#world building june 17

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The unexpected upside of global monopoly capitalism

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TODAY (Apr 10) at UCLA, then Chicago (Apr 17), Torino (Apr 21) Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

Here's a silver lining to global monopoly capitalism: it means we're all fighting the same enemy, who is using the same tactics everywhere. The same coordination tools that allow corporations to extend their tendrils to every corner of the Earth allows regulators and labor organizers to coordinate their resistance.

That's a lesson Mercedes is learning. In 2023, Germany's Supply Chain Act went into effect, which bans large corporations with a German presence from using child labor, violating health and safety standards, and (critically) interfering with union organizers:

https://www.bafa.de/EN/Supply_Chain_Act/Overview/overview_node.html

Across the ocean, in the USA, Mercedes has a preference for building its cars in the American South, the so-called "right to work" states where US labor law is routinely flouted and unions are thin on the ground. As The American Prospect's Harold Meyerson writes, the only non-union Mercedes factories in the world are in the US:

https://prospect.org/labor/2024-04-08-american-workers-german-law-uaw-unions/

But American workers – especially southern workers – are on an organizing tear, unionizing their workplaces at a rate not seen in generations. Their unprecedented success is down to their commitment, solidarity and shrewd tactics – all buoyed by a refreshingly pro-worker NLRB, who have workers' backs in ways also not seen since the Carter administration:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/14/prop-22-never-again/#norms-code-laws-markets

Workers at Mercedes' factory in Vance, Alabama are trying to join the UAW, and Mercedes is playing dirty, using the tried-and-true union-busting tactics that have held workplace democracy at bay for decades. The UAW has lodged a complaint with the NLRB, naturally:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/alabama-mercedes-benz

But the UAW has also filed a complaint with BAFA, the German regulator in charge of the Supply Chain Act, seeking penalties against Mercedes-Benz Group AG:

https://uaw.org/uaw-files-charges-in-germany-against-mercedes-benz-companys-anti-union-campaign-against-u-s-autoworkers-violates-new-german-law-on-global-supply-chain-practices/

That's a huge deal, because the German Supply Chain Act goes hard. If Mercedes is convicted of union-busting in Alabama, its German parent-company faces a fine of 2% of its global total revenue, and will no longer be eligible to sell products to the German government. Chomp.

Now, the German Supply Chain Act is new, and this is the first petition filed by a non-German union with BAFA, so it's not a slam dunk. But supermajorities of Mercedes workers at the Alabama factory have signed UAW cards, and the election is going to happen in May or June. And the UAW – under new leadership, thanks to a revolution that overthrew the corrupt old guard – has its sights set on all the auto-makers in the American south.

As Meyerson writes, the south is America's onshore offshore, a regulatory haven where corporations pay minimal or no tax and are free to abuse their workers, pollute, and corrupt local governments with a free hand (no wonder American industry is flocking to these states). Meyerson: "The economic impact of unionizing the South, in other words, could almost be placed in the same category as reshoring work that had gone to China."

The German Supply Chain Act was passed with the help of Germany's powerful labor unions, in an act of solidarity with workers employed by German companies all over the world. This is that unexpected benefit to globalism: the fact that Mercedes has extrusions into both the American and German political spheres means that both American and German workers can collaborate to bring it to heel.

The same is true for antitrust regulators. The multinational corporations that are in regulators' crosshairs in the US, the EU, the UK, Australia, Japan, South Korea and beyond use the same playbook in every country. That's doubly true of Big Tech companies, who literally run the same code – embodying the same illegal practices – on servers in every country.

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has led the pack on convening summits where antitrust enforcers from all over the world gather to compare notes and collaborate on enforcement strategies:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cma-data-technology-and-analytics-conference-2022-registration-308678625077

And the CMA's Digital Markets Unit – which boasts the the largest tech staff of any competition regulator in the world – produces detailed market studies that turn out to be roadmaps for other territories' enforces to follow – like this mobile market study:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/63f61bc0d3bf7f62e8c34a02/Mobile_Ecosystems_Final_Report_amended_2.pdf

Which was extensively referenced in the EU during the planning of the Digital Markets Act, and in the US Congress for similar legislation:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/2710

It also helped enforcers in Japan:

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/Japan-to-crack-down-on-Apple-and-Google-app-store-monopolies

And South Korea:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/skorea-considers-505-mln-fine-against-google-apple-over-app-market-practices-2023-10-06/

Just as Mercedes workers in Germany and the USA share a common enemy, allowing for coordinated action that takes advantage of vulnerable flanks wherever they are found, anti-monopoly enforcers are sharing notes, evidence, and tactics to strike at multinationals that are bigger than most countries – but not when those countries combine.

This is an unexpected upside to global monopolies: when we all share a common enemy, we've got endless opportunities for coordinated offenses and devastating pincer maneuvers.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/10/an-injury-to-one/#is-an-injury-to-all

[mydaddywiki]

Mike Kehoe

Physique: Average Build Height: 6′ 1″ (1.85 m)

Michael Leo Kehoe (born January 17, 1962) is an American politician. A Republican, he serves as the 48th lieutenant governor of Missouri, having been in office since June 18, 2018. Kehoe previously served in the Missouri Senate, representing the state's 6th senatorial district, and served as Majority Leader from 2015 to 2018. On June 18, 2018, Governor Mike Parson appointed Kehoe as Missouri's lieutenant governor. Both Parson and Kehoe were elected to a full term in 2020.

Ruggedly handsome, Kehoe reminds me of President Lyndon Johnson as he too carries that big dick energy.

Kehoe was born and raised in the St. Louis area by his single-parent mother. The youngest of six children, his father left the family when he was only one year old. At age 15, Mike started working at a dealership to , eventually becoming the New Truck Sales Manager at the age of 23. A couple of years later, he ended up buying a struggling company, Osage Industries, a van conversion and ambulance manufacturing company in Linn, Missouri. Over a five-year period, the company doubled in size and is now one of the largest ambulance manufacturers in the world.

After selling Osage Industries in 1992, he purchased an auto dealership in Jefferson City, Missouri, but sold it shortly after entering politics.

Mike and his wife, Claudia, are proud parents of four children. Lets see what else I can find out about him. Mike is a champion cutting horse rider and a successful cattle farmer on a 700 acre farm in Phelps and Pulaski Counties. Nice to know he's a champion in riding as that could translate to the bedroom.

[vvvvivi567890]

Chinese LoTM Gen Fic Recs (I)

| ★☆★☆★ | Part II >>>

(Last updated July. 31. 2024)

this is mostly to organize fics for myself, but after The Lofter Incident of Feb. 2024, i needed a place to link all the chapters instead of the first ones. theres probably gonna be multiple parts

(btw i recommend translating the whole page on google. safari mtl kinda sucks…)

compilation of compilation of fics

leoklein fic rec compilation

Klein-Centered:

What Is It Like to Be an Ancient Scholar by ninewater: 1, 2 (Last Updated: Dec. 05. 2019)

The World Wants a Hug by k70296

A Strange Dream by mhbdzty

(humor??? horror??) tbh im not sure what to make of this

A Miracle Invoker Falls From the Sky by jingjiangbushirousi: 1, 2 (END)

Angst, s2 Klein meets s9 Klein

Cats Have Nine Lives by kapuayi: 1, 2, 3 (Last Updated: Nov. 27. 2019)

Zhou Mingrui's Trial in the Brain by 2333567

When Gehrman Lost His Memories by jinyirendexiaojuchang

Nowhere to Escape in the World by ailikesitudou

Angst and minor leoklein (but can be interpreted as platonic tbh), Klein is suffering from the side effects of the death knell but he doesn't know what he's afraid of :)

Tarot Club:

He Will Sing in the Fire by juanao397: 1, 2, 3, 4 (END)

Klein is on the verge of losing control during his s1 promotion, the tarot club has to find Zhou Mingrui and wake him up

Mr. Fool Wants to Join the Chat by shanyoumuximuyouzhi798: 1, 2, 3, 4 (END)

Team building in the Hall of Truth

Does Mr. Fool Also Ask for Red Envelopes? by benguodeniunai: 1, 2 (END)

There is Such a Person by shasiajiplanbban

About Mr. Fool Losing Control of His Abilities After Waking Up by langduzhe023

The Meeting Before God Was Renamed as a Tea Party by hanpeiwen

Everyone Wants to Take Off My Vest by nenesis17

Tarot Club tries to wake up mr fool

I Know Mr. World's Secret by burklend160

Tarot Club boys (except for little sun) misunderstand some things about Mr. World

On the Way the Narrator Kills the Protagonist by fengbujuedai

Minor LeoKlein (but its mostly at the end if thats not your cup of tea), the Tarot Club's black history is exposed and Klein and Leonard's thoughts are read out loud

Everyone is Responsible for Persecuting Amon by oldsaltyfish

“So, Amon is the 'Angel of Time' who rings the bell of heaven for Mr. Fool?"

"No, He is the bell that is struck."

"?!!"

Welcome to the Doomsday Game by dblyb: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (Last Updated: June. 16. 2024)

In order to ensure that earth wont be bombed in the doomsday war, the outer gods and the gods have initially reached a consensus to conduct a proxy war

Mr. Fool Said I Never Want to Celebrate My Birthday Again by irelan0706: 1, (Last Updated: Mar. 04. 2024)

Mr. Fool's Private Meeting by yangmiemie47136

Truth or dare in the Hall of Truth

Moretti Family:

A Small Piece of Lemon Cake by steelknote17

Sweet Dreams are as Good as Ever by dblyb

When Melissa Has a Boyfriend by zizaifeihuaqingsimeng37251

Heaven Goes to the Left, Moretti Goes to the Right by xinjinjumin7785283

Dinners and the Morettis are not allowed to enter the kingdom of god

Returning Home by kapuayi: 1, 2, 3 (END)

Benson and Melissa meet a Klein who has lost his memories

Summer of Tingen by abyss734

Melissa center with OG Klein

Their Brother by aizhuangkudexiaocainiao: 1, 2, (Last Updated: Mar. 08. 2024)

Benson becomes a beyonder and Gehrman moves in next door

If Benson is a Cultist by dblyb: 1, (Last Updated: Mar. 17. 2024)

Blackthorn-Security Company:

I Saw Ghosts After Becoming a Miracle Invoker by dblyb: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (END)

Extra 1, 2, 3, 4 (END)

Klein meets the ghosts of the Tingen nighthawks

Seeka's Tea Party by forgetmenot

Seal Artifact 3-904 Observation Report by jingjiangbushirousi

Klein meets his future selves

Maritime Group:

The Tip of the Iceberg Emerges by wangyouwushang86832: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 (Last Updated: Jan. 20. 2024)

Gehrman loses his memories after Groselle's Travels

Let's Swap Sequences with the "Sea Team" by xiegui54376: 1 (Last Updated: Feb. 13. 2024)

Klein and Danitz swap pathways due to an artifact (s5 hunter Klein, s6 seer Danitz)

Others:

Hall of Truth Trio | The World has Nothing to Do With You by treebirdturn

Angst, post-apocalypse, everyone forgets Klein

Amon | The Great Philanthropist Mr. Amon by dblyb

"Adam gave me humanity" - Amon

Dunn | Dunn Swore to the Goddess that He Wasn't Cheating by langduzhe023: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (Last Updated: Apr. 11. 2022)

A resurrected Dunn meets Gehrman

Azik | God and Their Afternoon Tea Activities by mhbdzty

Post-apocalypse, naptime with Klein and Amanises

Danitz & Gehrman | How Long Does It Take to Become Gehrman by 2333567

Gehrman loses his memories for a day

Amanises | Suppose the Cat Disappears From the World by nenesis17

[hareofhrair]

Edith Finch Timeline

So I'm still organizing my theories (honestly they're more like a list of unanswered questions than a coherent theory right now) but I think my timeline is pretty much complete now that I've had a chance to go back through the pet cemetery and add all those in.

I do some wild speculating about Odin here that has no canon basis, just spinning ideas.

Things to notice- Just how many deaths happen on or very near birthdays. Not always the birthday of the person who dies and not every time, but suspiciously often.

The pets almost seem to fill in the years when no one human died? Like everything in this game it's nothing definitive enough to base a solid theory on, but it is odd.

TIMELINE

1439 - Earliest possible beginning of the Finch Family Curse based on the Odin viewmaster reel, as this is 500 years prior to the invention of the first viewmaster.

1445 - If the Odin viewmaster is the Model E made in 1955 (which I think it is), this is the start of the curse instead. Not much is happening in Norway during this period, but Vlad the Impaler was at the top of his game this year?

~About 7 generations of Finches dying horribly happens here.~

1880 - Odin is born. At some point between now and his death he writes "The Mysteries of Death and the Thereafter" and "Joining the Great Majority" which both appear to be books about the afterlife.

1896 - Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration begins with the Belgian Antarctic Expedition and won't end till after WWI. Expeditions are marked by depression, starvation, insanity and scurvy. Many famous expeditions are made by Norwegian teams. Odin is 16.

1911 - A Norwegian expedition is first to reach the South Pole. The British Scott expedition chasing the same goal are lost. Odin is 31.

28 July 1914 - WWI begins, Odin is 34. Norway, "The Neutral Ally", remains neutral on the war but due to economic pressure from Britain commits its merchant marine fleet (one of the largest in the world) to Britain's service. Half the fleet is sunk and 2000 seamen are killed. If Odin was a sailor, he likely served. Alternatively, he may have been one of the wealthy merchants who profited greatly during the war. He clearly has a great deal of money to burn by 1937.

June 17 1915 - Sven is born.

April 8, 1917 - Edie is born.

1935 - At some point between now and Dec 1937, Edie and Sven marry and Sven takes Edith's last name.

1936 - Ingeborg and her newborn Johann Finch die in an unknown manner. Odin is 56, Edie is 19, Sven is 17.

Jan 7 1937 - Odin sets sail for Washington.

Dec 1937 - Arrival on Orcas Island, death of Odin at 57. Molly is born, on the boat? In the Old House? Sven and Edie build the cemetery, and then the house.

1938 - Churpy the budgie joins the family.

1939 - Invention of the viewmaster, earliest point the Odin story could have been recorded.

Sep 1939 - Sep 1945 - WWII. Sven was 24, and may have served or been drafted.

1940 - Burpy the house finch joins the family.

1941 - Churpy dies.

1947 - Christopher the goldfish joins the family.

Oct 31 1947 - Halloween Baby Barbara

Sometime between 1937 and 1947 - Molly's unnamed gerbil joins the family.

Dec 13 1947 - Molly dies of apparent poisoning after eating mistletoe berries, on or very near her 10th bday. She relates hallucinating having become several animals, most notably a cat. Christopher the fish dies shortly after. The fate of her unnamed gerbil is unrecorded, as none of the unattributed headstones are of the right age, but presumably it dies eventually.

1948 - Burpy dies at 8.

April 25 1950 - Sam and Calvin are born.

Aug 26 1952 - Walter is born.

1952 - Lurpy the Cockatiel joins the family.

1955 - Viewmaster Model E released- If this is the one used for Odin's story, that puts the beginning of the curse at 1455.

1956 - Lucy the dog joins the family.

1959 - Bailey the (???) joins the family.

Oct 31 1960 - Barbara dies, allegedly murdered, on her 16th bday. Her boyfriend Rick disappears the same night. The version of her death shared in the game is notably extremely unreliable and raises numerous questions. Rick is seen in a leg cast using crutches. Walter is 8, Sam and Calvin are 10 and notably absent from reported events.

Sept 23 1961 - Calvin dies at 11 falling from a cliff. He is seen wearing a weathered and heavily autographed leg cast. His model shows him with a black eye and several cuts.

1962 - Zoe the (???) joins the family.

1963 - Lurpy dies at 11. (Cockatiels have a life expectancy of 20-25 years)

Aug 26 1964 - Sven dies on Walter's 12th bday, while making a dragon shaped slide. He's 49.

1968 - Walter enters the bunker. He's 16. Durpy the Dove joins the family.

May 7 1968 - Dawn is born.

1969 - Lucy the dog dies.

June 20 1969 - Gus is born.

1970 - Zoe dies

1971 - Purply the Budgie joins the family.

1974 - Coco the (???) joins the family.

Jan 12 1976 - Gregory is born

Dec 7 1977 - Kay files for divorce after arguing with Sam about the curse.

Dec 19 1977 - Gregory drowns in the bath a month before his 2nd bday

1978 - Shadow the cat joins the family.

1979 - Purply dies at 8.

1980 - Rob the Bearded Dragon joins the family. Bob the Snake joins the family.

1981 - Durpy dies at 13.

1982 - Oliver the rabbit joins the family.

Nov 8 1982 - Gus dies, crushed by debris from a storm during Sam's wedding to an unnamed woman.

July 16 1983 - Sam dies, kicked off a cliff by a deer. Dawn is 15.

1984 - Bob dies at 4.

1985 - Daisy the (???) joins the family.

1986-87 Dawn goes to India, meets Sanjay.

1988 - Shadow the cat dies.

Dec 27 1988 - Lewis is born. Furpy joins the family. Tucker the (???) joins the family

1989 - Oliver the rabbit dies.

1991 - Rob dies at 10. Furpy dies.

1992 - Zurpy the Owl joins the family.

May 19 1992 - Milton is born.

1993 - Charlie the cat joins the family. Daisy dies.

1994 - Durpy Jr the Dove joins the family.

1995 - Zurpy dies at 3. Schatzi the (???) joins the family.

Feb 14 1999 - Valentine's Baby Edith. Lowest tide in a thousand years allegedly allows Edie to access the Old House. At some point between now and Nov 2010, three unnamed gerbils join the family, and then die.

Feb 22 2002 - Sanjay dies in an earthquake, eight days after Edith's 3rd bday, Dawn and children return to Finch House. Dawn writes "To Teach and To Learn" at some point in the next few years. At some point between now and 2010, Dawn probably finds a stray cat and names it Molly.

Oct 23 2003 - Milton disappears.

Late 2003 to Early 2004 - Dawn searches for Milton, eventually gives up and seals the rooms for unknown reasons.

March 31 2005 - Walter leaves the bunker and dies, allegedly hit by a train. There are several strange inconsistencies surrounding the circumstances of his death.

2006 - Durpy Jr dies at 12.

2009 - Schatzi dies

Nov 21 2010 - Lewis dies of apparent suicide one month before his 22nd bday.

Nov 28 2010 - A week after Lewis's death, Dawn informs Edie they are leaving the house. After Edie attempts to give Edith a book containing a story about their family which Dawn violently rips away, Dawn flees the house with Edith immediately, leaving Edie and all her belongings behind.

(Molly the cat is not mentioned in regards to the move, so she may have died by this point, but she is not listed in the graveyard, so it's possible she was simply left behind. There is a taxidermy calico in Sam's room, but Sam was dead before Molly could reasonably have joined the family, so this is unlikely to be her. A cat is seen outside human Molly's room in 2016, which may prove she's still alive- but she'd be around 14 years old. An unlikely age for a cat abandoned outdoors for 7 years.)

Nov 29 2010 - Edie is found dead by nursing care workers, and may have killed herself by combining alcohol with her medication, intentionally or otherwise. She's 93, the only member of her family to live longer than her father, who died at 57.

Dec 5 2010 - The date on Edie's tombstone, a week after when she supposedly died.

May (around the 12-18th?) 2016 - Edith becomes pregnant.

Oct 12 2016 - Dawn dies of a chronic illness at 48. Edith is 16 and about 6 months pregnant.

Oct 13 - 19 2016 - Edith returns to the Finch House at 22 weeks pregnant.

Jan 18 2017 - Edith dies in childbirth a month before her 18th bday. Christopher is born (possibly named for Molly's goldfish?).

2027? - At some point in the future, a young Christopher returns to the house, which has changed since the last time it was seen. He is wearing a cast.

A note on unrecorded pets- There are additionally 5 (possibly 6?) unmarked pet graves in the cemetery. One of the blank stones presumably belongs to Rob the bearded dragon, who has a memorial in Edie's room but no gravestone. One is marked as a fish and another is a rabbit, with no names or dates. One is a knocked over and unreadable sign of the same kind used for the birds, indicating it may be an otherwise unrecorded bird. There is also a statue of a frog- the knocked over sign may instead refer to an unrecorded pet frog, or the frog statue might be a separate gravestone, or simply a decoration. This leaves one blank headstone with no indication of what might lie beneath it. Let's assume it's a mass grave for gerbils.

[panimoonchild]

Unpunished evil returns and grows stronger in its impunity

"13 houses in the residential area were damaged during the rocket attack, the houses have five floors. There is a very large number of broken windows, over 700. Seven humanitarian buildings were damaged," said Kateryna Yamshchikova, Secretary of the Poltava City Council, about the consequences of the missile attack in Poltava on June 17.

Utilities and rescuers are working at the site. They are trimming damaged trees and removing balcony structures. Social workers and psychologists are also assisting.

Also, Vadym Labas briefly explains why certain countries that arrived at the Global Peace Summit in Switzerland did not sign a joint declaration.

▪️ Saudi Arabia is a major hub for the transfer of components and units for Russian weapons, as well as a place of accumulation of billions of Russian money. ▪️ India - supplies units and components to Russia. It has joint military-industrial complex plants with Russia, from assault rifles to missiles. It is a hub for transshipment of Russian oil. ▪️ South Africa - everything is clear here: "Wagner", money and influence. ▪️ Thailand - supplies sanctioned products to Russia and also helps the Russian military-industrial complex with its production. For example, Russia could not produce cable products without Thailand. ▪️ Indonesia - supplies sanctioned products to Russia. ▪️ Mexico is a huge hub for the supply of drugs to Europe and Russian agents to the United States, which generates huge shadow earnings. ▪️ United Arab Emirates - helps to supply sanctioned products to Russia and has a lot of Russian money. ▪️ Armenia - has a huge Russian lobby and is one of the key players in the supply of smuggled military-industrial products to Russia.

All this brings super-profits either to these countries themselves or to influential clans in these countries. Therefore, they are quite satisfied with the current situation.

P.S.: these countries came to the Summit to "keep their finger on the pulse," but they are not interested in peace in Ukraine because they make super profits by helping Russia circumvent sanctions and supplying components. But if they were given a clear signal about the secondary sanctions that could be imposed for helping Russia, their "pulse rate" would increase significantly.

DPRK prepares for the arrival of the world's evil.

Now the most important news: The ratio of forces in the Pokrovsk sector is 1 to 7 in favor of the Russians, said a soldier of the 47th Brigade, pseudonym "Azimuth".

Photo: Approximate front line in the Pokrovsk sector/DeepStateMap.

The Russians are pressing near the villages of Novoselivka Persha, Sokil, and Novopokrovske, trying to reach the Pokrovsk-Konstantynivka highway.

Don't be indifferent. Make Russia pay. Please hear our cry out to the world, keep spreading our voices, and donate to our army and combat medics (savelife.in.ua, prytulafoundation.org, Serhii Sternenko, hospitallers.life, ptahy.vidchui.org, and u24.gov.ua).

[wyvernquill]

Dreamling + Queen’s Who Wants To Live Forever

(Image ID under the cut)

[Image ID:

A 17-panel Dreamling (Hob Gadling/Dream of the Endless from The Sandman) comic featuring the lyrics of the Queen song “Who Wants To Live Forever”. After the panel number, the referenced lyric will follow, and then description of the panel.

Panel 1: “There’s no time for us”, with “time” in all caps. The panel shows a piece of parchment in grayscale, with a date written on it: 7. June 1689, but with the 1 and 6 blotted out by an ink splatter.

Panel 2: “There’s no place for us”, with “place” in all caps. The panel (still in greyscale) shows Dream standing outside a barrier in front of the dilapidated shut-down White Horse tavern.

Panel 3: “What is this thing that builds our dreams, yet slips away from us…”, with “dreams” and “away” in all caps. The panel (in greyscale except for the red ruby at Dream’s neck) shows Dream in the foreground, walking towards the viewer, as Hob calls after him in the background - it references their falling-out in 1889.

Panel 4: “Who wants to live forever”, repeated once, with “forever” in all caps. In the foreground, Dream and Death stand, turned away from the viewer and looking at Hob in the middle of the panel, who is sitting and drinking with a mug of beer in his hand - the 1389 scene. A warm brown glow emanates from Hob. The words are arranged in a circle around him.

Panel 5: “There’s no chance for us”, with “chance” in all caps. A greyscale panel of Hob sitting and waiting in 1989, smoking and drinking. He is sitting on the left of the panel, the background going from white to grey towards the text on the very right.

Panel 6: “It’s all decided for us”, with “decided” in all caps. A greyscale panel of Dream sitting in the glass prison. He is situated at the right of the panel, the background going from black to grey towards the text on the very left.

Panel 7: “This world has only one sweet moment set aside for us”, with “one sweet moment” in all caps. The panel’s background is black, with a light source at the top right corner. On the very bottom of the panel lies Jessamy the raven, dead, in a pool of blood - though she is drawn in an almost ghostly-glowing way four more times on the panel, showing her as she takes flight and flies off towards the light source. The text creates a sort of helix shape with her flight path, leading back down to her corpse.

Panel 8: “Who wants to live forever,” repeated once, with the second “forever” in all caps. The 1589 scene, in greyscale except for the red of the ruby, Hob telling Dream cheerfully of his life, arms spread out in satisfaction while Dream looks on doubtfully.

Panel 9: “Who dares to love forever, when love must die” with the first “love” and “die” in all caps. The greyscale panel is split diagonally, half of the text in the top left, the other half in the bottom right. The split passes through the miniature painting of Eleanor and Robyn Hob shows Dream, but on the “when love must die” side the frame is fractured, and Eleanor and Robyn’s hand have turned skeletal.

Panel 10: “But touch my tears with your lips”, with “tears” in all caps. A greyscale panel of a closeup of 1989 Hob from the shoulders up, holding a smoking cigarette and with tears streaking down his face. The text replaces his facial features.

Panel 11: “Touch my world with your fingertips” with “world” in all caps. A cut through Dream’s glass prison, his left hand reaching from out of left frame towards the glass. In the darkness beyond it, the text hovers in the air.

Panel 12: “And we can have forever!”, with “forever” in all caps. The panel now has a red tinge to it. Dream’s hand has broken through the glass, which has been shattered, shards flying around his arm with the force of it. The text has been written on selected glass fragments.

Panel 13: “And we can love forever!” with “love” in all caps and in red. The panel shows Hob spray-painting an arrow and text reading “The New Inn” as graffiti onto a grey wall.

Panel 14: “Forever is our today” with both “forever” and “today” in all caps. The text is written on a circle in the panel, which frames Dream walking towards the New Inn, in soft pastel colours. Around that circle, Dream’s tools are arranged: in the top left, sparkling gold sand spills from a little bag, in the top right is Dream’s mask, and in the bottom right his ruby - now shattered.

Panel 15: “Who wants to live forever”, with “forever” in all caps. A coloured panel with a soft orange glow, of Dream talking to Hob in 1389. Hob is seated and smiling, while Dream is standing and smiling somewhat deviously. The text hangs between them, a shadow behind it suggesting a repeat of the line.

Panel 16: “Forever is our today” with “today” in all caps. A coloured panel of Dream and Hob’s meeting at the New Inn in the present day, both of them seated at a table and smiling warmly at each other. The text is once more positioned between them.

Panel 17: “Who waits forever, anyway…?” with “who” in all caps. The text starts at the top of the panel, running downwards, each word fainter than the last. At the bottom of the panel are Dream and Hob’s hands, gently holding each other. Behind their hands, there is a bright glow illuminating the dark background.

End ID.]

[birdstudies]

May 17, 2024 - Okinawa Robin (Larvivora namiyei) Found on Okinawa and the nearby Kerama Islands in Japan, these Old World flycatchers inhabit the undergrowth of forests, often near streams. They primarily eat small invertebrates, foraging mostly on the ground, though the details of their diet are not known. Breeding between April and June, they build their nests in cavities in trees or banks from dry leaves, bamboo strips, and moss. Females usually lay clutches of three to five eggs. They are classified as Near Threatened by the IUCN due to declines to their small population caused by habitat loss and degradation.

[coochiequeens]

Common sense is returning.

James Crisp, EUROPE EDITOR 13 April 2024

Dr Hilary Cass said children who think they are transgender should not be given any hormone drugs at all until at least 18 CREDIT: Yui Mok

Belgium and the Netherlands have become the latest countries to question the use of puberty blockers on children after the Cass Review warned of a lack of research on the gender treatment’s long-term effects.

Britain has become the fifth European nation to restrict the use of the drug to those under 18 after initially making them part of their gender treatments.

Their use was based on the “Dutch protocol” - the term used for the practice pioneered in the Netherlands in 1998 and copied around the world, of treating gender dysphoric youth using puberty blockers.

The NHS stopped prescribing the drug, which is meant to curb the trauma of a body maturing into a gender that the patient does not identify with this month.

In Belgium, doctors have called for gender treatment rules to be changed.

Research into impact

“In our opinion, Belgium must reform gender care in children and adolescents following the example of Sweden and Finland, where hormones are regarded as the last resort,” the report by three paediatricians and psychiatrists in Leuven said.

Figures from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom show that more than 95 per cent of individuals who initiated puberty inhibition continue with gender-affirming treatments,” the report by P Vankrunkelsven P, K Casteels K and J De Vleminck said.

“However, when young people with gender dysphoria go through their natural puberty, these feelings will only persist in about 15 per cent.”

The report was published after a 60 per cent rise in the number of Belgium teenagers taking the blockers to stop the development of their bodies. In 2022, 684 people between the ages of nine and 17 were prescribed the drug compared to 432 in 2019, the De Morgen newspaper reported in 2019.

Pressure is also building in the neighbouring Netherlands to look again at their use. The parliament has ordered research into the impact of puberty blockers on adolescent’s physical and mental health.

Dutch protocol

The Telegraph understands that the Amsterdam Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria, where the protocol originated, is set to make a statement on the use of puberty blockers next week.

“I too thought that the Dutch gender care was very careful and evidence-based. But now I don’t think that any more,” Jilles Smids, a postdoctoral researcher in medical ethics at Erasmus University in the Netherlands, told The Atlantic.

Attitudes in the Netherlands have hardened against trans rights, with a bill to make it easier for people to legally change their gender being held up in parliament.

The Cass Review said that the NHS had moved away from the restrictions of the original Dutch protocol, and researchers in Belgium have also demanded those restrictions be reintroduced.

Belgium is regarded as one of the most trans-friendly countries in Europe. A minister in the government is transgender and people have been able to legally change their gender without a medical certificate for the past five years.

But the hard-Right Vlaams Belang party is currently leading the polls ahead of national and European elections in June.

It has called for “hormone therapy and sex surgery to be halted for underage patients until clear and concrete research has been carried out.”

‘Greatest ethical scandals’

In March, a report in France described sex reassignment in minors as potentially “one of the greatest ethical scandals in the history of medicine”.

Conservative French senators plan to introduce a bill to ban gender transition treatments for under-18s.

On Monday, the Vatican’s doctrine office published a report that branded gender surgery a grave violation of human dignity on a par with euthanasia and abortion.

Finland was one of the first countries to adopt the Dutch protocol but realised many of its patients did not meet the Protocol’s strict eligibility requirements for the drugs.

It restricted the treatment in 2020 and recommended psychotherapy as the primary care.

Sweden restricted hormone treatments to “exceptional cases” two years later. In December, Norwegian authorities designated the medicine as “under trial”, which means they will only be prescribed to adolescents in clinical trials.

Denmark is finalising new guidelines limiting hormone treatments to teenagers who have had dysphoria since early childhood.

In 2020, Hungary passed a law banning gender changes on legal documents.

“The import and the use of these hormone products are not banned, but subject to case by case approval, however, it is certain that no authority would approve such an application for people under 18,“ a spokesperson told The Telegraph.

In August, Russia criminalised all gender reassignment surgery and hormone treatments.

[ms-m-astrologer]

Transiting Saturn stations retrograde

Timeline (current events in bold)

Sunday, March 24, 2024, 02:26 UT - Saturn enters pre-retrograde shadow, 12°42’ Pisces

Saturday, June 29, 19:07 UT - Saturn stations retrograde, 19°26’ Pisces

Friday, November 15, 14:20 UT - Saturn stations direct, 12°42’ Pisces

Tuesday, February 18, 2025, 13:25 UT - Saturn exits post-retrograde shadow, 19°46’ Pisces

===+++===

I like to start these with a quote Martin Bulgerin (www . biopscinst . Com):

Saturn retrograde is probably the least pleasant influence around. Saturn is a hard-nosed, Mr. Brass Tacks himself, the teacher with the big ruler that insists you dot all your I’s and cross all your T’s before recess. He teaches us about responsibility and claiming our authority in the world, a class (Character Building 101) many of us would rather skip. Needless to say, this kind of discipline and skill is very useful later, even though the cycle itself is rough to get through.

One of the “highlights” coming up for us is the first of three squares between Saturn and Jupiter. The first two happen in Pisces-Gemini, but the third and final one takes place after Jupiter has moved on to Cancer, and Saturn to Aries - which will also involve Neptune, close to Saturn (but not exactly conjunct). Mutable sign challenges indicate new situations which we need to deal with before they escalate and are more difficult.

(And 2025, astrologically, is going to be a trip. Best to get our ducks in a row, now!)

So how might this pan out?

Many of us are going to have to deal with boundary (water sign) issues - what seemed like a perfectly safe “dam” dissolves or fades away. Or, we may realize there need to be boundaries, and we need to build them ourselves.

Some people will have to face up (Saturn) to any escapist (Pisces) tendencies. If we’ve been avoiding something, it refuses to stay ignored any more.

Pisces is the last sign of the Zodiac and has a lot to do with endings and (perceived) finality. With stern Saturn here, we may have to accept that some situation is well and truly over. Time to get ready to move on. As astrologer Isabel Hickey wrote, “Test is one of severance, letting go and letting God.”

Saturn moves slowly at the start and the finish of this backwards dance; I’ve been able to combine aspects for a general picture. From the faster planets’ point of view, they’re too far apart; but Saturn’s point of view, they are linked closely.

Tuesday, July 2 - Wednesday, July 10:

Saturn Rx/Pisces trine Venus/Cancer, 19°25’

Saturn Rx/Pisces sextile Mars/Taurus, 19°23’

Saturn Rx/Pisces opposite Juno/Virgo, 19°23’

Saturn Rx/Pisces trine Sun/Cancer, 19°19’

This starts us off with very good intentions (although with that Juno opposition we need to be sure they truly are our intentions). We admit there’s room for improvement and we’re ready to do the work.

Thursday, August 15 - Mars/Gemini square Saturn Rx/Pisces, 17°42’. Distractions, omissions, lack of attention span, frittering away time &/or resources. We don’t know which way to go. Let it pass.

Monday, August 19:

Saturn Rx/Pisces opposite Venus/Virgo, 17°29’

Saturn Rx/Pisces square Jupiter/Gemini, 17°27’

The first of the Saturn-Jupiter squares, with Venus coming along for the ride. This could work out to be some problem where past frivolities and indulgences (Venus, Jupiter) catch up with us. Unlovingness, criticism. Failure to commit, especially in relationships - and not necessarily our failure, could be the other person’s. This is a time when “playing both sides” ultimately won’t end well.

Saturday, September 7 - Wednesday, September 28:

Saturn Rx/Pisces opposite Sun/Virgo, 16°02’

Saturn Rx/Pisces opposite Mercury/Virgo, 15°15’

Saturn Rx/Pisces opposite Vesta/Virgo, 14°46’

Oppositions work through other people, and in September those “other people” are right there in front of us. Not necessarily in a confrontational way - what usually goes down is that people are behaving at us, like we behave (or used to behave) at them, and we don’t like it very much.

Sunday, September 29 - Friday, October 4:

Saturn Rx/Pisces trine Mars/Cancer, 14°25’

Saturn Rx/Pisces trine Venus/Scorpio, 14°07’

Quick, somebody queue up “Sexual Healing” for us! These watery trines, if we haven’t done the work, may just give us a false sense of accomplishments &/or peacefulness. If we’ve worked hard and honestly, they can bring common sense, willingness to assume responsibility, and spiritual lovingness.

Sunday, October 13 - Friday, October 18:

Saturn Rx/Pisces sextile Ceres/Capricorn, 13°36’

Saturn Rx/Pisces square Pallas/Sagittarius, 13°22’

These may not make much of an impact unless you’re sensitive to the Lady Asteroids. Ceres is helping Saturn on the domestic front and encourages “traditional family values,” but Pallas wants to go out and do its thing and not be weighted down by parental expectation and pressure.

And the home stretch - remember, this is three weeks long, but Saturn is barely moving:

Tuesday, October 22 - Tuesday, November 12:

Saturn Rx/Pisces trine Mercury/Scorpio, 13°12’

Saturn Rx/Pisces square Venus/Sagittarius, 12°58’

Saturn Rx/Pisces trine Sun/Scorpio, 12°48’

Saturn Rx/Pisces square Mercury/Sagittarius, 12°42’

As far as Saturn is concerned, this is almost like Lucy and Charlie Brown with the football: a promise (trine), followed by a lie (square). We have these watery trines promising a breakthrough, and then the squares from Sag taking it away. My favorite band’s masterpiece “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” comes to mind. Remember the following lines, though: “If you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need.”

[rosie-kairi]

Hello I heard an excuse to ask about Rosemary and the seedlings

Who proposed, Rosemary or Ephemer? How long were they dating? How long were they married before they decided to have kids?

Which of the kids are keyblade wielders? Who takes the brunt of the social obligations as a famous family? Who spends the most time with each parent? Which kids end up having kids themselves?

What position do you envision Rosemary having in the rebuilding of Scala? How does she feel knowing that Lauriam is lost somewhere in time and will likely outlive her? How does she honor Strelitzia's memory? Does she know the full truth of the situation, that the public wouldn't? Does she forgive Ventus for his part in it?

Rosemary and Ephemer get married around their early to mid 20's, I think. Rosemary is about 1-2 years older than Ephemer, so I'm thinking maybe 22 + 24? Ephemer being around 16 at the end of khux and her being 17-going-on-18 sounds about right. Probably don't start dating until at least a year of knowing each other. (Ephemer not wanting to jump right into a close relationship out of fear of losing her/feeling like he's using her to soothe his guilt due to her similarities with Lauriam). Idk.

Anyway, the story of their marriage is a very funny one that can be summed up thusly:

Ephemer proposes to her pretty much on the spot after this. I imagine it would be mostly due to a lot of the public probably having more.. traditional values? Basically, Ephemer doesn't need people judging him for having children born out of wedlock when he's trying to build a society from the ground up. But it's also something he had been wanting to do but didn't know the right time for. So they get married soon after, and if the kids are born only a handful of months after the wedding instead of at least 9, who's to say?

As for the kids, I think they'd all wind up with keyblades at one point or another. I don't think Nico is much of a fighter, though, so he doesn't see reason to use it unless absolutely necessary. Reggie, as the oldest, takes on most of Ephemer's responsibilities once she's old enough. The other two help out as well, but they're also busy running around the various worlds trying to gauge the extent of the damage the keyblade war caused, for science and for funsies.

June is very much a daddy's girl, and Nico's a momma's boy. Reggie has no real "favorite" parent, but if asked she'd probably say Rosemary as well. They all love each other equally, but it's clear who took after who on the family tree lol. As for their kids, I think all three of them have at least one. June carries the Belrose family name which eventually leads to Sigrun in DR, and Nicolai somehow leads to the creation of good ol' Nort.

Rosemary's role in the rebuilding of Scala is being the person doing all of the talking. Growing up in a well-respected southern family has taught Rosemary her fair share of conversational tactics to get someone to agree to exactly what you want them to. Call it manipulative, but she does it mostly through being very very polite. You just can't say no to a face like hers, and she's asking you so so nicely. Ephemer eventually finds his footing as leader, but everyone always listens to Rosemary.

With regards to her cousins, Rosemary probably doesn't know all of the details. Ephemer tells her most things but leaves out some of the stuff that he'd think would really wreck her emotionally. So, as far as she is concerned, Lauriam and Strelitzia are dead dead. No Coming back, she can only hope to see them in whatever afterlife exists in KH. She honors them by creating multiple gardens in their names and treats them with the utmost care. Her and Ephy probably have statues of them put up in the gardens, or maybe something meant to represent them.

As for Ventus, I think Ephemer would explain it to her in the best terms a non-wielder could understand. There was this kid, he was lonely, Lauriam embraced him as a brother in the absence of Strelitzia, but then it came out that the kid had accidentally caused Strelitzia's death. They're probably the only two that know that last bit, as Ephemer saw no reason to stain the poor kid's legacy with that, knowing that'd it would probably be twisted over the years and lose the "unintentional" part. So, I think Rosemary understands that Ventus didn't want Strelitzia to die. I think Rosemary would wish she could've been there for him, at least a little bit. Roads not taken, and all that.

[freetheshit-outofyou]

@sadrcitysocialclub, In reference to the PTSD post. Folks often say "Man, you left the war 17 years ago, it can't hurt that bad anymore." what they don't understand is it was 17 years ago for them, it was last night for me. "June 26, 2007, 3:51 PM

By Brian Mockenhaupt

I Miss Iraq. I Miss My Gun. I Miss My War.

A year after coming home from a tour in Iraq, a soldier returns home to find out he left something behind.

A few months ago, I found a Web site loaded with pictures and videos from Iraq, the sort that usually aren't seen on the news. I watched insurgent snipers shoot American soldiers and car bombs disintegrate markets, accompanied by tinny music and loud, rhythmic chanting, the soundtrack of the propaganda campaigns. Video cameras focused on empty stretches of road, building anticipation. Humvees rolled into view and the explosions brought mushroom clouds of dirt and smoke and chunks of metal spinning through the air. Other videos and pictures showed insurgents shot dead while planting roadside bombs or killed in firefights and the remains of suicide bombers, people how they're not meant to be seen, no longer whole. The images sickened me, but their familiarity pulled me in, giving comfort, and I couldn't stop. I clicked through more frames, hungry for it. This must be what a shot of dope feels like after a long stretch of sobriety. Soothing and nauseating and colored by everything that has come before. My body tingled and my stomach ached, hollow. I stood on weak legs and walked into the kitchen to make dinner. I sliced half an onion before putting the knife down and watching slight tremors run through my hand. The shakiness lingered. I drank a beer. And as I leaned against this kitchen counter, in this house, in America, my life felt very foreign.

I've been home from Iraq for more than a year, long enough for my time there to become a memory best forgotten for those who worried every day that I was gone. I could see their relief when I returned. Life could continue, with futures not so uncertain. But in quiet moments, their relief brought me guilt. Maybe they assume I was as overjoyed to be home as they were to have me home. Maybe they assume if I could do it over, I never would have gone. And maybe I wouldn't have. But I miss Iraq. I miss the war. I miss war. And I have a very hard time understanding why.

I'm glad to be home, to have put away my uniforms, to wake up next to my wife each morning. I worry about my friends who are in Iraq now, and I wish they weren't. Often I hated being there, when the frustrations and lack of control over my life were complete and mind-bending. I questioned my role in the occupation and whether good could come of it. I wondered if it was worth dying or killing for. The suffering and ugliness I saw disgusted me. But war twists and shifts the landmarks by which we navigate our lives, casting light on darkened areas that for many people remain forever unexplored. And once those darkened spaces are lit, they become part of us. At a party several years ago, long before the Army, I listened to a friend who had served several years in the Marines tell a woman that if she carried a pistol for a day, just tucked in her waistband and out of sight, she would feel different. She would see the world differently, for better or worse. Guns empower. She disagreed and he shrugged. No use arguing the point; he was just offering a little piece of truth. He was right, of course. And that's just the beginning.

I've spent hours taking in the world through a rifle scope, watching life unfold. Women hanging laundry on a rooftop. Men haggling over a hindquarter of lamb in the market. Children walking to school. I've watched this and hoped that someday I would see that my presence had made their lives better, a redemption of sorts. But I also peered through the scope waiting for someone to do something wrong, so I could shoot him. When you pick up a weapon with the intent of killing, you step onto a very strange and serious playing field. Every morning someone wakes wanting to kill you. When you walk down the street, they are waiting, and you want to kill them, too. That's not bloodthirsty; that's just the trade you've learned. And as an American soldier, you have a very impressive toolbox. You can fire your rifle or lob a grenade, and if that's not enough, call in the tanks, or helicopters, or jets. The insurgents have their skill sets, too, turning mornings at the market into chaos, crowds into scattered flesh, Humvees into charred scrap. You're all part of the terrible magic show, both powerful and helpless.

That men are drawn to war is no surprise. How old are boys before they turn a finger and thumb into a pistol? Long before they love girls, they love war, at least everything they imagine war to be: guns and explosions and manliness and courage. When my neighbors and I played war as kids, there was no fear or sorrow or cowardice. Death was temporary, usually as fast as you could count to sixty and jump back into the game. We didn't know yet about the darkness. And young men are just slightly older versions of those boys, still loving the unknown, perhaps pumped up on dreams of duty and heroism and the intoxicating power of weapons. In time, war dispels many such notions, and more than a few men find that being freed from society's professed revulsion to killing is really no freedom at all, but a lonely burden. Yet even at its lowest points, war is like nothing else. Our culture craves experience, and that is war's strong suit. War peels back the skin, and you live with a layer of nerves exposed, overdosing on your surroundings, when everything seems all wrong and just right, in a way that makes perfect sense. And then you almost die but don't, and are born again, stoned on life and mocking death. The explosions and gunfire fry your nerves, but you want to hear them all the same. Something's going down.

For those who know, this is the open secret: War is exciting. Sometimes I was in awe of this, and sometimes I felt low and mean for loving it, but I loved it still. Even in its quiet moments, war is brighter, louder, brasher, more fun, more tragic, more wasteful. More. More of everything. And even then I knew I would someday miss it, this life so strange. Today the war has distilled to moments and feelings, and somewhere in these memories is the reason for the wistfulness.

On one mission we slip away from our trucks and into the night. I lead the patrol through the darkness, along canals and fields and into the town, down narrow, hard-packed dirt streets. Everyone has gone to bed, or is at least inside. We peer through gates and over walls into courtyards and into homes. In a few rooms TVs flicker. A woman washes dishes in a tub. Dogs bark several streets away. No one knows we are in the street, creeping. We stop at intersections, peek around corners, training guns on parked cars, balconies, and storefronts. All empty. We move on. From a small shop up ahead, we hear men's voices and laughter. Maybe they used to sit outside at night, but now they are indoors, where it's safe. Safer. The sheet-metal door opens and a man steps out, cigarette and lighter in hand. He still wears a smile, takes in the cool night air, and then nearly falls backward through the doorway in a panic. I'm a few feet from him now and his eyes are wide. I mutter a greeting and we walk on, back into the darkness.

Another night we're lost in a dust storm. I'm in the passenger seat, trying to guide my driver and the three trucks behind us through this brown maelstrom. The headlights show nothing but swirling dirt. We've driven these roads for months, we know them well, but we see nothing. So we drive slow, trying to stay out of canals and people's kitchens. We curse and we laugh. This is bizarre but a great deal of fun.

Another night my platoon sergeant's truck is swallowed in flames, a terrible, beautiful, boiling bloom of red and orange and yellow, lighting the darkness for a moment. Somehow we don't die, one more time.

Another night, there's McCarthy bitching, the cherry of his cigarette bobbing in the dark, bitching that he won't be on the assault team, that he's stuck as a turret gunner for the night. We'd been out since early that morning, came back for dinner, and are preparing to raid a weapons dealer. Our first real raid. I heave my body armor onto my shoulders, settling its too-familiar weight. Then the helmet and first-aid kit and maps and radio and ammunition and rifle and all the rest. Now I look like everyone else, an arm of this strange and destructive organism, covered in armor and guns. We crowd around a satellite map spread across a Humvee hood and trace our route. Wells, my squad leader, rehearses our movements. Get in quick. Watch the danger zones. If he has a gun, kill him. I look around the group, at these faces I know so well, and feel the collective strength, this ridiculous power. The camaraderie of men in arms plays a part, for sure. The shared misery and euphoria and threat of death. But there is something more: the surrender of self, voluntary or not, to the machine. Do I believe in the war? Not important. Put that away and live in the moment, where little is knowable and even less is controllable, when my world narrows to one street, one house, one room, one door.

We pack into the trucks after midnight, and the convoy snakes out of camp and speeds toward the target house. I sit in a backseat and the fear settles in, a sharp burning in my stomach, same as the knot from hard liquor gulped too fast. I think about the knot. I'll be the first through the door. What if he starts shooting, hits me right in the face before I'm even through the doorway? What if there's two, or three? What if he pitches a grenade at us? And I think about it more and run through the scenarios, planning my movements, imagining myself clearing through the rooms, firing two rounds into the chest, and the knot fades.

The trucks drop us off several blocks from the target house and we slip into the night. As always, the dogs bark. We gather against the high wall outside the house and call in the trucks to block the streets. The action will pass in a flash. But here, before the chaos starts, when we're stacked against the wall, my friends' bodies pressed against me, hearing their quick breaths and my own, there's a moment to appreciate the gravity, the absurdity, the novelty, the joy of the moment. Is this real? Hearts beat strong. Hands grip tight on weapons. Reassurance. The rest of the world falls away. Who knows what's on the other side?

One, two, three, go. We push past the gate and across the courtyard and toward the house, barrels locked on the windows and roof. Wells runs up with the battering ram, a short, heavy pipe with handles, and launches it toward the massive wood door. The lock explodes, the splintered door flies open, and we rush through, just the way we've practiced hundreds of times. No one shoots me in the face. No grenades roll to my feet. I kick open doors. We scan darkened bedrooms with the flashlights on our rifles and move on to the next and the next.

He's gone, of course. We ransack his house, dumping drawers, flipping mattresses, punching holes in the ceiling. We find rifles and grenades and hundreds of pounds of gunpowder. And then, near dawn, we lie down on the thick carpets in his living room and sleep, exhausted and untroubled.

Many, many raids followed. We often raided houses late at night, so people awakened to soldiers bursting through their bedroom doors. Women and children wailed, terrified. Taking this in, I imagined what it would feel like if soldiers kicked down my door at midnight, if I could do nothing to protect my family. I would hate those soldiers. Yet I still reveled in the raids, their intensity and uncertainty. The emotions collided, without resolution.

My wife moved to Iraq partway through my second deployment to live in the north and train Iraqi journalists. She spent her evenings at restaurants and tea shops with her Iraqi friends. We spoke by cell phone, when the spotty network allowed, and she told me about this life I couldn't imagine, celebrating holidays with her colleagues and being invited into their homes. I didn't have any Iraqi friends, save for our few translators, and I'd rarely been invited into anyone's home. I told her of my life, the tedious days and frightful seconds, and she worried that in all of this I would lose my thoughtfulness and might stop questioning and just accept. But she didn't judge the work that I did, and I didn't tell her that I sometimes enjoyed it, that for stretches of time I didn't think about the greater implications, that it sometimes seemed like a game. I didn't tell her that death felt ever present and far away, and that either way, it didn't really seem to matter.

We both came back from Iraq, luckier than many. Two of my wife's students have been killed, among the scores of journalists to die in Iraq, and guys I served with are still dying, too. One came home from the war and shot himself on Thanksgiving. Another was blown up on Christmas in Baghdad.

Thinking of them, I felt disgusted with myself for missing the war and wondered if I was alone in this.

I don't think I am.

After watching the Internet videos, I called some of my friends who are out of the Army now, and they miss the war, too. Wells very nearly died in Iraq. A sniper shot him in the head, surgeons cut out half of his skull—a story told in this magazine last April—and he spent months in therapy, working back to his old self. Now he misses the high. "I don't want to sound like a psychopath, but you're like a god over there," he says. "It might not be the best kind of adrenaline for you, but it's a rush." Before Iraq, he didn't care for horror movies, and now he's drawn to them. He watches them for the little thrill, the rush of being startled, if just for a moment.

McCarthy misses the war just the same. He saved Wells's life, pressing a bandage over the hole in his head. Now he's delivering construction materials to big hotel projects along the beach in South Carolina, waiting for a police department to process his application. "The monotony is killing me," he told me, en route to deliver some rebar. "I want to go on a raid. I want something to blow up. I want something to change today." He wants the unknown. "Anything can happen, and it does happen. And all of the sudden your world is shattered, and everything has changed. It's living dangerously. You're living on the edge. And you're the baddest motherfucker around."

Mortal danger heightens the senses. That is simple animal instinct. We're more aware of how our world smells and sounds and tastes. This distorts and enriches experiences. Now I can have everything, but it's not as good as when I could have none of it. McCarthy and I stood on a rooftop one afternoon in Iraq running through a long list of the food we wanted. We made it to homemade pizza and icy beer when someone loosed a long burst of gunfire that cracked over our heads. We ran to the other side of the rooftop, but the gunman had disappeared down a long alleyway. Today my memory of that pizza and beer is stronger than if McCarthy and I had sat down together with the real thing before us.

And today we even speak with affection of wrestling a dead man into a body bag, because that was then. The bullet had laid his thigh wide open, shattered the femur, and shredded the artery, so he'd bled out fast, pumping much of his blood onto the sidewalk. We unfolded and unzipped the nylon sack and laid it alongside him. And then we stared for a moment, none of us ready to close that distance. I grabbed his forearm and dropped it, maybe instinct, maybe revulsion. He hovered so near this world, having just passed over, that he seemed to be sucking life from me, pulling himself back or taking me with him. He peeked at us through a half-opened eye. I stared down on him, his massive dead body, and again wrapped a hand around his wrist, thick and warm. The man was huge, taller than six feet and close to 250 pounds. We strained with the awkward weight, rolled him into the bag, and zipped him out of sight. My platoon sergeant gave two neighborhood kids five dollars to wash away the congealing puddle of blood. But the red handprint stayed on the wall, where the man had tried to brace himself before he fell. I think about him sometimes, splayed out on the sidewalk, and I think of how lucky I was never to have put a friend in one of those bags. Or be put in one myself.

But the memories, good and bad, are only part of the reason war holds its grip long after soldiers have come home. The war was urgent and intense and the biggest story going, always on the news stations and magazine covers. At home, though, relearning everyday life, the sense of mission can be hard to find. And this is not just about dim prospects and low-paying jobs in small towns. Leaving the war behind can be a letdown, regardless of opportunity or education or the luxuries waiting at home. People I'd never met sent me boxes of cookies and candy throughout my tours. When I left for two weeks of leave, I was cheered at airports and hugged by strangers. At dinner with my family one night, a man from the next table bought me a $400 bottle of wine. I was never quite comfortable with any of this, but they were heady moments nonetheless.For my friends who are going back to Iraq or are there already, there is little enthusiasm. Any fondness for war is tainted by the practicalities of operating and surviving in combat. Wells and McCarthy and I can speak of the war with nostalgia because we belong to a different world now. And yet there is little to say, because we are scattered, far from those who understand.

When I came home, people often asked me about Iraq, and mostly I told them it wasn't so bad. The first few times, my wife asked me why I had been so blithe. Why didn't I tell them what Iraq was really like? I didn't know how to explain myself to them. The war really wasn't so bad. Yes, there were bombs and shootings and nervous times, but that was just the job. In fact, going to war is rather easy. You react to situations around you and try not to die. There are no electric bills or car payments or chores around the house. Just go to work, come home alive, and do it again tomorrow. McCarthy calls it pure and serene. Indeed. Life at home can be much more trying. But I didn't imagine the people asking would understand that. I didn't care much if they did, and often it seemed they just wanted a war story, a bit of grit and gore. If they really want to know, they can always find out for themselves. But they don't, they just want a taste of the thrill. We all do. We covet life outside our bubble. That's why we love tragedy, why we love hearing about war and death on the television, drawn to it in spite of ourselves. We gawk at accident scenes and watch people humiliate themselves on reality shows and can't wait to replay the events for friends, as though in retelling the story we make it our own, if just for a moment.

We live easy third-person lives but want a bit of the darkness. War fascinates because we live so far from its realities. Maybe we'd feel differently about watching bombs blow up on TV if we saw them up close, if we knew how explosions rip the air, throttle your brain, and make your ears ring, if we knew the strain of wondering whether the car next to you at a traffic light would explode or a bomb would land on your house as you sleep. I don't expect Iraqi soldiers would ever miss war. I have that luxury. I came home to peace, to a country that hasn't seen war within its borders for nearly 150 years. Yes, some boys come home dead. But we live here without the other terrors and tragedies of war—cities flattened and riven with chaos and fear, neighbors killing one another, a people made forever weary by the violence.

And so I miss it.

Every day in Iraq, if you have a job that takes you outside the wire, you stop just before the gate and make your final preparation for war. You pull out a magazine stacked with thirty rounds of ammunition, weighing just over a pound. You slide it into the magazine well of your rifle and smack it with the heel of your hand, driving it up. You pull the rifle's charging handle, draw the bolt back, and release. The bolt slides forward with a metallic snap, catching the top round and shoving it into the barrel. Chak-chuk. If I hear that a half century from now, I will know it in an instant. Unmistakable, and pregnant with possibility. On top of a diving board, as the grade-school-science explanation goes, you are potential energy. On the way down, you are kinetic energy. So I leave the gate and step off the diving board, my energy transformed."

[fuzzkaizer]

The Rhythmicon

"The Rhythmicon is universally regarded as the world’s first drum machine, but technically it’s not a “drum” machine. As opposed to other early devices, like the Chamberlin Rhythmate (introduced in 1957) or the Wurlitzer Sideman (1959), it doesn’t play beats according to typical time signatures. Instead it offers up a series of complex rhythmic pulses, each playing at a different pitch and each corresponding to different ratios from the harmonic series.

Cowell, who was born in 1897 and died in 1965, is probably best known for composing with “tone clusters” – chords built out of adjacent notes that he’d play on the piano with his fist or forearm. But he commissioned Theremin to build the Rhythmicon because he was hoping to bring to life another radical idea he’d been working on throughout the 1920s: Taking the infinite multiples of a fundamental wavelength (for example, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6, and so on) and transposing them into beats. ..." By Peter Holslin on June 17, 2015

cred: daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2015/06/rhythmicon-feature

[divineerdrick]

Warhammer 40,000: Tyranids Changes for June 20, 2024

And finally, it's my turn.

You had to know as soon as I posted World Eaters I was saving the Hive Mind for last!

We've had it a bit rough for a while. We may have two Army Rules, but each one would be considered the weakest Army Rule in the game. Combined they're not much better. We do have some strong Detachment rules, but our Datasheets need some love. In particular, we have a lot of trouble dealing with both high Toughness and heavy armour. Knights and Ironstorm are our bane! Our win rate has sat near the bottom for all of 10th. And though AdMech has a lower win rate, they see more top tables and event wins than we do. We also started strong with lots of players joining the faction for 10th, but that number has been steadily creeping back down as our mediocre army builds stagnate.

But almost a year into our Codex release, GW has decided we need both some external and internal balance love. Starting with our Army Rule!

Synapse

Outside of Invasion Fleet and Synaptic Nexus, Synapse doesn't really matter. It's not common for our units to survive long enough to take Battle-shock tests. This makes it hands down the weakest Army Rule in the game.

But now it's getting a minor makeover. In addition to making it harder to Battle-shock our units, all Tyranid models Within Synapse Range get +1 Strength to all melee attacks. While, much like Death Guard and old Sons of Sanguinius, this doesn't scale perfectly with the game's increased Toughness, it still helps us hit some break points. Guants now wound T3 on 3s, T4 on 4s, and T6 on 5s. Genestealers now wound MEQs on 3s and their Terminator nemeses on 4s. Carnifexes can hit at Strength 13, the Swarmlord at 10, and Norn Assimilators at both 10 and 13!

Plus I like the fact that this bonus is to melee, bringing back some of the Tyranid identity as a melee army. It's probably not enough by itself to fix our damage issues, but it certainly helps.

Shadow in the Warp

I like the concept of bringing back the horror of the Tyranid army. One of my hopes for the new Battle-shock rule was that it would allow armies like Tyranids, Daemons, and Night Lords to be menacing again. But centering the second half of our Army Rule around Battle-shock hasn't turned out very well.

But while just fighting Tyranids is supposed to be harrowing, in the lore fighting a Hive Tyrant is supposed to be a truly terrifying experience. When a Norn Emissary stares down its prey, even the most hardened warrior feels dread in their bones. To help represent this, and make our Army Rule a little more reliable, enemy units testing for Shadow in the Warp within 6" of one of our Synapse units take -1 to the test. This should stack with the Neurotyrant and Deathleaper too. This means when we hit our "Go!" button, our opponent should hopefully feel it.

Crusher Stampede

We were all down on this detachment when we first saw it. As I've said many times, abilities that trigger off of being damaged aren't any fun. When you have those kinds of abilities, your opponent just makes sure they kill your units. Now, in addition to that rule, when our Units are at Starting Strength each model gets +2 to their OC. That means that a pair of Carnifexes are now OC 10 while both models are alive.

This still ain't it. As I said before in my reaction to the WarCom article, your opponent is still going to just kill your units. Yes, that means that any models they haven't hit down are +2 OC. But so what? Your average 10 man Battle-line unit is OC 20. A Norn Emissary with Singular Purpose is OC 17 with this, and that's the best we can get in 'Nidzilla. In order for individual Monster units to hold objectives against Infantry they need a much better buff than just +2 OC.

Untrammeled Ferocity

This has been changed to match Super-heavy Walker. Now our Monsters can use this Strat to attempt to power through Terrain, but risk Battle-schock.

Datasheets

They aren't stopping there though. We're getting some Datasheet tweaks, including granting more units important Keywords.

Hive Tyrant

Onslaught now grants Assault and Lethal Hits. I would have preferred Assault and Advance and Charge, but I'll take it!

Synapse

Neurolictors, Broodlords, and the Parasite of Mortrex now have Synapse. This is returning for Broodlords and the Parasite, but new for our new brain bugs.

Vanguard Invader

Mawlocs, Raveners, and Trygons now gain that keyword, making Vanguard Onslaught even more powerful. Assimilation Swarm gets nothing! Mawlocs are Assimilators dammit!

Neurotyrant

Our new floating brain bug can now lead our old floating brain bugs! I actually really like this. That's potentially a lot of Psychic power to have floating towards the enemy.

Exocrine

They've upped the strength on the bio-plasmic cannon to 9. This doesn't make the Exocrine any better at taking out its best targets, which are elite infantry. It does mean it can wound light vehicles like Rhinos more easily.

Tyrannofex

The rupture cannon now deals D6+6 damage on a successful wound, making its original average damage now its minimum damage. This means if you can connect with this beast, you're likely to bring what you hit down.

FAQ and Errata

Neuronodes have been clarified to work with the same timing as all redeploys. FAQs are also consistent with what we've seen before, including Surge moves and Blistering Assault still allowing you to not move, though you still count as making the move if you chose to roll the dice. The interesting one is for Synaptic Goading. If your unit can make a Surge move while in combat, such as if it's shot by a Vehicle in combat with it, you can use Synaptic Goading to instead have it move towards an objective. They can even leave Engagement Range this way. We still don't know if your can put a Sporocyst in a Tyrannocyte, though.

Points Changes

So now our bugs are a little stronger, and more of them can go in one of our better detachments. (I'm still annoyed nothing, including Lore appropriate units, got Harvester added to it.) Shadow in the Warp is also a little more potent. So before I open the MFM again, I'm predicting that GW still won't be able to resist some internal balance passes. In particular, I'm guessing the Hive Tyrant, the Exocrine, the Tyrannofex, and I'm also gonna guess the Neurolictor are going up in cost.

Oh wow! I'm happy to be wrong!

So Neurolictors did take a 10 pts nerf, which definitely hurts. Those are still key to getting our army to work, so nerfing them is just taking points away from us. Ripper Swarms got some interesting discount pricing, costing 25 pts for 1 base, 40 pts for 2 bases, and 50 pts for 3 bases. They're not as useful for Mission scoring as they used to be, so they're probably going to just be points filler. With Spore Mines no longer useful for Mission play, Biovores have gone down a whopping 25 pts/model. Mucolids have also gone down a whopping 20 pts. Spore mines are still at the same ridiculous cost that says "don't take these!" Tervigons also dropped 15 pts, which puts them more in line with their profile.

Honestly this is mostly good news. The nerf to Neurolictors hurts a little, and not being able to use Ripper Swarms as easily for points fillers is a bit annoying. But combined with the the buffs to our Army Rules, some of our units, and the even more units being able to make the most out of Vanguard, this is definitely a good start. Synapse units are going to be really important now though, as will be protecting them. Might even want a second Neurotyrant occasionally now. I don't think this is enough to make us a top army, but that's not the goal. What I think it'll do is put us much more in line with the other factions.

[lboogie1906]

Rodney Glen King (April 2, 1965 – June 17, 2012) was a victim of police brutality. He was a taxicab driver. He was born in Sacramento. He moved with his parents to Altadena when he was 2. On March 3, 1991, he was the victim of a brutal police beating that occurred in the San Fernando Valley. Caught on tape by a local witness, the video showed four LAPD officers restraining and repeatedly striking him with their batons while six other officers stood by, gaining international notoriety as the beating was broadcast around the world.

The incident began at 12:30 am on March 3, when a California Highway Patrol team attempted to pull him over for speeding, he led the police on a 7.8-mile high-speed chase. He pulled over at a dark park entrance. He was shot twice with Taser stun darts, kicked, and beaten with batons for eighty-one seconds before he was handcuffed. He suffered a broken cheekbone and multiple facial fractures, lacerations on the forehead, a fracture of the distal fibula in the right leg, and various bruises, contusions, and abrasions.

They were white LAPD officers, and the LAPD had a long record of brutality against African Americans. Four LAPD officers were arrested and charged with assault and use of excessive force. The trial was moved from downtown Los Angeles to suburban Simi Valley, where a jury without any African Americans was chosen. Three of the officers were exonerated and another was acquitted of all but one charge.

The announcement of the verdict spurred four days of rioting in Los Angeles beginning on April 29, 1992. A twenty-five-square block section of the city was torched. Fifty-four people died in the riots, two thousand were injured, and nearly ten thousand were arrested. More than eight hundred buildings were burned, and damage estimates neared a billion dollars. The riots touched off similar outbursts in Las Vegas, Atlanta, and other cities across the US.

The officers charged with beating him were prosecuted federally for civil rights violations. Two of the officers were convicted and sentenced to thirty months in prison. He was awarded $3.8 million in his lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[artaxlivs]

20 questions for writers

I was tagged by @corrodedbisexual who is a kickass Steddie writer and you should check them out if you haven't already!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

45 although I have several dropping in June for Bangs (eek!)

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

419,731 - which is just bonkers.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Stranger Things, Marvel (Clint Barton centric) and Teen Wolf (I tripped and fell into that one but its just so good...fucking werewolves)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Destroy the Silence (Drummer Steve) - Steddie

An Accidental Flogging - Steddie

The Second Worst Trip to Mordor Ever Taken - Steddie

Even Flowers Have Their Dangers - Steddie

Screw Todd, Steve's Her (His) Daddy Now - Steddie

5. Do you respond to comments?

Always. Once every three weeks or so, I go through and leave full, complete responses to every single one (It's where I've met some of my favorite peeps!)

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Angsty at the end?? Nah, I like my angst safely in the middle and I give it a nice landing in smut and laughter, thank you.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I mean, all of them? Endings are kind of my specialty - gotta stick the landing, you know? But in my Teen Wolf fic Somewhere Under the Rainbow it ends with a literal happy ending (not that kind you perv)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not yet but I don't write anything that would inspire hate (Hopefully?)

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes, yes I do. I really like consent and kink discussions and unlearning all the unhealthy shit society and our parents have dumped on all of us. And service Doms...because ❤️‍🔥

10. Do you write crossovers?

I have a problem with 80s movies and crossing them into fics. Gremlins, Dirty Dancing, etc. But like, just a little. My name is ARTAXLIVS, give me a break!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I mean AI is out there fucking us all without our consent, right?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have one currently being translated (Destroy the Silence)

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have not.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Winterhawk probably - Clint Barton is just perfectly imperfect and Bucky Barnes is a growling bastard with a thing for idiots.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

Fuck my life - don't come for me but There's Something Wrong with Steve has been sitting at 2/4 chapters for like 9 months and I actually have the last two chapters written but there's just something not clicking so I haven't posted them. I will. I WILL.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Endings - as stated, characterization, story flow, cadence, dialogue, smut scenes, minimalist world building but not a lack of - I get a lot of comments from people who also have aphantasia (we can't picture things in our heads) and I think it's because I don't describe every stupid ass tree (Tolkien, I'm talking to you)

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Crippling self doubt

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Enh, you do you boo. When I write sign language or D/deaf culture for Clint, I touched base with someone fluent in ASL but I have access to that so...

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Marvel - Bucky Barnes/Clint Barton (Winterhawk, my loves)

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Pic a favorite? Blergh. I really love when people comment on Even Flowers Have Their Dangers because it's the biggest world building thing I've ever done (there's a DND-like battle scene!) But also, What if Clint Fell has a special place in my heart because I love bashful first time gay Steve and slutty Clint figuring it out during WW2.

***

Pretty sure i just did one of these 20 questions things a few months ago so I'm gonna no pressure tag the people I'm currently collabing on bangs with so I can learn more about them: @angeleyz4ever @rufferto9 and I don't think @eviscer-8 writes fanfic but they're a bookbinder so maybe they could tweak the questions which would be interesting!

[marielaure]

[large text]

Random Grishaverse Ship Stats on AO3 because my brain and eyes got tired from reading Chaucer:

[Big Text]

I. Publication/Release Dates

[Regular Text]

Shadow and Bone: 5 June 2012

Siege and Storm: 4 June 2013

Ruin and Rising: 17 June 2014

Six of Crows: 29 September 2015

Crooked Kingdom: 20 September 2016

The Other duology series: 2019 & 2021

Shadow and Bone Season 1: 23 April 2021

Shadow and Bone Season 2: 16 March 2023

[Big Text]

II. Canon Ships

[Regular Text]

Kaz/Inej: 5011

1st: 29 December 2015

Latest: 21 August 2024

Alina/Darkling: 4665

1st: 9 August 2013

Latest: 21 August 2024

Jesper/Wylan: 4570

1st: 24 November 2015

Latest: 21 August 2024

Nina/Matthias: 2078

1st: 29 December 2015

Latest: 21 August 2024

Nikolai/Zoya: 1043

1st: 14 February 2016

Latest: 21 August 2024

Alina/Mal: 852

1st: 29 November 2013

Latest: 20 August 2024

Fedyor/Ivan: 553

1st: 24 April 2021

Latest: 19 August 2024

Genya/David: 518

1st: 22 October 2014

Latest: 21 August 2024

Tamar/Nadia: 187

1st: 25 September 2014

Latest: 18 August 2024

Nina/Hanne: 98

Adrik/Leoni: 46

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[Big Text]

III. Popular Not-Canon Ships

[Regular Text]

Kaz/Jesper: 402

1st: 19 August 2016

Latest: 17 August 2024

Alina/Nikolai: 383

1st: 21 July 2014

Latest: 19 August 2024

Nina/Inej: 189

1st: 24 February 2016

Latest: 29 July 2024

Alina/Zoya: 165

1st: 25 September 2014

Latest: 16 August 2024

Alina/Genya: 149

1st: 20 September 2017

Latest: 14 August 2024

Mal/Nikolai: 79

1st: 8 April 2020

Latest: 14 August 2024

Darkling/Kaz: 43 (why did I think there were more?)

1st: 19 April 2021

Latest: 17 August 2024

Inej/Alina: 31

1st: 16 July 2021

Latest: It’s mine! Did NOT realize that - unintentional.

——————————————

[Big Text]

IV. Miscellaneous/Other/Rare Pairs

[Regular Text]

Kaz/Wylan: 114

1st: 25 April 2021

Latest: 17 August 2024

Jesper/Inej: 69

1st: 16 June 2018

Kuwei/Jesper: 62

1st: 30 Jan. 2017

Latest: 12 August 2024

Kaz/Matthias: 62

1st: 19 April 2017

Latest: 14 August 2024

Kaz/Nina: 46

1st: 28 April 2017

Latest: 30 July 2024

Wylan/Matthias: 30

1st: 4 July 2021

Latest: 25 July 2024

Matthias/Alina: 27

1st: 1 July 2021

Latest: 30 June 2024

Matthias/Inej: 19

1st: 28 August 2019

Latest: 25 July 2024

Tolya/Inej: 11

1st: 19 March 2023

Latest: 29 April 2024

Kaz/Alina: 9 (again, thought there were more of these for some reason)

1st: 26 April 2021

Latest: 27 January 2024

Tolya/Alina: 9

1st: 13 January 2022

Latest: 21 August 2024

Nina/Alina: 7

1st: 9 May of 2021

Latest: 26 March 2023

Zoya/Inej: 5

1st: 18 May 2021

Latest: 4 June 2024

Zoya/Kaz: 5

1st: 18 October 2021

Harshaw & Oncat: 4 (We’re all so lucky, I originally searched with a slash…luckily nothing popped up. But they’re so close buddies that they made this list. Harshaw is an Inferni from the original trilogy and Oncat is his cat)

Jesper/Alina: 2

Alina/Tamar: 2

Jesper/Jordie: 1

Wylan/Alina: 0

Tamar/Inej: 0

Wylan/David: 0

BUT I ended up finding an interesting fic in the process. I read the first chapter, it’s titled “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Republican National Convention” I don’t know it’s one hell of a title given 2024.

——————————————

[Big Text]

V. Notes

[Regular Text]

*I didn’t realize until later Darkling/Alina may not be considered a “canon” ship, but they perform so well I’m not changing it 😊

*I haven’t read the latest duology so that’s why I didn’t do much for Adrik/Leoni and Nina/Hanne. The only reason I know about Zoya/Nikolai is YouTube and its popularity for only having two books setup.

*There’s only 8 fics with “Harij Ghafa” or “Inej Ghafa’s Brother” —I want to know more about this dude! I have so many headcanons and stories bouncing around my head…another time, another time.

*I broke the pattern a bit at the end

*Also, anyone who has read The Wraithling and Her Saints — my sporadic updates tag is living up to its name 😊. This fic I’m messing with the magic system, world building, history, family lineage, and personalities (?) of what feels like everything. It’s so fun, but I’ve just got to be in a very certain mindset and vibe to write it. I’m trying to make it a longer Inej/Alina fic as those are normally shorter.

*Suggestions: Comment below any ships or just platonic pairings you’d love to see more of! I actually have a Jesper & Alina story in mind, will it ever be written? Who knows. But I’d love to hear y’all’s thoughts!

*Stats as of 20 August 2024 and 21 August 2024