#I wrote out all the details and even included a statement for him to use.

[sassmill]

I can take malice. I can understand malice. Malice is obvious and has actual intention. What I cannot fucking stand is being uncomfortable with upsetting people and lying to your part-time employees and dumping the hard part on me after explicitly agreeing to break the bad news for me since it was YOU that handed down the decision that throws a bunch of hard work out the window and screws over our employees, NOT ME.

[strawberrymochin]

Unkempt desires

Megumi meets gojo again 20 years later after the big battle.

Genre/Warnings-: reincarnation au! Grownup! Megumi, he has a family, our gumi all grown up, crackhead yuuji, mentions of death, flashbacks.

Megumi looked over the sea. Its waves glimmering brightly as the sunrays dance shimmers along the tides.

Something about it was nostalgic, maybe it was the warm fuzzy smell or maybe it was the azure of the water under the bright sun, which resembled the eyes of someone, who megumi was once under the debt of— Satoru Gojo.

Maybe he is still in debt.

The scar from the battle on his face has now faded into a cream color slightly in contrast to his face.

He wondered how gojo’s scars would have looked if he were still alive now. Would those millions of cuts on his skin prick him with the memory of Megumi, unconscious, fighting with him under sukuna’s control? Will they prick him like splinters of iron, bringing tears to his eyes? Lol he would probably just laugh it off.

The fact that he even wrote him a silly letter apologizing for something as grave as murdering his biological father, with a pun and a silly doodle included.

Megumi chuckles at the memory of how he used to hate those eyes peeking on him, especially on nights when he had fever. Almost giving him a heart attack.

Ironic how he hated them back then, and how he misses them now!

‘Megumi, let's make a sand castle’ he would say, on his days off, when he forced the fushiguros to the beach, to have some family time. You would laugh with tsumiki on those castles which barely even looked like one.

“Hey, dad! Let's make a sand castle!!” A little girl ran up to Megumi, tugging his hand and dragging him.

“No need to hurry y/n, the sand ain't going anywhere.” Megumi said as the girl kept dragging him towards the failed attempts of sand castles she made.

He now had a family, a happy one. One lovely wife he fell in love with(which he never thought he would) and one daughter dear to his heart. He named her after you, the only mother figure he ever had in his life.

It's been 21 years since then.

You were no longer alive, nor was gojo. Still the memories were alive. The memories which he treasured with an uncertain fear in his heart, he didn't quite recognise, until his daughter started to look exactly like you.

Her eyes resembled yours, her lips resembled yours, your face resembled hers, so did her curse technique.

His wife said maybe it was a blessing, a reincarnation. She was happy, so was Megumi, but it would be wrong to admit he wasn't afraid.

Afraid of history repeating.

Afraid of his daughter's curse technique to evolve.

Afraid of an uncertain future even beyond his capacity to behold.

Itadori barged into his office, wearing nobara’s skirt.

“ I'm Kugisaki nobara!!!!”, he went to such an extent on detailing his look that he even stole one of her eye patches.

“You're gonna get your ass drilled by her hammer once she finds you.” Megumi drawled checking through the files of the freshers who are about to enroll into their school. He's a teacher now, continuing what gojo dreamt of, so did Itadori Yuji.

“You're not fun. And you shouldn't use such language, if you're raising a lovely daughter. Wouldn't want her to turn like nobara or maki senpai.” He said, pulling on the chair and settling on it with one leg crossed over the other.

“Well, why are you here?” inquires Megumi, already full of his drama.

“To inform you that we are going to get a kid off execution.”

“Execution?”

“Yes, a potential threat to higher ups and society.” Yuji tapped his fingers on the wooden desk polished with varnish, his face slowly adapting to the depth of his statement.

“To the higher ups?”

“Mhm, yeah the great stuff gojo sensei did…I can't believe I missed such a great show.”

Megumi was silent for a while. The last threat to the higher ups ever to be born was gojo and geto.

He could never imagine someone could be more of a threat to them. Until and unless they find out about his daughter's curse technique.

“Let's get going already, I don't think they will resist the urge of killing the kid for any longer.” Itadori got up from the chair, followed by Megumi. (And don't worry he was caught by nobara midway who kept the drilling ass move for later and let him go to meet the kid)

Itadori was reminded of a similar yellow hue and the fresh flood of memories following it, some pleasant, some bitter that made his throat itch. However, someone who was more pale in the execution room was Megumi. As something wasn't sitting right with him. Every single step he was taking was increasing the dread he felt for his daughter's reality to be discovered. And he didn't understand why he felt like that.

Finally they came to the familiar hall and in the center of it was a boy sitting in a chair, his back facing them. He wore a navy hoodie and his complexion was pale. Even paler than Megumi.

Itadori glanced at Megumi before calling out to the kid, who was unnaturally calm, as if he were about to watch a movie instead of getting himself killed for bearing a burden he never chose to bear.

“Kiddo! We're here to save your ass for getting killed…mind facing us a bit.” cold sweat broke out on Megumi, as Itadori let those words out his mouth. Even he wasn't feeling good. Something was so, so wrong.

The kid stood up. His hair, a familiar silver. He turned slowly, for what seemed a long agonizing time. And when he finally did.

Megumi was numb.

It was him. The same eyes. The same mouth. The same hair. But it was as if time got tangled in its own threads and somehow the gojo satoru, who was long dead, was in his child form in front of their eyes.

Itadori gulped, he glanced at Megumi, before getting his shit together and shutting his mouth, preventing himself from gaping at the kid.

“I'd prefer you save yourselves from me first. And I wouldn't feel any remorse for not having a better judgment." The kid spoke in a voice, a lot less mature than the boys remembered of gojo. Then they remembered, the kid’s just 12 years old.

And Megumi was right. Something was so wrong. Cuz’ even if the kid looked exactly like gojo, he wasn't any like him.

“You shouldn't mess with satoru gojo.” He said, his fingers forming a hand sign, with slight blue light sparkling.

“Sensei…” whispered Megumi, which was barely even audible, and yet nothing changed in the kid's demeanor.

He was gojo. Alive and reincarnated. And Megumi knew it. But gojo didn't.

a/n- I was nervous writing this, since i haven't wrote for so long, forgive me if this is shit!

[schizoid-radical]

Pluto, Astro Boy, and the nuclear arms race

here's a few rough paragraphs I wrote analyzing how Pluto, as well as the Astro Boy arc it is based off of, contain a critique of the global nuclear arms race (I might fix it up a bit over time). Although many will notice the Iraq war inspiration in Pluto, there is a lot more to it than that which I would like to highlight for others. There will be spoilers for both Pluto as well as the "Greatest Robot on Earth" and "Blue Knight" arcs of Astro Boy. Click below the jump to read if you don't mind seeing that. Pictures from the "Greatest Robot on Earth" arc are also included.

An important detail about Astro Boy is that Osamu Tezuka originally had him and I believe the other robots contain electronic brains that were nuclear-powered. This was intended as an expression of Tezuka's hopes that nuclear power could be used for peace, in spite of the bombings of Japan during WWII. "Atom" is even his name in Japan for this reason, for atomic power.

"The Greatest Robot on Earth" arc has standard cartoon villain stuff. An evil king, the Sultan, who was dethroned and exiled by his people for his greed and oppression, commissions the mysterious scientist Dr. Abullah to build him a powerful fighting robot, Pluto. Pluto is ordered to take out the seven greatest robots in the world so he can prove himself the greatest, giving the Sultan his chance to rule the world. But Pluto himself is not evil and is shown to be capable of compassion and kindness even towards the robots he is tasked with defeating. He was made to fight by humans and carries out his orders.

After Pluto emerges badly damaged but victorious from his fight with Brando, he gets rescued and spared by Astro Boy, the Sultan has Dr. Abullah place a bomb inside Pluto that will have him self-destruct in the event he is defeated. Astro Boy wants to be upgraded to 1,000,000 horsepower so he can beat Pluto, something Dr. Ochanomizu disapproves of, thinking Astro cannot handle it and that it is unnecessary. After Dr. Ochanomizu is kidnapped and held hostage, the ethically questionable Dr. Tenma comes in to upgrade Astro Boy. When Astro Boy heads off towards Pluto's location, passersby who recognize him think that he has become a monster, a statement that upsets him. Astro Boy loses his first fight with Pluto, but Pluto spares him to repay the favour Astro previously gave him. Meanwhile, another masked scientist, Dr. Goji, introduces himself to the Sultan and has a robot even more powerful than Pluto called Bora. Dr. Goji is eventually revealed to be Dr. Abullah in a different guise. In the grand climax, Pluto and Astro fighting causes or coincides with a volcanic eruption that the two have to team up to control and prevent it from harming the nearby city and villages. Afterwards Pluto starts to defy the Sultan's orders to fight Astro Boy, but Bora attacks and defeats Pluto, causing Pluto to self-destruct and taking Bora out with him. Astro Boy is the only great robot left standing. In the end, Goji / Abullah reveals that he was really a robot servant of the Sultan in disguise. He wanted to help the Sultan at first but upon learning his intentions to have Pluto destroy other robots he built Bora to stop him. The robot servant vows to never build a robot like Pluto or Bora again, and takes off with the Sultan, who was sobbing over his loss and defeat. Astro Boy and Dr. Ochanomizu ponder why robots have to fight each other and hope for a future in which robots can live in peace, while visions of the great robots who were defeated appear in the sky.

The Sultan's effort to be the greatest on earth through the pursuit of power and violence was an exercise in futility. All of his efforts were in vain, it destroyed several great robots and put human lives at risk, and he even lost his own great creation Pluto. Even if you can be the strongest, there's still the possibility someone stronger like Bora may emerge, so it is only a temporary satisfaction that results in an endless anxiety to maintain that status. In the manga, even the do-gooder Astro Boy did not get an outcome he could desire by becoming a "monster" with 1,000,000 horsepower, an ability he struggled to control. Dr. Ochanomizu, the moral conscience of the story, says at separate points to Astro Boy and the Sultan that it makes no sense to compare robots by their strength. When speaking to Astro Boy, he uses an analogy to say that if the strongest people were the greatest then wrestlers would be the most important people in the world. The greatest robot in the world is then not the strongest, but the one who is intelligent, does what is right, and works with others towards peace. It is a simple moral story for children, a commentary on global politics, and a sci-fi tragedy all rolled into one.

Although a lot of the story is changed for Pluto, Naoki Urasawa remains faithful to Tezuka's message and expands upon it. Tezuka wrote the Greatest Robot on Earth during the Cold War, when the Vietnam / Indochina war had been underway and was heading for its highest point. Urasawa wrote in a different time, but incorporates clear analogies to the Iraq war and the war on terror. The seven great robots are directly called "weapons (or robots capable) of mass destruction." Production of these robots became restricted by an international treaty advocated by the United States of Thracia, a country that is not part of the world's version of an international criminal court. After the treaty was enacted, the Kingdom of Persia was accused by Thracia of producing a robot capable of mass destruction under the mysterious Bora project. The Bora Survey Group was sent in to investigate the allegations. While it could not verify the allegations, the Survey Group did uncover a dispensary of destroyed and disposed robots, analogous to a mass grave. After the Bora Survey Group withdrew from the Kingdom of Persia, United States of Thracia led a multinational force invading the Kingdom of Persia, changing its regime to a democracy. After Darius XIV falls, the peacekeeping forces arrive and become as occupiers. Both the invading forces and peacekeepers include these robots of mass destruction (all seven great robots), so it is seen as the strong nations picking on the weak. Near the the cusp of defeat, Darius XIV and Abullah plot to get revenge by eliminating the strongest robots, members of the Bora Survey Group and against Thracia. The Bora project, which initially started as an effort to make Persia's dry deserts flourish, is now used for something more sinister now that its director has become consumed by hatred and the desire for revenge.

There are additional clues to the nuclear analogy too. Most obvious is Epsilon's photon energy, which is capable of turning people and robots to ashes, but is also being researched for peaceful purposes. The seven great robots are viewed as keeping the world in balance, like some kind of nuclear equilibrium of mutually assured destruction. The United States of Thracia does not possess one of these, unlike the real USA which has the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world. Elimination of the seven great robots is seen as altering the balance of world power. In the background, Thracia is revealed to have a highly intelligent supercomputer, personified by the teddy bear Roosevelt, that has been calculating behind the scenes. Thracia's president, who is given partial information, believes that the robots being eliminated will be Thracia's opportunity to become a great and powerful nation. It seems this may have been the intention of both the 39th Central Asian war as well as the international treaty forbidding new robots of mass destruction. What the President is not told is that there is still Bora, who is capable of setting off a bomb that can destroy most human life on earth. While the President is assured survival, it is on the condition that he becomes a slave to the supercomputer Roosevelt. Like the Sultan in Tezuka's story, his pursuit for greatness by means of power and warfare failed, and made him become entrapped in an inescapable and lethal struggle.

Where Pluto starts to deviate from this nuclear theme is when it becomes a story about advanced artificial intelligence. Rather than Atom / Astro getting upgraded to become more physically powerful, he gains the human-like capacity to hate and kill, much like Gesicht and BRAU-1589. While Gesicht is given more depth than Tezuka's Gerhardt (the robot detective character after which he is based on, who only got eight pages), BRAU-1589 was not originally a character in this arc at all. I've seen readers of the manga online note a similarity between BRAU-1589 and the Blue Knight, a villain from another Astro Boy arc, and after reading it I would agree that it is likely based off of him. In this story the Blue Knight started as a robot character whose robot sister married a human that loved her for her beauty. But the man was abusive, cruel to other robots and ultimately killed her. This angered the Blue Knight who developed hatred and began to disavow humans, leading a robot rebellion to build a robot paradise free from human persecution (interestingly, compared to Israel) where he demonstrates a capacity to kill people. I will not go over the story too much, but humans begin to fear and persecute robots even further, even Astro Boy gets caught up in the rebellion or "cycle of hate," and it goes on for a few chronologically succeeding arcs that explore Astro Boy's nature that Pluto likely lifted from. Most tellingly of all, The Blue Knight arc ends when Blue Knight's weapon, a spear or lance, is taken by an enemy and thrown back through his chest, just like the one BRAU-1589 has in his.

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

All through season 3, I was looking for reasons to let go of Tech, but hope just wouldn't die and until the finale I still thought there was a chance Tech would turn out to be alive and well. Even with this hope I found it... odd... that the show skipped over the inevitable conversation between Omega and Crosshair with Crosshair learning what happened to Tech. So I wrote this just a few days after the season 3 premiere and posted it to AO3 since I didn't have tumblr at the time. I'm posting it here now, mostly because the past few days this blog has turned into one of my ways of fully processing Tech's death.

NOTE: the first two sections are scenes directly from the show. I included them to clarify the timeline of events and add some detail as to what I imagine was informing Crosshair's thoughts and remarks during the second scene in particular.

Revelation

“Crosshair!”

No. It couldn’t be.

“Crosshair?”

He must still be dreaming, stuck in the nightmare…

“Crosshair?”

The voice sounded just like Omega, but that would mean Omega was here. And if Omega were here, that would mean his brothers…

“You must be Omega.” He knew that voice, and Emerie Karr’s statement removed all doubt.

“What did you do to Crosshair?” he heard Omega reply.

“He’s recovering. I tried to warn him what would happen if he did not cooperate with the doctor….”

He kept his eyes closed, feigning continued unconsciousness, wishing he had never awoken.

**********

“Crosshair. I tried to come earlier, but there were too many guards watching me.”

Crosshair sighed. He had noticed Omega’s attempts to catch his attention when they passed each other in the halls, and had deliberately ignored her. He couldn’t very well do so now. “You shouldn’t be down here at all.”

“Well, how else are we gonna plan an escape?”

Where did the kid get her unfailing optimism? But hope was useless here – worse than useless. Best to disabuse her of any fanciful notions before she was crushed any further by the weight of disappointment. “There is no ‘we,’” he replied curtly as he sat up to face her, “and there is no escape. I’ve already tried.”

He wouldn’t tell her the details of what had happened: that the primary objective of his “escape attempt” had been to warn his brothers about the danger they and Omega were in. Omega hadn’t yet told him whether the message had been received, and Crosshair had no inclination to broach the subject. Believing he had failed in getting the message to his brothers was easier to stomach than knowing the message had been delivered yet still yielded this outcome.

Thankfully, Omega didn’t probe for details – she was still too focused on the prospect of freedom. “Every stronghold has a weak point,” she was saying now, before adding thoughtfully, “Maybe I can convince Emerie to help. She’s one of us.”

No. This had to be nipped in the bud. If Crosshair managed to teach the kid anything, it had to be this, the one crucial lesson that was even more important than learning that hope was pointless. “Not every clone is your ally,” he warned her firmly. “You trust too easily.”

Omega looked taken aback for only a second before resisting the lesson. “Maybe you don’t trust enough,” she retorted.

Crosshair wished he could think of precisely what to say to convince her of her errors in judgment, but his hand started shaking… Blast, he thought as he gripped his hands together, hoping Omega hadn’t noticed.

“Crosshair?” she said gently; and he knew she had noticed. Yet more proof that hope was useless.

He wouldn’t let her see any more. He didn’t need any more reminders of his shortcomings, his failures, his mistakes, his losses. If he couldn’t teach the kid just how futile it was to hope and trust, maybe he could at least convince her to stop doing things that would put her in more danger. “Just… go, before you make things worse for both of us.”

Omega hesitated only briefly before turning to leave, and Crosshair thought that maybe he had succeeded – but then she spoke once more. “There has to be a way out of here,” she said, determination adding a layer of steel to her tone. “I’ll find it.”

**********

“You’re awake,” she said cheerfully as she sat cross-legged on the floor.

Crosshair didn’t reply, only fixed her with a sullen stare that did nothing to dampen her spirits.

“No one said anything after I came here last time, so I think I might be able to keep visiting you,” Omega went on. “Of course, we’ll have to be discreet when discussing some topics…”

He couldn’t ignore her when he was stuck in a cell, and she was going to keep visiting… “Why are you here?”  he cut in sharply.

Omega paused mid-sentence, the slight crease that appeared on her forehead attesting to her confusion even as she gamely shifted topics. “I… well, I don’t have an escape plan yet, but I thought I could…”

“No,” he brusquely interrupted her again, waving his arm to gesture toward the hallway in an attempt to make his meaning clear. “Why are you here, on Tantiss?”

“The Empire captured me,” she answered in a low voice. “I think they want me to make Nala Se cooperate with them.”

Crosshair growled in frustration at the kid again missing the meaning of his query – he had to know, but that wouldn’t make the knowledge any easier to bear. He tried one more time, “What happened?”

Omega went perfectly still, and Crosshair’s heart sank. This is precisely why he had avoided asking about his brothers’ fates; but not knowing meant he could only imagine the worst possibilities. He didn’t let a shred of emotion show on his face, however, as his sister finally moved to reposition herself so she was no longer directly facing him, instead sitting in profile, gazing down the hallway as she wrapped her arms around her knees.

“We… Tech was going through some intel for Echo when he found out you were captured, and then he found the message you sent to warn us. We were trying to track Hemlock’s ship so we could find you. We knew Hemlock would be meeting with Tarkin on Eriadu, so we infiltrated the base to place a tracker on his ship. But…” she faltered, then everything spilled out in a flood of words. “Everything went wrong. We tried to escape, but there was an explosion at the base that left us trapped in a rail car with Imperial troops and ships attacking us. Tech was on the rail line to fix the car and he tried to make it back, but the car was breaking in half and falling off the track, and then the added weight…” Her voice broke, and she took a shuddering breath before soldiering on, “Tech fell, he severed the connection to the broken half of the car and he wouldn’t let us save him…”

The words were like shrapnel ripping through his heart. Hemlock seemed to think the interrogation droids were one of the most effective means of inflicting pain; the experiments were mentally and physically relentless, excruciating, exhausting; but this… This was true torture.

Omega had paused in an effort to regain her composure, wrapping her arms ever more tightly around her knees in an effort to stop shaking. Determinedly looking at the floor, she continued her story, her voice cutting through the void of Crosshair’s bereavement and bringing him back to the current situation with a painful jolt. The way she was rushing and stammering through her story, Crosshair could tell this was the first time she was really thinking about it, the first time she was allowing herself to relive the tragedy, reopening the painful wounds of this memory just so she could satiate his need to know.

He didn’t want to know any more – the worst thing he’d imagined had happened to one of his brothers. But he couldn’t manage to speak, couldn’t beg Omega to stop talking…

“Tech’s repairs worked, the car started moving, but we crashed and… I don’t remember much after that… I woke up and Hunter and Wrecker and I had all been bandaged up by AZI. Then Hemlock found us. Hunter told me to run, but I couldn’t leave them.” Omega’s chin was shaking so hard Crosshair wasn’t sure how she was managing to still speak so clearly. “Hemlock captured Wrecker and Hunter, and I tried to stop him, but one of his guards stunned me and I woke up on Hemlock’s ship.” She paused again; Crosshair, outwardly still and silent as stone, inwardly reeling from pain and shock, only peripherally noticed her bring her hand to her cheek to wipe away tears. “I had sent AZI to get Echo, though, so maybe Hunter and Wrecker managed to escape.”

The flash of relief upon hearing that Hunter and Wrecker and Echo might still be alive disappeared almost before Crosshair felt it, suppressed under the massive weight of sudden loss.

Tech.

Crosshair had always pretended to be even more annoyed than the others when Tech spouted off three datapads’ worth of information on the most mundane topics, but secretly he had been fascinated by how smart his brother was, how Tech not only knew the information but could seamlessly apply it to improve almost any situation. Hunter was the one with heightened senses, but Tech sometimes seemed even more skilled than Hunter in knowing exactly what Crosshair needed without Crosshair needing to say a word – and, being the most reticent member of the group, Crosshair couldn’t say he ever minded.

That was the thing about Tech: when it came to any given topic – including his brothers – Tech didn’t just know, he understood.

Crosshair didn’t have Tech’s skill in this area, but he knew and understood his brother well enough to fill in the details himself. Omega had said Tech had been the one to discover Crosshair’s imprisonment and the message, which meant Tech would have been the one to bring the fact to the squad’s attention, comb through intel that led to the discovery of Hemlock’s existence, and join the push for a rescue mission to be mounted despite the warning the message conveyed.

Omega and Crosshair now sat in silence for what may have been hours, may have been seconds – he would never be able to tell – before Omega spoke again. Despite the tears still silently falling down her face, her voice took on its signature hopeful note. “Maybe we can…”

‘Maybe’ was dangerous territory, and Crosshair – sick to his stomach, burning with regret and shame, broken and empty with no recourse available to him – could not let Omega continue. Tech was dead, and Crosshair could not allow himself to entertain the idea that maybe his remaining brothers were actually okay. ‘Maybe’ meant hope. Hope meant more pain.

“No,” he said, so sharply that Omega finally turned to look at him. The sight of her tear-streaked yet resolute face only deepened his agony. “No more plans. Can’t you see? It’s over.”

“But if Hunter and Wrecker escaped, that would mean…”

“NO,” he said again, glaring at the kid.

He wasn’t going to say anything else; but suddenly a sentence from Omega’s story struck home - we were trying to track Hemlock’s ship so we could find you – and his thoughts, his deepest regret, took form in words and slipped through his mouth before he could stop himself. “I told you to run. I told you all to hide. Why didn’t you hide?”

Omega’s eyes softened, and her sympathy made him drop his gaze to the floor. “Because we’re a squad,” she replied softly, “we’re family, and we don’t leave anyone behind.”

“Look where that got you,” Crosshair retorted bitterly. Look where that got Tech, he thought.

Footsteps sounding in a distant hallway seemed to remind Omega that she did not have unlimited time to spend on visits, and she hurriedly wiped her face again as she got to her feet. She didn’t immediately depart, however; and Crosshair, feeling her gaze on him, refused to look up.

“You’re worth the risk, Crosshair,” she said simply. “Tech thought so too.”

He remained as he was, staring at the floor, numb and broken and alone, long after she had gone.

**********          

“Crosshair? Are you awake?”

He gave a prolonged sigh in an effort to cover the fact that a tiny part of him was actually glad she had come to visit – it had been several weeks since the last one, and he had started to wonder if she had been outright forbidden from seeing him. “What does it matter? You’re going to talk anyway.”

She hesitated briefly. “If you need to rest, I can come back later…”

He groaned a little as he sat up – this round of experiments was leaving him increasingly sore, but he would never admit this to anyone, least of all Omega: she would spend the entire visit fretting about him. “It’s fine. I’m already awake.”

She regarded him for several long seconds before kneeling in front of his cell. “Sorry it took so long for me to come back. Nala Se kept giving me additional assignments. I think that phase of experimentation is over now. They don’t tell me much about what the experiments are, though.” She was quiet for a moment, before continuing, “I like taking care of the hounds a lot more than helping in the lab. Batcher is finally warming up to me – she doesn’t try to bite me anymore when I feed her. Oh, K9X1 finally told me a little more about the hounds…”

Crosshair listened as Omega continued talking about all the details she had learned about the species – their origins, development, life cycle, characteristics, and more – and wondered why he felt such a bittersweet ache in his chest…

Omega’s chatter reminded him of Tech.

Identifying the cause made the ache grow more potent, and Crosshair almost snapped at Omega to leave so he could busy himself with forgetting the tragedy. Over the past few weeks, he had thought he had come to terms with the loss of his brother – the shame, regret, and emptiness no longer felt like they would completely consume him – but in moments like these the pain would return in full force, and it was almost too much to bear.

And yet – right now, the ache wasn’t just bitterness and sorrow. There was a hint of solace, a touch of comfort, the warmth of nostalgia and happy memories, that took the edge off the pain. And, somehow, this comfort came from Omega.

Despite what Omega had said, he knew he didn’t deserve the risk his squad had taken for him. Tech shouldn’t have died for him, Omega shouldn’t have been captured because of him, the others shouldn’t be facing dangers unknown because of him. Knowing this, he wouldn’t let anyone else take such a risk for him again.

But Omega was feeling the loss of Tech just as much as he was. She had lost her brother, just as he had.

Crosshair wouldn’t encourage her insane ideas of the both of them managing to escape together; but if these visits made her current captivity easier to bear, he wouldn’t send her away.

Resting his forehead on his hands, he sat and listened to his sister.

[lovesick-nagi]

This is a continuation of our posts on Stylus/The Labyrinth, as we have been requested to add this on.

I held off on posting this to give Stylus an opportunity to reply and send their supposed "proof" they claim to have from their last post, but as of now, there is dead silence from their end. I can't say I didn't expect this, but if they truly think they have something that will vindicate them, I implore them to send it into my askbox. In the meantime, I have a development.

You might remember the person who made the post defending Labyrinth, another one of their exes. You may also have noticed in the last post I said there were now four people speaking out against Stylus, and now, I bring you the fourth statement via that ex/childhood friend, @starfall-sys, as they have now come forward to me to apologize, as well as admit to be a victim of Labyrinth as well. They have asked us to make this post to clarify their feelings on the matter. But first, I will give what they themselves have to say.

This post will also include more of their disgusting actions that I could not include in my three posts, but now have even more backup on.

TW: SH, Mentions of Abuse/SA, Racism, RAMCOA mention/misrepresentation

"Hey. This is Stylus’ friend/ex. As you all may be aware, I posted a really awful defense statement trying to defend Stylus and I will say, I am extremely sorry. That statement not only hurt Nagi, it upset a lot of people who knew the whole story. I know nothing will excuse my actions but I want to explain myself.

When I wrote that statement, I was sort of convinced by Stylus to send it because I felt bad at that time and I wanted to defend him. At that time, I was only aware of one incident, and was not aware of the actual biting, physical abuse, and SA that happened. Stylus deliberately left that out. I wrote that statement under the impression that maybe it could possibly mend friendships and clear off miscommunication but BOY was I wrong.

It wasn't until after people started lashing out at me that I realized the gravity of the situation. It has left me mentally scarred, and I regret ever defending Stylus. I myself realized that Stylus has done stuff to me that I buried under the rug until recently.

This is my apology statement for those who have been hurt by my initial statement. I no longer endorse Stylus, and I have apologized to Nagi about it as well. I’m sorry for causing such a mess, truth be told I was dragged into this by Stylus, but honestly I am glad that it came to that point because otherwise I would have never realized the treatment that I had to deal with from Stylus. I would have been left in the dark.

Now while I would love to explain what he did to me, its way too much for me to explain in a paragraph and I feel that Nagi can explain it better than me, so I will let them tell you the truth."

Here, within what they shared with me, we can learn more about how stylus behaved with them. As you may remember from their post, they are childhood friends with Stylus. They detail how Stylus seemed nice in childhood, coming from a wealthy, safe home, but they started to understand the malicious person Stylus was growing into when they first exchanged discord accounts.

It is truly disturbing to hear the extent of what stylus did to themselves while on video with their "closest friend", who would go on to be their first partner, as it’s something no one should ever have to see, and combined with the accounts in our previous posts, clearly Stylus has a past history with using SH as leverage, and has done this with literally every single person they have dated.

They go on to discuss their experiences with being led to believe I was in the wrong, and how they were apparently being manipulated into doing their bidding for a long time now. They apologized to me for having written the deleted apology post previously on Stylus’ blog.

They talk to us about being straight up ignored by Stylus in their relationship, which is another thing that led to their breakup. Stylus often dismissed their requests for advice or encouragement in favour of themself or others which led this person to feel very isolated and generally worthless to Stylus despite the years they spent knowing eachother.

We’d learn that during the time them and Stylus were dating, Stylus hadn’t informed them that they had begun dating someone else. While they did have a open arrangement, they’d agreed to ask/inform each other first, and Stylus had not, instead dating this person for a month before even mentioning it, completely breaking their partner's trust. They broke up immediately after Stylus tried to gaslight them regarding this.

We’ve also received more examples of Stylus being racist and vile with our renewed friendship with their victims, though we’d already known this for some time due to various personal experiences with them as a POC ourselves, this just goes to show that there is MUCH Stylus has not apologized for, and hoped would just be pushed under the rug.

{ As you can probably tell, the more I talk about him, the less patience I have for his antics. }

Even FURTHER, they claim to be a RAMCOA victim PURELY because of their cult leader OC alter.

So on top of straight up saying he "has trauma" from NOT having trauma, now he is claiming to be a victim of Ritual Abuse, Mind Control, and Organized Abuse. None of these are even entertainable ideas, and the fact he only feels this way because his cult leader OC is "drawn to" these topics is. Something.

At this point, I really cannot say I believe anything he says. He is willing to claim he is a RAMCOA survivor for such silly reasons, and claims to have his dissociative disorder from childhood trauma, trauma that he has straight up said he does not have. It seems he uses these types of things to excuse his actions, or at least that's what their practical use ends up being.

He did something terrible ? He doesn't remember it, it was someone else. Someone says no or even takes too long for him when he pesters them for something ? He has RSD, you can't say no, it'll hurt his feelings. He doesn't show any remorse for literally assaulting someone ? It's not his fault, he has a personality disorder. Even if I've caught him in lies about all of these, when he's proven wrong, he shifts the blame onto someone else, one of his exes. It is never his fault. And if you call him out on all of this, you're the terrible one.

I would like to clarify that every single person I have discussed being affected is a system. I am a system, my partner is a system, all three of his exes are systems. Not a single one of us can say that his claims line up with our system experiences.

He claims things about his system that literally could not be medically possible, he has spewed misinformation on any disorder he brings up and talks over other people WITH those disorders while doing so, and everyone knows him to have a completely normal family and childhood, not traumatic in any sense of the word. The victim who has lived in his house said that if anything, he has been spoiled by his wealthy family. The rest of us has witnessed this as well. He might as well just say that he's endogenic.

He seems to target anyone who enables him, which turned out to be traumatized systems, to get what he wants. This is simply his victim profile, which is why I'm glad he was banned from the system server he held a powerful position in. We are glad to have prevented more harm from being done.

To end this off,

Stylus’ ex who reached out to us concludes with another apology to me, and others, for having ever defended stylus or aided in any of our abuse, which is an apology I accept genuinely, because I already knew they were misinforming people and villainizing their victims.

They villainized me to all three of their exes, they villainized us all to the server they modded, and everyone they manipulated into sympathizing with them has realized they are a victim of Stylus, cut them off, and has a strong distain for them as a person. Even the server they modded for banned them due to learning of their actions after being lied to. Stylus is extremely manipulative, and has upheld a plethora of terrible beliefs while under the guise of amnesia, disorders, or meaning well. The truth is he has just been motivated by prejudice, malicious sadism, sexual deviancy, and his own self interest.

We’re glad to have received a proper apology from Stylus' now ex childhood friend, and gained further knowledge about the extent of what stylus has done from their exes, and we've all become friends again, which makes me really happy !! The only person who has never given a genuine apology for all their terrible actions is Stylus, and I doubt they ever will, because at this point all they seem to be doing is continuing to try and demonize their victims and blamehsift. All I can say is, the more I learn about them, the worse they are revealed to be. If they think they can worm their way into more communities, into more already-traumatized people's lives, they are, simply put, very wrong. I won't let anyone else be hurt because of their abusive nature, and I will continue to protect others.

[angelsandarsenic]

ya'll wanna read the Deathduo drabble I wrote for a school assignment?

Of course you do, here you go.

        "Do I believe in vampires," Phil repeated skeptically. Charlie had a strangely nervous look to him, and Phil raised an eyebrow. If anyone would believe this shit, it would be Charlie, but it was also equally likely that he was pulling Phil's leg. 

        "You would have proof, wouldn't you?" He put on a smile that made Phil sure he was joking. "Come on, you ever see any empty refrigerator cases when you knew for sure there was someone in there before?"

        Phil frowned. He had been just about to open one of said compartments to inspect a new body and frankly wasn't in the mood for this. The report he had on this John Doe was severely lacking. That wasn't abnormal considering that as the coroner, he was always one of the first people to use it; not even abnormal in the fact that it didn't list a name, but there were usually some details by the time it got to him. Primary concerns, state of the body when found, state of the scene and whether or not it was suspected of foul play--all of it was listed as "inconclusive". Meaning Phil had a lot of work to do. Quesadilla Island was small, so his duties as a coroner were combined with being the medical examiner, and frequently had to do a lot of his own investigating. That didn't yet include his...unofficial duties. 

        Did Phil believe in vampires?

        "No Charlie, that's never happened. And no, I don't believe in vampires." There were many beings beyond mortal nature, beings in fact, that he often dealt with, but vampires were not one of them. "Why, do you think you've met one?" It would probably eat him if he had, but then again, Charlie, as unassuming as he was, was one of the only people who knew of Phil's supernatural expertise for a reason. 

        He opened his mouth as if to respond, then closed it, glancing around. "No. No, probably not. Of course not, I was just joking. You're no fun Phil." He rolled his eyes, grinning again like usual and slapped the blonde man on the back. The change in demeanor was obvious, sure, but since his daughter died Charlie had had moments like that often. This wasn't his first rambling about the undead either, though it was mostly wistful dreaming about ghosts and angels (dreadful creatures, though Charlie didn't know that). He had never asked questions like this before. 

        "Yep, I'm sure." It had become his default response to that statement after so often of hearing it from his kids. "Are you here to help me out, or just interrogate me about the supernatural?"

        "No, no, I uh, I actually have to be getting home. And groceries, I really need groceries. I'll see you later Phil!" He seemed slightly preoccupied, even as he cheerfully waved the man goodbye, but Philza had work to do, so he got on with it. 

        A gentle puff of cold air brushed against his face when he opened the airtight metal door. The cabinets for unidentified bodies and/or potential victims of foul play were kept at about negative ten degrees, to almost completely stop the process of decomposition. Without his gloves, the chilled metal would have stuck to his skin when he pulled out the gurney tray and transferred the body to the examination table. Typically, he preferred to start his examinations as soon as possible when receiving a new body, but this one had been brought in at the end of an already late shift and Phil was desperately wanting his bed and some dinner, so he had stuck it in the freezer for the night. 

        The man was long- tall, his feet and head both nearly hung off the edge of the table. His hair was dark and looked silky smooth, like the feathers of a raven, though Phil wasn't in the habit of petting the hair of corpses. His eyes were closed. That wasn't entirely unusual, except in this case the man seemed peaceful and completely relaxed, as though he had simply fallen asleep or been knocked unconscious. He was not. Even before the freezer, his skin had been completely cold and was extremely pale, no lingering blush on his cheeks. He had been dead for at least the whole day. There was not a single mark on him. No bruises, scratches or blemishes, no punctures or stab wounds or ligature marks. The coroner couldn't accurately pinpoint the man's age, however, he was clearly too young to have died from seniority or heart problems. 

        It was going to be a real hassle if Phil had to ask around about this man. His possessions, which still sat in a plastic bag on Phil's desk, hadn't included a wallet, driver's license, or anything of such consequence. Not even a phone. Quesadilla Island wasn't a large area--hence the name. A small community in the middle of nowhere, only one road leading in and out and no other towns for miles, discounting the ghost town locally known as Purgatory for lack of any better knowledge. Phil had no idea where this man came from, how long he had been here or where he was going. If he had died from some rapidly onset disease, it might take ages to find out otherwise. 

        Phil picked a small light out of his coat pocket and leaned over. With one latex gloved hand, he delicately peeled open the man's left eye. The ceiling lights flickered. Phil froze, straightening. 

        The lights glowed steadily, as if it never happened. Phil looked around, but finding nothing save for the sterile, empty white room he was used too, the same smell of sterile chemicals and glistening stainless steel, he turned back to the corpse. Phil leaned over the body once more, delicately opening the eye and turning on his hand held light. 

        He almost startled when the pupil looking back at him was pure, citrine yellow. Phil's own eyes widened. Contacts. Surely they were contacts. As annoying and admittedly gross as it was to have to pick contacts out of a dead person's eyes, Phil would much prefer that to the possibility of...

        He checked the other eye, only managing to confirm that it was indeed also yellow, and in fact, not a contact lens, when the lights flickered and buzzed, like they were about to go out. 

        Philza shot up and immediately his left hand was in his pocket, clutching the protection charm he always kept with him at the morgue. The lights continued to short out, on and off, on and off. This time, Phil's stare was glued to the man--the creature--on the table. In his experience, anything that looked human was malicious. Anything that looked so convincingly human could only be very, very dangerous. He backed out of arm's reach.

        Somehow, whenever the lights went dark, the figure still remained perfectly clear. Something flickered stark white over its face, and something else was burning darker and darker into its chest, right along its collarbones. It glowed faintly at the edges, like a brand being burned into the creature. Wings? Over its face, Phil was starting to make out the silhouette of a skull, as if in grease paint.

        Phil's heart thumped loudly in his ears. That...that was not good. He didn't know what it was, but it wasn't good. 

        At some point, the intensity of the lights had become glaring when they were on. The electrical buzzing crescendoed, until Phil had to close his eyes and cover his ears, for fear of what all this flashing might do to his sight. Even under his hands, he heard the loud shatter and pop of the lights blowing out above him, felt a few shards of glass plunk against his lab coat before hitting the floor. Everything went silent. 

        Phil didn't dare move. If there was any chance of catching that thing's attention, he didn't want it. However, slowly, he opened his eyes. 

        In the pitch dark, the white skull defined the creature's face. There was no more burning edge to the wing brand across his chest, but faintly, as if through translucent skin, Phil could see the dim ivory of bones. The creature's whole skeleton. 

        The thing on the exam table still looked very much human, insides included, but he was still having considerable trouble making anything out for certain without the lights.

        When those lurid, golden eyes snapped open, Phil was sure that the thing would have no trouble seeing him. He expected it to stand, to float, to move with some inherently inhuman, Wrong motion that would set every alarm bell off in his head. He expected it to be silent, eerily turning to look at him, or perhaps ignoring him completely in favor of the door. Worse, maybe to go for the other corpses, in which case, Phil had to decide how he was going to explain the mutilation or disappearance of three whole bodies to his boss because he certainly wasn't going to risk his life for them. He hadn't the slightest idea how to deal with this thing to begin with! The closest he could come, as on the nose as it was, was that this was some avatar of Death. The obsidian black wings were Her symbol and the skull on the creature's face and bones glowing faintly through its skin weren't exactly subtle. 

        It came to him then. A main character in every folktale but only vague approximations in the thick tomes in his library. A creature none had seen and lived, or perhaps a creature to be gambled with. The unkillable but too often cheated. A creature no one was ever truly prepared for, lacking so much proper documentation that Phil was stunned to be seeing it now, in such a plain form. A Grim Reaper. 

        Is it here for me? He wasn't that old! 

        That conclusion didn't sit right though. It didn't feel like his time yet. Not in the petulant, fearful way he was sure the Reaper encountered often, but a surety deep in his soul. It wasn't Philza's time. 

        But Philza was not prepared for this.

        The Reaper groaned. It brought a hand to its eyes and rubbed, the same way Phil had watched Chayanne do in the mornings. It rolled over on the table like it was going to shut off an alarm and go back to sleep for just five more minutes. The table wasn't meant for that. He rolled right off with a mighty thud!

        That shook Phil out of his stupor. He almost laughed, listening to the creature curse, but he wasn't calm enough for that yet. Still, he grabbed a bigger flashlight off the desk and turned it on, shining it on where the Reaper lay in a naked heap on the floor. It jumped when the beam fell on it, as if it hadn't realized he was there.

        "Um...hullo? Are you alright mate?" With nothing else to say and too much dignity to scream and run, his brain defaulted to British over-politeness.

        The Reaper swallowed, and cursed again, this time in Spanish before replying, "Don't look!"

        Immediately, Phil turned the beam away, shining it pointlessly on the tiled floor. There were a few seconds of silence, before the Reaper spoke up again. It sounded very human. "Where am I? You uh, don't have my clothes, do you?"

        "I do!" Only a second after realizing that he ought to have been getting the man his things, he also realized how creepy that must have sounded. "Here. Uh, sorry, you're at the morgue. Some police officers picked you up thinking you were dead, so..." he trailed off. The larger plastic bag had held entirely normal civilian attire, so Phil hadn't found it strange at first. Now, he was genuinely surprised it wasn't a long black cloak. He slid the bag across the floor and the Reaper tore into it eagerly. 

        There was a lot of shuffling before the Reaper muttered, and Phil could see the white glow of his face paint raise in the air as he muttered, "bien, bien." 

        Hesitantly, Phil called out, "all good?"

        "Yes, yes, thank you."

        "Right." He didn't bother pointing the light back at the Reaper. "I'll just go turn on the backup generators then."

        "Ah, mierda. Did I do that? I'm sorry."

        Taken aback, the human's plan to leave and hopefully not return until the entity had left was derailed. "What happened to you?" he asked.

        When the beam fell upon the Reaper, Phil realized it was in fact very tall. At least a whole head taller than he was. It didn't squint or flinch away at the harsh light, as if it made no difference to him. The Reaper now donned ripped black skinny jeans and a purple and teal hoodie. The white face markings disappeared under the light, but he could still see the tips of black wings peeking over the creature's collarbones. He had several black rings adorning long, nimble fingers and frankly looked as though he should be wearing barbed wire necklaces and thick eyeliner. Maybe he did when he wasn't laying "dead" on the side of the road.

        No, that was silly. Phil was jumping to stereotypical conclusions. Don't be rude. Admittedly, the mental image made him smile slightly. 

        His expression was just as clueless as Phil felt. "I wish I knew."

        ”You’re supposed to be dead,” Phil informed him.

        ”I am,” the Reaper answered, as if it were the simplest thing in the world. “Or, well, I was. Sort of.”

        Phil attempted to process that for a moment, to no avail. All supernatural nonsense aside, the dead were dead, this he knew as fact. ...Except apparently not anymore. “You didn’t have a pulse.”

        ”Oh no, I wouldn’t. I’m a Reaper, we don’t bleed. Or have heartbeats. I’m all skin and bones, really.” He chuckled quietly at his own joke. 

        Huh. So that confirmed Phil’s suspicion then. Why is he here?! “Do you have a name?” That was the polite question to ask first.

        ”Right! Yes, hi, I’m Missa. Sorry, I haven’t really talked to anyone in a long time. Not anyone who wasn’t about to die at least.” He held a hand out, which, out of the flashlight beam, turned back into pale bone under translucent skin. When the human hesitated, he seemed to sense the questions that died on Phil’s tongue, and his enthusiasm waned considerably, awkwardly drawing the limb back in to himself. 

        Phil crossed the room, reached out and took it anyway. When had any entity been so friendly? Much less one of this caliber? The answer was never, and it never hurt to be in such a creature’s good graces either. It occurred to him momentarily that physical contact with the Reaper might mean certain doom, but he was still wearing gloves, so he figured it was fine. 

        The way Missa lit up made him unable to resist the mirroring smile that split his own cheeks. “I’m Phil.”

        ”Nice to meet you Phil!” Hefting himself up on the autopsy table as casually as if it were his living room couch, he grinned delightedly. “I don’t suppose any other bodies have come alive- or uh, undead on you lately, have they?”

Oh boy, Phil was not getting paid enough for this. 

-----------

So basically, something mysterious made Flippa Come Back Wrong and Reaper!Missa is here to investigate!

[tomorrowusa]

Trump and the far right have hijacked the word "patriot" so that it now refers to anti-Constitution ignorant thugs who wish to install a Russia-style kleptocratic dictatorship in power in the US.

The difference in how Biden and Trump observed Memorial Day will tell you a lot about how they feel about America.

Joe Biden and Donald Trump marked the Memorial Day national holiday honoring America’s war dead with jarringly divergent messages that promised to foretell the forthcoming US presidential election campaign as a contest of sharply contrasting characters. In a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Biden paid tribute to the fallen as heroes who sacrificed themselves in the service of American democracy and ideals. Meanwhile, Trump, taking to his Truth Social site, took a very different tack – bestowing holiday wishes on those he branded “human scum” and accused them of trying to destroy the country. [ ... ] Identifying his own family with the notion of national sacrifice, Biden highlighted his son Beau, attributing his death from brain cancer nine years ago this week to his exposure to burn pits while serving in the military in Iraq. “The hurt is still real, still raw,” Biden said, after describing the “black hole” that opens up for family members who hear the news of the death of a relative serving in wartime.

Trump delivered one of his trademark holiday "greetings" which was, in reality, a personalized vitriolic diatribe.

Trump’s Memorial Day outburst, which reprised previous holiday volleys of abuse aimed at his enemies and opponents. “Happy Memorial Day to All, including the Human Scum that is working so hard to destroy our Once Great Country, & to the Radical Left, Trump Hating Federal Judge in New York that presided over, get this, TWO separate trials, that awarded a woman, who I never met before (a quick handshake at a celebrity event, 25 years ago, doesn’t count!), 91 MILLION DOLLARS for ‘DEFAMATION,’” he wrote.

Trump couldn't squeeze in even a couple of syllables to thank those who had sacrificed for their country.

Trump is a nepo baby draft dodger whose filthy rich daddy bribed a doctor to claim that little Donny had a "bone spur" which made him ineligible for military service. Since the 1960s Trump has shown no signs of being bothered by a bone spur; he has spent countless hours on golf courses in the past 50+ years.

Trump considers those who served or even died for their country to be "losers" and "suckers".

Exclusive: John Kelly goes on the record to confirm several disturbing stories about Trump

John Kelly, the longest-serving White House chief of staff for Donald Trump, offered his harshest criticism yet of the former president in an exclusive statement to CNN. [ ... ] “What can I add that has not already been said?” Kelly said, when asked if he wanted to weigh in on his former boss in light of recent comments made by other former Trump officials. “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France." [ ... ] In the statement, Kelly is confirming, on the record, a number of details in a 2020 story in The Atlantic by editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, including Trump turning to Kelly on Memorial Day 2017, as they stood among those killed in Afghanistan and Iraq in Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery, and saying, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”

Any veteran who would vote for Trump is truly a self-hating loser. Trump has no use for anybody who doesn't enrich him or feed his lust for power.

It speaks poorly of Republicans that they would nominate somebody who heaps disrespect on those who have served in the armed forces.

[animangaandchillsblog]

To celebrate the NaruHinaWedding event, I wrote a drabble about a conversation between Boruto, Himawari and Hinata. They are asking about Hinata's love life. The anime displayed a scene of Hinata reminiscing about her love life. From a crush to someone qualified enough to support Naruto. In this drabble, I want to elaborate more into details about her feelings and the lessons she learned in pursuit of happiness.

"I'm home!" Boruto shouted as he ran his way to the living room.

"Mum, I'm hungry! What's for dinner?" He asks.

"Sit down. Wash your hands first or you won't have dinner. I've roasted chicken mixed with black pepper and corn soup."

"Yay! Where is Hima?" Boruto enquires, as he washes his hand at the sink.

"I'm here! I've just finished my mission with Yuina and Ehou!" Himawari helps her mother to put the dishes into some bowls as soon as she arrives.

"Eh... new mission, huh? What did you do Hima? I bet it's a mission about finding missing cat, cleaning the chickens' coops or guiding a VIP's safety..." Boruto displays his bored face while belittling his sister's mission. He used to complain the missions he got and this laid back personality of his also led to him in trouble.

"Nope. None of those. It's a mission to find rare herbs; Matucoldi. It is actually a mission requested by aunt Sakura and she chose our team because of our ability. Well, to be honest I didn't know why she chose me as a temporary team leader at first. I know Yuina is a knowledgeable student. She studied a lot about herbs and animals. Her resourcefulness helped us a lot. Ehou, on the other hand acted without thinking sometimes but he is great in combat. As for me... I cannot really control my Byakugan yet and my taijutsu isn't as great as Ehou. During the mission, I realised that one of my redeeming qualities is my quick thinking which coincides with the situation and the spirit to never give up. We managed to retrieve the herbs successfully in the end. Of course, we needed to involve ourselves in a fight but with teamwork, we did it!"

"Wow.. Hima, looks like you're going to be a cool shinobi just like me!" Boruto laughs, after listening to Himawari's detailed explanation regarding her mission.

"Hey! I don't want to be like you, onii-chan. You always made other people worry and you never communicate your inner feelings. I'm going to be someone honest in the future and that includes taking care of you!"

"Hey! I'm the big one here. I was born first. I am supposed to be the one who protects you!" Boruto rebutts Himawari's statements.

"Hush.. hush! Okay, stop it. Stop the fight or you both won't be having dinner." Hinata puts down a big bowl of corn soup on the table and look at her children with a scary expression.

"Ok.. okay.." Botg Himawari and Boruto reply in unison.

Hinata laughs and sit next to Himawari.

"You know what, mum.. sometimes I wonder how dad is able to marry you. I mean.. you could've find better men out there. You cooked all these delicious dishes only for him to rush back to the Hokage's office again," Boruto conplained.

"But, he did... came home right? He tried his best to be a great father for both of you. He always tried his best, despite working for the village. Without him, we won't be living peacefully now. He even tried to be an inspiring figure for Kawaki. Speaking of him.. where is he?"

"Well, he said he had something to deal with. I don't know. For me, dinner is more important. I'll find out sooner or later anyway," Boruto responds.

"Mama! We want to listen your story before you meet papa! You refused to tell us before!" Himawari looks at her mother with an eager expression.

"Er, well.. I've told you before about how clumsy and rash he was before, right? Your father is still the same old him even after having 2 children. I always liked him in secrecy. Once, I tried to release the chakra draining rods from him even after beaten up by Pain. Pain is one of the akatsuki members, by the way. You learned that in your school right?"

"Akat.. akatsuki? The same Pain who destroyed Konoha? I've learned it before during class.. and we had that particular moment described in our text book. There's a girl mentioned in the text book. The one who tried to save the Hokage.. but I didn't know it was you, mum! Wow! Why didn't you let your name known in the text book? I could've boasted about it!" Boruto proudly shows his enthusiasm about the new fact he acknowledged.

Hinata chuckles. "No. I prefer a quiet life. I don't really care about fame and being a legend. To me, being happy is enough. Taking care of my kids is enough. Supporting my husband is enough. I don't need more in life. Your father nearly gave up his ninja way when we were in the middle of war. However, I managed to gain his strength. Even when my beloved cousin who's like a brother to me, Neji passed away at that time, I tried to calm myself down. As a shinobi, you can never express your emotions willingly. Yes, it's hard but that's the reason why it is important to be strong not just by physical but also by heart. After the war, we visited each other's house. He would ask for my help because he needed to study more if he wants to become a Hokage. Sometimes, I brought food. Did you know that he was once an avid hater of vegetables? Well, it takes an impressive cooking skill to mesh the vegetables well with meats so that the taste will become delectable."

Boruto and Himawari look at their mother's loving facade. She has a soft expression whenever she reminisces about her past life. She looks like a maiden in love, not someone who was married and gave birth to 2 kids.

Hinata continues to describe her love life. " I learned so much from your father. He taught me to grow in my own pace and be brave, despite what the circumstances are. We became closer without even noticing it. Sometimes, we trained together. There were rumours circulating that we were in a relationship but we ignored it. Your father was too dense about love and at that time, I'm sure he thought of me as a friend. Not more. I was still a bit timid even after war because the idea of being in a relationship with your crush is too good to be true. So in the end, we just led a life without even acknowledging our feelings.

Then, years passed by and we're finally 18. A lot of things changed. Your aunt, Hanabi was kidnapped by a descendant of Hamura Otsusuki. He needed the byakugan to acquire the Tenseigan created from his ancestors' sealed eyes. He proposed me so I had to accept it in order to save Hanabi. Your father was utterly heart-broken upon knowing it and I did try to explain just for a while but my I believed he could manage himself. He's a strong shinobi who used to lead the war. My goal at that time was to save your aunt. She's still a child. Long story short, we managed to defeat Toneri. Your father was super romantic when he finally understood his feelings for me. With one hand, he released a big rasengan and flew under the moon's silhouette. Well, after that.. I couldn't tell you."

"What? You kissed don't you? Papa kissed mama!" Himawari teased her mother.

"Woah really? I didn't know dad can be so romantic! He's a fool for not being able to know his true feelings." Boruto laughs.

"It's not his fault. He was alone for so many years. He worked hard to gain acknowledgement from other villagers. He didn't have anyone to talk to him about this matter. As for me, I'm happy if he's happy. I did get jealous once, when he was popular with the girls due to his popularity. I thought the scarf given to him was from one of the girls so I hid the scarf I've knitted for him. It turns out that it was actually from his mother. In a way, I was in the wrong too. We both are. Being in a relationship means that both of us stand in an equal footing. We vowed to cherish each other through thick and thin. To support each other and to communicate our inner feelings. No more skirting lies while leaving the truths half-told."

"Aww.. I want to have a beautiful love story like mama too, when I grow up later.. but so far I don't like anyone in class..." Himawari gushes her mother's love tale while gazing at her mother's embarrassed face.

"Heh.. I don't know if I will ever get married.. I want to enjoy my single life to eternity.. but having someone who can understand you for who you are is rare..." Boruto's eyes narrow with such focus, as if thinking about someone who could match his description.

"I'm home!" Naruto's voice can be heard at the door.

Boruto and Himawari run and hug him instantly.

"Okay.. what happen?" Naruto is confused.

"Dad.. you're a cool guy huh?" Boruto teased him.

"Daddy! You are so sweet!" Himawari joins her brother.

"What? What's going on? Hinata, what's going on? Did something peculiar happen?" Naruto tries to ask for explanation but Hinata refuses to look him in the eye.

"No... Nothing happened! Any.. anyway, why did you get home so soon?" Hinata helps her husband to untie the Hokage robe.

Naruto is puzzled. "I thought you like it when I'm home?"

Hinata is speechless. Usually, she won't be flustered as she was used to her role as a wife but somehow, the prior engagement with her children makes her embarrassed. She regrets expressing her love towards her husband in front of her children. Pretty sure they're going to tease her further.

"Well, anyway... do you know that there's a new record for ramen eating competition? I did it! I managed to defeat your past record!"

Shocked, Hinata scrutinizes her eyes. "What? How? You never managed to defeat me before! Did you cheat?"

"Hey, I didn't cheat okay? Well, it won't make me a real man if you always win. Did you still remember your promise if I win?"

"Hima.. is this really our "cool" father? Why is he being childish all the time." Boruto asks, with an incredulous look on his face.

"I'm pretty sure it's just papa being papa. He never shows this side of him in front of other villagers. He usually brings out his inner child when he's with mama."

"I.. of course I remember. I promised to accompany you on a date to an expensive restaurant. That was ages ago! You're a rich man now." Hinata laughs, as she remembers her promise to Naruto.

"It'll just be the 2 of us. No kids allowed."

"Okay. Okay. Gosh, you're so funny, Naruto-kun."

"I'm curious though. What were you talking about just now?" Naruto asks.

Hinata tries to suppress her embarrassment by controlling her face expression. "Huh.. nothing okay? I was just talking about how cool you were when you brought me to the moon. There, happy now?"

It was Naruto's turn to be embarrassed. "What kind of conversation was that? You shouldn't tell the about that. It's not fair!"

"Well, I did say that I was so in love with you. It's fair." Hinata fights back.

"I'm home..."

All of them look at the owner's voice. Turns out, it's Kawaki. Kawaki is confused at the weird atmosphere as he walks into the dining room.

"Dinner is served and you guys aren't eating? The food is going to get cold. What happen? Why do you have that ugly and strange grin on your face Boruto?"

"Ugly you say? You're the ugly one! Wanna fight?" Boruto stands up.

"Hush! Okay, okay. Let's eat now. Kawaki, wash your hands first. Honey, as a punishment you must massage my shoulders tonight."

Naruto almost faint when he heard that Hinata called him "honey". She only said that when both of them are not in front of their kids. Looks like he can never win the war with his own wife.

[kingmagnificoofrosas]

I just need one little thing clarified...

"...reducing him to an object of sick twisted lust..."

"...making him a porn object and writing downright disgusting things..."

I totally get about toxic sexualization, but just want to ask: it's not about healthy romance and making love with a true soulmate, right? it's about toxic things only?

i usually write romances about healthy OTPs, and i wrote one for Magnifico, it also included making love. I'm just afraid to... be accused of this toxic sexualization or something.

please do not consider it rude, your words are matter to me. 🙏🏻

Hey dear 💙

Don't worry, I got you!

I absolutely meant unhealthy, toxic sexualization only. I wasn't talking about writing healthy romance and intimacy between two soulmates. I was talking about things some people said. I will not repeat what I've seen but to put it decently, those comments went above and beyond "I would like to have intercourse with him."

To further clarify my point. When I first saw Magnifico, I was like "Hoooooo ma goodness, he HOT!!" And that was never in a sexual way. Just me adoring and gushing over his beauty. Cause he's dang handsome, alright. The sky eyes, the high cheekbones, defined jaw, neat hair, goatee!! Heck the goatee ❤️😩🤌🏼 the BODY, the smile ... I see this man and my heart skips a beat.

You know, that squealing, giggling, fangirling kind 🫶🏼

But seeing some people making comments about what they would like to do to him *gag* ... And I kid you not, it read like someone was quoting a porn script. Or for some, the first and only thing they think of is something sexual. When I said that some reduce him to an object of sick twisted lust, I meant exactly that.

It's also not someone just saying something like, "I bet he's skilled." If you know what I mean. Still, ok, weird. But at least it's nowhere near explicit.

Such thoughts never crossed my mind even once. The fact that this is even happening is so sad.

I'm so shocked and deeply disgusted by what I read some people say, part of me just wishes to erase it from my memory. Also, what the heck are fanarts of *eherm* full blown nudity of him even doing online? And I don't mean shirtless only. Good grief, I know most of us Magnifico-defenders are mid-teens, young-adults and adults but I just picture some kids scrolling through social media for WISH fanart and then they suddenly get a drawing of below waist porn shit. Ew! Seriously what the frick, EW!

I also wasn't talking about portraying sex in the right, healthy way in a novel or fanfiction. This is a whole topic for itself. In my humble opinion, a good writer can bring all the right feelings across without having to write every single damn detail. I'm writer and I always give the advice : You need to be able to show the reader whats happening without becoming explicit.

I'm aware that writing intercourse is a very delicate topic and tbh it's tasking even for a professional writer. As a christian, I'm standing for closed-door romance. Meaning, I read and write intimate scenes non-explicitly. And honestly, that to me is so much more fulfilling than writing or reading explicit scenes. To be able to make the air sizzle and the readers heart pount without getting explicit is a skill and there is so much beauty in it if it's done well.

Because, like you said, love-making is so much more than just an act! It's God's gift to soulmates. It's the highest form of expressing endless true love. It's becoming one, it's two souls made for each other melting together. It's meant to be beautiful! It's meant to be pure. It can be wild passionate fire just as much as it can be tender and sweet.

And exactly that is also why my heart bleeds and breaks when I see sick stuff online.

I hope this clarified my statement and helped you a little bit 💙🫶🏼 if you have any more questions or want to have me give out advices as a professional writer, I'm always here for it!

[mariacallous]

Oleg Orlov began his career by protesting against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. At about the same time, he joined Memorial, Russia’s first and most important historical and human-rights organization—in Russia, the two subjects are organically connected—while it was still an underground, dissident operation. In the 1990s, Memorial emerged into the open and began publishing books detailing the mass arrests and murders committed by the Soviet Union. During the decade I spent researching the history of the Soviet Gulag, I ran into Memorial historians and activists all over Russia, including in their one-person “office” in Syktyvkar and in the spectacular museum, now dismantled, that they built on the site of a former concentration camp near Perm.

Memorial is dedicated to both revealing the truth about the past and preventing that past from repeating itself in the future. Its activists work in archives, but they also monitor human-rights violations in modern Russia. Orlov, who became Memorial’s co-chair, worked especially hard to expose the horrors of Russia’s wars in Chechnya, and the cultural and political destruction that followed. He did so because he wanted to live in a different kind of Russia. Now he will pay a high price for his patriotism.

On the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the regime shut down Memorial, after 30 years of operation. The same regime arrested Orlov, who had criticized the invasion with the same unsparing language he had used for the previous four decades. “This brutal war,” he wrote in an article, is “not only mass murder of people and destruction of the infrastructure, economy, and cultural sites” of Ukraine but also “a severe blow to the future of Russia,” a country that “is now pushed back into totalitarianism, but this time into a fascist totalitarianism.” Like Alexei Navalny, whose funeral took place in Moscow on Friday, Orlov was extraordinarily brave—brave enough to publish his criticism of the war, of President Vladimir Putin, and of Putin’s regime.

On February 27, Orlov received a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for “discrediting the Russian army.” Following in a long tradition of Soviet dissidents before him, Orlov made a courtroom speech, addressed to those in the room and beyond. Joseph Brodsky, who later won the Nobel Prize in Literature, sparred in 1964 with a Soviet judge who asked him by what right he dared state “poet” as his occupation: Who ranked you among poets?” Brodsky replied, “No one. Who ranked me as a member of the human race?” That exchange circulated throughout the Soviet Union in handwritten and retyped versions, teaching an earlier generation about bravery and civic courage.

Orlov’s speech will also be reprinted and reread, and someday it will have the same impact too. Here are excerpts, translated by one of his colleagues:

On the first day of my trial, terrible news shocked Russia and the entire world: Alexey Navalny was dead. I, too, was in shock. At first, I even wanted to give up on making a final statement. Who cares about words today, when we have not recovered from the shock of this news? But then I thought: These are all links in the same chain.  Alexey’s death or, rather, murder; the trials of other critics of the regime including myself; the suffocation of freedom in the country; the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army. So I have decided to speak. I have not committed any crime. I am being tried for writing a newspaper article that described the political regime in Russia as totalitarian and fascist. I wrote this article over a year ago. Some of my acquaintances thought back then that I had exaggerated the gravity of the situation. Now, however, it is clear that I did not exaggerate. The government in our country not only controls all public, political, and economic life, but also aspires to exert control over culture and scientific thought … There isn’t a sphere of art where free artistic expression is possible, there are no free academic humanitarian sciences, and there is no more private life either.

Orlov continued by reflecting on the absurdity of his case, of the legalistic rigamarole in Russia that conceals the regime’s lawlessness. In fact, the law is whatever Putin dictates. Everything else, the lawyers, prosecutors, and judges, are just there for show, to pretend that there is rule of law when there is not.

Let me now speak about my current trial. When it began, I refused to participate. Thanks to that, I had the opportunity to reread The Trial, a novel by Franz Kafka, during the court sessions. The current situation in our country has a lot in common with the world that Kafka’s protagonist inhabits in the book. We live with the same absurdity and arbitrariness, camouflaged by a formal adherence to some pseudo-legal procedures. Here we are accused of “discrediting the military,” but no one explains what this means or how it differs from legitimate criticism. We are accused of “spreading deliberately false information” without anyone bothering to prove that it is indeed false. The Soviet regime used exactly the same methods when it branded any criticism as lies. Our attempts to prove the veracity of this information are punished as crimes … We are being given prison sentences for doubting that aggression against a neighboring country is being carried out for the sake of international peace and security. This is absurd. Kafka’s hero has no idea, until the end of the novel, of the nature of the accusation against him. He is ruled guilty and executed anyway. In Russia, the accusation is formally announced, but it is impossible to understand it within the framework of law and logic. Unlike Kafka’s hero, we do understand why we are being detained, arrested, sentenced, or killed: We are being punished for daring to criticize the authority. That is completely banned in modern Russia.

Orlov listed a few of the thousands of Russians who have been detained for criticizing the Russian government and the war, and then continued:

In recent days, they have grabbed, punished, and even imprisoned people only for coming to memorials to victims of political purges to pay tribute to the murdered Alexey Navalny, a remarkable man, brave and honest. He never lost optimism and faith in our country’s future even in the extremely hard conditions that had been set up especially for him. The authorities are fighting against Navalny even when he is dead; they are afraid of him even after his death, and they are right to be afraid. They are destroying people’s memorials to his memory. They do this because they hope to demoralize that part of the Russian society that still takes responsibility for their country. This is a false hope. We remember Alexey’s appeal: “Don’t give up.” I will add to this: Don’t lose your spirits, don’t lose your optimism. The truth is on our side. Those who have led our country into this hole represent the old, the frail, the outdated. They do not clearly see the future, only false images from the past, mirages of “imperial grandeur.”

Finally, Orlov addressed the court itself, the government officials and clerks, the judges, and the prosecutors. Of course, he knows, as any student of Soviet history knows, that a single dictator cannot enforce an authoritarian regime by himself. Thousands of  collaborators are required. Orlov’s last words were for them.

Not all of you believed in this repressive system, of course. You sometimes regret that you are forced to participate in all of this. But you tell yourself: And what can I do? I am only following the instructions from my superiors. The law is the law. I am speaking to you, your honor, and the others accusing me: Are you yourselves not afraid? Are you not afraid to watch what our country is becoming, our country that you, too, probably love? Are you not afraid that not only you, but also your children and, God forbid, your grandchildren, will have to live in this absurdity, this dystopia? Do you not acknowledge the obvious truth, that the repressive machine will sooner or later also flatten those who launched it and promoted it? This has happened many times in history … I am not completely sure that those who have created and implemented Russia’s  illegal, anti-constitutional “laws” will face judicial persecution. But the punishment will definitely come. Your children or grandchildren will be ashamed to talk about the work and the deeds of their fathers, mothers, grandfathers, and grandmothers. The same will happen to those now committing crimes in the Ukraine. This, I think, is the most terrible punishment. And it is inevitable … I regret nothing.

[beardedmrbean]

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A former FBI agent was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl while serving as an Alabama state trooper.

Alabama's state police hired Christopher Bauer even after he was kicked out of the FBI amid earlier claims he raped a co-worker at knifepoint.

An Associated Press investigation showed Bauer, 45, moved from one law enforcement job to another with the help of a forged letter making it appear he was “eligible for rehire.”

The forgery prompted an FBI investigation but federal authorities held off charging Bauer as the state proceedings played out.

A jury convicted Bauer in June of first-degree sodomy and sexual abuse of a child under 12 following a weeklong trial in which defense attorneys claimed the girl made up the allegations.

Shackled and wearing an orange jail uniform, Bauer told Montgomery Circuit Judge Jimmy Pool that he never imagined he would end up on the prisoner side of a jail cell. He said juries don't always get it right.

“It seems no matter what I say, no one wants to believe I’m innocent,” he told the judge. “All it took was an accusation to strip me of everything.”

The girl’s mother stood with prosecutors, who asked for the maximum sentence. Daryl D. Bailey, the Montgomery County district attorney, called Bauer a “sexual predator” following his conviction, saying he needed to be “removed from our streets forever.”

“He’s a monster,” the girl's mother told the judge. Bauer, she added, used the badge to project the “image of a good person.”

“He had everyone fooled,” she said.

Pool told Bauer as he pronounced the life sentence that he “believed every single word” of the victim's testimony.

Bauer's defense attorneys argued the disgraced lawman deserved leniency following his own abusive childhood in foster homes and orphanages. He was removed from his parents at the age of 5 and later diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder.

“Several instances stick out to Mr. Bauer, including once when he was pushed out of the third floor of a building and another when he was left in a burning apartment,” his attorneys wrote in a court filing.

Bauer, who was arrested in 2021, faces similar child sex abuse charges outside New Orleans. Louisiana State Police said they intended to extradite him following the Alabama case.

During the Alabama trial, the child — who is now a young teen — testified through tears that she was repeatedly abused by Bauer for years, too scared to say no or to tell anyone what was happening.

Jurors saw a recording of her interview with a child abuse investigator in which she described the same abuse. Law enforcement became involved after the girl eventually told a friend and the friend’s parent alerted the school.

Bauer took the stand in his own defense during the trial, responding “no, never” when asked if he had abused or sodomized the child. “If she said I did something to her, then yes that’s a lie.”

Bauer’s time in the FBI was not discussed in detail at the trial. The judge granted a defense request to exclude statements about allegations by a co-worker in Louisiana that he had raped her at knifepoint.

The FBI has said Bauer forged a letter that scrubbed his record clean and helped clear the way to his hiring by the Alabama state police in 2019. The document, obtained by AP, confirmed his decade of “creditable service” and deemed him “eligible for rehire," but the FBI told AP the letter in question was “not legitimate.”

Alabama authorities have refused to explain how Bauer's earlier misconduct was overlooked. AP’s investigation found he omitted his ouster from the FBI on his application to the state police, including that he had been suspended without pay and stripped of his security clearance in 2018 amid a string of sexual misconduct allegations he faced working in the FBI’s New Orleans office.

Many of the allegations played out in Louisiana court filings that had been public for a year when Bauer was hired in Alabama. The woman who accused him of rape, a co-worker at the FBI, wrote in an application for a restraining order that Bauer had choked her and made her “scared for my life.”

Bauer disputed those claims, telling colleagues the acts were consensual. But the woman previously told AP that Bauer sexually assaulted her so frequently her hair began to fall out.

“It was a year of torture,” she said. “He quite literally would keep me awake for days. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep, and in six months I went from 150 pounds to 92 pounds. I was physically dying from what he was doing to me.”

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Bauer's sentence. The agency has refused to release records from its internal investigation into Bauer's hiring, with a spokeswoman saying only “there were no disciplinary actions taken as a result of the review.”

[drstonetrivia]

Chapter 229 Trivia (Part 1)

How can a chapter that is nothing but answers create so many questions?

This is a very narrator-heavy chapter. All of the square word boxes (which is, frankly, most of them) are not directly the Medusa's words, but the narrator. This is also why the speech is normal.

If you're bored, reread the chapter but use Mecha Senku's voice for the narration.

This is a silly statement because EM waves include so many types of wave: visible light, infrared, microwave, and of course radio. Even if you filter by regularity, I still think this is a huge number of planets (and stars!) to check.

By narrowing it to radio waves, you lessen the number of false positives, but it won't be reduced to 0. We receive radio waves from other planets, but none indicate life. Most of our "alien broadcasts" come from pulsars, fast radio bursts, and whatever caused the Wow! signal.

Radio waves from our planet have only reached about 100 light years away, which means the Medusas came from somewhere within the area.

It's a very big area.

The birds are back and their identities are still unknown…

I won't go into details since I already wrote an essay, but now I'm wondering if they're actually a hybrid of two swallow species, which makes the Medusa DNA targeting questionable…

The Medusa claims it was an arbitrary species, but it's suspiciously perfect that they chose a species that stays near humans and is nearly global rather than an almost-extinct beetle on some remote island, or something microscopic.

I suppose humans did have to find it…

We have confirmation that the petri-beam did in fact use DNA-based targeting, but what's more is that the beam is only visible to the targets, rather than being invisible or on a wavelength the birds could see but the humans couldn't.

The other point of interest is that the beam isn't light, but appears as light to the targets. What the "stuff" is that we see as light is still unknown. Does this mean the black mass on the moon is only visible to humans right now, or is it something else? Is the same mechanic that makes the Medusas invisible on radar responsible for this? Is that why no one saw any Medusas on the ground, because they were invisible to our eyes?

In a complete non-answer, we get that the petri-beam triggers an elemental phase change.

This is a fancy way of saying "turns you solid/to stone".

I wonder if we'll get more than this about how it works…

This is some next-level YouTube prank.

The narrator claims that the most intelligent species will recognize that the device grants eternal life, but Xeno seemed to be the only one in the world who noticed the statues were even still alive.

The Medusas sort of jumped the gun with the first petrification, haha!

This location is actually Manaus, specifically the Teatro Amazonas (Amazon Theatre) with the Rio Negro in the far background.

If you recognize the name, it's because it was the source of the petrification and the location of the big Medusa pile.

Advertisements! Several of these are meta references, as you've probably figured out.

The usage of "easier" seems to imply that it would be possible to revive without nitric acid entirely, as long as the being thinks for long enough.

I wonder how long it'd take Senku and Xeno to revive without any acid at all; 5,000 years? 10,000? More?

The Medusas seem to believe that the thinkers of the community would then have the skills & drive to want to live forever, and thus would help them.

They didn't account for Earth's biggest nerds to have access to things like "video games", "anime" and maybe even "a social life".

Xeno was definitely the ideal candidate for the Medusas, but unfortunately for them, Senku got to him first.

(Next part)

[ngalu]

~On this episode of Ngalu rants~

I LOVE how a lot of put-downs for shit people like are always "tHe MajOrITy oF faNS arE (Insert further description) gUrlS".

Like- no. I FUCKING hate this copy-paste argument that's used in every fucking fandom I go to like it's a be-all-end-all statement when it doesn't mean shit.

First of all, there is nothing wrong with girls liking things. LET GIRLS LIKE THINGS. So, what if a certain piece of media has a fan base of mostly girls? Does a fan base with a majority of girls somehow make it invalid? Stupid? Not worth while? NO!

This put down is so fucking misogynistic with the implication that because something is mostly an interest of girls, it's somehow less valuable and worthwhile to interact with and enjoy, so anyone that is also interested is therefore stupid/obssessed for liking the same thing. (I see this SO often, and the people that say it are always so proud of themselves for their little 'gotcha moment' like they did something)

Second of all, straight people including straight girls are free to enjoy queer media and ships too. I know, ✨SHOCKING✨.

What also ticked me off about this redditor though is that, on top of their bullshit misogynistic argument, they called everyone else that might enjoy this ship outliers because every other demographic, that isn't a straight girl, enjoying queer stories and romances is impossible to comprehend. I would LOVE to see how they worked that out. I wanna see their PowerPoint presentation outlining every other demographic, that is not a straight girl, as an exception proving the rule SO bad.

Thirdly, gen z girls? That's so specific of a demographic that now I NEED to see that PowerPoint presentation (I'm assuming it has a pie chart, I love pie charts).

In all seriousness though, referring to gen z as teenagers at this point is ridiculous - the oldest of us is almost 30. The label cannot practically be used interchangeably in that way, when the oldest is (at time of writing) 27 and the youngest is 12 - that's way too big of an age gap to refer to an entire generation as "teenagers".

Furthermore, the targeted ridicule of teenage girls is SO FUCKING GROSS AND OLD. You can circle back to the first point for this one, but it's such a common cultural phenomenon to automatically hate anything young girls show interest in (whether that's music, movies, food, make up, and ships of fictional characters!) that you can base a whole discussion of its on it. And in fact, people HAVE - the number of articles that are out there describing this topic in detail is baffling and sad.

Fourthly, there's one more thing about the comment that I wanna talk about: "straight gen z girls who just want Will to get who he wants".

With how specific this comment is (and spoken with such confidence too) I want to assume that there is a specific person they had in mind when they wrote that. It's the only explanation I can think of.

Even if a Byler shipper did just want Byler to happen because they like Will and they want him to be happy with the boy he likes in the show, that's fine. Like- it doesn't hurt anyone, it doesn't really affect anyone except for one or two people that will get annoyed with that opinion, because that's just another way of enjoying a ship (it's really not that serious). But to project that on to an entire fandom is a bit much, I'm looking at you ClemandLee- dick for brains- fanatic.

Anyway, thanks for coming to my Ted talk *wiggle dances off stage*

......

Bonus rant:

Where the fuck in their asshole did they pull that statistic out of?? How the fuck did they collect the data to definitively say with full confidence that a majority of Byler shippers are "straight gen z girls who just want Will to get who he wants"? That is SO fucking specific like- how long did it take them to research that???

Did they have a survey? Questionnaires? Interviews? Did they set up a website or something so they could collect all this data? How the fuck are Byler shippers supposed to obssessed if that's somehow the case???

went to check out the st reddit 😭😭😭

umm WHAT?????

hey guys, are all of us bylers straight gen z girls???? AM I a straight gen z girl????? are most of us bylers little kids who are overly obsessed weirdos????

BREAKING NEWS: stranger things redditors can't fathom the fact that queer people like queer ships as well as representation and bylers can come in different ages and sexualities!!! 😱😱😱

[dankusner]

DALLAS Man sues detective, says he lied

Lawsuit also includes prosecutor, judge in dropped murder case

The man who was accused in the 2016 killing of prominent attorney Ira Tobolowsky is suing a Dallas police detective and prosecutor involved in the case, alleging his arrest was built on false and misleading evidence.

Steven Aubrey was released in January from the Dallas County jail after prosecutors dropped the capital murder charge against him on the eve of his trial.

He said in a federal lawsuit filed in Florida this spring that officials pursued a “malicious prosecution” and wrongfully jailed him for 625 days using a perjured arrest warrant.

The 63-year-old alleged Detective Brian Fillingim lied and left out information favorable to Aubrey in the warrant, adding that nothing connected him to the crime scene.

Along with Fillingim, he sued Glen Fitzmartin — the district attorney’s felony trial bureau chief — and the Florida judge who oversaw early proceedings after the arrest.

Aubrey is representing himself.

“What happened to me should not have taken place against anyone in the United States,” Aubrey told The Dallas Morning News in an emailed statement on Friday.

“They smeared my name, the name of my partner, and shattered my ability to make a living. They cost me my personal freedom and they damn near cost me my life.”

Spokespeople for Dallas police and the district attorney’s office declined to comment.

The attorney for Judge John Fry did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

‘Backed by evidence’

Fillingim, who retired from the Dallas Police Department in June, said “all the information in the affidavit is backed by evidence.”

“There was ample probable cause,” Fillingim told The News when reached by phone Friday.

“Multiple supervisors, a grand jury and the district judge all agreed there was probable cause.”

Tobolowsky, 68, was found dead in May 2016 after firefighters extinguished a blaze at his North Dallas home in the 7400 block of Kenshire Lane.

Authorities determined someone started the fire intentionally.

Police officials have said someone assaulted Tobolowsky in his garage, poured gasoline on him and then set him on fire.

The medical examiner’s office ruled his death a homicide and said he died of blunt force injuries, smoke inhalation and burns.

Detectives suspected someone drilled holes into the lawyer’s fence to spy on him.

Tobolowsky’s family pointed fingers at Aubrey for years.

Police say they connected him to the killing early on but did not arrest him until mid-2022.

Two years before his death, Tobolowsky — a well-liked attorney who came from a prestigious Dallas family that has been active in the Jewish community — began representing Aubrey’s mother in a legal dispute with her son over a family trust.

Brian Vodicka, a lawyer in a relationship with Aubrey, represented Aubrey in that family trust case.

Bar Card Number: 20598250

Police wrote in an arrest warrant that Aubrey wasn’t doing well in the civil case and wrote antisemitic emails and defamatory blog posts about Tobolowsky.

In 2015, Tobolowsky filed a defamation suit against Aubrey and Vodicka, both of whom gave depositions in the two months before Tobolowsky was killed.

(Tobolowsky’s family was awarded $5.5 million in the defamation suit about a year after the lawyer’s death.)

Dallas police brought Aubrey and Vodicka in for questioning a short time after the killing.

Aubrey declined to speak with investigators and later told The News he was not involved in the crime.

He reiterated that sentiment Friday.

“What they did to me was beyond criminal,” Aubrey said in his emailed statement. “I’m not a perfect human being. But I can’t even imagine carrying out the crimes that they claimed I committed.”

Among the evidence Dallas police detailed in the warrant for Aubrey were burns investigators saw on his hands a week after the killing.

They said he had intimate knowledge about the crime and that they also found a drill, drill bits, paint products, propane torches and clothing with ignitable liquid residue on it at his home, along with other items.

They found a laptop where someone had searched Tobolowsky’s address, a synagogue he attended, the name of one of his children, “Walmart tracfone,” “burner phone” and “alibi definition,” according to the affidavit.

The affidavit also noted Aubrey went to a dermatologist after the killing to have stitches removed from his back, and the dermatologist left a voicemail referencing a question Aubrey had asked about treatment for his burns.

Omitted information

In his newly filed lawsuit, Aubrey alleges he never sent any antisemitic emails.

He points to various statements in the arrest warrant that he said were fabricated and said Fillingim omitted exculpatory information, such as that his dermatologist did not see burn injuries on him the day of Tobolowsky’s killing, did not leave the voicemail noted in the warrant and Aubrey’s clothes did not test positive for gasoline residue.

He said lab results showed “the wood fibers from the drill and drill bits did not match the wood fibers from the fence with the hole,” and noted that he searched Tobolowsky’s home address after the killing while watching news reports.

Aubrey moved to Florida in November 2016 and was detained there more than five years later.

He was indicted in 2022 by a Dallas County grand jury, but two weeks before trial, prosecutors said they were “unable to make a prima facie case at this time,” meaning they couldn’t meet the standard to try the case.

In the lawsuit, Aubrey said “the state never had a case” and Fitzmartin “knew this, or should have known this” before the indictment. He said he “languished in jail” while Fillingim, Fitzmartin and Fry “enjoyed their freedom.”

‘Not going away’

In his statement , Aubrey criticized The News’ past stories for citing arrest warrant details, saying the paper is “a shell of itself” and should’ve interviewed him and drilled down on the evidence. (Aubrey previously sued The News’ parent company, a homicide detective, Tobolowsky’s widow and others over coverage of Tobolowsky’s death but dropped the suit in 2017.)

Aubrey told The News officials violated his civil rights and “what they did was so wrong that it’s beyond words.”

“I can’t get back the time they stole from me and my partner,” he said in his statement. “Only God can. But I will say this: I will press my case in court against the defendants until there is a resolution. I promise you: I am not going away.”

The district attorney’s office has not offered any further public explanation for why the case was dropped.

A Dallas police spokesperson said the investigation is ongoing and no charges had been filed as of Friday.

[ghtrrgwe]

Epstein court files damage Prince Andrew’s hopes of restoring reputation

The release of court documents relating to the late child sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein reduces any hopes the Duke of York had of rehabilitating his reputation.

The accusations against Andrew, from groping a woman’s breast in an alleged encounter involving a puppet version of the prince, to claims he had sex with an underage Virginia Giuffre, are given fresh airing.

The documents, the first of a tranche to be unsealed on the order of Judge Loretta Preska, were gathered for Giuffre’s 2015 defamation case against Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell is said to have introduced Andrew to the financier, and is serving 20 years in a US prison for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors.

In one witness statement, Johanna Sjoberg claimed Andrew groped her at Epstein’s house in New York in 2001 when she was aged 20, with Maxwell and Giuffre also present.

Her statement, previously partly revealed, alleges Maxwell had shown them a puppet of Andrew. “And they decided to take a picture with it, in which Virginia and Andrew sat on a couch. They put the puppet on Virginia’s lap and I sat on Andrew’s lap, and they put the puppet’s hand on Virginia’s breast, and Andrew put his hand on my breast, and they took a photo,” Sjoberg’s deposition said.

Asked about the seating arrangements, she said: “Whether we were on a couch or a chair, I just remember the boobs part, the hand on the boobs.”

Buckingham Palace previously said her allegations were “categorically untrue”.

Another filing regarding a Jane Doe #3, who is believed to be Giuffre, alleges she was “forced to have sexual relations with this prince when she was a minor in three separate geographical locations: in London (at Ghislaine Maxwell’s apartment), in New York and on Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands (in an orgy with numerous other underaged girls)”. Epstein instructed her to “give the prince whatever he demanded and required Jane Doe #3 to report back to him on the details of the sexual abuse”.

Giuffre has alleged she was trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell and forced to have sexual intercourse at these same three locations with Andrew when aged 17, claims Andrew has categorically denied.

The documents also show Maxwell’s fear of being questioned over her links with Andrew. Shortly after a civil claim had been filed against her, she wrote in an email to her lawyer in January 2015: “I am out of my depth to understanding defamation and other legal hazards and don’t want to end up in a lawsuit aimed at me from anyone if I can help it. Apparently even saying Virginia is a lier [sic] has hazard! I have never been in a suit criminal or civil and want it to stay that way.”

She added: “I have already suffered such a terrible and painful loss over the last few days that I can’t even see what life after press he’ll [sic] even looks like – statements that don’t address all just lead to more questions … what is my relationship to Clinton? Andrew on and on.”

In her deposition, Maxwell said she had once been on Epstein’s Caribbean island when Andrew visited. But she said: “There were no girls on the island. No girls, no women, other than the staff who work at the house. Girls meaning – I assume you are asking underage – but there was nobody female outside of the cooks and the cleaners.”

Andrew has denied any wrongdoing, including in his settlement with Giuffre in 2022. In that settlement he said he “regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others”.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the documents as Andrew is no longer a working royal. In a previous statement about links to Epstein, the palace said Andrew “deplores the exploitation of any human being and the suggestion he would condone, participate in or encourage any such behaviour is abhorrent”.

The campaign group Republic said it had reported Prince Andrew to the police in response to the court documents released overnight and the allegations about what is claimed to have taken place in London against Jane Doe #3.

Graham Smith, Republic’s CEO, said: “I have reported Andrew to the police, well aware that the Met claims to have looked into this before. To date there appears to have been no serious criminal investigation, no interview of the accused or other witnesses and no clear justification for taking no action.

“I am calling on the Met police to reopen this case, I am calling on MPs to debate this affair in parliament, and I am calling on Charles to make a public statement – in front of the press and taking questions – to respond to these allegations and what they say about the monarchy.

“How can we not expect a response from the government and head of state? At the time of the alleged offences Andrew was a government trade ambassador and an active member of the royal family. They fudged and obfuscated for 11 years before taking any definitive action.”

He added: “The question many people will be asking is simple: if the accused were anyone else, do we believe they wouldn’t have been investigated and prosecuted?”

 This article was amended on 8 January 2023, to remove a reference that 17 is under the age of sexual consent in the US. The age of consent varies by state, between 16 and 18.

[tadashi007007]

Epstein court files damage Prince Andrew’s hopes of restoring reputation

The release of court documents relating to the late child sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein reduces any hopes the Duke of York had of rehabilitating his reputation.

The accusations against Andrew, from groping a woman’s breast in an alleged encounter involving a puppet version of the prince, to claims he had sex with an underage Virginia Giuffre, are given fresh airing.

The documents, the first of a tranche to be unsealed on the order of Judge Loretta Preska, were gathered for Giuffre’s 2015 defamation case against Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell is said to have introduced Andrew to the financier, and is serving 20 years in a US prison for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors.

In one witness statement, Johanna Sjoberg claimed Andrew groped her at Epstein’s house in New York in 2001 when she was aged 20, with Maxwell and Giuffre also present.

Her statement, previously partly revealed, alleges Maxwell had shown them a puppet of Andrew. “And they decided to take a picture with it, in which Virginia and Andrew sat on a couch. They put the puppet on Virginia’s lap and I sat on Andrew’s lap, and they put the puppet’s hand on Virginia’s breast, and Andrew put his hand on my breast, and they took a photo,” Sjoberg’s deposition said.

Asked about the seating arrangements, she said: “Whether we were on a couch or a chair, I just remember the boobs part, the hand on the boobs.”

Buckingham Palace previously said her allegations were “categorically untrue”.

Another filing regarding a Jane Doe #3, who is believed to be Giuffre, alleges she was “forced to have sexual relations with this prince when she was a minor in three separate geographical locations: in London (at Ghislaine Maxwell’s apartment), in New York and on Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands (in an orgy with numerous other underaged girls)”. Epstein instructed her to “give the prince whatever he demanded and required Jane Doe #3 to report back to him on the details of the sexual abuse”.

Giuffre has alleged she was trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell and forced to have sexual intercourse at these same three locations with Andrew when aged 17, claims Andrew has categorically denied.

The documents also show Maxwell’s fear of being questioned over her links with Andrew. Shortly after a civil claim had been filed against her, she wrote in an email to her lawyer in January 2015: “I am out of my depth to understanding defamation and other legal hazards and don’t want to end up in a lawsuit aimed at me from anyone if I can help it. Apparently even saying Virginia is a lier [sic] has hazard! I have never been in a suit criminal or civil and want it to stay that way.”

She added: “I have already suffered such a terrible and painful loss over the last few days that I can’t even see what life after press he’ll [sic] even looks like – statements that don’t address all just lead to more questions … what is my relationship to Clinton? Andrew on and on.”

In her deposition, Maxwell said she had once been on Epstein’s Caribbean island when Andrew visited. But she said: “There were no girls on the island. No girls, no women, other than the staff who work at the house. Girls meaning – I assume you are asking underage – but there was nobody female outside of the cooks and the cleaners.”

Andrew has denied any wrongdoing, including in his settlement with Giuffre in 2022. In that settlement he said he “regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others”.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the documents as Andrew is no longer a working royal. In a previous statement about links to Epstein, the palace said Andrew “deplores the exploitation of any human being and the suggestion he would condone, participate in or encourage any such behaviour is abhorrent”.

The campaign group Republic said it had reported Prince Andrew to the police in response to the court documents released overnight and the allegations about what is claimed to have taken place in London against Jane Doe #3.

Graham Smith, Republic’s CEO, said: “I have reported Andrew to the police, well aware that the Met claims to have looked into this before. To date there appears to have been no serious criminal investigation, no interview of the accused or other witnesses and no clear justification for taking no action.

“I am calling on the Met police to reopen this case, I am calling on MPs to debate this affair in parliament, and I am calling on Charles to make a public statement – in front of the press and taking questions – to respond to these allegations and what they say about the monarchy.

“How can we not expect a response from the government and head of state? At the time of the alleged offences Andrew was a government trade ambassador and an active member of the royal family. They fudged and obfuscated for 11 years before taking any definitive action.”

He added: “The question many people will be asking is simple: if the accused were anyone else, do we believe they wouldn’t have been investigated and prosecuted?”

 This article was amended on 8 January 2023, to remove a reference that 17 is under the age of sexual consent in the US. The age of consent varies by state, between 16 and 18.