#I know it was to prevent piracy but

[cherchersketch]

his little blushy-blushu pride at his embroidered portrait of waifu 🥺

Another Typical Fantasy Romance

[gaypirate]

found out pg&e offers a program for people who have medical equipment because of the summertime power shutoffs and was like "oh they're taking a bit of responsibility, i'll see if they offer backup batteries or something i could use for my cpap"

but no. they just offer a slightly lower bill and a "we'll tell you in advance if we're going to shut off power"

i don't know why i expected anything actually useful from them lmfao

[citrusella-flugpucker]

((I didn’t know before reblogging you if Vimm’s Lair has specific manual requirements, but I know they support offering different regions of games... and the first manual I randomly clicked when looking to see what their manual project looked like was a European region manual! So they definitely take them! I don’t know what they do if there are multiple uploads by different people/regions of the same manual (if they’re appreciably different) since I didn’t find one with multiple contributors...

EDIT: Different regions equals different entries in the manual project! So you can upload a European manual even if a different region of the same manual already exists!))

[ratstranaut]

I've been seeing a lot of posts about piracy lately and in light of this i do need to say something because I've been seeing a lot of misinformation.

anti-viruses, vpns, ad-blockers- none of these are going to help you here.

the first thing you're going to need is a good solid boat (preferably oak wood). you will also want some cannons and a plank depending on the sort of shenanigans you plan on getting into.

Also! Not once have i seen any of you talking about the importance of citrus fruits and vitamin C. antivirus doesn't prevent scurvy. come on you should know this by now.

this sort of misinformation is wildly dangerous and irresponsible.

[ofoceansandtombsanew]

Real Talk: Ace Didn't Need to Ask For Help, It's On Garp

i always hate when i see comments about how ace was an idiot or ace should have just asked garp for help because, no? like dawg wtf do you mean?

the one thing we have been told repeatedly across the manga and anime is that ace could have lived his entire life being perfect and he still would have ended up on that podium

he could have become a marine, a police officer, a teacher, a chef and all of that would have been reduced to nothing the moment his parentage was discovered

yes, ace became a pirate of his own volition, but sengoku never mentioned his piracy

he never mentioned all the criminal activity ace did as the captain of the spade pirates or even later as the second division leader of the whitebeard pirates

you know what sengoku did bring up though the moment he got on that damn podium? ace's parentage

he mentions nothing that gained ace his bounty to begin with when he gets that den den mushi in his hand. why?

because it doesn't matter that ace is a pirate. what matters is that they are eradicating the last gol d roger's bloodline

bear in mind that they were killing pregnant women and young children who could have even had the slightest possibility of being roger's lover or kin

akainu deadass says that he doesn't care if every other pirate at marineford escapes as long as ace and luffy died and he would ensure their deaths personally. and for what? not their piracy. none of their crimes. not even for ensuring that the truth that certain countries and lands that were actually saved by pirates instead of the marines never got out

but because their fathers were gol d roger and monkey d dragon respectively

solely because of that, he deemed neither of them deserved to live

and as far as garp goes - i love garp as much as the next person but garp has never done anything for ace to trust him enough to ask for help even if he felt he deserved to ask

garp's negligent parenting coupled with the abusive words ace grew up hearing led ace to believe he didn't even deserve to be born. when he even asks garp if his being born was a good thing, garp can't even tell him 'yes'. he just says 'time will tell'. my brother in the blue seas, that is an elementary schooler questioning his right to exist

ace is defeated by blackbeard in episode 325 (chapters 434-441), luffy hears about his execution being set in episode 416 (chapter 522) and then finally ace is killed in episode 483 (chapter 574). that is 158 episodes and 140 chapters total and in that time what ace receives from garp are conversations that boil down to

"you did this to yourself"

"i just wanted you to become a fine marine"

"i don't have sympathy for criminals but i do have sympathy for family"

and garp actively preventing those who wish to save ace from reaching him. yes after akainu strikes ace, garp does react viscerally with instinct to protect his grandson, but that's too little too damn late at that point

garp having his moral dilemmas mean nothing when, however long ace spent in impel down, he isn't trying to help him

garp having his 'wishing things had been different' thoughts mean nothing when garp is preventing people from saving his grandson

there's a reason garp lets dadan beat and berate him when they reunite in windmill village and it's because he knows she's right

over the course of 20 years, garp has consistently chosen work over ace and luffy. as much as i love dadan and co, bandits are not a good choice to have raise your grandkids and then be the surprised pikachu meme when neither of them wish to become marines

garp's inability to see past the system he disdains yet clings onto actively shoots him in the foot

prevents him from seeing that ace is right when he says he never could have become a marine

luffy could have never become a marine. i do hear arguments saying that luffy might have had a fair chance considering garp is biologically his grandfather but i say that's truly up in the air considering how, even with that knowledge, akainu still wants to put luffy on a poster

but that's all to say, asking why ace never asked garp for help is ridiculous

the fuck would ace look like asking the man who has done nothing but

unintentionally fostered ace's resentment towards luffy in their early childhood

told ace it was his own fault he landed where he did

falcon punched marco halfway across marineford

for help?

and that's not even mentioning the fact that up until that point, ace didn't believe he deserved to live. he didn't think he had the right to exist. the only thing that kept him going up until that point was hoping he'd find an answer that justified his being born and his love for luffy and sabo. ace tells luffy in his dying breaths if it weren't for the two of them, he would have gave up on living a long time ago

yes, garp loves ace and luffy

he loves them both dearly but he is also incapable of putting them before work, before his ideals of justice. these two truths can coexist at the same time. garp's stubborn to a fault and his moral dilemma resulted in both inaction and the prevention of ace's escape

so to say that marineford would have gone differently if ace had asked is seriously undermining the character work. because in reality, it's up in the air on whether or not that would have done anything. ace asking garp for help could have gone either way and that's the beauty of the gray area regarding garp's actions during the summit war

and yes, i can get why it's frustrating that ace turned around to fight akainu when he could have just left and got it back in a blood a different time

but aside from ace having a temper about specific topics, we do get an answer as to why he couldn't bring himself to runaway when we finally are able to dive into his past with luffy and sabo:

he doesn't want to run away from any situation because ace is deathly afraid of losing something if running away ends up being the bad call

and in that moment, luffy was behind him

even if akainu hadn't talked down whitebeard, ace would have inevitably turned back around because he wouldn't have been able to shake his fear of losing something or someone he cared about

as long as there is something precious for him to potentially lose, ace will never run

he was doomed from the start

his being the son of gol d roger doomed him from the start

and that's what makes ace so tragic

[ms-demeanor]

i’m curious what your opinion is on the finer points of the case mentioned in the JSTOR post you reblogged earlier. the two sources in the post say that JSTOR didn’t press charges against him and had already settled with him by the time he killed himself. from what i read on wikipedia, the concern seems to be that JSTOR complied with a subpoena, which i don’t believe they have a choice to ignore? if anything it seems like the us government had reason to want him dead for wikileaks and public court records reasons, so they took a terms of use violation and blew it up into a dozen federal crimes.

is there more context i should be aware of? i have no particular affection or malice for JSTOR but the sources i found don’t exactly implicate the database or its employees in murder.

That's from page 175 of this document. This line: "The activity noted is outright theft and may merit a call with university counsel, and even the local police, to ensure not only that the activity has stopped but that - e.g. the visiting scholar who left - isn't leaving with a hard drive containing our database" is where I think the culpability starts.

If someone is downloading 1000s of articles (what seems like reasonable threshold for us to take action), what's wrong with us - or the university in collaboration with us - alerting the cyber-crimes division of law enforcement and initiating an investigation, having cop search dorm room and try to retrieve any hard drive that contains our content, etc. Our content is extraordinarily valuable and hard to replicate by the sweat of one's brow, but can be duplicated by savvy hackers and who knows what they want to do with the content?

Page 379: "Does the university contact law enforcement? Would they be willing to do so in this instance?

From page 1296:

I think the important thing to note here is that JSTOR had worked with MIT and had plans in place to prevent future similar downloads, but remained focused on identifying the person responsible for the downloads and ensuring that their data was deleted.

"I might just be irked because I am up dealing with this person on a Sunday night, but I am starting to feel like they need to get a hold of this situation right away or we need to offer to send them some help (read FBI).

And there it is. Page 3093 of the document.

JSTOR can hem and haw about it all they want, but you can't un-call the cops.

MIT was working with JSTOR on preventing future incidents of pirating, but JSTOR repeatedly said that they weren't going to let it go, that it was unacceptable to drop the issue, that they were going to continue to pursue the pirate.

You can scroll through the document and see the JSTOR tech department and abuse team talking about Swartz as a script kiddie, and a hacker. You can see someone talking about how this was real theft - making the comparison to stealing books even while admitting that piracy doesn't close others out of access.

You can see the thread starts with a joke about punching someone in the face for hacking their system, and includes the tech team ominously considering whether they should threaten the MIT librarians with the FBI.

There's something really important to note here which I don't think that people who aren't PRETTY DEEP into hackery shit aren't aware of: US law enforcement is absolutely rabidly feral about prosecuting hackers. People may be more aware of this now because of Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden (and perhaps a bit on tumblr because of maia arson crimew), but people who work in tech and who are in infosec - like the people joking about calling the FBI in these emails - would be aware of the bonkers disproportionate punishments faced by hackers. And knowing that, they kept pushing and pushing and pushing for identification of the hacker. They kept digging with MIT, they kept saying that simply preventing future incidents wasn't enough.

Early in the exchange someone from JSTOR asked "what's wrong with us - or the university in collaboration with us - alerting the cyber-crimes division of law enforcement and initiating an investigation, having cop search dorm room and try to retrieve any hard drive that contains our content, etc." and the answer is what happened to Aaron Swartz.

It is absolute bullshit for JSTOR to say "we arrived at a solution privately and didn't want to press charges" after law enforcement has gotten involved with a hacking case, especially one where they're talking about "real theft" and are attempting to quantify and emphasize the amount that was "stolen" from them.

The *public* may believe that private individuals or institutions are the ones who "press charges" but that's simply not the case. It's prosecutors who decide whether or not to go ahead with charges; they do it based on what cases they think they can win and what their office's perspective is on the crime. When you hear about people choosing to press charges it simply means that they decided to tell the prosecutor they wanted the case to go forward. It's up to the prosecutor whether or not that happens.

And the tech team at JSTOR had to know that law enforcement wasn't just going to wag a finger at an academic hacker.

There's a parallel here that happens sometimes when people have their identities stolen by their parents. If you mom takes out a credit card in your name, that's identity theft. That's fraud. That's illegal. If you reach the age of 25 and realize that your credit is ruined because your mom has been defaulting on cards in your name, you've got two choices to fix that: one is to accept the debt and pay it off and build up credit, and the other is to report the identity theft - which will end up with your mom in prison for a decade or so. Ruin your own personal finances, or your mom goes to jail for ruining your finances. So if you find out that your mom stole your identity you can't just call the cops to pressure her into transferring the debt to her name or something. That's not an option. The cops are not a threat to wave over people, they are not a way to get people to fall in line or act right. They aren't someone you can send to a college student's dorm room to retrieve a hard drive and have the matter drop.

When you call the cops on someone you are sending the full force of the law after them, and the full force of the law falls really heavily on hackers, and how heavy that blow can be is something that the JSTOR team must have been aware of when they were making snide comments about calling the FBI because they were frustrated with the noncommittal responses they were getting from librarians.

Ultimately it was the carceral state that killed Aaron Swartz, but they would not have been involved if JSTOR didn't think that what he did constituted theft.

Taking an *EVEN LARGER* step back from that, the idea that information can be owned and locked behind a paywall is what killed Aaron Swartz, someone who fought for information to be free.

Like. JSTOR is a licensing company. At the end of the day, cute social media posts and all, they're the same as the RIAA and ASCAB. They exist to extract a fee from people attempting to access information.

Aaron Swartz and all that he stood for are an existential threat to their core function.

Are JSTOR's hands as dirty as the federal prosecutors? Absolutely not. But they operate on a model that puts them in opposition to open information activists and it ended up with a hammer falling on Aaron Swartz that they dropped.

[razmazaniya]

how to shoplift (and see free movies)

If you like this, I'll make a super simple piracy tutorial.

Movies are simple. Purchase one ticket, and when your movie ends, just walk into another theater room.

Gas stations and dollar stores are weird because you're very visible. It really depends how much of a fuck the staff gives.

Bring company or a phone. You look like more of a normal shopper when your mom, partner, or friend is talking to you about salami. You can either wander and circle back or stay near them and "body conceal" — use their body to block your concealment of your item.

Know your store and the staff. Know camera placements. Know blind spots. My method? Pretend to browse, pick an item, hide it behind my phone or clothes I'm holding, and/or circle a shelf or aisle and slip it into my sleeve. If it's too big for my sleeve, hide it behind my phone and put my phone in my purse.

Let them see you with the targeted item as little as possible. Don't look worthy of attention. Don't seem super interested in the item you intend to take. Act fascinated by something else and then act dismissive and put it back. Misdirection.

DO NOT look like yourself (depends a bit on the store and it's target consumers, really). Generally, no subculture. Act like you can afford what you're looking at. Dress like a prep. Don't look like an anarchist or goth or grunge fan. Undercover loss prevention, sales associates, and cameras will target you if you look needy or alternative.

RFIDS EXIST. These are radio signal stickers that make the towers at the doors beep! You can buy deactivators online. You can also conceal on person or in bags and "casually" head to the bathroom or dressing room (hiding items in clothes you're going to try on is a good move) and remove packages. THIS WILL ALERT THE STORE THAT THEFT IS OCCURRING: DO IT CAREFULLY AND SPARINGLY, AND TRY TO HIDE THE PACKAGES YOU HAVE DISCARDED. DON'T LET THEM CONNECT THEM TO YOU. LET THEM SEE YOU WITH THE ITEM AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE. YOU MUST BE DIFFICULT TO IDENTIFY AS A SUSPECT.

You can search for RFIDS by examining items as if checking the product details. Don't get greedy. If it's too hard to conceal or remove the RFID or packaging, DON'T TAKE IT. Some other store will have something easier and similar.

On-body concealment is best. In your underwear, down your pants, in your pockets. If you ever get stopped, they usually search your bag. This is also why it is important to, if you place items in your bag, to remove the packaging – there's no proof you stole it unless you're on camera.

Be calm. Act normal. Smile at associates. Pretend you're shopping normally.

BE IN AND OUT AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. BE FORGETTABLE. Busy seasons are great for this. Staff that don't care are great for this.

Hold your purse open by leaving one strap further up your arm and the other near your wrist. This avoids having to fight with it to insert items when concealing with your phone.

Many people "fake" by concealing items behind another, crouching to inspect items on low shelves, and dropping their real target into their boots, up their sleeves, or into their purses (which you can sit on the ground.) Just be aware of cameras.

It is suspicious to carry 8 items and suddenly not have them. It is less suspicious to put many of them back and swiftly conceal the real one you wanted.

Do not repeatedly go to stores. Give it time. Get new haircuts. If with company, let them pay. Being a "tag-along" makes you more invisible.

MAKE-UP AND ELECTRONICS HAVE HIGH SURVEILLANCE. I lift cosmetics either when I'm off the radar or have been carrying something small up my sleeve or in my hand around the store for a long time while shopping normally. Then I make it disappear.

Do not get greedy and overfill your bag. Do not shove things down your pants in the open store area (dressing rooms and bathrooms only) unless you KNOW YOU ARE IN A BLINDSPOT AND NOT BEING STALKED BY LOSS PREVENTION.

Don't stare at cameras or have shifty eyes. Don't seem nervous. You're just a normal shopper. Or that's your persona, anyway. To observe cameras, look out of your peripheral, or SCOPE THE STORE.

WHEN YOU LEAVE: Walk out with a crowd so they don't know who beeped. Talk to your friend. Be on a phone call. KEEP. WALKING.

Generally, this is all "magic trick" misdirection and using normal actions and behavior to not look like a shoplifter.

STORES WILL CASE BUILD. Most theft is a misdemeanor. They CAN log your crimes until you have reached a felony level.

Feel free to do new makeup, new outfits, new wigs, take new friends.

NOT ALL STORES ARE THE SAME. Sephora or Ulta puts RFIDS INSIDE PALETTES. BE CAREFUL.

Start super small. Take things that won't get you in trouble if you get caught. Practice staying calm. Don't linger in stores.

If at a mall, drop lifted items into bags from another stores. It's not weird to have bags from other stores in malls. Throw your reciepts away or do not accept them from cashiers.

KNOW YOUR AREA. Impoverished areas have higher security. Rich ones, not so much. Walmart? Tons of cameras. Hobby Lobby? .....weirdly easy.

Check state laws and store policies.

I do not care about the "moral code of lifting". Thrift stores, flea markets, and small business are incredibly easy to steal from. Sue me. I'm fucking broke and disabled. Don't feel comfortable doing that? Then don't.

To steal clothes: Wear baggy ones, sneak extras into dressing rooms (if they counted correctly, don't do this), de-tag in the dressing room, and wear the lifted garment underneath your normal clothes.

This is all about looking like an upstanding citizen, misdrection, never being a suspect, and bewaring RFIDs.

And remember: if you get caught, deny, deny, deny! Crocodile tears if you must! This works best when you're a kid, it's a first offense, you mention how difficult things are at home or with parents, and if the police are more merciful. This also helps if you're white. Especially a white girl. Unfair and fucked up, but it is what it is. POC, be careful.

IF YOU ARE A MINOR IN THE UNITED STATES: YOUR RECORD WILL BE WIPED WHEN YOU ARE THE AGE OF MAJORITY. AFTER YOU ARE AN ADULT, IT REMAINS. Be extra careful. It costs money to expunge these things.

And most of all...

Getting greedy is how you get caught.

[edwardteachswombtattoo]

"Namby-Pamby in a Silk Gown": Our Flag Means Death, Toxic Masculinity, Queer Culture, and the Feminine Man

So. Masculinity. Piracy. Our Flag Means Death. Gentlebeard. Izzy. Colonialism. What the heck does all this mean?

I've watched a lot of queer media in my life, from John Waters movies to more contemporary modern queer cinema like "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" and "The Handmaiden". I even watched through all six seasons of "The L Word". I had the original DVD box set and everything. But when I think of queer cinema, I think of camp. I think of old classics from the seventies and eighties and nineties. The Watermelon Woman, To Wong Foo, But I'm a Cheerleader!, Female Trouble, etc.

Our Flag Means Death is very camp. I'm not comparing it to classic queer cinema, it's a completely different experience from, say, watching a John Waters movie. But the show clearly pulls influence from classic queer cinema, at the very least for aesthetic purposes, i.e. Wee John's drag look in "Calypso's Birthday" heavily inspired by drag queen Divine. What makes Our Flag Means Death unique is it's artful sincerity and unabashed queerness for a show made so long after artful sincerity and unabashed queerness have become "taboo" in Western cinema.

This isn't me trashing modern queer cinema and modern queer fiction. I immensely enjoyed The Handmaiden and Badhaai Do, two excellent pieces of queer cinema that have come out within the past decade. Our Flag Means Death has entered the coveted position of best queer TV show I've personally seen in a very long time because of it's artful sincerity and unabashed queerness, not because it's better than anything that came before it...because it's not better or worse than anything that came before it! OFMD is it's own thing, it's own vibe, it's own story.

Our Flag Means Death is a story. And you can either engage with the story as written or engage only with certain small parts of it. The disconnect between audience and writers (and I say this as a writer myself) is that writers (most of them anyway) write stories for a media literate audience. But fundamentally, you do not need to reach a certain threshold of media literacy before you are allowed to engage with a story...you just engage. And this is both bad and good. No one should be barred from engaging with a story because they won't get it or even can't get it. Because if we prevent people who don't get it from engaging with the text, how are they ever going to learn how to engage with the text? They won't, is the answer. You can't gaslight gatekeep girlboss people into media literacy.

Our Flag Means Death is not a complex story. It's very straightforward. If you do not understand what the story is doing, it's not because you're being tricked or lied to: it's because, somewhere along the line, you've misunderstood. So when the story isn't making sense, it's useful to ask yourself: is this bad writing or have I misunderstood what's being said? And sometimes it is bad writing! Sometimes it is! But which is more likely: it's all bad writing or I've personally misunderstood what the story is trying to do? If you don't understand what a story is doing, all these little moments might look like bad writing--because your brain does not know what's happening! Your brain is trying to put a puzzle together but the pieces are all flipped over so you can't see the actual picture!

What is Our Flag Means Death is trying to do? If it's trying to do anything at all, what is it? And why does it make perfect sense for some people while others are confused, angry, even upset? And do they have a right to be? Fundamentally, if you think a story is trying to do something and it's failing at that, you have a right to be upset--and stories have a right to try and fail! That does not necessarily make the story objectively bad!

Our Flag Means Death is trying to commentate on masculinity. Like the oft misunderstood Fight Club (coincidentally, Fight Club was written by a gay man). This is relevant. It's actually all very relevant. There is a difference between what Our Flag Means Death is attempting to do vs. what it actually does. And the line between is thin to the point of nonexistence. The discussion surrounding masculinity and what it means to be a man is just so vast, so entangled with white colonialism and imperialism and racism that any discussion requires an understanding of how these systems function. And Our Flag Means Death invites this discussion--perhaps not intentionally, but it's there. It has to be there. We can't talk about what it means to be a man without talking about race. You cannot write a story featuring an indigenous brown man that partially centers masculinity without at least grazing these topics, intentionally or unintentionally.

This show is a comedy. A romantic comedy. I know that. We all know that. It's not going to spend forty minutes talking about race and colonialism. What it is going to do is have an indigenous man choke out a white colonizer while reading a love letter from his foppy fem boyfriend. What it is going to do is have little Ed murder his abusive white father to protect his mother. What it is going to do is have a bunch of British colonizers die horrifically after being poisoned by a black woman whose establishment they took over. What it is going to do is have Stede burn down a ship full of racist aristocrats while making sure we (the audience) see the servants escaping on a boat in the background while several of the aforementioned aristocrats jump off the burning ship to their probable deaths.

ed you are so fucking hot holy fuck oh my godd holy fuck

Ahem.

Our Flag Means Death is not a subtle show. So when it looks you directly in the eye and says "HEY!! THIS CHARACTER IS BULLYING THIS OTHER CHARACTER WHO JUST SO HAPPENS TO BE A FEMININE GAY MAN! I WONDER WHY THAT IS HMMM???" you should perhaps take that into consideration.

This show loves it's small details, it's winks and nods at the audience. Stede not wearing his rings the morning after "Calypso's Birthday", Wee John having a place to sit at all times, etc. But when it comes to overarching super important plot points? It's never whispered, always shouted. Or whatever Hozier said.

"Some namby-pamby in a silk gown pining for his boyfriend" --Izzy to Ed "A proper little seductress" --Izzy to Lucius "Who's the big gal?" --Jack to/about Stede "a heavyset woman in a silk dressing gown" --one of the British naval officers about Stede

White colonial masculinity tightens a proverbial vice around all the men in Our Flag Means Death. Some of them die for it. Others overcome and live beyond it. But it is a system enforced through emotional and physical violence. Bullying from your peers, threats of physical or emotional retaliation for stepping out of line. The coveted status of Man (patriarch, father, husband) and the inferior status of Woman (mother, wife) that must never touch. The status of Failed Man (feminine, weak, soft).

I think Orville Peck and Willie Nelson said it first.

"And I believe to my soul that inside every man is the feminine And inside every lady, there's a deep manly voice loud and clear" ... "And inside every lady, there's a cowboy who'd love to come out And inside every cowboy, there's a lady who'd love to slip out"

The answer to the question What is Our Flag Means Death trying to do? is a simple one. The show tells us, in very few words, what it is trying to do. The answer to Does it succeed in what it's trying to do? is subjective.

Stede's escape from traditional colonial masculinity and his subsequent disavowing of it are subjective interpretations. But what is objective is how Our Flag Means Death chooses to approach masculinity. "Gal", "woman", "namby-pamby", and "seductress" are words used against the least traditionally masculine characters by characters who (arguably) exemplify what being a man is supposed to look like--in other words, they are being degraded by men who exemplify that traditional colonial masculinity. And because they exemplify traditional colonial masculinity, degrading men who do not follow the doctrine is an essential part of that. There must be the status of Man, the status of Woman, and the status of Failed Man that overlaps with the status of Woman. Stede is the Failed Man who overlaps with the status of Woman.

And what of Edward Teach?

This is where the status of Man, Woman, Failed Man, Failed Woman becomes less relevant. Because of course it's all fucking made up and the whole damn concept of the gender binary is colonial nonsense. But it is especially colonial nonsense when we're talking about an indigenous brown man whose concepts of masculinity are so very removed culturally from the fast encroaching shadow of colonization. The divide becomes more vast and deliberate than when we talk about Stede, because Ed and Stede's concepts of what it means to be a man are not fundamentally identical. And then we arrive at the part where Ed chokes out a British colonizer with one hand while reading a letter from his boyfriend with the other hand. And you know, it's very hot and I think we need more of that.

"Calypso's Birthday" is a celebration of queer love and queer joy and it's also where the themes of masculinity and embracing the feminine become so relevant. Because what else is there to say, except how much of this episode hinges on the transformative powers of love and the transformative powers of self-expression through gender fuckery? Wee John and Jim in drag, Izzy (the guy who spent most of last season getting upset that everyone on the fag ship was fagging it up all over the place) in drag, Stede and Ed's first time. And let's not forget the original plan for Episode 6 was for Stede to get a sexy makeover that involved him wearing eyeliner. We were robbed and I will be mad about this for the next 20,000 years.

There's a part of Our Flag Means Death that's about the transformative power of love and another about how toxic masculinity literally kills and another about how artful sincerity is more attractive than ruthless cynicism in fictional media and a big huge one about how you can't critique traditional toxic masculinity without getting into these discussions about colonialism. And Our Flag Means Death does these things very well, even when it's not doing them very well it's still doing them okay. I think the gay pirate show is going to be one of those "classic" pieces of queer media that people look back on fifty or so years from now in the same way people look at queer cinema from the seventies, eighties, nineties, etc. "Oh, Our Flag Means Death? That was a fun time. I wish there were more shows like that nowadays".

[errorid-mt7lt7k7unfr9ttfua5]

me when companies try to force you to use their proprietary software

anyway

Layperson resources:

firefox is an open source browser by Mozilla that makes privacy and software independence much easier. it is very easy to transfer all your chrome data to Firefox

ublock origin is The highest quality adblock atm. it is a free browser extension, and though last i checked it is available on Chrome google is trying very hard to crack down on its use

Thunderbird mail is an open source email client also by mozilla and shares many of the same advantages as firefox (it has some other cool features as well)

libreOffice is an open source office suite similar to microsoft office or Google Suite, simple enough

Risky:

VPNs (virtual private networks) essentially do a number of things, but most commonly they are used to prevent people from tracking your IP address. i would suggest doing more research. i use proton vpn, as it has a decent free version, and the paid version is powerful

note: some applications, websites, and other entities do not tolerate the use of VPNs. you may not be able to access certain secure sites while using a VPN, and logging into your personal account with some services while using a vpn *may* get you PERMANENTLY BLACKLISTED from the service on that account, ymmv

IF YOU HAVE A DECENT VPN, ANTIVIRUS, AND ADBLOCK, you can start learning about piracy, though i will not be providing any resources, as Loose Lips Sink Ships. if you want to be very safe, start with streaming sites and never download any files, though you Can learn how to discern between safe, unsafe, and risky content.

note: DO NOT SHARE LINKS TO OR NAMES OF PIRACY SITES IN PUBLIC PLACES, ESPECIALLY SOCAL MEDIA

the only time you should share these things are either in person or in (preferably peer-to-peer encrypted) PRIVATE messages

when pirated media becomes well-known and circulated on the wider, public internet, it gets taken down, because it is illegal to distribute pirated media and software

if you need an antivirus i like bitdefender. it has a free version, and is very good, though if youre using windows, windows defender is also very good and it comes with the OS

Advanced:

linux is great if you REALLY know what you're doing. you have to know a decent amount of computer science and be comfortable using the Terminal/Command Prompt to get/use linux. "Linux" refers to a large array of related open source Operating Systems. do research and pick one that suits your needs. im still experimenting with various dispos, but im leaning towards either Ubuntu Cinnamon or Debian.

[purplesaline]

Piracy is preservation, and authors would rather have their books in front of people who can't access many books for free instead of looking those people in the eye and saying "fork over your month's earnings"

Shut up

To be clear, I'm not against Piracy in general. In fact I'm not only an advocate, I'm a prolific pirate myself.

I'm sure you can find a handful of authors who feel that way, but those I know personally (one indie author and one traditionally published) as well as those I've seen comment on the issue are adamant that piracy has caused them significant personal harm.

They'd far rather people who can't afford their books use libraries to access them or, if the libraries they have access too don't carry the book(d), they'd rather people reach out to them personally to arrange for a copy within their budget (sometimes including for free).

Pirating books is not the same as pirating movies. It's the difference between attacking a Spanish galleon and a fishing sloop.

Bigger names like Brandon Sanderson, Steven King, Diana Gabaldon, etc have a entire fleet of sloops and are unlikely to miss a couple going missing, but the less famous (and thus less highly paid) authors can have their entire career ruined by their book being pirated. It can even prevent them from getting offered another book deal, meaning there won't be any more books by that author for you to read.

We aren't entitled to the intellectual property of others. Full stop.

If the author wanted their book to be free, they'd have made it freely available (as some do!). Maybe if everyone had a universal basic income that covered the cost of living we'd see more art available at no cost, but as it stands artists need to make a living too and that means they need to earn a profit to survive. If they can't do that with their art they have to find another way to do it which means less time and energy to make art.

Not to mention the advance an author gets is usual peanuts, and unlike actors who get paid by the time the movie is out, an advance isn't a wage and if the author doesn't sell enough books they have to give back whatever amount of the advance the sale of their books didn't cover. If they get a $5000 advance and only sell $3000 worth of books they owe the publisher $2000.

Again, I'm not against piracy. I am against harming individual artists to the point where it significantly impacts their career. I want more art in this world.

I'm also not telling people they can't, or shouldn't pirate books. I'm against it but I'm not trying to for e others to believe the same as me. I'm providing information so people can make a more informed decision and better understand the consequences of their choices.

So do what you will with the info I've provided. Just be willing to acknowledge the harm you cause with those choices. Even the piracy I take part in causes harm on a smaller scale.

I have no argument against "I don't care, I'm doing it anyway" and I won't bother trying to argue it.

[foone]

Alright, listen up:

We need to stop with the anti-rooting attitude for brainpals, alright? You're just doing mnemonocorps job for them. Cut out the discourse about people with modded brainpals, for TF's sake.

(scifi worldbuilding by way of fictional Tumblr discourse under the cut)

There's tons of valid reasons for by people would hack their brainpals! Testing new memory/skills without paying for a dev kit, piracy of skills (and do not @ me with that "but you're stealing from the original skill creator!" bullshit. All the legit skills on the market now are from people who did work for hire by mnemonocorps, and THEY ALREADY WERE PAID. It's only mnemonocorps that is losing money!), home ptsd/cptsd/jptsd treatment, the list is endless.

And before you jump into the comments, YES I KNOW PEOPLE DO SEXUAL MEMORY PLAY. People do every kind of weird shit, name me a technology that no one has used for sex in some way? Hell, the first topless photo was taken within a week of the invention of the daguerreotype. But we need to be adults here, okay? These things can be simultaneously true:

1. People do memory play

2. No kids have memorypals

3. The vast major of memory play is NOT VP.

Mnemonocorps has done a lot of work to try to keep people from using brainpals for memory pal, with their artificial limits on how much you can block at once, but that's fundamentally an over reaction to the negative press from the whole VP scandal. The news loves a juicy story like "people are using a new technology for weird sex shit" because their readers/viewers are always interested in Weird Sex Shit, either because "ooh, sexy!" or "BAN THIS FILTH" reactions.

And like all big companies, the last thing mnemonocorps wants is a new law aimed specifically at regulating them! So they stuck a bunch more restrictions on brainpals so they could say they have taken steps to prevent VP.

Now, I need you to listen to me before I say this: I am NOT saying I condone VP, alright? I'm not going like "oh but no one is hurt, everyone is (technically) adults, it's basically roleplay"? This is not an excuse for VP, alright?

Memory play is not just VP, and it's deeply insulting to everyone who engages in memory play to conflate the two!

The reasons people would do memory play are many and varied, as are the things that people do with memory play. And I think people are extra quick to jump on the "memory play is bad" bandwagon not just because of the spectre of VP, but because it's all "eww, kinky sex things".

And yes, I'm not going to try to sugarcoat memory play, alright? There's a lot of weird stuff going on there, and it definitely isn't for everyone. But the thing y'all need to keep in mind is that it's between consensual adults and they (usually*) know what they're doing, okay?

It's safe and mind healthy and consensual. (yes I know these are the same arguments the veepers use to definite VP but I'm not talking about VP here, damn it!).

People can do CNC play with mblocks. People can do roleplay with temporary personality patches, either because they're too awkward/shy/whatever to have sex or because they (or their partners) want to do some vcheating. All these are perfectly safe if done correctly and don't hurt anyone. Especially not you, who aren't even involved in their memory play!

And I promise the slippery slope argument is bullshit: even if people use mblocks to age regress, that doesn't make it VP, alright? There's plenty of people (especially us elderly trans who missed out on a gender-correct early adulthood. (I wasn't able to get genespliced until I was nearly 60!). If I want to experience how my 25-year-old self would have had sex as a girl, that's my own god damn business! And it's not VP and it hurts no one. And all these non-vp uses of memory play are completely blocked by the stock brainpal software, because of their heavy handed approach to trying to prevent VP.

But with this whole stigma against hacking brainpals means that if I ever even mention I've got mine modded, people immediately start side-eying me because they think the only reason anyone would want to hack their brainpal is VP.

No! Piracy of skills and mblocks and yes, memory play. Which isn't entirely VP, even if it keeps getting tarred with that brush.

The piracy argument you'd think would be an easier one to make. I know half of you have all the PS6 ROMs downloaded onto your tangles. How are you gonna steal half the video games on the iarchive and then turn around and say it's wrong to download fluent-Japanese or woodworking to your brainpal? Come on.

Basically my whole point is that mnemonocorps has done a great job convincing the general public to associate illicit (by their rules) brainpal use with VP, and it's solely because they know the average person (rightly, I would add) thinks VP is abhorrent. They're using that disgust to turn the general opinion against the idea of brainpal modding.

And look, look me in my eye, do you really think mnemonocorps is doing this because they genuinely think VP is bad and want the public to help them stop it by shunning people who hack their brainpals? Or is it, just maybe, because they don't want to lose trillions of n$ on skill piracy? And they're just using VP as an excuse?

It's like, come on gals. No one ever went broke assuming companies are acting out of the most basic capitalistic greed, because THEY ALWAYS ARE.

And don't get me started on the people clitriding mnemonocorps for inventing the brainpal in the first place. Look, we all love the brainpal, yes, but it's not like you owe them endless loyalty over it, okay? They can and have done wrong in the past. Accept that you can love the work and hate the company trying to control it.

(it's like: is Thomas Chellae an abusive asshole who should not be out of crimrehab? Yes of course, no question. Is Shadowed Skies the best album of the last 30 years? Also yes! It can be both! Bad people can make good things)

Anyway: end of the day, stop bringing up VP every time anything involving brainpal modding comes up. Don't judge people for modding their brainpals.

(especially since half the problem people have with memory play isn't VP, it's just y'all being antisex. Which is bullshit given how many people subscribe to those "expert oral sex" skills! You're using your brainpal to have better sex, then turning around and going "but I'd never use it for WEIRD sex!". Grow TF the fuck up!)

Also, just because I know someone would bring it up, the whole mind control thing is A MYTH. There have never been any legitimate cases of people getting hacked through their brainpals, hacked or not, okay? I mean, who knows what the nsa or uhsa can do, but no one has ever been able to demonstrate a remote hack on a brainpal. Anyone being "mind controlled" through their brainpal did it to themselves, either with a ppatch or intentionally routing their admin to someone else. "you'll get hacked and turned into a bpZombie!" is a bullshit reason to be against brainpal hacking: it simply does not happen. I used to be a rengineer, I've looked into the brainpal security: it's well done!

* Yeah, Adrian Reach was a tragic case, but it was definitely a million-to-one case. Make your backups, run the ccheck, and don't try to mblock your whole damn life on a failing bp! You'll be fine.

EDIT: I forgot to elaborate on the "no kids have brainpals" thing: yes, I know there are some kids who do have them, BUT they're not the same as regular brainpal installs. They're only done in some extreme cases of mental distress (like survivors of the cWar) and they're locked down. Only their doctor can adjust them, it's not like regular consumer brainpals where you can just fiddle with the settings themselves. So all this memory play stuff we're talking about is only between adults. REAL adults, alright? Even when people are doing VP, everyone involved is of age.

[ari-the-arotistic]

So I was thinking about pirates of the Caribbean, and each characters unique moral code and way of approaching life, as one does, when I remembered a particular scene about our beloved James Norrington... the very first scene in which Jack and James meet. Now, as a long time Sparrington shipper, I adore the Sparrington fandoms adopted head canon of Jack's compass pointing directly at Jack when James is holding it as having a romantic connotation too it, but this is Disney we're talking about, and a Disney from 20 years ago at that, so it is of course just a head canon. And while it is a beloved head canon, I will always be a writer before a shipper, and what that scene says about Norrington from a writer's perspective is far too juicy not to share... So buckle up for a very long meta post about who James Norrington is as a person, and how it was set up in this scene(and later reinforced in the second and third movie). This is my first real meta post, and I'm very excited for it, so let's jump right in.

First of all, the compass scene.

As we can clearly see in the image above, since the red line that points to the object of the holder's desires is no where to be seen, its relatively easy to conclude that it's hidden from our view by the sun dial in the middle, and thusly is pointing directly at Jack. Elizabeth is off to James's right, and no one is standing behind Jack, so unless the compass was pointing at something in the far off distance that just so happened to be in Jack's general direction(unlikely) its pretty clear what(or who) the compass is pointing at. For most potc fans, this is fairly standard knowledge. But it's what this fact says about Norrington's character that I'd like to focus on. After all, what does it say about a man that a compass that shows you what you desire most is pointing at a pirate, and the very face of piracy at that, instead of your canonical love interest, when you're a Commodore of the Navy? As stated above, Sparrington shippers often point at this scene as proof that James has a bit of a pash on the ruggedly handsome pirate, or at the very least, a thing for men. But from a writer's perspective, this just simply isn't the case, and not because the writer's in this instance are the notoriously homophobic corporation we call Disney. The reason why this is so unlikely from a writing perspective is because given the context clues, we as an audience are meant to draw the conclusion that this is the first time that they meet(I have heard rumors of them meeting as children in the books, but having never read them, and focusing only on the movies, I'm not including that in this post). And since this is the first time they've met, it's highly unlikely that the compass is pointing at Jack because James has a bit of a thing for him. Even if James has heard of Jack's many exploits, he does not truly know the man behind the legend, so having romantic feelings for the pirate at this point in time just isn't believable. And even if James was a closeted gay/bi man, it's still unlikely that the compass would be pointing at Jack of all the men around the Commodore(of which there is a lot, some of whom he is incredibly close with) seeing as Jack is the poster boy of piracy, and at this point in the movie it's made abundantly clear that James vehemently detests the notion and all who practice it. If James were to be holding the compass in Jack's vicinity in later movies and it still pointed at the pirate, an argument could definitely be made that it was because he had developed feelings for Jack, but for their first meeting, it's just not realistic. So it's much more likely that the reason the compass is pointing at Jack is because of James's desire to send every pirate he meets to "a quick drop and a sudden stop" as he so eloquently put it to a young Elizabeth. This is further reinforced in the third movie when it is revealed that Beckett's desire to have Jack dead at his feet would prevent him from using the compass to find Shipwreck Cove if the pirate was not already at the aforementioned location, or, well, dead. This is again, relatively common knowledge. But like I said before, it's what this fact says about James that is the whole point of this post... and that is that James cares more about his career than anything else, even the woman he claims to love. Now for some, that statement alone might seem like a pretty obvious conclusion, but it's how this scene subtlety sets up this core aspect of Norrington's character before we even truly get to know who he is, and how it's brought to it's full height in the second movie, and the core aspect of his redemption and subsequent death in the third that I'd really like to talk about. Which brings us to the next segment of this post...

How James lost his commission to the navy...

And how he got it back

So let's start off with how James lost his commission... it's a story we all know pretty well, and one he tells to Gibbs in the scene shown above, when he plans to either join Jack's crew or get revenge on the man that(he believes) ruined his life. After Jack's escape in the first movie, James grew obsessed with capturing the pirate, so much so that he foolishly followed the Black Pearl into a hurricane, resulting in the sinking of the Dauntless, and the loss of countless lives that had been aboard the vessel. It's unclear aside from James himself who had been on the ship at the time, and who did or did not survive, but the death toll was heavy, with most, if not everyone who wasn't James, having perished in the storm. While it is not the most extreme example(which we'll get too in just a bit), this is a pretty clear example of James prioritizing his career above everything else, even reason and logic. And all just to capture a singular pirate, even at the cost of his own ship and crew, and rather ironically, the very career that he had been so desperately trying to hold onto in the first place. Which brings us to the next scene I'd like to discuss... James stealing the heart of Davy Jones. This moment is the absolute peak of this part of James's character. This is the moment where James takes his obsessive need for his career to the max. This is the moment where James truly prioritizes his career above everything else, even the woman he claims to love(and for Sparrington shippers, above the man he's reluctantly come to care about). At this point in time, when James decides to take the heart for himself to regain his old station, he's been on the Black Pearl long enough to know the full situation. That Jack is in some kind of trouble with Davy Jones, and that if Jack doesn't use the heart to bargain for his freedom, then the Kraken will hunt Jack, and subsequently the Black Pearl, down until he and everyone aboard are dead. And that includes Elizabeth. And yet, despite knowing that stealing the heart would basically mean sealing Elizabeth's death, he still decided to do so. Sure, the argument could be made that he thought Elizabeth would be able to escape somehow, but the chances of her dying at sea, or some other terrible fate befalling her before she could safely make it back to civilization would have been highly likely. Of course we as an audience know that this isn't the case, but James does not. So essentially, James was so obsessed with his career, and maintaining the image of the honorable Commodore that he didn't even truly register that he was putting Elizabeth, the woman he loves and has been trying so desperately to woo for the past two movies, in danger. And he won't fully realize the consequences of his actions until the third movie, in a deleted scene no less(I swear when I find whoever decided to delete some of the most important scenes to James's character...), when Davy Jones informs Governor Swann of his daughters untimely demise on the Black Pearl. Of course, almost immediately afterwards, Beckett retcons that statement by informing the Governor that Elizabeth was recently seen in Singapore, but for a few minutes, James has to sit with the fact that Elizabeth was dead, and it was his fault. And even after learning that she was in fact still alive, James has now finally come to the realization that if she had still been on the Black Pearl when it sank with its Captain, he would've been the one to send her to her death. And for Sparrington shippers, James has to sit with the unavoidable fact that he was the reason Jack had died(even if the pirate does come back), despite the fact that it was Elizabeth's betrayal that was the final nail in Jack's coffin, since she wouldn't have had to do that if the Kraken wasn't after them in the first place. Which brings us to the final scene I'd like to discuss...

James choosing a side, and paying the price

Now, before we fully delve into this scene, I'd like to take a moment to talk about James's own perception of himself, and his relationship with honor and integrity. From the very first scene in which we meet James Norrington, we are made aware that he has a strong moral compass. He firmly believes piracy is evil, and that all who partake in piracy deserve a swift end. He perceives his Commodore persona as being the paragon of honor and integrity, and the sole arbiter of justice. We can infer from the line "By remembering that I serve others, Sparrow, not just myself" that James does have honorable intentions when ridding the world of pirates, that being protecting the innocent citizens under his care, but as seen once again in the first time James and Jack meet, wherein James adamantly tries to arrest Jack despite the fact the fact that pirate had just saved Elizabeth's life, his actions to achieve that goal are not always quite as honorable as his intentions are. This is especially highlighted once again when James gave Beckett the heart of Davy Jones. James's intentions here were once again rooted in honor and integrity - he believes that the only way to keep people safe from pirates is too return to his old station, to the image of honor and integrity he had built around the title of Commodore, and the only way to return to his old station is to give Beckett the heart. But the action itself was far from honorable, seeing as James had to betray the woman he loved just to obtain the heart, and that he was now putting it into the hands of a dangerously unstable individual who planned on using it to commit mass genocide.

And now, we finally get to the scene above... Of course, it's made clear throughout his scenes in the third movie leading up to this one that James is already starting to regret giving Beckett the heart after seeing the damage being caused, but since Beckett is targeting pirates specifically(although we as an audience know that Beckett's definition of pirate is very loose) James figures that the ends justify the means, as he often does in situations regarding piracy. It is not until his reunion with Elizabeth, where he learns that Governor Swann is dead, and that Beckett lied to him about the Governor's whereabouts, that James truly realizes the enormity of his mistake. It is in this moment that James has a sudden realization that fundamentally shakes him to his core, and is the reason behind his change of heart later on. He realizes that the honorable Commodore persona that he had tried to cultivate and keep a hold of for so long had never been truly honorable at all, and that by giving Beckett the heart of Davy Jones, he had effectively tied the noose around the neck of his own honor and integrity, as well as the necks of hundreds, if not thousands of innocent people, with his own hands. And as that one vine goes, this was the moment James knew, he fucked up. Which leads to his decision to change sides in an attempt to redeem himself, and his subsequent death in the process. Of course, part of James's reason for helping Elizabeth escape was that he does care for her, but given everything I've detailed about him so far, I think it's safe to say the main reason that James decided to help Elizabeth and her crew was because he wanted to undo the damage he had done, and he had faith that Elizabeth, Will, and Jack would have some sort of plan to defeat Beckett, and stop any further damage to come from his mistake. And now, for his death scene itself... As much as I love the idea of James surviving and joining the pirates(whether at Elizabeth's side or Jack's is unimportant), I firmly believe that his death was a necessary end of this part of his character arc, and that if he were to survive he would still have to go through a major ego death for this part of his character arc to end properly. Because as Bill turner drives that wooden pike into James's gut, it's not just the physical death of his body, but also the metaphorical death of Admiral James Norrington, and the ideals that James had used to build the persona out of. So even if James survived, the Admiral would still have to meet his metaphorical end, thusly causing James to lose a core part of himself that had been guiding most his decisions so far, in the process, which would start the next part of his character arc, where he would have to deal with the loss of a key part of his personality, and rebuild himself from the ground up to finally, truly become the image of honor and integrity he had envisioned from the beginning.

And that concludes this very long post. I could probably wax enough poetics about this aspect of James's character to write a short novel, but I've said everything important to this post, and if I go on any longer, I'm likely to start repeating myself lol. Thank you for reading, and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments or a reblog! I will always love hearing more about our polished peacock <3

[ramonag-if]

Maybe I'm being a snitch to people who have done it and do it on purpose, but it seems wrong not to tell you because it is paid content. You may be aware of this, but just in case you aren't I feel you need to know.

I was previously subscribed to your patreon, Nomad tier, so that I could read Chapter 10. When I did that, I got access to the itch.io version. It shows up as owned content. I unsubbed but it shows that I still own that. That version is still getting updates and I am able to access chapter 11 even though I am no longer subbed, so I'm sure others are able to do the same.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention and for being honest. I've taken steps to prevent this from happening. Accessing the game demo has always been a challenge with piracy and of course through itch.io so I appreciate you telling me.

[frenzyarts]

Oh. No, that was not me.

(Censoring the name in an attempt to prevent more people from seeing it) Thank you for letting me know. I’m at work so I can’t really do much right now but I’ll try to get it taken down tonight. If anyone has any advice on how to deal with patreon leaks, please let me know.

Man this really just breaks my heart. My dream is to be able to support myself as an artist and Patreon is a big part of that. And I’m super grateful to my patrons, so it really hurts knowing that the leak was caused by one of them 😞

I didn’t realize I was big enough for this man I don’t even have 100 instagram followers. Can we save piracy for like multi million dollar corporations and not me, A Random Person

[punkascas]

okay, so i don't want to, like, Start Something or whatever so we're doing a barely-tagged, separate post. i also realise this is mostly pointless because others have already said what i'm going to say, and did it better, with far more grace, and sound less like an asshole than i do.

but jesus louise helen christ, the weird fucked up ideas people have around abuse and personal responsibility and the effect of trauma. like as an abuse and csa survivor, it genuinely alarms me to read posts that use arguments i remember my dad making. like, i'm assuming most of this rhetoric comes from gen z — maybe that's inaccurate; maybe that's unfair. but right now i'm very much Having A Moment Here that the kids aren't alright.

no 22-year-old should be repeating the same awful, manipulative, logically and morally bankrupt justifications for violence and torture my dad says. like literally what's in the first two episodes of ofmd s2 is torture.

i love ed; he's an amazing character. taika is hella wowza top marks acting him. but like.

like.

torture, my dude. physical and psychological. trauma. harassment. that we see the lasting effects of through s2.

just. i. what??

so here we go, okay. have too many, zealously highlighted screenshots so i can dig into details.

cut to save your dashes. content warning for discussions of abuse and trauma (if that wasn't obvious), as well as spoilers for ofmd s2.

re: ed knew what he was doing was wrong and felt guilty about it at the time:

we have no on-screen, textual examples of this. not in the dialogue; not in the acting; not in the blocking; not in the cinematography or music. nothing.

knowing the crew are overworked and kind of traumatised by all the violence, ed bribes them with cake. because, as we know, cake like tea fixes everything. only ed wasn't even with them to share in the eating of the cake. he made izzy responsible for that. he doesn't give the crew a break; he doesn't choose less ethically-fraught prizes to hunt. there is not one scene of ed talking directly to the crew — until he points a gun at each of them.

we see ed crying (and drinking, and rhino horn-ing [way to help further extinction, man]) but it's always paired with shots or flashbacks that reference stede. ed is still all up in his feelings about stede, and ed confirms this when he tells frenchie the myth about albatrosses never needing to return to land. ed cannot go back, does not want to go back, because he was rejected. (like, stede is literally landed gentry, come on!) all he wants to do instead is stay at sea committing to this unhinged version of unstable, sadistic piracy.

but okay, okay. say we ignore all of that. let's say ed does feel sorry and guilty and ashamed of his actions. he knows what he's doing is wrong and unfair and cruel. that it's harming others. that it's particularly harming the dude that ed has, for better or worse, basically spent his life with (izzy; i mean izzy). ed… still continues to do the things! how far off are we at this point from the definition of malicious? you know action x hurts person b and then you do it anyway. is that honestly a better, happier, more ethically defensible reading of the character?

re: the crew didn't mutiny because they love ed despite his violent, sadistic actions.

mutinies were a thing, yes. but both historically and in the world rules established by the show, mutiny is disincentivised through threats, distraction via extra work, and corporeal punishment. we see both ed and izzy use all three of these to try to prevent the crew from disobeying orders. they didn't wait until the storm and izzy shooting ed to mutiny because they understood or sympathised with ed; they took the chance to kill him then because that was the first real opportunity they'd had. the reward finally out-weighed the risk given that ed was going to kill them all that night anyway.

again, we have no scenes, no dialogue, no visual or audio cues to tell us that the crew understands or loves ed — excluding izzy, obviously. fang could also be on that list, if you take into account his personality and his behaviour both in s1 and later in s2 in the fishing boat scene. but in the first two episodes, we only see the crew show trauma responses around ed. they talk about him but almost never to him. and when they do have a direct conversation with ed, it is either confrontation or head down, submissive, "of course, blackbeard; anything you say" placating. i'm so baffled where the show points to any sign of love from the crew towards ed before his "death".

re: ed can't be held responsible because he was suicidal.

uhm. no. hard no. a harder no than stede's brazilian cherry wood mast. fucked up people do fucked up things but part of being an adult is owning your fucked-upped-ness and not fucking up others while you work on unfucking yourself. children, children are not fully responsible for the impact of their actions on others when they're deep in their feelings, especially if they're feeling their feelings as a trauma response. this is because literally their brain cannot do that kind of control. it doesn't have that software pack installed yet. ed does have all the adult updates installed, even if he isn't running them at that moment. he has no right to take out his feelings on other people: to maim them, to psychologically torture them, to abuse them, to work them to exhaustion. to kill them. he does not get a free pass to do suicide by abused employees. (like suicide by cop but more indirect and passive and harmful.) talk about passive aggressive.

secondly, ed is not just passively suicidal and happy to find new risks that might end his life. he is very purposefully taking izzy with him (see: literally removing the bits of izzy that would help let him walk away from ed; the fact that ed becomes actively suicidal only once he thinks izzy is dead; the whole keeping izzy's corpse in front of his and stede's beach shack i mean inn — the codependence, she runs deep). ed is also putting the crew through the same risks, the same isolation, the same danger. both stede and izzy agreed that ed had gone full scorched earth policy. you don't get forgiven for the murder part of a murder-suicide pact just because of the suicide part. not to mention that no one (once again, you could potentially argue izzy as an exception) was good on a murder-suicide pact with blackbeard.

and then to say the crew felt guilty? i assume i'm misreading that. the crew. felt guilty. for ed's actions. that is, if not victim blaming and if not darvo, a very close inbred cousin of them. like hapsburg jaw inbred close.

re: ed healing and his view of himself as a monster.

to heal means, in part, to accept responsibility for the harm you've caused, whether it was intentional or not. it means making amends. it means building or rebuilding relationships where possible. it means putting the other person or persons' feelings and boundaries and need for safety above your desire for absolution or forgiveness. it means working through your own guilt and shame and anger (or whatever drove you to act the way you did) in a separate space, not with the people you hurt, but someone who can be a step removed, more impersonal and objective to help you reflect and face hard truths as needed. i say this as both someone involved in activism and community reparations and as an abuse survivor who has done nearly 30 years of therapy learning this in order to not hurt people. it's not ed's fault he's fucked up just like it isn't my fault i am. but it is on me, like it is on anyone, to make sure i limited as much as possible the harm i can cause to others because i learned some awful but very effective tricks at a young age to survive.

ed does not really do any of the above. he doesn't say "sorry". he speaks in generalised language. he complains about the cat bell (which he seems to wear only for one day, given the implied timeline with lucius and pete's engagement). i have a model ship on a stand that says "this is a safe space ship" as a joke because i work for the government and have written press releases that sound just like ed's "apology". where you take no responsibility and encourage "the culture" to move on.

so, really, my question becomes: ed sees himself as a monster. in s1, we had enough balance between ed's current actions and his referenced past actions to see this belief as likely untrue. in s2 though — i mean, is it? is that an unfair or inaccurate belief? i can understand how carrying that belief can get in the way of ed's growth and eventual healing but like. from an outside perspective of ed-the-fictional-character. he's not a "good" person. he's capable of and has done and continued to do horrible, cruel things. ethically, can you argue with that statement about him?

re: ed trying to destroy relationships because of his self-worth issues and instead the consequences of his actions proving that he's loved.

this is the point that made me go: right, no, i need to respond. i need to say my piece about this. izzy and the crew suffering ed's violent tyranny and then sticking around on the revenge anyway afterwards is not a sign of love. it is not showing love to bear pain for someone. it not showing love to let someone mistreat you, threaten you, hurt you, maim you. their actions are selfish and done to give them feelings of power and control over you. lying back and thinking of england to get through it is not love. it is absolutely a survival technique. but it is not love when you do it at the expense of yourself or others.

i also disagree that ed was trying to push people away or break his relationships with others. we know from s1 that ed is fairly blasé about whether crew members die. again, we don't see any friendly or intimate exchanges between ed and any of the crew to imply any kind of relationship there beyond "tools who accomplish ed's goals". the one exception, as always, is izzy. and as previously stated, ed seems bound and determined, in a very conscious way, to bring izzy into death with him. ed does everything in his power to make izzy want to kill ed, or at least agree that it's best if ed dies, and to want to kill himself so ed doesn't have to die alone. that isn't ed breaking that relationship; it's making it permanent in a really fucked up shakespearian way. the only relationship we see ed waffle between wanting to keep and wanting to push away is stede. after his corporate "apology" and the fishing trip with fang, all of ed's dialogue is with stede and a little bit with zheng until izzy's death scene. the crew loving ed just isn't a thing, at least not one we're shown. not from either side. ed's relationships are with stede and kind of, sort of with izzy (because he does manage to, if not fully break, do some major damage to that).

love did not save ed. ed wanting to live, because stede came back, because he didn't want to jump off hornigold's cliff in the first place, saved ed. izzy saved everyone else.

so yeah: that's it; that's the post. the rhetoric that abuse is love or that abuse can be "cured" with love or that trauma isn't lasting and serious and has impacts on people's daily lives is just. wild. wild.

and terrifying.

my dad was born in the 40s. why is anyone born in the 80s or later still defending this mindset? it honestly, truly freaks me out.

guess it's good i have a fucking therapy appointment on monday.

[thetempleofthemasaigoddess]

Dracule Mihawk's older sister headcanons (part 2)

Dracule Mihawk x sister!reader

This fic is part of the Beast in Black series.

This idea was born from a conversation with @giurochedadomani, as well her amazing blog. This is part two of two, part one is here.

If you're expecting an happy ending, please go read somewhere else.

*****

🗡️ The lord dies unexpectedly, a sudden heart attack as he sleeps. Informed by his sister, Mihawk returns immediately; they haven’t seen each other in two years, and as they embrace, she marvels at how much he has grown up, how tall and strong he has become. He is still her little brother, quietly affectionate and attentive to her needs, who kisses her hand and holds her against him as if never wanting to let go, but there is a new inflexibility in him, the steel-like determination of a man who goes his own way, content with his own company and leaving everything and everyone behind him, because he respects few and has patience for even fewer. She doesn’t fully know whether this is a new facet of his personality, born of the solitude and the hardship of his life as a pirate, or something that has always been part of him, and the last two years simply brought it to the surface; what she is sure of is that she doesn’t like it.

🗡️ They take part in the lord’s funeral, standing arm in arm, both all too aware of the gossip fluttering around them. She looks straight ahead, simply but elegantly dressed, making sure to offer her condolences to the lady but otherwise avoiding small talk; she knows they are talking about her, her impoverished background, her time as a maid for the lady during which she waited on some of them, and their improved situation thanks to her brother’s piracy. She ignores them; she has nothing to be ashamed of and she knows, and why should she care for those people’s opinion when none of them ever cared for her and hers?

🗡️ Mihawk utters maybe ten words in two hours; he stands for a while in front of his old teacher’s grave, aware that the man had nothing more to teach him, but also of everything he owed the lord, who gave him the chance to become the man he is and to take care of his sister, who cared for him when no one else did. Their relationship was close but formal, he wouldn’t say he loved his master like a father or that he was loved like a son; but Mihawk mourns him, and I’ll never forget what you have done for me, he promises in the privacy of his heart. I swear I’ll make you proud.

🗡️ Mihawk should technically sleep in the master bedroom, the one that once belonged to their father, but his sister knows him and has prepared his old one - after having a bigger bed moved in. Mihawk promises to stay until her upcoming birthday; he’s happy to see her, and relieved to see her happier and more confident than two years back. She has made friends with some women in the nearby town, she excitedly tells him, and has started helping one of them who owns a photographer’s studio, having developing an interest in the art; one day, perhaps, they can formally start working together, because while it is a relief she doesn’t need to worry about the future or that her leg will prevent her from earning her living, she needs to keep herself occupied. She offers Mihawk to discuss their expenses, because she wants him to know she’s not wasting his money, but he assures him there is no need, because he has full and complete trust in her and actually would be happy to know she can now afford whatever she wants, be it a new dress, a lady’s maid (ah!) or a palanquin to ride around. That is a sort of life he could never be happy, or even just content, with, but she is, and Mihawk is proud he can now repay everything she has done for him, taking care of her as it is his duty as a brother.

🗡️ Before he leaves, she takes a picture of the two of them together, makes two copies, one the size of the pretty bedside frame she has bought recently, to keep next to their mother’s old painting of the two of them, and the other small enough to be carried around, and gives it to her brother. “I know we have no need of tangible tokens to remind us of each other, and you are not the sort of man who wears a locket, but please, keep this with yourself. And remember you can always come back, no matter where you are, no matter what you have done. I don’t care about the money, or the house; I just want to know you are safe.” He promises; he gifts her a ridiculously precious necklace for her birthday, with a gem carved in the shape of a rose, and two days later she sees him leave once more, and she misses, and fears for, him again before his little ship has disappeared beyond the horizon.

🗡️ Years pass. Mihawk’s name is now known all over the four seas and the Grand Line, and many are the swordsmen who both fear and admire him, but Mihawk’s mind is focused on two goals. The first is to find a sword worthy of him, one capable to channel his strength and power without breaking; like any swordsman worth his salt knows, though, the best swords are conquered, not simply bought, and while he wouldn’t be against killing a fellow fighter to take their sword, were it worth the effort, for the time being he resigns himself to wait for the right weapon to come his way. His second objective is to find the greatest swordsman in the world and defeat them to conquer their title and have the whole world witness his strength. His sister, while aware that ambitious outcome is well within her brother’s abilities, suggests him to wait, since he is still so young and still hasn’t found a sword worthy of him, but Mihawk is determined: his opponent, a man whose name is not spoken but whispered all around the world and who even the most veteran Marine officers fear to face, is getting on in years, and unlike what many others would do in his place, he plans on facing him before he starts losing his strength and Mihawk’s victory is devoid of any value.

🗡️ The man, mainly known by the moniker The Blue Crane, doesn’t bother to hide his whereabouts, aware that only a fool would search for him with the intent to cause trouble. Mihawk (the fool) easily finds him. He challenges the Blue Crane to a fight to the death. The man accepts. The fight is hard, brutal, bloody, several centuries-old trees felled and enough blood lost to support a whole transfusion centre, but in the end the result is the one any witness aware of the history of the two opponents would have expected…

🗡️ … Mihawk has been defeated. Soundly, unquestionably, and sustaining injuries serious enough to make the doctors doubt his survival. His sister is called, and runs to his bedside; for ten days (and nights, so much that the doctors start worrying about her) she watches over him, thinking this cannot be the end, not for him, not for them, not when he is still so young and she has barely had the time to learn to miss him while he’s gallivanting around the Grand Line. She doesn’t pray, she never has; but she talks to him, even though he remains unconscious for days and she doesn’t even know if he can hear her; she begs him to be strong, to return to her, because he has a whole life ahead of him and can’t leave her alone…

🗡️ In the end, he wakes up; the recovery is long and slow, which is frustrating for a man who has never idled a moment in his life, even more because he knows he has been lucky and he survived only because the Blue Crane thought he had already killed him and let him be. It is not the first, but it is the bitterest defeat of his life; he was able to hold his own against the strongest swordsman in the world, he should be proud of himself, but he is not and, he swears, one day he will regain his honour by killing his opponent, even if it means losing his own life in the process.

🗡️ He doesn’t share his intentions with his sister, but she has expected it ever since she was informed of what had happened; she knows how important it is for Mihawk to conquer the title of the Blue Crane, and that he would let nothing and no one stop him. She has always promised herself she would never get in the way of her brother’s dreams, because he must be free to live his life as he wishes to and she doesn’t want to clip his wings, but she is exhausted, still scared and already convinced that no matter how powerful he becomes he is destined to lose his life before he gets his first grey hair, either because of an opponent’s stroke of luck or the Marines who have sent a whole platoon to capture him (they have already tried. Thrice.) or whatever danger he may encounter in his life as a pirate.

🗡️ For the first time since he was a child, and for the same reason as the other, they fight; bitterly and loud enough the whole hospital hears. Mihawk tells his sister she doesn’t get to mollycoddle him, because he’s an adult and he will not let her stop him from achieving his full potential; she calls him a conceited egoist, who thinks being able to wield a sword gives him permission not to care about everything else and who has never matured beyond the child who was abandoned by his father. They are both hurt; they both forgive. Mihawk recovers, goes back home for a while (because he has missed his sister and does need to rest, but most of all to please her and because he knows he owes it to her) and promises that he will not challenge the Blue Crane again before he has improved sensibly. It is quite possibly the least reassuring promise he may have made; but she accepts it, and never speaks of it again. 

🗡️ He has known Shanks since they were boys; Mihawk has told his sister about the red-haired pirate, and she was happy to learn her brother has something akin to a friend, but Shanks knew nothing about her until one day he found her and Mihawk’s picture, fallen from his jacket’s inside pocket. “Who is this pretty lady with you, Hawkie? Is she single?” he asks; Mihawk knows he’s merely joking, and in any case Shanks is not the sort of man who bothers women, but he glares at him with such ferocity the red-haired pirate raises his hands and swears he meant nothing by it.

🗡️ Their father dies. Neither cares.

🗡️ Mihawk’s sister starts working in her friend’s photographer’s studio; she doesn’t really need the money, but enjoys it and soon becomes good enough at it her services are requested for private events and newspapers ask to print her pictures. At a party given by her friend, she meets the hostess’s brother, a man who is as different from Mihawk as he could be: shy, a bit awkward, but friendly and openly kind and who is content with a tranquil, predictable life, with his job as an accountant and, one day, a family. Their eyes meet across the room; he smiles; she waves, but neither has the courage to approach the other until the hostess takes both out of their misery and introduces them. When at the end of the night he shyly asks for her company at dinner, she is flabbergasted: she is well beyond the usual age for women to be courted, and considering she has been called bland in the best of cases and the situation with her leg has not improved since she was twelve, she never expected someone she just met to be impressed with her. But he is; and she says yes, and this is not the sort of exciting, thwarted love story teenage girls like to read about, but it is theirs, and it is true, and it makes her happy.

🗡️ Exactly ten years after Mihawk has taken to the sea, both siblings experience a turning point. Mihawk finally finds the sword he had spent a decade waiting for; it is the fruit of the work of a famed swordmaker, an old woman who had disappeared years before and who everyone thought dead. Mihawk meets her by sheer coincidence, and immediately asks her to forge a sword for him, whatever the cost may be; the artisan replies that she cares not for money, but will only put her art at the service of a man who deserves it. She puts Mihawk to the test, some terrible endeavour that brings his strength as a man and as a fighter to their limit; still, he succeeds, and true to her word, the swordmaker gifts him a huge black swords: it is her masterpiece, that she has spent months creating a decade before, after her own master had come to her in a dream to tell her she would one day find a man worthy of it. 

🗡️ The sword is beautiful, huge but light in his hands, as if it were really made for him specifically; Mihawk likes the black blade and the gemstone-ornated hilt. This is no cutthroat dagger, nor simply one of the greatswords some try to use in the hopes the length and weight make up for their lack of talent; it is precious like a jewel, beautiful to look at, but severe and forbidding, openly dangerous enough anyone would think twice before approaching it - not unlike Mihawk himself. This is his sword, and he is its wielder; a perfect match, the sort of feeling other people experience about a soulmate.

🗡️ He’s so satisfied he decides to show the sword to his sister, returning home for a surprise visit; she welcomes him with open arms, and is happier than ever to see him, and impressed by his new weapon, which is way bigger than her. “They say the best swords have names.” she points out “Any ideas?” Mihawk shrugs; he’s content with simply having conquered a weapon worthy of him, and doesn’t feel the need to name it as people do with a lapdog or a country house. He is more interested in his sister’s own news: her gentleman friend has asked for her hand, and she has accepted. “He is a good man, and he loves me very much; he treats me very well. I love him too, Mihawk, I really do; I am not asking for your permission, like you wouldn’t have to ask for mine, but it would mean the world if you approved.” The dinner during which he meets his future brother in law is slightly less tense than they all expected; Mihawk finds his sister’s fiancé a bit insipid, not to mention he is already losing his hair, but he must admit the man does seem to treasure his sister, and the research Mihawk has charged a detective to do on him, to make sure the man is not a fortune hunter or in the habit of hitting or cheating on his partners, yields reassuring results. He gives his sister his blessing; he accepts to give her away (actually, he would have been offended if she hadn’t asked) and only asks her to write a prenuptial agreement with her fiancé, to protect her interests in the event things go bad. He still thinks she deserves better; but she is happy, and so he is as well.

🗡️ They decide for a spring wedding, and the ceremony is just a month away when Mihawk receives the Marines’ proposal to join the newly created Warlords of the Sea. As they have always done when one of them is faced with an important decision to make, he asks for his sister’s opinion, but she is unsure: knowing her brother no longer has an enormous bounty on his head would reassure her (even if bounty hunters have never been a danger for Mihawk and the few who have challenged him quickly learnt that he may not be the greatest swordsman in the world yet, but he’s already too superior to be bothered by people of their sort) and the alliance would give him more leeway to pursue his business as he wants. On the other hand, joining the Warlords could do more harm than good. “They may need you, but you don’t need them; this simple fact suggests you have nothing to earn from allying with the World Government.” she points out one day as they enjoy an evening stroll, walking leisurely close to the rose garden that is her pride and joy “I know you are too strong and clever to let the Marines order you around; but why should they send you to deal with their problems?”

🗡️ As usual, even though she’s not a pirate herself, she has understood the matter perfectly, giving him valuable insight while leaving the choice to him; Mihawk doesn’t need his sister to decide for him, but he values her opinion and knows she is cleverer and more capable than her gentle disposition and reserved nature may suggest. Whatever decision he may take, he promises herself, her security will be his first priority: what if, once he joins the Warlords, the Marines look for something to use against him should he refuse to do as he is told, discover her existence, and threaten her…?

🗡️ Mihawk has always done his utmost to protect his sister, even since he was still a child, and especially after he took to the sea; the small, sleepy town she lives in is a safer place than most, and she knows better than to wander about after dark by herself, but he has hired three guards to ensure the safety of the house, and who escort her every time she travels by carriage - a precaution she deems excessive, but she has accepted for his sake. He has made good on his promise to provide her with a cane with a blade hidden inside, even though they don’t have much time to practise its use together; she makes sure to have all doors and windows bolted at night, as well as the main gate.

🗡️ All those precautions are put to the test exactly once; and they prove futile.

🗡️ Mihawk has never forgotten the promise he made to himself, as well as to his sister, to wait before challenging the Blue Crane again, and he feels the moment has come to reclaim his honour and conquer the title he has desired since he was still a child. His abilities have improved enormously since their first, disastrous fight, and he has not met an opponent worthy of him in years; almost as important, he now owns a blade capable of withstanding any attack and to channel his full strength. He is ready, he feels it in his bones, in his blood. He decides to wait until after his sister’s wedding, to make sure she is not alone in the event that the fight claims his life; once she has settled in, he will go meet his destiny, and this time he knows he will emerge victorious. 

🗡️ What Mihawk doesn’t know is that the Blue Crane has also been obsessing about him, and their duel years ago. The greatest swordsman in the world is all too aware that advancing age has been sapping his strength for years; no challenger has defeated him yet, but it is simply a matter of time, and he, the man whose name has made any fighter in the world quake in their boots for decades, will be disgraced, bested not by a superior opponent but by the simple weakening of his muscles and reflexes. Nothing in his life has ever mattered but his title, and soon, maybe in a matter of months or even weeks, some callow youth who simply had the good fortune of being born a few decades after him will take it, and the Blue Crane’s name will be forgotten…

🗡️ … and then the man opens a newspaper, sees the picture of a familiar hawk-eyed man, and his heart sinks.

🗡️ No one in maybe thirty years has been as close to defeating him as that young man; no one’s ferocity and disdain for his own safety and life if it meant emerging victorious from the fight has scared him as much as his. The Blue Crane might have admired and even liked him, if that young man, that Mihawk, hadn’t forced him to use all of his strength and ability in order to win - in order to survive. The young swordsman’s strength and willpower had been like nothing he had ever seen; the Blue Crane, who in his life had defeated and killed hundreds of opponents, had known in his heart that had Mihawk been just a little more mature, just a few years more experienced, the outcome of their duel would have been very different. That thought alone had made him feel ashamed of himself, and he had made sure to kill his opponent, to avoid the risk of a more mature and fulfilled Mihawk returning to ask for a rematch.

🗡️ Or at least, he was convinced he had killed his young opponent, even though the newspaper tells a different story. How could Mihawk have survived his wounds? And why did he simply leave, without checking to make sure his opponent was actually dead? Is old age making him lose his wits, as well as his strength and speed? The Blue Crane reads of Mihawk’s exploits in the newspaper, and his fears are confirmed: the young swordsman has come into his own, becoming a feared pirate and an even formidable fighter. Why hasn’t he returned to ask for a rematch? He doesn’t seem the sort of man who would be cowed by his past defeat, and the danger of losing his life. Is Mihawk still training, aiming to further hone his skills before challenging him again? Or does the young man consider him too old now to represent a worthy opponent? The thought makes the Blue Crane seethe with anger and helplessness; but whatever the truth, he decides, he has to do something, to prevent his honour from being besmirched by that bird-eyed man. He can’t help ageing, with all the consequences the process entails, but he is the strongest swordsman in the world, and he wants to die with the title grasped in his hands, which means… that he has to kill Mihawk before Mihawk comes to kill him.

🗡️ Finding where Mihawk lives is harder than he expected, but the Blue Crane is able to call in a few favours, and to track the younger swordsman down to his old family house where, he hears, Mihawk is expected to return soon for a family wedding. He arrives at night; he makes quick work of the guards standing outside and penetrates the house, hoping to take Mihawk by surprise, and unharmed - the only way, he must admit, he is sure to win. Unfortunately Mihawk is not at home, his return having been delayed because of the bad weather; but his sister is, sitting at her desk despite the late hour and busy organising the RSVPs she has received for the wedding, her white dress hanging from the wardrobe’s shutter, ready to be worn on the next morning. She hears a noise coming from the corridor, but before she has time to reach for her cane and go check, the door opens, and an older man appears in front of her; she has never seen him, but he is holding a sword in his hands, which explains everything - or at least most of it.

🗡️ “Mihawk is not here. Whatever you want, coming here without his permission is the stupidest thing you could have done.” she calmly states “Now you need to leave; return in two days, and you can challenge him…” The Blue Crane doesn’t listen; he understands this woman, whoever she is, is trying to protect him from Mihawk’s ire, which from his point of view is so offensive it hurts physically. If the younger man really doesn’t consider him a worthy opponent anymore on account of his age, he reasons, maybe he should prove the master of the house he’s still as dangerous as he was twenty years ago, and that it would be highly unwise to take him lightly. He’s usually not the sort to harm innocent civilians, especially women, and he realises that harming a relative (or fiancé? No, it can’t be his wedding as well, the Blue Crane reasons, this woman is too old) would make Mihawk even less merciful than he normally is, but he is not afraid (really, he’s not!), and this will at least mean his opponent will take him as seriously as he had on their first fight…

🗡️ To her credit, as she realises the man intends to hurt her, maybe to send a message to her brother, Mihawk’s sister reacts quickly; she grabs a heavy paperweight from her desk and throws it towards him, hoping to distract the man at least for a moment, and then quickly reaches for her cane, at the same time filling her lungs to scream. “Help me!! Please, help…!” Neither attempt yields results; the guards are dead, and even if she could reach her weapon she is no match for the Blue Crane, for his resentment and shame and hopeless rage. He grabs her by the hair; she can feel the gelid kiss of the blade across her naked throat, and a moment later a waterfall of blood is splattering over the front of her dress. She stammers, trying to ask for help, to ask for her brother to save her like so many times he has promised to do, even if it meant dying himself; she had forgotten how helplessness felt, and being reminded like this, now, is terrifying. She knows she is being killed for something Mihawk has (or hasn’t?) done, but feels no anger or resentment towards him; only sadness, and regret, they won’t have more time to spend together, and she won’t get to marry, and be happy with her husband, and perhaps even though she’s probably too old they had been planning to have…

🗡️ It’s brutal, and excruciatingly painful, and somehow dispassionate, the man not even looking at her as he robs Mihawk’s sister of the gift of life, as if he were carrying out a task he finds no interest or pleasure in, because he doesn’t care for her, who is simply a means to an end, a message he wants to send. But at least it’s quick, and a minute later, as he cleans his blade on the skirt of her dress, the Blue Crane is contemplating whether he may as well wait for his opponent or it’s best to leave and return once he’s sure Mihawk is at home, when suddenly he’s not alone anymore. Mihawk has returned; he has been hit by a sense of foreboding the moment he stepped on land, back from one of his first raids as a member of the Seven Warlords, a full hour later than expected and inexplicably sure something terrible was about to happen, and he has run home, fearing to find out his sister had been cheated on, or even beaten, by her fiancé, or that she had had an accident.

🗡️ The truth is immensely, irremediably worse, and he is more and more worried (more and more scared) as he finds no trace of the guards patrolling the house; he enters, and the Blue Crane is looking down on him, literally since the older man is standing at the top of the long staircase leading to the upper floor where the bedrooms are, and the man is not known for his violence towards women and civilians, not to mention his sister would pose no danger to him, but Mihawk just needs to look at the older man, at his gelid and triumphant expression, to feel his legs give way under him. What have you done to her, you bastard?!, he’s about to ask, a moment before realising he doesn’t need to.

🗡️ He doesn’t ask why; he doesn’t need to, and he doesn’t care. If only I hadn’t waited, he thinks, and a moment later he has grasped his sword and launched himself towards his enemy. Not a word is uttered. Swords clash; Mihawk’s fury is terrible, merciless and bloodthirsty, and the Blue Crane has barely the time to realise how big of a mistake he has made before Mihawk kills him, not using one his most sophisticated techniques, like most swordsmen would deem appropriate when facing a worthy opponent, but with a brutal, simple lunge at the heart - and through his back. He lets the body of his opponent fall tumbling down the stairs as he runs towards his sister’s room, abandoning his sword unheedingly on the floor and hoping against hope it’s not too late, that there’s still time to save her, but there isn’t, and while her body is still warm and the blood still dripping from her wound, Mihawk knows she’s already gone. He cries, holding her in his arms and kissing her brow, and remains by her side for what feels like hours, feeling himself victim of a terrible nightmare he cannot wake from and at the same time all too aware what has happened is true, real, and is only his fault.

🗡️ He doesn’t cry at the funeral, even though he knows his broken heart will never feel whole again; part of him wishes he could, even though it wouldn’t make him feel better, so much that he looks with envy at his sister’s friends (she has so many, she who had long thought she was too shy and demure and uninteresting to be liked) who weep openly, unashamed in their pain. He has informed his sister’s fiancé of the identity of her killer, as well as the fact he has been punished, but the other man doesn’t blame him, doesn’t accuse him of being the reason of the death of the woman they both love; part of Mihawk wishes he would, and while he has never particularly liked or respected his former-future brother-in-law, he now feels a kinship between them, and when the other man says he will never stop loving her, Mihawk believes him. They mourn her together; but in his heart, Mihawk also knows he’s saying farewell to the best part of him, the one capable of kindness and compassion, and that after spending his whole life despising their father for abandoning them, he has now committed an even more unforgivable sin.

🗡️ She is buried in the rose garden, her engagement ring on her finger and her favourite necklace on her breast. Mihawk plans on closing the house as soon as he can, without putting it on sale, to make sure nothing and no one will ever disturb his sister’s sleep; he has never felt so guilty and ashamed, and most of all so alone, in his life, but he knows he deserves that pain, he accepts and even relishes in it. He has let her down, he thinks as he looks at the casket being lowered in the grave, leaving her alone when she needed him the most, and even if he could he wouldn’t ask for forgiveness because he knows he doesn’t deserve it. He is now the strongest swordsman in the world, uncontested, but he feels no joy; he feels the weight of his sword on his back, thinks back to a brief conversation he had with his sister years back, and the hint of a joyless smile appears on his lips.

🗡️ There are roses on her gravestone, their beauty as eternal as her kindness and grace deserved to be, and then the date of her birth and of her death, and an epitaph Mihawk has carved himself…

Lady Dracule Yoru. Beloved sister. Wherever I go, I will carry you with me…