#I'm breaking out the conspiracy board now

[jacqcrisis]

CHARON CONFIRMED SHOPKEEPER IN HADES 2 BUT ALSO

Hermes is missing?

AND CHARON NEEDS COMFORTED OVER IT???

im already out of my mind about it

[treedaddymcpuffpuff]

Excessive Force : Tom Ludlow x Fem Nurse Reader (COLLAB W/ THE INCREDIBLE @johnwickb1tsch) - Chapter One

Summary : After you treat him in the ER, Officer Tom Ludlow asks you out. You turn him down, thinking you know his type, but he’s not willing to take no for an answer. In fact, you find out he’s more than willing to abuse his authority in his pursuit of you. Maybe Ludlow seems like an asshole, but when you are drawn into a dangerous conspiracy that could go all the way to the top of the LAPD, he might be the only thing that stands between you and a shallow grave.

TW : Abuse of authority, alpha male, sexual harassment, the word “no” is not in this man’s vocabulary

The ER is overflowing tonight. There was a huge drug bust down on South Hampton Avenue that ended in a fire and gunfight: turned out to be a big enough debacle that they had to call a code black throughout the hospital, which basically means, at least for you, no breaks or time between patients. In times like this, charting even takes a back burner thanks to a hospital policy where everything you learned in nursing school flies out the window and you don’t have to document what you’re doing. 

It’s a good thing, because you don’t have time to log onto a computer let alone write something down with pen and paper. Burn victims, gunshots, every bed full, people boarding in the waiting room and hallways with broken limbs and makeshift pressure dressings on bullet holes and stab wounds.

The once chemical, pristine floor and walls now look like something from a SAW movie, and you’re not much better off. Bloody, dirt caked scrubs, exhausted, sweat stains. You’ve probably done more chest compressing tonight than you have in your entire career leading up. And you’ve seen more people die tonight… well, more than you’d like.

You wipe some tears off your cheeks, pretending it’s sweat, before walking into the lobby to catch the stragglers. “Thomas?”

“Call me Tom.” He’s a cop, still in uniform, sitting on the floor with a big puff of gauze pressed into his shoulder. You kneel down beside him. 

“I’m y/n, can I take a look?”

“Sure.” He winces, pulls the bloody dressing away to reveal a big, messy gash slicing into his left shoulder. It will need stitches, that’s for sure, but other than that it looks like a fairly clean cut. 

“Knife?” You ask him, pulling back on his shirt. 

“Some fucking idiot crackhead with a sword, actually,” he grits. 

You laugh a little bit. “I’m having a hard time believing that.”

“So am I.” He tries to grin at you, but it comes out more like a snarl because of the way you’re poking and prodding at him. 

Maybe it's just because you're exhausted, you've had a terrible night, and you hurt all over, but you can't help but notice how handsome this man is, even after his own ordeals on the mean streets of the City of Angels. He watches you with sharp dark eyes that miss nothing. You almost feel sorry for the criminals who find themselves on the receiving end of that stare. As it is, you almost feel a little unnerved yourself, until you notice a sparkle of humor for you in those dark orbs. However, you still get the feeling like he's studying you while you are tending his wound.

“I gotta stitch this,” you tell him, a little shy under his gaze, now. 

“Are you good at that?” 

You’re kind of in your own little world when he asks that, looking at his arms. Solid and big. Nice veins. It takes you a minute to register that he even said something. Yeah, you chastise yourself, why don’t you just start fucking drooling while you’re at it? 

“Good at what?” 

His grin tips higher. “Stitches…” 

“No, but I'm going to stab you repeatedly with a needle anyway…”

He chuffs with laughter. “You just seem a little distracted.” The way he smirks at you, you just know you're caught out. Get it together, you scold yourself. Maybe act like a professional instead of oogling the nice police officer.

“Sorry. It's just been a really long night. I promise, you're in good hands.”

“Looking forward to it,” he answers, with a beam of direct eye contact that nearly brings you to your knees. 

This is where you catch your lucky break, because this is where you start to get annoyed. Mostly, at yourself, but partly at him too. He clearly knows how attractive he is. He's just that kind of asshole. And it's been fucking forever since you've gotten laid, because the world is just so full of assholes… It's not fair, the way he uses this advantage to tease you, when you feel like an extra in a Rob Zombie film. You do your best to appear unaffected as you walk away to retrieve supplies. You also pretend not to notice him staring at your ass, which, okay, you have to admit, it’s a little bit of a confidence boost. 

It’s almost stupid to put towels under his arm as you spray him off with sterile water - this floor could actually use it. You get the edges pink and shiny, uncake the blood and the viscera. Grateful for the distraction - distraction from the big, brown eyed cop who won’t stop looking at you. 

He has that type of stare that has weight to it. You feel it, on your skin– and you hate to admit it– in the aching throb between your legs, which is the last thing you need to be distracted by right now. Ah, the stupid lady parts, always making their vote known at the worst possible time. 

Even though you let the anesthetic sit for a while, modern medicine can’t account for all the pain. He’s wincing and grunting while you tug his open flesh back together, and those gruff sounds are not helping this whole being attracted to him situation. You feel like your skin is on fire from his overwhelming stare, from the noises coming out of that long throat. Christ, he’s not even touching you…

“You alright there sweetheart? I'm the one under the needle.”

You look at him, some of that anger escaping in your tone. “Please don’t call me sweetheart.” 

“Sorry. Been a long night for me too.” He lifts one of those sculpted dark brows at you, and you feel it as your heart tries most earnestly to tap dance right out of your fucking chest. 

You sigh, narrowing your eyes so that he knows he's not in the clear. Unfortunately, he just seems to find that adorable, those dark eyes sparkling like black diamonds. 

“Just…let me finish you off so you can get out of here.”

“Didn't know you performed that service here,” he quips with a smirk, and you're almost relieved he drives this final nail into his coffin, even if the suggestion makes a spear of desire shoot through you. 

“I'm starting to side with the crackhead now.”

“Ooo, ouch,” he snarks, unaffected. “Take your time, this is the most fun I've had in a while.”

You decide not to answer, concentrating on your work. This man has a quick comeback for everything, you have a feeling. Worse, you kind of doubt a girl like you has a chance in hell of outmaneuvering him.

As you're bandaging him up, he senses your time together is coming to a close. His demeanor changes a little– if you didn't know any better,  you'd think he was sad about it. “Thanks for stitching me up,” he says, surprisingly humble. He rolls those big dark eyes up to yours, and you feel your resolve to be a stone cold professional crumble–a little.

“You're welcome.” It's possible your touch on his shoulder lingers just slightly longer than it should. 

“Hey…” He clearly feels bold enough to catch your hand in his. And holy shit, that hand. Your little mitt disappears in his, wrapped up in long, blunt fingers. The things you bet that hand could do to you…

It's definitely not a helpful thought.

“Any chance I could give you a call sometime?”

Your initial, knee-jerk reaction to this question, from this fine-ass man, is Yes, please and thank you. You're sure he sees it in your eyes, the way you're practically ready to sit up and bark for him.

But then, past experiences raise their hands to the situation, and how grateful you are. 

You know this guy's type, you convince yourself. Handsome, and macho, and they think they're so cute they can say anything and you'll just keep eating out of the palm of their hand, grateful to be their girl. You've starred in this show before– and it always ends in tragedy, with your heart in shreds, and them shrugging you off before moving on. 

Not tonight. 

“Sorry, but…I think it's best we keep this professional.”

Why does it hurt to say it?

You expect him to sulk, maybe even get mean, the way so many manly men do when a woman bruises their fragile egos. However, it seems this man is different. He just smirks, and you realize with a skip of your heartbeat, that he is not deterred at all.

“If you say so, sweetheart.”

With your heart in your throat, you have a feeling this is not the last you see of detective Tom Ludlow.

[anamericangirl]

So I dunno who to tell this because I found something really interesting about the Trump assassination attempt and I don't break stories like this.

I found out that the alleged shooter, Thomas Crooks, is in a commercial for Blackrock.

From this screencap (I didn't make this, it's part of a video) I saw that the name of the commercial is "Who We Impact: Financial Freedom for Teachers" and in the scene, "Unit 3" is written on the board, which is the number of the building the shooter was on, "Building 3." Now that part could just be a coincidence but it's pretty shady regardless.

Anyway, I looked that video up

The Blackrock channel reuploaded that exact video 1 month ago, but they removed any scenes with Thomas Crooks, and even more, comments are being auto-deleted on all of their videos

Including videos with 2.5M views.

It is possible to disable comments, they are not disabling comments. All of the Blackrock videos have 0 comments, and I tried commenting and watched my comment disappear instantly.

I don't listen to conspiracy theories, I do my own research.

Well, this is the result of me doing my own research.

I found out some shady fucking shit is going on.

There's even more

Way more

Such as, for example, the killer, "Thomas Crooks," and the body of the shooter do not look alike. As a matter of fact, the body looks almost identical to a guy named "Maxwell Yearick" who has a track record of threatening to kill Trump, was on an FBI watch list, is ANTIFA, went to multiple rallies about ANTIFA and anti-white-supremacy and got in fights and was very violent, etc. and to top it all off he looks exactly like the body of the shooter. Facial structure, facial hair, lip shape, nose, hair, scar where he repaired his ear gauges, etc.

And Maxwell's facebook page, "Max Swell," literally got privated and had all its posts removed and disappeared off the internet, and on DuckDuckGo, searching for Maxwell Yearick gives results for Thomas Crooks instead.

But THAT'S not what I'm talking about.

What I'm here talking about is that this Thomas Crooks was literally in a commercial for Blackrock that was removed from their YouTube channel 1 month ago and replaced with another video, and they're deleting literally every comment on their channel with bots.

That’s all pretty interesting, especially the Blackrock stuff that’s just weird. I haven’t seen any of that myself and I haven’t seen the body of the shooter either so I can’t speak to that part but it is very interesting what you can find doing your own research.

I’m sure there will be a lot of rabbit holes to go down in the upcoming days and we will learn more and more with time and I’m interested to see what surfaces, especially with this information. I’m not ready to conspire about anything just yet but honestly at this point nothing would surprise me.

Thanks for sharing!

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved on our archive

By Julie Luchetta and Troy Oppie

Residents in the Southwest Idaho Health District will no longer be able to get vaccinated against COVID-19 at District Health offices.

The District’s Board of Health voted 4-3 Tuesday to remove the COVID-19 vaccines from its facilities after receiving around 300 public comments urging them to do so. The board vote followed anti-vaccine presentations from multiple doctors widely accused of spreading conspiracy theories and misinformation, including Idaho pathologist Dr. Ryan Cole.

Other presenters joined by teleconference, including Dr. Peter McCullough, a Texas-based cardiologist who had his medical certifications threatened by the American Board of Internal Medicine in 2022, pediatrician Dr. Renata Moon, who has sued Washington State University over free speech when the school did not renew her contract after an appearance before a 2022 U.S. Senate panel questioning vaccines, and Dr. James Thorp, an OB/GYN who was featured in the conspiracy-laden and widely debunked documentary 'Died Suddenly.'

They were invited to participate by the only physician on the Southwest District board of health, Dr. John Tribble. The board initially heard a presentation from a district staff physician, Dr. Perry Jansen, who recommended keeping the vaccine available through the health district offices.

"We really serve as a safety net provider for people who can't get health care in any other way, largely because of finances," Jansen told the board. "We're able to offer free and discounted services for people who don't have access through private care."

COVID-19 vaccines are no longer free, but public health departments can purchase them at a discount. Health insurance often covers the cost of the shots, but anyone paying out-of-pocket would pay less at their local health district clinic.

Many public comments received by the board expressed outrage at local tax dollars supporting COVID-19 vaccine distribution, but Jansen reminded the board that people who want the shots pay for them, either through insurance coverage or in cash, and the health district is not subsidizing the costs in any way.

Board chair Kelly Aberasturi questioned the authority of the board to remove vaccines for everyone, saying many going to the District for COVID vaccines are referred by their doctor.

“So now, you're telling me that I have the right to override that doctor? Because I know more than he does?” Aberasturi said.

"It has to do with the right of the individual to make that decision on their own. Not for me to dictate to them what they will do. Sorry, but this pisses me off," he added.

Tribble disagreed, saying the COVID vaccines had not been proven to be safe.

“They show up at the door, trusting us, and we continue to break that trust by saying, tacitly or otherwise, that these things, there's no risk from these.”

The CDC recommends everyone above the age of six months receive a COVID vaccine and acknowledges the potential risks.

Board member Jennifer Riebe said she didn’t agree with a lot of the CDC’s recommendations but didn't think it was the board’s role to make this kind of decision.

“My concern with this is the process because if this board and six county commissioners and one physician is going to make determinations on every single vaccine and pharmaceutical that we administer, I'm not comfortable with that," she said. "It may be COVID now, maybe we'll go down the same road with the measles vaccine or the shingles vaccine coverage.”

“I don't know why we as a health agency, as a public health agency, would want to give that or make it available when they can go other places,” said board member Viki Purdy.

Dr. David Pate, the former CEO of St. Luke's Health System who also served on the Governor's Coronavirus Task Force told Idaho Matters the decision would only serve as a financial barrier to those who wanted to get the vaccine.

"We've got tons of data now, and the fact that there is this group of physicians who is still able to promote scientific nonsense and scare people, and have a public health board of all people, fall for it, and vote in favor of vaccine disinformation is disheartening," he said.

The District serves Adams, Canyon, Gem, Owyhee, Payette and Washington counties. The organization had already received 50 doses of the vaccine at the time of the vote; they are still scheduled to go towards residents of a skilled nursing facility in Canyon County.

COVID vaccines are still available at other locations, like commercial pharmacies and healthcare clinics not affiliated with Southwest District Health.

[winepresswrath]

oh man. that vid. as usual I am unwell about everyone yunmeng affiliated. And I have always enjoyed Zhancheng, and been a hatesex enthusiast. this changed me. I'm breaking out a conspiracy board. I went back to episode 47 to see if Lan Wangji really looked at him like that right after he got stabbed and

my head is in my hands what do i do now.

[mochiimadness]

Hey, I dunno if your still taking requests but I have one!

What about s/o having hair like Entrapta's from She-Ra? I would love to see how they would react to their s/o with that!

Hello, I'm sorry for the long wait! I'm finally getting around to answering old requests, before opening new ones.

I haven't seen She-Ra, but I did look Entrapta up, so I hope I haven't gotten anything wrong!

Neon Leon

Leo is both insanely fascinated over your hair-

But also, very very terrified at first.

Remember when Leo wore that blond wig that ended up being completely and utterly evil??

Leo does.

Leo has flashbacks of this when he first sees you using your hair to grab a mug off the counter that was just out of hands reach.

May or may not have screamed.

"S/o, I don't mean to freak you out but- YOUR HAIR IS CURSED!"

"What- wait no it's just-"

"Don't worry- I got this!" he says, as he whips out his sword

Cue panicked screaming from everyone in the room as Leo attempts to 'save' you

He really thought you were in danger okay-

After managing to convince Leo to not chop off your hair,

You have to explain to him that your hair isn't actually cursed by some weird dude looking to steal stuff

"I was born like this, I can just make my hair move and stuff."

Cue Leo's suspicious squinting.

He does believe you! He just cant help peaking around corners detective style to spy on your hair at first.

Once he gets use to it tho, he's got to admit, having hair you can use to grab things jussst barely out of reach is amazing!

His jaw drops when he realizes you can fight using your hair too-

Your hair wraps around a rather slippery warthog mutant and launches him several feet away

Leo is staring in shock and possible fear

They'd been trying to get a hold on that mutant for ages, and you just managed to grab him no problem???

And launch him like a soft ball???????

Mad respect

Enchanted/cursed hair or not, Leo's just glad it's not using you for evil!

Plus, you seem to be having fun, so he's cool with it now.

Don Tron

Donnie's insanely curious about your hair

Absolutely runs some tests and experiments (with your permission ofc)

He's seen you lift mugs and smaller objects-

But what's the weight limit???

Is it like a muscle that can be trained to lift more over time????

Is it possibly sentient?!

You let him come up with new theories

But as soon as the conspiracy board and red strings come out,

You're lifting him with your hair and carrying him away for a break.

He loves when you help him out in the lab

Using your hair to grab and hold tools or parts

It's similar to using his spider arms, but 10x better since it's his s/o helping him.

Your hair also inspires him to make a different version of his spider arm battle shell-

This one using a more fluid movement to match your hair!

He lowkey looks like Doc Oc...

Villains do their best to avoid you both

Having one person who can grab and yeet them away was bad enough-

But now there's two??????

They are sprinting as fast as they can

Not fast enough though!

You're able to use your hair to grab and swing from walls, catching up to villains with ease

Donnie's impressed, you didn't even need a tracking device!

You two also found out another trick you could do,

You're able to use your hair as a extra set of arms- so you both came to a realization

You could use your hair to hold more controllers.

You two need an extra player???

Bam, you're holding two more controllers

Donnie cackles manically every time you two score extra points using this method

Is it technically cheating????

Maybe

You can't deny it takes a lot of skill and practice to do though, so who cares?

Not you and Donnie, that's who!

Mystic Mike

:0 !!!

Your hair can move?!?!

Please please show him what you can do!

Absolutely loves seeing all your tricks

From lifting a mug, to scaling a building-

He thinks you and your hair are awesome!!

One day, he's literally in the middle of talking to you when he interrupts his own sentence in a huge realization-

"So then I chased them down on the shells hogs and- WAIT WAIT HOLD THE PHONE-"

"Holding."

"NOW ANSWER IT!"

"Hellooo?"

"You can use your hair to paint!!!!"

Cue both of you jumping up and sprinting to his room

You can, in fact, use your hair to paint!

Whether it be using your actual hair as a paintbrush,

Or holding multiple brushes and items at once!

It makes art time ten times more efficient- but also extremely chaotic

Sure, now you both have easy access to art materials, but now your hair can literally spin everything

The guys entered the living room one day and saw it absolutely covered in buckets of paint

You are now banned from holding stain causing items in the common areas and Donnie's lab.

When you two go fight together

Mikey quickly learns that you can use your hair to help climb and scale buildings

Which leads to you crawling upside down on a ceiling at full speed, with Mikey floating beside you, at enemies

There are high pitched shrieks whenever you join the battle

You may or may not be a local cryptid now.

"S/O, they're calling you a spider mutant!"

"Nice."

Big Red

Like Leo,

Raph also thinks your hair is alive

Though, he's more concerned than fearful

If your hair is alive, then should he ask it if he can pat your head??

You reassure him that your hair is not alive or sentient

He's still wary about it though

Definitely gives it suspicious looks when you're not looking just to test it

When you catch onto this though, you start moving your hair 'without your knowledge' just to play around

Raph shrieks

"I KNEW IT!!!"

You'll have to explain that you were just pranking him lmao

He does realize that your hair isn't alive eventually though.

Is genuinely impressed by what your hair can do

Especially when he realizes you can lift heavier objects too

If you're able to lift him with your hair, he'll scream

Definitely has a fanboy moment

"WHAT!? How is it so strong?!?"

Even if you can't lift him with your hair,

He's still impressed!

Throughout the day, you'll use your hair to grab things that are out of reach and hand it to him

Usually it's subconscious,

Like when he just barely got into a comfy spot after a long patrol and realizes his phone is just out of reach

You grab it and hand it to him offhandedly

Or when he's sleeping and the blanket slips off, you'll reach around to pull it back up and make sure he's covered

He appreciates these little gestures so much

Absolutely warms his heart and makes him a little misty eyed.

During battle,

He sees you literally form a fist shape with your hair and deck a rather aggressive yokai right in the face,

Sending them flying down the street

Raph will stop and stare in awe

"Woah!! S/O that's amazing!"

He's so proud of you

Then he realizes the hidden city police are making their way towards the two of you

Cue both of you hauling it towards the nearest portal

"GO GO GO!"

"I CAN'T GO BACK TO JAIL!"

Hey everyone, I'm going through my old requests and writing them. I can't promise I'll get to all of them, but I'll do my best when I have time!

Sorry for the huge wait, life got crazy

[marquisegallery]

The last thing from the backlog I had at the beginning of this year. And a thing I've been meaning to talk about before then anyways. :u

First and foremost, this is a reference to this old drawing!

Second, basically I was original planning to do a big story thing as a sequel to my Maddy and Match fic. But after a lot of planning and attempts at rewrites, I think I'm going to have to scale things back on that potential sequel.

I've come to realize I bit off more than I could chew and was planning to make it like... basically like a whole season of the anime in terms of scale. A main plot! Subplots! Tons of characters! Plot twists! Surprise villains! etc.

Some people are able to handle that all on their own, but... yeah, I'm definitely not one of those people. Also after breaking things up during the outlining, it could potentially end up a good 50+ chapters, and committing to something that big for one fic is just... really intimidating tbh. ^^;

So yeah, Lan being pulled away from the "conspiracy board" is basically symbolic of me taking a step back and trim things down a bit.

That is not to say there won't ever be a sequel to my Maddy and Match fic! There's at least one loose thread of sorts involving Match's family. That was going to be resolved in the original sequel, and I've decided to basically rip that out of the original plan and make it the focus of a smaller fic. Hopefully it will be satisfying and tie everything up! Hopefully.

In the meantime I still have my BRC fixation, so who knows when I'd ever get to that anyways. It'd be nice to make this a collaborative thing with another BN/EXE writer, but I'm not gonna try and force that to be a guarantee.

For now, we'll see what the future holds! \o/

[xxgoblin-dumplingxx]

Free pass for anything with Assistant reader? :)

"Did anyone order a spicy tuna?" you ask, putting your bag down and falling into a chair.

"I did," one of the other PA's at the table piped up.

"And," Alli added, "We ordered your first drink- we figured you weren't running that late."

"Fantastic," you sigh, taking the drink and helping yourself to a dumpling. Bruce had been particularly grumpy this week and if you didn't get out of your office you were gonna strangle him.

"It's going around this week," Alli said. Almost EVERYONE had come in tired and frustrated. Money evidently didn't buy happiness because the PA's that played with the big boys were all miserable.

Even you, evidently. Most of you couldn't talk ABOUT your employers. But, a lot could be said with meaningful glances. And generally, Wayne seemed to treat you very well.

"I'm not surprised," you say, sipping your drink. "As soon as they announced the expansion on Arkham everyone was on edge. And now that they're breaking ground- well." You shrug. They all knew. Outside businesses were pulling out. And property values were tanking.

That wasn't why Bruce was being a grump ass. He was being a grump ass because it meant an uptick in gang-related crimes. And instead of sleeping he was staring at conspiracy boards and shoving the bulk of his meetings off on to you. Using you as a mouthpiece.

A task usually left to Alfred- but, Alfred had taken a very inconveniently timed vacation to England to visit family... And thus he'd handed that responsibility to you. You appreciated the trust just not the added workload.

"It's been a nightmare," was the general concensus around the table.

"A toast to this bullshit being over sooner rather than later," Alli added, raising her glass.

"I think we can drink to that," you snort.

[k4e0n]

'Of the Stars'

Also known as my giant conspiracy theory/headcanon board for how these guys are all connected. Sorry if the text is hard to read, I'm good at writing small when I'm running out of room.

In other news, sorry for disappearing for over two months, I was busy with my final weeks of college for the year. I'm on summer break now, thankfully, which hopefully means I'll be able to post art more often for a while.

[shihkas]

It’s dishonest not to include in your loud and angry defence of Allison Miller that she voluntarily surrendered her license *after* she was investigated by a professional licensing board that found she said she ‘had no reason to doubt the authenticity’ of her patients stories (but she doesn’t believe them, huh?), that her beliefs about abuse and trauma and mental health were unusual and out of step with the field, and that she expressed unfounded certainty about cult activity. The way people who want to die on the hill of this project monarch shit cherry-pick information and leave it out when it’s inconvenient to defending your favorite conspiracy doctors is shameless.

Why are you bold-faced lying in my inbox when the links I cited directly counter your claims?

I'll break it down: we have two parties, The Satanic Temple/Grey Faction (Douglas/Doug Mesner/Doug Misicko/Lucian Greaves), and Alison Miller, countering one another's claims. One of these people aggressively hates Jewish people, and the other describes antisemitic survivor beliefs; it shouldn't surprise you that groups and cults who torture people probably don't have the greatest morals and probably pass on some pretty awful beliefs to those they abuse.

From Alison Miller:

“The reason I discontinued my membership in the College of Psychologists has nothing to do with the Grey Faction’s harassing complaint about my writings and online videos. I left the College because I am 78 years old. I retired two years ago.”

“When Evan Anderson [director of Grey Faction] complained about my work, the College asked [not investigated] me about my professional activities since retirement, and let me know that (a) I did not have to remain a member after retirement as long as another member knew the location of my clinical records, and (b) speaking and writing were considered to be providing psychological services, which was forbidden to non-practicing members—but if I discontinued membership, my speaking and writing activities would no longer be the concern of the licensing body. It became evident to me that I no longer needed to maintain this unnecessary membership which now prohibited me from speaking and writing, so I resigned from the College.”

So to be clear what happened was the College told her "just so you know, you can't provide psychological services because you're retired, but you can also just revoke your membership." It literally had nothing to do with Grey Faction's claims. They (the College) just didn't know she was offering "psychological services" (...speaking and writing) until Grey Faction brought it to their attention. Keep in mind once again Grey Faction exists entirely to deny the existence of ritual abuse and target therapists and survivors.

And nowhere did I bring up Project Monarch what the fuck are you talking about? I think you're jumping to conclusions that I'm one of those fucking "RAMCOA Minecraft script" believer people.

Ritual abuse is relatively common in the global south and so-called third world countries. As someone who is an immigrant and as someone whose Entire family has been DIRECTLY affected by ritual abuse for multiple generations I would Really appreciate not being lumped with 15 year olds who just want to be special.

To be clear I also don't think RA, MC, or OA are "the worst types of abuse", that's how we got here in the first place. There is no "worst type of abuse". There are just DIFFERENT types of abuse. It's not good for trauma recovery to fixate on what's "worse" or "better".

I'm putting the rest of this under a read more as I want to cite sources and provide evidence of how ritual abuse isn't actually as outlandish as people make it sound. Upsetting descriptions of CSA and ritual abuse as well as cited examples are below the cut so tread carefully.

First of all let's define "ritual," here is the Cambridge dictionary definition of the word "ritual":

"a way of doing something in which the same actions are done in the same way every time [...] a fixed set of actions and words, especially as part of a religious ceremony."

In this context, "religious ceremony" can also be understood as expressing devotion to an ideology (which is also exactly what religious ceremonies are anyways.)

Examples of common "rituals" (also referred to as a schedule, routine, etc., see synonyms below):

Having a specific "morning" or "evening" routine, especially if you do them in a set order

Having set meal times, especially in the context of a family's routine (even more so if it is important for the family to say grace prior to eating, or similar habits)

Having tea at a specific time every day

Examples of common abusive "ritual practices":

Hazing rituals, which have been documented in fraternities and sports teams

Gang initiations, especially if violent

Military initiations (sanctioned and unsanctioned)

(some of) Merriam-Webster's synonyms for the word "ritual":

habit

custom

practice

routine

pattern

regimen

Let's define "ritual abuse", and I won't use Miller's description just for this argument specifically. Here is the article I am citing. This is a research article. This article is impartial to the belief and disbelief of ritual abuse because you are Supposed to be as impartial as possible when you are writing research papers. The writers of this article are simply presenting their findings.

First, here's a definition of organized abuse, as ritual abuse falls under the umbrella, also keep in mind I said "a definition" and not "THE definition" as organized sexual abuse is not the only type of organized abuse (labour trafficking, etc.):

Sexual child abuse involving a network of perpetrators acting repeatedly and jointly on multiple victims is defined as ‘organized abuse’

And here is their definition of ritual abuse:

Organized abuse that follows a (pseudo-) ideological strategy (e.g., symbols or group activities with religious, magical, or supernatural connotations) in order to frighten and intimidate the children or to force the victims to participate whilst simultaneously accomplishing the perpetrators’ exculpation is referred to as ‘ritual abuse’

When they say "...magical or supernatural connotations" they are not saying that these groups are Literally magical or supernatural in nature. They are relaying information from the individuals surveyed, where some stated that their abuser groups aligned themselves with magical or supernatural elements.

What they are basically saying is that these organized groups pervert ideology (religion, spirituality, etc.) to scare group members. For example: "if you don't do this the devil is gonna get you," which sounds ridiculous to you and I because we're adults, but a five year old isn't going to know any better.

So now let's talk about a well-known example of ritual child abuse that happened in America, the Waco siege and the Branch Davidian cult:

(the following is from "The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog" by child psychiatrist Bruce D. Perry)

Inside the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, children lived in a world of fear. Even babies weren’t immune: cult leader David Koresh believed that the wills of infants—some just eight months old—needed to be broken with strict physical discipline if they were to stay “in the light.”

And he was a god who ruled by fear. Children (and sometimes even adults) were in constant fear of the physical attacks and public humiliation that could result from the tiniest error, like spilling milk. Punishment often involved being beaten bloody with a wooden paddle called “the helper.” Davidian children also feared hunger: those who “misbehaved” could be deprived of food for days or put on a bland diet of only potatoes or bread. Sometimes, they would be isolated overnight.

And, for the girls, there was knowledge that they would ultimately become a “Bride of David.” In a unique form of sanctioned sexual abuse girls as young as ten were groomed to become Koresh’s sexual partners. A former member said Koresh once excitedly compared the heartbeats of the prepubescent girls he violated to those of hunted animals.

Throughout the rest of this chapter in this book, Perry, who worked closely with these children, describes in even more explicit and upsetting detail the trauma these children and infants were put through. This isn't a fucking conspiracy theory, this actually happened. Some of these children are still alive today. This is what ritual abuse Actually Is.

Do not come back in my inbox and tell me this is fake or I am misconstruing ritual abuse. You are the one who has been lead to misbelieve that ritual abuse = men in black robes belonging to worldwide satanic cults decapitating babies en masse and chanting over their bodies while surrounded by candles (which, by the way, that kind of murder and maiming of children, including infants, in this fashion does, very tragically, actually happen in war and conflict.)

[kerryweaverlesbian]

Thunderstruck. My new horny fic where Dean sucks Cas off during a storm ❤ here's a teaser (😏) :

"Urgh, we're going to have to pull over. I can't see shit with this rain." 

It's only just 6pm, and summer too, but the clouds are so heavy it's dark out. The rain has been lashing for an hour, but now it's to the point Dean can hardly see through the windshield, wipers just pushing the water around rather than giving any real clear spots. Cas has been watching the storm from the passanger seat with intense interest, and he doesn't look away from it when he asks: 

"You don't like storms?" 

"Hm?" He's only half-listening, focused on discerning the layby from the darkness. "They're annoying. It's always just as your shovel breaks earth when the heavens break open. Like we're being punished or something." 

"Storms are a sign of demonic activity," Cas says, making Dean scoff. 

"Everything's a conspiracy. Can't we just be having bad luck and that's the end of it?" 

"The truth is out there," Cas quotes, so Dean gives him a laugh and a quick peck on the lips for his efforts after he kills the engine. 

"Talk TV to me, baby," Dean flirts, then whistles and looks up at an especially loud roll of thunder. "Glad I'm not out in that." 

He looks back to Cas and jumps - in the 10 seconds he'd turned his face up, Cas had crawled right up into Dean's space, his face suddenly inches away. Cas kisses him insistently, and while Dean's surprised he's also thoroughly on board. Cas's tongue breaches Dean's mouth sooner than normal, hedonistic and hot, and if he wasn't already sitting down Dean would definitely be feeling a weak at the knees. 

When he's released for breath (or rather, to pant) he remarks, "Jesus, Cas. What's gotten into you?" 

"Do you trust me?" Cas asks, instead of answering. 

"I think we've covered that by now." 

Cas shakes his head and brings his hand up to cover the front of Dean's throat, not pressing down but the concept makes Dean swallow. His heart picks up speed, a little pavlovian. This is how Cas always asks when their about to have some truly inspired kinky and/or romantic sex. 

"Do you trust me?" 

Read more on ao3!

[a-finnish-janitor]

So this bit on Tim's conspiracy board. I always thought it maybe had something to do with Hedron or Polaris, and all of the shapes that you see in Control.

But now replaying Quantum Break, I totally forgot about what the countermeasure looked like.

Or who knows, maybe there is something tied together there that we haven't seen yet? Maybe whenever Control 2 comes out there will be more shown.

Also I'm kind of wishing I had done this replay a bit sooner, I'm choosing opposite of what I did last time with Serene, and it would be nice if I could remember how it happened the first time to really get a handle of what little changes there are.

[buckybarnesss]

so. motel california. do you have thoughts?

I know the doylist explanation is just that jeff wanted to do a fun spooky episode and didn't give a fuck whether it made sense, but from a watsonian perspective?

did jennifer crash the truck that causes the traffic jam? did she cause the tornado? if she didn't cause the tornado, what was her plan? if she did cause it what was her plan?! why are none of the humans affected by the wolfsbane? why did she just give up after the werewolves had emotional breakthroughs, was this some kind of deeply unethical therapy? why does teen wolf take place in the same universe as psycho?!

i really like the horror-lite aesthetic, it's a fun episode, but it makes so little sense, and it's driving me crazy!

my apologies that this took me so long to answer but it took me a while to gather my thoughts. as with a lot of things in teen wolf it's hard to give a straight answer without breaking down some things first.

the simple answer is: jennifer is good but she's not that good and teen wolf wanted a halloween episode despite airing in july.

but i can never just give a simple answer.

i'm just gonna read more this now because like always i get long goddamn winded about what was going on in 3A.

the thing about 3A i think that is sort of missed is that it's the closing moves of a chess match that began long before wolf moon. the chess metaphor is deep this season, okay. there's a reason derek is the king on stiles's chess board and it's not just because stiles is unhinged about derek.

in 3A there's plot threads that happen in the background that are easy to miss because it's never outright stated and one of those things is that both jennifer and duecalion scoped beacon hills out long before they showed up.

marin morrell shows up for the first time in abomination. much like jennifer she's presented at first as benign and largely unthreatening. we learn later morrell is anything but.

while we don't know if morrell was already working for the school when we meet her it does make her a direct parallel to jennifer.

duecalion's interest was piqued by what happened in season 1. with laura hale's murder, peter's revenge spree ending with the death of kate argent and than derek subsequently becoming the alpha duecalion sees an opportunity.

people have asked what was duecalion's motivation initially and my answer is that it was simple.

duecalion is a collector and he wanted to collect the last hale into his pack.

the events of season 2 only served to interest him more due to the kanima but likely also because of gerard argent's involvement. duecalion and gerard are set up as a lot like kate and peter were in season 1.

they're different sides of the same coin. duecalion and gerard are shadow actors for much of the series both before and after their appearances.

we have to remember that marin morrell is there before peter's resurrection and before the alphas got ahold of erica, boyd and cora.

i fully believe that derek was not only aware that there'd be more hunters coming to beacon hills but also he may have guessed the alpha pack would come too.

derek's desperation for a pack throughout season 2 isn't just because of the kanima it's because he knows he needs a power base and he needs one fast. i don't think he would've pressed scott as hard as he did otherwise.

it should also be noted that deaton (and morrell) were keeping scott's potential of being a true alpha on the down low. deaton tells scott in currents he believed scott would be a true alpha when he learned he was bitten.

i have a whole theory about deaton and morrell having their own conspiracy surrounding scott becoming a true alpha. they definitely kept it as an ace in the hole.

derek was also trying to keep scott away from everything relating to the alphas but his motivation was straight forward. derek wants scott to be a normal teenager.

this is all but said in tattoo.

scott: hey, are you gonna tell me who that was back there? that alpha? derek: a rival pack. it's my problem. i know you wanna help, and you did-- i owe you one. now, go home. go back to being a teenager.

we know deaton was aware of duecalion and his pack coming at least by raving due to the conversation he and morrell have after derek brings scott to him after victoria tries to kill him.

marin: i can't decide if i admire your sentimentality or despise it... deaton: if i want your opinion, i'll make an appointment with the guidance office. marin: from the state of things, i think you could use a little guidance. are you really going to leave all of this up to a couple of kids? deaton: they're more capable than you think. marin: and, are you going to tell them what's coming? deaton: they've got enough to worry about...

there's also an argument to be made that victoria argent was bitten by one of the alphas and not derek like we are led to believe.

duecalion doesn't really change focus off derek until he meets scott and realizes what scott can become. again, he's a collector and a true alpha is rare.

jennifer in turn is also focused on derek. he is central to her plan.

there are two things at play with jennifer being that she is obsessed with derek and she does the absolute most to get under his defenses.

jennifer is obsessed with derek because she views him as her savior.

jennifer: you didn't know what you were doing back then, but killing paige in the root cellar-- sacrificing her there-- gave power to the nemeton. you gave it power again. you gave me power. Just enough to hold onto life a little longer. long enough to be found.

she uses her ill begotten power from virgin sacrifices to assist in her seduction of him and her glamour as jennifer is visually similar to both pagie and stiles. there's even moments where she seems to purposefully emulate stiles's more endearing, curious and less threatening behavior to lure derek into a false sense of security.

derek was supposed to be the guardian. jennifer says as much in lunar eclipse

jennifer: i need a guardian... and that's a role that can either be filled by the three parents i was forced to take, or by you.

derek was always jennifer's first choice but poisoning cora and jennifer taking melissa, the sheriff and chris was insurance not just for cooperation but just in case she needed them for the guardian sacrifice.

what she didn't count on was her magic not being enough against the tears of stiles stilinski.

so how does any of this answer your question about what the fuck jennifer's plan was?

let's just say teen wolf played fast and loose with this because it doesn't make a lot of sense when you examine it too closely but i shall try.

i think it's far too easy to say she was going to sacrifice the werewolves but if stiles's theory is true she planned on removing scott, isaac and boyd off the board so she could have free access to derek.

however i wonder if jennifer was planning on sacrificing them in a three fold death than what was she looking to gain from it? possibly their advanced healing as the next episode is when she does the one for healers but i think there was more than one thing at play in motel califnornia.

there's jennifer's plan of completing her seduction of derek and than there's lydia's banshee abilities.

jennifer's surprise when derek turned up at the school parking lot in frayed is genuine. fortuitous for her but unplanned as getting derek alone to complete her seduction was her plan which is where the cross country meet comes in.

as a teacher she would know about the cross country meet and have access to finstock's whistle. there obviously wasn't enough to really affect the humans in the group as the wolfsbane wasn't ingested like at lydia's party but rather inhaled randomly when the whistle was blown which really just makes it less reliable.

so her targets seem to be scott, boyd and isaac over ethan. she wants them out of the way and distracted and them thinking derek is dead is a bonus for her.

jennifer didn't know about the mall rumble nor could she have known they'd stop at the motel glen capri.

i mean, sure maybe she did cause the torndao warning and than also caused the traffic jam to slow them up but that seems like way too many variables for her to control in my opinion.

glen capri seems to have it's own weird magic that the wolfsbane in the werewolf's systems was exacerbated by.

she also didn't know lydia and allison were following them and she definitely didn't know lydia was a banshee yet.

lydia's banshee abilities is what allowed them to figure out what was going on with the motel and prevent deaths.

so to me the whole plan was to get derek alone and scott, isaac and boyd away from him.

[archersxartxblog]

Ok so recently I read the entirety of Warden Twins in the span of 4 hours (with a break in between cause it was 2:30 AM) and I just had a funny shower thought I'm gonna put here.

Basically, Arceus feels bad about the whole situation, so he gives Drayden and F!Emmet Arc Tablets or something that show the both of them Ingo, Lil' Ingo and Emmet and their misadventures. They essentially react to everything that happens in the fic as it happens.

Drayden is initially very sceptical of the whole situation, rightfully so. His nephews were kidnapped like 3 days ago (he basically got like a prologue vid showing what happened before showing him everything else), and then some stranger gives him an iPad that shows him his missing nephews being adopted by some guy who looks hauntingly similar to Lil' Ingo, with amnesia and who knows where. But he eventually warms up to F!Ingo cause hes actually not that bad at being a dad, is increasingly growing more protective over his now sons everyday (as he should be), and is looking out for them when he cant.

He invites Clay over cause his boys just became friends with Liam who ALSO looks hauntingly similar to Clay. And then the both of them bust out conspiracy boards when Akari reveals that all 4 of them are from the future. Lil Ingo and Emmet make sense, but Ingo??? If hes from the future as well, then is he some cousin they never heard about? What is this???

But they dont really care about that. Drayden swears that Ingo is now gonna be (officially) part of the family if- no WHEN they all return back to the future. Oh and so will Akari, she's a cool cousin to the boys.

This eventually just devolves into Drayden watching all of this like it's a soccer game or something : very passionately. Like "oh my dragons I'm gonna kill the Miss Fortune sisters for kidnapping my nephews", and then cheering like his team won the world cup or something when Gyarados shows up. Oh and Drayden will be so angry he might rip a tear in spacetime in order to kill Volo when all THAT happens with him and Lil' Ingo.

With F!Emmet its gonna be a bit more complicated, since he either remembers the past or not. But if he doesnt remember, then he will be panicking. His brother went missing like 5 years ago, and when he finally sees him he's with baby versions of them??? Why is Ingo a father to two kids who are named after them and look EXACTLY like him when he was also 10?!? 'AM I AN UNCLE??? DO I NEED TO BUY A BIGGER APARTMENT NOW?!??' Elesa is surprisingly taking this much better.

And then when Akari is revealed, F!Emmet is both verrrrrry happy to be an uncle and that his brother is not alone and happy, but at the same time mourning his bank account, cause hes gonna need to buy a bigger apartment if he is to house 3 new kids and like 24 new pokemon.

And then its revealed that both Ingos are one of the same. Emmet is internally having a blue screen of death moment, cause that means that Ingo literally raised him. Elesa is just treating thos like it's a certified Watchmojo top 10 anime plot twists.

But if he does remember, then he is basically just refreshing his childhood memories.

I wanted to add that maybe Emmets and Draydens tablets are connected to one another, but I've already typed WAYY too much. Can you tell that I love the Warden Twins AU?

Anyways enough from me, thank u for listening to my Ted talk. What are your thoughts about this? Really hope the fic gets updated soon and have a good whatever-your-timezone-is

Oh wow

Not gonna lie this was really fun to read. I love reading stuff like this. This is a really fun idea, i just imagine Arceus making like a YouTube channel like Gamingharry or Ladyoflore or something and just sending it to Drayden and future Emmet with a message that says "this explains everything"

I do need to get back to writing Warden’s Twins, I'm a little stuck with Lil Ingo's face off with Kamado, so I've taken a small step back for a bit to try and figure out how to go about it.

But I'm so glad you're enjoying Warden’s Twins :)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

I'm in TARTU, ESTONIA! Overcoming the Enshittocene (TONIGHT, May 8, 6PM, Prima Vista Literary Festival keynote, University of Tartu Library, Struwe 1). AI, copyright and creative workers' labor rights (May 10, 8AM: Science Fiction Research Association talk, Institute of Foreign Languages and Cultures building, Lossi 3, lobby). A talk for hackers on seizing the means of computation (May 10, 3PM, University of Tartu Delta Centre, Narva 18, room 1037).

#15yrsago New York Times webteam nukes the careers of many journalists https://web.archive.org/web/20090511024122/http://www.thomascrampton.com/newspapers/reporter-to-ny-times-publisher-you-erased-my-career/

#15yrsago It’s Useful to Have a Duck/It’s Useful to Have a Boy: great board-book tells the story from two points of view https://memex.craphound.com/2009/05/08/its-useful-to-have-a-duck-its-useful-to-have-a-boy-great-board-book-tells-the-story-from-two-points-of-view/

#10yrsago Fast food workers around the world to strike on May 15 http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/5/7/fast-food-workersuniteactivistsannounceglobalprotest.html

#10yrsago Former NSA boss defends breaking computer security (in the name of national security) https://www.wired.com/2014/05/alexander-defends-use-of-zero-days/

#10yrsago Tor: network security for domestic abuse survivors https://web.archive.org/web/20140509221534/http://betaboston.com/news/2014/05/07/as-domestic-abuse-goes-digital-shelters-turn-to-counter-surveillance-with-tor/

#10yrsago The Oversight: conspiracies, magic, and the end of the world https://memex.craphound.com/2014/05/08/the-oversight-conspiracies-magic-and-the-end-of-the-world/

#10yrsago Charlie Stross on NSA network sabotage https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2014/05/the-snowden-leaks-a-meta-narra.html

#10yrsago Peter “brokep” Sunde launches campaign for Finnish Pirate Party MEP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fModmx3U8HI

#5yrsago Test your understanding of evolutionary psychology with this rigorous quiz https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/05/evolutionary-psychology-quiz

#5yrsago Why “collapse” (not “rot”) is the way to think about software problems https://hal.science/hal-02117588/document

#5yrsago Human Rights Watch reverse-engineered the app that the Chinese state uses to spy on people in Xinjiang https://www.hrw.org/video-photos/interactive/2019/05/02/china-how-mass-surveillance-works-xinjiang

#5yrsago Google will now delete your account activity on a rolling basis https://myactivity.google.com/activitycontrols/webandapp?view=item&otzr=1&pli=1

#5yrsago Charter’s new way to be terrible: no more prorated cancellations https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/05/charter-squeezes-more-money-out-of-internet-users-with-new-cancellation-policy/

#1yrago California to smash prison e-profiteers https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/08/captive-audience/#good-at-their-jobs

[bloodgulchblog]

I started reading Halo books after you recommended Legacy of Onyx to me not too long ago. I started with Fractures, which was a good first taste. Really liked Into the Fire. Next up was Legacy of Onyx, which was REALLY GOOD WOW and I chewed through the whole thing in two days. There's SO much left about Onyx, I hope we get more of it in novels or gameplay in the future. Now I'm onto Rubicon Protocol, which is pretty good so far (ch3) but not holding my attention as hard as Legacy of Onyx did

Ooh, Fractures is an interesting place to start imo. I'm glad you enjoyed it! It honestly gives you a lot of directions you could jump off in if you're looking for more book recs. I think getting into stuff with big lore like Halo is, unless you're doing something wild like just reading all of it like I did, mostly about figuring out what your handholds are and what you're interested in and where to go to follow those interests.

Rubicon Protocol is definitely a heavier, slower book than Legacy I think. It's a lot grimmer. I thought it was good overall but there were definitely points where I had to take a break because that gets dark. Really loved what the author did with Stone in particular, though.

If you are looking for more things to add to your list for later, based on what you've said here...

(Big post of tumblr user bloodgulchblog rambling about different Halo novels below the jump)

Ghosts of Onyx is the one I'm most confident about. I typically wouldn't recommend Ghosts as someone's first go at Eric Nylund's Halo novels because they're kind of a trilogy and having The Fall of Reach and First Strike read first makes it better, but if you had a good time diving right in the deep end at Fractures I think you'll be completely fine. (...The other two have Master Chief though and he's my special guy.)

Anyway, the reason I'd say Ghosts of Onyx is the stories you've already read are very heavy on the Spartan-IIIs, and that one is their origin story. You've met Tom-B292 and Lucy-B091 twice, you know Chief Mendez, you've seen the Ferrets, you've seen what Onyx turns into. Then if you like what Nylund was doing, Ghosts has you meet the surviving Spartan-IIs and Halsey and that's a big handhold to dig back further toward tFoR and FS if you feel like it.

Into the Fire is also an easy one to pull a rec off of, because it's actually the first section of a novella called Smoke and Shadow about Rion Forge. I liked it! It's short, but it was refreshing to see a book completely focused on civilian characters (...which is another reason that Legacy was fun for me.) It's also the start of a trilogy. The other two books are Renegades and Point of Light, both of those are full length and are circling back to Forerunner lore that hadn't been touched on in a while.

...Actually, speaking of Forerunners, man I feel like it has to have been wild to go right off with Promises to Keep without the context of the Forerunner trilogy. If you're curious based on that, try Cryptum. The Forerunner Trilogy is some true old-fashioned world-buildy weird scifi, Greg Bear was a master, and Cryptum is pretty accessible because it's about Bornstellar the idiot Forerunner teenager who knows just as little about what's going on as you do.

If you like it and go forward there, I'd say the middle book, Primordium, is much slower paced because it's focused on one guy (Chakas) in particular walking around with some other characters on a spooky Halo, but the third book Silentium is this great apocalyptic log of the whole of Forerunner civilization coming the fuck apart and the Didact losing his goddamn mind. 10/10

....What else.

Oh fuck, I know what else.

Alright, so. I don't like the Kilo Five trilogy, which is the series Glasslands is the first book of. The writing is engaging, but it has... it's hard to say it in a short way without starting to pull out my red string conspiracy board of insanity live on camera, but 1) this book in particular severely mishandles the characters from Ghosts of Onyx and 2) it has this really uncomfortable vibe about ONI and "necessary evil" that I think it doesn't quite stick it in a way I'm cool with. tl;dr the fictional characters don't need to be good people doing good things and fiction isn't real and the author doesn't have to come out on stage and tell you BAD PEOPLE DOING BAD THINGS IS BAD in order for a book to be okay, but I just do not trust the way this author handles ONI for real-world reasons that have a lot to do with real-world military imperialism.

...Also if you disagree with her on anything, especially Halsey, prepare to get hit with a sledgehammer telling you that you shouldn't be having fun. But I'll try to be the bigger person here.

The main reason I would say Glasslands at all is mostly Jul 'Mdama, who really does not get any emotional weight anywhere else in Halo. He's just kind of a ragdoll they throw around to have a bad guy in Spartan Ops and the Escalation comics until killing him off in the first 2 seconds of Halo 5. But if you cared about his sons in Legacy, I think you will find the origin story of Jul and how he wound up in an extremist Sangheili sect (and how badly the UNSC treated him as a POW) interesting. (He's also in The Thursday War, which gets him to where he is when he goes to find the Didact. Up to you if you decide to continue for that.)

It also deals with getting characters out of the dyson sphere at Onyx right after that's been discovered. I'd say if you're interested in this one, definitely read Ghosts of Onyx first.

........OKAY I THINK THAT'S EVERYTH-

This is just to say that if you really liked the Halo But It's High School vibe of Legacy of Onyx, you might enjoy the actual Halo YA novel Battle Born where four scared high school kids and one (1) wounded Spartan-III who's only a little older them try to rescue a whole town from the Covenant. It's slow at the start, but it's short and I had a lot of fun.

DONE FOR REAL THIS TIME THANKS FOR READING HAVE FUN OUT THERE BYYYYYYE