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gav-san · 1 month ago

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A Vintage Bouquet Chapter 5

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A Vintage Bouquet Masterlist

Chapter Title: Legally Bound and Mildly Feral Length: 8.5 K+

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It starts, as most catastrophes do, with a mandrill trying to tell you something important—and you not understanding a word of it.

Still, you follow.

You drop the ladle. Just drop it. It clatters into the roots, splashes wine-stained compost, and you’re already bolting through the garden, boots snagging in your tangled skirts as you tear down the overgrown path.

And then you see it.

A ship. A real ship. Massive, ridiculous, and very much docked.

There are people on it. Real humans. Loud ones. Moving.

For a second, your brain tries to make excuses—some kind of sea mirage? Government hallucination? Surely the mandrills will tear them apart before they get too close.

But then a voice echoes through the misty courtyard. A voice that is far too human, far too loud, and far too close to your herb beds.

“Oi! This the place where the Greatest Swordsman dumped his secret wife and made her fight mandrills for survival?”

You stop cold.

Immediate, vine-snapping, limb-tingling panic.

You round the corner and there he is. A man. Leaning against your gate like he owns it, hands in his pockets, grinning like a drunk fox who just broke into a henhouse.

You have no idea who he is. Red hair. Sun-warmed skin. A long coat thrown over his shoulders like some heroic cliché. A grin that practically sparkles with idiocy and poor decisions.

Your first coherent thought is: Another pirate.

Your second is: Do I have time to grab the shovel?

“You!” you shout, storming forward like divine wrath in muddy boots. “Who in all seven hells told you you could just walk onto my vineyard?!”

He blinks. “Uh—hi?”

“Off. My. Land.”

He straightens slightly, still smiling like you’ve just offered him a drink. “So you are the one he left here.”

“Left?!” you screech. “He abandoned me! With mandrills! I’ve been living off compost and hallucinations! I had a staring contest with a spider last week and lost!”

“I heard it was romantic,” he says, like a man who enjoys being punched.

“Romantic?” Your voice cracks with sheer disbelief. “Who even are you?!”

More of them appear behind him—laughing, gawking, one of them loudly betting on whether the “Warlord’s Wife” is going to stab someone or just go full banshee.

You don’t answer. You just point.

You are one twitch away from committing vineyard-related homicide.

“I heard rumors,” the redhead continues, completely unfazed by your escalating fury. “Thought it was a joke. Warlord’s secret wife abandoned on a cursed island to become a feral wine-making queen? Hilarious. But…” He gestures toward your vines. “You’ve got a good crop.”

“They’re not for you! And I’m not—you can’t just dock and stroll in like this is a tasting tour!”

“Why not?” he says, absolutely thrilled.

Before you can launch into a shrieking tirade about boundaries and bladed deterrents, the underbrush rustles.

Then you hear it.

That low, guttural growl that means trouble.

Five mandrills emerge from the treeline, massive and bristling with territorial fury. Rude Bastard, their leader, bares his yellowed teeth in the direction of your unexpected guests.

The crew freezes.

The redhead squints. “Are those… your guards?”

“I didn’t hire them!” you snap. “They adopted me! I feed them! Sometimes they bring me bones!”

“Right,” he says slowly, backing up half a step. “You’ve got guard mandrills. Very normal. Totally healthy.”

One of the younger mandrills hisses, grabs a half-rotten yam, and chucks it straight at his head.

He ducks. Barely.

And grins again—this time with the cautious respect of someone who just realized he might be in over his head.

“Okay,” he says, eyes flicking between you, the mandrills, and the shovel still lying temptingly in your reach. “This is gonna be fun.”

Shanks hadn’t believed the rumors.

Not at first.

Mihawk? Kidnapping a woman?

It was absurd. The man barely tolerated company, let alone went out of his way to acquire it. Shanks knew him. Knew the way he sharpened his silence like a blade. The idea of him picking up a woman, sailing her to some cursed hunk of rock, and dumping her there like discarded luggage? No. It didn’t fit.

Mihawk was cold, yes. Unapologetically severe. Prone to ominous remarks and dramatic cloaks. But not the "tie-her-up-and-leave-her-on-a-haunted-island" type.

Still... as the Red Force neared Kuraigana’s jagged shoreline, the rumors got louder. And dumber. And more specific.

“Apparently, she fights off mandrills with a shovel.” “She eats moss and rage.”

“She’s got wine now. Probably made of moss. She legally married him. There’s a contract and everything. Mihawk might be married.”

Shanks had laughed. Right out loud. Then he stopped laughing. Then he brought wine. Because if this was real, he needed to see it.

So naturally, he came ashore.

And what he found was…

A courtyard overtaken by choking vines and volcanic weeds. A battered stone well, bubbling quietly under a crooked tree. A vineyard, a patchwork miracle, clawed from hostile ground like it owed you money. And you.

You, standing there with boots half-caked in volcanic mud, fists clenched, a rusting shovel in one hand, and the unmistakable look of someone who had not had an everyday conversation in several months. Possibly longer.

There were five mandrills standing around you like a security detail from hell. One was chewing a stolen kitchen towel. Another had what looked like your laundry draped over its shoulder like a cloak.

You hadn’t even noticed Shanks yet. You were busy arguing with a vine.

He took a cautious step forward, hands raised slightly, as if approaching a wounded animal.

“Uh. Hey. You’re… the wife? Aren’t you?”

You whipped around so fast your braid nearly struck a mandrill in the face. Your eyes locked on him. And if looks could kill, he would’ve already been buried under your grapevines.

“Who the hell are you, pirate?”

“I’m… Shanks,” he said slowly, like that would help. “Friend of Mihawk’s.”

You blinked.

Then blinked again.

Then said, flat and deeply offended: “That man has friends?!”

A yam flew past his head with malicious intent.

He ducked on instinct, turning just in time to see the smallest mandrill hurl another with frightening precision.

Shanks straightened, more cautious now. “So. Uh. The rumors might’ve left some things out.”

You stared him down. There was no recognition in your eyes, no deference. Just raw, bone-deep exhaustion sharpened into fury.

“Let me guess,” you said, voice low and scraping, “you’re here to give me a message. Something cryptic and masculine. Something like, ‘he’s watching over you’ or ‘he left you here for your own good.’”

“I mean,” Shanks said, scratching the back of his neck, “I was mostly here to see if the mandrill-wife thing was true. But also… yeah, kinda.”

He paused. Looked around again.

The vineyard wasn’t just surviving—it was thriving. Grapes curled like tiny jewels on thick, sturdy vines. Someone had patched the castle’s broken masonry. Smoke curled from the chimney. There was a smell of stew. Not imaginary stew. Real stew. Possibly with seasoning.

This wasn’t a ruin.

It was… a home.

An angry one. A little violent. But unmistakably alive.

“I didn’t realize it was sort of true,” he admitted, voice quieter now. “I thought people were exaggerating. You know. Like sailors do.”

You stared at him for a long, scalding moment.

Then you threw down your shovel, hard enough to make one of the mandrills hiss.

“He left me with no firewood, one moldy rice sack, and a note that said ‘told the forest not to eat you.’” Your voice cracked up an octave. “I had to win a duel with a raccoon to get this ladle!”

Shanks nodded, slow and solemn. “Yeah. That… that sounds exactly like him.”

Another yam struck his foot. Not hard. Just enough to say we’re watching you.

He raised hand in surrender, stepping back.

“Alright. Message received. I’ll just admire your terrifying agricultural empire from over there.”

You narrowed your eyes. “Good. Stay on the stone path. If you step on the sprouting tomatoes, I will let them eat you.”

Shanks nodded again, already stepping carefully backward. This was no exaggeration. This was no joke.

Mihawk had left a woman on an island.

And she had thrived.

By force.

With mandrills. And a shovel. And pure, unfiltered rage.

It is, without question, the most unhinged tea party in Grand Line history.

The table is a crooked contraption of driftwood and one stolen door, balanced directly on the dock. You didn’t put it there because it’s scenic. You put it there because the mandrills won’t let you wander more than ten feet from the vineyard without forming a furry, twitchy perimeter like you’re some moss-stained queen in exile.

Shanks sits cross-legged on a barrel across from you, holding a chipped mug of wine and trying very hard not to smirk every time Rude Bastard bares his teeth. One of the younger mandrills has stolen a spoon and is chewing it like it owes him money.

You sit with your arms folded, face carved from stone, and one eyebrow twitching each time Shanks opens his mouth.

“I’m telling you,” he says between sips, “the man brings one bottle of wine to a duel, claims it pairs well with violence, and then refuses to share.”

“That’s generous,” you mutter. “He left me a crate of rotting lentils and a note that said ‘boil them or suffer.’”

Shanks wheezes. “That’s practically a love letter from Mihawk.”

“He married me out of spite.”

“That also sounds like him.”

Rude Bastard plops down beside you with a heavy grunt and thumps his chest once in solemn agreement. Shanks watches the motion like he’s trying to figure out if it’s approval or a warning.

“Are they always like this?” he asks, gesturing loosely to your simian entourage.

“They’re calm,” you say flatly. “If I die today, it’ll be on your watch.”

Shanks raises his mug in surrender. “Duly noted.”

At the far edge of the dock, a man leans against a support beam like he was built to do nothing else. His cigarette glows, a slow-burning ember in the mist. You’ve been ignoring him on purpose, mostly because he hasn’t said anything, which makes him dangerous. Or shy. Possibly both.

He watches the scene unfold, eyes narrowed. Half amused. Half bracing for impact.

You notice the way he studies you, not lecherous, not condescending. Just observant. Like a scout trying to identify a new species.

Tangled hair. Callused fingers. Clothes mended so many times they might be original pieces of the shipwreck. But you sit straight-backed. Pour your drink in one fluid motion. You don’t waste effort. You don’t ask for respect, you expect it. And that man—whatever he is—seems to clock it immediately.

“She has no idea who we are,” he mutters low to Shanks.

“Nope,” Shanks replies, far too cheerfully.

“No clue you’re an emperor.”

“Not a one.”

The quiet man exhales smoke through his nose as he watches a mandrill clean its nails with a fishbone. “You want me to explain? Or let her keep treating you like the intern?”

“I’m enjoying the mystery,” Shanks says. “She yells real good.”

You glare between them, tired of being left out of the subtext, and finally snap, “Are you nobility? You talk like someone who thinks soup should be sipped in silence, but your hair screams tavern fire.”

The quiet one chokes on his drink.

Shanks lights up like a man handed a second birthday. “No, sweetheart,” he says, raising his mug. “I’m something much worse.”

You narrow your eyes. “A smuggler?”

More coughing.

Shanks nods solemnly. “Sure. Let’s go with that.”

You sigh and glance skyward like the Saints might come down and strike the dock out of mercy. “Why are all the men I meet swords and cryptic nonsense? I swear, if someone sends me another crate of half-rancid beans, I will declare war.”

One of the mandrills screeches approval and starts beating the dock with a crab shell.

The quiet one, Benn, pinches the bridge of his nose like this is already too much for one lifetime.

He’s going to need a bottle. And probably a translator.

Shanks doesn’t say goodbye. Not properly. No dramatic wave. No farewell toast. Not even a lazy smirk and a “see you around, Queen of the Monkeys.”

He just disappears.

Leaves things behind like a polite curse. You wake up to a bundle on the table—wrapped in oilcloth, suspiciously untouched by monkey hands. Which already feels suspicious.

This makes two for two.

Two pirates. Zero emotional maturity.

What is it with pirates and goodbyes? Is there a rulebook? A code of silence? Some tragic oath carved into a rum barrel?

Because clearly, speaking like a decent human being before leaving someone behind is too much to ask.

You sigh, already tired, and start unwrapping the bundle like you expect it to explode.

And inside—

Ink. Real ink. Parchment. Thick, luxurious sheets, not the half-mildewed trash Mihawk left behind like a cursed library donation. A bottle of black ink that doesn’t smell like vinegar and despair.

Seed packets, some labeled elegantly, others scribbled with notes like “might attract bees. Watch your face,” or “sweet enough to justify living.”

Caramels. Salty fruit ones. High-quality. Rude Bastard tries to steal one instantly. You smack him on the snout. He sulks.

And then there's the note.

Looping script. Too charming. Too confident. Practically winking at you.

To the Queen of the Mandrills, Consider this a down payment on your next survival arc. You’ve made quite the impression. I admire a woman who builds an empire out of compost and spite. The seeds are from my personal stash. The paper’s so you can start keeping a log of which gorilla tries to assassinate whom and when. Or, if you prefer, a scathing letter to your dearly absentee husband. I hear he likes efficiency. I also regret to inform you that I’ll be back. Eventually. Blame Mihawk. Or thank him. Either way, I intend to annoy him about you until the end of my days. P.S. I flirt only out of respect. And because it bothers him. —Shanks

You read the note twice. Once aloud. Once in stunned silence.

Then, very calmly, you set it down on the table like it might explode.

You turn to the nearest mandrill.

“What,” you say flatly, “is wrong with pirates?”

The mandrill shrugs. Then steals one of the caramels and eats it with smug satisfaction.

You spend the rest of the day in a haze of new soil and mental debate. You plant the seeds. You feed the mandrills. You consider burning the note. Then you consider framing it. Then you consider both.

You do neither.

Instead, you fold the paper into a neat square and tuck it behind the third wine rack, where not even Mihawk would bother to look. Not because you like it. Not because you like him.

But because there’s something profoundly satisfying about being the reason the World’s Greatest Swordsman might one day die of irritation, pestered into an early grave by a redhead with a sense of humor and far too much free time.

Far across the sea, Shanks finds Mihawk in the worst possible place.

A sunlit cliff. Quiet. Still. Peaceful in the sort of way that invites stabbings.

The swordsman is seated cross-legged on the grass, polishing Yoru with all the joy of a man filing his own execution orders. He doesn’t look up when Shanks saunters into view, arms wide, posture cocky.

“Ah,” Mihawk says without inflection, “the red clown returns.”

Shanks grins like he was born to be annoying. “Still emotionally constipated, I see.”

“I was having a peaceful morning.”

“You left your wife on a haunted island with moldy rice and a death note.”

That earns the faintest twitch—a barely-there shift of his eyebrow. A breath held a beat too long.

“…What did you do?”

Shanks flops onto the grass with all the smug satisfaction of a man who definitely did something and is very ready to talk about it.

“Not your wife,” he drawls. “Unfortunate. Tiny. Loud. Uses a shovel like divine wrath incarnate. Leads a gorilla militia now. You remember her?”

Mihawk blinks. Slowly.

“…Oh.”

“That,” Shanks says, grinning, “is your legally bound spouse. The one you ditched with a sack of lentils and a sticky note that said ‘don’t die.’”

There’s a long pause.

“I forgot to annul it,” Mihawk says at last.

Shanks whistles low. “Man. Imagine if the World Government found out one of their warlords accidentally married a feral noblewoman and made her queen of mandrills. That's gotta be some kind of record.”

Mihawk’s gaze slides to him. No humor. No twitch of amusement. Just that quiet, lethal stillness that usually comes right before something gets sliced.

“I do not find this funny.”

“Wow,” Shanks breathes. “You left a noblewoman—a noblewoman—on a murder-island, and she turned it into a vineyard guarded by primates with crab-shell clubs. What a resume.”

Mihawk gives him a long, cold look.

“You sailed across the Grand Line just to say that.”

“Of course I did.”

Mihawk goes back to polishing Yoru with slow, deliberate strokes, like Shanks' voice is nothing more than a breeze he intends to ignore.

“You’re insufferable.”

“She threw potatoes at me,” Shanks replies.

That gets him.

The blade stills. Silence blooms like a bruise.

Mihawk doesn’t look up, but the shift in his grip says everything. Slowly, with the precision of a man sharpening intent into threat, he slides Yoru back into its sheath.

“She missed?” he asks, voice flat, eyes narrowing just a fraction.

“Barely,” Shanks says, rubbing the back of his head. “One of them dented the barrel behind me.”

“Hm.”

There’s a long, knife-edged pause. Just long enough for the wind to change, tugging at their coats, stirring the grass like breath held too long.

Then Mihawk stands.

He adjusts his coat with the methodical slowness of someone preparing to walk into a duel—or a storm. Every motion is perfectly composed, like he's setting a scene. Yoru gleams at his side, catching the sunlight like a warning.

“I suppose,” he murmurs, “it’s time I check whether the project has rotted.”

Shanks blinks. Sits up straighter. “Project?”

“She was an experiment,” Mihawk says, voice cool as stone. “Unplanned. Brief. Misfiled under diplomacy.”

“You married her,” Shanks reminds him.

“It was a bureaucratic ambush.”

Shanks snorts. “You signed it.”

“I thought it was an arms treaty.”

“She’s the Queen of Kuraigana now.”

“She was not meant to last.”

“She built a vineyard out of ash and livestock panic,” Shanks says, throwing an arm behind his head, still lounging. “The mandrills follow her like she’s a prophet. Benn says she could run a nation if someone gave her a shovel, three tax codes, and something to swear at.”

Mihawk exhales slowly. It’s not quite a sigh—it’s too composed. But it holds the weight of a man realizing that something he thought would die quietly in a corner has, instead, taken root and sprouted a wine empire.

“I’ll drop her off somewhere functional,” he says finally. “A real town. A market. A priest.”

He glances sideways. “We’ll annul it. Quietly.”

“And if she refuses?” Shanks asks, eyebrow raised.

“She won’t.”

“She will if you say it like that.”

Another long pause. Mihawk doesn’t respond. Doesn’t argue. Just turns.

There’s a faint crackle of his coat, boots shifting in the grass, and then the slow, inevitable rhythm of his retreat—measured, quiet, deliberate. Yoru swings lightly at his side, as if amused.

But just before he’s out of earshot, he catches it. Under his breath. Dry. Begrudging.

“If she hits me with a shovel, I’m making you eat it.”

Shanks tips his head back and howls.

Laughter spills out of him—loud, delighted, far too pleased with himself for someone about to witness what might be the most emotionally stunted reunion in Grand Line history.

He can’t wait.

#dracule mihawk x reader #hawkeye mihawk #dracule mihawk #feral reader #home-grown spite #Inappropriate first contact

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tribbetherium · 1 year ago

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'The Early Rodentocene, 100 years post-establishment.

Before it was a paradise, it was a hamster hellscape.

Without predators to curb their numbers and a nigh-limitless supply of food, the first hamsters, having escaped the confines of Isla Genesis via land bridges that formed during a period of low sea levels, bred incessantly and exponentially. In the span of a century, they numbered in the hundreds of billions, becoming a tidal wave of hungry nibbling mouths that swept through Nodera, and then Easaterra, Westerna and Ecatoria like a rodent plague of continental proportions. They quickly ravaged the local plant life and introduced invertebrates, reducing once-lush grassland into barren wastes and driving many species of colonists to extinction as their numbers grew unchecked, their consumed biomass converted into even more hungry hamsters.

Eventually, having overrun the still-interconnected four main continents, they finally ran out of food, and began starving en masse: heaps upon heaps of tiny carcasses blanketing the landscape for miles on end and emanating the most terrible smell imaginable all across the land as they decomposed, a nauseating miasma of dead rodent times a hundred billion. And yet, in this putrid panorama of death and decay, some life endured. Fungi and microbes and flies and worms soon returned the nutrients of the dead to the soil, and dormant seeds and insect eggs awaiting the end of the scurrying storm burst back into bloom, nourished by the now richer earth. Trees, boasting lifespans measured in centuries, simply held off producing seeds and filled their leaves with distasteful tannins until the menacing swarms died down. Floating seeds and flying insects, blown across the sea from offshore islands and the unreachable Borealia, blew back inland and colonized the continents once again. And, with a new, enriched environment, new life flourishing once more, the world again became a paradise for the few hardy hamsters that survived the armageddon.

Unfortunately for them, it would eventually happen again, over and over, throughout the subsequent centuries. A pattern of extreme global boom-and-bust cycles of hamster populations defined the earliest days of the Early Rodentocene, as the ecosystem as a whole struggled to keep this rampant invading species under control. Time and time again, life would rebound from the devastation, only to be destroyed by the growing swarms once more within a few decades. As the centuries passed, however, the extreme pressure the hamsters put on the other species of the planet began to fuel their evolution: in a matter of just a few millennia, many plants, especially grasses, developed enormous rhizomes that grew deep underground, which continued to live on even as hamsters ate their leaves and stems. Invertebrates followed suit, laying large amounts of overwintering eggs in secluded places to assure at least some would survive, timing their emergence by evolutionary trial-and-error to times when hamsters were at their fewest. Some early plants became tougher, or more toxic, or thornier, while invertebrates retaliated with thicker exoskeletons, pinching mandibles, and painful stings to deter them from being eaten. Other species played an opposite game: instead satiating the predators with such a huge influx at the breeding season that they could not all be consumed, leaving a small percentage to survive and reproduce. Finally, and perhaps the most significant deterrent to the uncontrollable hordes, were the opportunistic microbes and invertebrates that, in the abundance of rodent hosts, became parasites and pathogens to them: ones that became particularly devastating when dense populations were in close contact, spreading quickly and causing large-scale deaths when numbers were too high.

As easily-accessible food became scarcer and starvation, disease, and competition began to take its toll, the population booms gradually became less and less severe as time went on, and the mass die-offs too became less and less devastating. Soon, new life began to flourish alongside the hamsters, not in spite of them, and, with their population levels now moderated by factors that kept them getting too overcrowded, the hamsters, once invaders, now became a part of the ecosystem. Some plants evolved to spread their seeds by having hamsters hoard them, while others relied on the nutrients spread by their droppings to grow. And by 10,000 years post-establishment, the periodic overpopulations and mass deaths were a thing of the past: balance restored to a biosphere disrupted by an unexpected arrival.

The world had changed to accommodate the newcomers: but the hamsters themselves were changed by this brutal cycle. With survivors sometimes as few as a hundred or so persisting each die-off, the gene pools narrowed and grew and fluctuated: and through rampant inbreeding, or genetic failsafes to combat the deleterious effects of lessened genetic variety, a plethora of mutations would gradually emerge in the once homogenous population: mutations that, with the aid of time and natural selection, became the catalyst that would shape the hamsters' future for the millions of years to come.'

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#speculative evolution #speculative biology #speculative zoology #spec evo #hamster's paradise #art one shot

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sporesgalaxy · 1 year ago

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what's uppppp I have some backstory writing for Pierre I've been fiddling with for aaagesss & I mostly like where it's at now. so I show you :)

short life history intro + Devil Fruit aquisition origin + little blurb from on the way to the Grand Line. enjoyyyy

warnings: animal death, bfrb (nail chewing)

•••

Tiny Pierra lets ants crawl all over her. She watches them tear apart a dying grasshopper in the garden, piece by piece.

Pierra looks with wonder in her eyes at a rotting fish covered with maggots. At a dead baby bird that fell from its nest too soon. At a bag full of bloody ducks her father shot.

Pierra gets too upset sometimes, and too frightened frequently. Pierra hides as often as possible.

When Pierra starts getting big, she wishes she was still small. She used to like squeezing into tight spaces; inside a box, under a small desk, under a bed. She doesn't fit anymore. Sometimes she feels like she's stopped fitting anywhere at all.

Pierra sneaks into places she is not supposed to be when she's alone, just to look around. Just to hear the silence.

Pierra takes food she is not supposed to eat, just to get away with it. Just to test how far she can go without being noticed. Just to be unnoticed on purpose.

When Pierra is 16, she goes to the market with her mother. While her mother speaks to someone, Pierra breaks off a tiny piece of the most interesting fruit at the stand. No one notices her do it this time. Pierra chews and swallows the piece of fruit, and it tastes bad, but Pierra is pleased to have learned what it tastes like without permission.

Later that evening, alone in her room, Pierra thinks she is dreaming, or maybe losing her mind. She wonders half-heartedly if the fruit was poisonous and she's dying. Then, she does what she always does when she thinks she is losing her mind: distracts herself and waits for it to pass.

It passes, eventually, but this won't be the last time. She learns that it's not madness, but the curse of a Devil. She learns she can't swim anymore. She prays for forgiveness. She tells nobody.

When Pierra gets too upset and admits it her mother a year later, she is begged never to transform again. To hide it forever, for her own safety. Human traffickers could be anywhere, her mother says, and Devil Fruit users fetch a high price. Pierra promises to keep hiding. Pierra wonders if it will be easier now, having someone who understands.

Pierra's mother goes back to acting like nothing ever happened. It doesn't get much easier.

----

Pierra Piper is currently one of many passengers on a large Navy escort vessel, which is in the process of entering the Grand Line through the Calm Belt. Pierra is trying very hard not to look at the water or think about Sea Kings. Her nose is buried resolutely in a short book.

The book isn't exactly comforting, though; it's about a man who transforms into a bug and finds himself useless and helpless and burdensome to his family, unable to continue working at his job or caring for himself. Pierra knew the book was about this, and chose to read it anyway. She reminds herself of that as she bravely turns the page rather than closing it.

It still feels surreal that Pierra is making a once-in-a-lifetime journey into the dangerous waters of the Grand Line for something as droll as her lab assistant job.

Pierra digs her nail into the book's spine restlessly.

She wonders if somehow, the Marines who interviewed her had known. Had been able to tell, just by looking at her, that she's been cursed by a Devil Fruit. Maybe there's some dead giveaway that she just doesn't know about.

More realistically, Pierra had been chosen for transfer despite her inexperience simply because she's big. She isn't especially athletic, but maybe being 7 and a half feet tall was deterrent enough for some pirates. Or maybe it was about being sturdy and able to reach things in a large laboratory.

Pierra chews her thumbnail and makes a great effort not to think about the sorts of biological research experiments she's read about the World Government allegedly subjecting prisoners to, or just how many prisoners the Marines have access to on the Grand Line. Those reports might not even be true. Pierra's thumb begins to bleed.

She wishes she had turned this job down. She wishes her mother hadn't been so encouraging despite the danger. She wishes her dad hadn't sounded so happy for her. She wishes the job didn't pay so much. She wishes it didn't promise a free return trip in 6 months. She hopes she'll meet a rich Zoologist while she's on the Grand Line.

#1pc #adddna #centipierre

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rain-crestfall · 22 days ago

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relentless

Link to chapter 9

================================

Chapter 10

The war room stank of damp parchment and stale sweat.

The adrenaline of the battlefield hadn’t quite left you. You could still feel Reiner’s spine snap under your fingers. The sting of fire when you tore through Bertholdt’s colossal eye socket. The quiet horror in Levi’s eyes when you pulled him beside Erwin’s body.

Now, you stood behind Erwin as he hovered over Grisha’s journals, one arm wrapped in a sling, the other flipping page after page with barely concealed excitement.

“So this is the truth,” he murmured. “A world beyond the sea. A world that fears and hates us.”

Hange, barely breathing, had three open books stacked in her arms and was muttering to herself like a woman possessed.

“They injected spinal fluid. Turned humans into Titans like it was nothing. This—this is historical, no, revolutionary! We could—if I could just—maybe dissect Bertholdt—”

“Hange,” Levi interrupted dryly from the corner, voice flat, “you’re foaming at the mouth.”

She blinked, swiping at her lip with her sleeve. “Oh.”

You managed a small smile, still too tense to laugh. Your skin still buzzed faintly where Reiner and Bertholdt’s power had sunk into you. There was no pain now, but there was something else. A tightness under your ribs. Something uncertain.

Erwin straightened slowly, his movements deliberate, as if bracing himself against the weight of what he was about to say. Behind the weariness in his eyes burned a cold fire—a relentless, consuming focus that made your skin prickle.

“Marley received word,” he said at last, voice low but sharp, “that their spies failed. They know about you. About what you can do.”

You stiffened. The room suddenly felt smaller.

“We’ll offer them peace,” he continued, tone unreadable, “and if they don’t accept... then we take countermeasures.”

Countermeasures. The word hung heavy in the air, its meaning clear.

As in: you.

You were the threat. A living deterrent. A pawn in Erwin’s chess game.

And yet... you said nothing. Something about him—his unwavering gaze, the way he bore the burden of leadership without flinching—kept you rooted. Even now, even knowing what he was willing to sacrifice, you wanted to believe in him.

Erwin’s eyes flicked to the door. A subtle shift, but intentional. You followed his glance and understood: he knew they were listening.

Outside the room, just beyond the thin wooden wall, three shadows crept silently down the hall. They had escaped their cells just hours before, moving like ghosts through the heart of enemy territory.

In the deepening dusk, they ran.

By the time they reached the edge of the forest, breath ragged in their chests, Reiner turned and broke the silence.

“Marley doesn’t know peace,” he growled, fists clenched. “This war won’t stop. But they need to know—these people aren’t the devils we were told.”

Bertholdt hesitated. “No one will believe us. They’ll think of us as traitors.”

“Then we’ll make them believe,” Reiner said, his voice rising with conviction. “We have to try—for our families. Before Paradis brings the war to Marley, before it’s too late.”

Annie stood apart, eyes distant, almost unreadable.

“I’m not going back,” she said softly.

The other two turned to her in disbelief. “What?”

“I don’t belong there anymore,” she murmured. “Not after everything. But… promise me you’ll look after my father.”

Reiner’s expression twisted, torn between loyalty and understanding. Bertholdt stared at her, grief in his eyes.

Then, without another word, they embraced briefly—once, tightly, like the past could be held in a single breath—and parted.

Two shadows vanished into the trees.

And one remained behind.

Night fell like a shroud, and the air outside turned sharp with the scent of oncoming rain.

Hange approached you, arms full of books, eyes wild with half-muttered theories about spinal fluid and Titan lineage.

“Hey. Can you do something for me?”

You tilted your head. “Depends.”

“Bring Levi his dinner.”

“…Why me?”

“Because it’s an order,” she replied breezily, already vanishing down the hallway.

You frowned but didn’t argue.

When you knocked, Levi's gruff voice answered. “Come in.”

You stepped inside with the tray. If he was surprised to see you, he didn’t show it.

“Hange’s orders,” you said as explanation.

He gestured toward his desk, barely looking up. “Thanks.”

You set the tray down and turned to leave, but—

“Wait.”

You froze.

“Help me finish this,” he added, nodding toward the food.

“Aren’t you hungry?”

“I lost my appetite.”

Without another word, you sat across from him. The silence between you was calm, almost grounding. He resumed scribbling notes, and you nibbled on bread, the scent of warm stew filling the room.

Then, lightning split the sky.

You flinched—just barely—but the small sound escaped before you could catch it.

Levi looked up.

“It’s just noise,” he said evenly, eyes lingering.

Then, with no added fuss, he nudged his tea toward you.

“Drink. It’ll help you settle.”

You took it—gratefully.

Time passed. The storm deepened. Rain hammered the windows with desperate urgency.

“I think it’s going to stay a while,” you murmured.

Levi didn’t glance up. “Then stay here.”

You blinked. “What?”

“The hallway’s drafty. The barracks are across the yard. Don’t be an idiot.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re trembling like a leaf,” he said flatly.

You hesitated. But finally nodded.

Later, you sat curled in one of the armchairs, flipping through a battered book from his shelf. The storm hadn’t let up. Neither had the silence.

“Take the bed.”

You looked up. Levi was still at his desk.

“I’ll stay here,” he added. “Couch is fine.”

You stood, your heart pounding in your ears. “Mind if I borrow something to sleep in?”

Where you got the courage to ask that, you don't know.

He gave a small nod. “Closet. Left side.”

“Thanks.”

You slipped out of the office, the door clicking softly shut behind you. You let out a shaky breath. You were going to spend the night in Levi Ackerman's bedroom. He offered you his bed! No one would have believed you, not even yourself from two months ago.

In the room, everything was as you expected—ordered, efficient, almost impersonal. You opened the closet and selected one of his shirts. It was soft, neatly folded, and smelled like him—clean linen, faint tea, steel.

The fabric clung lightly to your skin, oversized but warm. You climbed into the bed, sheets cool against your legs.

The rain hadn’t let up��it whispered against the windows, steady and soft.

You lay still for a while, trying not to think about the faint scent of him on the sheets or the ache behind your ribs that only grew in the quiet.

Then your voice broke the silence. “Levi?”

There was a pause.

A low grunt came from the office—short, acknowledging.

You hesitated, fingers twisting a loose thread on the blanket. “Would you… stay here? Just for a bit?”

Silence.

Then slow, steady footsteps.

He appeared at the doorway, arms crossed, clad in a loose shirt and drawstring pants.

He leaned against the frame, brow slightly furrowed. “What are you—some kind of child?”

You didn’t meet his gaze. “Only if it's not too much trouble.”

A quiet exhale. He walked in and sat on the edge of the bed, the mattress dipping slightly beneath his weight. He didn’t lie down—just sat, angled away, like he wasn’t sure whether this was a mistake or something he’d regret not doing.

The space between you buzzed with silence.

Then, after a long pause, he spoke—voice lower, more hesitant than usual.

“Would you want this… if all of it ended?”

The words hung in the dark like something too fragile to touch. You blinked, startled. Levi never asked questions like that—not about feelings, not about futures. But you answered anyway.

“I would.” Then, softer, “What about you?”

“Yeah.”

Just that. Quiet. Certain.

Your breath hitched, warmth blooming in your chest. You tried to deflect it, voice light. “Didn’t know you had a soft side.”

He didn’t smile. But there was softness in his eyes.

“Hn. Don’t get used to it.”

He leaned back slowly until he was lying beside you, arms still crossed over his chest.

You turned onto your side, keeping a small distance, but your hand brushed his arm in the dark. You froze.

He didn’t.

Instead, after a long beat, he let his hand drift—just slightly—until his fingers rested against yours. Barely a touch. But it was there.

He didn’t speak. But his hand stayed.

And that was more than enough to quiet the storm in your chest.

Sleep came slowly, but with him beside you, it felt a little easier to fall.

================================

tag list: alebrasil0101 levisungjingwoo2099

#levi ackerman #levi ackerman fanfiction #levi ackerman x reader #erwin smith #hange zoe #eren yeager #mikasa ackerman #armin arlert #aot #aot fanfiction #attack on titan #attack on titan fanfiction #shingeki no kyojin #hero #powers

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gorgiawrite · 5 months ago

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SPANISH MAIN AND CARIBBEAN PIRATE HAVENS c.1670 (x)

« A map illustrating the routes of the Treasure Fleet (the New Spain and the Terra Firma Fleet) alongside the Spanish Main (the parts of the Spanish Empire on the mainland of the Americas with coastlines on the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico) and the islands in the Caribbean (Spanish West Indies). It also depicts the most notorious havens of the buccaneers and pirates that prayed on merchant shipping and the flow of Spanish treasure from the region. »

PETIT GOAVE: on the southwest coast of Hispaniola, It attracted buccaneers from the 1670s after the decline of Tortuga and was particularly popular with French pirates and the notorious Dutchman Laurens de Graff, since it was far from the (non-corrupt) French colonial authorities yet close to the Spanish Main. By 1700, the buccaneers had been replaced by outright pirates, and Petit Goâve became a mere footnote in French affairs in the Caribbean.

ILE-A-VACHE: island off the southwest coast of Hispaniola, approx. 50 km², was used by many French pirates and the base to privateer Henry Morgan (c. 1635-1688). NOT really a pirate haven in the 1700s.

TORTUGA: island off the northwest coast of Hispaniola, approx. 60 km², became a haunt of cattle hunters and then a pirate base of significance in the mid-17th century when French buccaneers chose it for its proximity to the major regional shipping routes. The base had the additional advantage that there was plentiful meat from cattle and pigs introduced there by early Spanish settlers, and if necessary, the pirates could retreat to the interior’s mountains.

In 1642, the French authorities on St. Kitts appointed Jean Le Vasseur as the governor of Tortuga, but he built a fortress with 40 cannons and declared his colony independent. For the next decade, Tortuga became the most important buccaneer/pirate haven in the Caribbean. Le Vasseur grew rich from his handsome cut of all pirate business in his mini-state. A Spanish force again tried its luck in 1655, but an English fleet rescued Tortuga, and both French and English settlers were welcomed. The pirates had not gone away, though, and continued to be attracted by the advantages of the base. The French took over again in 1665, but they realised the pirates were an excellent deterrent to the Spanish and so left Tortuga pretty much as it was, concentrating instead on colonising the east side of Hispaniola. The island was repeatedly attacked by French and Spanish forces in the 1670s and so many pirates moved on to Petit Goâve by the close of the century, even if a few pirates remained loyal to Tortuga until piracy was banned there by the French authorities in 1713.

Illustration of the buccaneer and pirate base of Tortuga c. 1600s (x)

PORT ROYAL: on the southeast coast of Jamaica, it was the main port of Jamaica, a British possession from 1655. Known in its early days by its Carib-Spanish name Cayagua ('Water Island') and then anglicized as Cagway, it was given a powerful fortress by the British, but the withdrawal of the Royal Navy left it exposed to Spanish warships. From 1657, Governor Edward D’Oyley, encouraged buccaneers of several nationalities to make the harbour their base and concentrate their plundering on Spanish ships, issuing letters of marque as authority to do so. England’s war with Spain ended in 1660, but many of the buccaneers continued their attacks on legitimate shipping. Subsequent governors were wont to encourage piracy since the presence of many well-armed ships in the harbour significantly lessened the threat from Spain, the Netherlands, and France.

Port Royal became a pirate hotspot in the second half of the 17th century simply because it was so far from the authorities in London and those officials on the island were more pragmatic. Its advantages included a naturally protected harbour that could hold up to 500 ships and a strategic location right in the middle of the Caribbean-Americas shipping routes.

Buccaneers like Sir Henry Morgan, who repeatedly attacked Spanish ships and colonial ports, were based on Jamaica. Morgan was even appointed Lieutenant-governor in 1675. Port Royal became awash with goods and riches, so much so, one contemporary author described it as having more cash than London. By 1680, the haven’s prosperity is evidenced by the presence of over 100 taverns. There were, too, so many gaming houses and brothels that a visiting clergyman described Port Royal as "the Sodom of the New World" (Breverton, 260). This clergyman did not even bother to stay but returned to England on the very same ship on which he had arrived "since the majority of its population consists of pirates, cut-throats, whores and some of the vilest persons in the whole of the world, I felt my permanence there was of no use".

In 1681 the Jamaican authorities finally outlawed piracy, and the pirates moved to other havens such as New Providence. Port Royal was destroyed on 7 June 1692 by a combination of earthquake and tsunami. Several thousand people were killed in the disaster. Although half of Port Royal slipped forever into the ocean, the spot would eventually return to prominence as a place where several notorious pirates were hanged and operate as a British naval base.

Port Royal and Kingston Harbour, 1774. Port Royal is the town at the tip of the peninsula in the center of the map / Shoreline changes in the 1692 Port Royal earthquake (x)

NASSAU: main city of New Providence Island, it took over from Tortuga as the region's main base for pirates. The small island reached its peak as a pirate haven from the 1670s, first for buccaneers chased out of Jamaican waters and then, from around 1713, for pirates who attacked anybody they fancied regardless of nationality. There were good harbours, and plenty of freshwater, meat, timber, and fruit on the island. Called Nassau from 1695. Such pirates as Blackbeard, Jack Rackham (d. 1720), Benjamin Hornigold (d. 1719), and Samuel Bellamy (d. 1717) used the island as a base. In total, there were some 600 pirates sailing from Nassau who raided shipping and ports from the Caribbean to Maine. From 1718, Governor Woodes Rogers (1679-1732), a staunch enemy of piracy, rebuilt the fortress and stationed cannons at strategic points in the harbour to ward off any pirates thinking of returning. The Bahamas suffered another period of neglect under Rogers’ successor and became a minor pirate haven again until full colonial control was re-established.

ISLAND OF NEW PROVIDENCE (circa 1700-1750) (x)

PROVIDENCE: island off the coast of central america, had a good harbour, which was easily defended from its high cliffs. It was first settled by the English from 1630. As elsewhere, piracy was encouraged since it brought trade and a means of defence against Spanish attacks. Indeed, the islands came under Spanish control from 1641 to 1666, and it was not fully out of Spanish hands until Sir Henry Morgan used Providence as a base for his attacks on Panama in 1670 and 1671. The principal trading port had several small forts around the harbor and at the bay's entrance. There were about fourteen forts in all. It is possible pirates inhabited the island a while after that (nothing on its history in the 1700s), but when privateer Louis Michel Aury settled there in 1818, he found the island populated by white English-speaking Protestants and their slaves.

Drawing of the fortress of privateer Louis Michel Aury by Louis Perou de Lacroix (1821) (x)

#black sails #bs refs #gorgiawrite #pirates

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workersolidarity · 1 year ago

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[ 📹 Palestinian residents and journalists run, bike and drive away as fast as they can as the Israeli occupation forces fire directly at the civilian population in the city of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, June 29th. 📈 The current death toll figures: 37'834 Palestinians killed, while another 86'858 others have been wounded since October 7th, 2023. ]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🏘️💥🚑 🚨

ISRAELI OCCUPATION CONTINUES GENOCIDAL WAR ON DAY 267: 66% OF ISRAELIS WANT NETANYAHU OUT OF POLITICS, MAJORITY OF ISRAELIS WANT ULTRA-ORTHODOX TO BE CONSCRIPTED, UN HEALTH REPPORTEUR CALLS ISRAELI WAR "GENOCIDE" AS SLAUGHTER CONTINUES UNABATED

On 267th day of the Israeli occupation's ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed a total of 3 new massacres of Palestinian families, resulting in the deaths of no less than 40 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, while another 224 others were wounded over the previous 24-hours.

It should be noted that as a result of the constant Israeli bombardment of Gaza's healthcare system, infrastructure, residential and commercial buildings, local paramedic and civil defense crews are unable to recover countless hundreds, even thousands, of victims who remain trapped under the rubble, or who's bodies remain strewn across the streets of Gaza.

This leaves the official death toll vastly undercounted as Gaza's healthcare officials are unable to accurately tally those killed and maimed in this genocide, which must be kept in mind when considering the scale of the mass murder.

A new television poll conducted inside the occupied Palestinian territories and published on Friday has found that 66% of Israelis believe occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should leave politics and should not seek re-election, while just 27% said he should stay in office, and 7% answered they weren't sure.

Among right-wing Israelis, a different picture emerges, 37% of right wing Israelis opposed Netanyahu seeking re-election, while 53% said Netanyahu should stay in office.

At the same time, a full 85% of Israelis overall support a probe to look into the October 7th Palestinian resistance attacks on Israeli settlements.

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation's leadership continues pushing for a war in Lebanon, worrying the Zionist entity's US ally who has maneuvered warships closer to the border between "Israel" and Lebanon, supposedly with the purpose of preparing to evacuate American citizens and soldiers as fighting between Hezbollah and the Israeli occupation army continues to escalate.

According to reporting on the moves by the United States, the American amphibious assault ship, the USS Wasp, which carries a force of US Marines, moved last Wednesday to the Mediterranean Sea in the vicinity of the region, joining the USS Oak Hill and another ship and forming a readiness group in the case of escalation.

The US warship group is trained in evacuating civilians from dangerous war situations, but also has offensive capabilities, as well as espionage and surveillance capabilities, and can also be paired with the F-35 attack aircraft.

According to one source, the warship group is also intended to project American military power in the region, in the hope that this will act as a deterrent against the axis of resistance led by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Sources speaking with US news outlet NBC have said the United States is increasingly concerned with possible Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon in the coming weeks, this despite pressure exerted by the Biden administration for both sides to show restraint.

The Israeli occupation, however, is sticking with its position to keep Hezbollah away from its northern border, while the Zionist security establishment demands the creation of a buffer zone 10 miles deep along the border with Lebanon.

American officials are intent on settling the nerves of the two sides, publicly playing down the chances of war between the two sides, and claiming they see no evidence that a major escalation on the border is imminent, but then warned that a single miscalculation could spark a major regional war.

However, public pressure continues on the Israeli leadership to act against Hezbollah, and to ensure Israeli citizens can return to their homes in the north. US officials said this pressure is "very real", adding that the Israeli leadership feel the need to "do something" about the threat in the north.

Since the beginning of the Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip, the Hezbollah Lebanese resistance movement has launched daily waves of rocket, drone and mortar strikes against Zionist military targets, and colonial settlements, in the occupation's northern territories, threatening to escalate the situation if the Zionist entity does not end its slaughter of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

In other news, it is being reported that since the start of the Zionist entity's ongoing genocidal war in the Gaza Strip, the United States Biden administration has sent the Israeli occupation thousands of highly destructive bombs and enormous amounts of ammunition.

It was explained the Americans have sent the Israeli occupation "at least 14,000 MK-84 bombs weighing 2,000 pounds, 6,500 500-pound bombs, 3,000 precision-guided Hellfire (surface-to-air) missiles, 1,000 bunker-buster bombs, and 2,600 small-diameter air-dropped bombs were transported," along with other ammunition.

Additionally, the Biden administration intends on sending further shipments of US bombs and ammunition, including the shipment that was previously suspended out of concern that the Israeli occupation forces would continue to use the giant bombs to target civilians.

According to American officials, the US intends on sending the Israeli occupation army another 1'700 bombs weighing 220kg, which are expected to arrive shortly.

Reporting in the United States is also stating that the Biden administration has come under enormous pressure from some members of Congress following their decision to suspend the single shipment of bombs, including a bizarre series of comments and videos published by Netanyahu, leading the administration to reverse its decision.

In more news, on Friday, the United Nations Repporteur on the right to Health, Tlaleng Mofokeng, has made public comments stating that groups of people were being literally exterminated in the Gaza Strip, and that no other word but "genocide" can be used to describe what it happening.

Speaking with Turkish news outlet, Anadolu News Agency, Mofokeng pointed to the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the Gaza Strip, noting that residents of Gaza were being deprived of essential services and basic needs.

"We know that people are trying to survive, but that’s really all they can do," she said, adding there is no food, safe drinking water, or safe housing in Gaza.

Pointing to the increasing death toll in the Israeli occupation's ongoing war, and the horrific conditions for those trapped under rubble or living with disabilities due to the war, the special repporteur said that "When you look literally how small Gaza strip is and the kind of destruction that’s happening, it’s really impossible to understand how this is still going on."

Speaking about the reports coming from international aid organizations that depict a dire healthcare situation in the enclave, Mofokeng went on to say that "when they (hospitals) cannot get supplies and essential medicines, and when healthcare workers themselves are being killed and harassed, it makes the attacks on the right to health even more prominent."

Mofokeng went on to condemn the support the Israeli occupation receives from the United States and Europe, which she says supports a "genocide."

"How many more children must die?" she asked, adding that people in Gaza are living a "daily nightmare."

The special repporteur asserted that the situation in the Gaza Strip reflects an "apartheid regime", and that the Israeli entity's attacks on civilians meets the definition of "genocide".

She went on call for a global conversation to recognize the events in Gaza as a genocide, and to hold the perpetrators accountable in International courts.

"I’m not in charge of prosecuting anybody," she said. “But when you have a group of people who have literally been exterminated, what else is there to declare it a genocide?"

She ended the interview by declaring that Israeli violence against healthcare personnel in Gaza, along with its denial of human rights for Palestinians are entirely unacceptable, and further urged the international community to take action to address the crises.

Meanwhile, the genocide continued in Gaza over Friday night, and renewed again on Saturday morning, with several deadly airstrikes responsible for killing a number of Palestinians and wounding even more.

North of Gaza, Israeli occupation warplanes bombed a residential house in the Yarmouk area, adjacent to the Al-Jazeera Club Stadium in Gaza City, resulting in the deaths of two children and wounding at least 5 others.

Several citizens were also wounded after an Israeli airstrike targeted the Al-Maghazi Refugee Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, while Zionist soldiers opened fire on the tents of displaced Palestinian families near the Al-Shakoush area and the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, west of the city of Rafah, in the south of Gaza.

At the same time, Zionist warplanes bombed a residential home belonging to the Abu Khadra family on Al-Wahda Street, in central Gaza City, killing four Palestinians, including two children, and wounding 10 others who were taken to the Baptist Hospital in the city.

Meanwhile, at dawn on Saturday, Israeli artillery detatchments renewed its shelling of civilian homes in the Al-Shujaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City.

Similarly, occupation artillery forces shelled more tents of displaced families, along with agricultural greenhouses in the Al-Mawasi area, northwest of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Local civil defense crews reported recovering the decomposing bodies of 5 Palestinians after the Israeli occupation forces withdrew from the Shakoush neighborhood, west of Rafah City, while Zionist forces continued firing on civilian homes east of Khan Yunis.

Israeli fighter jets also bombarded a house in the Al-Maghazi Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, killing at least one civilian and injuring dozens of others, which coincided with the bombing and shelling of the Nuseirat Camp.

At the same time, the Israeli occupation's warplanes launched two raids on the Tal al-Hawa and Sheikh Ajlin neighborhoods, southwest of Gaza City, while occupation drones and armored vehicles targeted residential homes near the Candle Mosque in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, along with the Al-Shujaiya neighborhood, resulting in a number of casualties.

The slaughter continued when Zionist warplanes bombed two homes belonging to the Abu Kamil family in the Al-Daraj neighborhood, along with the Qwaider family in the Al-Sabra neighborhood, in the south and center of Gaza City.

Also in the Al-Sabra neighborhood, an Israeli drone fired a missile at a civilian vehicle, killing several Palestinians and wounding others, while occupation fighter jets bombed the Municipal Park in central Gaza City, killing and wounding a number of others.

The Israeli occupation army also launched a bombardment of the Al-Saada Towers area in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood, southwest of Gaza City.

In yet another atrocity, the Israeli occupation forces bombed a residential house in the Bureij Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, resulting in the deaths of at least four civilians, and wounding a number of others who were transported to Al-Aqsa and Al-Awda Hospitals.

As a result of the Israeli occupation's ongoing war of extermination against the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip, the endlessly rising death toll now exceeds 37'834 Palestinians killed, including over 15'000 children and in excess of 10'000 women, while another 86'858 others have been wounded since the start of the current round of Zionist aggression, beginning with the events of October 7th, 2023.

June 29th, 2024.

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@WorkerSolidarityNews

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usafphantom2 · 1 year ago

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Two more B-1B bombers are deployed in Spain

The two recent B-1B bombers arrived in Morón for the latest deployment of the bomber task force in Europe.

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 30/03/2024 - 15:30in Military

Two U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancers during the 24-2 Bomber Task Force at Morón Air Base, Spain. (Photo: Scott Rathbone / Flickr).

Two U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancers bombers landed this week at Morón Air Base, Spain, totaling four USAF bombers at the station and completing the arrival of the Bomber Task Force (BTF) 24-2 on Tuesday (03/26).

The bombers transited to Europe passing through the Barents Sea. Throughout the missions, the four U.S. aircraft operated in international airspace and in full compliance with international law.

"Our ability to maneuver through the Arctic and position advanced strategic bombers in Europe is critical to ensuring our Allies and partners our commitment to regional security and stability," said General James Hecker, commander of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe - Africa Air Forces and NATO Allied Air Command. “The global security environment requires a forward-looking approach and we will continue to face this challenge through strategic planning and innovative operations,” he added.

This mission shows the continuous and dynamic operations of the US in the European and Arctic regions, adapting to the evolving security environment alongside the Allies and partners.

youtube

The BTF 24-2 is a routine part of the Large-Scale Global Exercise 2024, a generic term that incorporates dozens of separate U.S. military exercises and activities, under multiple combatant commands, that allow the U.S. Joint Force to train with Allies and partners and improve shared understanding, trust and interoperability in security challenges around the world.

The bombers and support personnel will carry out a series of missions to train alongside the Allies and partners during the deployment. Through these missions, USAFE-AFAFRICA allows the dynamic use of forces in the European theater, providing strategic predictability and guarantee to the Allies and partners, while contributing to deterrence, introducing greater operational unpredictability for potential opponents.

Tags: Military AviationB-1B LancerbombersBTFEjército del Aire/Spanish Air ForceUSAF - United States Air Force / U.S. Air Force

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Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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mariacallous · 2 months ago

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Move over, Cuba—there are new islands in town. While the prospect of a nuclear crisis over Taiwan remains a genuine and dangerous possibility, China’s activities around the Aleutian Islands should not be overlooked. Brazen Chinese military activities in and around the islands and the Bering Strait could escalate.

The Aleutian Islands are part of the U.S. state of Alaska, so they are part of U.S. vital interests. Failure to enhance deterrence and demonstrate resolve over the chain not only threatens the territorial integrity of the United States in the Arctic, but could also embolden Beijing to intensify military operations in the Taiwan Strait.

The situation in the Arctic is heating up. In recent years, China and Russia have made joint military forays into the region. Now, U.S. President Donald Trump seemingly wants to annex Greenland. “We need Greenland for international safety and security,” Trump said recently. On March 28, he even deployed his didactic sidekick, Vice President J.D. Vance, to the Danish territory.

Meanwhile, the threats to the Alaskan Arctic, northwest of the continental United States, have intensified. Indeed, the most recent annual threat assessment report published by the Office of the U.S. Director of National Intelligence (DNI) briefly mentions Alaska in the context of emerging threats.

The DNI report, published on March 25, is chilling. While it highlights growing concerns over Chinese designs on Taiwan and Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, it fails to address the specific threats posed to the Aleutian Islands, an obscure island chain off the coast of Alaska.

This warrants a course correction. While the Trump administration obsesses over Greenland, China’s assertiveness in the Alaskan Arctic should be of major concern to the U.S. military and foreign-policy establishment. Consequently, the United States should make defense of the Aleutian Islands a national security priority to offset the possibility of a nuclear crisis in the Arctic.

Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has gradually downscaled its military outposts around the island chain. In 1997, a major naval base located on Adak Island was closed. Today, Washington’s adversaries have renewed their interest in the Aleutian Islands. While remote, the chain is not impervious to Chinese and Russian military predations.

Alaskan Sen. Dan Sullivan has recently expressed his concerns about Chinese and Russian incursions around the islands. Last September, Sullivan wrote that “as the world becomes more dangerous, Alaska continues to be on the frontlines of authoritarian aggression. Coordinated activity off Alaska’s shores by the Russians and Chinese is increasing.”

Washington should heed the strategic salience of the Aleutian Islands, if its foreign-policy and military establishment wants to secure its vital interests in the Arctic.

China is not an Arctic nation, yet it has declares itself to be an Arctic power, designating the region to China’s high north as part of its sphere of influence. In Chapter 33 of its 14th five-year plan, a document that outlines Chinese geostrategic policy, Beijing explicitly stated its vision for the region: China “will strengthen the investigation and evaluation of strategic resources in the deep sea” and “participate in practical cooperation in the Arctic and build the ‘Polar Silk Road.’”

Conducting research expeditions in the Arctic deepens China’s economic links to the region. Economic and military resilience is the bedrock of Chinese national security strategy, and both shape Chinese President Xi Jinping’s global ambitions.

Speaking about the Chinese in December, Iris A. Ferguson—the former U.S. deputy assistant secretary for defense for Arctic and global resilience—said that the United States needs “to be clear-eyed about some of their intentions” as well as “thinking about their long-term interests” and “how we can best protect ours.”

To this point, in July 2024, two Chinese H-6 nuclear-capable bombers operating within the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone were intercepted by American and Canadian fighter jets, indicating that Chinese excursions into the Arctic are not merely done for scientific and economic purposes.

The Chinese aircraft were accompanied by Russian TU-95 nuclear-capable bombers, meaning that the air patrol was the first time that China and Russia have been documented conducting a joint patrol near Alaska. That same month, four Chinese military warships were spotted in the Bering Sea, roughly 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of Amchitka Pass and northeast of the Atka Island, both part of the Aleutian Islands.

According to comments made at the time by Michael Salerno, a U.S. Coast Guard public affairs officer, these encounters have become commonplace since 2021 but were rare before 2017.

In recent years, China has also increased its naval presence in the Arctic—completing extensive round trips across critical strategic areas such as the Bohai Sea and the Bering Sea. Beijing’s increased naval presence in these geostrategic locations puts the United States at a disadvantage, threatening to disrupt its maritime military capabilities and frustrate navigational operations.

As U.S. Maj. Ryan Tice indicated in 2020, “because the Bering Strait lies at the boundary of three geographic combatant commands (GCCs), increased adversary activity around the strait creates challenges for unity of effort among those combatant commands.’

Sullivan, the senator, has raised these concerns with the Senate Armed Services Committee. Following additional Chinese and Russian joint military exercises in September 2024, Sullivan stated, “on five separate occasions in the past seven days, Russian military incursions into our ADIZ [air defense identification zone] or EEZ [US exclusive economic zone] have occurred—both naval and air.”

In response, the U.S. Army deployed its 11th Airborne Division to the Aleutian Islands. Yet as the United States’s strategic environment grows increasingly dangerous, more needs to be done to counter the threat emanating from Chinese forces in the Arctic. By conducting military exercises in places such as the Bering Sea and the Aleutian Islands, a region dominated by the United States, China is also demonstrating resolve at the United States’s expense.

As Brandon J. Babin, a senior analyst at the China Strategic Focus Group, has asserted, “[t]his counterbalance seems to require a buildup of China’s means of strategic deterrence.”

Freedom of navigation is a critical factor in ensuring the United States can maintain its mission to deter adversaries in the Arctic. While Beijing’s interests appear to be ostensibly economic, Chinese access to important geostrategic locations carries significant national security implications for the United States and its allies across the Pacific.

Specifically, Chinese efforts to bolster military operations in U.S. strategic buffer zones undermine regional deterrence capabilities. Indeed, such activities are a direct challenge to the United States’ vital interests and could potentially obstruct Washington’s extended deterrence operations from the Arctic and northern Pacific regions, with potential implications rippling down to the western and southern Pacific as well.

Furthermore, the U.S. has multiple interests in the Arctic, which overlap with the interests of NATO member states such as Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. As tensions intensify between the United States, China, and Russia, the importance of strategic choke points such as the Bering Sea will only increase.

While Washington’s extended nuclear deterrence mission against China focuses on dissuading aggression against Taiwan, coercion of Japan and South Korea, and the potential targeting of strategic positions such as the U.S. territory Guam—all concerns located farther south in the vast Pacific Ocean—the threats that the United States and its regional allies face from China in the Arctic are just as severe.

Attempts to undermine long-standing territorial boundaries in the form of provocative activities can also lead to increased tensions and could escalate even further, turning critical island chains into theaters of crises—or worse, war.

For example, there are indications that China perceives the Aleutian Islands as part of what is known as its first island chain. As Adm. Liu Huaqing, the former commander of the Chinese Navy, stated in 1987, “the first island chain refers to the Aleutian Islands, the Kurile Islands, the Japanese archipelago, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan Island, the Philippine archipelago, and the Greater Sunda Island in the Western Pacific that form an arc-shaped arrangement of islands akin to a metal chain.”

To put Liu’s claims into context, the Aleutian Islands comprise 14 main islands and 55 smaller ones. These islands continue to host U.S. Naval and Coast Guard forces. The distance between the westernmost island in the archipelago, Attu Island, and the eastern coast of mainland China is 4,000 kilometers (nearly 2,500 miles).

Yet in the aforementioned incident in July 2024, four Chinese military warships were spotted in the Bering Sea. Such activities could lead to a tense standoff in the United States’ backyard. By expending unnecessary foreign-policy attention in Greenland, Washington risks being caught off guard. Being prepared in the Alaskan Arctic would enhance Washington’s ability to deter conflict across the first island chain—including the East Sea, the Taiwan Strait, and the South China Sea.

Taiwan has long been a focal point for analysts and policymakers alike, and rightly so. However, as Sullivan warned in September, “authoritarian regimes are testing the United States. … Congress and the President should do more to deter further aggression. … We must continue to send a strong message to Xi Jinping and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin that the United States will not hesitate to protect and defend our vital interests in Alaska and beyond.”

Joint Chinese and Russian military naval and air patrols around the Aleutian Islands should deeply concern the United States’ military and foreign-policy establishment. Permanently reopening the naval base on Adak Island would certainly be a vital first step in enhancing deterrence around the region.

When nuclear weapons states are involved, miscalculations can prove to be gravely consequential. As RUSI analyst Jamie Kwong wrote in 2018, “the Arctic remains an important region in the global nuclear security complex.” The United States operates the North Warning System, an early warning system intended to detect threats in the Arctic. Deliberate or accidental Chinese actions that are perceived to be threatening could trigger these U.S. early warning systems, and detection could lead to defensive military action.

In the fog of uncertainty, U.S. nuclear command and control would have to make a decision that could precipitate a standoff—and a standoff between nuclear powers always carries with it the inextricable risk of nuclear escalation.

With tensions already running high, a deep distrust between China and United States underpins the strategic environment. An incursion into U.S. territory could compel the United States to militarily engage with Chinese assets. For example, should a Chinese jet fly into U.S. Arctic airspace, or should a vessel stray into regional territorial waters, the United States could opt to strike.

Accidental or inadvertent escalation also poses a risk. In September 2022, a Type 055 Nanchang guided missile destroyer came within 160 kilometers (about 100 miles) of the Aleutian Island of Kiska. It was armed with up to 112 cruise missiles. The accidental launch of a Chinese missile could push the protagonists to the nuclear brink. After all, the strategic environment in the Arctic is already febrile, and costly accidents can happen.

The threshold for U.S. military action in the Arctic remains unclear. A Chinese crossing of a trip wire could also lead to escalating tensions and trigger a nuclear crisis. The United States should establish a clear threshold in the Arctic in order to signal to its adversaries which activities are tolerable and which would prompt a military response. Trump stated in January that “you don’t even need binoculars—you look outside. You have China ships all over the place. You have Russia ships all over the place. We’re not letting that happen.”

The United States should respond to the growing Chinese threat by communicating red lines in the Arctic. Should the United States fail to issue clear red lines to Beijing over military activities in the Bering Strait and the northern Pacific, then Washington stands to unwittingly encourage Beijing to take greater geopolitical risks close to U.S. territorial boundaries.

Beijing may perceive a lack of resolve as a source of encouragement to escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait. Or worse, U.S. inaction might be seen as a sign that Taiwan is there for the taking. If deterrence isn’t restored in the Alaskan Arctic, then the Aleutians could be next in line to join Cuba and Taiwan in the annals of crisis history.

Instead of obsessing over Greenland, the Trump administration should focus on securing a part of the Arctic that already belongs to the United States—lest the Alaskan frost turn into Arctic fire.

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captainkurosolaire · 1 year ago

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Code Red

Squirmed digits adorning a tattered-grim-soaked sanguine cloth, crimson dripping from the utterly defeated and shaken Captain suffering from his darkest day fore now.

Feline ears rang sharply, sweat and tears with blood’s inclusion more thicker mixed into combination upon forehead nestle, stowed away on his retreating sea-vessel on the run from pursuing savages that have declared annihilation, turned his life and the association of anyone in his orbit as nothing more than a playful murderous game, his palms further proved, stained with the deepest red from an irreplaceable life dismembered and packaged.

A fresh pectoral mark of slavery left branded on flesh burned as a reminder only quelled by a psychological breakage unraveling, awaiting to determine his humaneness. Every instinct flaring up to retaliate, blood for blood and overall translation; freedom, but doing so meant every progression ever made, all the enjoyment of every sight of color that he relished to treasure in this realm, his world, would become an unholy sight of only ever crimson red going forth.

His leg’s trembling still in horrified fear after confronting the worst. Thinking he could rescue his abducted Crewmates safely, stealthily slip through the barriers of a Nation bred on sinking their teeth in all.

Two pairs of silhouettes outside his cabin’s door and drew inside, a roughed up, latterly beaten and bruised, a tortured Judas who had shown signs of haggard too, donning a old tunic and overgrown mangled hair from his captivity. Only person, Captain managed to get out of there from his Crew alive. Alongside Sinbad the Young, who caused these events to take place, attempting to swindle out a dangerous Crew from their believed, owes.

All of these three fellows, branded in connection, tracked and given an expiration date with their runic markings that almost were identical to a curse, approximately one summer, to slay their common handler.

...Yet that foe was practically inconceivable to even bring to thought their demise. An unmatched Giant, the proclaimed, All-Father of Scourges, YORE of the Gorey Seas was what they’d have to defeat.

There laid many mythos, legends, pirate omens and warnings everyone was to know better to kneel. Infamously said to have collected a bounty so massive, and lethal that due to having so many casualties was removed for the safety of adventurists or self-acclaimed Warriors, having themselves gruesomely humbled, brutally slaughtered and displayed with their decapitated heads piked, trophies all over the border of his Nation of warning and unmatched display of dominance. The outer-banks of the Isle, laid an unfiltered section of gory red, murky, cadavers left rotting and floating to further cause deterrence; practically an Isle bleeding.

It's foretold, with all the perfections and flawlessness that spawned from mortals to their believed Kami’s, Twelves, lowly Primals, they worshiped so dearly, that in order for this realm to continue to coexist with its consistent ideology of balance in all outlets from astral to umbral, forces of positive and negative, that polarity conditions must be managed, unequal force was needed to be curated carrying the most impurities, sins, ugliness into a Necessity all gathered, a giant amalgamation formed ripping through his progenitress's womb gruesomely upon conception.

His carnage and terror garnered throughout seas to such an extent, exiled fierce tribal members from Dorthals and "deemed" almighty races, deemed exclusive to only superior touted for their overwhelming ferocity, which drew in the interest to gather in a force of an Era, built to conquer unequivocally. Forming their own language, culture, walk.

Early members of their Nation, OMONGA, in mere youth and meek, primitive naturally raised and survivalist, were thrown in tribunal arena, left to fend against a selected savage wild beast dependent by their Blind Prophet who unveiled visions, these migrated or native creatures were riled up to purposely be enraged, given dangerous experimental, chemical enhancements and abused, to make their Tribunal Predator as lethally fearsome as possible. If they managed to survive and slay, they would then have their aetherial compounds and aspect, become ritualistically Imprinted, following and mimicking the prowess of their selected savage carrying on and embodying their trophy hunt in their putrid forms molded. Brandish to carry the legacy of ruthless designs.

From Captain’s very adolescence in the Goldbrand his surrogate Father and Founding Captain, told both Sol and Kuro, countless and endlessly, reality. That unbelievable power lurked. Tread ever watchfully while the promise of golden Freedom had boundless fortune to attain, there's steep costs, prices of Blood came before, lines that couldn’t be sailed, waves that should-not-ever be challenged.

Shallow waters too massive for them to ever think feet could contend against.

Upon Captain's encounter confronting YORE that led to this pitiful state he was paralyzed in. That-Which-Stood-The-Tallest; mercilessly, callously, revealed, The Goldbrand was created by that very monster, a sub-crew composed of slaves, who only were made to collect treasure for servitude and borrowed prosperity; hence the namesake...

Entire time, the sail he casually followed believing his Founder’s invention and groomed beliefs instilled, carrying prideful merit, was no more than inheriting the mantle of awaiting Scarlet Destined slavery a facade existence he bore.

Leashed prey tasked to find shiny objects like collected unwanted mutts and dispose in moments of desire for that is the truth of all things. The mightiest biggest reaped and ensured their bellies fed plump. Revelations unfolded these Predators of YORE’s Elite thrived in a Crew identically dubbed, the Bloodbrand coexisted.

A fuming, huffing puffing Highlander couldn’t believe the distraught or unpleasant sight of a once bold Captain finally confronted with the very first time he could say, Kuro was truly afraid. From witnessing countless deaths, otherworldly sights, to acquiring scars of incredible marvel proportions, to challenging inside the realms of the Void and bleak, obscurity to often drowning in the Presences of higher deities, or uncertain depths, none, none of them held a seemingly notion of fret from the brazen Seeker who paraded around with a feverish recklessness abandoned, but everyone, and all. Has a predator out there that's a designated devour, a force stronger that instinctively alone makes their rattling bones quiver to petrified liquid.

Truthfully Sinbad's inner-issues were self-reflected, masked as fellow billowing rage, for his own self-blame for causing this situation, but couldn’t take accountability due to atrocious Pride. His Crew were all eradicated of his own Captaineering while he licked and nursed his wounds helplessly and barked through tinted-ego, drunk on his fleeting moment of success he became drunk despite once heralding his straight-edge lifestyle. However consequences have been delivered, his loved-fiance suffered mutilation from being captive, only rescued from Solaire’s daring rescue.

Branded despite all that over showing muscularity being painfully useless, shown unrivaled, MIGHT unlike his facade brawn. Forbidden, cursed, from ever hearing his heart speak fluently with her severed tongue. His entire manly existence is barred ever transparently, everything he gloated, herald over the Seeker now was his own fated string.

Chewing inward on his cheek, “Well? Going to pack up here, sulk and wait to get butchered? We takin’ this on the chin? Without giving our own, huh?! Nah, fuck that. I refuse! They TOOK FROM US! They’re OWED to have everything ripped whether I have you two join me or not, I don’t give a soddin' damn, I'll ignite my remaining flesh just to make them taste hell incarnate.” Captain continued mute, rolled into like a ball; defeated. Muttering to himself with lunacy. Cradling tighter to his chest the severed appendage head of the fallen.

“Can nothing get through to him?! Pick yourself up, stand up for fucksake.” Intolerantly getting more aggressive the bulky Highlander showing temper these two were the only people who commonly could fight. Any moment now their ship would be raided by their pursuers, they were given a head start, with playfulness and pity by their captors, wanting to have a thrilling hunt, to get them rushing, none of OMONGA cared for anything but the sheer thirst battle offered or an opportune war, blood, this was their orgasmic greed they sated.

The once Princely First demeanor shielded his Captain, “Lay off! Reminder, this would’ve never happened if not for you! YOU caused this. You’re looking to project the last ounce of ‘esteemed’ manhood you may have, but it’s so blatantly obvious, you’re in shambles too. Stop the farce, end your festering ego. …Or do you need a reminder? If it wasn't for Captain and his perished one, we would’ve never gotten this far. We’ve got five alive on this ship, three were their recently jailed slav-” Lashing the Brute, grappled Judas by his collar and uprooted him from the floor and tossed him with anger against the wall, his temper and nostrils flaring and breathing heavily, the outburst was fleeting but he couldn’t look at Judas forwardly. His cheeks left wet streaks of hard knowing… It was correct. He lowered the Midlander onto his soles with a gentler approach, “...I-I’m sorry.” Another showing of fear displayed.

Was beyond extraordinary to see how Judas handled himself compared to the other two, forcing himself to be level-headed and prevent sink in any discomfort, always a master and manipulator of his own emotions. Despite being perhaps the one who was titled the Cowardice Prince. He comprehended the gravity of everything.

The First-Mate exhaled, “You’re right about something, we have to fight if we wish to survive. Even if we cannot beat all their numbers, we’ll at-least dent them, I’m not against drawing whatever vitality I may have. So I’ll join you, Sinbad. We can start by fortifying and making preparations. I advise rushing to set whatever advantages we can and have others hide in the brigs and wait to escape in the chaos through the cannon-windows creases, being divergence could be a solid honorable way to die. If anything Captain, if you can hear me, take the emergency rowboat with them, I can’t thank you enough for coming back for me and Casta. Told you, I’d be that wind.” Last words, laid out in heartfelt and a jolly smile, echo the memory of that handshake they exchanged, remaining light before taking haste.

Captain left as it started, alone in darkness.

Sleep-deprived, eyelids closed momentarily, deeply, a decision was begged for answering.

[Prev:Chapter]: ( --- X --- ) ~ ♪"And The Sky Turned Black..."♪

#1/100 #tw: dark content #reader discretion advised #final fantasy xiv #FFXIV Writing #Tales of the Goldbrand #scarlet destiny: volume 4 #SCD4 #-Captain Kuro Solaire #Creative Writing #Judas Caesar #Sinbad the Young #Bloodbrand #Yore of the Gorey Seas #Waiting for all tools so I can try making visuals may write regardless #Then create afterwards #I've a lot to do #Also going to alternate I think with stories from this point to brighter times / before this event.

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redpenship · 1 year ago

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as i'm sure you have heard by now, a recently leaked document from the eggman empire has finally confirmed the long standing rumor that dr. robotnik has been secretly developing a badnik system capable of prowling the oceans and locating submersible vehicles within just a few minutes of being launched. while he yet to deploy this system in an actual combat scenario, the leaked documents are already showing extremely worrying (or promising, if you're the dr) accuracy and speed in locating submarines in preliminary tests. seeing as he appears to be nearly done with the testing phase and mere months away from being able to use it in combat situations, i'd love to hear your opinions on the short term and long term effects of what can essentially be considered a death blow to the entire idea of second strike capabilities as it relates to SSBNs.

in the short term, obviously countries with already active fleets of SSBNs will continue to use them to defend from other nuclear powers without the badnik system. but in the case of countries currently building or with orders for SSBNs, do you think they will scrap their programs/cancel orders?

do you think dr. robotnik would be willing to share this technology with countries within his sphere of influence, or will he keep it close to home and within his empire's direct control?

for the long term, i was also interested in hearing your opinion on whether the U.F. and eggman empire are likely to regress back into a cold war, only this time without the comfort of SSBNs and deterrence hinging entirely on more precarious ideas such as launch on warning? do you think the current geopolitical climate is unstable enough to allow this or has the empire's growing reliance on global markets to source raw materials made dr. robotnik unlikely to risk the possibility of sanctions and blockades?

Once again, Dr. Robotnik has proven himself to be strategically incompetent. SSBN-seeking badniks has to be one of the stupidest ideas I've ever head. But then again, what else can you expect from someone who consistently loses to a bunch of stupid animal children?

On strategic grounds, Robotnik is committing two major errors: 1. Denying your opponent(s) the ability to launch a nuclear second strike only leads to increased instability. By creating these badniks, Robotnik has created a situation where his enemies have decreased confidence in their ability to retaliate. They are now increasingly incentivized to launch first strikes; in such a security environment, the decisions leading to these strikes will be based on minimally verified information as leaders rush to not lose their strategic advantage. It is simply more dangerous for him.

2. Contrary to the general belief that nuclear war will always end in global devastation, there is a prevailing belief among nuclear weapons states that nuclear war will only occur in a 'limited war' fashion. In a limited nuclear war, the bombs would almost exclusively strike counterforce targets--in other words, they would only attack each other's military assets/missile silos/etc. NWS have generally agreed that there will never be a conflict serious enough to require all-out nuclear war. With this in mind, many theorists believe that nuclear war will start at sea, away from land-based civilian targets. The U.F.'s doctrine of command and control permits submarine commanders to launch nuclear-armed torpedoes without authorization, and there have already been incidents in the past where nuclear war was nearly ignited by aggressive submarine officers. As Robotnik sends his badniks into enemy territory for surveillance, he runs the risk of being detected and then attacked by the submarines. It is likely that he may accidentally provoke war if he is not careful with his badniks (which we all know he will not be).

To answer your other questions, it's generally pretty stupid to share nuclear technology with states in your sphere of influence (unless you are using a dual-key system). Chun-nan certainly regrets sharing nuclear technology with (Sonic world??) North Korea.

I can only assume the plans for these badniks were leaked by Robotnik himself as a bargaining tool. He's made a pretty big deal about being asked for metal virus reparations, so this might be his way of trying to pressure everyone into dropping the case. I only hope revealing this kind of technology doesn't result in it proliferating among NWS navies.

#ask #calicoriley #thank you for distracting me from my paper on uhhh nuclear weapons #lol #redposts

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awesome-casuallyfamouscollector · 4 months ago

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youtube

The Staggering Cost of Losing Europe's Arms Market Part 5 - Europe's Naval Power continued

Today we continue where we left off last week, and explore details of European naval power and its reliance on U.S. technologies in today's deep dive episode. We're continuing our exploration of Europe's naval capabilities, focusing on the systems not covered in our last episode about surface ships. Here's what you can expect: Vertical Launch System (VLS) Dependencies: Discover how almost all European navies, except Sweden, rely heavily on the U.S.-made VLS, a staple in many of Europe's destroyers and frigates. We discuss the alternatives being developed by Britain’s BAE Systems and Sweden’s direct deck launchers, highlighting their potential to replace the ubiquitous Mark 41 VLS. Seahawk Helicopters in European Navies: Dive into the widespread use of MH-60R Seahawks across European naval forces, with detailed cost analyses and operational stats from countries like Denmark, Greece, Norway, Spain, and Turkey. Compare these with European models like the NH90 and the Eurocopter (Airbus) Panther, focusing on their roles, capabilities, and economic implications. Naval Air Defense Systems: American Sea Sparrow: Review the adoption of this system by various European nations with specific investment figures and deployment stats. European Alternatives: Examine the Principal Anti Air Missile System (PAAMS) known as Sea Viper in the UK, and the Sea Ceptor system, both utilizing the Aster missile family. These systems represent Europe's indigenous response to naval air threats, with deployment on new ships across Italian, British, and French navies. Helicopter Carriers: Highlight the strategic importance of helicopter carriers in modern naval warfare, focusing on France's Mistral class and Italy's similar capabilities. Discuss the potential for these vessels to be converted into drone hubs, enhancing their utility in unmanned warfare scenarios. Submarine Capabilities: European Conventional and Nuclear Submarines: Detail Europe's comprehensive submarine capabilities, including air-independent, conventional, and nuclear-powered variants. Special emphasis on Germany’s A212 submarines and France's nuclear-powered Barracuda (Suffren-class) submarines. Astute-class Submarines: Elaborate on Britain's nuclear-powered fleet submarines, noting their advanced technology, stealth features, and armament capabilities, contrasting with France's Triomphant-class for a comparative look at European nuclear deterrents. Fast Attack Craft and Missile Boats: Cover the role and specifications of notable European models like Finland's Hamina-class missile boats and Sweden's Combat Boat 90 (CB90). Discuss their operational roles, technological advancements, and strategic importance in the Baltic and beyond.

#Europe #defense of Europe #military history #Sweden #France #UK #submarine #missile #Finland #defense of freedom #Youtube #naval history

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galerymod · 6 months ago

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And there we are back in the age of expansionism.

The new American president is calling for the expansion of American influence in the form of unlawful demands for land grabs in Panama and Greenland from Denmark.

What geologically interesting area does the American president and the people behind him have an interest in expanding America's sphere of influence through the threat of open communication?

Panama, well, it's easy to understand why it wants to control one of the most important trade routes and privatise it. But could you call it economic colonialism? Greenland, geologically securing raw materials in the associated mile zones. That will then also be privatised.

The new age of barbarism is just beginning with in-depth claims on land from other countries.

mod

The consequences of this are sinister alliances where each party will support the illegal claim of the other for their own advantage.

A map policy of the strong which results in overthrowing your illegal claim and then supporting ours.

This leads to the subjugation of the interests of the small to the interests of groups with power, money and influence that are supported by the state.

Europe must wrap up warm, rearmament is the word of the day. Deterrence only works if the person threatening can also lose something of value. If you leave this demand uncommented, they become a claim.

Greenland must open a large NATO base so that the United States of America has difficulty in raising military claims.

mod

Breaking News

Shortly before Christmas, Trump had written on social media that the United States believes that ownership and control of Greenland is ‘an absolute necessity’ for the national security and freedom of the world. In doing so, he was picking up on demands from his first term in office. At the time, he had suggested buying Greenland.

The island is part of the Kingdom of Denmark and financially heavily dependent on Copenhagen, but it enjoys a high degree of sovereignty politically. Greenland has a population of just over 56,000, but the island is important in terms of security policy and is considered an unsinkable aircraft carrier. As the poles continue to melt, Greenland is becoming even more important: shipping and the exploitation of underground raw material deposits in the Arctic will soon increase significantly. And with that, the great powers will likely also struggle for influence in the region.

Greenland is of great strategic importance to the US, which operates an air force base there with an early warning system for ballistic missiles. However, this does not explain why Trump believes it is necessary for America to annex the island. Due to a defence agreement with Denmark from 1951, the US has free access throughout Greenland anyway.

Greenland's Prime Minister Nalani Egede firmly rejected Trump's demand in December. ‘Greenland is ours,’ he said at the time. ‘We are not for sale and never will be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom.’

It is claimed that Trump is simply unpredictable; we assume that everything was carefully planned for geological, political and economic reasons.

mod

China has invested billions in Greenland, mainly in mining, is seeking scientific partnerships and tried - unsuccessfully - to buy a former naval base. But the US military is also concerned about Russian submarines that regularly sail near Greenland and appear to be spying on its infrastructure. Trump's offer is therefore also a message to Presidents Xi Jinping in Beijing and Vladimir Putin in Moscow: keep your hands off Greenland.

The island has valuable natural resources: above all, enormous reserves of rare earth elements, as well as uranium, graphite, coal and, off the coast, oil and gas. The retreating sea ice is improving access to the deposits of raw materials on land and on the seabed, explains Arctic expert Paul. At the same time, the melting ice is rapidly turning the Arctic into a potential new sea route for merchant and military ships, which increases the strategic importance of Greenland.

It is only about influence on future raw materials to secure supremacy.

It will not change whether it is only the Spanish Emperor against the English Emperor, Rome against Carthage, Habsburg against the Ottoman Empire.....

mod

Our civilisation is unfortunately doomed because the degree of humanity, compassion and empathy, as well as the use of acquired knowledge for the benefit of all, are completely underdeveloped.

Greed, vanity and obsession with power are the guiding principles.

#new age of barbarism #donald trump #greenland #denmark #panama #panama canal #internationa right #freedom of expression #equal rights #china #free taiwan #the loop

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warningsine · 10 months ago

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Yemen’s Houthi rebels released footage on Thursday showing their fighters boarded and placed explosives on a Greek-flagged tanker, setting off blasts that put the Red Sea at risk of a major oil spill. The vessel was abandoned earlier, after the Houthis repeatedly attacked it.

In the video, the Iran-backed Houthis chant their motto as the bombs detonated aboard the oil tanker Sounion: “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.”

The blasts capped the most-serious attack in weeks by the Houthis in their campaign disrupting the $1 trillion in goods that pass through the Red Sea each year over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, as well as halting some aid shipments to conflict-ravaged Sudan and Yemen.

The Sounion carried some 1 million barrels of oil when the Houthis initially attacked it on Aug. 21 with small arms fire, projectiles and a drone boat. A French destroyer operating as part of the European Union’s Operation Aspides rescued the Sounion’s crew of 25 Filipinos and Russians, as well as four private security personnel, after they abandoned the vessel and took them to nearby Djibouti.

The footage released Thursday shows masked Houthi fighters carrying Kalashnikov-style rifles boarding the Sounion after it was abandoned. The bridge appeared ransacked. Fighters then rigged explosives over hatches on its deck leading to the oil tankers below. At least six simultaneous blasts could be seen in the footage.

The footage, as well as comments by the Houthi’s mysterious leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi, confirmed an earlier analysis by The Associated Press that the Houthis boarded and planted explosives on the Sounion. The Houthi-controlled SABA news agency described al-Houthi as saying the Sounion attack shows America “is lying in its claims regarding any deterrence of Yemeni operations supporting Palestine.”

“The effectiveness of our operations and their control of the situation is acknowledged by the enemies,” al-Houthi said.

Western countries and the United Nations have warned any oil spill from the Sounion could devastate the coral reefs and wildlife around the Red Sea. However, the EU’s naval force in the region says it has yet to see any oil spill from the Sounion.

Operation Aspides “is preparing to facilitate any courses of action, in coordination with European authorities and neighboring countries, to avert a catastrophic environmental crisis,” the EU mission said. “Together, we can protect the environment and maintain stability in the region.”

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric commended the efforts by the international community and the U.N. special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, “to secure the immediate access to the vessel and avert an environmental catastrophe.” The Houthis have agreed to allow the operation to proceed safely, he said.

Dujarric did not offer any indication when it might start but added that the reports that “the salvage operations for the tanker can proceed with tugboats and rescue ships to access the incident area” are encouraging.

On Wednesday, the Houthis suggested they may allow the Sounion to be salvaged, though the rebels already once blocked crews trying to reach the abandoned vessel, the U.S. military said.

The U.S. State Department declined to directly comment on the video Thursday. It referred to earlier remarks in which spokesperson Matthew Miller warned “the Houthis’ continued attacks threaten to spill a million barrels of oil into the Red Sea, an amount four times the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster” in 1989 off Alaska.

This isn’t the first time the Houthis have used the threat of an oil spill to their advantage. It took years of negotiations before the rebels allowed the U.N. in 2023 to remove 1 million barrels from the oil tanker Safer off the coast of Yemen, which had been used as a floating storage and offloading facility.

“Experience has shown that the group is willing to interfere with salvage efforts if they can turn the situation into a political bargaining chip,” warned Noam Raydan, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near-East Policy who has studied the ongoing Houthi attacks.

The Houthis have targeted more than 80 vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign that also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a U.S.-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets.

The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the U.S. or the U.K. to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.

Meanwhile Thursday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said its forces destroyed a Houthi missile system and drone.

#houthis #red sea #news tag

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jpoliticsandevents · 9 months ago

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Quick Look At Israel and Ukraine Status; A WW III Alert.

Simply put, the Global West is getting its ass kicked, that includes the United States, UK, Germany, France, and co, NATO and G7. They all embarked on the Ukraine Operation well before the Russian Invasion into Ukraine with the explicit aim of aligning the country to NATO to further violate the United States open promise to not expand NATO 'one inch east of Berlin.' What a joke that turned out to be. At a time where the world is filled with terror of war being brought to a neighborhood near you, The United States, Ukraine, and Israel are beating a war drum as loud as they can. Ukraine just this week face massive surrenders and desperately attempted to blow up a nuclear facility today. Thank everything that is good that so far there are no reports of leakage of radiation reported by Russians or any on ground agencies that have checked so far. Ukraine did walk away with more funding from recent Zelensky visits to US Presidential candidates though and he seemed ready to continue this madness with blatant disregard for logistical or resource-management impossibilities and soldier morale dropping. At this moment it is estimated Russian losses are far less than Ukrainian losses, and Russian soldier replenishment is strong and steady which cannot be said for the Ukrainian side. They are down on men, equipment, food, ammo, and any type of air support or ground support with no backup on the way.

On the Israel five-front disaster involving Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, and possibly more foes to come soon, the United States and Israel still show massive arrogance and appear to fancy themselves the regional bully the same as they have for the last 30+ years. However, Iran's second strike on Israel most recently declared loud and clear for any on the global stage with ears to hear past national and state propaganda that Iran has effective full deterrence in the region. The Iron Dome is effectively vanquished along with the billions or trillions spent building and maintaining it from U.S. taxpayer dollars. Iran spoke loud and clear they can hit anywhere in Israel they want, at any volume of violence and that there is nothing the world can do about it. The best air defense systems in the world are coughing up blood as Israel and the U.S. spin a PR campaign to tell everyone there was no damage done and that Iran's missile barrage was 'ineffective' and vow vengeance. This would be a fatal mistake for both Israel as well as the United States as far as any kind of regional dominance is concerned, the facilitation of trade routes and strike forces deep into the heart of the Middle East will no doubt go up in flames. Israel is already in deep deep political, societal, and economical trouble as ships arriving at the docks grinds to a halt as a result of regional strikes and Yemen's sea blockade, who themselves face US weapons of war and violence as punishment for their rebellion against the NATO/G7 order.

None of any of this ends well for the United States or the World, we are headed straight for nuclear catastrophe or possible WW III if nothing is done. We cannot allow any genocidal candidates to be President of any country any longer as the laborers of the world, we must show that we are willing to disrupt and overthrow their money and weapon machinations in response to SOME KIND of moral principle. General strikes are needed across the Global West and in every country possible to achieve any kind of reform before its too late.

#politics #free palestine #israel #capitalism #no war #anti war #IF YOU STAND FOR SOMETHING LET IT SHOW #ukraine #wwiii #ww3

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feedyourmind1031 · 1 year ago

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Economic Overview: Key Market Developments

Critical Update

Sudden market shifts may occur due to significant events. Monitor trading positions and implement risk management strategies during these uncertain times.

Economic Overview

As we enter a new quarter, the market faces numerous challenges. Rising war tensions, de-dollarization efforts, and upcoming elections in the U.S., France, and Iran contribute to the uncertainty. Here’s a detailed analysis of these developments and their potential impacts.

Currency Shifts

Russia’s move to use the Chinese Yuan for international trade and the increase in gold reserves by central banks are noteworthy. While the Yuan may not replace the U.S. Dollar soon, these actions indicate strategic shifts. Gold purchases serve as a hedge against potential currency volatility.

Geopolitical Conflicts

Middle East: The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon has intensified, with Iran warning of severe retaliation if Lebanon is attacked. Daily strikes continue, and countries like the U.S. and Germany have advised their citizens to leave Lebanon.

South China Sea: On June 19, 2024, Chinese coast guard officers attacked Philippine military personnel near the Second Thomas Shoal, escalating tensions. The U.S. has reaffirmed its defense treaty with the Philippines, which could lead to military involvement if violence escalates.

Korean Peninsula: North and South Korea are on edge, with Russia signing a defense treaty with North Korea. Border incidents and threats over South Korea’s potential troop deployment to Ukraine have heightened tensions.

Nuclear Brinkmanship: France and Russia’s nuclear brinkmanship is a significant risk, with both countries attempting to establish deterrent boundaries.

Economic and Market Effects

These conflicts could alter monetary power dynamics and supply chains. Expect increased oil demand and gold purchases as safe-haven assets. Silver demand will also rise due to its military applications.

Diplomatic Relations

Zimbabwe and Zambia: Tensions are high as Zimbabwe aligns more closely with Russia, accusing the U.S. of militarizing Zambia.

Election Updates

Iran: Presidential elections are nearing completion as candidates drop out.

France: The first stage of snap parliamentary elections is complete.

U.S.: The first debate between Biden and Trump was contentious, adding to the uncertainty of the upcoming election.

Natural Disaster Considerations

While not detailed here, it’s crucial to consider the impact of natural disasters on economic activities and implement strong risk management.

Key Market Data and Analysis

Final GDP: Increased from 1.3% to 1.4%.

Unemployment: Fell by 3k more than forecasted, indicating a stronger U.S. economy.

Core PCE: Decreased from 0.3% to 0.1%.

Consumer Confidence: Fell but remained above forecasted numbers.

Housing Market: New home sales dropped significantly, while pending home sales improved slightly but missed expectations.

GOLD

Gold prices remain within a range, with resistance at 2431.705 and support at 2295.536. A bullish trend is expected despite fluctuations.

SILVER

Silver prices showed growth, reaching 29.900 before settling at 29.018. Resistance is expected at 29.900, but an overall upward trend is anticipated.

DXY (Dollar Index)

The dollar index showed growth but may face weakness with the anticipated September rate cut. A bearish outlook is expected.

GBPUSD

The pound remains within a range. With potential rate cuts in both the U.K. and the U.S., significant price changes are unlikely in the near term.

AUDUSD

The Aussie dollar shows upward momentum but needs to break above 0.67142 to confirm this trend. Analysts predict rate cuts only in late 2025, potentially benefiting the currency.

NZDUSD

Similar to the Aussie dollar, the New Zealand dollar shows growth and may benefit from delayed rate cuts until late 2025.

EURUSD

The ECB’s cautious rate cut approach has weakened the Euro. Further cuts are expected but at a slower pace, indicating potential continued weakness.

USDJPY

Despite interventions, the USDJPY continues to grow. Watch for further interventions and economic data to gauge future movements.

USDCHF

The Swiss Franc fell after recent rate cuts. Further rate cuts are uncertain, making the USDCHF volatile.

USDCAD

The CAD showed weakness against the dollar, with analysts predicting further rate cuts. Price consolidation is expected as we await more data.

Stay informed and practice diligent risk management as we navigate these challenging market conditions. More updates to come.

#forex market #forex trading

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