#Campaign 26

[zethdoesart]

"Maybe its our destiny to harness it."

"Maybe its our destiny to fight it."

"Together, either way."

The flowers and their meanings, (because yes, i indeed used them as emotional load to boost up the picture) - I will put it up as a pic, bc the words would take up more space than the actual drawing

[a-shade-of-blue]

Masterlist of Fundraisers from the Palestinians who directly contacted me (23-26 September)

26 September

Salem Yasser (@salem98alanqar): Salem is 27 years old. He is in Greece rn but his family of 10, including 4 children, are still in Gaza. HIs is raising money for his parents, his brothers, sister and her children Adam, Nasr and Baraa. (https://gofund.me/ac574673) (#20 on the @/gazavetters vetted list) (€210 raised of €20,000 goal)

Asala Almashni (@asala-almashni): Asala has a 3-year-old daughter named Alia Salama. Asala’s husband has been killed in this genocide. (https://gofund.me/1878a56c) (#971 on the Butterfly Effect vetted fundraiser list) 

Ahlam Ramadan (@kokeyzeyad95, @ahlamramadan): Ahlam is 53 years old. She suffers from kidney failure and is in need of treatment. She has 9 daughters and a son. 6 of the daughters are married, and her son has a newborn baby born during the war. They have been displaced more than 10 times. (https://gofund.me/8398f4cc) (#69 on the @/gazavetters vetted list) (€545 raised of €20,000 goal)

Mahmoud & Shery Alserr (@shery-89): Mahmoud and Shery live with mahmoud’s elderly parents. Mahmoud’s elderly parents suffer from chronic diseases such as high blood pressure and asthma. His mother also recently had an eye operation. (https://gofund.me/4ea606d9) (vetted by association. They are relatives of @/nevinalser (#314 on the verified fundraiser list vetted by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi, promoted by @/gaza-evacuation-funds)) (€684 raised of €50,000 goal)

Monis Hammad (@rabah1monis, @monis-family): Monis and his wife have 6 children.  Monis has cancer and his wife is sick with Polio. They wish to evacuate to Egypt to get treatment and medicine. (https://gofund.me/dcee6396) (shared by 90-ghost) ($997 USD raised of $41,300 goal)

25 September

Hamdy (@hamdigaza): Hamdy is 19 years old. He has lost his mother, his aunt, his siblings, his cousins, his nephews, and nieces in a bombing, including a 5-month-old baby. He, his father and his sisters were the only survivors in his family. (https://gofund.me/823ff894) (shared by @/gaza-evacuation-funds, #263 on the vetted fundraiser list created by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi)

Wajih Madi (@wajihmadi, @abodmadi00): Wajih is from a family of 6. His son was about to be wedded when the war came. His wife is chronically ill, and his son is injured in his right hand and needs to have a joining implanted. He has lost his grandchildren Nour and Kanan in a bombing. (https://gofund.me/c0f2ffb9) (vetted by association! They are a nephew of @/aya2mohammed(vetted by el-shab-hussein and #166 on the verified fundraiser list vetted by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi) and a cousin of @/nohaibrahimsblog (#157 on verified fundraiser list by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi, and #240 and Butterfly Effect Project #169)) (€345 raised of €50,000 goal)

Maher Dahalan (@maherdahalan): Maher’s wife just gave birth to a child and is recovering from a difficult c-section. Maher is fundraising to evacuate himself, his wife, their newborn baby, and his elderly parents out of Gaza. (https://gofund.me/1ccd21c2) (vetted by @/gazavetters and is #35 on their vetted list) (€1,126 raised of €30,000 goal)

Abdul Salam Al-Anqar (@aboodanqar20): Abdul is 26 years old. His family consists of 8 people: his wife and their 1-year-old daughter Iman, his parents, and his brothers Mohammed (14), Nader (17) and Omar (21). Their house has been destroyed and they have been displaced more than 9 times. His father Ahmed has been diagnosed with cancer and also has a weak heart and he urgently needs treatment and medicine. They want to evacuate out of Gaza. (https://gofund.me/282839cd) (#4 on @/gazavetters vetted list.) (€2,335 raised of €50,000 goal)

Falastin Iwais (@falesten-iw): Falastin has lost 3 cousins and their wives and children last November, 2 more of her cousins were killed last March. She and her family have been displaced more than 20 times. She is trying to raise funds to evacuate her 24 remaining family members, including her 73-year-old elderly mother and a 9 month old baby. (https://gofund.me/a35b40cd) (vetted by el-shab-hussein, #282 on the vetted list by el-shab-hussein and nabuls,. shared by 90-ghost, #957 on Butterfly Effect Project vetted list) (kr51,953 SEK raised of kr2,000,000 goal)

Mohammed Nabil Al-Anqar (@nabilalanqar, @mohammednfamily): Mohammed and his wife Aya have 3 children: Lami (11), Nabil (7), and Ameer (3). They are seeking to evacuate out of Gaza. (https://gofund.me/736b997a) (#11 on the @/gazavetters vetted list) (€460 raised of €30,000 goal)

24 September

Shady Samir Ashour (@shadyfamily): Shady and his wife have 2 children: Samir and Muhammad. The children are suffering from skin diseases.  (https://gofund.me/e2b5de24) (vetted by @/gazavetters and is #44 on their vetted list. Also shared by 90-ghost) (€1,047 raised of €50,000 goal)

Mohammed Alanqar & Walaa (@walaafamily1992, @walaamohamed1988): Mohammed and his wife Walaa have 4 children: Zeina(12), Salma (11), Omar (6) and Batoul (1). Batoul was born during the war. The children are suffering serious skin diseases and there are no treatment available. They are trying to evacuate out of Gaza. (https://gofund.me/1808b39f) (#26 on the @/gazavetters vetted fundraiser list) (€455 raised of €30,000 goal)

 Mohammed Al-Deeb (@raneenrabah1, @mohammedrabah2):  Mohammed is a uni student studying engineering. He is from a family of 17. Their house has been destroyed. Now half of them sleep inside a tent while the other half sleep outside in the freezing cold. His  mother, sisters, nephews, and brother are suffering from severe psychological and health issues. (https://gofund.me/18da610e) (vetted by @/gaza-evacuation-funds) (€802 raised of €65,000 goal)

Amira (@princessworlds-posts, @disney-princess-world, @ameera-anq): Amira is 23 years old and has to take care of her family since her father passed away 3 years ago. Her mother suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes. Amira worked as a programmer and a uni teaching assistant while pursuing a master's degree in data science. They are now in Al-Zawayda, living in a school for displaced people. They are trying to evacuate out of Gaza. (https://gofund.me/403c4f69) (shared by 90-ghost and vetted by nabulsi) 

Ahmed Al Yazji (@ahmadgaza1): Ahmed is a 20-year-old in Gaza in urgent need of medical treatment after being seriously injured in an Israeli airstrike. His home was bombed with him inside it, causing a serious injury to his neck. A piece of the rocket is still stuck inside his neck which will potentially completely paralyze him if not removed. He is fundraising to evacuate out of Gaza to receive medical treatment. (https://gofund.me/47fddf62) (vetted by 90-ghost) ($1,311 USD raised of $30,000 goal)

Etaf Al-Qataa (@yousef1234567, @familyetaf1234567): Etaf and her husband Yousef have 5 children: Moataz, Moatasem, Maria (7), Adam (4), and Amira (3). Their house has been destroyed. They are trying to evacuate out of Gaza. (https://gofund.me/66214924) (vetted by @/gazavetters and is #88 on their vetted list) (€2,835 raised of €100,000 goal)

23 September

Farah & Ibrahim Al-Habil (@farahalhabil): Ibrahim and Farah have 7 children. Ibrahim suffers from cartilage disease. They have a daughter born during the war. One of her little daughters is suffering from an infection that is affecting her breathing. They are trying to evacuate out of Gaza. (https://gofund.me/d90234ab) (vetted by association through @youseffamily (#406 in the Butterfly Effect Project verified fundraiser list and shared by 90-ghost.)) (€664 raised of €20,000 target)

Nour Alanqar (@nooralanqar): Nour and her husband Ashraf Ismail have 3 children: Hussein (6), Rajaa (5), and Youssef (10 months old). Their house has been bombed. Ashraf was injured in the shoulder when the warehouse they were sheltering in was bombed. Rajaa contacted hepatitis. (https://gofund.me/f8d6f370) (vetted by 90-ghost)

Abeer & Ashraf Alserr (@abeer-adel, @abeerashraf91): Abeer and Ashraf have 2 children: Lian (11) and Wael (6 months old). Ashraf’s elderly parents are suffering from chronic diseases. They are trying to evacuate out of Gaza. (https://gofund.me/d2999e8c) (vetted by @/gaza-vetters and #79 on their vetted list.)

Mohammed Khatib (@mohammedkhatib2002, @mohammedkhatip): Mohammed is 21-year-old IT student who is supposed to graduate this year. He is the youngest child of 9 and wishes to reduce his parents’ expenses. His uni has been destroyed, and he is trying to evacuate himself from Gaza and continue his education abroad. (https://gofund.me/0d74b0a9) (#209 on the vetted fundraiser list by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi)

Mounes Al-Kafarna (@mones1998gaza): Mounes has 2 young children. One of them, under the age of five, urgently needs milk, while the other requires treatment for skin diseases. (https://gofund.me/ac541182) (vetted by @/gazavetters and is #64 on their vetted list)

Najah Al-Haila (@hudameqdad, @salwameq20): Najah and her husband have 4 children: Walid (9 years old and the eldest child), Mira, Ahmed, and Mayar. Help them evacuate out of Gaza! (https://gofund.me/744c27e7) (vetted by @/gazavetters and is #49 on the vetted list)

Bassam Shaqqoura & Laila Shaqoura (@lailashaqoura): Laila is 18 years old and has 4 siblings. Her mother has lost 9 family members, most of them children, to Israeli airstrike in 2014. Laila’s mother is currently pregnant. Their house has been bombed. They have been displaced to Khan Younis and hope to evacuate out of Gaza. (https://gofund.me/db42eea2) (#152 on the verified fundraiser list created by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi)

Click here for my Masterlist for fundraisers from 13 - 25 July.

Click here for my Masterlist for fundraisers from 26 -29 July.

Click here for my Masterlist for fundraisers from 30 July - 1 August.

Click here for my Masterlist for fundraisers from 2 - 5 August.

Click here for my Masterlist for fundraisers from 6 - 10 August.

Click here for my Masterlist for fundraisers from 11 - 14 August.

Click here for my Masterlist for fundraisers from 15 - 18 August

Click here for my Masterlist for fundrasiers from 19 - 21 August

Click here for my Masterlist for fundrasiers from 22 - 24 August

Click here for my Masterlist for fundraisers from 25 - 28 August

Click here for my Masterlist for fundraisers from 29 August - 1 September

Click here for my Masterlist for fundraisers from 2 - 5 September.

Click here for my Masterlist for fundraisers from 6-10 September.

Click here for my Masterlist for fundraisers from 11-14 September.

Click here for my Masterlist for fundraisers from 15-18 September.

Click here for my Masterlist for fundraisers from 19-22 September.

How are gfm campaigns vetted?  See here, here, here and here.

Click here for my Google Doc with my complete masterlist of all the Palestinian gfm asks I've received, updated daily (along with other verified ways to send aid to Gaza).

See post here for other verified ways to send aid to Gaza.

Don't forget your Daily Clicks on Arab.org, it's free!!! and Every click made is registered in their system and generates donation from sponsors/advertisers.

[eyeshadowandcaffeine]

POV: You’re Ashley Burch rn

[lunalikestowriteanddraw]

Love that the Icebound party just spends like a solid 30-45 minutes just. Ordering snacks. Fucking love it.

[sometinybees]

please bring back my blue bard I miss him so much 🥺💕

[carbone14]

Soldat américain – Bataille de Guadalcanal – Campagne des îles Salomon – Guerre du Pacifique – Guadalcanal – Iles Salomon – 26 janvier 1943

[hale-nathan]

Trump Weird News - Haley Leaders Hale Kamala (Hale Nathan Says)

Haley had won approximately 26% of the Michigan Republican Primary Vote.

[fandom-fortress]

Why did no one tell me that in C1 they "turn" into cows!?

It's the funniest shit ever, so far this is my favorite episode 😂😂😂

[jeizet]

DND Characters!

They are....

Autora, the cleric/sorcerer wooden elf; Leah, the fighter half elf; and Sofia, the artificer half elf.

About them (VERY LONG TEXT):

Autora!

She was kidnapped as a child and raised by an adventurer's guild. Them believing that elves were naturally gaslight the tiny Autora into beeing a devotee of Demeter... it worked and was blessed by her!

But the methods of making her a devotee were physical and mental abuse so she would seek refuge on the only thing she had available, scrolls of different gods, and she chose Demeter maybe because of her love of nature, or perhaps of the kind and motherly figure shown in the pictures.

Thankfully she got other kids to play with not long after becoming a cleric (The guild said that they wandered in randomly, so it might be a reward for becoming a devotee!) They were; Leah a younger half-elf trained to be fighter and his little infant sister Sofia, whom he always carried on his arms even tho she knew how to walk.

After gaining her cleric powers, the abused calmed down but she was trained endlessly in order for her to improve her healing powers, and even took her to a lot of missions where she lost an arm.

When she came back, Leah saw her state, and the fact she couldn´t even heal her wounds because she had no magic left in her. And decided it was enough, and took her and her sister away of that place.

At first, Autora was sad about leaving since the adventurers didn't have another medic, and "not all of them were bad...", but Leah said they had a mission and Leah never lied before...

This was all before and when she was 15.

When she was 16, Leah told her the truth about how this was never a mission and she understood.

When she was 18, Sofia made her an arm that allowed her to use mage hand in a way that simulated a true arm, not so strong but really helpful.

When she was 20, The whole team decided to build a home in a little town hidden between the mountains, where she became the medic, and once again started to use her magic until she passed out just to help.

And when she was 22, During an argument, Leah told her about how her cleric powers were planned from the start by the guild. Making her faith for Demeter break loosing her cleric powers.

Although she no longer was the town's cleric, and people were kind and understanding to her, she couldn't handle not longer having powers so went for a way to gain magic again anything at all, maybe she couldn't trust demetere anymore but... maybe another god? study it? anything.

Maybe in another life she would have become a warlord, but in this life, trying to find herself, the gods heard her cries one night lost in the forest and lead her to a lively village, that looked... oddly familiar.

It was her old home.

People knew instantly who she was and invited her to the village.

Her parent passed away, the elves didn't give her a lot of information, but some slip-ups led her to think that it wasn't murder nor natural causes, but their grief of their missing daughter after 10 years that lead to that outcome. She didn't mourn them, but she was sad about what it could have been...

The elders showed her the house where her parents used to reside, still filled with furniture since they didn't want to get rid of all before Autora came back first.

Autora spent a year in that town, reading the history of her family, meeting the villagers and family friends, discovering that her father was fond of clocks to the point he gain powers from them, and that her mother loved to tend the garden on her house and the village plaza.

As an exercise she fixed some clocks learning from the books her dad had... and after she fixed the last broken one in the house, she went to bed and woke up with clock hands in her eyes and a subtle shimmer on her skin... just like her father. She tended to the dead garden in her house and village, surprisingly easy as if she was naturally good with plants... maybe Demeter's gift was real, her mother did remind her of that old art she saw in the scrolls... After she put the last flower inside her mother's garden in a pot, and gave it to the elders, she felt a familiar wave of magic growing inside of her.

Then... and only them she mourned them, right in front of the elders, she cried for what it could have been, and the comfort they gave her even if they were not there anymore.

At age 24 she came back to the village where Leah and Sofia lived, and was welcomed with open arms and lots of tears from the siblings, and Leah apologizing for his harsh words, on his knees, although that was because Sofia kicked him harshly on the back of his knee.

They are good now

(The campaign where Autora was canceled so her story also is, she is now only an NPC)

Leah and Sofia

The half elf and his tiny sister were sold to an adventurer's guild for 10 gold coins by their parents when he was only 6 and she was 3.

It looked like their parents talked greatly about them; about how Leah was extremely agile and passionate on fighting even having a preference for shielding and strategy, and how Sofía was extremely pretty, fully aware of it and using it on her advantage, also weirdly interested on breaking and fixing all her toys.

The adventurers welcomed them kindly, they talked about how it's great to have more kids in the team, that the only kid in their guild would be happy to have play mates.

They introduced them to Autora, and she was really nice and energetic, Sofia automatically warmed to her so Leah also did, not wanting to ruin her sister having another girl friend.

Leah thought training with the adventurers was a lot of fun, and Sofía was allowed to read any books they had, which was limited to only magic books, he always thought that it was because some adventurers wanted to become wizards...

That was until he was 12, and heard the drunkards talking about the methods they used to make Autora a Cleric, and realized that if they had scrolls that Sofía hadn't read... it possibly meant they were trying to lead his sister to also be a magic user.

When he was 13, Autora came back without an arm. And told her and Sofia that they were assigned a mission after her wound has treated.

They traveled throughout the forest, to the city and met sailors that took them far away.

When he was 14 he told the girls the truth, Autora took it well, and Sofia already knew... even the plan of the guild to make her a wizard. She wasn't one to do what people wanted her to do, so she used the spells as creativity for inventions she worked on in secret. Tiny confetti bombs inspired of a spell that made a strong noise, a hand that extended like a jack in a box that was controlled by strings, and other amazing stuff.

When Sofía was 13, she completed her greatest invention! A hand for Autora, the girl that taught her Elven language and showed her support on her genius.

By age 14 and 17, after travelling on multiple boats, they bought their own, and sailed far away completing missions, haunting animals and fishing to sell and fixing other people's boats to make money... although they never told Autora about it, wanting Autora to just enjoy freedom.

When they were 15 and 18 they went to a beautiful village hidden in the mountains, with a river to the open sea for them to continue adventuring if they wanted, nice people, and lots of artificers and fighters. The whole team decided that it was time to settle!

And everything went great until the people in town became... weird about the team cleric. People talked about Autora as an angel fallen from heave itself, kind, motherly, strong and with an innocent beauty... and those wonderful words put pressure on the girl.

Autora started working extra hard, using all her magic on fixing even the tiniest migraine for the town's people. Sofía started to study medicine so she could help people too and perhaps lessen her burden... but people wanted Autora's "blessing".

And after a few years Leah was tired of Autora's healing magic, the fact that people talked about it as a blessing when it was all a sham, and how even Sofía always told him to not tell her about the plan of their old guild.

But he didn't hear, and when Autora told him to stop being mean to the people that came for her aid... he screamed at Autora about being gullable and childish, about how she has nothing other than her magic which was planned from the start.

Sofía tried to stop him, but he couldn't stop and only stopped after a punch in the face by his sister.

He left the house with Sofía and got scolded. Leah didn't completely understand people's feelings but Sofía did, Sofía knew how to deal and understand people, she always understood that Autoras WAS raised to be a Cleric and nothing other than a Cleric, Autora wasn't raised to say no, to defend herself, to be selfish, and for Sofía this whole travel was to help her find herself... and at the start Leah thought the same, but it might have forgotten along the way.

Leah slept on the boat that day, Sofía told him to think about what he said and to apologize when he calmed down....

The next day Autora had no powers.

The next week Autora was nowhere to be seen.

And for the next 2 week Sofia and Leah didn't talk.

Sofía was happy... kind of... and Leah couldn't understand why, their best friend disapeared and she was calm, Autora could have been kidnapped! But he assumed that maybe Sofía knew something he didn't.

She did. In the room she shared with Autora, she left a card before leaving, explaining how "even if people were kind to her, she indeed was nothing without her magic, and she didn't want to just be sad for an indefinite amount of time, she was going to get magic again" and Sofía knew Leah wouldn't like that.

He was pure muscles and although he was clever, it was only for fighting, introspection, "finding one selves" was dumb for him, and considering how over protective he was, Sofia knew he would search for their friend, not realizing that it was the first time Autora took a decisions for herself, and she didn't left with nothing, she took weapons, food, potions, one of their maps and, to Sofia's pleasure, her own money AND Leah's share, definitely as revenge since because of his mouth she lost her magic and Sofía couldn't be prouder.

Sofía told her brother to get over Autora, that she will come back, and to do something else, "stop moping" she said.

And a very offended Leah decided to go on a trip... specifically to their old adventurer's guild. While Sofía stayed on the town waiting for Autora in case something happened.

The siblings talked a lot about one regret they had... not burning that place to the ground. And since Leah didn't have anything to do, might as well do it now.

It took about half a year to reach their old home, could have been less if he had realized sooner that his coin pouch didn't have coins but instead a lot of bombs... his sister definitely knew what he was going to do... he would have liked that she left her money tho. So he had to take some jobs along the way.

Sadly, when he reached the building, it was empty, asking in the town people told him how the adventurer's recently tried to kidnap the daughter of a noble high elf, and after her bodyguard saved her, he took it upon himself to kill majority of the guild.

Leah still burn the building but it wasn't the same, he wanted some revenge, and some point of his life he wanted to be strong so he could kill all of those bastards and now he felt kind of... lost...

He imagined that Autora felt the same.

He imagined that Sofía perhaps knew about how he wouldn't get revenge.

And she did, she had known for a time that the guild was dead, after a conversation in a bar with one of the guilds survivors that was drunk and didn't realized it was the little girl the bought a while ago.

Not only that, but she gave them the idea of kidnapping the young elf noble. She recognized some of the stupident guild members a day she was at the bar with Autora, they were probably adventuring, so she started a conversation with her absolutely wasted friend about how "High elfs supposedly had powerful magic" and how she "met a pretty noble but she was also pretty dumb and got her to buy her some expensive jewels with the story that "they were stolen from her family", she even followed her to an alley without any issue!", all of that was complete lie, the only thing she knew is that high elf had a very blood thirsty bodyguard that was absolutely enamored with his client and wanted to see if they would bait.

She didn't expect the bodyguard to start a massacre but she guesses that kidnapping his beloved was a big deal.

Neither Leah or Autora know about all this of course.

And she didn't told her brother even after he came back from his trip.

Things were a little awkward when Leah came back, the town never really liked him, there were no news of Autora yet and his sister was still hold a tiny grudge about him hurting Autora's feelings. Still, they sat down and he told her about the adventure, about the missions he had to take and how it gave him some nostalgia to go back to the adventurer's life, and what happened to the guild. His sister heard the whole story attentively, even the parts she knew, and the air became a little easier to breathe.

Her plan was to make his brother go on a useless trip, she didn't expect him to actually miss the adventuring they used to have.

For Sofía their adventure was to help her friend and to learn, If Autora didn't need her anymore, she still wanted to learn about becoming a better artificer.

For Leah this trip was simply to run and to find a home, he didn't expect that his home was just going to be the thrill of adventure more than a place.

Learning this was soothing...

Waiting for Autora to come back Leah started to take adventuring missions instead of just bodyguarding, and months later Autora came back, changed and so much happier.

She was welcomed with tears, hugs and a kneeling Leah begging for forgiveness on his knees, although the "on his knees" part was because Sofia kicked him on the back of them.

And things were good again.

Changed, since Leah and Sofia decided they wanted to travel again, and Autora wanted to move back to an elven village she found in the forest and make a home there.

It was going to be the first time they were going to be apart and surprisingly it wasn't as scary as the idea seemed before, when they were younger.

(Now, Leah is in one campaigned, he was teletransported to another world where they HATE magic, and he no longer shares that sentiment... and has a kind of romantic interest? there's a hot druid drow that is very intelligent and pretty dry like him.

Sofia is in another campaign that just started, for now she just started a fight in a bar, and is investigating what it seems to be a Mafia???)

[uldahstreetrat]

look before we start asking questions about why i built a character sheet for a dnd npc that was so built out it lagged my desktop browser can we just appreciate the fact that when i went to see how it would print it was 76 pages long

[threewaysdivided]

The Shaper of Minds and its possible consequences for a certain character

I have finally joined the rest of the internet in losing my mind over a D&D Podcast - in my case, the wonderful Dan Jones & Dragons.  With Episode 26 due to stream on Dan’s Twitch this week, I really want to talk about some of the stuff that came up across the just-finished Gala sessions because the fallout from that has the potential to be incredibly fraught.

THE SHAPER OF MINDS

The relic the Flower Crowns were going after this mission – The Shaper of Minds – is a potentially fascinating narrative device that might as well have been lab-engineered to be my exact brand of personal nightmare fuel.   It’s a small, ornate brass key that can alter any part of the target’s mental faculties/thoughts/memories at will should the wielder touch it to any part of their victim’s skin.

Now, on one hand, there are a heap of interesting (and even benevolent) applications for a tool like that.  It could instantly grant access to skills, languages and knowledge that would otherwise take a person years of study to learn.  It could be used to sort through and resolve memories that had been faded by time, muddied by trauma or forcibly supressed by magical/medical means.  But on the other…

As described and used in campaign so far, the primary function of the Mindshaper is to alter memories (and the attendant personality) with the target having no awareness that their mind has been changed.  It’s basically gaslighting on steroids, except that where a gaslighting victim still retains their original recollection – and has to be manipulated by their abuser into doubting their own perceptions and instead accepting the alternate telling of events (a cognitive dissonance that can eventually lead the person to recognise the manipulation) – the Shaper of Minds entirely replaces the original recollection of events with the version the wielder wants their victim to perceive.  There is no internal conflict between accounts, no inconsistencies that could alert the victim that someone has broken into their head and rewritten their perceived reality.  The person they reshape you to be is the person you believe you always were.  And all it takes is a single touch.

That is a brand of existential horror that had me on edge all throughout Session 24 (basically from the moment it was implied the key was in play).   Reality may be objective, but each individual person’s internal reality is governed by their perception – their memories – of the events in their life, no matter how incomplete, biased or otherwise skewed that personal perspective may have been.  You have value just by being you because you are not replaceable, but the thing that makes you unique is, in large part, the sum total of those inimitably specific personal memories.  No-one else will perceive the world in exactly the same way you do, and even a few minor changes to just a few of those perceptions can flow on to massive differences in ideals, values, priorities and future choices.  In that regard, the use of the Mindshaper Key isn’t so much an alteration as an obliteration of the victim’s former self and replacement with someone new; even if that new stranger is largely indistinguishable from the original.  And, again, all it takes is a single touch.

[Sidenote:  This made Mister Wick an especially effective antagonist to wield the key, since his Galas functionally trap even targets who are aware of the threat within the rules of high-society behavioural expectations.  Otherwise-innocuous actions like a handshake or private conversation suddenly become incredibly dangerous, while being nigh-impossible for the Flower Crowns to extract themselves from without committing an atrocious faux pas and potentially tipping Wick off.  Perfectly designed stage for a psychological horror-thriller encounter.]

Which of course, brings us to a certain character who fell victim to the key in Episode 24…  [put under the cut for spoiler reasons]

MORENTHAL

This poor Drow, he can never catch a break…

Morenthal may not have been the most mechanically dangerous party member to fall victim to Mister Wick’s manipulations although, given that the key was revealed to let its wielder read existing memories during the alteration, and that all of the Flower Crowns were fully briefed on the locations and nature of the Eversteel artefacts, him getting a hand on any of them could have been very bad plot-wise but from a character point of view I think he’s the one who the key’s effects had the potential to be most personally devastating for.

The way things ended up playing out across Session 25 was precisely the nightmare scenario Gamb was fretting about out of game: Mister Wick forcibly implanted Morenthal’s mind with false memories of being his lifelong trusted confidant and supporter, then – before the Flower Crowns could reverse the key’s effect – Morenthal discovered that Mister Wick had been killed in combat with Coil and Preston, leading to the Party having to physically restrain him so they could use the key to undo the damage, thus confronting Morenthal with the realisation that not only was everything he thought he knew about Jonathan a lie, but in actuality Jonathan had committed possibly the most invasive violation he’d ever been subjected to in order to forcibly make Morenthal into one of his loyal tools.  That level of emotional and mental whiplash would be rough on any character, but for Morenthal it’s particularly brutal because…

Based on what’s been revealed in-game so far, the core of his character is that Morenthal is an abused child.  This most-clearly came up in his conversation with Gelnek in Session 14; he was a child who grew up with nothing, raised by the Bloodletter Mercenaries as a tool instead of a person, and taught to see faces only as targets – with him also mentioning to Hobson in that their “combat training” involved being relentlessly beaten down until he learned to fight back.  During his Session 21 visit with the Nightmother, he openly admits that “nowhere feels safe”.  From that it’s pretty clear to read that Morenthal has never felt unconditionally loved, safe or respected around other mortals.

(This also helps contextualise why he’s so devoted to the Nightmother.  From what little we have seen of his visits to her, Iris is a fond “adult” figure, who does not threaten, does not judge, asks nothing of him aside from his company, and cares equally for all the souls that pass through her domain.  For a child “growing up with nothing” but violence, that would have been everything.)

But then, enter Jonathan fucking Wick.  And now, just for a short while, Morenthal has all these “memories” of Jonathan being there to confide in, encourage him and support his escape from the Bloodletters.  Suddenly he believes someone was there for him and, while the memories might be fake, the feelings of unconditional safety they would have brought were very real.  Little wonder that he started acting like a Trilby-level naive goober around Mister Wick to the point of accidentally snitching on the rest of the group.  Only, then it turns out to be a lie and those memories are gone.

For me, I think one of the worst things Morenthal might end up dealing with in the aftermath of having his memory fixed isn’t the specific feeling of personal betrayal or the potential shame at having been caught: it’s the realisation that he was always alone.   That there was no mortal on the outside who cared or came for him when he needed them – just him and the distant fondness of a Divine.  That would be awful beyond words, and yet the Flower Crowns were forced to inadvertently inflict it upon him in order to restore his mind.  No wonder he wouldn’t look any of them in the eye before the session closed.

Worse still, the nature of the key makes it incredibly hard not only to trust others, but to trust your own mind.  The players and audience above-table know that Morenthal is back to experiencing and remembering reality as it happened, but the question could very well linger for him, bringing with it a hefty dose of paranoia.  Sure, Morenthal correctly remembers that Coil is a straightforward, loyal person who wouldn’t be tempted to tamper with his mind beyond undoing Jonathan’s manipulations… but he “remembered” that about Mister Wick too, and wouldn’t that be a beneficial thing for the Party to have him think?   To Morenthal, people were already Not Safe™, but now the one person he ever believed might be had actually violated him worse than anyone else in order to force and abuse that trust.  How is he supposed to trust anyone if he can’t trust the authenticity of his own recollections.  (I get the feeling that Morenthal probably isn't going to be capable of relaxing until the Shaper of Minds is confirmed to either be locked back safely in the Vaults of Eversteel or fully removed from the Mortal Plane by Six).

It makes it really tragic that all of this came directly on the back of Episode 23, where Gamb revealed during the above-table break chat that - even if Morenthal didn’t recognise why – he unconsciously trusted Trilby and Gelnek enough to jump off the airship without checking that his rope was secure, because deep-down he knew they would catch him.  To go from that high-point to the whiplash of him first thinking the Flower Crowns had killed the only person he was ever “safe” with, then them inadvertently subjecting him to the most painful realisation he could ever experience and potentially leaving him wondering whether he can even trust his feelings about them is absolutely gutting.

I think the thing that scares me most about how the aftermath could potentially play out is another trait that Gamb and Dan have established for Morenthal: he's a flight-risk.   He shies away from letting people get close and, if he feels unsafe enough, he runs.  It’s already been mentioned/implied that he’s considered fleeing the group at multiple different points across the sessions.  And with him likely not feeling safe even in inside his own mind right now, that risk is probably at an all-time high.  The poor lad is staring down the barrel of a potentially-impending multi-level emotional crisis, where a lifetime of instincts will probably be urging him to run hard and fast because People Are Not Safe™.

And the thing is, that instinct isn’t a good one for him either.  Morenthal might have gotten by on his own “just living to be” up until Filgrove, but that feels a lot more like surviving out of necessity than having an actual life.  It’s pretty obvious that he pushes people away as a defence mechanism:  if you don’t care about anyone then you can’t be hurt by them or have those people used against you.  But if you don’t let yourself care and feel things, you’re not really living.  The truly tragic part of his running being a potential foreseeable outcome is that the Flower Crowns are good for Morenthal.  (I doubt Morenthal realises it and can’t speak to Gamb’s above-table thought process but it’s interesting that one potential interpretation of Morenthal’s cynical, faux-apathetic, “stinky” behaviour is that of a former abused child quietly testing the boundaries of whether he’s allowed to exist in a way that’s inconvenient for others, to which the answer from the Party has largely been yes provided he isn’t actively encouraging Trilby to get himself killed, or killing people without explaining himself).  He survived alone before because that was all he knew, but I get the feeling he wouldn’t do so well if he tried to go it solo again after being with people (he’s already confessed that the idea of Feyli being gone makes him miss her).   That’s not a road to walk on his best day, let alone with his current headspace and tendency towards self-destructive choices. 

It reminds me a lot of this article:

“Still, it’s easier for us to keep blaming ourselves because it’s preferable to facing the unthinkable: the fact that our parents don’t love us. …  Most people would rather do anything than accept this as the truth. Not only is it painful; it’s humiliating.”

So yeah, suffice to say I am incredibly concerned about how Morenthal’s arc is going to play out over the next session(s).  Here’s hoping that Gelnek and/or Coil have enough emotional savvy to keep an eye out, and enough patience to stick to him even if he lashes out in attempt to drive them off.  Even if it all works out okay, I get the feeling that this one’s going to be ugly.

Can’t wait to see how everyone chooses to play it ❤️‍🩹

[a-shade-of-blue]

New Gaza fundraiser asks I've received (26 August)

Ayman Sharif (@aymanelsharif): Ayman has 6 children. His child Mohammed (6) has a problem with his eyesight and is at risk of losing his vision if he doesn’t get surgery soon! However, since all the hospitals in Gaza have been destroyed, they will have to go to Egypt to get the surgery he needs. A lot of children children are also contracting hepatitis due to the unsanitary environment and they have all lost a lot of weight. Please help them evacuate! (https://gofund.me/0ff8b798) (#244 on the verified fundraiser list by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi.)

Jawad & Farouz (jawad236): Jawad and Farouz have two children: Muhammad (4) and Ahmed (10 months old). Their home has been destroyed, they have lost their source of income, and are now displaced. They are raising funds to buy daily basic necessities, medicine, shelter, evacuate and start a life in a new country. (https://gofund.me/bc231514) (#655 on the Butterfly Effect Project verified campaign list.) 

(@falestine-yousef)

Mohamad Smeer (@mohamadsmeer34): Mohamad is a palestinian medical student studying in Egypt right now. He has lost contact with his family since October 7 and his house has been bombed. He is trying to raise funds to cover his studying expenses. (https://gofund.me/db622b3a) (UNVETTED but seems legit. This is his Instagram: @mohamadsmeer and it has links to the same gfm campaign. His Instagram has been active since 2017 and he has posts that are geotagged in Gaza.) 

Rawan Shihada (@rawanshihada11): Rawan lives with her parents and 4 siblings. She is a renewable energy engineer, graduated in 2022 and already has a published paper. She dreams of doing a master’s degree. However now their home is destroyed and they have been displaced 6 times. Her brother Karam is a medical doctor, her sister Ruba is a software engineer, and her youngest sister Tala is 17, a secondary school student but the war has obstructed her education. They are trying to evacuate out of Gaza. (https://gofund.me/741d42ef) (UNVETTED but likely legit, see post here. @/catboymoses has managed to find Rawan on both LinkedIn and ResearchGate and has messaged her to confirm that this is her Tumblr account and fundraiser.)

Falestine (@falestine-yousef): Falestine has a 3-month-old son called Youssef that she gave birth to during this war. She cannot provide enough milk, medicine and other basic necessities for the baby. Due to the horrible conditions and the loss of their homes, her father suffered a stroke and her mother is suffering from chronic diseases and needs treatment. They are raising funds to evacuate out of Gaza and buy daily necessities. (https://gofund.me/77ca82d7) (shared by 90-ghost) (additional info on Falestine and her sisters)

Click here for my Masterlist for fundraisers from 13 July - 25 July.

Click here for my Masterlist for fundraisers from 26 July -29 July.

Click here for my Masterlist for fundraisers from 30 July - 1 August.

Click here for my Masterlist for fundraisers from 2 August - 5 August.

Click here for my Masterlist for fundraisers from 6 August - 10 August.

Click here for my Masterlist for fundraisers from 11 August - 14 August.

Click here for my Masterlist for fundraisers from 15 August - 18 August

Click here for my Masterlist for fundrasiers from 19 August - 21 August

Click here for my Masterlist for fundrasiers from 22 August - 24 August

How does vetting and verification work? See post here. (also read comments regarding 90-ghost and why we trust the campaigns he has shared)

Click here for my Google Doc with my complete masterlist of all the Palestinian gfm asks I've received, updated daily (along with other verified ways to send aid to Gaza).

Don't forget your Daily Clicks on Arab.org, it's free!!! and Every click made is registered in their system and generates donation from sponsors/advertisers.)

[nothinkonlyhannah]

“Long May He Reign”

[cyarsk5230]

Having sex with a woman without her consent is rape. His ‘like you have a choice’ is endorsing rape. rainn.org/articles/sexua…

Anyways, my family has a responsible gun owner, and I’m not necessarily a gun advocate, but if I were one, and I mean, if I were one, I recommend a Glock 43 x ! it shoots very comfortably minimal recoil and fits perfectly in your purse for concealed carry or in a holster on your hip. You can switch out the magazine for a 15 extendo. There’s no safety.💕 I recommend hollow point 9mm ammo ☀️And it comes in different colors

And please TAKE GUN SAFETY CLASS. So that u properly know how to handle a firearm. They are not a toy and i dont want u to hurt yourself of others unintentionally! Also check your states Gun laws this is very important.

[kvotheunkvothe]

Artober day 26, even MORE sparrow babbies (these are the last of them)

[carbone14]

Des avions japonais ciblent le porte-avions USS Enterprise (CV-6) – Bataille des îles Santa cruz – Campagne de Guadalcanal – Campagne des îles Salomon – Guerre du Pacifique – 26 octobre 1942

©Naval History and Heritage Command – 80-G-20989

L'USS Enterprise (CV-6) est à gauche, avec au moins deux avions ennemis visibles au-dessus. A droite le cuirassé USS South Dakota (BB-57) tire une salve de sa batterie tribord comme l'indique le flash lumineux au centre du navire.