in the Navy is an O-6 and a captain in the Air Force is an O-3 so a Navy captain outranks an Air Force captain and gets paid more, if that makes sense. The Bajoran Militia’s ranks bore a lot of similarity to the US Army and Marines, so if we’re going to use that as a reference, Major Kira was an O-4. Sisko was an O-5 as a commander and an O-6 as a captain, so he outranked her. Anyway the Navy ranks/paygrades are as follows:

Enlisted

E-1 Seaman Recruit

E-2 Seaman Apprentice

E-3 Seaman

E-4 Petty Officer 3rd Class

E-5 Petty Officer 2nd Class

E-6 Petty Officer 1st Class

E-7 Chief Petty Officer

E-8 Senior Chief Petty Officer

E-9 Master Chief Petty Officer

Officers

O-1 Ensign

O-2 Lieutenant Junior Grade

O-3 Lieutenant

O-4 Lieutenant Commander

O-5 Commander

O-6 Captain

O-7 Rear Admiral Lower Half

O-8 Rear Admiral Upper Half (or just Rear Admiral)

O-9 Vice Admiral

O-10 Admiral

There’s also one higher than that known as Fleet Admiral, but that only gets awarded in wartime when necessary and hasn’t been awarded since WWII (at least in the Navy, idk about the other branches equivalents). Also O-7 through O-10 are all addressed as “Admiral” so not everyone who gets called Admiral on Star Trek is an O-10. Also in Starfleet “Seaman” is replaced with “Crewman”. So E-1 through E-3 in Starfleet would be Crewman Recruit, Crewman Apprentice, and Crewman, respectively.

Also, the enlisted are split up into 3 tiers: junior enlisted (E-1 to E-3), non-commisioned officers/NCOs (E-4 to E-6), and senior non-commisioned officers/senior NCOs/SNCOs (E-7 to E-9). Chief O’Brien is an E-8 (Senior Chief Petty Officer) which means he’s a SNCO and therefore high enough ranking to run a department even though he’s not a commissioned officer.

Now on to the headcanons!

So, considering we don’t see much of them in the shows, my main headcanon is there aren’t many enlisted on starships. I think most of them are posted on starbases/space stations or at Starfleet Command doing clerical work and what-not for the admirals. I think only a few enlisted get assigned to starships and they make up the majority of the security with a handful in engineering. And back when they used to have yeoman obviously some of those were assigned to starships too.

Another reason I don’t think we see many of them is that the shows focus heavily on the captains and their senior staff who are all officers. So something I’d like to see is a Star Trek show from the perspective of the enlisted, particularly the junior enlisted. What are their duties? What are all the unseen tasks they do that are critical to running a starship/space station? What are their thoughts on the officers, particularly the captain? What about the SNCOs? I NEED IT.

One of my headcanons is also that the ratio of officers to enlisted is different in Starfleet than in the current US military. I think the enlisted still outnumber the officers but by far less than they do now.

Also it should be noted that Chief O’Brien’s general attitude/grumpiness/exasperation is an Enlisted Mood™️. Enlisted people are just Like That.

Anyway this turned out way longer than I expected it to but feel free to add your thoughts!!

*I know Starfleet is not a military organization and their primary mission is exploration and discovery, but they are the Federation’s defense force and - when necessary - fight wars. So they act as the Federation’s military in that respect. Just like, in a defensive rather than offensive capacity.

#star trek #long post

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southeastasianists · 5 years

Link

Names marked with an asterisk* have been changed to protect identities

Mandalay, Myanmar - Sitting in a monastery in Mandalay, a city in northern Myanmar, Ake Xi* watched his family scatter flowers on his freshly dug grave, via Skype.

On the other end of the call, his twin sister held the camera in focus so he could see the picture they had placed at the head of the grave.

It was one of his younger self, a child who spent his days picking tea with his parents in plantations above their hillside village.

"I felt so strange. I wanted to shout, 'I'm not dead!'" said Ake Xi, who is now 18.

A year has passed since his fake funeral, which was organised by his parents.

They wanted to have his name removed from their household because he was at risk of being recruited by an armed group in Shan State, an east-central region.

So far, the fake funeral has worked.

Ake Xi is no longer linked to his home residence - he is out of reach of soldiers from the armed wing of the Restoration Council for Shan State, an armed group known as the Shan State Army-South (SSA-S), who patrol his parents' village in search of young recruits.

Myanmar's long-standing internal armed conflicts have been characterised by severe human rights violations and mass displacement, with forced recruitment tactics used by both the Myanmar army and non-state armed groups.

Young men are the primary target, but children are often also swept up in blanket enlistment practices.

The Myanmar military was first found guilty of using child soldiers in 2003, in a UN report on children in armed conflict.

The country remains on the list despite the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) reached in 2015, requiring the Myanmar military and signatory ethnic armed organisations to protect civilians, including by not engaging in forced conscription or the abduction of children.

The UN children's fund (UNICEF), which monitors the implementation of a 2012 action plan to end the use of child soldiers in Myanmar, says 924 minors have been discharged by the Myanmar military in the past seven years.

But forced recruitment remains common in areas controlled by non-state armed groups.

The SSA-S is among seven ethnic armed groups in Myanmar listed by UNICEF as "persistent perpetrators" in the recruitment of child soldiers.

Last September, the UN Fact-Finding Mission to Myanmar published a report revealing the widespread forced recruitment of young people in northern Shan State villages.

Bordering China to the east, the mountainous region has seen fierce fighting since late 2015 when the SSA-S moved north into Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Shan-State Army-North strongholds.

The UN report found that "even if there is no policy of forced recruitment per se, there is no space to object to joining the ranks of certain armed groups" with abductions, torture and extortion used to coerce families into handing over their sons.

In June, these findings became a reality for Ake Xi.

His parents received an ultimatum from SSA-S soldiers: either they hand over their son or pay 10 million kyats, the equivalent of around $7,000, for another to serve on his behalf. If not, they would be taken hostage until he turned himself in.

"They locked my hand with three other men and blind-folded us as we drove out of the village," Ake Xi said.

He claimed he was tied to a tree and interrogated at the SSA-S base.

"They wanted to know how many other families were hiding their sons," he said.

On the third day, soldiers accompanied him back to the town and waited while he cashed in his father's gold, the entirety of their savings.

"We had no choice," he told Al Jazeera. "It feels like a bad dream."

Amnesty International documented 45 cases of abductions by the TNLA and SSA-S in Shan State between late 2015 and late 2016 as fighting intensified between the two warring parties.

The rights group says civilians are typically taken in groups of five to eight people. Some are forcibly removed from vehicles, others are taken from home and never seen again. Parents are also held captive until their children agree to conscript.

Lay Sai Nge's arms are still marked from the ropes that bound him for the four weeks he spent as a captive of the SSA-S.

The 43-year-old was the eldest of 10 men taken from Man Li village when fighting erupted in Hsipaw township in late February, snatched from his car on the way to rescue other villagers caught in the crossfire.

Photos of him beaten and bound were circulated by local media, which led to his eventual release.

Six men, including minors, are yet to return home but have been spotted in posts shared by SSA-S soldiers on Facebook. In the images, they are wearing uniforms and holding guns.

Three months on from his release, Lay Sai Nge has sent 60 school-aged children from his village to live in a monastery in Ayeyarwady region in the country's southern delta.

Like many parents Al Jazeera spoke to in rural Shan State, he is confident that there is next to no risk of recruitment outside the areas controlled by ethnic armies.

Humanitarian organisations say that since late 2016, there has been an exodus of rural youth and a spike in displacements linked to concerns about forced recruitment in northern Shan State.

Matthew Maguire, an aid worker, cited an increase in adolescents crossing to China as fighting intensified.

"Young people fled across the border to work as the risk of forced recruitment [or] being picked up for belonging to an opposing ethnic group went through the roof," he said. "Their choices were limited: either move to an urban area or find work in China."

Maguire, who was working with local groups on a youth dialogue project in 50 villages in Kutkai township in early 2017, says that their endeavour could not proceed as there were simply no young people to work with.

"All had fled for fear of recruitment," he told Al Jazeera by email.

Mother of five, 43-year-old Yar San Taw* has made many sacrifices to keep her children out of harm's way, including living without them.

"He cried when we sent him to China to work after he finished his studies, but he didn't have a choice, I won't let him stay here," she told Al Jazeera from her home, holding up a photo of her 15-year-old son in the monastery where he was educated and raised from his ninth birthday.

"Even when he visited home, we worried that the army would take him," she says, looking anxiously out the window at the base occupied by young soldiers. "Nobody wants their children to join the rebels."

The US State Department said, in its latest country report on human rights practices in Myanmar, that the unlawful use of child soldiers and forced labour of adults and children by non-state armed groups "rarely result[ed] in investigations or prosecutions".

"I can forgive an animal that bites me that knows nothing about the law," said Lay Sai Nge, "but these soldiers have signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement."

For former abductees and parents grieving the forced conscription of their sons, the injustice they have faced is difficult to swallow.

"They tortured me and took away my freedom," said Lay Sai Nge, "I cannot forgive them."

#Southeast Asia #Burma #Myanmar #Child Soldiers

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ober-affen-geil · 5 years

Text

Now that we have wrapped up the season, I know a lot of people will be filling the Roswell-sized hole with some fanfic. As someone who comes from a military family, and an Air Force one at that, I thought I could lay out a few things for those wanting to write fic that expands on the military aspect of the show. If anyone has questions more specific than what I put here, just ask and I will answer to the best of my ability!

*Please do note that I do not have a history of military service. All of this is stuff I picked up by proxy, if someone tells you something that is counter to what I’ve written here please listen to them and/or double check. This is meant for ficwriting purposes and nothing more in depth than that.*

- First things first. So far as I can tell, Jesse and Alex Manes are in the Air Force. Flint Manes is in the Army. The two are not interchangeable terms, they are completely separate branches. If you need an all-purpose term use “military”; it covers all the branches (Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard). They are also proper nouns, they should be capitalized. (Cam has stated she has a military background, but says nothing else about it. So we have no clues as to her branch or rank.) - “Soldiers” is an all-purpose term used to describe members of the Army. It should not be used to describe members of the Air Force, that term is “airmen” or “airman” if you want singular. (”Sailor” is for the Navy and “marine” is for the Marines. Not sure about the Coast Guard.) So Flint is a soldier, Alex and Jesse are airmen.

- The Air Force actually developed out of the Army. It was originally the US Army Air Forces and was not declared a separate branch until after WWII, in September of 1947. (The original Roswell incident happened in mid 1947 and official reports state it was actually an Army Air Forces weather balloon that crashed. Do with this information what you will.)

- Character ranks are as follows. (I did not use the ranks from the pilot as those are different from later in the series; pilots tend to have a little weirdness and don’t necessarily reflect actual arcs or details as the series goes on.) Here are further rank references for the Army and the Air Force. - Jesse Manes is a Chief Master Sergeant (CMSgt). This is an “enlisted” rank, an E-9 to be specific. He is an NCO (noncommissioned officer or noncom) which is a fancy way of saying he has authority but does not outrank officers. - Flint Manes is a Sergeant First Class (SFC). This is also an enlisted rank, an E-7. He is also an NCO. I’m not sure of all the intricacies of the chain of command, but I know that in situations where multiple military branches are operating concurrently, personnel need to respect the lateral comparison of ranks. Therefore, as an E-7 in the Army, Flint is technically laterally outranked by Jesse, who is an E-9 in the Air Force. - Alex Manes is a Captain (Capt). This is an “officer” rank, an O-3. It can also be described as a “commissioned officer” which is above an NCO. (Note, you do not abbreviate “commissioned officer” as CO, that stands for “commanding officer”. Idk it’s stupid.) And yes, this means that Alex outranks his father. - A note about “commissioning”. This is the main difference between officers and enlisted: an enlisted member literally “enlists” in the military, an officer commissions. This is why an NCO is called that, they are still “enlisted” personnel so they have not “commissioned”, but they are given command of units like officers. - A note about officers vs enlisted. While enlisted members certainly can be promoted to officer status, it is important to know that O-1 is also an entry point into the military. If you go to a military academy (different ones for different branches) or go through an ROTC program in college (the acronym stands for “reserved officer training corps”) you start as an O-1, the lowest officer rank in your branch. (In the Air Force it’s a Second Lieutenant, informally called a “butter bar” because of the color of the rank insignia). It is not uncommon for career military members who are well on their way to retirement to be enlisted and therefore outranked by people decades younger than them. I would personally bet my eyeteeth that all of the Manes family started from the bottom and worked their way up through the enlisted ranks, Jesse Manes at E-9 is pretty much as high an enlisted rank as you can get in the Air Force and is about right for someone his age who is career military. Same goes for Flint. I am operating under the assumption that Alex entered right out of high school, so he’s been in for 10 years. He’s apparently a Big Damn Hero (see next section) so it’s not surprising that he has been promoted to Captain in that time.

- Medals and decorations. We know nothing about anyone’s except Alex’s so I’ll be going into detail only on his. A note first, while there are literal medals that are given out, they are most commonly actually worn in the form of “ribbons” which are tiny rectangles about an inch long and the width of your little finger that are pinned to left side of the wearer’s chest when in a dress uniform. They stack in order of “significance”, and you can tell them apart because they are all colored and striped uniquely to mean certain things. (Fun fact, a “plate” of ribbons all stacked together on a person is informally referred to as their “fruit salad”. No, I’m not kidding.) They are also not as big a deal (mostly) as you might think, a lot of the ribbons airmen earn are actually just for the general course of duty. A well-versed person can take one look at someone else’s ribbons and know exactly when and where they served and what operations they have been a part of. - It is mentioned that Alex was put in for the Air Force Medal and the Air Force Cross, but it does not say that he was actually awarded either. (The Air Force Medal does not exist, I am going to assume they meant “Airman’s Medal”.) Both involve “heroic acts” but the Airman’s Medal is a “lower” honor because it does not involve actual combat. The Air Force Cross on the other hand is a Big Fucking Deal, it is second only to the Medal of Honor which is a Really Big Fucking Deal. Here are more details on the Airman’s Medal and the Air Force Cross. Again, we do not know for sure that Alex has actually been the recipient of either of these medals, but the fact that he was put in for them means that his CO at some point thought he had earned them. - As someone who has been wounded (I assume) in action, Alex also most certainly has a Purple Heart. Another note on ribbons, if a specific ribbon has been earned more than once it is marked by adding “oakleaf clusters” to the ribbon, one for each additional award. So a Purple Heart with one oakleaf cluster technically equals two Purple Hearts. So far as we know in canon, Alex has one. - Again, I am making the assumption that Alex joined the Air Force out of high school, which means he has been in since 2008. He has therefore most likely been a part of Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation New Dawn, Operation Inherent Resolve, and Operation Freedom’s Sentinel; and he would have campaign ribbons for each. - Additional ribbons/decorations would include unit citations and such, find more about various military awards here.

- Because we know Alex was a code breaker, he may have been classified as either Intelligence or Cyberspace Operations, but he is now operating in the Security Forces after his injury. We know that Flint is a Weapons Specialist, but I’m not sure about Jesse. He may also be Security Forces.

- Alex has mentioned he is going to be “honorably discharged” soon, this is one way to exit military service. (Note, if you serve for more than 20 years you are not discharged, you retire. Jesse is probably on track for retirement.) There are a few levels of discharge for the US Armed Forces, find more details here. - An honorable discharge is basically given to people who did dun good; they have either completed their tours in good standing or otherwise would have had something not happened to them to prevent it. (Like losing a limb.) Anything less than an honorable discharge is Not Good and can and will affect the recipient in civilian life. - There are a few in between these two, but I’m just going to list a dishonorable discharge here and let the curious do their own research through the link above. A dishonorable discharge is Super Fucking Bad and in a lot of states is regarded as equivalent to a felony conviction. This type of discharge can only be given by a general court martial, and to earn it you have to seriously fuck up, like commit treason or murder.

- When it comes to “classified” information, your access depends on your security clearance. We have no hints as to what the clearance of any of the characters are, but we know that Alex was a code breaker so it’s probably safe to assume his is pretty high. Flint’s is probably also pretty high given the types of weapons he is working with, and Jesse also potentially has a high level given his involvement with Project Shepard. (Although that has apparently been running unauthorized for a while so idk.) - The US has three levels, from lowest to highest: Confidential, Secret, Top Secret. Find more information about the levels here.

- Generally speaking, the relations between service branches is that of friendly competition. Like different sports teams or sibling rivalry. Every branch of course believes it is the superior one, and service members will frequently josh each other about the various “failings” of each one. All the branches have their stereotypes and nicknames. I’ve heard “grunts” for Army, “flyboys” for Air Force, “squids” for Navy, and “jarheads” for Marines. If the branches were people stereotypes: Marines are dumb jock gym-bro types, the Navy is prissy (white dress uniforms I mean come on), the Air Force is lazy (heh “chair force” ha ha), the Army is full of try-hards who wanted to be in the Marines but weren’t “good enough” (not true), and the Coast Guard is the red-headed step child who is either “too good” to associate fully with the others or can’t keep up depending on who you talk to. In reality the branches are all apples and oranges, here’s a quick overview. - Army: ground troops/support. Infantry, artillery, calvary, paratroopers, that kind of stuff. Their motto is “This we’ll defend” and their song is “The Army goes rolling along”. - Air Force: air troops/support. Planes and pilots of all sorts and weather forcasting. Their motto is “Aim high...Fly-fight-win” and their song is “The US Air Force”. - Navy: water troops/support. Boats and ships out the wazoo and some pilots. Their (unofficial) motto is “Semper Fortis” meaning always strong and their song is “Anchors Aweigh”. - Marines: technically the Marines are a branch of the Navy. (It is not a good idea to tell a marine this.) The Marines are essentially the initial landing force troops; it’s not pleasant but they’re basically cannon fodder. Their motto is “Semper Fidelis” meaning always faithful and their song is “Marine’s Hymn”. - Coast Guard: in times of war, the Coast Guard acts as a branch of the Navy. In peacetime they are under the Department of Homeland Security. They are basically the boat police (don’t tell them I said that), and also do search and rescue. Their motto is “Semper Paratus” and their song is also “Semper Paratus”.

- Jodies. These are essentially marching songs or chants designed to help people keep in step. They are mostly used when drilling, or for infantry troops when they aren’t trying to be covert. There’s a whole lot of them and some of them can get pretty filthy, but there are a few that are “grand traditions”, like “Blood upon the risers” which is sung to the tune of “Battle hymn of the republic”. (It’s about a paratrooper whose chute doesn’t open. It doesn’t end well.) Some of them have been adapted for camp settings, like “Gee ma, I wanna go home”, but every branch has their own special ones and words are often changed around to fit the unit. This is a general overview of the tradition, find examples of some Air Force ones here and here.

- There are a whole bunch of different uniforms that I can get into but I won’t here, this is a good resource for Air Force for the more detail minded. Suffice it to say there are two main ones to know, the service dress and combat uniform. - Service dress is the mid-level fancy uniform, in the Air Force it’s also called “blues” or “dress blues” because they are blue. This is basically the equivalent of a suit. Service members can wear this to civilian events as well, one member of my family actually refuses to buy a civilian suit because he claims any event he goes to where he has to wear a suit, he can get away with wearing his blues. (He hates suits.) Members can also wear these after they retire. - Combat uniforms are the everyday service wear, usually in a camouflage pattern of some kind. They’re informally called “fatigues”. The military is actually surprisingly finicky about this sort of stuff, and there are specific acronyms for specific patterns and none of them are allowed to be the same. It’s a mess. The Air Force is currently in the middle of transitioning, the official name for the new uniform is the Airman Combat Uniform (ACU) and the pattern is Operation Camouflage Pattern (OCP).

- The US Military has been around a while, and there are a few things it is really good at because they learned the hard way. - Discipline. This is going to sound very harsh and dehumanizing (because it is), but in boot camp the entire goal is to break people of independence and foster group cohesion. But there is a reason why. You have to remember, every training exercise is designed around the idea that these people will be in active combat. You cannot question orders or do your own thing in active combat, you will die or worse, your unit will die. Boot camp is designed to turn you from a person into a cog in a machine, because humans cannot function in life or death combat scenarios. Machine cogs can. - Moral. War is a mind game. Troops in good spirits handle stress better than troops in bad spirits, it is a fact of life. So as much as everyone complains about it, the military is pretty good about making sure deployed members have a way to contact their families at home. Phone banks, computer banks, snail mail, the works. And I’ve heard a story from one family member about the higher-ups keeping track of who isn’t getting mail, and encouraging people to share care packages with them. - Dependents. These are immediate family of service members, usually spouses and/or children. A spouse is a dependent for as long as they are married, a child is a dependent until 26. The military considers dependents to be their personal responsibility. Widows and widowers will receive their spouse’s pension and benefits until they themselves die. There are support groups out the wazoo for family members. - Next of kin notification. The military has many strict regulations that it follows pretty closely for this kind of stuff. You can find a good rundown here. Fortunately I have no personal experience with this, but I believe the same principles apply for wounded in action as well as killed.

- It is an option for families of service members to hang a type of small flag in a window that has a blue star on it for every member of family in the military. (Blue star on a white field with a red border, hung horizontally.) If one of those members dies in the service, the star is changed to gold. People who have lost members of their family in active duty are therefore called “gold star families”. - The ribbon color to wear in support of the military is yellow. We tied a big yellow ribbon on one of our trees in the front yard when one of my family members was on deployment, but it can be as small as a pin as well.

- A note on the general attitude of service members regarding their service and the dangers of what they do. Almost every one I have encountered thinks of their military service as a job that they volunteered for. They are not in it for the glory, they don’t demand to be thanked, and any injury they may have is regarded as an unfortunate result of the hazards of their job. Alex’s flippant line about “doing it for the attention” when Liz thanks him for his service is not only funny and character informing, it’s also typical. His injury happened as a result of his service, it’s a matter of course. One of my immediate family members tells me he always accepts when people thank him for his service, but he personally does it on behalf of the service members who are not able to (KIA, MIA, or past veterans.) He also then thanks that person for their support.

- Dog tags. These are identification tags worn by all members of the military. In the US, each of the branches have slightly different layouts (find details here) but all contain the same basic information. First and last name, social security number, branch of service, blood type, and religion. The main purpose of these is for identifying bodies or rendering aid to wounded; rank is not listed because it’s not important in those situations, and it changes frequently enough that it’s not practical to reissue tags just for that. (Blood type is listed to help medical personnel aid the wounded, religion is listed so that in the event of death services can be conducted appropriately.)

- Small arms handling and hand-to-hand combat. Every service member, regardless of specialty, is trained in how to handle guns and how to fight in close quarters. (They’re not called the armed forces for nothing.) - Basic gun safety is to treat every weapon as though it is loaded at all times, never aim a weapon at anything you don’t intend to shoot, and don’t put your finger on the trigger unless you are prepared to fire. It should be noted that when Alex disarms Flint and turns his service weapon on him, Alex is not practicing trigger safety. He is fully ready to discharge that gun from the second he has it in his hands, which is to be expected given the fact he was surprised from behind. (What is interesting is that he does not immediately lower the weapon, nor does he take his finger off the trigger straight away after recognizing Flint. Do with this information what you will.) - Service members are taught to shoot for the “easy” targets on the body, which is basically torso. Fancy sharp shooting is not highly prioritized, the main idea is to hit the enemy before they hit you.

- All service members are taught basic “first aid and buddy care”. This is so that, in the event of incurring casualties during combat, the people closest to you can provide immediate assistance while a medic hauls ass over to you. (Note, a “casualty” refers to both the wounded and those killed in action. Alex is a casualty because he was wounded.) When going into combat situations, service members will have loose tourniquets around their upper arms and legs so that, in the event of injury, all their buddy has to do is pull it tight around the relevant limb.

- The US military uses a 24 hour clock system, when times are written out no colons are used and all four number slots are filled. It seems tricky at first, but all you have to do past noon is subtract 12 and you have the equivalent time. Midnight is also written as “00″. So 12 midnight is 0000, 3 am is 0300, 1 pm is 1300, and 8 pm is 2000. When saying the time verbally, it’s usually “___ hundred (hours).” So 8 am is “o eight hundred hours” (0800), and 5 pm is “seventeen hundred hours” (1700). The “hours” part is optional. Any time in between is usually pronounced like normal (0730 is “o seven thirty” and 1645 is “sixteen forty five”, 7:30 am and 4:45 pm respectively.) The US military also does a thing with time zones, in order to coordinate internationally. It’s very confusing and I don’t fully understand it, but basically everything is measured off of the Prime Meridian, otherwise known as Greenwich Mean Time or “Zulu Time” (”Z” for “Zero”). Find more details on it here.

- The military uses the NATO phonetic alphabet for spelling or using letters over the radio; this is for clarity of conveyance and is standard operating procedure, any military member is required to know and use it. Basically each letter of the English alphabet is replaced with a word that starts with that letter. (The word for “E” is “Echo”, do with this information what you will.) A complete list of the current alphabet is here. These are used over a radio to spell something or use letters, to avoid mistaking them. For example, instead of saying “Requesting reinforcements in quadrant A” you would say “Requesting reinforcements in alpha quadrant.” (Numbers are basically all the same, except I’ve heard “nine” said as “niner” quite often. Not sure how widespread that is.) But because this is such standard practice, service members will frequently use the alphabet in civilian life, like when you have to spell your name for someone over the phone. I know A-K really well because that’s what was used when I played Battleship as a kid, for example. There are other basic radio standards used for clarity of communication, find them here. A note, While “roger” is the proword given for “I have received and understood your transmission”, the word I have encountered more often in my personal experience meaning the same thing is “copy”. My immediate family members will use this in everyday conversation to mean “I have heard and understood what you said.” I don’t know if this is an Air Force thing or what, I can only say that it might be something more commonly used in actual, everyday speech by service members.

#my roswell meta #roswell new mexico #rnm #alex manes #jesse manes #flint manes #jenna cameron #fic reference #military #list #a riley special

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