#Main Branch Operator

[demifiendrsa]

Full image of One Punch Man volumes 19, 20, 21 back cover

Full character artwork

Unused artwork

[starzwithapen]

OUR HCS FOR THESE GOOBERS USING TEMPLATES FROM @koppaitepaladin !! Plus bonus creek because I'm uhhh normal about him . They're All autistic 2 me but Branch and Poppy r most important to me <33

[icewindandboringhorror]

Recent game related things .. hrmm...

[xfang-is-deadx]

My grandma is older than the Israeli occupation but yeah sure there's no such thing as a Palestinian

[gynkgobilobo]

That's bc when the patriarchal standard belief of the female body is "if this is a thing I can profit off of for my own wellbeing I am entitled to take/receive it" so ofc they deem it as a selfish thing where they do not consider the individual as even truly being in the possession of their own body. Same goes for "you are more woman/less woman and mannish if you please me/displease me"

add this to the list of men not knowing anything about womens health

[directdogman]

on this day 3 years ago, i fulfilled my dream of opening a barnacle rescue operation. basically, i rescue damaged barnacles, put 'em in tanks, feed them, keep 'em alive and then breed them so i can have more barnacles for a purpose i have to figure out. that worked out great for a time, but then i got kinda pissed off with the barnacles (not their fault, i was working through some issues of my own)

so, i branched off into general aquatic parasites to add a little variety into my life. tongue lice are my favourite. those lil guys rock.

then i started running out of space in my tanks (too many barnacles), so i started sailing off the coast of maine and fishing lobsters out of the water and placing my barnacles onto them. well. usually i yell at them before i apply the barnacles. just sorta spew out general vitriol at them. i get pretty heated.

im not actually sure why i even do it. my therapist thinks i keep envisioning the lobsters as my father. anyway, thanks for letting me vent. i owe you one.

(on an unrelated note: new dialtown stuff coming soon! thanks.)

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Week

1. A branch of the flu family tree has died and won't be included in future US vaccines

A type of flu virus that used to sicken people every year hasn't been spotted anywhere on Earth since March 2020. As such, experts have advised that the apparently extinct viruses be removed from next year's flu vaccines.

The now-extinct viruses were a branch of the influenza B family tree known as the Yamagata lineage. Scientists first reported the apparent disappearance of Yamagata viruses in 2021.

2. Hospitals must obtain written consent for pelvic and similar exams, the federal government says

Hospitals must obtain written informed consent from patients before subjecting them to pelvic exams and exams of other sensitive areas — especially if an exam will be done while the patient is unconscious, the federal government said Monday.

New guidance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services now requires consent for breast, pelvic, prostate and rectal exams for “educational and training purposes” performed by medical students, nurse practitioners or physician assistants.

3. Germany approves new law that will allow adults to carry up to 25 grams of cannabis for their own consumption and store up to 50 grams at home.

Germany's upper house, the Bundesrat, cleared the way to partially legalize cannabis on Friday. Adults aged 18 and over will be allowed to carry up to 25 grams of cannabis for their own consumption.

4. Tick-killing pill shows promising results in human trial | Should it pan out, the pill would be a new weapon against Lyme disease.

Tarsus Pharmaceuticals is developing a pill for humans that could provide protection against the tick-borne disease for several weeks at a time. In February, the Irvine, California–based biotech company announced results from a small, early-stage trial showing that 24 hours after taking the drug, it can kill ticks on people, with the effects lasting for up to 30 days.

5. Thailand moves to legalise same-sex marriage

Thailand has taken a historic step closer to marriage equality after the lower house passed a bill giving legal recognition to same-sex marriage.

It still needs approval from the Senate and royal endorsement to become law but it is widely expected to happen by the end of 2024, making Thailand the only South East Asian country to recognise same-sex unions.

6. French Revolution: Cyclists Now Outnumber Motorists In Paris

Official measurements have found that Paris is rapidly becoming a city of transportation cyclists. In the suburbs, where public transit is less dense, transport by car was found to be the main form of mobility. But for journeys from the outskirts of Paris to the center, the number of cyclists now far exceeds the number of motorists, a huge change from just five years ago.

7. 'Miracle' operation reverses blindness in three-year-old girl giving her 'promising' future

A three year old with a genetic condition that causes blindness is doing incredibly well after unique pioneering operation to restore her sight.

The UK is the only country performing keyhole eye surgery to inject healthy copies of a gene into sufferers’ eyes. It is being used to reverse blindness in children born with a rare condition which means they can only distinguish between light and dark. And it has given little Khadijah Chaudhry, born with Leber congenital amaurosis-4, a chance at seeing properly again.

---

That's it for this week :)

This newsletter will always be free. If you liked this post you can support me with a small kofi donation here:

Buy me a coffee ❤️

Also don’t forget to reblog this post with your friends.

[ef-1]

In light of Charles becoming the new brand ambassador for Puma, I want to remind everyone that Puma is one of THE main brands on the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) targets list.

Do not fall for this shit, I don't care if you like anything they come out with. People are purposefully obtuse about why Puma is on the Boycott list and ITS NOT BECAUSE THEY DRESS THE ISRAELI NATIONAL TEAM! Puma is the title sponsor of the Israel Football Association which sponsors teams that operate on illegal settlements on Palestinian land, these settlements are regarded as war crimes under international law. From the official BDS list:

In December of 2023, Puma announced that they would not renew their sponsorship with the Israel Football Association (after the death of 30,000 Palestinians at the time). However they remain on the Boycott list until 2025, when they actually commit to divesting from Israel because they have engaged in misinformation in the past when coming under sustained pressure. In 2021, Puma claimed to stop supporting Israeli teams on illegal settlements but an investigation by BDS found that they had lied and it was simply PR crisis management: (1) they lied about not supporting teams on illegal settlements, (2) they lied about having Israeli distributors who have branches operated on stolen land and (3) they lied that one of their main licencees does not operate on stolen land.

So until Puma officially abides by that divestment, BDS have kept them on the Boycott list because they have a history of lying.

+ reminder Puma also sponsor Ferrari and Mercedes.

Unless their cheap, ugly shit is worth more to you than Palestinian lives, you can wait until they officially divest from paying for illegal settlements, so that colonisers can play on stolen land.

[blackpearlblast]

[ID: a graphic with a picture of a destroyed building at the top and pictures of Ezzideen and his family members at the bottom. before the main text is an Instagram handle: @/ezzideenshehab. the text body reads: "Urgent Plea for Survival

I'm Ezzideen Shehab. I traveled to celebrate my med school graduation just a week before war turned my joy into a nightmare, costing me 72 family members. Now in the north, we're facing starvation with no food left. To escape Gaza for Egypt, each person needs $5000 through Hala Company. Every $1 we collect can save a life.

To make a donation, please scan the QR code provided or go to gofund.me/8c4d61ac." below is a QR code. end ID]

putting this in a separate post since i realized since ezzideen has been shadowbanned, his post is unlikely to be seen as easily (please look at and reblog it here though!) this is a verified campaign, you can see two post verifying it here (post 1) and here (post 2).

this graphic was made by boshra, ezzideen’s friend who is also helping with his gofundme. please save it and share it widely! we have been talking a lot over instagram trying to figure out how to get his campaign seen, as at this point, most of the projects dedicated to sharing gazans’ fundraisers like the watermelon project or operation olive branch are significantly backed up and unable to help. even if you can’t donate, saving the graphic and sending it to your family and friends or posting it on other social media would be a huge help, since it’s our only way of getting it out there right now.

ezzideen’s account got shadowbanned by tumblr so he is unable to send any messages for right now. if he makes a new account or gets his account un-shadowbanned i will update here. (edit: his account got deactivated after being un-shadowbanned so he is back on his other account, which is also shadowbanned)

direct link to his GFM

[palms-upturned]

Hello this a long shot call, am a citizen of Palestine. I am here to request for your support to help get my insulin (Humalog), just an injection for today to save my life please I beg.I was diagnosized with type 1 diabetes and due to current situation in Gaza I'm unable to get my insulin injection as a result I'm here begging for little financial support to help me purchase insulin for this week. Am sorry if am sending you again this request, kindly donate any amount please. My donation link is in my pinned post🇵🇸

Everyone, keep your eyes peeled. This user is a known scammer. If you get any asks with this copy/pasted message, or from an account using this profile picture, it’s not real.

This person’s main donation post has “verified/vetted” in big red letters at the top. It is a lie. That’s why they don’t tag the person who supposedly verified them or provide a link. Even if a user claims to be verified, it’s important to double check. Cross reference el-shab-hussein and nabulsi’s spreadsheet and the Operation Olive Branch spreadsheet, and search the url/keywords from the fundraiser title in tumblr’s search bar. I have links to both spreadsheets, as well as gazafunds.com, in my pinned post. When answering an ask like this for a user that’s actually legit, linking to the verification will make it a lot easier for people to donate and share without hesitation.

I recognized this person immediately because el-shab-hussein has posted about this scam several times. I don’t have a link handy to any of Hussein’s posts about them, but people have been very kindly linking to these two users/posts so that when you search this url, you find proof of the scam.

An unverified fundraiser doesn’t always mean that it’s not legit, and I’ve been contacted by a lot of people who may not have been vetted at the time, but later on someone did verify them. It’s not necessarily a good idea to block unverified users right off the bat. I keep a list of users to search periodically for verification (or confirmation of a scam, if that is the case). But this person is a very well known scammer. If they contact you, just keep on sharing the proof of the scam and tell your followers to beware.

[dlxxv-vetted-donations]

@reemagaza | Vetted: Operation Olive Branch Masterlist #18 | gfm link | Donate via Paypal (my Kofi) | Additional details

Us and Reema's family did not evacuate her and pay her tuition just for her to fail the first semester because she couldn't afford a laptop.

I can mention on this blog again! Tagging random people, I'd really appreciate if you could donate if possible and share. Message me to be removed from the list.

@ashwantsafreepalestine @autisticthassarian @volfoss @khanger @nmrmatr

@lemoneychicken @olowan-waphiya @zorelle @novatheastropirate @victormcdicktor

@c-o-z-m-o @nilawafer @storekn1fe @picory @yonpote

[hiiragimare]

Memory and magic are sealed (for now)

She's acting more and more like that person, and Emma had to in order to keep Gynger from ending up like that person.

Prior to that, Gynger had been missing for two years (since after Hogwarts graduation) One of the reasons Sebastian chose to become an Auror was also to find her. At first Sebastian's job wasn't all that special, some minor wizarding strife, some dark wizards who had gone astray, and so on, until slowly, more and more names of Valtyci's appeared on the list of dead people, and he'd even heard that the squib of the Valtyci's had risen from the dead, and that it was she who'd killed them.There'd also been some disturbances on the Ominis' side of the family, because the Gaunt family has been in a relationship with the Valtyci family for years, and now more people are dying, Ominis is being asked to find out what's going on.

Sebastian vaguely thinks that these things have something to do with Gynger, because during a pursuit operation, his magic was almost able to hit the murderer, but in a flash, his blood alliance vial with Gynger suddenly reacted, the chain tightly wrapped around Sebastian's arm, and the sudden tingling sensation caused Sebastian to stop the attack in his hand.Ominis was puzzled by this.Ominis was puzzled by this, they were obviously about to catch the culprit, why did Sebastian stop at the critical moment, "What are you doing? Why did you stop? It's not like you to do anything."

"I ......"Couldn't tell Ominis about the fact that he'd made a blood pact with Gynger. At least, not yet, "I might be a little dizzy, sorry."Sebastian apologised. His heart was pounding, could that be Gynger?

"I need your help, you're investigating this aren't you, one by one the Valtyci family personnel have been killed."Suddenly one day, Emma, a former champion of the Triwizard Tournament, came to the Ministry of Magic to find Sebastian.

"You know exactly who did this, don't you?"Emma asked Sebastian, "It was Gynger. although she did it at first to help avenge her mother, now she's gone a little too far and we need to stop her. You want to find her too, don't you?"

Of course, Sebastian wanted to see Gynger like crazy, he hadn't heard anything about her in the past two years, it was like she had suddenly disappeared from the world. He even tried to write to her as usual, however these mountains of letters simply wouldn't reach her. There was a time when he felt like he was going to break down, and instead of going to work at the Ministry of Magic for days on end, he lay in bed and kept stroking their Blood Alliance vials, and it was only when the Ministry asked Ominis to go to Sebastian's house to see how things were going that he managed to make things better.

"I'll help you."Sebastian immediately agreed to Emma's request, he didn't care what Emma wanted him to do, he would do anything to see Gynger.

With only the last branch of the Valtyci family now left on the list of surviving members, Sebastian and Emma arrived at their mansion early. However, it seemed they were still a step too late.

"Congratulations! My loves."A white haired woman sat on the stairs of the main hall, "I knew you would come, miss me?"

Sebastian looked over at the woman on the stairs, his heart began to beat wildly, he had a feeling that it was Gynger, but the likeness was a little different.

"Ah, you care about that?"The person seemed to notice Sebastian's gaze as she pointed to her cheek, "I like the look of my mother."As he spoke, a bolt of lightning streaked through the window, the harsh light of the thunder reflecting the original colour of the person's hair - a familiar, flame-like red. "I want all the Valtyci family to see that face before they die."

"Enough! You're looking more and more like that person, wake up!"Emma led the attack, but Sebastian froze in place. The person he had been longing for was right in front of him and he didn't want to perform any actions at all, there were so many things he wanted to say to her, so many questions he wanted to ask her, he even wanted to use the spell Accio to take the person into his arms and hold her tightly. Why did she leave without saying goodbye?Gynger used to be a very cheerful companion, but ever since she went on a trip to her aunt's house a few days before graduation, everything changed.Gynger started to be quiet, and didn't even attend the graduation ceremony, she just left Hogwarts without a word. What the hell happened?

"What are you gawking at?"Ominis's voice came to her ears, it turned out that Emma had already known that Sebastian and Gynger had made a blood oath (Emma's divination ability was excellent, she had foreseen this scene in her crystal ball), she knew that Sebastian probably couldn't move, so Emma contacted Ominis as well.Ominis's eye disease was still not getting better, but his hearing was excellent, andhis wand, having been subjected to more refined adjustments after graduation, Ominis was now no less capable than an accomplished Auror.

The intense magical duel continues, and even with Emma and Ominis' excellent abilities, they still struggle to resist Gynger's ancient magic. Sebastian also finally came back to his senses, but it seemed that he chose to side with Gynger. After all, he can't attack Gynger, and he doesn't want to send Gynger to Azkaban. But facing his former best friend, he couldn't do anything to kill him, so he could only try to create a magic shield for Gynger.

"Sebastian? What are you doing?"Emma looked at Sebastian who was standing on the opposite side, "We're losing!"

"Ah, you're really going to help me after all, I'm so happy!"Gynger looked towards Sebastian who was walking towards him And just then Emma aimed for the opening, she pulled out a small black crystal and used the shockwave of magic to hit Gynger with it The moment Gynger was hit the space around her began to distort and a piercing noise began to emanate from her surroundings. She began to hold her head and scream in agony, it seemed to be an unbearable magic, like the crucio spell. She fell through the air and onto the marble floor Seeming to pass out, everything was calm again, except that the objects around Emma and the others seemed to start disintegrating and dissipating.

Sebastian saw Gynger fall to the floor and rushed over to her, taking her in his arms, "What did you do to her?"Sebastian questioned Emma

"I sealed her memories and magic."Emma seemed a little helpless, "I'm sorry, it's all I can think of at the moment. Her soul seems to be gradually on the verge of being taken over by another, and it's the only way I can find a way to change her back to her old self."

"You mean ...... she doesn't remember me?"Sebastian froze, he looked again at the passed out person in his arms, the one he had longed for, his once best friend. They had been through so much and now they were all going to forget?

"It's only temporary, I'll try to restore her memory when I find a better solution, it's just ......" Emma hesitated a little, "The Ministry of Magic will make you hand over the prisoner while I'm gone, right? "

"Can't let the Ministry of Magic take her."Sebastian lowered his head and hugged Gynger tightly, "She'll be fine with me, don't worry."Just as Gynger didn't turn him in back then, this time, he wouldn't turn Gynger in either, and more importantly, he didn't want to be separated from Gynger. The longing for two years had finally been relieved at this moment, and he wouldn't let her go again.

[theshitpostcalligrapher]

please tell me this manga/comic/show exists i do not wanna have to make it

okok I've posted about this before but I'm watching animation content on youtube again while getting work done and by GOD I WANNA TALK ABOUT THIS AGAIN

There's a specific concept I want to consume as content/art so badly but it came to me in a stupid dream. BUT. Sometimes, a dream means I DID see a hint of it somewhere and my brain accidentally plagiarized it which provides me with the teensiest sliver of hope that exists already and I don't have to work on it

It's a kind of a reverse isekai, right? But instead of an instant portal, it's time passing. And what I mean by that is that it's a Sun Wukong story, but the branch off is that after the main events of Journey to the West he gets either water temple'd or trapped in magic sleep again, not for a few hundred years but a few THOUSAND.

He wakes up to an incredibly far-flung China that remembers his myth and only his myth.

The art style that operated in this dream was sort of. Textured but 3D? Think nimona's buttery lighting but instead of emphasis on light and shapes to operate with the stained glass and solarpunk-medieval style the models are textured in a way that just invokes traditional brushwork and colour bleed even in a more cyberpunkish setting. Think like. Whenever there's a night scene the astigmatism glow of lamplight bleeds a little, like ink feathering on paper.

It's a little bit of a Steve Rogers treatment in a way, the world has moved past him, but also completely mythologized and capitalized on that mythology. Rather than treat that man out of time narrative as an aspect of backstory, it's the MAIN character narrative, because this ISN'T a world that needs him. This world is doing pretty okay, actually.

This a story about him.

Not about his feats or how cool his powers are or the 8 gajillion things the magic staff can do but just.

How ya doing, bud?

From the vaguely coherent notes that I could garner from my sleepily typed googledoc, it seems that I wanted this to be a love letter of sorts to the Asian diaspora experience? A specific sort of loneliness? Where the world you experience has a sort of disconnect in that it makes plain you belong there but you also don't, you never have, and there's no way to go "back" but going forward feels like groping blind through the muck. How much right to the past does he feel like he has? When it's been built into something he can't recognize and is clearly important to other people.

I want the pickup of the plot to gain him friends, family, maybe even a conflict or two but the stakes should never elevate vis a vis physical enemies to battle.

It'd be about 2/3 of this sort of narrative drawn story and the other 1/3 just hogwild worldbuilding and design

I've looked at a few other journey to the west adaptations but they mainly just use him as a funky lil action figure hero that's there to be cool as hell and save the day

99% likely this is just a thing my brain is made up and I'd need a several million budget and about 25 additional skills to start the ball rolling but hey, worth it to ask yall again

[linkspooky]

Ciel-Noel post

Revenge is bad, actually. Simple revenge in stories is boring and uninteresting and Kill Bill is a bad movie.

I dislike the idea of punitive justice in stories to begin with, at least in stories that don't look critically at it. However, I also think people often get punitive justice (a branch of moral philosophy) with the idea of narrative punishment (actions have consequences in stories). I'm not against narrative punishment at all, well-written stories should have direct consequences for all the important characters actions. If a character is a noble gas and no one reacts to their actions, then they are stagnant and unchanging. A character who is constantly reacting to other people, and provoking reactions in return, is a dynamic character.

Now that I've thoroughly buried the lead six feet under, let's get to the main event. Ciel and Noel is a tightly written tragedy in the horror genre. If you've ever watched a slasher movie before, horror operates on like, an extreme kind of narrative punishment. People always joke that if you have sex, or do drugs, or drink alcohol in a horror movie the slasher will kill you and yeah, that's basically it. Horror movies are relenting and unforgiving, you basically take one step out of line and get stabbed in the back for it. So, it's not at all surprising that in the same story where Ciel experiences a change of heart and goes from seeing Shiki not as a victim but another vampire to kill, to being willing to sacrifice everything to save him, Noel does not get saved. Doesn't that make Ciel a huge hypocrite going the extra mile to save her boyfriend, but putting a bullet in the head of the partner she's known for years to put her out of her misery? Why, yes. Yes it is. That's also the point.

Ciel (and Noel's) route in the Tsukihime remake are about two girls who are the victims of the same tragedy. One gets saved, one does not. One finds a person who will do anything to reach and redeem their humanity, the other does not. They both get worse and worse, but one is given a helping hand at their lowest point, and the other gets a bullet between the eyes. This is unfair, and cruel, and again the point. Nasu in the remake turned one of the routes with the happier ending into a bitter tragedy no matter which of the two endings you pick and it's great.

Nasu is a writer who understands the tools of storytelling and with Ciel and Noel, wrote a tightly constructed tragedy where both characters face a narrative punishment. Once again, narrative punishment means for every action the character takes in the story, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Characters don't get away scott free with anything. They reap what they sew. This gives the characters actions meaning, and feels like they are building towards an arc because there is an underlying point that the author is trying to make to us, by framing these characters actions in a certain light.

Nasu employs narrative punishment, sometimes even incredibly harsh narrative punishment (read every wrong choice in FSN where Shirou gets horribly maimed or just Shirou's life in general). However, Nasu does not believe in punitive justice. I mean, I made a joke about Oberon up above but like, Nasu literally wrote an entire FGO Lostbelt chapter showing how chaotic evil the fairies were, and then he still underlined it's wrong to punish people without a chance for redemption or atonement by making Oberon the final boss. Even Castoria who is an ultimate victim of the fairies who was locked in a barn and treated like an animal, and didn't even want to save them was still like "This is wrong, we should have given them some chance to redeem themselves."

That belief that punishment without the chance of redemption is wrong, is written into the core of Ciel and Noel's tragedy.

So anyway, let's get to the part where I start recapping the story with analysis so you guys have some frame of reference for what I'm talking about. Noel is a previous victim of Roa, a vampire that continually reincarnates by hijacking bodies. A victim of ROA slowly becomes possessed until the two personalities effectively merge, at which point Roa goes on a killing spree. This happened to Ciel in her french village, Ciel noticed intrusive thoughts of a voice in her head telling her to kill her family, kill her family, kill her family, and did her best to ignore and suppress them until she couldn't. She then tore out her parent's throats, and then went on a rampage only to be killed by arcueid a short while after. Not before killing basically everyone in the town except for Noel.

Ciel and Noel are the lone survivors of ROA's massacre, and both victims of ROA himself. Ciel and Noel are also the same person, so like, write that down. Are you taking notes? This is gonna be a long post you better be writing down bullet points. Big bullet point number one, Ciel and Noel are the same person this is going to be on the test later.

Is the massacre, and all the deaths that occurred Ciel's fault?

No, you'd think logically being possessed by someone else and only having your agency taking away from you would clear you from responsibility.

However, Ciel was taken in by the catholic church afterwards and they weren't having any of that forgiveness shit. Ciel after miraculously recovering from her death at Arcueid, no longer under Roa's possession, is killed repeatedly by the church, only to find she's immortal now. No matter how many times they try to torture her, or execute her to give her justice for the victims of the massacre it doesn't work. So, instead they eventually just recruit her to be a vampire hunter. Bla bla bla, metaphor for how punitive justice doesn't actually accomplish anything, bla bla bla, metaphor for how Ciel's way of redeeming herself by hunting down and punishing other vampires (which is also just revenge) doesn't work because there's no end to it, there's no forgiveness or absolution, it's just eternal suffering. Would a loving god who created the world and preaches about forgiveness really make a hell where all the really bad people get sent to, and never get any chance of redemption?

“A God who could make good children as easily a bad, yet preferred to make bad ones; who could have made every one of them happy, yet never made a single happy one; who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short; who gave his angels eternal happiness unearned, yet required his other children to earn it; who gave is angels painless lives, yet cursed his other children with biting miseries and maladies of mind and body; who mouths justice, and invented hell--mouths mercy, and invented hell--mouths Golden Rules and forgiveness multiplied by seventy times seven, and invented hell; who mouths morals to other people, and has none himself; who frowns upon crimes, yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for man's acts upon man, instead of honorably placing it where it belongs, upon himself; and finally, with altogether divine obtuseness, invites his poor abused slave to worship him!” ― Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger

So, already we're touching on both justice, and also the hypocrisies of certain western religions, by Nasu demonstrating that justice without forgiveness accomplishes nothing. Ciel trying to redeem herself in the eyes of the church is truly the sisyphus pushing the boulder up the hill of redemption arcs, because there's no forgiveness, only hard labor for her sins. Ciel will just keep killing vampires to atone until she dies, but she can't die, so that boulder will keep rolling up that hill.

This is the underlying point of Ciel's entire arc, Ciel does not save anybody. She kills vampires. By killing vampires she hypothetically stops them from killing future victims, but that's not saving them. One of the most poignant things I've ever read from Nasu was from UBW where Shirou says more or less if there's a bank robber holding up a bank, and a cop comes in and shoots the robber through the chest, that might save all the hostages but the bank robber didn't get saved. You might say, well obviously, you can't save everyone. It makes sense that you'd save the innocent victims first. At which point I would say yes, I know, I have in fact consulted the ancient texts, UBW is my most replayed route.

However, Ciel and Noel's conflict gets that same point across because there are no innocent victims between the two of them. Ciel and Noel are both victimized, robbed of their agency, and go on to do terrible things, but one of them is saved and one is not. Noel isn't the bank robber in that metaphor, she's the hostage who was cooperating with the bank robber because the robber had a gun to her head, who the swat team decided to snipe through the window.

Noel is introduced as an entirely new character in the remake, she is the only other survivor of the massacre. While Ciel has memories of herself committing the crimes and feels guilt for that, Noel watched everyone die and was tortured for days on end by Roa in Ciel's body for their amusement (someone who was so insignificant to them, that Noel refers to herself as just one chip in a bag of chips Roa was snacking on. That's right, Noel is a cheeto in the grand scheme of things). There is one quote I love from John Dies at the End where John talks about how they're not chess pieces, they're not pieces on the board, they're so insigificant that they're just a cheeto sitting on the outside of the board. That's Noel, she's a cheeto.

The thing is Noel seems to be somewhat narratively aware of the fact that in the grand scheme of things she is a cheeto. Noel and Ciel are both victims of the massacre turned vampires, Ciel is a vampire killing machine and Noel sucks at it. Ciel despite being some rando apparently is born with enough magic circuits to make ancient magus families jealous, and on top of that is the only one who ever survived Roa's possession (and got immortality to boot). In every generation there is a chosen one, she alone will stand against the vampires and the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the slayer. So you've got Ciel the Vampire Slayer, and Noel who's just a cheeto. The cosmically ordained protagonist of reality, and just some guy. Noel has to basically beg and scrape to get by, no matter how hard she works she doesn't get stronger, she doesn't get any cool super powers from the night roa burned down her home town she just gets trauma. She also doesn't get a special boyfriend who will do anything to try to give her a normal life. This is illustrated in true tragic irony, by showing that Noel had a crush on a japanese foreign exchange student who's clearly meant to foil Shiki and he was basically the support she leaned on for the entirety of the tragedy, he dragged her away from danger multiple times, only to find out the reason he saved her was to use her as zombie bait so he could make his escape.

Here's where Noel starts to shine because in a typical narrative, Noel would be the more sympathetic character. People like rooting for the underdog. However, Nasu dares to be different by making Noel extremely difficult to empathize with. For one she's extremely predatory in the way she makes constant uncomfortable advances on Shiki the main character. She's also predatory in the sense she enjoys preying on things weaker than her. She says it line for line, weak people have to pick on those weaker than them. Noel goes after small fry vampires for revenge, and to vent her frustrations, however, she doesn't just kill them she rips them to pieces and tortures them in the most inhumane way possible until they're begging for death.

Why would anyone sympathize with the weak, predatory, pathetic noel who only ever makes excuses and blames others to run away from responsibility, over the stoic, strong ciel who is willing to hunt vampires forever to take responsibility for her actions.

Well here's the thing, *gestures for you to come closer, and then whispers in your ear* all the shit that Noel pulls, Ciel does that too. Ciel and Noel are either the same age, or around the same age, so if Noel is a predator for hitting on Shiki than so is Ciel. It's almost like something happened to them in their youths that stopped all their mental development rendering them both like mentally 16. Noel mercilessly slaughters vampires for revenge, and so does Ciel. She just does it offscreen. We don't know if she tortures them or anything, but remember when Ciel hunts Shiki, how she knows that Shiki is a helpless victim in all this and still goes out of her way to twist the knife, hurt him both physically and emotionally in every way possible before making the final blow.

The reason she acted that way during her and Shiki's confrontation isn't because she was stoically forcing herself to kill Shiki because that was the right thing to do, no she was projecting herself and her survivor's guilt for not killing herself before Roa went on his massacre all over Shiki. She was getting her revenge on a helpless victim because projecting on Shiki was a way for her to punish herself. Noel hates herself for being weak, Ciel hates herself for not being strong enough to slit her throat before everything happened (ergo being weak). They both deal with this self hatred by projecting that onto vampires, even vampires who were turned against their will (especially those ones tbh) and slaughtering them. They were both taken in by the church and taught to do that, so the church could get two child soldiers to send to die fighting vampreis. Ciel is Noel, and Noel is Ciel.

Not only does Noel project her past self and her weaknesses onto vampires, she projects herself onto Ciel. In that Noel really wants to be Ciel. Which is understandable, would you rather be, a girl who's only super power is... having an axe, or a girl with like seventeen million cool weapons, has more mana circuits than most mages, and is fucking immortal.

That's just the surface though, Noel is on like fifteen levels of projection with Ciel. Noel's identity is incredibly tied up in her complicated feelings towards Ciel, both because Ciel is the face of the person who committed every atrocity to Noel, but also because they are the two lone survivors of the same tragedy. Noel and Ciel both try to make themselves into tools for killing vampires to cope with their survivor's guilt, and their inability to conceive of themselves having a normal life after what they have been through. They also were both denied any chance at healing, because the church swept in and fashioned them into hunting dogs to sick on the vampires, and fight those vampires until they die. They are also both convinced that the church is right for doing this, and that deep down they either cannot have (Noel) or do not deserve (Ciel) normal lives while they both secretly pine for it anyway. Both of them are denied the chance for recovery, (because revenge does not heal), and Noel takes that one step further by deliberately driving a wedge into Ciel's recovery.

To quote you Comun, even though you're the one that sent this ask:

And Noel is a character inserted in Tsukihime to thwart Ciel's steady recovery. A constant reminder of what she lost and how the blood is in her hands. To cope with the sins Roa used her body for, Ciel chose to be the Holy Church's most professional extermination machine. Noel is the only survivor of her village because Elesia also died that night, being replaced with Ciel, who is fueled not by emotions but by a vampire kill count. And while Noel is a petty bitch at heart, she genuinely believes Ciel's post-trauma life choice and respects her capability to pull it off. There's no sabotage to their partnership not because Noel is afraid to defy someone a million times stronger than her, but because Noel wholeheartedly agrees with Ciel's choice to never recover and to pay blood for blood for the rest of her potentially eternal life. As long as Ciel stays Ciel, Noel's vengefulness is directed solely at Roa. But then Shiki enters Ciel's life bringing with him semblances of normal happiness. The murder machine began to regain emotions. And to Noel, that's a problem.

So part of this is you know, buying church propaganda. Ciel and Noel are both victims of the same church that does not heal or save people, and only doles out punishments on the guilty.

Part of this is an interesting twist that adds complexity to Noel's character, because like she could blame Ciel for the massacre like the church does, and like Ciel does herself, but as you point out Noel clearly wrestles with that. Noel feels a mix of envy for a twisted respect, one could even say love for Ciel's strength. Noel shows a much more nuanced reaction to Roa wearing Ciel's face and killing her entire family and torturing her for days on end, when she could take the church's approach, or even Ciel's approach towards Shiki. Noel even talks about at length how her and Ciel used to bond together by talking at night about how they were going to get revenge for everyone who died that day. Noel can't just see Ciel as the villain who took everything away from her, because they are the only two survivors of the massacre.

As you said there's no sabotage to their partnership, because despite Noel being the most petty bitch ever she never does anything to hurt or betray Ciel. The reason their partnership falls apart is entirely Ciel's fault. Sure, Noel was dancing on the edge of a cliff and not the most stable person to begin with, but it's Ciel's actions that push her off that cliff.

Not only does Noel drive thwart Ciel's recovery, she also makes Ciel look like a terrible person. Because, Ciel is a terrible person. In the same route where Shiki constantly lovebombs Ciel and constantly talks about all her good traits and what a hero she is, and Ciel gets several very cool action scenes making her look like a cool vampire slayer, we also witness to Noel's soul and heartcrushing downward spiral that is caused in part by Ciel kind of not really giving a shit about Noel's feelings. Noel's downfall could have been stopped at any point by Ciel simply lifting a finger, or just noticing her partner's obvious distres but instead what Ciel does is Noel completely out of the loop (like not telling Noel that she was waiting for Roa to reveal himself before attacking Shiki) .

Like, the scene where Noel turns into a vampire is directly caused by Ciel's actions. Noel reveals to Shiki that he's currently possessed by Roa. Ciel stands up for Shiki, in what we think is Ciel not wanting to believe that Shiki is possessed by Roa. However, what we learn instead is that Ciel only approached Shiki in the first place because she assumed he would be Roa's first target, and has been keeping by his side constantly waiting for Roa to appear so she can murk him.

So, all Ciel needed to do was TELL NOEL that she was playing the long game and ask Noel to wait a little longer before showing their hand, but apparently basic communication with her partner is too much effort for Ciel.

This leads into a scenario where not only does Noel think Ciel has broken their partnership (i mean she kinda has) but Ciel directly injures Noel pretty badly and leaves her alone. When Arach shows up to prey upon Noel, Noel can't even fight back by that point. Arach is the bus that hit Noel, but Ciel sure did throw Noel under that bus for no real reason.

I mean there is a story reason - it shows that Ciel may be an instrument of justice but she doesn't save people, in fact she does not give two figs about whether or not people are saved by her actions. Ciel obsessively hunting vampires, is not really that far off from Noel torturing vampires for her own sense of petty vengeance. However, Ciel hunts vampires offscreen so we as an audience don't see really the way, she treats the vampires she kills, but from the way she both foils Noel and also the sadistic way she draws out killing Shiki possessed by Roa as long as possible you can infer that she's not all too different from Noel. That's good actually, that Ciel seems like a good heroic person, but if you squint at her she's not much better than Noel, because like that's the entire point of her character the good, altruistic senpai never existed in the first place. All of Ciel's words about atonement and forgiveness are empty platitudes, just her regurgitating the words the church fed to her.

So finally to conclude, we have the culmination of the moebius strip, where Noel the apparent opposite of Ciel, slowly morphs into Ciel. Noel's flaws in a narrative sense led to her downfall, but let's be clear Noel had no fucking agency in her transformation into a vampire. She was hysterically begging for Arach not to do it. She was pinned and helpless to escape when it happened. It is Arach and Ciel's fault what happened to her.

Noel does make choices, but her choice amounts to not immediately killing herself the moment she became a vampire. She does take like 500 shots to become an ubervamp, but like, the story clearly states that once people become vampires their moralities and personalities are radically altered. So if that's a choice it's an influenced choice.

Therefore the only choice in that moment Noel is truly responsible for is not killing herself while she was still lucid. Irony upon ironies because that's exactly what she yells at vampires to do, bow down and let their heads be cut off by the executors. However, if Noel is guilty for not immediately offing herself, so is Ciel, so is Shiki. Both of these characters get saved while Noel gets old yeller'd. This is unfair and also, you guessed it, the point. Ciels revenge against vampires accomplishes nothing. Noel giving up her humanity for the shot at revenge against Ciel accomplishes nothing. It's almost like revenge doesn't heal, it just puts more pain and misery into the world. No one is saved by revenge.

Noel is fridged for Ciel's arc, and neither Ciel nor Shiki ultimately save her even though she's not all that responsible for her own downfall. This is not the narrative playing good victim and bad victim. If anything it makes Ciel look way worse as a person. The narrative even goes out of its way to say that both Ciel and Noel have a right to their revenge and in a situation like this the winner wasn't determined by who was right but who's stronger. Ciel has no moral high ground she just happens to be stronger, that's it. She doesn't take the higher road with Noel even after Shiki went to such great length to try to reach her emotionally and tell her she was still human, no Ciel makes no attempt to talk to Noel or take a third route she just murks her.

Noel is my favorite character for this route probably second favoeite overall behind Kohaku and I one hundred percent agree with fridging her, because it makes Ciel's character a hundred times better by giving her consequences for her flaws. It's one thing for Ciel to break down crying about how much she hates herself for being a cold merciless machine. It's another thing to have this demonstrated by Ciel letting her partner fall to the wayside by just not giving a shit about anyone's feelings or anything except for her personal quest against vampires.

Noel is a victim of the cycle of revenge, a pointless and harmful cycle. In a story that's thoroughly anti revenge as evidenced in the true end of hisuis route where Kohaku having achieved absolute perfect revenge and having her plan gone entirely right, takes a knife and gouges out her own heart with it. If that's not on the nose I don't know what is.

Its poignant comun that you told me that Nasu stated there's no good ending to Ciel's routes just a normal and a true because a good ending would have saved Noel. It might look like Ciel got off scott free but if you look at it, by killing Noel and denying Noel the chance at salvation Ciel damns herself too. Ciel has not escaped the cycle in the true ending, she's still hunting vampires at the behest of the church the only real change is she has a boyfriend now. I'd compare it to the ending of UBW vs Heavens Feel. In one Shirou has Rin's support but it's implied he'll eventually leave Rin anyway and become Archer, he just won't regret saving people as Archer did. He has not escaped the self destructive cycle. Whereas in Heaven's Feel, Shiro dies and is reborn and has to you know live as a person from now on.

Ciel did not end the cycle, she perpetuated it by killing Noel. You don't end the cycle of revenge with more revenge. Since Ciel did not end it she's still trapped in the cycle herself, and she still has support in the form of Shiki but the cycle will probably consume her the way it eventually consumed Shirou. She even broke out what was essentially the UBW with black keys when fighting against Vlov. It's just like that one post on Twitter said every few years or so someone reinvent the unlimited blade works!

[theneighborhoodwatch]

alright here's the deal

i've gotten a lot of requests for help with fundraisers for folks trying to either leave or survive in palestine over the past few days, both on this blog and my main, and the idea of trying to choose which one is The Most Urgent so i can respond to it first is upsetting to say the least. so i've combed through every fundraiser i've been linked to make sure they're legitimate one way or another and compiled them all here to help them get a little more reach.

@yasermohammad, vetted by @/90-ghost. €20,319 raised of €35,000 goal.

@basel1995s, vetted by @/el-shab-hussein. CHF8,053 raised of CHF60,000 goal.

@hazemsuhail, vetted by @/dlxxv-vetted-donations. €5,314 raised of €50,000 goal.

@hayanahed, vetted by both operation olive branch and project watermelon. €83,842 raised of €100,000 goal.

@mohiy-gaza2, vetted by @/90-ghost. $24,105 raised of $31,000 goal.

every penny helps! even if you only have a dollar to spare, that'll still add up if enough people donate. thank you for reading, and now back to your regularly scheduled puppetposting.

[merpmonde]

60 Years of the Tokaido Shinkansen!

On 1 October 1964, a railway line like no other opened. Connecting Tôkyô and Ôsaka, paralleling an existing main line, the Tôkaidô New Trunk Line had minimal curves, lots of bridges, zero level crossings. Striking white and blue electric multiple units, with noses shaped like bullets some would say, started zooming between the two cities as at the unheard-of speed of 210 km/h.

This was the start of the Shinkansen, inaugurating the age of high-speed rail.

The trains, with noses actually inspired by the aircraft of the time, originally didn't have a name, they were just "Shinkansen trains", as they couldn't mingle with other types anyway due to the difference in gauge between the Shinkansen (standard gauge, 1435 mm between rails) and the rest of the network (3'6" gauge, or 1067 mm between rails). The class would officially become the "0 Series" when new trains appeared in the 1980s, first the very similar 200 Series for the second new line, the Tôhoku Shinkansen, then the jet-age 100 Series. Yes, the 200 came first, as it was decided that trains heading North-East from Tôkyô would be given even first numbers, and trains heading West would have odd first numbers (0 is even, but never mind).

Hence the next new type to appear on the Tôkaidô Shinkansen was the 300 Series (second from left), designed by the privatised JR Tôkai to overcome some shortcomings of the line. Indeed, the curves on the Tôkaidô were still too pronounced to allow speeds to be increased, while all other new lines had been built ready for 300 km/h operations. But a revolution in train design allowed speeds to be raised from 220 km/h in the 80s to 285 km/h today, with lightweight construction (on the 300), active suspension (introduced on the 700 Series, left) and slight tilting (standard on the current N700 types).

Examples of five generations of train used on the Tôkaidô Shinkansen are preserved at JR Tôkai's museum, the SCMaglev & Railway Park, in Nagoya, with the N700 prototype lead car outdoors. It's striking to see how far high-speed train technology has come in Japan in 60 years. The network itself covers the country almost end-to-end, with a nearly continuous line from Kyûshû to Hokkaidô along the Pacific coast (no through trains at Tôkyô), and four branch lines inland and to the North coast, one of which recently got extended.

東海道新幹線、お誕生日おめでおう！