#its 11 am gmt!!

[strxnqerthinqz]

SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP

click to see the pics better <3

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

02/10/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Long Post is Long. Cast & Crew Sightings; David Jenkins; Matt Maher; Clowning; Rhys Darby; Rosie; Samba; Max Trolling Reminder; Coyote Vs Acme Cont'd / Articles; Watch Party Reminders for Feb 11; SafeSpaceShip; Art Director's Guild Nominee; We Need to Be a Lighthouse! Game; AdoptOurCrew Choose Your Own Adventure; Love Notes; Daily Darby / Today's Taika;

= Cast & Crew Sightings =

Well as you can imagine, the David Jenkins IG is the big news of today. The clowning forecast has gone up significantly. Dad posted one of the late-blooming SaveOFMD banners in NY and attached Elton John - Candle In The Wind to the post. This song has some very specific significance to our fandom.

Apparently back when we lost Lucius in Season 1, Chaos Dad posted this song to Nathan Foad. Src @cptn_brightsky's Twitter Post

Now ADD to that... David Jenkins ALSO added this picture of Matthew Maher standing in front of a saveOFMD flyer found out on the street.

NOW OF COURSE, we are all clowning, but I think as usual Chaos Dad is trying to give us info without giving us info since the fandom pays so much attention to every little detail.

@saltpepperbeard has a theory that I'm down to clown with until I turn blue in the face. Src.

So yeah, as always take the clowning how you will, but I'll be honest, this looks like great news to me. It really does. CLOWN ON MY FRIENDS.

= Other Cast & Crew Sightings =

Rhys Darby's going to be at The Bourbon Room Hollywood next Friday, 2/16 at 8 PM PT.

== Rosie ==

Since doing cute stuff just doesn't stop in the Darby houshold, tonight I wanted to make a special shout out to Rosie Carnahan Darby, Rhys' Wife who has been active the last couple days. First and foremost, she knit a little blanket and hat for Samba's baby!

Second apparently she's restocked the Awesomeness Comedy website with more Buttons McGinty books and Comedy Special DVD's in case you're interested.

Oh and by the way, Samba loves the blanket:

= Vico Ortiz =

Tonight Vico was out performing with Them Fatale Drag Kings at their last night at their home bar Redline! Just some shots from their IG stories, feel free to check out more.

== Max Trolling ==

Gentle reminder luvs, if you're going to IG, or Twitter to troll Max posts, let's try to remember not to post OFMD/Negative comments on any posts that are celebrating underrepresented groups. We want to support those groups. Please note however, if you'd done it previously and didn't know, don't beat yourself up! We all make mistakes, just please try to keep it in mind going forward! (If you can delete your previous posts, great, if not, again not the end of the world).

== Coyote Vs Acme Cont'd / Articles ==

Why Deleting and Destroying Finished Movies Like Coyote vs Acme Should Be a Crime

This article is from yesterday but this blurb was pretty damn specific so I wanted to make sure if you missed it you got to see some of the reasons why Max did cancel OFMD.

"Some of the company’s tactics post-merger were garden-variety ruthless, like eliminating 87 series from its streaming platform Max, so that they won’t have to pay union-mandated residuals to the talent that created already-existing programs or pony up funds to produce more seasons of existing ones (such as “Our Flag Means Death,” one of the company’s most popular and critically acclaimed comedies—canceled after just two seasons)."

= Watch Party / Event Reminders =

Feb 11: Q+ and AdoptOurCrew Season 2 Live-Rewatch Party

Times: 2PM GMT, 9 AM EST, 6 AM PST

Watch Party Hashtags:

#OurFlagMeansBBC 

#OurFlagMeansRewatch

#SaveOFMD 

#AdoptOurCrew

= Feb 11: Relax I'm From the Future Watch Party! =

Sunday February 11th, 1 PM PT. 4 PM ET, 9PM GMT

Watch Party Hashtags:

#PiratesFromTheFuture

#SaveOFMD

#AdoptOurCrew

== In Person Events: San Diego CA ==

February 11, 2024 at 4 PM at Maritime Museum of San Diego

Costumes & Cosplay Encouraged! Location: Maritime Museum of San Diego 1492 North Harbor Drive San Diego, CA 92101

Hashtags:

#SafeSpaceShip

#SaveOFMD

#AdoptOurCrew

= Art Director's Guild Award Nominee! =

Sorry, I forgot to add this one yesterday!

Ra Vincent - Nominee for Half-Hour Single - Camera Series. Src: @AdoptOurCrew and ADG

Check out the Design Presentation: OFMD_s2_art.pdf

== We Need To Be A LightHouse! ==

Have YOU heard of this awesome new Monkey Island Inspired Point and Click Adventure Game by @blueberreads and @eldawee? They've been working on it for months and it's FINALLLLLLLY HEEEERE!

These folks are so incredibly talented! Please go check it out here! https://dawee.itch.io/lighthouse If you're using a MAC OS you'll most likely need to download an executable at the bottom of the main page. Just FYI! If it prompts you with the "you downloaded this from the internet" error just click OK. I already started playing with it and I'm in love.

I pushed Ed and he asked if I wanna do something weird xD Okay no more spoilers, GO CHECK IT OUT!

== AdoptOurCrew Choose Your Own Adventure Game!==

In honor of the s2 watch party with Q! tomorrow, @adoptourcrew did a really adorable choose your own adventure game on twitter today! They did polls and let the majority pick which direction they wanted the story to go!

Since it was a lot of pictures I made a separate post so you can see the whole story: @adoptourcrew Choose Your Own Adventure here on tumblr. Please check it out!

== Love Notes ==

Alrighty lovelies. It's been another busy day. Lots of clowning, lots of hope, lots of emotional roller coasters. I hope you had a good time and generally it was more positive than negative. I have a lot I want to say, but my brain is still pretty foggy. So I'll make this short.

Sometimes when things go well, our brain gets excited and then they overcompensate when we calm down. It starts to think a lot more negatively because it had so much extra dopamine for a time. When that happens, little things can be really devastating. I just want you to remember that we all make mistakes and YOU, you beautiful imperfect being are not your mistakes. They hurt, and we learn from them, but they don't define us. Try not to listen to your brain if it's telling you otherwise. You are so very wonderful.

Anyway, I hope that makes sense.

Here's a picture I found today I thought really applied to all you wonderful people. Thank you to all the folks who reached out to me and checked in and sent me love when you knew I was struggling (there are too many to list and I don't know if you want to be tagged so please just know how much I appreciate you). I love you all so much, and I'm so lucky to how found people who make me feel like it's ok to be me.

== Daily Darby / Today's Taika ==

Tonight is once again animal themed. I wish I'd made that Taika gif last night for the lovebirds theme, but here we are.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

While some military figures killed in duty are posthumously promoted in rank, Agence France Presse slapped terror commanders killed last night alongside Hamas deputy chief Salah Al-Arouri (also spelled Al-Aruri) with a demotion.

A screenshot from AFP’s Facebook page echoing the claim about Al-Arouri’s slain “bodyguards”

Thus, this morning’s article, “Israel ready ‘for any scenario’ after strike kills Hamas deputy in Lebanon,” had originally reported (6:38 AM GMT):

A high-level security official in Lebanon told AFP that Saleh al-Aruri was killed along with his bodyguards in a strike by Israel, which has vowed to destroy Hamas after the movement’s shock October 7 attacks. [Emphasis added.]

Similarly, a separate story this morning, “Hamas says Israel strike in Lebanon kills its deputy chief,” likewise cited the death of Al-Arouri’s “bodyguards”:

A high-level security official told AFP that Saleh al-Aruri was killed along with his bodyguards in the strike by Israel, which vowed to destroy Hamas after the movement’s unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel. [Emphasis added.]

Hamas commander Samir Findi (Screenshot from Roya News)

In fact, those killed alongside Al-Aruri included two top military commanders, and were not merely “bodyguards.” As Times of Israel reported:

Hamas confirmed that seven people in total were killed in the explosion, a precision strike on a third-floor apartment said to serve as an office for the terror group. The others besides Arouri were identified as military commanders Samir Findi and Azzam Al-Aqraa, along with Hamas figures Mahmoud Shaheen, Muhammad Bashasha, Muhammad al-Rayes and Ahmed Hammoud. According to reports, Findi oversaw Hamas military activities in Lebanon — including the firing of rockets at Israel — and was considered the terror group’s point man with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Al-Aqraa reportedly orchestrated terror activities in the West Bank from overseas.

Similarly, The New York Times reported:

Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s top political leader, said the strike had killed Mr. al-Arouri, two Hamas military commanders and four other members. [Emphasis added.]

The Associated Press likewise reported today:

Hamas confirmed that Arouri was killed along with six other members of the group, including two military commanders. [Emphasis added.]

AFP also failed to accurately report the full “credentials” of al-Arouri himself, identifying him only as Hamas’ deputy leader. But the terror leader’s robust Curriculum Vitae also includes founding Hamas’ military wing, a fact reported elsewhere including AP, Reuters, the New York Times. The Gray Lady detailed:

Mr. al-Arouri played a key role in Hamas’s relationships with its regional allies and in increasing Hamas’s military capabilities, according to regional and Western officials. A longtime Hamas operative, he was one of the founders of the group’s armed wing and was linked to a number of attacks on Israeli civilians, including the kidnapping and killing of three teenagers in the West Bank in 2014, which he called a “heroic operation.”

AFP’s abridged resume said only: “Aruri, who lived in exile, is accused by Israel of masterminding numerous attacks.”

Following communication with CAMERA’s Israel’s office, AFP’s updated article later this morning (“Israel ready ‘for any scenario’ after strike kills Hamas deputy in Lebanon,” 11:22 am GMT), more fully described Al-Arouri as “the political number two of its enemy Hamas and one of the founders of the Islamist group’s military wing.”

In addition, the erroneous reference to slain “bodyguards” no longer appears, with the updated language more accurately stating, “Aruri and six other militants were killed in the attack.” The later version, however, still does not note the two commanders’ high-level positions.

[chimaeraonwards]

The US ambassador bemoaned the fact that it took so long for the council to act, failing to mention that she vetoed an identical resolution four weeks ago.

al jazeera is out here calling out the US ambassador's hypocrisy and i am here for it

Source: Al Jazeera (16/11/23 Live Reporting)

UPDATE 6:09 GMT: I think the update got removed so its no longer in the link i mentioned above. oooooops. full screenshot in the reblogs

[beldamgifs]

━━ * ⊹ 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐃𝐀𝐌𝐆𝐈𝐅𝐒 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐆𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐘

giveaway closed.

happy holidays to all that celebrate and to those that don't, i hope you're having an amazing week! also my apologise for not being active over the last week, it's been a busy time for me.

just like with my birthday, i have decided to do another giveaway for the celeb rpc! this will run until 11:59pm, 31st december GMT, when a winner will be randomly picked using an online generator. the winner will be announced on the 1st january and will be contacted by me via dms.

the winner will receive a private gif pack containing 300 gifs of the celeb(s) of their choosing (with some limitations). the winner can also pick whether or not they would prefer 300 gifs of one celeb or split it between a few (e.g three celebs with 100 gifs each, two with 150 etc).

in order to enter the giveaway all you have to do is like this post and this one only! please make sure its an active blog that you check so i can easily contact you.

under the cut are the terms and conditions, please make sure you read them before entering. thank you ♡

you must be 18+ in order to enter.

only enter once and please be honest, otherwise your likes won't count.

celebs that are exempt from this are: deceased, not wanting to be played, obviously problematic, under 20, are already on my wip for a free pack, that i've already giffed (this is a case by case thing depending on content to gif). i also have a right to deny a celeb if they personally make me uncomfortable.

you must be a part of the celeb rpc as this blog is solely to help those within that community.

only likes on this post count, any on others that mention this giveaway won't count.

i am making this as fair as possible and if it goes well i might do another in the future. any hate regarding this giveaway will be blocked and deleted.

if you win, i'll contact you via dms on the blog you entered with. if i don't hear back from you within 48 hours then i'll pick a new winner.

[trustednewstribune]

4 Dead, 60 Injured As "Strongest Earthquake In 25 Years" Hits Taiwan

At least four people were killed and nearly 60 injured Wednesday by a powerful earthquake in Taiwan that damaged dozens of buildings and prompted tsunami warnings that extended to Japan and the Philippines before being lifted.

Officials said the quake was the strongest to shake the island in decades, and warned of more tremors in the days ahead.

"The earthquake is close to land and it's shallow. It's felt all over Taiwan and offshore islands," said Wu Chien-fu, director of Taipei's Central Weather Administration's Seismology Center.

Strict building regulations and disaster awareness appear to have staved off a major catastrophe for the island, which is regularly hit by earthquakes as it lies near the junction of two tectonic plates.

Wu said the quake was the strongest since a 7.6-magnitude struck in September 1999, killing around 2,400 people in the deadliest natural disaster in the island's history.

Wednesday's magnitude-7.4 quake struck just before 8:00 am local time (0000 GMT), with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) putting the epicentre 18 kilometres (11 miles) south of Taiwan's Hualien City, at a depth of 34.8 kilometres.

Three people among a group of seven on an early-morning hike through the hills that surround the city were crushed to death by boulders loosened by the earthquake, officials said.

Separately, a truck driver died when his vehicle was hit by a landslide as it approached a tunnel in the area.

Social media was awash with shared video and images from around the country of buildings swaying as the quake struck.

"I wanted to run out, but I wasn't dressed. That was so strong," said Kelvin Hwang, a guest at a hotel in the capital, Taipei, who sought shelter in the lift lobby on the ninth floor.

Dramatic images were shown on local TV of multi-storey structures in Hualien and elsewhere tilting after it ended, while a warehouse in New Taipei City crumbled.

Local TV channels showed bulldozers clearing rocks along roads to Hualien, a mountain-ringed coastal city of around 100,000 people that was cut off by landslides.

President Tsai Ing-wen called for local and central government agencies to coordinate with each other, and said that the national army would also be providing support.

The National Fire Agency confirmed the death toll, adding nearly 60 people had been treated for quake-related injuries.

Regional impact - In Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines, authorities initially issued a tsunami warning but by around 10 am (0200 GMT), the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the threat had "largely passed".

In the capital, the metro briefly stopped running but resumed within an hour, while residents received warnings from their local borough chiefs to check for any gas leaks.

Taiwan is regularly hit by earthquakes as the island lies near the junction of two tectonic plates, while nearby Japan experiences around 1,500 jolts every year.

Across the Taiwan Strait, social media users in China's eastern Fujian province, which borders Guangdong in the south, and elsewhere said they also felt strong tremors.

Residents of Hong Kong also reported feeling the earthquake.

China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as a renegade province, was "paying close attention" to the quake and "willing to provide disaster relief assistance", state news agency Xinhua said.

Fabrication at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company -- the world's biggest chip maker -- was briefly interrupted at some plants, a company official told AFP, while work at construction sites for new plants was halted for the day.

The vast majority of quakes around the area are mild, although the damage they cause varies according to the depth of the epicentre below the Earth's surface and its location.

The severity of tsunamis -- vast and potentially destructive series of waves that can move at hundreds of kilometres per hour -- also depends on multiple factors.

Japan's biggest earthquake on record was a massive 9.0-magnitude undersea jolt in March 2011 off Japan's northeast coast, which triggered a tsunami that left around 18,500 people dead or missing.

The 2011 catastrophe also sent three reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing Japan's worst post-war disaster and the most serious nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

Japan saw a major quake on New Year's Day this year, when a 7.5-magnitude tremor hit the Noto Peninsula and killed more than 230 people, many of them when older buildings collapsed.

[rubctosis]

                                 Independant    &   semi   - selective.    canon   divergent.    𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐆𝐀𝐑    𝐃.    𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑    𝐋𝐀𝐖 ♡   from    Eiichiro    Oda's    𝙊𝙉𝙀    𝙋𝙄𝙀𝘾𝙀.    Loved    by    ℛℯ𝓃    (    he/him , 29    ).    Blog    will    contain    dark    themes,          mentions    of    gore    and    nsfw .  Medium  to  low  activity. 

𝐀    𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐃𝐘    𝐈𝐍    :  survivors guilt,       death,      Revenge      , a   mind   hardened   by   tragedy        &       trauma,      suppressed         emotions,      slow         healing,    (  even   if   reluctantly  )  ,   cunning,     sarcastic,     𝑷𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒄   and   unpredictable   -     detached   exterior   -   of   a   reserved   ;   insomniac   

I.   CARRD.      II.   HEADCANONS.      III.   PROMPTS.      IV. PROMO     V. STARTER

𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐒 - 0. / 𝐀𝐒𝐊𝐒 - 11. / 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒 - 3.

𝐀𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 ♡ :   ofhope            :           particlecreator            :           kaizokugaris      :     sillygum            :           cmdrace            :           heavens-sin           : OnePiecc               :         devilofthecresentisle            :          

𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐆 𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐋: Bill Cipher

header template : ©poetryrph             :         border/ pinned template : ©isaworks

I. my activity is going to be medium to low for as i am busy working ridiculous hours outside of tumblr. please keep in mind my time zone is [ GMT-8 ]. my free days will change but as of now im free Wednesdays and Sundays. and just because im free it doesnt guarantee a immediate reply to threads. or there are times im not mentally there to write for my muse. please give me time. if you lose interest let me know so i wont reply or if you want to start a new thread. feel free to send any prompts from ask memes i reblog at any time. asks are okay to make into threads. multiple threads im okay with as well.

II. i normally write paragraphs - often times more. i don't expect my partners to match me. please write in how youre most comfotable with. just dont half ass it. i also format my posts with small font, colors, and icons. i don't expect that to be matched either. im just dramatic.

III. pairings - i absolutely love it. the possible character development, chemistry and compatibility. i am open to pairings whether its with ocs or canon characters. -though would love to talk it through with muns to see if muses have chemistry. crackships and rarepairs are included.

want to see if our muses are compatible? - send a dm my way and we can talk it out :>

IV. NSFW \\ dark themes will be present on this blog and tagged accordingly using assigned trigger tags. please let me know if i didnt tag. im very smooth brain . but due to such content if you are under the age of 18, do not fucking follow me. im blocking on sight.

[daniople]

【Let's Read Homestuck】

we finally made it past the scratch! its alpha kids time! (w/ @hisonokami, @asianshaun, @cheesecakewitch, and @caffedorovevo!)

youtube.com/live/AYahujuKSOk & twitch.tv/daniopletv

🎭 6:00 PM CDT / 11:00 PM GMT / 8:OO AM JST 🎭

[yxstxrdrxxm]

POLL RESULT—! > Chrysanthemum and Gerbera Daisies. How about these?

"... How about Chrysanthemum and Gerbera Daisies?" YESTERDAY suggested. "I believe both would fit the studio well, especially with their colors to contrast the interior of the area."

ALBEDO's brows furrowed.

"Is that so? How interesting... I suppose I'll take those instead."

From the sounds of it, he was hoping for another set instead. Though, you couldn't honestly tell if that was a good thing or not, since he signed the contract and paid in advance before leaving with Klee.

Oh well. Only time will tell.

[ AFFECTION ↑ 2+ ! ]

Seeing them off, YESTERDAY turned their head to the canvas. There is only so much time they can spend painting on it, but for some reason, something was nagging at them.

Maybe it was wise for them to heed to the sensible part in their brain and hide it. They didn't want to deal with unnecessary surprises, after all.

Lifting up the canvas, YESTERDAY trudged onwards and upstairs, aiming to hide them somewhere a bit... Safe. Maybe someplace no one would look.

There isn't much that can serve that purpose, except for that room.

And they knew that that room befits the requirements of keeping secrets in.

They walked down the hall and kicked the door with their foot, coughing at the webs and dust meeting their face. Still, they walked onwards and placed it down on the wall, looking at the boxes that remained sealed.

...

Those aren't their belongings. They shouldn't tamper with it.

Yes, they shouldn't. It would be wise that they'd leave right now. Just to be safe.

As their eyes swept across the entire room, they made eye contact with an abandoned portrait.

...

Leave it.

As quick as they came, they went down.

They shouldn't have went up that room.

Not when that portrait still remains in its wake.

DAY ???

The constant whispers get to them sometimes.

Those words that speak to them, almost in hushed tones and murmurs amongst themselves.

That Façade, too, was another.

Quite a living, breathing, constant reminder of something so unnatural. Something no man can withstand, nor can he live without a single shred of thought.

That Façade speaks of many a tales, some more absurd than others. It says it like its the law, its unmoving face remaining the same when questioned by others.

Tell me.

This poll will receive answers until 11 AM (GMT+8). Keep in mind that the majority will win, so vote what you think is right.

Additionally, any poll after this with additional votes WILL be null when the results are out. Choose wisely, focus on the recent poll, and ignore the past.

FLAWED TAGLIST: (send an ask to be added for Flawed!) @beloved-blaiddyd ; @mixed-kester ; @mochinon-yah ; @fffiii ; @leftdestiny-posts ; @ambrosia-divine

[ghostofbambifanfiction]

CYOA Snippet

From: Paul Barfleet <pauliebigfleet@yahoo.com> To: Lily Evans <Lily.Evans@spiceasnice.com> Sent: Wednesday 23rd February, 2022, 09:11 GMT

Subject: Missing items

Wendy said to email you and ask you where the panini press is it was missing from the kitchen yesterday and wasn't in your bedroom when I went in to look for it did you give it away or sell it? You're not supposed to remove an appliance we all use, an appliance that resides in the shared kitchen area is a shared appliance. Kindly return it to its usual cupboard at your earliest convenience.

*

From: Lily Evans <Lily.Evans@spiceasnice.com> To: Paul Barfleet <pauliebigfleet@yahoo.com> CC: Wendy Wilde <Wendy.Wilde@royalandwest.co.uk>, Celeste Lewandowska <celestelewandowska75@gmail.com> Sent: Wednesday 23rd February, 2022, 10:42 GMT

Subject: RE: Missing items

Hi Paul,

Thank you for bringing this matter to my attention.

As I'm sure you are aware, I make a habit of locking my bedroom door whenever I am not going to be present in the flat we share at 2 Claylands Road, London, SW8 1NY. Furthermore, I distinctly recall locking my bedroom door on the morning of Tuesday 22nd February 2022, shortly before I departed for work*. At the time of my departure, I observed from the familiar sound of your monstrous snoring that you were still asleep in the room you share with Wendy, so I have no choice but to conclude that this unauthorised visit to my room took place after I left the flat. I found my bedroom door to be locked when I returned home. As there were no signs of forced entry that I could observe, I must also conclude that you are in possession of a spare key to my room that you are not permitted to have without authorisation from myself or from our landlord, per the renewed tenancy agreement we all signed when you moved in on Friday 8th October 2021.

Needless to say, I have never given you permission to enter my room or make a copy of my room key, so you can imagine my confusion upon learning that you have, in fact, been poking around in there.

I then decided to telephone Celeste to ascertain the truth, and she has confirmed that she did not grant you permission to enter my room or possess an extra key. She also confirmed that the only spare key to my bedroom that she is aware of is currently in her possession. She is quite happy to confirm the same with you and Wendy, and will be calling you both shortly to request the return of the spare key.

As I have suffered no material loss following this act of trespass, there is no legal action that I can take against you, however I feel it incumbent upon me to warn you that any further attempts to enter my bedroom without permission from myself or Celeste can be construed as harassment. Furthermore, Celeste has agreed to employ the services of a locksmith to change the lock on my door as a preventative measure. Again, she will explain this to you and Wendy when she calls you later this morning.

As for the panini press, I will not be returning it to the kitchen. The panini press is not yours. The panini press is not Wendy's. The panini press was never a shared appliance. The panini press belonged solely to me. Neither of you have ever made a single monetary contribution towards the panini press, which I allowed you to use in the spirit of being a good housemate until I gave it to a friend who was in need of one. The panini press is now his property.

Again, I must thank you for bringing this serious matter to my attention.

Regards,

Lily Evans

Assistant to the CEO

*a place where you go to earn money

*

iPhone Notification Centre

Phone Wendy Wilde Voicemail

Phone Wendy Wilde Missed Call (6)

WhatsApp Wendy Wilde Lily will you please pick up

WhatsApp Kingsley Shacklebolt Yesterday's Wordle was fucking stupid. Done with it.

Instagram[rubyraptor] James Potter Liked a message that you sent 

*

Private WhatsApp Chat Resumed: Wednesday 23rd February, 2022, 16:03 Members: Lily Evans, James Potter

================================

James Potter: mum texted and said that you need to move into my house?

Lily Evans: What?!

James Potter: what?

[dilatorywriting]

hiya! would u consider making a taglist for ur heroes v villains series? i love it so much :D but its also alright if u dont wanna

Yeah of course! It shouldn't be a problem!

Off of that, I suppose if anyone would like to be added to a tag list for Heroes vs Villains, give this post a like or response etc and I'll add you!

Addendum; I don’t know if we’ll get there, but at 150 people I am going to have to cap it off I think. There are quite a few people who’ve asked to be added in the notes of the individual fics as well. It’s just getting a bit massive to manage.

EDIT: Alrighty as of tonight we are officially closed for business. Anyone who reached out before GMT 11:45PM on Dec 10th will be added, but after that is the cut off

[the-clockwork-three]

Seachtain na Gaeilge 2023 Masterpost

Seachtain na Gaeilge, or Irish Language Week, runs from the 1st until the 17th of March every year. I am running a little event to celebrate. This event is open to anyone who wants to join.

As I only have the skills required to give about seven short lessons in Irish grammar, I will post the lessons from the 11th to the 17th, and I'll post something creative on every odd numbered day leading up to that point.

Further information below the cut :)

Timetable:

Wed 1: Folk song cover

Fri 3: Story based on an Irish myth

Sun 5: Lil' film club of an Irish short film (TW: onscreen character death & ableism)

Tue 7: Irish cover of an English song

Thu 9: Story in Irish (English translation in second chapter)

Sat 11: Simple Phrases

Sun 12: Possession, Seimhiú, and Urú

Mon 13: Counting and Numbers

Tue 14: Verbs

Wed 15: Prepositions

Thu 16: The Genitive Case

Fri 17: Tying it all together, and Saint Patrick's Day

I'll be uploading at 4pm Irish time (+00:00 GMT)

There may be smaller posts in-between these on the even numbered days, on the culture of "Irish names", a recipe for a Dublin desert, and so on so forth.

Anyone is welcome to join, whether its along with my vague upload schedule, or based on your own ideas around the Irish language or culture. If you would like your post to be linked in the masterpost, just tag me in the post and I'll add it to a list. Also Paddy's day pics will always be appreciated

The tag to block or use is "SnaG 2023"

Also if anyone wants to join a taglist, just say :)

Slán libh,

Rowan (nó Ruadhán)

[limelocked]

to be entirely fucking fair here, the news that i was reading never said that the truce (which should not be called a ceasefire honestly) would 100% start today, it said thursday or friday

does that make the delay apparently caused by israel any better? not really

but i AM saying that by technicality no ceasefire (because this isnt one) and no truce has been broken Yet

the time and date are now set at 5am GMT 24/11 i believe so should hostilities over gaza continue past that point then that would break the truce, fighting in the west bank will likely not stop, neither will fighting across the southern lebanon border, this truce is only over gaza and even then iirc its along specific terms

based on the past i have so extremely little faith that this truce will hold strong for 4 entire ass days but its not broken yet

[coochiequeens]

The UAE…. Where rape victims can jailed for having sex outside of marriage but the authorities look the way when African women are forced into prostitution. But it’s ok with authorities because as long as the foreign male population has a foreign female population to exploit the local women won’t be harassed.

African women trafficked into the UAE are forced into debt and subjected to threats and violence, as they are kept in sexual slavery. The case of Christy Gold, who has been charged with sex trafficking in Nigeria, highlights the torment endured by these women in the UAE.

By MAGGIE MICHAEL 

Filed June 12, 2023, 11 a.m. GMT

On a pleasure boat cruising Gulf waters near Dubai’s glittering skyline, a Nigerian woman in a white dress and gold jewelry nodded and swayed as a gathering sang “Happy Birthday” to her.

Videos of Christy Gold’s 45th birthday party were posted in May last year on an Instagram account that showcases her glamorous lifestyle, months after Gold fled Nigeria, where she was facing sex trafficking charges.

Gold – whose name appears in court records as Christiana Jacob Uadiale – was a ringleader in a criminal network that lured African women to Dubai and forced them into prostitution in brothels, backstreets, bars, hotels and dance clubs, according to six Nigerian government anti-trafficking officials, a British human rights activist who has tracked her operation and five women who say they were trafficked and exploited by her.

Three of the women said in interviews that Gold told them that if they didn’t do as they were told, they’d be killed and dumped in the desert. Those who didn’t make enough money for her were taken to a room in an apartment in Dubai, where Gold’s brother starved them, flogged them and shoved hot chili paste into their vaginas, according to three anti-trafficking officials and five women who provided detailed accounts in interviews and court statements.

“They beat the hell out of me,” one of the women said. “The suffering was too much.”

In a statement to the court after she was charged, Gold denied that she and her brother were sex traffickers. “I am not involved in human trafficking and I do not have any girls in Dubai working for me as a prostitute,” she said.

Gold remains a fugitive from justice – part of what anti-trafficking activists and officials say is a thriving underground of suspected Nigerian sex traffickers who have taken refuge in the United Arab Emirates, a Gulf nation known for its wealth, futuristic skyscrapers and what rights groups say is a poor record on protecting foreign workers and basic freedoms.

The UAE is a major destination for sex trafficking, where African women are forced into prostitution by illicit networks operating within the country, an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and Reuters has found.

Emirati authorities do little to protect these women, according to anti-trafficking activists, Nigerian authorities and interviews with trafficked women.

This story is based on interviews with 25 African women, mostly from Nigeria, who described being lured to the UAE by Gold or other alleged traffickers, as well as dozens of interviews with humanitarian workers, investigators, Nigerian government officials and others with knowledge of sex trafficking in the Emirates. Their accounts are corroborated by court records and case files from Nigeria’s anti-human trafficking agency.

Human traffickers keep African women in sexual slavery by playing on their financial desperation and creating webs of manipulation and coercion, the reporting shows. They subject them to threats and violence. They ensnare them in crushing debts, often totaling $10,000 to $15,000 – huge sums for women from poor families. And, in many cases, they exploit traditional African spiritual beliefs to make victims believe that they have no choice but to do what the traffickers tell them.

This article is part of a reporting collaboration led by ICIJ, Trafficking Inc., which is examining sex trafficking and labor trafficking in many parts of the globe. ICIJ’s media partners on the project include Reuters, NBC News, Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism and other news outlets in multiple countries.

Gold did not respond to questions for this story. In her statement to the court in Nigeria, Gold said she had helped Nigerian women and men move to the UAE by subletting space to them in an apartment she owned in Dubai.

“I even go as far as advising them like a mother so they too can make it in Dubai,” she said. But she told the court, “I cannot tell what these people did for a living in Dubai.”

In a written reply supplied by the Dubai government’s media affairs office, the emirate’s police agency said claims that Gold had engaged in the sex trafficking of African women in Dubai are “false and have absolutely no basis in fact.” The statement said Gold had “entered and exited Dubai legally and was not implicated in any illegal activities.”

The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs said any suggestion the UAE “tolerates human trafficking or that it has little regard to the victims of this heinous crime is utterly false.” Such allegations, the ministry said in response to questions, were “baseless and without foundation.”

The ministry said the UAE’s laws on sex trafficking carry heavy fines and prison sentences. A report the ministry shared said the UAE had referred 20 “human trafficking cases” to the courts in 2021, most for “sexual exploitation.”

The UAE has been involved in international police operations against trafficking networks, the ministry said.

Human rights activists and Nigerian authorities say the UAE doesn’t live up to its anti-trafficking commitments.

Fatima Waziri-Azi, director general of Nigeria’s National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, said there has been “no cooperation” when NAPTIP has reached out to Emirati authorities for help hunting down traffickers working out of the UAE.

Angus Thomas, a British activist who founded an anti-trafficking education organization based in Ghana, said UAE authorities, including the police, were uncooperative when he urged them to help African women get away from Gold and her associates.

“I wrote, I phoned, I emailed, asking them to help me get the girls, sending addresses of apartments,” he said. “And I heard nothing.”

In plain sight

Sex trafficking is one form of human trafficking, which is generally defined as using force, fraud or coercion to induce someone to provide a service.

Most of the 25 women interviewed for this story said they were promised other types of work but were driven into prostitution. Others said they chose to do sex work but were trapped in situations in which they were abused, their earnings were stolen and they were unable to get away.

The UAE made sex trafficking a crime in 2006 and has established an interagency anti-trafficking panel and opened shelters for survivors. The U.S. State Department said in 2022 that the UAE has made “significant efforts” to combat human trafficking but still falls short in key areas – including failing to “consistently screen vulnerable populations for trafficking indicators, which may have penalized some victims for unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit, such as immigration or ‘prostitution’ violations.”

The UAE follows Islamic law, yet prostitution and sex trafficking are open secrets. Business cards with photos and WhatsApp numbers for brothels disguised as massage parlors litter many areas of Dubai. Spas, dance clubs and bars are filled with sex workers.

A hierarchy based on skin tone plays an important role in the UAE’s sex industry, according to interviews with trafficked women and visits to spots where prostitutes congregate in the UAE. Lighter-skinned women from Europe are generally trafficked into higher-end venues serving wealthier customers. Darker-skinned women are often steered to alleys and street corners, providing sex to low-income migrant workers from South Asia and Africa.

One Nigerian woman described being taken by a trafficker to an open-air brothel in the desert between Dubai and another emirate, Abu Dhabi. She said she and other women would take off their clothes and spread them on the ground, and men would come to have sex with them from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.

A Nigerian mother in her 20s said a trafficker led her and two other women to a parking lot in Ajman, one of the emirates that make up the UAE, and forced them to have sex with male clients amid vehicles that were being painted and repaired. At the end of the night, she said, the traffickers took all the money, leaving them with nothing to buy food.

After she broke free of the trafficker, the woman said, she slept in the streets and begged for food. She nearly lost her mind, she said, before a nurse from Nigeria rescued her and helped her get home.

The UAE's sex industry is shaped by the country's distinctive demography and economy.

Nearly 90% of its population comes from somewhere else – mostly foreign workers employed in construction, hospitality and other industries. Most of them are men and they arrive alone. As a result, 69% of the UAE’s population is male. The government deals with these demographic realities by deploying extensive surveillance in the UAE – and by allowing a bustling sex trade as a way of pacifying male workers, according to two former diplomats who were based in the UAE and monitored sex trafficking.

Gold and Mercy

On New Year’s Eve 2019, Thomas, a photographer and anti-trafficking activist, had a one-day layover in the UAE before heading home to London. He was going into a supermarket in Dubai when a 19-year-old Nigerian woman approached him and offered him sex.

He declined, but asked her if she wanted to return to her home country.

She told him, Thomas said, that she and 22 other women were under the control of a trafficker named Christy Gold. Back in London, he sent her money to rent a safe place to stay and then arranged a flight home to Nigeria.

Thomas said he began trying to rescue other women trapped in Dubai. He started a campaign called Send Them Home, raising money to cover victims’ escape and travel costs. Over several months, Thomas said, he helped rescue eight other women who said they’d been held against their will by Gold or other traffickers operating in the UAE. Thomas’ account was confirmed by Nigerian anti-trafficking officials and women who Thomas helped escape from traffickers.

He also shared information that he had gathered about Gold with Nigeria’s anti-trafficking agency NAPTIP, which can arrest and prosecute alleged traffickers. His efforts included tracking Gold’s Instagram account, where she displays hundreds of online posts featuring lion-shaped gold pendants and other jewelry she sells through a gold trading business she runs from Dubai.

In a May 2022 email to Waziri-Azi, the Nigerian anti-trafficking agency’s director, Thomas wrote that Gold was “flaunting her wealth built on the backs” of young women “she trafficks to Dubai.”

Little is known about Gold’s background. In her written statement to the Nigerian court, Gold said that she traveled to Dubai in 2009 and after that began shuttling back and forth, buying gold, shoes and handbags in the UAE and selling them in Nigeria.

According to victim statements to the court and interviews, Gold and her associates targeted Nigerian women who were desperate for work and new lives, promising them jobs in hair salons, restaurants and other retail businesses in Dubai. Gold’s associates helped them obtain Nigerian passports and tourist visas to travel to the UAE.

Descriptions of her operations come from five women who said they’d been trafficked by Gold. Three gave detailed interviews. Two of the three women interviewed for this story, along with two other women, have submitted witness statements in Gold’s criminal case.

Each of the three women interviewed for this article said she was trafficked after being approached by a recruiter, Mercy Ewere Owuzo, who worked with Gold.

One said she was working in a shop in Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos, in July 2019 when Owuzo told her that she could make much more money as a salesperson in a store in Dubai.

“I didn’t ask any questions because she told me she is trying to help young women and I thought, ‘She is a kind person,’” the woman, 25, recalled.

She said Owuzo paid for her passport, plane ticket and UAE tourist visa.

After arriving in Dubai, she said, she talked by phone to Owuzo, who told her there was no job for her in a store. Instead, she would be going to clubs, restaurants and hotels to sell her body. It was the only way, she said she was told, to pay down the $12,000 debt that she owed Gold for bringing her to the UAE.

The three women said Gold also controlled them by confiscating their passports. Then, they said, she created fake passports that appeared authentic enough to get them through routine police stops or past front desks at hotels – but not enough to get them out of the country.

It’s not clear from witness accounts and court documents whether Gold was the topmost leader of the alleged trafficking network. The three women interviewed for this story said she exercised a substantial level of authority and was deeply engaged in the network’s operations – personally threatening, for example, to leave their corpses in the Arabian Desert if they didn’t comply with her demands.

“Every time we don’t bring money, they would beat us, put pepper in our vagina, pepper in our eyes,” said one of the three women, who said she was working as a hairstylist in Nigeria before Owuzo promised her a better-paying job in Dubai. “Many of us had wounds, but we weren’t taken to hospitals because they don’t want people to know what they were doing to us.”

All three of these women spent time in a two-bedroom apartment in Dubai controlled by Gold. At one point, they said, Gold occupied one bedroom, while as many as 18 women were crammed into the other, with most sleeping on blankets on the floor.

It was here, according to interviews and court statements, that women marked for punishment were sent and where Gold’s enforcer – her brother Solomon – sexually assaulted them and beat their malnourished bodies with a hookah hose, broomstick or other implements.

NAPTIP officials said Solomon has not been charged with a crime. Gold said in her court statement that she never ordered Solomon to hurt anyone who stayed in her apartment in Dubai.

“I have never at any time instructed him to beat any of the girls as I have never had cause to beat any of them,” she said.

ICIJ and Reuters were unable to contact Solomon.

Victoria Oburoh, one of NAPTIP’s top prosecutors, confirmed that Gold and Owuzo worked together. In May last year, NAPTIP was able to win a conviction of Owuzo on sex trafficking charges in federal court in the Nigerian state of Delta. Oburoh said that case and the one pending against Gold are “sister cases.”

A lawyer who represented Owuzo during her trial declined to comment.

NAPTIP began an investigation of Gold after one of her alleged victims reported her to the police in Nigeria. Authorities charged Gold with six counts of violating Nigeria’s sex trafficking law.

After a judge released her on bail, she failed to show up for a scheduled court appearance on Nov. 3, 2021. Her lawyer told the judge that Gold had been “found half dead on the bed” and taken to a hospital.

The judge ordered that Gold be taken back into custody. But authorities had no luck tracking her down, NAPTIP officials say.

Christy Gold had disappeared.

Put me in prison’

Loudspeakers announced evening prayers at a mosque in Al Baraha, a working-class neighborhood in Dubai’s populous Deira district, when a reporter visited last August.

Steps away, young women in colorful wigs and low-cut evening dresses lined up in front of shabby buildings for their day’s work: providing sex to men. On the fourth and fifth floors of one building, South Asian men sat in the stairway, scrolling on their phones, sipping beer and waiting for their turns with the sex workers.

All the while police vehicles slowly navigated the district’s narrow alleys – part of the policing and surveillance apparatus that keeps UAE authorities deeply informed about what’s going on in Dubai and other emirates.

One of the sex workers was a young woman who arrived from Ghana in June 2022. She said she was promised a job as a housemaid but found herself doing an entirely different kind of work.

She rolled up her dress to show the bruises that came with the job.

“A few days ago, my eyes were swollen after being hit in the face and slapped when I failed to meet the target,” she said. “It’s my boss who did this to me.”

He told her, she said, that if she wanted to gain her freedom, she had to pay a debt of nearly $10,000.

“Where do I go? What do I do?” she asked, breaking into tears. She said her trafficker, whom she didn’t name, had taken away her phone and passport. Another way traffickers and their subordinates control African women is by using the power of juju, a traditional African spiritual belief system.

Women targeted for sex trafficking are required to take “juju oaths,” solemn vows to do the bidding of the recruiters who have promised to help them find work abroad. As part of the oath-taking ceremonies, they are told to strip naked, kneel for hours and swallow noxious drinks that can make them dizzy. They’re warned that breaking their vows of obedience could put a curse on them that could cause injury, death, even generational misfortune for their families.

Most of the women interviewed for this story said they had been required to take a juju oath, with some of the ceremonies conducted in Nigeria and others after they arrived in the UAE.

Three women said in witness statements in Gold’s criminal case that Gold’s associates required them to do oath-taking ceremonies in Nigeria before they traveled to Dubai.

“She makes us believe she has juju,” one woman who claims she’d been trafficked by Gold said in an interview. “That is, if we run away, we can become mad or die.”

In her statement to the court, Gold denied organizing such ceremonies.

When women brave the threats of real violence and otherworldly consequences to try to escape their traffickers, they say they often get little help from Emirati authorities.

A 25-year-old Ugandan said that after she fled a brothel in the Deira district of Dubai where she was forced to work, she headed to the nearest police station. She said a police officer took her back to the brothel and negotiated with the trafficker to return the passport to her. The officer left without doing anything else, and the trafficker took the passport back again, she said.

She got away for good only after she reached out to Nyondo Rozet, a Ugandan YouTube broadcaster based in the UAE. Rozet posted a video about her plight, which raised the money for a plane ticket home.

Rozet, whose videos primarily appeal to the Ugandan community in the UAE, said in an interview that a woman who called her, saying she was the trafficker, offered her money to take the video down. When she refused, Rozet said, other people contacted her to threaten harm if she didn’t delete the video, telling her: “You are not going to survive.”

The Dubai police did not respond to questions about the incident.

A 23-year-old woman from Nigeria’s northeastern farm belt said she thought UAE police would help her after she fled a brothel in Abu Dhabi where she and six other women had been locked in a room filled with steel beds separated by curtains. Every night, she had to have sex with half a dozen men.

She had slipped away when her boss got drunk and left the key in the door. But when she walked into a police station in the Khalidiya area of Abu Dhabi, she said, an officer told her, “Go to where you came from.”

She said she pleaded: “Put me in prison!” But “they turned their back to me. I was crying, but they paid no attention. They said: ‘To Hell with Africa.’”

The police station in Khalidiya did not respond to a request for comment.

Extradition request

For years, large numbers of migrants from Nigeria and other African countries have sought jobs and new lives in Europe. Migration routes have changed as European Union members have pushed migrants back to Libya, the main transit point across the Mediterranean Sea. With the way to Europe increasingly blocked, African migrants have turned, in growing numbers, to the UAE and other rich Arab nations.

Oburoh, the NAPTIP prosecutor, said that when trafficking cases have links to Europe, governments there provide information and cooperation that help the agency apprehend and prosecute traffickers. But when it comes to the UAE, official cooperation is nonexistent, Nigerian anti-trafficking investigators said.

At home, NAPTIP operates in an environment where some government officials also have been accused of engaging in human trafficking – and where, NAPTIP officials say, convicted traffickers often avoid jail terms.

The Nigerian government did not respond to a request for comment.

[captainsublimecollectionene-blog]

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[bakersstreetirregulars]

Hatching the Dragon Egg

⚙️ Look at this specimen before you. Yes, it’s a DRAGON EGG! Conveniently kept in the Sugar Gnome Laboratory for safekeeping. How does it work? It’s easy!

Use Purity Crystals and Searing Snapdragon Jellies to increase the egg’s temperature. This is essentially your progress and mileage gauge.

You can use 5 Purity Crystals to attempt to hatch it and increase the egg’s temperature three times a day, but three more attempts will be added every day at 11 AM EST (GMT-5) to a maximum of fifteen attempts.

Otherwise, use 200 Searing Snapdragon Jellies to increase the egg’s temperature even more with an improved hatching attempt. You can find these Jellies in events such as this one, OR you can just buy them in the shop with your real money.

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Basic Odds:

1200, instantly hatch: starts at 0.487%, increases with each attempt

50 - 90: 9.075%

10 - 20: Any other case that doesn’t succeed with either above case

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Improved Odds:

1200, instantly hatch: starts at 3.020%, increases with each attempt

150 - 250: 10.436%

20 - 60: Any other case that doesn’t succeed with either above case

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Once the egg has reached 1200 degrees Celsius, Snapdragon Cookie will hatch from it and join your kingdom! Afterwards, the thermometer resets, and any remaining degrees beyond 1200 will carryover into the next egg.

There is a chance with every attempt that the egg will instantly hatch. These odds only increase with the egg’s temperature!

With the Auto-Hatch option, you can allow the incubator to cycle through repeatedly until you run out of resources or attempts.

This section of the lab will remain open until you promote Snapdragon Cookie to rank 5A ⭐️, no matter how long it takes. Once you fully ascend Snapdragon Cookie, this section closes PERMANENTLY! Any remaining Searing Snapdragon Jellies will be turned into Crystals, since you aren’t gonna need them anymore!

Overall, this new feature of the Sugar Gnome Laboratory is a game of patience and persistence at its core for all players since its introduction on June 8th, 2023. Keep at it long enough, and you’ll get a Special Safeguarded Support Dragon Cookie for free and slowly help them grow with no strings attached! You can even do this without spending any money!