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lurksunderthebed · 1 year ago

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Ghoap Analysis/Meta (1?)

The Evolution of GhostSoap Redux

Continuing thoughts on how Ghost and Soap's relationship has changed over the course of mw(19), mwii(22) and mwiii(23)

Spread out amongst several posts. This will be long 😅

(Part 1)

BEWARE SPOILERS TO MWIII(23) !

I've had time to settle my thoughts on Ghostsoap in mwiii (23) and this will go more into depth of the re-contextualising of Ghost and Soap's relationship in mwii (22) from the verdansk mission: "Flashpoint".

Flashpoint is set 4 years to mwiii(23). The game places it as April 6, 2019. This is important to us because it sets a different potential first mission (meet cute lmao) between the two and thus changes the tone of their interactions in mwii (22)

So let's set up a timeline with the available dates. Thankfully, the game sets some very concrete dates for us. Not all missions are included.*

2019

Flashpoint - April 06, 2019

First canonical appearance of SAS Ghost and Soap

Ghost provides sniper cover for Soap

Price/Soap capture Makarov and transport him to a helo with Ghost and Shepherd

There's a failed interrogation by Ghost and Soap.

Makarov implies he has met Ghost before and thought him dead at an airport

2019 Mw(19)

Piccadilly - Oct 25, 2019

First canonical appearance of SAS Gaz

Gaz is attached to Met Counter Terrorist Police. This implies he has worked largely in his career in conjunction to the Police. It's unknown whether he met Soap or Ghost before.

First meet of Gaz and Price to combat terrorists in London

Old Comrades - Oct 31, 2019

Gaz meets Nikolai

Interrogation scene. Arguably strengthens Gaz and Price's relationship

Into the Furnace - Nov 03, 2019

Last mission, they kill general barkov

Credit Scene - Nov 03-04, 2019* (hypothetical)

Laswell and Price form task force 141

Price seconds Ghost, Soap, Gaz. This implies that Price has worked with Soap and Ghost on missions for x amount of years. It's Gaz who was the surprise recruit.

2020 Cod Warzone

Season 2 - Mar 2020

First appearance of 141 Ghost

Unknown amount of 141 stationed in Verdansk. Ghost asks for backup.

Season 3 - Apr 2020

Armistice dissolved

Price and Gaz show up to help Ghost

Implied- unknown amount of 141 to Verdansk (possible meeting of Soap and Ghost)

Season ? - Dec 2020

Price kills Zakaev

First appearance (via call) of 141 Soap asking for backup in Verdansk

Price, Ghost, Gaz, Farah etc backup Soap who is somewhere else in Verdansk getting pinned down by enemies

2022 Mwii(22)

Strike - July 15, 2022

Ghost calls an airstrike on Ghorbrani with the aid of Shadow Company

Hindsight - Aug 12, 2022

Shepherd/Shadow Company loses American missiles to terroists

Kill or Capture - Oct 28, 2022

Ghost gets assigned Soap as his sergeant for Al Mazhrah mission to kill or capture Hassan

They find American missiles instead

Cartel Protection - Oct 30, 2022

Ghost/Soap meet Ale/Rudy in Las Almas

They fight the Mexican army under control of the cartels

RV with Graves/Shadow Comp.

El Sin Nombre - Nov 01, 2022

Soap infils cartel mansion

Valeria is revealed as El Sin Nombre

They take her into custody

Dark Water - Nov 02, 2022

Boat/oil rig mission with Shadow company

Missile launch averted by Ghost, Soap and Graves

Alone - Nov 03, 2022

Graves and Shepherd betray 141/mexi bros

Ghost and Soap get out of Las Almas

RV at ale's hideout with Rudy

Prison Break - Nov 03, 2022

Ghost, Soap, Rudy break out ale from prison

Meet up with Price/Gaz

Ghost Team - Nov 03, 2022

141 with mexi bros take back mexi bros base

Soap and Rudy "kill" Graves

Countdown - Nov 04, 2022

Stop missile launch in Chicago

Ghost and Soap kill Hassan

2023 Mwiii (23)

Operation 627 - Oct 13, 2023

Makarov breaks out of prison

Reactor - Nov 10, 2023

141 find out that Makarov escaped

141 assaults konni base

Price finds chemical weapons (almost died)

Payload - Nov 11, 2023

141 split up to stop missile launch of chemical weapons

They fail to stop 2 missiles to Russia

Oligarch - Nov 12, 2023

Ghost/Soap island mission to find Makarov's financier

Interrogation of Milena for Makarov's location

Frozen Tundra - Nov 14, 2023

141 ambush konni convoy

Find Shepherd was Makarov's prisoner

Interrogate him on Makarov's location

Gora Dam - Nov 16, 2023

Ghost/Soap split up to stop chemical weapons in Verdansk

Trojan Horse - Nov 21, 2023

141 split up in London tunnels to stop Makarov from using chemical weapons in subway system

So now that's done. I've mostly ignored Farah and Alex and focused on Price, Ghost, Gaz, Soap and Nikolai as it pertains to relationships within the core group of Price/Ghost/Gaz/Soap.

What can we make of this ?

Well, a couple things.

We can now say that from 2019 to the events of "Kill or Capture" in 2022, Ghost and Soap have most likely worked together on missions before. The timeline shows that they at least had to have met in Dec 2020 in Verdansk as Soap had called for backup to Price and group.

That makes it actually at least 3 years of knowledge of each other prior to mwii(22). So a total of 4 years + potentially at the start of mwiii(23).

It also shows us how quickly their relationship changed from the Alone mission in '22 despite the 3 years of prior knowledge they had since '19.

Let it be said that it took 1 week, ONLY 7 DAYS!! to change Ghost and Soap's relationship. 7 days out of a total at least 3 years total.

Ghost started at not even bothering to name Soap in 2019, to presumably basic Soap/Mactavish/sergeant for the next 3 years.

Cut to the events in mwii(22). Lets say beginning at "Kill or Capture" and finishing at "Alone" and suddenly Ghost ends up having made up his own personal nickname that no one else can use for Soap in just those 7 days.

I posit that this was in part due to "Kill or Capture" in '22 being the first mission that Soap has directly worked under Ghost's command.

This is all hypotheticals and guesswork so take it as you may.

Assuming Ghost was mainly a solo mission sort of guy, let's also assume he mostly helped as sniper overwatch if he ever had team missions (like in Flashpoint). Most 141 missions have him taking that position as well, so it's safe to say he is support most of the time.

Given that assumption, it's also likely that Soap and Ghost had to have interacted mainly on comms and any physical meeting would be restricted to transport via heli or otherwise.

It's possible Soap and Ghost have worked together on a more physical basis (aka Ghost leading Soap on a squad), but given how much Ghost seemed to be testing Soap in "Kill or Capture" I find that somewhat unlikely.

In 2019 we see how brusque Ghost is with Soap. It's very likely that Ghost was largely monosyllabic with Soap pre or post missions to Flashpoint.

Considering Soap's propensity to chatter in 2022 and 2023, it's also very likely Soap annoyed the hell out of Ghost on comms. Lol.

This could explain why Ghost was so dismissive of having Soap as his sergeant in "Kill or Capture", despite working together 3 years ago.

I, and arguably most of fandom had theorised that "Kill or Capture" was the first mission that Soap and Ghost ever had together. And we weren't quite right, but we weren't completely wrong either.

With Flashpoint, it's obvious now that was not quite true. It even suggests in it that Ghost and Soap had worked together prior to even that, as there was no formal introduction between the two.

This dramatically changes how Ghost's dialogue and Soap's to a lesser degree can be read in mwii(22) and implies much much more if you consider how they interact with each other in '23.

So why does it matter when Ghost and Soap's relationship started?

With mwiii(23) we can now definitively tell when Ghost and Soap's relationship changed. We now have a rough basis of a timeline and we can track down the differences between '19 -'22 and then '22- '23. Its important because we can see how their relationship deepens and how it changed within a span of 3 years, 7 compelling days and 1 heartwrenching year later.

For all that mwiii(23) was lax with explicit Ghostsoap moments, it's rich in how much context we gain to their relationship. We see how Ghost changes and how his relationships differ between 141. It's an interesting and compelling look at both Ghost and Soap's characters.

In this discussion I separate this analysis into 3 parts. Part 2 will cover the implications of "Flashpoint" on mwii (22), with discussion line by line. Part 3 will most likely go over comparisons a year makes from the events in '22 to '23. (This might be subject to change as I get further into the analysis)

Onto Part 2.

#ghostsoap #cod mw3 #cod mwiii #john soap mactavish #simon ghost riley #soapghost #ghost x soap #simon riley #call of duty #meta #analysis #soap x ghost #soap mactavish #soap cod #mw3 spoilers #cod mwii #call of duty modern warfare

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mariacallous · 6 months ago

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“Join Your Local Militia or III% Patriot Group,” a post urged the more than 650 members of a Facebook group called the Free American Army. Accompanied by the logo for the Three Percenters militia network and an image of a man in tactical gear holding a long rifle, the post continues: “Now more than ever. Support the American militia page.”

Other content and messaging in the group is similar. And despite the fact that Facebook bans paramilitary organizing and deemed the Three Percenters an “armed militia group" on its 2021 Dangerous Individuals and Organizations List, the post and group remained up until WIRED contacted Meta for comment about its existence.

Free American Army is just one of around 200 similar Facebook groups and profiles, most of which are still live, that anti-government and far-right extremists are using to coordinate local militia activity around the country.

After lying low for several years in the aftermath of the US Capitol riot on January 6, militia extremists have been quietly reorganizing, ramping up recruitment and rhetoric on Facebook—with apparently little concern that Meta will enforce its ban against them, according to new research by the Tech Transparency Project, shared exclusively with WIRED.

Individuals across the US with long-standing ties to militia groups are creating networks of Facebook pages, urging others to recruit “active patriots” and attend meetups, and openly associating themselves with known militia-related sub-ideologies like that of the anti-government Three Percenter movement. They’re also advertising combat training and telling their followers to be “prepared” for whatever lies ahead. These groups are trying to facilitate local organizing, state by state and county by county. Their goals are vague, but many of their posts convey a general sense of urgency about the need to prepare for “war” or to “stand up” against many supposed enemies, including drag queens, immigrants, pro-Palestine college students, communists—and the US government.

These groups are also rebuilding at a moment when anti-government rhetoric has continued to surge in mainstream political discourse ahead of a contentious, high-stakes presidential election. And by doing all of this on Facebook, they’re hoping to reach a broader pool of prospective recruits than they would on a comparatively fringe platform like Telegram.

“Many of these groups are no longer fractured sets of localized militia but coalitions formed between multiple militia groups, many with Three Percenters at the helm,” said Katie Paul, director of the Tech Transparency Project. “Facebook remains the largest gathering place for extremists and militia movements to cast a wide net and funnel users to more private chats, including on the platform, where they can plan and coordinate with impunity.”

Paul told WIRED that she’s been monitoring “hundreds” of militia-related groups and profiles since 2021 and has observed them growing “increasingly emboldened with more serious and coordinated organizing” in the past year.

One particularly influential account in this Facebook ecosystem belongs to Rodney Huffman, leader of the Confederate States III%, an Arkansas-based militia that, in 2020, sought to rally extremists at Georgia’s Stone Mountain, a popular site for Confederate and white supremacist groups. Huffman has created a network of Facebook groups and spreads the word about local meetups. His partner, Dabbi Demere, is equally active and on a mission to recruit “active” patriots into the groups. Huffman and Demere are also key players in the pro-Confederate movement known as “Heritage, not Hate.”

Before Meta shut it down, the pair ran Free American Army, which drew in individuals from several militias, including the Kentucky 3 Percenters, the Virginia Liberty Guard, and the Florida-based Guardians of Freedom, a group that was mentioned in the final January 6 report and whose members were among those arrested in connection with the Capitol attack. Free American Army also included a known activist in the far-right extremist Boogaloo movement. At least one user in the group claimed in their profile to be active-duty military; another claimed to work for the Bureau of Prisons.

“We have (and still do) traveled across our country standing up for our constitution, and have met most of you face to face. There's no time like the present to come together and organize our states, to build them stronger with true patriots (not people pretending to be Patriots and using groups for dating sites),” Demere wrote in a post last year. “We are relying on each and every one of you to keep us informed about what's going on in your state by bringing the information to us.” Demere and Huffman are also admins for a larger, public group called Freedom Across America, which has more than 2,000 members and is more focused on current-event commentary than militia building. But public groups play a key role in drawing in prospective recruits whom administrators can then funnel into smaller, more extreme private channels. Huffman and Demere did not respond to multiple requests from WIRED for comment.

The groups haven’t faced a lot of pushback from social media platforms: Though some of them have now been taken down, this network is just the latest example of a “banned” extremist coalition operating on Facebook, exposing Meta’s inconsistent approach to content moderation. Other reports in the past year have flagged that anti-immigrant border militias and the anti-government Boogaloo movement had rebuilt on the platform, despite being banned. In 2021, The Intercept obtained and published a reproduction of an internal Facebook document containing a blacklist of all 986 “dangerous individuals and organizations” the platform had banned. The majority of entities banned were “militarized social movements,” including the Three Percenters.

“We are removing the groups and accounts that violate our policies,” said a Meta spokesperson in an email to WIRED. “This is an adversarial space, where actors constantly try to find new ways around our policies, which is why we keep investing heavily in people, technology, research, and partnerships to keep our platforms safe.”

But Meta’s critics say the company is failing to allocate the necessary resources to address the problem.

Meta “has not improved its moderation efforts,” says Paul. “The company’s failure to effectively address these issues despite its billions in revenue, technological advances, and engineering talent proves that the policies it regularly touts are no more than a public relations ruse rather than actual efforts to combat harm.”

Last year, Meta conducted massive layoffs that reportedly led to the company ending more than 200 content moderators’ contracts. Earlier this week, The Washington Post reported that there may soon be layoffs at the Oversight Board, a Meta-funded organization that oversees the company’s content moderation.

“There is the reality that neither social media platforms nor domestic law enforcement understand how they should respond to the online spaces that incubate domestic violent extremism,” says Jon Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism. “This issue has become even more glaring as these movements intersect with the mainstream, especially as it relates to election disinformation and conspiracies.”

These networks of public and private Facebook pages may also indicate that the militia movement—which had retreated from the public sphere and, in some cases, distanced itself from the term militia altogether—is considering a comeback.

At a recent conference for constitutional sheriffs in Las Vegas, conspiracy theorist and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne called for citizens to form militia cells and to “build alliances with the militias” in response to migrants at the US-Mexico border. In Michigan, which has long been a hotbed for paramilitary activity, a township established a militia in response to the state’s new “red flag law,” which allows the temporary confiscation of firearms from individuals believed to be at risk of harming themselves or other people. And earlier this year, in the most significant mobilization of the far right since January 6, rhetoric about an immigrant “invasion” galvanized a convoy to the border and rallied extremists, including individuals with militia ties. Since last spring, the Justice Department has charged several individuals linked to the North Carolina Patriot Party and the 2nd American Militia with violent plots to allegedly travel to the border, target migrants, and start a war. Politicians know militias are a problem: Earlier this year, Democrats introduced federal legislation in the form of the Preventing Private Paramilitary Activity Act, but the bill has yet to advance.

“What January 6 showed, despite the incompetence of the Oath Keepers, was that the threat was—and is still—the network, not a single organization,” says Lewis.

Many of the Facebook groups in this growing network are focused on local militia organizing, such as the Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia.

“In light of the violence and uncertainty in the world, Covid 19 shortages, civil unrest, and potential for terrorist attacks and natural calamity, we exist to equip our members,” the administrator for the Pennsylvania Light Foot group, which has more than 1,000 members, wrote last month. “Our aim is to equip them with the ability to defend themselves, whether it be a mugger on the street or foreign soldier on our lawn.” The group has linked itself more firmly to the word militia recently—until March, they had called themselves the Guns of Pennsylvania.

The Arizonans State Civilian Guard is another recently formed group on Facebook. It’s run by Bryan Masche, a reality TV personality from the show Raising Sextuplets and a failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate who has spread election conspiracies and, more than a decade ago, pleaded guilty to domestic violence misdemeanor charges. The goal of the guard, according to its bio, is “advocating and organizing as the People in order to activate the Unorganized Militia.” In February, Masche shared a link to a Wikipedia page for the 1946 Battle of Athens, when civilians led an armed revolt against their local government. “Learn your History Folks,” Masche wrote. “The Battle of Athens, Georgia was the last successful Armed Rebellion in the United States since the Revolutionary War.” (The battle actually occurred in Tennessee, not Georgia. Masche did not respond to multiple requests from WIRED for comment.)

Matthew Robinson, who was affiliated with the Florida militia Guardians of Freedom, has recently been recruiting on Facebook for the Florida chapter of another network called the American Patriot III%—also referred to as APIII or AP3. He’s also touting “warrior survival training.”

“Are you prepared for what's coming? You think they're going to hand this back over, they have NO intention,” Robinson wrote in a recent Facebook post, along with the URL for the American Patriot III% website. “In our world today, the word ‘militia’ has many negative connotations including white supremacy,” the group says on its website, despite claiming not to be a militia itself. “Any militia is painted by the media today as a hate group.” (APIII is also explicitly blacklisted by Facebook as a “dangerous organization.”) Robinson did not respond to requests from WIRED for comment.

Facebook has long been a go-to hub for militia organizing. In 2020, social upheaval from the Covid-19 pandemic and racial justice protests created the ideal conditions for militias to act out their survivalist, vigilante, and anti-government fantasies.

In August, amid growing concerns about paramilitary and extremist activity in the US, Meta (then Facebook) announced updates to its Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy. It took sweeping action against pages, groups, and profiles associated with an array of extremist networks, including militias and their memeified cousins, the Boogaloo Bois. For a while, those extremists decamped to fringe sites such as MeWe, Parler, and MyMilitia.

But by the end of 2020, it was evident that the long-simmering militia movement still posed a clear and present threat. After January 6, 2021, when dozens of militia members joined forces with hordes of Trump supporters to storm the US Capitol in an attempt to block Joe Biden from becoming president, Facebook was widely blamed for allowing election conspiracies to flourish on the platform unchecked.

With the militia movement under intense scrutiny and even more paranoid than usual following January 6, it retreated from the streets. Some Oath Keeper chapters disbanded entirely; others scrambled to distance themselves from the optics of the Capitol riot by rebranding. Arizona’s Oath Keeper chapter, for example, rebranded and became the Yavapai County Preparedness Team. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of Oath Keeper chapters went from 70 in 2020 to five in 2022. For a moment, it was almost as if militia had become a dirty word, even among people in the movement.

But experts have cautioned that although militias have been less visible recently, that doesn’t mean they’ve gone away. Periods of intense scrutiny—following the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, for example—have resulted in lulls in public activity for as long as the modern paramilitary movement has been around. If anything, this time their anti-government rhetoric has only tightened its grasp on the mainstream.

“You don't need to be a card-carrying member of a militia group to go down the anti-government rabbit hole. For the most part, the anti-government extremist ideology has become intertwined with the mainstream on the right,” says Lewis. “The same umbrella movement that attacked the Capitol on January 6 has happily absorbed any conspiracies that further their goals, and has increasingly gained followers from across the right-wing ecosystem.”

The potential reemergence of the militia movement coincides with an increased romanticization of January 6, as well as deepening hostilities toward the federal government due to the prosecution of Capitol rioters and former president Donald Trump.

Polling conducted earlier this year of more than 1,000 Americans found that one in five Americans “strongly agree” that violence is the only viable solution to get the country back on track. Although the societal conditions heading into this year’s election are not the same as those in 2020, a newly emboldened militia movement could add a dangerous dimension to potentially fraught future events, such as a judge handing down a prison sentence for Trump or Trump losing another close presidential election.

“Nothing brings the freaks out of the woodwork like a presidential election,” says Lewis. “You've already seen the election denialism and threats to public officials ramping up, and the narratives and grievances—from the border to college campuses and somehow, inevitably, Soros and the ‘globalists’—are in place.”

And some of this is already taking place on Facebook.

In the Free America Army Facebook group, Huffman recently posted an Instagram reel made by an account called packingpatriot.2 that has 140,000 followers. The video includes dialog from the 1993 Western film Tombstone, played over footage of Trump's rally preceding the January 6 riot. Text appears: “When the government tries to steal the election again and they think we’ll just sit and take it … It won’t be like the last time … Just remember, they started it … We just wanted to be left alone … We prefer ballots over bullets … But …”

The video then cuts to a graphic of the preamble to the Constitution and an American flag, surrounded by flames.

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cantsayidont · 8 months ago

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MOTHERLAND: FORT SALEM (2020–2022): Extremely frustrating bootlicking modern fantasy series, set in an alternate America in which witches with genuine supernatural powers are required by law to submit to military conscription upon their 18th birthdays. The show follows three new witch cadets, Tally Craven (Jessica Sutton), Abigail Bellweather (Ashley Nicole Williams), and Raelle Collar (Taylor Hickson), as they go through basic training to join a magical War on Terror against a ruthless terrorist organization called the Spree — of which Raelle's new girlfriend Scylla (Amalia Holm Bjelke) is secretly an agent.

Although the premise is truly cringeworthy, the first season offers some intriguing worldbuilding (including a novel treatment of the witches' magic, which is called "work" and based on sound) and paints a surprisingly dark picture of the witch army — so dark that it starts to seem like the original intent might have been closer to Paul Verhoeven's STARSHIP TROOPERS than a supernatural TOP GUN. Despite all its unsavory flag-waving, the Season One storyline touches on the dehumanizing effects of military training, the Army's use of torture, the grim consequences of refusing conscription, and even the negative environmental impact of military witches' "work"; the season's climax then has the witches' rather sinister commanding general (Lyne Renée) — a 300-year-old witch who survives by literally stealing the youth from volunteers and who is apparently plotting a military coup — ordering the green recruits to commit an atrocity that has significant civilian casualties.

The second season, however, immediately beats a cowardly retreat from any criticism or questioning of the Army or its leadership, shrugging off the disturbing events of the previous season (without actually undoing or contradicting anything that was previously shown, including the atrocity the protagonists committed!) and shifting focus to a stupid, unpleasantly grisly new conflict with an ancient secret society of witch-hunting bigots that threatens all witches. This conflict also occupies the the third season, which drifts yet further afield with some oddball revelations about the ultimate source of witch magic and culminates in a finale that somehow manages to elide all of the actual conflicts established in the show.

The first season has enough points of interest to suggest an opportunity missed, but the increasingly repugnant jingoism and the later seasons' obnoxiously woolly mysticism (even by the standards of a show about military witches) become harder and harder to tolerate even on a dopey nerd show level, and of the ostensible core cast, only Scylla gets anything approaching substantive characterization. CONTAINS LESBIANS? Yes, but you'll hate yourself in the morning. VERDICT: If you can stomach the basic premise (Mazel tov!), the first season (and only the first season) might be worth a look, but the rest goes from bad to worse.

#teevee #hateration holleration #motherland fort salem #jessica sutton #ashley nicole williams #taylor hickson #amalia holm #lyne renée #the cruel thing about the first season #is that it gives the misleading impression that the show #might be capable of transcending (or inverting) its own jingoism #which makes the subsequent reactionary shit worse #than if it had just been top gun with witches from the start #i know many viewers stuck it out for raella and scylla #but raelle is so sidelined in the later seasons that there's no emotional momentum there #and it's pinkwashing #which sits very ill given the show's disturbing militarism #pinkwashing #look it up

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wolves-against-the-world · 1 year ago

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Lycanthropy and the Body in Medieval Europe

Sourced from: Riddarvold, Stian (2023): Medieval perceptions of the Other in an extranormal community: The Case of Cornelius Vogelsang. Journal of Lycanthropic History, 2(3).

The perception of Monstrosity and Otherness in Medieval Europe has been analyzed in literature from the Icelandic sagas (Merkelbach, 2014) to Beowolf (Fahey, 2019; Cavell, 2014). [...] The Army of the Night (Exercitus noctis) is not documented well, many documents being destroyed upon its dissolution in the 1300s. Despite this, there has been a recent uptick in research about this unique military and social structure. Exclusively consisting of lycanthropes, it was still largely governed by medieval perceptions of monstrousness contingent with human society. This study will examine the norms surrounding monstrosity and the body in a lycanthropic context and their enforcement through the documented court case against Cornelius Vogelsang. Additionally, interviews were conducted with three werewolves who witnessed the trial, which will be referred to as P, Z, and M.

The Army of the Night was a military unit founded and led by Emicho VI., also known as Emicho the Crusader (ca. 1050-2020), to aid the crusades. The Army of the Night is only scarcely documented in official church records, though Emicho appears frequently in the Gesta Francorum and Historia Francorum. He is described as a capable, if ruthless, military leader building a strike force apart from the main, i.e. human, crusaders. While the lycanthropic nature of that force is not named directly, Gesta Francorum indicates a level of disconnect between the fighting units, describing the Army of the Night as simply "strange" (prodigiosus). After the failure of the first crusade, there is a large hole in the documentation, with Emicho and his troops only appearing in fragments. For a more general overview see Vanderbilt, 1989.

Monstrosity and Monstrousness in the Army of the Night

In the Middle Ages, monstrousness was a metaphor as well as a real state inherently linked to the soul. Monstrousness as a whole was heavily confounded with race, disability, and marginalization in literature and was heavily linked to the body. It was assumed that wickedness or sin would show on the body, the damnation of the soul made flesh here and in the afterlife. Unlike in many Christian faiths today, the soul was not seen as separate from the body. The state of the soul was reflected on the body and vice versa. Another important component was the mind: Reasoning ability was assumed to be inherently human, while the monstrous only followed instincts. The damned were thus made monstrous by the rejection of their very existence as a thinking being.

In the period of the Army's assembly and operations, monstrousness was not seen as inherently damning, as in, it was reversible. Repentance could still save the soul.

As eldritch lycanthropes change on a molecular level, they were permanently made monstrous, and were thus damned by merely existing. However, the visible signs of lycanthropy progress with age, giving rise to the idea that there was a timeframe in which one could still reverse the process. (see document B26-3682)

[Fragment of latin text describing a transformation and the idea that there is a way to "save" a werewolf]

The timeframes vary between 30-100 years, which correlates with the lifespans of werewolves in the Army of the Night as estimated by my interview partners (transcripts in Appendix A-C).

Werewolf P was a high-ranking officer in the Army and worked closely with Emicho VI. In regard to the Army's concept of salvation, he stated:

"If they [the chosen recruits] survived the turning, they were brought into the camp. They were told it was a punishment for their sins - that it came directly from God instead of, hm, that they were just unlucky I suppose. [...] It was a sin to be a werewolf, and you became a werewolf by sinning, so unless you were saved before the beast took over completely, you would be damned forever. Of course people figured out that it was Emicho and his officers who were turning people, but the fear kept them in line. Turning someone without permission and hiding it was also punishable by death. Not that most lived very long. They thought dying for the cause could save them."

This idea was reinforced by a lycanthropic trait that has not been studied outside of folklore until the modern day. When dying, the body will take the shape that is most aligned with the phase of the moon. Calculating the moonphase for recorded battles shows that most were fought during half or new moon. A dying wolf would thus turn back to humanoid form and seemingly confirm that they had been saved. This of course was only true for wolves young enough to not show outward signs that a medieval person could pick up on. Once again, this reinforced the time pressure the recruits faced.

Burial, too, was contingent on their body's and thus soul's state.

[...]

The case of Cornelius Vogelsang

To show how monstrousness informed social relationships even within an extranormal community, I will now examine the court case against Cornelius Vogelsang, a member of the Army of the Night that was executed on the fifth of March 1218 on account of sodomy and heresy. What makes this case interesting is that it is the only one still preserved in some detail.

The person in question first appears as either Hussein ibn al-Rahmud or Hassan ibn al-Rahmad in the list of new recruits on the retreat after the disastrous loss at Hattin (1187). He was recorded to be 20 years old, which is not out of place in the Army of the Night. (See document A34-3442)

A supplementary interview with the werewolf Z confirmed that Vogelsang had likely grow up Muslim, but "he didn't like to speak of it". (Appendix B) The name Cornelius Vogelsang appears first in the Army's 1188 census alongside the older name. He seemed to have christianized his name in order to fit in with the Europeans. The appendix "Vogelsang" was apparently given in reference to his singing prowess. In between his recruitment and sentencing there is no surviving documentation of his existence or actions.

The trial commenced in early February 1218. The town cannot be identified conclusively due to damage to the parchment, but the record was found in the abbey of St. John in Alzey. While this abbey was only founded in 1290, it still points towards the trial taking place in the region.

Vogelsang was indicted on charges of heresy and sodomy. He was accused of preaching heresies to young recruits, such as lycanthropy not being a reversible curse, but a natural state of being. In a second charge he was also accused of sodomy with an unknown man that could not be identified in the course of the trial. Document A44-3448 describes the other person involved as "indictus" (unnamed), which implies that the identity was known, but the person was not to be charged.

[Scan and transcript of the page detaiing the court proceedings.]

Sodomy in this period was defined as any sexual act not intended for procreation. In the Army of the Night, this rule extended to all sexual activity, as siring children while monstrous was perceived as a major threat both theologically and realistically. This did not mean the werewolves did not seek out women, but by the decree of 1123, any offspring was to be killed as soon as possible. [...] The primary affront of homosexual acts was not its usually recreational nature, but the "perversion of natural law" of one person taking on the role of the opposite sex. (Hart, 1990) [...]

Vogelsang was described as a "large, blue man" with "shoulders like oxen and hands like shovels". Blue in this context refers to all darker colors and was often used in texts to also denote wickedness, possibly with a racialized undertone (Sigurdsdottír, 2018). The description of his strength also marks him as threatening. In the following paragraph, he is described as wearing his hair in the style of a woman, and his "beard [does] not hide his weakness". This description makes sense when connected with the accusations of an unknown witness, who claims to have found Vogelsang "subdued and taking the part of the woman", i.e. being the receiving partner.

Vogelsang was sentenced to death by burning, and his eyes were gouged out as to forbid him from seeing God's splendor. This sentence is notably brutal, as most other documented death sentences were either executed through beheading or a silver dagger to the heart. It is not too far-fetched to assume the sentence was meant to be a deterrent. The destruction of the body was a highly symbolic act. It proclaimed Vogelsang to be beyond salvation, thus he was considered to have lost his soul and the privilege of burial.

Assuming all accusations are true, Cornelius Vogelsang knew that the soldiers were being lied to, and tried to disprove or at least challenge the reigning narrative. With said narrative as his primary tool, Emicho had good reason to fear an erosion of his power.

Vogelsang's identity (in the modern sense) also made him vulnerable: While race was not conceptualized the way it is today, being Middle Eastern could have been a visible reminder of his status as a convert. Z, who described himself as a "half-gypsy", recounted several instances of prejudice because of his appearance being used to challenge his status as a Christian.

The last of my three interview partners, M, added a completely new and unknown perspective. According to him, while there certainly was "some political shit going on", the sodomy accusation had actually resulted from jealousy. The accuser had previously been rejected by Vogelsang, and the accusation had been revenge. (see Appendix C)

The only defending voice in the trial came from an unnamed officer, whose description has been erased, seemingly on purpose.

[Scan of a document that had an entire paragraph scratched out]

The remaining account merely states that he protested the sentence and was silenced by his superior, one Bishop Anghelescu. Despite the intervention, the officer was sentenced to whipping and being marked by claw, i.e. having a visible part of his body scarred. The nature of this punishment served to make his monstrousness - in this case supporting a sinner - physically apparent.

Monstrousness as a state of damnation-until-saved informed both the social structures of the Army and the identity of werewolves within the group. At the same time, these concepts were used by Emicho VI. and the Catholic church as a whole to enact control upon a highly organized and effective strike force. Monstrousness was tied to gender, sexuality, religion, and race. Deviations both voluntary and involuntary could be cause for punishment including death. The case Vogelsang illustrates this use of theology in the name of control and power, as enacted by Emicho VI.

#lycanthrope #werewolf #wolves against the world #worldbuilding #original character #academia #cornelius vogelsang #i rote this instead of my actual uni stuff

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codmw2019-2022 · 10 months ago

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Modern Warfare® Campaign: Biographies of the Story’s Major Players.

Part 4: Nikolai

May 8, 2020 by Call of Duty Staff

Nikolai

Nikolai is the code name of a former soldier of the Russian Army. Accused but never officially proven of being an informant against Ultranationalists, Nikolai was an intelligence asset to MI6 and a confidential source of the British SAS. His birth name and place are classified.

Early in his career, Nikolai was sent to guard the Soviet embassy in Copenhagen. During this duty, he expressed disenchantment with Russian foreign policy, which resulted in extensive efforts by Western��interests to recruit him. When Nikolai was reassigned to the Russian Embassy in London, MI6 ‘made contact’ with the young and outspoken Russian.

Reliable friend and confidant, Nikolai is a self-proclaimed “weapons enthusiast” who plays by his own rules. He speaks fluent English, Russian, German and 5 other languages. A proven resource and bona fide ‘fixer’ with connections both above and below the law, he is a reliable ally who can get almost anything, anywhere, anytime. Nikolai is a soldier at heart, a man who will go to the ends of the earth for a friend and even further for an enemy.

Nikolai is a true Russian patriot but he’s also Captain Price’s go-to man when the job requires discretion and dirty work. Nikolai provided key intel and equipment during the allied raid on General Roman Barkov’s illicit chemical weapons lab, and added a new friend in militia leader Farah Karim, a staunch anti-Russian fighter, by proving that he’s willing to choose right over wrong no matter how heavy the fog of war. Nikolai, along with CIA station chief Kate Laswell, Sergeant Kamarov, and Captain Price head-up Armistice, an alliance formed to defend Verdansk following the 2019 Al-Qatala incursion into the region. He is the commanding officer of Allegiance squad, Chimera.

#call of duty #call of duty modern warfare #cod modern warfare #cod mw19 #call of duty modern warfare 2019 #task force 141 #cod 141 #tf 141 #operator bio #cod nikolai

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californiastatelibrary · 1 year ago

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Tom Kobayashi, pictured here at the Manzanar Internment Camp in 1943, went on to become a respected sound engineer who ran George Lucas’s postproduction facility Skywalker Sound. After Manzanar, Kobayashi went on to serve in the US Army from 1946 to 1951, and later graduated from USC in 1953 with a business degree. His Hollywood career began inauspiciously as an accounting clerk at a film lab.

After over 20 years of running audio postproduction at Glen Glenn Sound, George Lucas recruited Kobayashi to his new Skywalker Sound division under Lucasfilm in 1985. Kobayashi finished constructing a 700,000-square-foot postproduction facility north of San Francisco equipped with top-notch technology developed by Droidworks (another Lucasfilm division), which was an R&D arm that would jumpstart Pixar.

Kobayashi passed away in 2020 but left behind a legacy of postproduction innovation that changed the sound and film landscapes.

#Sound Engineering #George Lucas #Lucasfilm #Skywalker Sound #Hollywood #AANHPI Month #AAPI Month #AANHPI #AAPI

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viktorviolettaenterprises · 1 year ago

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Rainbow 6 Siege Twitch +Elite Twitch

@cctreasuretrove @sssvitlanz

Emmanuelle Pichon, codenamed Twitch, is an Attacking Operator featured in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege Pichon grew up in a family of academics in the historic city of Nancy, France, where the children were encouraged to excel in Math, Science, and Technology. Early participation in sponsored computer programming competitions led to her joining the army cadets at sixteen. Almost immediately her talent was recognized, particularly in robotics. Her superiors quickly encouraged Pichon to study engineering while continuing her career in the military with the GIGN. From the start, Pichon's focus has been on adaptable technology that aids soldiers in the field. While there is much praise for her technological achievements, Pichon's tactical prowess and ability to problem solve quickly and efficiently make her a crucial operational asset.

In 2015, Pichon was led by Olivier "Lion" Flament on a mission to Nigeria to assist medical personnel fighting the Ebola epidemic. Tragedy ensued, and the decisions Flament made for safety reasons put him at odds with Pichon and Gustave "Doc" Kateb, who blamed him for the death of several medical personnel on-site including Kateb's colleague. Later that year, Pichon's unique combination of talents made her well-suited to join Rainbow.

In 2016, Pichon met Taina "Caveira" Pereira and had some kind of relationship with her, but to what extent remains currently unknown. While not deployed on missions, Pichon proved invaluable for Rainbow's R&D Department. She assisted in the improvement of the team's equipment and was noted to have helped Elena "Mira" Álvarez in the development of Morowa "Clash" Evans' CCE Shield in 2017. In early 2018, Pichon assisted Rainbow's new CBRN Threat Unit with a situation concerning a mysterious mist on the shores of Sussex. During the operation, Pichon provided Olivier Flament with a new aerial drone that allowed him to determine the source of the mist plume. In 2019, Pereira went AWOL in Bolivia in order to search for her brother. Pichon and Meghan "Valkyrie" Castellano subsequently collaborated with Ghost Recon to conduct Operation Archangel in order to recover Caveira which proved to be a success.

In June 2020, Pichon and Julien "Rook" Nizan were in Paris, France when two large fires emerged downtown. The GIGN deployed the pair and several other officers to keep order from the chaos caused by the fire. Having faced a similar situation during training under The Program, Pichon and Nizan suspected the fires had been started in order to distract from a major bank heist across the city. They tracked and confronted the robbers who started firing at them. Nizan was shot in the head but was saved by his helmet. Pichon and Nizan then pursued the robbers across Paris in a high-speed motorcycle chase and eventually caught them.

In 2022, Pichon was placed on Rainbow's new humanitarian squad, Wolfguard, under the leadership of Gustave "Doc" Kateb. She and Gilles "Montagne" Touré later traveled to Belgium to recruit Ngoma "Sens" Mutombo into Rainbow. weeks later, Pichon and Doc acted as control for Operation Vector Glare. The pair directed Montagne, Sens, and Olivier "Lion" Flament to rescue of an architect who was being held hostage at a refinery by local militia. It was believed that this architect held schematics that would detail how Nighthaven was involved in Masayuki Yahata's assassination. Once the architect was secured, the three operatives rendezvoused with Pichon and the rest of Wolfguard. ✟ Mesh Originally From Ubisoft, Converted to XNALARA By My DeviantART Friend,BlinKJisooXPS and Converted to Sims 4 By Me

✟ HQ compatible

✟ Custom thumbnail

✟ welcome to tag me [✟] DOWNLOAD HERE

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lulu2992 · 8 months ago

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Exploration of the now-offline Far Cry 5 official websites

Part 4: Game Info (Europe)

Recovered content

The European website was first archived on October 9th, 2017, almost five months after the announcement and before the release of Far Cry 5. On the home page, after an image of the “key art” (see under the cut) and an invitation to watch this video...

youtube

...there was the ABOUT THE GAME section:

FREEDOM Set in beautiful Montana, an incredible Open World. Hope County welcomes you to the Land of the Free. FAMILY Led by The Father and commanded by The Heralds, Eden’s Gate preys on those hopeless folks who have fallen into economical and psychological despair. FIREARMS From shotguns to slingshots, this toy chest is stocked, locked and loaded with every piece of steel you’ll need to take down the Cult. Lead a resistance against a fanatical cult in small town, U.S.A., where Freedom, Firearms, and the Project at Eden’s Gate rule above all else. Lead a resistance against a fanatical cult in small town, U.S.A., where Freedom, Firearms, and the Project at Eden’s Gate rule above all else.

Clicking “More Info” took you to the GAME INFO page, which wasn’t archived before March 10th, 2018, and looked like this at least until February 7th, 2020 (last available archive):

FREEDOM, FAMILY & FIREARMS Welcome to Hope County, Montana, home to a fanatical doomsday cult known as The Project at Eden’s Gate that is threatening the community's freedom. Stand up to the cult’s leader, Joseph Seed and the Heralds, and spark the fires of resistance that will liberate the besieged community. In this expansive world, your limits and creativity will be tested against the biggest and most ruthless baddest enemy Far Cry has ever seen. It’ll be wild and it’ll get weird, but as long as you keep your wits about you, the residents of Hope County can rest assured you’re their beacon of hope. Join the Resistance on March 27th, 2018, with Far Cry 5. Available on PlayStation 4 system, Xbox One, and PC.

The FREEDOM section was mostly about the open world and game mechanics, but the others were about the Project and the Resistance.

Here is FAMILY:

PROJECT AT EDEN’S GATE The Project at Eden’s Gate, led by The Father, believes The Collapse is imminent. They’re on a mission to save your soul – whether you want it or not. JOSEPH SEED – THE FATHER “I am your Father. And you are my Children.” FAITH SEED – THE SIREN Once you fall under Faith’s spell, you’re a goner. As Joseph’s voice, Faith acts as a divine instrument of chaos to keep the congregation in a state of bliss. JOHN SEED – THE INQUISITOR John will use intimidation, faith and violence to secure resources vital to the Cult’s survival - be it a home or a person. JACOB SEED – THE SOLDIER As the Cult’s recruiter and former Army marksman, big brother Seed’s main duty is protecting the Project at Eden’s Gate.

The four red buttons redirected to the Character Spotlight videos about Joseph, Faith, John, and Jacob posted on the Ubisoft UK YouTube Channel.

Here is FIREARMS:

THE RESISTANCE Throughout the hills, valleys, and townships of Hope County, civilians of all walks have joined forces to resist against the cult, and rid their land of its chaos once and for all. But it wouldn’t be as fun if new toys hadn’t been brought along the way. Boom boom boom boom! ♫

Clicking “More Info” opened a pop-up window with a video and a description for each character; I will detail all of that in future posts.

Commentary

Sadly, the European website was archived way less often than the American one. It seems it was also rarely updated, as it apparently said we could still “pre-order” the game... in 2020. But since it used to exist and wasn’t identical to the American version, I decided to include it in these posts too!

Under the cut are all the available source files, saved directly from the website, of the images you see in the screenshots:

But first, here is the site’s version of the “key art”:

And now the images that actually are in the screenshots:

(The icons became red when you hovered your cursor over them)

The three icons below are not the source files. I couldn’t find them so I simply took and cropped screenshots:

I will upload the pictures of the Resistance (from the FIREARMS section) in the posts dedicated to each character.

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sucatban · 3 months ago

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14 June 2020

Did drug testing and safety training today. Must only be a formality because I saw many people breaking a lot of those rules yesterday.

I might give up on following them to a T as well honestly. But if I admitted that to Robin she'd make me quit haha

Do the guys carry phones during work? They never said anything about that. All they said was "don't play on your phone all the time as you kids do" which is kinda obvious. Is that really a problem?

They also warned us that sometimes orcas attack private vessels which I find funnier than the head trainer liked :/ Maybe I'll recruit an army of orcas :3

...Will there be perverts at work? I can defend myself against people my age, but could I take on grown men with muscles?! Would i get fired for fighting?

Guess I'll see :/

#junos journal

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wineassassin · 4 months ago

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A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THIS BLOG, THIS PREMISE, AND THIS CHARACTER. many aspects and concepts are directly taken from or inspired by robert ludlum's the bourne trilogy as well as the bourne franchise, but this blog does not exist in that canon. ideas for this blog may be taken or inspired by these pieces of media, but are not directly tied to them in any way, and all credit goes to the original creators.

OPERATION: TREADSTONE is a top-secret black ops organization designed to recruit, train, and deploy hitmen. the program was created secretly in response to three executive orders forbidding the united states from permitting or partaking in assassinations. the program is a joint operation between the american CIA and the british SIS.

this covert operation utilizes a forbidable, highly-trained group of assassins stationed across the globe who present themselves as average citizens hiding in plain sight. these assassins, or ASSETS, act almost like sleeper agents, maintaining a facade of normalcy and existing as casual civilians until summoned into active duty.

assets are given cover professions, intense training, handlers to guide them through missions, and all the tools and information necessary for travel, reconaissance, espionage, and the eventual elimination of their dangerous targets.

after acquiring his english language and literature degree at the university of oxford, sebastian moran entered the british armed forces in 2012 and subsequently completed specialist weapons school, as well as the british army sniper operator's course. in 2020, he left the military and was approached by representatives from OPERATION: TREADSTONE. they were interested in recruiting him due to his proficiency with long range weapons. he was quickly trained as an asset and now operates primarily within their guidelines.

with the guidance of his handler/logistics coordinator, emily kelso, sebastian has become one of the more successful assets within OPERATION: TREADSTONE.

sebastian moran was given a cover profession upon entering the organization that best aligned with his skills, level of knowledge, and field of study when attending university. he became an english literature professor at the queen mary university of london and now teaches two classes: 1) shakespeare: the play, the word, and the book, and 2) renaissance drama. MI6 has rigorously fortified his credentials to prevent the possibility of blown cover.

when sebastian is not on missions, he can be found at his flat on ladbroke road in london, at the local wine bar, or on campus teaching classes or holding office hours for students. he does travel for work and/or for pleasure, so he can also be found wandering rooftops or exploring the local food scene of a new town or place.

#roleplay. ━━━ ⌖ ╰ headcanon

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mariacallous · 1 year ago

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On the night of January 13, 2020, a Kemerovo man named Vladislav Kanyus brutally murdered his 23-year-old ex-girlfriend, Vera Pekhteleva. For hours, neighbors listened to Pekhteleva scream in agony and repeatedly called the police, but by the time officers arrived, she was dead. Kanyus was sentenced to 17 years in prison, while the officers on duty were convicted of criminal negligence and sentenced to probation. But earlier this month, Pekhteleva’s mother learned that her daughter’s killer had been recruited from prison to fight in the war in Ukraine — and was subsequently pardoned by Vladimir Putin. The independent journalists’ cooperative Bereg spoke with Vera Pekhteleva’s mother, Oksana Pekhteleva. With their permission, Meduza has translated the interview into English.

This June, human rights activists and the media started reporting that Vladislav Kanyus may have been released early. When and how did you learn about this?

I found out through social networks; it was all sent to me by friends of friends since I don’t believe in using social media. At first, we [the Pekhtelev family] thought it was fake. [The fact that he was released in April] was kept from us; they didn’t tell us.

In one document [that we received in response to a request to] the Defense Ministry, they said that [Kanyus] wasn’t listed in their ranks — this was, if I’m not mistaken, on July 17 of this year. A little later, another document came, stating that he’d agreed to participate in military operations and had joined the ranks [of the Russian army]. The third document we received said that his criminal record had been expunged. The date of the pardon was April 27, and we only learned about it two days ago.

How did your family react when it was confirmed that Kanyus has been pardoned?

I found out from my ex-husband, my child’s father. The prosecutor’s office sent a response to his complaint and, of course, he forwarded it to me. We were in shock, both Yevgeny Pekhtelev and I. We’re still dismayed. How could this happen?

I’m anxious, it’s very hard for me now. There’s a tremendous siege of journalists, and I don’t like it very much. I would really like the [press] to spread our misfortune as widely as possible but to leave out any statements and comments about our government. I’m so exposed right now that tomorrow they could easily charge me for my negative attitude towards my homeland. I’m not going to comment [on this issue].

When messages started appearing last year about prisoners being recruited to participate in the war, did you think that Kanyus could be among them?

Initially, the thought didn't even cross my mind. I was raised in the Soviet Union; my father is an officer, a lieutenant colonel in the armed forces, a military veteran. I grew up in an educated family; we were always taught to respect the country where we live. And, naturally, we believed we couldn’t be betrayed.

There was information — perhaps in the media — that criminals convicted of particularly serious crimes weren’t taken to war. At least, that’s what they told us Russian citizens. I believed it until I was faced with… I don’t know what to call it.

And I’m not alone — believe me, there are at least hundreds of mothers like me. We live in different corners of our vast homeland. Some are afraid [to go public], some don’t want to, some have given up, and some, because of the statute of limitations, no longer have the physical, yes, and emotional strength.

I’m a very strong woman and a strong person. I understand that this is tilting at windmills, that it will lead to nothing. I feel it. No one will hear us, no one will help us. Absolutely all state media are silent — because they’re not allowed [to write about us], no one has given them the green light. And the so-called armchair commentators will be divided into two groups again. [One side will write,] “I’m sick of this, how much can you [keep thinking about this crime],” and the other half will say that something needs to be done, some effort needs to be made [to put the criminal back in prison].

I believe that the news will resonate with people, but things will stay where they are because we’ve already been through the Supreme Court. And the president’s office has already given us an answer: he pardoned the murderer, the torturer, the monster.

Human rights activist Alena Popova, citing you, wrote that Kanyus was sent to the front even before the cassation [high court appeal] process was complete. How did the hearing go in the end?

It was like a video conference: the murderer didn’t attend the court session, but he signed a document stating that he didn’t object to the proceedings taking place without his presence. Everything went smoothly: we were declined on all counts, politely dismissed — and that was the end of the court session.

I wouldn’t even be surprised if [Kanyus] gets awarded a medal. That would be the most egregious slap in the face — both for me and for hundreds of thousands of women, of families with good kids who are supposed to fulfill their duty of dying [in the war]. And these scoundrels, these leeches, [choosing to go from prison to the front] just to avoid punishment, will walk next to us on our land and also secretly beat, kill, and rape. I just don’t understand who let them get weapons in their hands.

Did you speak with Kanyus during the court proceedings? Did he or his family try to contact you during the trial or after the sentence?

I don’t even want to waste time discussing the family of my child’s murderer — that’s the first thing. Secondly, no one, in fact, gave us the right to talk to him. And how do you imagine this: the mother of a murdered child conversing with the devil? Why would I need him, when I couldn’t even stand to look at him! We communicated through our proxies — a lawyer from his side, a lawyer from our side, nothing more. I don’t want to talk about that scum, that monster. He’s inhuman. I don’t want to and I won’t. I’ll say one thing: that scum is free, and my child has been in the grave for three years.

What do you plan to do next? Will you seek Kanyus’s imprisonment again? And do your lawyers believe this is possible?

I have faith that this is possible — hope, as they say, dies last. But I’m a realist. I’m a pretty educated person, and I keep track of what’s going on in the world. If they decide now to demonstratively send this maniac and pervert back to prison, imagine what the fallout will be. We’re showing mercy and granting freedom to all [inmates] for participating in military service with one hand, and meanwhile, with the other hand, we’re pushing people back into prison who, believe me, do not want to be there. I don’t think it’s politically necessary or appropriate.

We simply found ourselves in this situation through our own misfortune. If it weren’t for the war, [Kanyus] wouldn’t have gone anywhere — he would still be in prison right now. But I have faith. There’s such a thing as divine retribution — the only thing I want is for it to catch up with him. And I don’t care how it happens.

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