#just allow their homes to be stolen their people to be killed and their resources extracted with NO fighting back ever??!?

[timeisacephalopod]

Admittedly I don't know much about the Israel Palestine war but I keep seeing news articles that refer to it as the Israel Hamas war and no it is not. After all Israel has done it gets to be referred to by it's country name and not "terrorists who kill babies and children at the speed of light" but Palestine gets reduced to Hamas?

It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth that the struggle of the Palestinian people keeps getting reduced to the existence of Hamas, but at no point does the ongoing state violence of Israel define its existence when by all means it should when my understanding is that the creation of Israel was stealing land from Palestinians. Why is Israel's violence ignored while Palestine is defined by the admittedly shit group that only arose out of decades of occupation and imperialism? Those two things are not the same and ignoring Israel's violence to act like Hamas came from nowhere just to hurt the poor Israeli government who acts like they've done nothing wrong is ridiculous to me.

[jennifer-jeong]

Okay so first, I really love your LnD fics (patiently waiting for more of your amazing works) 🥹🫶 and hear me out...

Reader who is reincarnated as a Fae being and has been alive since. But the thing is, her wings had been clipped off (with the use of silver chains, meaning she's vulnerable against silver) for a century and is in Linkon city since she feels that part of her (her wings) are somewhere hidden in the city (Think of Maleficent live action ig where her wings were taken from her) and meets the guys and so on :)

HI ANON THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR ASK AND YOUR KIND WORDS FJDSKLAFJSDL;A I APPRECIATE IT SM!! TY FOR INTERACTING!! I’m so glad to hear you like my fics and I promise more are on the way hehehe please do request me again if you have more ideas!!

I hope I did your prompt justice! I definitely did think a lot about maleficent when writing this hehehehe

Fluff + Angst | LADS x Fae!Reader Angel

CONTENT Angst to fluff, gender neutral reader, mentions of violence, blood, trauma, torture, healing alongside them, mutual pining between you and the boys, happy and open ended endings! ALL CHARACTERS ARE 18+

Your wings were a pretty and pearly milky white. Your wings resembled those of high flying birds. They were thick enough to allow gliding and also strong enough to give you lots of control in the air. They were iridescent in the sun and carried you high in the bright sky. The air was thin but more refreshing up there. You played with clouds and soared through the endless blue. It was freedom. It made you feel alive, warm.

It was your gift, but unfortunately, it was on someone else’s wishlist.

You’d never been a spiteful being, nor had you ever hurt a fly. But when silver chains ripped your flesh and tore your muscle to take your wings, severing your very soul from your body. When they destroyed your forest, your home, your family, your heart. You swore to make them suffer.

You were powerful and hunting these fools down was nothing difficult for you. The problem was hunting without your wings, your best weapon.

The lack of mobility and being forced to fight on the ground made it so that you could maim the weak ones, but you could never reach the ones who profited off the suffering of you and your people.

Linkon city is where they were. You knew this. You could feel your wings there. You also knew that you’d need to hide, figure out who did what and how to get your damn wings back. It would take time, but time was all you had as a fae. You’d do whatever it took to make them pay.

It’d take years, but it was worth it.

2 years later and you’ve already made moves to apprehend (and torture) a few key figures, always leaving them in front of the police station when you were done. You still had so much good in you and it always prevented you from killing. But it made you seethe that they were filthy fucking rich from what they stole from your homeland. They sold your resources and displayed your bodies, your wings, like they were trophies. Life was still cold and depressing for you but you did manage to make some friends in Linkon. They’d even help you with your mission. You only trusted them with the information because they had similar goals.

XAVIER

Xavier was a local policeman you had met a few decades into your plot when you were hired to help with the case. He was coincidentally also investigating illegal hunters and black markets selling goods stolen from other civilizations such as yours. It was a big ring of crime and he was determined to end the atrocities that were being committed in it. Meeting you was just extra motivation on top of his already relentless drive for justice. You became investigative partners since you were both capable in combat and often investigated the same people anyways.

Xavier was kind, gentle, quiet, and stronger than he let on. He always worked without expectation of reward and you appreciated that. You just wanted justice and he wanted the same. It helped that he didn’t seek publicity because it would’ve made your life harder since you were probably wanted as a vigilante from before. Xavier taught you his philosophies and you realized you’d been consumed by your desire for revenge, unable to enjoy life outside of it. You admired him for his morals, so you learned from him, and it made you two grow closer. He was more than happy to help, it was so rewarding to see you slowly become your bubbly self that he guesses you lost a long time ago.

He had his suspicions that you might be fae. The man was smart but he played his cards carefully, he always held them close. He acted aloof with you and pretended to not constantly stare at the back of your shirt, trying to see if you had imprints of missing wings on your shoulder blades. He also figured that your motivation for wanting to crack these cases came from somewhere. If he also managed to figure out that you’d been behind some of the previous mysterious arrests, he’d turn a blind eye. He knew your actions weren’t crimes. He felt glad that you got them back for what they did to you and your people.

After a few years of planned raids and dozens of arrests, one of the recovered items from the warehouse was a beautiful pair of wings. Still buzzing with magic, craving to feel the wind again. You felt them when they were being transported to the police HQ. The surge of energy that continued to approach you made you hold your breath and bounce your leg out of pure anxiety. Xavier put a hand on your shoulder to try to calm you down. He’d already figured out what was going on just by looking at you. You didn’t need to say a word. It was something that slowly came naturally since you two spent so much time together. You smiled and he smiled warmly back. You were in the middle of panicking because Xavier was still touching you when you were presented with your missing soul, your wings. You requested to view the “evidence” privately with Xavier and wasted no time in feeling your delicate wings with your fingertips again.

Xavier stood behind you, his right hand found its way to your upper back. He finally traced the outlines of your cut wings. It made you gasp at first, but you trusted him. As he continued to feel them, you shivered. They were scars, they were more sensitive. He stepped to your side and you turned to partially face him, his hand sliding off of you. You looked into his eyes and your longstanding feelings for Xavier were making their presence known by heating up your face, flushing your cheeks. You swore you saw a slight tinge of red on the tips of his ears too. He spoke to you in his familiar voice that you loved so much. He decided to tease you slightly.

“I think I always knew that you’d have wings, you were too perfect to not be an angel.”

ZAYNE

Zayne was a surgeon you’d met one day when he treated your wounds since you collapsed outside the hospital. He discovered the scars where your wings used to sit on your back. You were high off the morphine when he checked your back for more injuries so you barely even realized.

He questioned you but not in the way you expected. You thought he wouldn’t know what they were or try to take advantage of you. But instead he asked what you knew about the hunters that took your wings. He already knew exactly what happened to you just by looking. He was involved in cracking down on research related to Fae and Lemurians since there were people trying to fuse their genetics with these races to gain their beneficial traits such as immortality.

He knew some things you didn’t know and vice versa. You both began working on this together, investigating research facilities, interrogating suspects, and fighting only when needed. You were unstoppable and the law didn’t plan to ask you to let up. You both hand delivered them collectors and shadowy figures that had hid from the police for so long. When you fought, Zayne could both heal and attack from afar while you rushed them head on. You were unafraid because you believed in your partner, your trust in Zayne only grew as the years went on.

Early on, Zayne encouraged you to let go of the spite, the revenge. You knew he was right when he said that they did not benefit you in this. He saw the rage in you and could see that it was hurting you, mentally and physically. You listened, you knew better. You stopped the relentless tortures and instead, let the collectors rot in jail, but not before you got in a few good punches. Zayne watched you slowly come out of your shell again, actually taking the time to enjoy the little things in life instead of being hyper focused on revenge. He’d be lying if he said you weren’t one of the most rewarding patients he’d ever had.

Working with your partner was definitely quite the rollercoaster. He was always so professional and mature but would also randomly tease you as if you were kids, albeit with a fully deadpan expression. Zayne was reserved and often came off as cold but he made you so warm. You knew he was an extremely compassionate and kind person under his exterior and you admired him for it. Zayne also adored you in the same way. You had gone through so much pain and suffering but you still smiled and shined like the sun.

Over time you adapted to live without your wings but after one specific raid on a collector’s mansion, you knew exactly what the collector’s prized possession was because it belonged to you. You could feel your wings. They still surged with energy and upon seeing them when you went to do follow up investigation, you immediately called to them. They flew towards you and you inspected them, almost not believing the scene in front of you. Zayne stayed close ready to support you, especially if you were to fuse with your wings again, he knew it’d be hard to keep them hidden and it’d just bring up so much previous trauma.

You turned to face him slowly, leaving your wings behind you. You hesitated. Not letting your wings fuse with you yet. Zayne looked into your eyes, trying to comfort you with his presence. After a few seconds, Zayne held out his hand, you took it. His skin was cold but somehow it made yours burn, the heat spreading through your body as your face warmed up. He spoke quietly to you, telling you to take your time. You closed your eyes and took deep breaths, your thumb slowly caressing the back of Zayne's hand as he did the same back.

Zayne had always been good at comforting you with his words, maybe it just came naturally since he was a doctor. Regardless, you knew it was exactly what you needed right now. You didn’t know what you’d do after you got your wings back. Would you go home? Would you continue this mission with Zayne? Would having your wings make it harder? Would it make it easier? You confided in Zayne as you spoke your thoughts out loud. Once you were done, you were overwhelmed and he could tell. He started his reply with a sentence that filled you with warmth, hope, and a little bit of giddiness. He speaks, teasing you a bit at the end, his face flushing.

“It doesn’t matter what you are or if you have the wings or not, you’re beautiful and you should follow your heart… especially if it’s here.”

RAFAYEL

Rafayel was a painter “looking for art or inspiration” that you met at an underground event where illegal goods were being sold, but you quickly figured out it was a front. Rafayel was a Lemurian, you sensed it immediately since you weren’t human. As a fae you had the ability to sense certain things, and so did Rafayel. Upon meeting each other at an art exhibition, you quickly exchanged information and agreed to meet up again the next day. You almost simultaneously revealed that you were both after the hunters that destroyed your homes when you finally got to chat alone.

The two of you start to frequent more underground events, both of you being well connected and hiding your true intentions very well. You use the events to gather information and then put your plans into action when your targets are alone. It worked amazingly well, you were both extremely skilled and efficient at what you did. It slowly chipped away at this network that shamelessly destroyed your beautiful homes.

Rafayel was a bit of a loose cannon. The man was so sweet and bashful one second and deadly serious the next. He was so gentle with you but didn’t hesitate when there was business that needed to be done. He could easily switch it on and off too. You were just glad you were on his side of this war.

Both you and Rafayel were out for revenge but something about your partnership changed you two. You both slowly helped each other heal, confiding your worries and traumas in each other. You were still both ruthless when it came to apprehending the people who did you wrong but the tortures stopped and the warmth returned outside of the violence. You two actually started to make good memories and live life instead of just trying to survive. You’d often watch the sunset over the ocean together, it was peaceful and you’d chat about anything and everything.

Eventually, after dozens of raids and missions, Rafayel finds weapons that used to belong to his family at the same time you find your wings again. You kept quiet until the mission was done, knowing you could feel your wings but not wanting to startle Rafayel. You looked at the weapons with him, you put your hand on his back to show your support for him. His eyes stayed glued on the knives and his face was a painful melancholic expression. You rubbed circles into his upper back with your thumb, hoping it could ease some of the pain caused by resurfacing memories.

After ensuring that the weapons would be sent to his personal studio, he continues to explore the mansion with you, following you while you find your wings. You communicated to him about your wings and he knew this would be tough for you too but you were both glad you had each other in this moment.

When you saw your wings in a display case at the end of one of the hallways, you bit back tears. It was a lot to take in. You passed millions of dollars worth of paintings to reach the most priceless thing in this whole building. Rafayel lags slightly behind you, wanting to give you a moment. You turn to face him, telling him that you don’t know if you want the wings back or not. Would they make you complete again? They can’t bring anyone back, can’t take away the pain. You couldn’t hide them like Rafayel could hide his true form, would it be a nuisance?

Rafayel makes his way towards you as you ramble, clearly distressed. He quickly envelopes you in a hug, letting you cry lightly into his chest, a painting of Lucifer on the wall next to you. You stay like that for a while. When he finally pulls back, he cups your face with his hands. You were his fallen angel, he wasn’t always great with his words but he truly spoke from the heart when comforting you like this.

“You never needed these wings to be complete, you’re ethereal with or without them. You’ll always be my angel, no matter what.”

|| MASTERLIST ♡ || Thank you for reading! ||

[xjulixred45x]

I HAVE A ANGST IDEA FOR A HADES GAME READER!

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

Did you see how Demeter made all life on earth incredibly difficult for mortals as punishment for having "stolen her daughter"? Well, based on the fact that in myths people literally DYING OF STARVATION (and apparently in the game, of cold) this idea came to me.

Imagine that the reader is a normal mortal, nothing particularly remarkable, EXCEPT that she is a farmer with the rest of her family, who just before the eternal winter came, they worshiped Demeter so they could have good crops and so on.

but then, without warning, winter arrives.

At first it's not so bad, because they can ration certain things and get by with some groceries, but as the months go by and the winter continues to get worse, so does the situation in the reader's house.

The surrounding villages begin to have pests, have problems with resources, not having to eat, etc. and the first deaths begin thanks to this, which quickly spread throughout the community where the reader lives.

The first to fall from the family are the most vulnerable, the grandparents and children of the reader's younger siblings, to whom they perform the appropriate funeral rituals along with all the people who had already died due to the winter.

Everyone's life is turned upside down trying to find ways to survive without having a coast to fish and with now few animals, and the cold gets worse and worse...

The community soon begins to decay and reader participates in the funeral rituals out of respect and to not think about the horrible situation, becoming more educated in the chnotic gods.

They are all desperate to survive, but the snow makes it almost impossible to leave the city where they live, so they are stuck.

It doesn't take long until the reader's parents also succumb, either from illness, from the cold, or from starvation from giving all the food to their surviving child.

and it's not even the worst.

reader is now sick too. So the remaining people of the town cannot allow her to make them all sick and kill them, so after giving the proper services to her family, they lock her in her own house.

but at this point the reader is so tired that she doesn't even mind being isolated. but she knows one thing. she can't allow herself to die like this. not because it is degrading or unfair, but because she knows that if she dies and no one performs an adequate ritual for her, she will not even see her family in the afterlife.

all the pain and suffering in vain.

So against all odds, the reader finds ways to survive on her own at home, constantly being in the limbo of life and death due to her horrible health.

and, thanks to this, the reader meets Thanatos.

I think I'll leave it vague if the relationship would be platonic or romantic, but they definitely got off to a bad start.

We already know that Thanatos finds his work exhausting, so the fact that the reader clung to life and did not want to leave even when she was in horrible conditions bothered him to no end.

and on the other hand, the reader OBVIOUSLY did not want to die and it was annoying that he wished her dead (even if it was technically his job?) and that led to several verbal fights. at first.

Thanatos appeared at the reader's house when she was especially weak, whether she could not move on her own, had respiratory attacks and/or was in special pain, etc. episodes that, although temporary, were still close encounters with death.

When Reader and Thanatos eventually get tired of insulting each other in these moments, at first they just wait to see whether Reader will survive this particular episode or not, in a rather tense silence.

It is not until the third or fourth time this happens that the reader begins a conversation with Thanatos in an "informal" way.

As one can imagine, at first Thanatos didn't even react or try to continue with said conversation, just do his job and leave, but as time went by he began to show more signs of listening to what the reader was saying. and eventually even give short answers.

He doesn't share much, but now the reader doesn't go crazy being alone.

I also imagine that on some occasions, when the reader can't move much, she DRAG to go get food/medicine, which bothers Thanatos because it seems 1- unhygienic and 2- stupid in a certain sense, mortals get sick because of it. not taking care of themselves, does she NOT want to get better?

It is from there that their relationship begins to improve, but the reader's health worsens every day.

It's the same as what happens with the other villagers that Thanatos collects, weakness, coughing up blood, pain in the rib cage, inability to eat, difficulty breathing--

but even so, the reader STILL wants to cling to this miserable existence, she can't even eat or stand anymore and STILL doesn't want to leave...

WHY? WHY SUFFER THIS WAY INSTEAD OF SIMPLY DIE?

and the reader's response is quite simple.

There is no one who can give her a burial, but her family did have one, without that she would simply wander through the Underworld and be alone AGAIN.

but at the same time, the reader no longer has the strength to continue holding on, the pain is UNBEARABLE and the little energy she has leaves her...

Thanatos is there, at least.

I like to think that the reader would agree to go with Thanatos VOLUNTARILY if he even lets her see her family one last time, thus dying peacefully.

And it would be especially ironic if by chance the reader ends up as a shadow in the house of Hades😅

I think that in general, a deceased reader would be like a more responsible Hypnos, she is not going to bother the GOD OF DEATH so she does the minimum ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

She is definitely happier now that she is no longer in pain, but she was quite traumatized by the experience :') although on the positive side, she is one of the few people who can play pranks on Thanaros with almost no consequences!

simply....mortal reader sheneigans.

Shares, reblogs and comments are very welcome!

Maybe i could use this Reader with another characters? Idk. I didn't know how to finish this but i like it!

[elithemiar-blog]

Danny outlived his family, Vlad, and even Dani. In the effort to prevent himself from following the previous timeline of falling down a dark path. He travels, going all over the world to help people.

Since his time travel shenanigans, he is a legend to ancient civilizations and even a myth to others.

Stories change over time and can eventually die. As more heroes come to light, who grew up on hearing the legend of Phantom, Danny is having a hard time of staying, as many civilizations call him, a myth.

He retires, believing that the world is now in safe hands, and he can return to living life as a human.

Secrets kept him safe, and even as the Justice League forms, he still believes that it's safer for him and other residents of the afterlife to stay secret.

He still does small things that keeps his protection obsession at bay. Keeping the temperature low when it comes to blazing fires, slipping stolen items in open areas where they can be found, even dropping some information that's just subtle enough for some investigators.

Even with the years going by, he feels off. Contained, pressured, this overwhelming feeling of not belonging.  He's still human, well, half in his case. Truly half. His ghost side keeps him alive, simple as that.

His parents initial design of the proto portal had been modified and perfected. Working off his own ecto-energy that allows it to work. Allowing him to escape into the ghost zone whenever he's been human for just a smidge too long.

He's always gotta flip between the two.

Recently he's noticed, that whenever that feeling of not belonging appears he turns to the ghosts to calm down.

A Christmas truce one year, has Ember telling him that she herself gets like that sometimes. Socializing helps reign in that feeling.

Turning to Frostbite for more answers, he finds out that because of his halfa status he needs double the socialization. Some in his human form and in his ghost form.

During the spring, being reminded by the deaths of his family, he begins tracking down Jazz's descendants. Maybe he can be the family friend or even an uncle.

Starting to travel again, staying hidden in his Phantom form, he tracks his distant family down. It takes a few months, but he finds them.

The Wayne children reminds him of his friends and family. He can see each of their antics in them and can even sense the death. It's like he came home.

One or more of the Wayne children are descendants from Amity Parkers. Like maybe one is related to Paulina while another is related to Sam. Maybe three of the adopted children are the descendants of Sam, Tucker, and Jazz.

A bubbling feeling overwhelms him, and he has to leave, taking the moment to just breath in the city of Gotham.

These people are not his friends and family. This is not Amity Park.

Still, he looks back to the manor, and begins to look over the Wayne family.

Finding out that they are vigilantes was a moment of frustration but also pride. It ran in the family, in more ways than one, but they are helping those, protecting those that can't help themselves.

He keeps a closer eye on them. Particularly on Jason as the ecto-contamination is particularly high, he gets the barest sense from some of the others, but Jason's is on another level.

With Danny being in the living realm, his normal Rouge Gallery that had gotten to know the young kid start to grow concerned as he hadn't returned for his normal "session" of socializing.

They track him down and finding him in Gotham is when one of the vigilantes   get the chance to see Phantom and whoever he's talking with.

Then things snowball, researching what can be found.

Danny is fairly concerned that they're searching him out but can't blame them.

At some point, Pariah Dark is unsealed from the Sarcophagus. By a particular strong dark magic user that wants to kill him and absorb the life force of the Dark King.

Because the story of Phantom is ancient, there's not many resources nor knowledge of the reign of Pariah. Nor of GZ/IR ghosts in general. Rumors here and there but nothing substantial.

For some reason the ritual summoning works, and Pariah is unsealed. The ghosts flee to whatever portal is available, and suddenly the existence of ghosts is very real.

Then the JL get involved. Danny has to rise up as Phantom to figure out why they left the GZ/IR. Putting himself on the Batclan's radar which leads to many misunderstandings as he defends the ghosts from the vigilantes.

The batclan(s) that are descendants from the original Amity Parkers who grew up hearing stories of the famous hero of Amity, Phantom, is/are the one(s) that find him and calmly discuss the situation.

Through Batman, who is entirely on Phantom's side after getting all the information he can, go to JL to explain everything.

Some of the JL, like Diana, are shocked to find that Phantom is no myth. Others a skeptical, but with one call to JL Dark has them retrieving all information from all sides.

Danny has to enter the zone, carefully, to figure out the status. He finds the sarcophagus destroyed; the spell used leaves no way for Pariah to be placed down calmly.

Returning with no good news, it's one of the magic users that say that he just needs to end him permanently.

Danny doesn't take too kindly to that and is obviously unnerved.

Batman calms him down.

Perhaps time stops and Clockwork explains.

The Infinite realms needs a king to stay stable and prevent the two worlds from leaking into each other. While Pariah was sealed, he still held the title as king. Only a Champion, chosen by the Realms itself can end the dark king for good. Just more cryptic.

Time returns to normal with one question answered but many more follow. Danny relays the answers he got, which those that don't know of him are not trusting him. Still Batman and Diana defend him.

Due to the threat of a skeleton army, Danny takes his parents blueprints and starts to produce weapons that the JL and YJ can use. They're on a time limit.

Batman can tell that he's overwhelmed and takes him back to the cave to calm him down. The rest of the Batclan show to give him support, some family bonding happens.

Jason is in the cave when Danny finds out that he's the Champion, some of his titles from previous allies come crashing back. Danny has to be the one to end Pariah's existence. One panic attack later about the thought of taking a life, though not a true "living" life, he still believes that it'll take him down the dark path.

Carefully, and slowly, he explains this alternate timeline and what happened to Jason, who had been the one to calm him down. Jason absolutely tells him what he needs to hear, it helps but there's still that anxiety.

One nasty fight later, Danny ends Pariah and gains the new title of King. He does not want it, but reluctantly accepts it.

He now has allies all over that will be happy to help and a new kingdom he still doesn't want to rule over.

Danny and the Batclan return to the manor and relax, they deserve it.

Finally, they get the full story on why he was in Gotham, why he didn't reach out to the league sooner, and he shares stories about their ancestors.

---

Finally caught up on all the prompts, this shall be the last one...for now. There are a few on my FF profile from my Arrow phase, might do them too. Might also look into more of the magic and mystic stuff of DC to see if there’s a way to connect back to DP.

I need to get back and work on Superphantom series LOGA.

Three original stories that are potential books.

The POTC Fic of OC Raven (HC Jack has a daughter) that ran off into an unknown plot.

[frightnite52]

Okay, let’s talk about Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, shall we?

*spoilers*

Duh

The beginning: I saw a tweet today where the author said they hated that the movie killed T'Challa with an illness and I have to say I disagree. Not only because logistically there was no way for Chadwick Boseman to act in the movie for a death scene, but because (for me personally) I don't think I would have liked it any other way. I like that T'Challa died of an illness for one simple reason: The whole movie sort of felt like a catharsis for the cast and crew. No one knew Boseman had cancer except his immediate circle. I still remember opening twitter and literally not believing what I was seeing. The way they chose to go about it, and then all the time the devoted to grief and loss felt like a release for everyone involved. And if this was the way they thought would best help them work through their grief in their art, I don't think it's right to say you wished it happened a different way.

Okay, time for something fun after all that heavy: Queen Ramonda's speech in the beginning was amazing.

The scene of the Dora Milaje in the Wakandan outpost coming out of the hall was amazing.

I loved that the people of Talocan had siren powers

Riri Williams. I have a problem with making a significant part of a plot revolve around a person who needs to be kept alive, especially if that person isn't the main character. I find that it leaves me feeling like there was no point to the character. In the case of Riri, I can't decide how I feel. I like her character and I was happy to see her introduced. I think a Black Panther movie was the perfect place to introduce her one, because she's Black and was clearly written to have a deep love, respect, and admiration for Wakanda, and two because she's a technological genius like Shuri. But something about her story feels... well, it just doesn't feel right. Like a puzzle piece that *seems* to fit in a space, but also doesn't. I think if she might have had more agency. Or maybe if they'd let her feel bad that her design put Talocan in danger. She didn't make that machine to help the CIA or anyone, she built it to spite one of her college professors. They don't explain it in the movie how the machine got into the hands of the government, but they do make it a point to say that she built it for an assignment. This leads me to believe that it was either stolen or given to the CIA without Riri's permission. If she'd been allowed to explain that (or if Shuri had just mentioned it) I'm not sure it would have changed anything, but it might have made Riri's story feel more full.

Namor did nothing wrong. He was completely justified in everything that he did. lmao okay, no, he killed the queen of Wakanda, but listen here: He had his reasons. Namor, at heart, is a good man, and I truly believe that. He want's what's best for his people. T'Challa wanted the same, and for him, the right thing to do was to open Wakanda to the world. He couldn't have known he was putting Talocan in danger, too. I think Wakanda is gentler on the world than Talocan, and that's were the biggest issue comes from Wakanda was never colonized. Their land, their histories, their people, their resources were never stolen from them. They watched all that happen to other people. But watching bad things happen to other people is different than having those things happen to you. By contrast, Talocan was borne from a colonized civilization. The flower that gave them their powers and abilities was used as a treatment for smallpox. Their legends even say that their god gave them the flower to build a new home, the implication being that they needed a new home because their old one was stolen from them. Because of their vastly different histories, their reactions to the possibility of outsiders trying to steal from them is vastly different. Namor has the right of it and by the end of the movie, he still does. The surface world will come for the Wakandans and the people of Talocan will be ready. His methods may not have been sound, but his rationale was.

Battle orcas. No, I will not be adding context.

Everett Ross was married to Madam Hydra and I just can't get over that.

Talocan seemed like a more accurate underwater city than any I've seen, and I love that.

I wish Shuri hadn't made a new heart-shaped herb and had become the Black Panther because of her technological skills. A Black Panther Iron Man suit, if you will. I didn't feel like there was enough justification for her to make the herb and then take it herself. After she wakes up from the ancestral realm, she said that she drank the herb to see her family, but none of them came. It's a heartbreaking scene, but it also doesn't make sense when you remember that Shuri doesn't believe in any of that. Even Killmonger said in her vision that she didn't believe in the ancestral plane. I think Shuri's time would have been better spent making a Black Panther suit that gave her almost all of the abilities of the traditional Black Panther. I think what they were going for was a full circle catharsis moment where Shuri couldn't make the herb in the beginning of the movie but then she did near the end. And that would make sense, except she didn't make the herb to heal anyone. She made it so she could get revenge on Namor. And I don't think that's a good way to tie the herb to the theme. Edit: I’m seeing your replies to this point. My opinion still stands as of now, but I do appreciate the other perspectives and it’s giving me something to think about whenever I watch the movie next.

I like the Shuri didn't become queen of Wakanda at the end. I don't think being queen would have suited her at all.

The end credit scene really punched me in the heart.

I forgot to mention M’baku’s “Bald headed demon” line. And apparently it was improvised which makes it so much funnier.

All in all, I loved this movie. I've seen it twice now and I can't wait to see it again.

[sphinxwalker-when]

I’m not sure how many of my followers play or care about Minecraft, but as a data pack developer and someone who’s job is to create Minecraft content, I want to talk about something very concerning.

Today, Minecraft revealed that in an upcoming update, they will be adding Piglin Heads as a decorative block, and along with all the other heads that already exist in the game, it would be given the ability to, when placed on a Note Block, make the Note Block make the noises of the creature who’s head is on it.

If you’re not familiar with Minecraft, you might not really care, or maybe if you do play, you’re thinking “So what? We already have like, Zombie Heads? One more sounds cool enough.”

Except Piglins are very distinct from something like Zombies. Piglins are intelligent, and participate in an organized civilization.

In Minecraft, Piglins live in the Nether, which was recently updated to be much less like a direct Hell, and more like a complex superwarm underground ecosystem, with actual life outside of souls or undead in the form of Fungi, Striders that walk upon the lava, and Piglins: bipedal pig-people.

Piglins live in the ruins of Bastions, clearly ancestral homes of an aged mining empire. They are known for liking and hoarding Gold. However there’s a lot more to them than that: Piglins wear leather clothes that they craft by hunting Hoglins, which are like giant boars. They farm Nether Wart to brew Fire Resistance Potions. They dance, and have an understanding of value in commerce--they know that if the player gives them gold (even if they’re mad at the player) that they should offer something in return. They have a military hierarchy, with Brutes being classified as guardians that wear more significant armor, and are not forgiving of invaders, only being stationed to protect their treasure.

This is an intelligent civilization. Semi-primitive, sure, but they have society. That they are hostile if the player doesn’t wear gold doesn’t strip them of intelligence. They they are an opponent that can be fought, killed, and stolen from doesn’t diminish their intelligence, however even then there are clear mechanics at play that discourage killing them, such as their sense of community when attacked and the fact that they don’t drop any loot when killed. Adding a feature that allows the player to hunt them, and then to mount their heads as trophies? That is horrific. It degrades them as an intelligent people. If Villager Heads were added to the game, it would be disturbing and gross. Why not for Piglins, who exemplify many of the same traits as Villagers including commerce, farming, clothing, community, military, and construction?

Piglin Heads should not be a thing. At the very least, they should be obtained via loot chests, not from the usual manner as with Zombies or Skeletons, or worse, Wither Skeletons. However more seriously, I think they should explicitly not be real Piglin Heads at all, but rather a Piglin Mask, or Golden Piglin Head--something that they might make as part of their culture.

Minecraft 1.20 doesn’t yet have an Update Name, but it is explicitly focused on representation and inclusion--this comes in the form of adding more default player skins for different skin colors and nationalities, making bamboo ( a very versatile real-world resource) into a crafting ingredient with all the same uses as wood, and adding camels, just because people in the world live in places that have camels. But Minecraft is even more than that--they have shown repeatedly that they care about the impacts their game has on how we view the world, which is why Frogs do not eat fireflies as they were originally planned to.

Please Mojang, give Piglins respect as an intelligent civilization. Fight them, steal from them, but don’t glorify their deaths with stuffed heads as trophies.

[thetetra]

Just inspired for a story element.

A protagonist needs to save a thing. a building or a church or a field a stand of trees with a grove. Something.

They travel outside their comfort zone to accomplish this because it means so much to them that they'd still do it even if it would kill them. They go and do it despite having basically no resources.

While doing this attempt outside their comfort zone they have 2 things happen. They meet another person who is on the same sort of journey that they tie their fate to, and in doing so they learn a bit more about how their goals are tied to the goals of others and how in saving their thing they must save the other thing or both will fall because the same sort of threat will take them both. (corrupt official and trumped up taxes as an example).

They together then discover a larger perspective and another layer to what is going on and travel further still outside their comfort zone only to meet more people doing the same till eventually they are at the top and feel dizzy with the height of their new perspective while trying to wrestle their society out of the hands of old damnedable men who have stolen the common from the goose and they climax the story by one last push before everyone can go home to their grove or church or field... then realize that they have to stay up there to keep watch and not allow the next people to immediately become old damnable men.

[dr-aphelion-flight]

Chapter 1 | Captain's Log

This chapter's log has been written by Emily from the perspective of her character, Meredith Elise Mitchell. Due to her thorough notetaking throughout the game, the entries are taken directly from her in-game journal.

The planet we are currently stationed at is Nauliac, a planet entirely filled with water. People live on large ships. We are on a ship called Tsavaye. 

Tsavaye has gravitational pull that prevents us from swimming away from the area. Like the moon?

Culture is similar to Earth pirates. (note to self: ask somebody more knowledgeable about what Earth pirates were actually like. I do not believe my romance novels were an accurate reference.) 

Currently ruled by a monarchy. There is a civil war going on between revolutionaries and monarchists, causing a strain on resources. The locals are too focused on the war to assist us with our broken communications system or the situation we find ourselves in.

When going out onto Tsavaye, remember to wear: 1) Helmet, to provide oxygen. 2) The outfit of neutrality provided by the local leader. Should hopefully (?) keep you out of conflict.

Mr. Sameda is now allowing us to buy 'gacha' at the shop. These seem to be items that he has taken from our personal luggage. I will keep track of all the items I obtain.

Stylophone

Apron

Camera (Mr. Kjærsgaard had a bad reaction when I mentioned this camera, but he did not claim it as his own. After 24 hours of waiting for the rightful owner, I gave it to Mx. Rios.)

Coffee

Music box

Pen

Mask designs (Returned to Mr. Koyasu)

Circus flier

First aid kit

A bent spoon

A hat identical to Nicat's

Alien plush

Heels

A book of Grimm's fairytales (Originally belonged to Mx. Rios - we now share it in our room.)

Shoes

Hummus (disposed of for safety reasons)

Journal (belongs to Mr. Uchibori, but he has bad memories associated with it and has asked me to keep it.)

Saxophone

A charitable donation from Mr. Kjærsgaard.

The LGBTQ pride flag! (placed in my dorm room with Mx. Rios to celebrate their pride and to show my allyship.)

A post card.

Soy milk, which Mr. Sameda threw at me.

A Mr. Sameda costume.

A notebook

A picture of a child named Lin Manuel Miranda

More soy milk

An old photograph (returned to Mr. Yang)

A transcript of a phone call (returned to Ms. Nagata)

A suspension notice for Mr. Koyasu

Sigmund Freud novel (Has notes in it from Ea. Ea has insisted I give it to her to destroy.)

A class photograph.

Old home video of Mx. Rios's family (returned)

- A fan letter to Mr. Kjærsgaard (returned)

A garden gnome

A seashell

An old picture of Ea.

A car accident report.

A… killing game participation ribbon?

Envelope of grocery money.

An empty capsule.

An audio recording of bullying.

A diary entry from Mallory.

A book about serial killers.

[At this point, Meredith has almost run out of space on the page. There is just just enough room for her to write 'CONT LATER.]

Mr. Yang received a romance novel from the gacha, and was kind enough to lend it to me on the condition that I provide a summary for him.

The Clown I Loved

FMC Lillian Finebaum, MMC Michael Rook. Childhood friends, Lillian's uncle was partners at a law firm with Michael's father.

Five years ago, Lillian accidentally caused the death of Michael's father. Michael tried to prosecute her in court for this, but she was acquitted. They have not spoken since.

Lillian moved away to become a clown.

""secondary MMC"" is a man named Elliott, who is also a clown, but he is never presented as a valid love option. He is in love with her, she does not love him back. He is an inventor who has his patent ideas stolen and is now broke.

Lilian's uncle died, now she and her cousin Barry have ownership of the law firm. Michael comes to town to get her to sell, she would like to sell so she could help Elliott, but Barry is holding out.

Family drama ensues, and Lilian and Michael start to fall in love.

She returns home with him, and goes to fancy dinner parties. She does a clowning performance at one of them, despite Michael's disapproval, and entertains the crowd.

They break up due to more drama - Lilian believes that Michael will never "forgive her" for accidentally killing his father.

But they make back up again, and they live HEA.

discussion points for Mr. Yang:

childhood love interests in books: why do they disappoint? show vs tell, being informed that they have a deep connection vs getting to see it 

the failure of a love triangle. if there is to be one, then both candidates must be viable

lack of utilization of the clown theming. being a clown hardly mattered!

strong internal narration style. very easy to relate to lilian, when you ignore the shortcomings.

don't act ungrateful! even if the book was bad... it was a wonder to read, in a situation like this. remember to be gracious and thankful.

Ms. Haidar is hosting a formal dinner party tonight.

Find a nice dress that won't take up space, won't make you an inconvenience. Something that looks nice without drawing attention or stealing the spotlight.

Apologize for being unable to help with setting up the party at some point, but don't lead too strongly. Don't try to make things about your own failing.

… try to enjoy seeing people dance, perhaps.

Don't let yourself get wrapped up in your own delusions of romance and wonder. I feel awful, that I forgot such a basic thing - that wearing formal outfits would cause us to forgo our outfits of neutrality. How foolish can I be? I should have remembered my own advice. I should have kept us all safe. If I had done my job right, Ms. Haidar's dinner party wouldn't have been ruined.

When the royal guard invaded the party to try and arrest us for being dissidents, I allowed myself to be arrested. I thought this would be the best idea, but it clearly was not. Everybody else fought back. Nicat insisted I try and free myself, and that I should not do such a thing again.

In the future, weigh options carefully. Do not give yourself up for arrest immediately, but…

Be sure to thank Ms. Haidar, Nicat, Mr. Koyasu, and Mx. Rios tomorrow morning. They all did a wonderful job organizing the party, even if it did end on a scare. Assure them that you'd love to go to another party.

(thank Nicat for the dance)

"Motive"

Mr. Sameda has said that, if a murder does not occur in 1 week, he will blow up the Earth's moon. He then blew up an asteroid.

Ask people smarter then yourself for more information. Perhaps you are misunderstanding? Perhaps this wouldn't be so bad after all?

[Pasted into her journal is a foreign piece of paper, reading:]

August 25th, 1972 Dear Diary,

My first diary entry as a teenager! I don't feel much different yet, but surely I'll start to feel more mature soon.

Today was amazing. I woke up super early - even before Merry - because I was so excited! Mom made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, just for me.

Then Merry woke up and wished me happy birthday, and I told her "right back at you!", but she insisted that it wasn't actually her birthday yet. Today is kinda weird for us, isn't it? She's 11 and I'm 13, but this is the only day of the year that will be true. Come tomorrow, she'll be 12, and balance will be restored.

She said that because it was my birthday, I could decide whatever we wanted to do today before our party, but… wait, hold on, I just realized something writing this.

Am I being weird, or is that kinda weird? What Merry said? I never thought about it until today, but for some reason her saying that made me realize… she's always letting me pick. Not just today.

Maybe that's the sign of maturity I've been waiting for, realizing that. And it's not like I mind, but… I kinda worry about her, sometimes. I think-

I do not know how Mr. Sameda managed to obtain this. I am selfish. I am happy to see my sisters handwriting, even though it means her privacy has been breached terribly. 

I wish I knew what she was going to say. I wish I could ask. I hope she is safe.

I ought to go do something more productive. I am no use like this.

Mr. Aubeleilles has told me that if I allow people to be rude to me, I am inherently allowing them to be rude to others - showing that such behavior is okay, and encouraging them to do it again. I will need to think about this.

He is also an art thief. He told me that concerningly casually.

Plan something nice for Nicat. He is already doing far too much for you - think of a way to repay him.

CONT - There are a worrying about of items in this gacha. Mr. Sameda did not just take these from our luggage - many of these he must have obtained prior. Many people seem to think of the gacha as a game, to get items they can taunt other people with… that is why I must keep buying. So that items can be returned to their rightful owners with dignity. Here is a continued list of items I have obtained:

Parkour book

A Ronald Reagan themed bat

An odd blue doll

Fishnet gloves

A can-opener

A "baptism-to-go" ???

A worried looking fox

An empty soda can

Handwritten coupons for a free haircut from Mr. Yang (he has confirmed their authenticity, and has allowed me to keep them.)

More soy milk.

ETHICS - Something that is bad because it is illegal. MORALS - Something that is bad because you personally believe it is bad.

EX: On this ship, killing somebody would be "ethical", but it may not be "moral".

All of this is a bit too confusing for me, but Ea was very kind in explaining it. I will try to understand.

Mr. Koyasu and Mx. Lukashevich are dead.

Explosion heard at 10:40PM. We all rushed to the source - the fighting pit in Tsavaye - but there was a whirlpool. Many of us struggled to make it through.

When it all subsided, the body of Mx. Lukashevich lay there, and Mr. Koyasu was buried beneath the rubble. We could only make out his hand.

Mr. Torres confirmed that both of them were dead.

Mr. Koyasu's hand is scorched.

Mx. Lukashevich has many broken bones. Their helmet is broken. She looks peaceful. (Ask others for their thoughts. Perhaps you are just being foolish?)

Explosive instructions are in the room, as well as a pile of TNT.

There are two sets of footprints leading into the pit.

The library has been searched through. Some of the books are stacked neatly, some are stacked haphazardly.

There is a white button up on Mr. Koyasu's bed, as well as motivational post-it notes.

The handwriting on this does not match Nicats, Mr. Koyasu's, or what I remember Ea's handwriting looking like. Nor does it match any of the other handwritten things I have received from the gacha.

There are parts missing from the submarine's. The workers were too distracted to notice anything.

Please remember this. If you ever feel as though you should take a break. You cannot. If you allow yourself to be remiss in your duties, you could miss something just as important. You must always be alert.

There are three plates of slop at the Deadlights Diner.

There is a book called Psychology of Consciousness next to one of the plates.

Mr. Koyasu is not dead. Mr. Minami is.

Mr. Minami masterminded this whole idea. He wanted to prevent the explosion of the moon. He enlisted Mx. Lukashevich and Mr. Koyasu for help.

Mr. Koyasu created the plans for the bomb, and Mr. Minami created the actual bomb itself, which killed himself and Mx. Lukashevich.

Before that, though, he and Mr. Koyasu swapped places. Mr. Koyasu wore Mr. Minami's clothing and mask, and Mr. Minami made his hand look as if it were Mr. Koyasu's.

The purpose of this was to test Mr. Sameda, to see if he would be able to figure it out. To see if they could outsmart him. The notes were from Mr. Minami, giving Mr. Koyasu advice on how to act like him.

I was the one who kept pushing those notes. I knew they couldn't be from Mr. Koyasu. I knew it, and so I kept asking everybody for their handwriting, even though I knew it was circumstantial. I was the one who had the sample of Mr. Koyasu's handwriting. When he wrote in my journal, I was the first to realize he had to be Mr. Koyasu and not Mr. Minami. I was the first to recognize that writing.

Is it my fault? Nobody was being evil, after all. Everybody who participated agreed to be involved. They all did this for the greater good. Lives sacrificed for lives saved. Should I have figured it out sooner? Should I have kept their cover?

I don't understand. I don't understand why Mr. Minami and Mr. Koyasu would do this. I don't understand why they'd try to go against Mr. Sameda, when he clearly is willing to harm us.

He did. He did not kill Mr. Koyasu, but it was a near thing. We are now departing Nauliac to try and find better medical care.

Why play these games? The rules have changed now, because of this. Mr. Sameda now states he is willing to kill us if we "slight him".

TO DO:

Organize a memorial for Mr. Minami and Mx. Lukashevich.

Ask Nicat for advice.

Ask Mr. Koyasu if he'd like breakfast in bed.

Ask Mr. Torres to teach you first aid.

[logicalbookthief]

Christmas Movies Ranked by How Anti-Capitalist They Are

It’s a Wonderful Life

Movies that make you want to pick a fight with the 1% and also weep with joy. Absolutely a classic and anti-capitalist at its very core. Will convince you we need to start oppressing landlords again.

“Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about... they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were human beings to him. But to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle.”

SAY THAT!!! George Bailey said fuck landlords, all my homies hate landlords, they have NO rights. Local man believes poor people are human, dedicates his life to helping them, and in his time of the need literally the whole town comes together to support him and his family. Class solidarity ftw!

“Remember no man is a failure who has friends.” Bitch I CRY EVERY GODDAMN TIME. 

10/10

Home Alone

Soundtrack goes hard, the wacky hijinks even harder. 

Loses points because the bandits had a prime opportunity to seize and redistribute some of the wealth from this ritzy Chicago neighborhood and instead they focus their energy on trying to kill an 8-year-old who outsmarts them at every turn.

2/10

Elf

A family favorite in our house. Touches on the overworking and mistreatment of employees through Greenway Press – Walter forced to choose between being with his family on Christmas Eve or losing his job, it’s implied Deb has a pet grooming business on the side to makes ends meet despite being a receptionist at a NY publishing company, etc.

Honestly most of the points come from Jonie’s underrated yet highly relatable storyline. She works in retail, exhausted and cynical towards the high-paced Christmas season which gives her little to no relief or reward, since she’s surviving on ramen noodles and using the employee showers because her water was cut off. Not expanded on enough to be considered a true Marxist piece but the effort is appreciated.

5/10

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Although the meme is correct in that Rudolph’s red nose becomes desirable only once it proves to be useful, it does get points for exposing the harmful nature of forced conformity and those alienated by these capitalist ideals -- Rudolph, Hermie, the island of misfit toys -- are given a place to belong despite the perceived “flaws” that before made them undesirable.

Also the elves definitely have a free dental-plan now thanks to Hermie and are hopefully on their way to unionizing. Fucking superb you funky little misfit.

6/10

Klaus (2019)

Turns a member of the bourgeoisie into a man I’d trust to carry my mail. Respect for postal workers this movie contains was ahead of its time.

 No direct takedown of the establishment but a heartwarming message -- “A true selfless act always sparks another” bITCH I may be crying -- that emphasizes the importance of giving to others even when there is no selfish motivation to do so, which is inherently anti-capitalist.  

8/10

The Santa Clause

Scott Calvin starts as a toy executive who takes part in the commercialization of Christmas. He was probably a business major so automatically loses points.

The Santa dynasty itself seems to operate under the cutthroat rules of the business world where you must overthrow (or in this case, throw him off the roof) the former CEO in order to seize power. 

Elves have not unionized or seized the means of production by the end.

0/10

A Christmas Carol 

THE ORIGINAL. Charles Dickens was not even in the neighborhood of fucking around with this one. CREATED the anti-capitalist Christmas genre!!

Rich man treats his employees like shit and gets terrorized by three ghosts on Christmas Eve. Force him to redistribute his wealth by dragging him through a montage of his most epic fails -- oh, hey, remember when your fiancé left you? -- and make him listen as all his employees and relatives complain about his stingy ass. 

They end this slideshow by throwing this dude into his own grave. DIRECT ACTION. 

Like damn, the ghosts really said, “If you hoard your resources and ignore those in need when you could directly improve/save lives with no cost to yourself, you will die ALONE and you WILL pay for your crimes in hell.” Literally watching this movie is a catharsis for anyone who is or has been poor and working class. 

I’m including all versions of this movie but a special shout out to the Muppet version because it fucks the hardest. 

100/10

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

Listen I’m not even in realms of joking with this one. This movie is THE anti-capitalist film of the holiday season. 

WhoVille commercializing Christmas and a fixation on consumer culture to the point where anything and anyONE who cannot be commodified -- aka the GRINCH -- is alienated? The Whos rediscovering that people should be cherished over material items once it all is stolen and they must confront how empty the holiday has become??

Cindy Lou becoming disillusioned in Christmas -- at an age that coincides when many children (those who celebrate Christmas at least) lost belief in Santa and had to wrestle with what the holiday means with the magic gone and they’re more aware of the rampant consumerism that taints the season?? Her resolve to find a meaning that goes beyond material consumption because if a holiday founded on goodwill doesn’t extend that goodwill to everyone, even those society deems undesirable, then what’s the point???

The Grinch despising Christmas because he is unable to participate and isolated from the Whos and also the better qualities within himself? His alienation serving to demonize him further as it allows the public to narrow his valid criticisms of the holiday down to him being different and thus inherently predisposed to evil?? And hmm isn’t it interesting that a LOT of this demonization comes via Mayor Augustus “generously paid for by the tax-payers of Whoville” Maywho, Mr. 1% himself.

The upper vs working class divide evident in the light show competition between Martha May and Betty Lou Who?? The opening scene of the shopping frenzy that mirrors our own consumerist culture and overworking of retail/poster workers??? This entire monologue:

“That's what it's all about, isn't it? That's what it's always been about. Gifts, gifts... gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts! You wanna know what happens to your gifts? They all come to me. In your garbage. You see what I'm saying? In your garbage. I could hang myself with all the bad Christmas neckties I found at the dump. And the avarice... the avarice never ends! ‘I want golf clubs. I want diamonds. I want a pony so I can ride it twice, get bored and sell it to make glue.’" 

MARXIST KING. MENTION IT ALL.

1000/10

[wherelibertydwells]

COVID killed by sunlight

No direct evidence of airborne spread

Surface spread very rare

Asymptomatic spread low

Masks ineffective

Lockdowns don’t work

Herd immunity real

Miniscule risk to children

Survival rate 99.97%+

1. “When researchers at the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center exposed SARS-CoV-2 in simulated saliva to artificial sunlight (equivalent to a sunny day), 90% of viruses were inactivated within seven minutes.” https://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2020/06/29/light-coronavirus/

1. “The present study is the first to demonstrate that UVB levels representative of natural sunlight rapidly inactivate SARS-CoV-2 on surfaces”… https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/222/2/214/5841129

2. “[The CDC] has reversed an update made to its coronavirus guidance that stated COVID-19 is an airborne virus. The health agency said that update, posted to its website… was made in error.” (It later said it was “possible.”) https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/coronavirus-airborne-in-aerosols-cdc-says_n_5f689b89c5b6480e8972428d?

2. “There is absolutely no evidence that this disease is airborne”… https://bc.ctvnews.ca/absolutely-no-evidence-that-covid-19-is-airborne-b-c-health-official-says-1.4964156

3. “[The CDC] just released a new scientific brief that says your risk of contracting COVID-19 from a surface is about 1 in 10,000. That means, on average, you have a 0.01% chance of actually picking up the virus from, say, touching a counter.” https://news.yahoo.com/risk-getting-covid-19-surface-194600830.html

4. “[A] meta-analysis of 54 studies with 77,758 total participants… found that secondary attack rates were higher for symptomatic people than asymptomatic people — an 18% rate for symptomatic people and a 0.7% rate for asymptomatic people.” https://tallahasseereports.com/2020/12/31/asymptomatic-covid-spread-unlikely-but-possible-according-to-study/

5. “We did not find evidence that surgical-type face masks are effective in reducing laboratory-confirmed influenza transmission, either when worn by infected persons (source control) or by persons in the general community.” Analysis of COVID mask data. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/5/19-0994_article

5. “Researchers in Denmark reported… that surgical masks did not protect the wearers against infection with the coronavirus in a large randomized clinical trial.” https://fee.org/articles/new-danish-study-finds-masks-don-t-protect-wearers-from-covid-infection/

5. “Recommendation to wear a surgical mask when outside the home among others did not reduce, at conventional levels of statistical significance, incident SARS-CoV-2 infection compared with no mask recommendation.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/first-randomized-control-trial-shows-face-masks-did-not-reduce-coronavirus-infections-with-statistical-significance/ar-BB1b8zo2

5. The top 10 states in case rates over the past 7 days all still have mask mandates

5. “In the first 20 days after implementing mask mandates, new cases slowed by 0.5 percentage points… COVID-19 death rates dropped by 0.7 percentage points…” Thus, not even a 1% difference in one CDC study. https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/03/12/fact-check-cdc-study-links-mask-mandates-slowed-covid-infections/6938262002/

6. “A study evaluating COVID-19 responses around the world found that mandatory lockdown orders early in the pandemic may not provide significantly more benefits to slowing the spread of the disease than other voluntary measures”… https://www.newsweek.com/covid-lockdowns-have-no-clear-benefit-vs-other-voluntary-measures-international-study-shows-1561656

6. “We do not question the role of all public health interventions, or of coordinated communications about the epidemic, but we fail to find an additional benefit of stay-at-home orders and business closures.” https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eci.13484

6. “188 countries that have declared at least one case, only those counting a minimum of 10 deaths due to Covid-19 were included… Stringency of the measures settled to fight pandemia, including lockdown, did not appear to be linked with death rate.” https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2020.604339/full#SM6

6. “[Tel Aviv researchers] found no statistical correlation between the severity of a lockdown and the number of Covid-19 fatalities in the country.” https://www.israel21c.org/distancing-not-lockdowns-prevents-covid-19-deaths-says-study/

6. “We in the [WHO] do not advocate lockdowns… The only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganize, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted, but by and large, we’d rather not do it.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/who-official-urges-world-leaders-to-stop-using-lockdowns-as-primary-virus-control-method/ar-BB19TBUo

6. “During the study period, states allowed restaurants to reopen for on-premises dining in 3,076 (97.9%) U.S. counties. Changes in daily COVID-19 case & death growth rates were not statistically significant”… https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7010e3.htm?s_cid=mm7010e3_w

7. “Fauci has been saying that the country needs to vaccinate 70% to 85% of the population to reach herd immunity from Covid-19. But he inexplicably ignores natural immunity. If you account for previous infections, herd immunity is likely close at hand.” https://www.wsj.com/articles/herd-immunity-is-near-despite-faucis-denial-11616624554

7. “Experts believe that if no other measures are taken, herd immunity could kick in when between 50% and 70% of a population gains immunity via vaccination… the number most people are looking at (for herd immunity) is about 60-65%.” https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/HERD%20IMMUNITY%20(EXPLAINER)/gjnvwayydvw/

8. The CDC reports that 251 patients under 17 years old have died with COVID since the pandemic began.

There are 74.2 million Americans under 18. That is a survival rate for that age demographic of about 99.9997%. The survival rate for 18-29 is about 99.997%.

9. The average age of COVID death is 78.6 years old. The average age of life expectancy for those patients was 78.6 years old. Overall survival rate 99.97%.

“CDC data also show that Americans, regardless of age group, are far more likely to die of something other than COVID-19.”

[moonawrites]

What’s happening in Palestine?

Seeing what's happening in Palestine right now is absolutely devastating. If you're not familiar with the situation, this post is meant to be a quick run down of information and a compilation of further resources to get you started. 

To start, take a look at a couple of quick illustrations. This post is a brief summary of Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine. This post is a concise little run down on how you can be an ally to Palestinians and actions you can take right now to help.

For a brief summary on the situation in Sheikh Jarrah: 

-You may be seeing posts saying "Save Sheikh Jarrah" - Sheikh Jarrah is a neighbourhood in Occupied East Jerusalem

-We call it Occupied East Jerusalem because by international law, East Jerusalem belongs to the Palestinian Territories. But of course Israel does not care about that, and have been illegally occupying it for decades

-To put it briefly, Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah are being forcefully expelled from and dispossessed of their homes that they have lived in for decades by Israeli settlers, backed by the Israeli government, courts and military

-The settler organizations behind these expulsions (some of which are based in the USA) are intent on erasing all Palestinian presence from Sheikh Jarrah, and this is not the first time Palestinians are being forcefully expelled (read: ethnically cleansed) from this neighbourhood and their homes despite their historical ties to and presence in Sheikh Jarrah

-The Palestinian families are trying to appeal the "evictions" through the Israeli supreme court but the Israeli courts always immediately support Israeli settlers, Palestinians have no rights or humanity in their eyes

-Six Sheikh Jarrah families are being expelled this month. Because of this, Palestinians had been (peacefully!!) protesting. And as we know, under the Israeli occupation, Palestinians have no rights. So in response to their protests, settlers have been violent towards them.... which of course lead to further violence from Israeli police towards the Palestinians. Israeli police will always protect violent Israeli settlers over peaceful Palestinians defending themselves

-Historically, every time Palestinians protest Israel's gross violations of their human rights (and international law), Israel attempts to suppress them with violence. That's what's happening now.

-In response to the Sheikh Jarrah protests, Israeli forces have attacked Palestinian protestors and attacked Al-Aqsa Mosque. Most recently the violence has escalated even further as Israel launched air strikes in Gaza. Again.

-Israeli forces have been using skunk spray, stun grenades, rubber coated steel bullets and tear gas on Palestinian worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque. Let this sink in. It's abhorrent to attack worshippers in a place of worship in any circumstance, but this is Al-Aqsa Mosque - Islam's 3rd holiest site. It's extremely sacred to Muslims. And in the last 10 nights of Ramadan, the most important 10 nights of the year for Muslims.

-In response to Palestinians protesting this violence (Israel’s war crimes!) Israel hiked up the violence - AGAIN. With air strikes in Gaza on civilian populations.

-Hundreds of Palestinians have been injured, hundreds have been hospitalized, and dozens more have been killed in the air strikes - including 9 children. The number is likely higher. You’ll start seeing articles saying “hundreds injured in Palestine - Israel clash” in an attempt to paint this as a two sided conflict - it’s not. Do not be manipulated into thinking it is. The facts are clear. Israeli violence has injured hundreds of Palestinians and killed dozens more. 

-During the violence at Al-Aqsa and East Jerusalem, Israeli forces not only attacked Palestinians in the market place and while they were breaking their fasts (including women and children), they not only attacked worshippers in a sacred place of worship in Ramadan, they not only desecrated a holy site with enormous religious and historical significance... they also targeted journalists and paramedics, attacked clinics treating the wounded, and refused to allow ambulances through. Worshippers had to carry the injured on their prayer mats. Reprehensible war crimes against Palestinians is just routine for Israel.

-Al-Aqsa is a soft spot for Muslim Palestinians (and Muslims around the world) because as I said, it's one of Islam's holiest and most sacred sites. In fact, before it changed to Mecca, the qiblah (the directions Muslims pray in) was Al-Aqsa. Because of this, Israel uses it to control Palestinians.

-Historically, every time Palestinians protest Israel’s violence and opression, Israel threatens them with Al-Aqsa. Threatening it with violence, threatening to refuse them access. Keep in mind again that Al-Aqsa is located in the Muslim quarter of East Jerusalem, which by international law belongs to Palestine - but Israel is illegally occupying Palestine and has control.

-Palestinians are a people with strong spirit - they continue to protest for their rights in the face of this despicable violence. But they need help.

-This is not new. This has been the reality for Palestinians since 1948 when the settler colonial state of Israel was established and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled from THEIR OWN LAND. Israel’s goal is not a two state solution - clearly, since they continue to expand their annexation of Palestinian land beyond what they have already stolen and in violation of international law. The are intent on ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in their own home, their own land.

-The US government is funding all this - $3.8 BILLION in aid goes to the Israeli occupation every year. (Americans - fight your leaders on this)

-Now knowing all this, STOP calling this situation the Israel-Palestine Conflict. This is NOT a “conflict”, because both sides do not have power in this situation. And this is not a religious issue, so stop using that as a cop out to not care. There are Christian Palestinians that are also opressed by Israel. It’s not about religion, that is part of the propaganda that gets pushed on you so you don’t see what’s actually going on.

-This is the illegal occupation of Palestine by the settler colonial state Israel

-This is apartheid, ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, systemic racism. This is  routine war crimes by Israel against Palestine, without consequences. This is repeated violations of international law and human rights - Human Rights Watch has concluded that Israel is guilty of apartheid and human rights abuses. But of course international leaders (who otherwise cite HRW to condemn other countries) are silent. 

-So what can we do? First and foremost, get educated. Stay informed and stay aware. Spread the news Palestinians are sharing. Because the mainstream media will not, they are a propaganda machine for Israel.

-It's routine for Israel to 1. abuse Palestinian human rights, then 2. respond to their protests with extreme violence, and then 3. attempt to paint it as a two sided conflict in which Israelis are in equal danger when there is the slightest response from Palestine. They and the media continuously try to paint Palestinians as terrorists. At this point, you should understand that is not the case. (Keep in mind that Palestine is an occupied territory that does not have an army. Israel is a nuclear power with one of the largest, most heavily funded, and technologically advanced armies in the world, backed by every major western nation, and receives billions of dollars in aid from America)

-You'll notice that mainstream media only starts reporting on these incidents when they can call it a "clash" or a "conflict". They constantly try to paint Palestinians as the terrorists in a situation where they are clearly the opressed. STOP letting them manipulate you into thinking this is two sided or about religion. This is an illegal occupation, this is apartheid, this is ethnic cleansing perpetrated by Israel. Israel is terrorizing Palestinians with the (clearly stated! they’re not trying to keep it a secret! Israeli politicians are very open about it!) intention to wipe out Palestine entirely. The first thing you can do is stop letting western media blind you and see this for what it is.

-BOYCOTT. DIVEST. SANCTION. Please learn about the BDS movement. Targeted boycotts are effective. The larger this gets, the more effective it will be. Again, this post is a good intro summary on how to help. Below, I’ll link another resource with more information.

-Here are some accounts you can follow to stay updated:

@/theimeu on instagram (same handle on twitter and tiktok) is a reliable source posting updates on the current situation as well as concise and informative videos on the Israeli occupation

@/itsmesubhi on instagram has posted some really excellent videos (here and here) summarizing the situation that I urge you to watch and share. His page also has information and resources (such as petitions to sign) in his highlights

Follow @/mohammedelkurd (he’s on twitter too) and @/muna.kurd15 on instagram. They are Palestinian journalists in Sheikh Jurrah and theirs is one of the 6 families being evicted from their homes this month. They are posting live updates from the ground and are the most reliable source for what is going on, and what is or isn't actually helpful right now. Their highlights and profiles are a wealth of information. Here’s a linktree of important links from Mohammed’s profile.

There are places you can donate to if you would like, it’s always needed. This twitter thread has a brief list. But I urge you to do your research to ensure your money is actually going to Palestinians. Listen to actual Palestinians on what they need right now and donate to places they ask you to - Muna and Mohammed (linked above) are a good starting point.

Right now this is first and foremost a political movement, so your voice is most important. Educate yourself and others, share information. Palestinians have said that the international outcry and spreading what is happening to them is helpful. Please listen to them.

Lastly, wherever you are, I urge you to make noise about this. See if there are local organizations organizing protests and go. Get involved in the BDS movement. Write/email/call your MPs or whatever government representative you have in your country as well as your country's leader and let them know this matters to you, demand that they unequivocally condemn Israel's violence against Palestinians and Israel's violations of Palestinian human rights and international law. Templates for emails can be found here if you are in the UK, and Canada. It only takes a second, so please do it. Please email your politicians wherever you are in the world, their contact information is public. This linktree has a collection of templates and petitions if you’re in the US, UK and Canada. It also has templates and information for you regardless of where in the world you are.

Visit https://decolonizepalestine.com/ to learn more about Palestine, the history of the occupation, how to help, the BDS movement etc. This twitter thread has a list of books you can read.

This is not comprehensive. This is just a starting point, a little compilation of information and resources to guide you if you would like to learn about what’s going on and are overwhelmed with the scattered posts everywhere. But it’s a starting point. You cannot learn about a crisis that has spanned decades from one tumblr post. Please click the links I’ve included, look at the graphics, watch the videos, read the posts, sign the petitions, email your politicians. And use all of it as a starting point from which you can then access further resources to educate yourself and others, and help Palestine. They need us.

Edit: I urge you to follow all of the accounts I linked above and stay updated, the situation is constantly evolving. Already the airstrikes in Gaza have been increased to devastating levels, possibly the worst its ever been (there have been many wars in Gaza). The death toll keeps rising. Israel is targeting densely populated civilian areas and using phosphorus bombs (which are illegal). Israel is looking to squash any resistance, it's genocidal at this point and it will only get worse. They also want the world to move on and stop watching, so don't. Do not look away. Keep the pressure on your politicians, stay plugged in, keep talking and spreading awareness. Stay vigilant of the language media uses to try to manipulate you. Colonizers and oppressors and their supporters have never been honest about themselves, so go to Palestinians for news. If you're getting tired, imagine how the Palestinians living this reality feel.

[redux-iterum]

History of the Clans

There are two versions of the story of how all things began. The one the Clans know deals in monsters and magic, and a rose-tinted idea of the importance of warriors and the feline people in general. The one told here is from the collective knowledge of scholars, and is much closer to the truth.

Once upon a time, there was a seemingly never-ending forest, and it was home to thousands of animals - badgers, foxes, stoats, owls, and best of all, an uncountable amount of prey to feed those animals. No one hungered or wanted for land to call their own. The forest brought in curious visitors every day, who had heard tales of this land of plenty and had come to see if the stories were true. 

Among them were the cats, a very foreign creature that the others had not seen before. Cats are remarkable at taking over an area and exploding in numbers before anyone has a chance to blink, and these ones did not disappoint in that aspect. They quickly took up the remaining available space and settled in to hunt and sleep to their heart’s content. 

But they did not come from nowhere, as the rest of the predators had assumed. They had been brought in by humans, who were even more alien than the cats, and who were on their way after their escapee pets. With humans came a drastic upheaval - the forest was cut down to a quarter of its original size just as fast as the cats had made themselves comfortable; the once wooded slope to the west had a structure built near it and the ground was torn up for planting strange grass; the east was taken over by glass and brick from the humans; and finally, a straight, wide path, stinking of something foreign and dangerous, cut the area apart, splitting the high stones in the west and the growing wetlands in the north from the hills and what remained of the forest. 

This unprecedented shrinking of territory left many animals without a home, or in defense of the little they had left. Friend turned on friend, family forgotten. Quickly, a free-for-all broke out, leading to many predators dead or severely injured and fleeing for their life from the forest. The cats proved themselves adaptable to any situation - the entire community banded together and, as a team, drove out the rest of the predators, sending them in every direction but the east and properly taking the forest for themselves.

The victory was short-lived as a new problem presented itself: everyone had lingered as long as there was food to eat before escaping. Mice, squirrels, birds, rabbits - there were barely any of them left. It wasn’t helped by the cats having a tendency to overhunt when there was nothing else to do. The unity once present dissolved as territories began to overlap and cats attacked each other for pathetic morsels that could be swallowed whole. The few kittypets living with humans had even their terrible food stolen, with some cats deserting the forest to wander the developing streets, hoping for charity. The prey population continued to shrink and some turned to even more desperate, much darker sources of food. 

Things got even worse when a crew of pilgrims arrived, late to the party and unaware of how bad the forest had gotten. Natives immediately bullied them away from their scant reserves. With nowhere else to go, the pilgrims huddled on the other side of the river on the edge of the forest and prayed for help. 

Then she arrived.

To this day, no one knows where the old molly known only as the Crone came from. She seemed to appear from the mist to inspect the forest, sniff disdainfully, and call together a sizeable cluster of cats before leading them away to the hills, where some of the human grass had gotten loose and taken over the moor. 

The decrease in population helped reserve the dwindling resources a bit, and cats temporarily forgot their battles to watch curiously as the new colony in the west found a place to settle at the top of the hills and thrive on the influx of prey that came from the farmland, which had receded its grip on the moor and left it free to hunt on. Several cats discussed leaving the forest to request sanctuary with this colony. Others turned their eyes across the human’s path (that was slowly turning into stinking black stone), where the wetlands were settling into a proper marsh. The pilgrims’ scant territory was growing grass, bringing in some animals to hunt.

Before any action could be taken on its own, the Crone reappeared in the forest and called together the residents. She announced that her test run of creating a colony had gone successfully, and now she was ready to help the rest of the scattered cats create their own groups, organize a hunting system, and allow their land to restore itself to something one could comfortably live in. This, she said, would ensure an era of peace for everyone, and if any were interested, they could come with her to be trained as leaders to complete her mission.

Four cats volunteered: Brawn, a huge, powerful tom that had fought and won many battles in exchange for prey; Ripple, a stray from far off that had fallen in with the pilgrims; Dewdrop, a former kittypet who had been cast out from her home and was desperate for security; and Clear Sky, a pilgrim that was ambitious and eager to join the project. The Crone took all four of them and left for the hills again without another word, except an order to limit the hunting in the forest. This was obeyed, since there wasn’t enough prey to hunt normally anyway.

Before too long, the four cats returned and began to gather cats. Brawn called for those that he considered allies of himself or his friends, which were mostly those he had fought together with before, giving him the strongest fighters, and claimed the forest for his colony. Ripple had his pilgrims already, and they stayed south, on the far side of the river. Those that had been cast away or were weak or distrusted were taken in by Dewdrop, who brought them to the marshes so that they were far enough away to not cause problems with the other colonies. The rest who did not fit in anywhere else or were loners looking to have a proper home again followed Clear Sky to the outlier part of the land, touching only the corner of the forest and river territories. The Crone brought in no one else except one stray pilgrim called Grey Wing as her new second-in-command, a position she called “deputy”. The other leaders followed suit by appointing deputies for their own, carefully chosen to contrast their superiors and speak as the voice of the rest of the colonies. 

With this, the leaders exercised what the Crone had taught them: in an unheard of move, hunting was organized and scheduled, with acceptable hunting areas changed day-to-day and prey of the day altering depending on what had the most numbers at the time. Borders were laid out so that no one accidentally took from another colony and reduced their number of prey. The most amazing of these decisions came from the pilgrims, who Ripple taught to hunt in the water - because no one had dared to jump in the deeper parts or even really fish at all, there was plenty of prey for the pilgrims, leading to no source of conflict with anyone else. The other colonies slowly began to prosper over time as less cats shared more prey with their communities. The exception was Clear Sky’s colony, which he proved to be a poor leader of and was eventually driven out before the colony disbanded and either joined up with the others or left for other areas. 

With the unusual, regimented structure, there came a very faint sense of ranks within the colonies: the leader, the deputy, and queens, with the average member not belonging to any of these and being unnamed in their position. Queens were given special treatment and their own dens to have their children, and they had prey delivered to them while they raised the next generation. 

As time went on and the colonies grew strong, healthy and well-fed, their members’ confidence were boosted. Old grudges resurfaced and the borders that were put in place to help hunting became places to defend or skirmish to settle arguments. Fights broke out, even with the leaders attempting to resolve disputes peacefully. Worse, these fights escalated as more cats joined their new friends to defend their pride or help with revenge. Things got worse and more vicious, until several very young cats got caught in a large battle they had nothing to do with and were killed.

This was the breaking point. Queens across the territories campaigned for a law to be set in place for the protection of their kits, while the more peaceful members encouraged rules of their own to prevent these unnecessary fights. The leaders got together and devised a burgeoning code that every cat was expected to follow if they wanted to stay in their home. 

The first of these was making a new rank for cats that were too young to be acceptably attacked, with a suffix to their name, -kit, which was taken away once they were older. These cats were under six months old, and were absolutely forbidden to be hurt or killed. Those that aged out of it were still in danger, until Brawn’s deputy, Ember, started teaching them to hunt and fight to protect themselves. The rest of the colonies, now under the name of “Clans”, immediately borrowed this idea. Soon after came the next rank of apprentice, and the suffix of -kit was changed to -paw. 

At the time, suffixes were reserved for the young, but the leader of the river Clan, now called River Ripple to give respect to his territory, took his group’s original two-part naming system and awarded apprentices for making it to adulthood with their own individual suffixes. This, too, very quickly became popular with everyone else. 

More changes were made over time - elder as a rank being added, religion and seers blossoming into things of great value, more additions to the code, the Clans being properly named, and so on - but these came to be more gradually. For now, at least, the wild and fast alteration of the forest from a place of chaos and disorder to a variety of territories with law-abiding Clans had been completed. From there, things have only gotten better.

[theramseyloft]

I revere pigeons. Their care and history is my special interest and they occupy my mind almost all the time. The knowledge that someone is deliberately hurting and neglecting ones they've stolen from caring, safer environments and people that were concerned for their wellbeing has me crying. Imagine being so empty as a person, to go so far as to injure a pigeon for imaginary internet points and attention.

I have been trying to work up the energy to write a post about this for weeks.

Christmas eve of 2018, my business page was contacted by some one looking for birds. 

In January 2019, he let slip that he was a minor, and that his parents were adamantly opposed to him having birds.

Minors whose parents are not fully supportive of their choice of pet are a hard no in my screening process. He kept asking questions as if preparing to care for birds he expected me to sell or adopt to him, and every time, I would ask to speak to his legal guardian. He did everything he could, from telling me his mom would call me later, to eventually calling my personal phone in the middle of the night to try and coerce me into sneaking him birds under the cover of darkness. I got to the point where I would only answer his questions about available birds with "Have your legal guardian ask me." About this time, Palomacy's head, Elizabeth, came to me privately to warn me not to adopt to him. I know she thinks breeders will do anything for a sale, but my screening process for babies I have hatched is every bit as strict as my screening process for rescues. I told her I had no plans to. But confessed that I’d had a troubled history of using rescue as a coping mechanism for an abusive home situation when I was in college, and felt obligated to mentor him. I was also taken in by the charming 'enthusiastic teen who really wants to learn' facade that he's so artfully developed. So, when he used a different name to get into the Small Scale Rescue and House Pet/Therapy pigeon discord servers, and let slip who he was by accident, I was content to let him stay, hoping that the information we share would help him develop into a better care taker. But more and more red flags started popping up.

One pigeon’s bare neck, claimed to have been a wonky molt, but inflamed and bristling with filoplumes (The avian equivalent of whiskers;thin hair like feathers that also fall out during that heavy a molt)

The same bird claimed to have eaten playdough and thrown it up, in a photo with a cage full of green, moldy poop. (Where did the bird get playdough? Why was it allowed to get far enough to swallow it?)

The same bird claimed to have coins and chunks of carrot pulled out of his crop (things a pigeon can’t physically swallow unaided)

In every progressive photo, the feathers are thinner and more bedraggled and the bird himself was losing weight.

That pigeon mysteriously vanished, only got him to get two more, and mention nonchallantly after the fact that “Oh, puff died last week.”

His new pet pigeons, who supposedly lived in their own room in his house, got out while he was moving a couch.

He got, and promptly lost two other rescue birds from the rescue I posted about late in the summer that was shut down by her city and urgently needed homes for their birds.

When told Great Lakes Pigeon Rescue was going to be warned about adopting to him, this is what he posted on my education server:

He had his eye on a bird of mine (Frito), talking him down like he was undesirable or unadoptable, and reasoning that I’d have a hard time finding a home for him because of his bad personality.

Frito washed from therapy training due to INTENSE dislike of his harness.

That, and that he had developed a strong independent streak and prefered the company of other birds to people were the first things I told Brysen when he asked after that specific bird.

In one channel of the server, he would be talking to me about how he didn’t mind Frito just being a pretty house bird and would be ok if he never warmed up to being handled...

While, in another, he would be posting harnesses, asking if they would work for Frito, and asking other residents how to make an independent bird get used to being handled.

When I called him on it, he came into my DMs with this mess:

(The turn around in tone in the 12 hours I was too angry to respond is almost funny..)

Remember that rescue from earlier?

These are screenshots of her conversation with him (used with permission) about the birds that were lost, sent to the person in charge of Palomacy, where he was an active member on their platform at the time, to warn that he was preying on rescues to get more birds:

This conversation clearly illustrates that he was using us and Palomacy only to adapt the way he preys on rescues.

There is a reason he preys on rescues. We are hopeful for people to improve. So he expects infinite chances from us. And he expects that a correctly worded apology will erase any consequences. He preys on pigeons because there are no laws in the US concerning their welfare. Despite being domestic animals (the pigeons brought by Europeans to North America had been domesticated for thousands of years, and there were no natives of the same species or even in the Columba genus to mix back with); Pigeons are under the jurisdiction of the Department of Natural Resources, which governs wildlife, and legally classifies them as an invasive pest. The Department of Agriculture is the one that presides over domestic animals and investigates animal cruelty. They may only act for the welfare of pigeons under the specific circumstance of the pigeons in question being meat breeds bred for squab intended for human consumption via restaurants. In any other instance, killing a pigeon by any means, including torture, is legally equivalent to pest control. There are no legal consequences for it.

After I blocked and banned him, it came to light through several sources in personal contact with him that he maimed, killed, and discarded 25 birds that we know of, and he is still trying to get more.

Several people who denied him birds shared screen shots with us proving that they were also sexually harassed and threatened with sexual violence by him.

Several of the people who came to us told us that they had also tried to warn Palomacy, but their comments were immediately erased.

Brysen was allowed to continue to speak openly on their platform with no consequences, allowing him to truthfully say that he was being mentored by Palomacy to lull smaller rescues into a false sense of security and convince them to give him birds.

They had two articles on their website about what a wonderful young rescuer he was, only taken down after they tried to claim I had doxxed an innocent child, and it was pointed out to them that their public articles had his full current address, date and place of birth, and a photo of him in front of his house. I had beef enough with the organization before this that I will not go into on this post, but I am disgusted by the way Elizabeth silenced her own admins and community members from warning other rescues and individuals and tried to shut the rescue up who sent the above screen shots when she came forward about the birds he tricked her into bringing to Ga who were immediately killed. And then blamed her for their deaths. @tutu.pigeon brought me those screen shots the day after I banned him and one of my server mods took it upon themself to be a voice for his other victims by creating the Instagram @exposing_helluva_duv What ever respect I might have had for Palomacy is permanently destroyed.

You cannot call yourself a rescue if you cover for a serial abuser, actively prevent his victims from warning the rest of their community, and then blame those victims for having been taken advantage of.

The harm that that, combined with everything else I have beef with, has done so out weighs any good that I can no longer, in good conscience, attempt to put aside our differences and meet in the middle.

I’m not gonna waste the energy to start any shit, and I don’t think any one else should either. 

But I’m done trying to be any degree of supportive to them.

Gonna put my energy into encouraging more small shelters so there are better options.

[xsvcrilege]

                      ❝ I invite you to contemplate how insignificant I find you . ❞

                𝑐𝘩𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟⧸𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑒 :  alara   »   hybrid   »   melisa asli pamuk  .

❛❛   aesthetic.  ❜❜   ―   ◜   ❏  . ―  a  midsummer  night’s  dream ,  she  was  truly  a  puzzle ;  but  god  help  anyone  who  mistook  her  for  a  game ,  piano  music  at  the  end  of  an  empty  hall , cracks  and  damage  on  an  ornate  statue. ―  triggers :  death tw , illness tw .

🇦​🇵​🇵​🇱​🇮​🇨​🇦​🇹​🇮​🇴​🇳 »

―   ◜   ❏  . ―  * ⠀ &.  *  melisa asli pamuk : cis female : she/her : doin’ time by lana del rey  —  it seems alara has been roaming volterra. the 30/31 -year-old hybrid has been in the city for a day . whispers in volterra says they’ve never heard of anyone like them.   ―  *

🇧​🇦​🇸​🇮​🇨​🇸 »

full name :  alara .

age :  30 / 31 .

date of birth : september 21st .

occupation : museum curator / auction house owner .

species :  hybrid .

language(s) spoken :  english  ,  turkish  ,  russian  ,  spanish  ,  french  ,  italian .

hair color :  brunette .

eye color : brown .

notable scars :  n/a .

🇮​🇳​🇹​🇪​🇷​🇮​🇴​🇷​»

ability :  telekinesis + zoopathy  | the user can move, manipulate or otherwise interact with objects/matter without physical means . +  the  power to read the minds of and communicate or manipulate animals . 

positive :  witty  ,  resourceful .

negative :  callous  ,  unpredictable .

moral alignment :  chaotic neutral .

hogwarts house :  ravenclaw .

deadly sin :  lust + greed .

🇫​🇦​🇻​🇴​🇷​🇮​🇹​🇪​🇸​ »

book : game of thrones .

movie :  documentaries .

food :  human blood .

flower :  orchids .

season :  fall  .

🇫​🇦​🇲​🇮​🇱​🇾​​ »

father :  unknown .

mother :  unknown .

mate :  wanted connection .

🇧​​🇮🇴​​ »

—  not much is known about alara. if you asked her, she would simply tell you that  she was left found in the kayaköy village besides her mother’s dead body ,  where many believed this village haunted by jinns and people refused to settle . 

—   alara’s cries were heard for two days before, a farmer, mustafa, decided to investigate. Finding the child, for a moment he hesitated before picking her up and taking her home to his wife, eda. As old as they were, the couple never had any children as much as they tried and knowing how the those in the small town would react in finding the baby in haunted village, those who believed in superstitious (which is more than half of the small town), would be wary of her. So they decided to keep her. 

—   Naming her alara, the elderly couple became quite attached to the hybrid . Of course, it went without saying their surprise and when the small girl started to grow up rather too quickly . on top of it finding the small girl drinking the blood of the slaughtered animals they would kill for food . mustafa dived into researching of anything that could help them, nothing came to him . was this some sort of demon or something other wordly .  They were never fearful of her though, it only just made them more protective of alara .

— Growing up they encouraged alara to be herself only when she was in the farm. Never allowed to use her powers out of their home . they kept her isolated and secluded . home schooled . yet as the years passed, alara learned more and more about her powers and herself , secretly feeding on human rather than animal .  alara would help around the farm and pretty much knew how to tend to it by the time she was 13 .

—   Although it would be a couple of months later that alara’s peaceful life would take a turn when eda’s drunken younger brother would come and demand for them to hide him . running from loan sharks he had double crossed and stolen from . Yet the very next day he was found and mustafa and eda caught in the crossfire when eda’s brother refused to tell them anything . Alara woke up to the commotion and witnessed eda on the ground already dead and mustafa beaten up , his heart barely beating  .  Eda’s brother immediately trying to sell alara off to them but before any of the thugs made a move they were already dead by her hands .   .

— she looked over eda who was kind to her and mustafa’s who’s heart gave in minutes ago . While she didn’t cry over them , she knew she would miss the home they made for her . the love and care they had . Washing off the blood and giving them a proper burial , alara left the farm that had been her safe bubble and decided to explore what the rest of the world had to offer . 

—    wandering about towns after town , when she ended up in france , the sickly daughter of a museum manager , Madeline ,  took a linking to her and befriended alara . whether it was luck or fate , alara had a fondness of the past and learning about it . her friend’s father taking a liking to alara who made his daughter happy decided to take her in once he had learned alara was sleeping in the streets .  alara was mostly taken in as a companion to his daughter but saw her absorbing knowledge like no other he had become fond of her . while alara was content with having a nice place to be and clothed . 

—   being sent to school with madeline, the two became inseparable . she loved alara’s indifferent nature and although at times madeline wished for alara to express herself or know what she is really feeling , madeline loved her all the same . Alara becoming fond of the sickly human girl she was to eat on the first day they met . Of course , she knew her time would be up soon . 

—   when madeline passed at the ripe age of 19 . alara simply thought it was time to move on considering there was nothing for her there . That is when her father stopped alara from going and told her of madeline’s wish for alara to be always taken cared of . Despite her indifferent nature alara had her kind moments to people who she becomes fond of . madeline’s father also pleading alara not to leave.. 

—   living as a trust fund baby , in his death , madeline’s father left everything he had to alara by her 23rd birthday . Distant relatives angered over this but had no right to contest the will as he had left them all each one dollar for being greedy and only caring about the money they would get once he passed . 

—    alara went on with her life . while she had no need to work , alara would go on to work a museum curator and a successful owner of an action house . 

—  her reasoning for being in volterra is due to the fact that she was needed at one of the museums . funny enough as fate would have it , during this time vampires from all over are coming into town as well .

[appleflavoredkitkats]

dream smp war 2 updates

doing a second chain post! i thought it would be appropriate if i did since it seems like there’s a new era of wars coming our way. 

(this post will keep updating by reblogged additions, so feel free to save this post somewhere or follow me to check for new updates every now and then!)

and ya’know, i thought wouldn’t be able to do this, but i realize that where else am i gonna infodump but here? so yea. here i go again.

(if you wanna check the first dream smp war post-war updates, it’s here!)

without further ado, time to explain whatever the heck just happened last stream! timeline of events might be funky because a lot of things happened, but i’ll try my best to at least mention everything that went down in the streams.

wilbur, tommy, tubbo, eret, quackity, and a confused hbomb’s stream - september 22

summary: schlatt and quackity win presidency, tommy and wilbur are exiled, some friends have become traitors, some foes have become allies, and technoblade joins the game.

the first streams that came from this honestly were very calm. legit the calm before the storm. tubbo was hanging out with niki, eret, and hbomb and eret reveals to tubbo that his first pufferfish that was stolen by fundy was actually in eret’s possession all along. eret gladly returns the beloved pufferfish to tubbo, and they rename it back to it’s original name “phukkit”.

then, everyone begins going in the server as each campaign stands on the podium waiting for the event to begin. wilbur, tommy, and tubbo first stray away from the group for a bit to watch l’manberg one last time. tubbo introduces to them his secret bunker in the lake for them to seek refuge just in case pog2020 loses. inside the bunker’s chests are some freshly brewed potions for wilbur and tommy to use in the future.

tubbo then brings tommy to the benches outside tommy’s little house and they play one more music disc together. here, tubbo gifts tommy the pufferfish he just gained earlier today, and tommy promised to treasure it dearly.

now, the event begins, and wilbur begins announcing the results. luckily, everyone is here this time. in last place is coconut2020. a funny thing about this is that fundy actually committed tax fraud and got around 100,000+ votes to be counted in the google form just from coding some bot to vote for them. in third place is schlatt, in second is quackity, and pog2020 wins the number one vote.

here’s where the plot twist happens: quackity and schlatt apparently agreed to combine their votes if pog2020 doesn’t win. therefore, quackity and schlatt got 47% of the votes as pog only got 46%, making schlatt and quackity the shared president of l’manberg. tommy protests to these decisions, but wilbur accepts it with ease, and the two merely step down the podium in shame as they watch schlatt take a speech.

schlatt went on full dictator mode-- the first decree he signed as president is to revoke wilbur and tommy’s presence in l’manberg, exiling them. tommy was confused at first before wilbur demanded him to run to the bunker. schlatt immediately conducts a search party for him, electing tubbo as his right hand man to personally hunt the two down. obviously, tubbo would do it hesitantly, and he doesn’t actually get to meet the two in the bunker at all.

a lot of the nation was quite torn from the election results. quackity and george seem to be supportive of schlatt, niki, tubbo, and eret seem to despise schlatt, and fundy and jack seem to just blindly support him as well despite being l’manbergians. punz, ponk, and hbomb were there as well, but it was quite difficult to know who they were siding with since they kinda just got pushed around by everyone at the end.

using invisibility potions, wilbur and tommy escape the bunker to go somewhere in the forest to find their new home. they find a nice hill to make a small house in, and they later name this new nation “pogtopia”. they run into some conflicts though as wilbur and tommy forget to bring an enderchest with them, and they need some of the materials in them now if they want to build up a defense.

and then, in the middle of nowhere, techno tweeted:

wilbur claims he doesn’t want to trust techno right away because he was american, but they do consider having him as an ally later on.

firstly, let’s get back to l’manberg. upon schlatt’s request, the walls of l’manberg are being torn down. i heard somewhere that this might’ve been done thanks to fundy’s suggestion, but i’m not sure. everyone complies, and wilbur and tommy visit l’manberg one last time before it gets taken apart. as they watch fundy and tubbo tear down the wall, wilbur sings the l’manbergs national anthem. (the wall also eventually gets expanded past l’manberg, but i’m not sure how far they’ve built it)

speaking of fundy, fundy’s kind of in a weird place right now. he seems to unhesitantly side with schlatt in this election, and allows his policies easily as if he didn’t care about anyone else in l’manberg. knowing this, wilbur actually disowns fundy. it wasn’t in front of him, but he does say that he is extremely hurt by him in front of techno and tommy.

before i talk about the rescue of techno, we gotta go back to quackity and schlatt for a bit. quackity actually caught tommy visiting his place to get an enderchest, but i believe he doesn’t tell schlatt about it. quackity is quite interesting because while he does believe in some of the policies schlatt believes in, he also believes that schlatt is taking this dictatorship too far. even he thought exiling tommy and wilbur was a big deal, and he aims to be the voice of reason to be able to change schlatt’s mind about his policies. moreover, he wants to discuss matters with tommy and wilbur as well to get on their side too, but wilbur doesn’t wanna talk to quackity because, fourth wall break, he believes they’re progressing far into the story too much if they do, and honestly, valid reason lmao.

do note that quackity is trying his best to tear down schlatt’s evil dictatorship. he’s secretly been advocating for niki and is helping her escape schlatt’s grasp when she needs it, and he eventually talked to schlatt near the end of the stream to be more mindful of quackity’s opinions because without him, schlatt wouldn’t have won. there’s some toxic relationship plot device being used here between schlatt and quackity, and i’m interested to see how this will all play out.

back to tommy and wilbur, they call techno and actually consider his help. tommy says he will run back to spawn and tell him when to join so that he can bring him to their secret base. eret tries to help them and supply them with goods, but tommy and wilbur refuses his help profusely. finally, when tommy reaches spawn, techno joins, and my god, all the three streams i watched just went “TECHNOBLADE????” all at once. 

on schlatt’s end, he claims that techno’s arrival was part of schlatt’s plan all this time. on the other hand, techno claims he’s only here for wilbur and tommy. i fully believe techno would be with wilbur and tommy, but of course, i can never be sure. just don’t discount the possibility of a traitor!techno happening sometime soon.

even if ponk tried to kill techno and tommy as they tried to escape, tommy was able to kill ponk before techno got hurt. they eventually arrived to pogtopia, and there, wilbur declares that he will be a different man from what they know of him pre-election. i’m thinking there’s going to be more violence surrounding the war, and also some strategic planning. they want to get tubbo as a secret agent for them to tear schlatt and quackity apart, eventually leading to the downfall of the dictatorship. niki might also be someone crucial here because she and wilbur have been exchanging messages secretly, so there’s going to be some niki action too.

then, schlatt makes another announcement. after the walls have been torn down, he declares l’manberg gets a new name-- manberg. niki protests, and wilbur and tommy and rightfully disgusted, but schlatt wasn’t going to do anything about it.

everyone in pogtopia, before they can stack up on some resources, have to go back to the dream smp because they comedically have to get a visa for one day for when ninja joins the minecraft server. they were greeted peacefully (and techno steals some potatoes!!!), and it was definitely fun to see so many people in the server all at once. evetually, schlatt does grant them the visa, and they leave. they talk to tubbo one last time, and tubbo warns them about techno being allegedly “paid” by schlatt to betray tommy and wilbur. tommy regards it for now, but after that, they leave to return to pogtopia.

in pogtopia, they begin mining for resources. in the ravine they found below their base, tommy found a strip mine that leads EXACTLY BACK to his bunker. this will be used for a secret passage for them just in case they discreetly want to return to the dream smp.

this is kinda where the main plot stuff ends for wilbur and tommy’s streams, but in eret’s stream, apparently he and bad found pogtopia. they find techno silently, gifting him with potatoes, and leaving promptly after.

on quackity’s end, he’s really trying to convince schlatt to become more open-minded about this entire presidency. there’s some real tension going on between these two, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if they break it off for quackity to join pogtopia. it really seems like they’re hinting it to become that way.

now, it seems like everything’s done, but nope. on eret’s stream, fundy single handedly burned down the l’manberg flag that niki built. FUNDY BETRAYAL AND ERET REDEMPTION ARC. niki is LIVID at fundy, but she wasn’t able to talk to him as he left the server immediately. we don’t know what fundy’s true intentions are, but it’s assumed that he’s siding with schlatt for now. eret at least tells niki they’ll try to rebuild it with concrete so it can’t be destroyed.

JUST AS ALL THIS SHIT CONCLUDES, SAPNAP JOINS. he only joins so he can catch up with everything he missed. eret and niki explain everything to him, and sapnap says he will have to talk to dream about this. he then leaves afterwards.

conclusion: BE HYPED. BE HYPED FOR PLOT. SHOW YOUR APPRECIATION TO THE ENTIRETY OF THE DREAM SMP FOR THIS AMAZING PLOT. DON’T SEND THEM HATE; MAKE CONTENT FOR IT INSTEAD. these people probably worked hard improv-ing/making plots for these, so show your love and appreciation for them!!!!!

[andromedasstarship]

faceless, nameless - the prologue

gif credit - @kylos 

pairing - kylo ren x reader 

warnings - canon-typical star wars violence, depictions of death/violence, fighting (verbal + physical), loosely implied physical intimacy (really up for interpretation here), angst, tension, implied mild love triangle, kylo ren betrays you 

summary - For four years, Kylo Ren considered you to be many things: his right hand, his confidant, an irreplaceable strategist, a friend and most importantly his equal. It all ended when he left you with a blaster shot to the stomach on a near deserted planet. On the brink of death, a rather dashing Resistance Pilot stumbled upon you, saving your life.  

Donning a mask to hide your identity, you’ve grown to become the most fearsome Resistance fighter they have; bewildering the First Order as to how you always seem to ruin their plans and avoid capture. Kylo Ren is a different man from when he left you two years ago, so how will he react when he accidentally finds you alive and well in Poe’s memories?

masterlist // series masterlist // read it on ao3 here 

next chapter 

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the prologue - the sun 

On Starkiller Base, there were plenty of rumors as to why Kylo Ren kept you around. Some said it was because of your extensive training in hundreds of different languages, both spoken and signed. Others were sure it was due to your diplomatic upbringing that came with countless connections and near endless wealth. Or, maybe it was due to your more than adequate ability in battle that served him the most. Even some people thought you were a kept woman, who only existed as a way for Kylo Ren to blow off steam behind closed doors. Your favorite rumor was that you were actually a high-ranking Resistance spy who was tasked with infiltrating the First Order at the highest level and that Kylo Ren had become weak because of you. Had it not made you laugh so much the first time you heard it, Kylo would’ve crushed the windpipe of the lowly officer who created the elaborate lie. 

Of course, there were some truths in all the rumors, but none of them exciting. You were in fact trained in hundreds of languages and that training was a product of your diplomatic upbringing. You were exceptionally trained in various forms of combat, but that was something that came after you met Kylo; he had always been afraid of you not being able to properly defend yourself. You were most certainly not a kept woman, not that you and Kylo weren’t intimate, but certainly not in the type of dynamic people thought. You absolutely were not a Resistance spy, but even though neither of you said it aloud, Kylo Ren was definitely weak for you. 

How it actually happened is quite boring. The two of you met when Kylo had just turned 24, still more Ben Solo than Kylo Ren. You were recently 23 at the time, head of a diplomatic welcoming committee that met with Kylo as part of his first official diplomatic endeavor as ‘Kylo Ren’ the soon to be Commander of the entire First Order. He quickly became enamored with you and the way you commanded a team full of older men who clearly didn’t approve of your position- whether it was due to your age or gender he didn’t know- but still treated you with respect; in short, you radiated a confidence and power he desired. For you, it was quite the opposite, Kylo Ren still wasn’t sure of himself and at times still acted like the awkward lanky Jedi boy who had never spoken to a girl outside of school purposes. He was a fresh and welcomed change from all the annoyingly rich and cocky men you met with on a daily basis. 

Him and his team stayed on your home planet for nearly three months. Countless delegates from various planets flocked there for balls, meetings, conferences, and more. Your connections ran deep and you directly aided in the First Order’s successes during those three months. For the first few weeks, you and Kylo skirted around the obvious pull between the two of you. He wasn’t exactly sure how to ‘woo’ a girl, nor was he even sure if he was allowed to. His lack of action caused you to regularly doubt if he also felt the spark, or if it was completely one sided on your end. Weeks of longing gazes and accidental brushes of fingertips finally came to an end when the two of you were sitting on your private balcony, overlooking the well kept grounds, discussing the conference that had just ended. It was a roaring success for your planet as well as the First Order, both of you securing mining resources at an exceptional locked rate for a minimum of fifty basic years. You made the first move, he was irresistible under the moonlight, closing the space between you on your bench and pressing your lips directly on his. In his hesitation you thought you had completely misread the past month, but it was only a moment later that his hands found purchase in your hair, pulling you closer. The two of you were nearly inseparable for the rest of his trip. 

It was difficult, when he finally had to return to his new master and some massive ship that would be lightyears away from you. Unspoken promises were made the night before he left, declarations of love and devotion made behind closed doors. He was still far from truly becoming Kylo Ren, had copious amounts of training to finish before he would see himself be fitting for someone like you. If he was nothing else, Kylo was desperate for loyalty and when you watched his ship leave you had no doubts he would come back. 

And he did, nearly an entire standard year later. You almost didn’t recognize him when he stepped off his personal ship. All broad shoulders and shrouded in layers of black, with that intimidating mask covering his face. He was proving to be quite the warrior, the tales of him and the Knights he commanded reaching the farest edges of the galaxy. When the welcoming festivities had ended and he removed his mask in the privacy of your room, you found a mature face that had lost the softness you once knew. It was no matter to you, flinging yourself into his arms and vowing to never let go. 

This time, when he left, you went with him of course. Kylo had been shocked when Snoke approved it, but Snoke, ever the manipulator, knew the growing attachment between the two of you would inevitably prove to be valuable in controlling Kylo Ren. 

Moving into a giant spaceship wasn’t easy for you. The dark, cold and everlasting expanse of space was a sharp contrast to your warm ocean planet. You missed the sun on your face and your people, but when you vowed to never let him go, you meant it. As time went on, you grew accustomed to the ship and then eventually Starkiller- which was an entirely different battle, that piece of ice had you complaining for months-, and soon enough you couldn’t imagine a life not in space. 

Most of your days were monotonous, not that you minded. From the first day you stepped foot onto base, Kylo began training you himself. He never wanted you to feel as hopeless and afraid as he did when he woke up to his uncle ready to kill him in his sleep. So he trained you, and he trained you hard. You could wield a lightsaber well enough, as he argued that should anything ever happen to him- a thought you hated entertaining-, his saber would be the best weapon you had available. You were smaller than him, so close combat was a challenge but you learned to use your size and agility as an advantage. What you specialized in, was the staff. It allowed you to give a larger opponent at a safe range until it was possible to take them down. Kylo had a special one created just for you, with double edged electrical ends that you could easily turn on or off. It was rare that he actually let you on a battlefield with him, but when he did you were unstoppable. Not that you minded, you quite enjoyed working behind the scenes, forming battle plans and leading diplomatic endeavors for the First Order. 

Other than Snoke, no one out ranked you, not even Ren; a fact he had been extremely particular about after a visiting diplomat made the excuse of outright ignoring and belittling your presence in a meeting. You were equals in everything, even going as far as taking on the ‘Ren’ moniker. 

Among First Order subordinates, you were fairly well liked, and not just because it was unspoken that anyone who thought badly of you would probably die at Ren’s hand. The people actually liked you. Ren was cold, you were warm. When he was sharp, you were soft. It worked well, his ability to command troops and fuel the fires of war was complimented perfectly by your ability to talk nearly anyone to your side. 

You never wavered in your support for him, ever loyal by his side no matter what he did or who he killed or how many villages he burned to the ground. You stood next to him, never behind, when new planets presented themselves as potential allies. You watched from above when he burned villages, that dared aid the Resistance, to the ground. You cleaned and healed every single wound he received from Snoke’s brutal training. You held him together when the pull to the light made him feel weak and undeserving. 

Anyone could see that you were the sun that Kylo Ren revolved around.  

So, when he came back to Starkiller on that fateful day, covered in blood- your blood-, announcing that you were dead- and he was the one who killed you-, and that your name was never to be uttered on his base or by any First Order subordinate ever again, no one knew what to do. 

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 a/n - hi!!! im so excited for this story, ive never written star wars before and my lore knowledge isnt the best ill admit, so please excuse any minor bits of pieces i may get wrong! comments/likes/reblogs always appreciated. if you wanna be added to the taglist, just ask and ill make one! :D 

no permission is given to copy or republish my writing on any other platform or account. if you see this story outside of my blog or my ao3 it is stolen work. i do not own nor claim to own star wars or any of the character involved in it.