#[the power of friendship] fimi

[marta-bee]

I put together my Christmas wish list for family, which this year included a lot of history and politics books I've been wanting to read. It actually felt good, a low risk way to tell family this is what I stand for. But it's also a good round-up of vaguely liberal if not outright progressive titles that caught my interest, which is a rec list in its own way, so I thought I'd share.

Non-Fiction/RL-ish Books

Built from the Fire: The Epic story fo Tulsa's Greenwood District, America's Black Wall Street (Victor Luckerson)

Countdown 1960: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of the 312 Days That Changed America's Politics (Chris Wallace)

The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade (Ann Fessler)

The Message (Ta-Nehisi Coates)

Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity (Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson)

The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust (Francis S. Collins)

War (Bob Woodward)

White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy (William J. Barber)

And the more fannish ones:

The Fall of Numenor: And Other Tales from the Second Age of Middle-earth (J.R.R. Tolkien)

A Hobbit, a Wardrobe and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-18 (Joseph Loconte)

The Language of the Night: Essays on Writing, Science fiction, and Fantasy (Ursula K. LeGuin)

Norse Mythology (Neil gaiman)

A Place Called District 12: Appalachian Geography and Music in the Hunger Games (Thomas W. Paradis)

The Road to Middle-Earth: How J.R.R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology (Tom Shippey)

A Secret Vice: Tolkien on Invented Languages (Ed. Dimitra Fimi)

Star Trek: Open a CHannel: A Woman's Trek by Nana Visitor

Tolkien and the Modernists: Literary Responses to the Dark New Days of the 20th Century (Theresa Freda Nicolay)

And finally, some charity groups I suggested family and friends donate to, all of which are doing work near to my heart:

Carolinas Care Partnership [an LGBT support group around here, particularly focused on housing access, health care and therapy access, especially for people affected by HIV/AIDS but not exclusively]

Life After Hate [supporting people leaving far-right and white nationalist groups]

NC Immigrant Solidarity Fund [they do financial grants for families facing deportation, also legal and social support for all kinds of recent immigrants]

Pro Publica [doing important independent investigative journalism, and boy is their work vital]

Promising Pages [you've heard of food banks? that, but for books]

Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom [doing good work to build Jewish-Muslim solidarity, The Kid and I particularly like that they're woman-centric and spotlight some lesser-known voices]

Sojourners [a good general left-leaning evangelical group, good at producing journalism and educational resources for *cough* less progressive evangelicals, they're good at speaking that community's language]

[daily-rubbersoul-redux]

JINGLE JINGLE JINGLE - Here comes Fimi! Seems the sights have come to him! (bd-wireroses)

Oh? What could that noise be? Ijuni looks around, hoping to spot it's source. Ah, he should have brought his notebook with him... Even though he had only planned to be grocery shopping today.

[@bd-wireroses]

[daily-rubbersoul-redux]

Jacian is already standing again, and has wiped any dirt off of himself. Well, he assumedly wiped it off. Anyways.

"No, not at all; I was simply minding my own business one moment, and here the next. Ah, but do you need a hand getting up?" He offered his gloved hand out to the boy.

Ya summon anythin lately, Touma?

“I’m just about to, man! Watch!”

Touma opens up Seventh Element.

…

[68]

There’s a burst of light and white flower petals from the box as it releases what it has called forth.

…

Huh. That’s a new one.

[moriohcinematicuniverse]

Threat Assessment Report #04: “Fimi”

Summary:

「Friend Like Me」, or “Fimi”, as she has come to be known, is an independent, possibly post-mortemous Stand pending further investigation. Fimi is a current resident of Morioh who seems to have befriended a significant amount of the population, which has slowly made her exceedingly powerful, not that she needed it to begin with. Her mentality is similar to that of a particularly well-read 5-year-old, but considering the history of friendship-based abilities in the world of Stands, Fimi cannot be excluded as a threat in our current assessment of possible X-class scenarios. As such, she will be receiving a Threat Assessment Report all the same, regardless of her temperament.

Abilities:

Fimi’s abilities can be altered at any point with no limits as long as someone who considers her a mutual friend writes that capability into her book, which she is capable of summoning at will in a way similar to a Stand of her own - not entirely implausible, seeing that a Stand is meant to be an extension of one’s own self to begin with, the book can be seen as similar to a cat’s claw, which can emerge and be retracted at will.

Regardless, because of the nature of this ability, Fimi has acquired a myriad of powers she can command at will with few limitations, excepting those written by children she’s befriended, which often have limitations in order to create a more “whimsical” feel. Although this makes me like taking advantage of them less, it does not change the fact that I absolutely will.

Fimi’s most notable abilities are as such:

Invulnerability: Presumably granted to her by her user or discoverer, Fimi is incapable of receiving any form of physical harm. When something seems to be about to hurt or injure Fimi in any capacity, it will simply be deflected. Fimi can still be touched in ways that are non-violent, so it’s possible that there might be some way to “trick” her invulnerability, though as of yet we have been unable to determine a method.

Teleportation: By tapping her nose exactly three times, Fimi can teleport to any place she’s seen or heard of before. All she needs is a general concept of the location, such as a name or even a general feeling, to be able to transport herself there. As the current best method of defeating Fimi would be immobilizing her, this can become extremely difficult in theory - if one of Fimi’s arms is able to reach her nose, she can escape to any location without any indication of where she has gone. Our current intel details her ability to travel to spaces outside of our reality as well, so a failed attempt to incapacitate Fimi would set back progress on such a plan by months, if not years.

Visual Stand Reproduction: If Fimi sees another Stand manifest, she is capable of creating a similar manifestation of her own, much like her book, with the same powers. This is highly troublesome for a myriad of reasons, though it seems that Fimi favors some of her borrowed powers more than others, which could work to our advantage. It should also be noted from Fimi’s copying of 「Sell Out」 that she does not necessarily need to see the Stand itself to copy it, or even the use of its ability, as long as she sees something that contains part of its power, although this may be a stipulation only for Stands that lack ordinary physical forms.

Fimi’s mostly favored Stand seems to be 「Red Hot Chili Pepper」, which, while extremely bad for everyone for obvious reasons (and including her additional ability to use 「The Mind Electric」), at the very least is a Stand with well-documented limitations. Other Stands Fimi can command with threat potential are Love Love Nightmare and Redbone, although Fimi seems to far prefer the “nice” side of Love Love Nightmare and rarely makes use of Redbone.

Possible Countermeasures: As I understand it, Fimi can only be defeated by “support” abilities that affect targets in ways that do not involve directly damaging them. As such, none of our current operatives have any way of dealing with her directly. However, I have identified a few individuals that, if persuaded, could possibly neutralize her:

Kate McCaine: An American currently associated with the Restless Knights, McCaine’s 「Fashion Nugget」 has the ability to temporarily “rewind” anything back to a previous state of being. McCaine could then, theoretically, “rewind” Fimi to before she amassed any of her powers, removing her invulnerability long enough for our agents to dispatch or detain her.

Ichiro Kenshi: While his whereabouts are currently unknown, Ichiro Kenshi’s 「Supermassive Black Hole」 is capable of producing a sticky substance that could be used to prevent Fimi from moving and teleporting away without actually being considered a source of harm neutralized by her invulnerability. Its range limitation would require us to use Ichiro as part of her “containment”, but that would not be implausible.

Trixie Justice: Theoretically, Fimi’s invulnerability would not cancel out “attacks” that have her own body as their source, but considering Fimi’s physical form is similar to a plush toy and the inability to confirm such a thing as of this moment, this seems like a last resort at best.

Okuyasu Nijimura: Self-explanatory. Due to the nature of 「The Hand」’s powers, I find it unlikely Fimi’s invulnerability would be capable of neutralizing it.

Orlando Kincaid: Interactions between Orlando’s powers and those of independent Stands have not been seen yet, but it is possible that he would be able to somehow influence her behavior using 「Chumbawamba」. Again, likely only good for a last resort, but could be more reliable than Justice.

[daily-rubbersoul-redux]

(Bd-Wireroses - Fimi) Either Jacian is much too sleep deprived, or a tiny bunny is wandering the principal's office

Jacian had made his way back, somehow. He had been hoping to tell Taiana he was alright, but she didn't seem to be here.

...Why was there a small stuffed animal bunny walking around in here?

He was too tired to care; The room was spinning anyways, his brain was probably just playing tricks on him.

Yeah... Tricks....

Jacian stumbled forward, once again ending up on the floor face first; He was asleep before he hit the ground, and seemingly completely unharmed despite his faceplant.

[@bd-wireroses]

[moriohcinematicuniverse]

With the verbal acknowledgement of friendship, the dark magic is reignited! Inky black smoke pours out of Fimi's little plush arms and is drawn into the blot! Its voice, no longer tiny or hoarse, booms through the house!

"Yes... YES! I CAN FEEL IT! THE POWER! I HAVEN'T FELT THIS POWER IN SUCH A LONG TIME!"

The smoke from Fimi's body adds to its size, growing it up to about a tennis ball. The originally fuzzy-looking speck solidifies into a solid orb, and two bright red orbs emerge onto its surface. The last of the smoke leaves Fimi's body, and she is left no different than she was before as six tiny lines attach to the speck's underside, giving it a beetle-like appearance. It lands on the floor.

"A BODY! A VOICE! I feel REBORN! Could've asked to be a but bigger, but I'LL TAKE WHAT I CAN GET!"

Somewhere in the friendship dimension, a tiny, inky black orb no bigger than a golf ball floats aimlessly through the air... (@moriohcinematicuniverse)

@moriohcinematicuniverse

Fimi tilts her head as she looks through her telescope...she had mostly had it to be able to bring it around in reality - she never expected to see more than that Unicorn bouncing around. She opens the top floor window and Pinks one of the piano keys - a way to tell the lost little speck that someone was here. She then waves from the window.

Makes her wonder just how many other things are out there where they just don't know the other exists...

[daily-rubbersoul-redux]

He gave a surprised and happy laugh, bringing his hand up to place on her back in a effort to return the hug

JINGLE JINGLE JINGLE - Here comes Fimi! Seems the sights have come to him! (bd-wireroses)

Oh? What could that noise be? Ijuni looks around, hoping to spot it's source. Ah, he should have brought his notebook with him... Even though he had only planned to be grocery shopping today.

[@bd-wireroses]

[daily-rubbersoul-redux]

Ijuni had made his way to the kitchen as some point, and made himself a cup of coffee. He poked his head back into the bathroom just as she was finishing up. "All done?"

JINGLE JINGLE JINGLE - Here comes Fimi! Seems the sights have come to him! (bd-wireroses)

Oh? What could that noise be? Ijuni looks around, hoping to spot it's source. Ah, he should have brought his notebook with him... Even though he had only planned to be grocery shopping today.

[@bd-wireroses]