#Numer Tel

[komsomolka]

The holocaust engulfing Palestinians in Gaza has reached unimaginable levels of horror, epitomized by a harrowing video that swept across social media of 19-year-old Shaaban al-Dalou, burning to death while still connected to an IV drip. This was no isolated tragedy – it was emblematic of the escalating genocide. On 13 October, an Israeli airstrike ignited the makeshift tents sheltering dozens of displaced Palestinian families in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Amidst the inferno, Dalou’s 17-year-old brother Mohammed described his agony: “I can’t describe the feeling. I saw my brother burning in front of me, and my mother was burning.” Mohammed had managed to escape when he heard the strike, but his brother Shaban and their mother did not. His father saved his 10-year-old brother from the flames, only for the child to succumb to his burns days later, according to the New York Times.

The horrifying video was followed a week later by photos showing soldiers expelling Palestinians from half-destroyed residential blocks at gunpoint. Israeli drone footage published by Israel’s public broadcaster Kan captured images of Palestinians rounded up and forced to walk south through Gaza’s post-apocalyptic landscape without any possessions. Many Palestinians who refused to obey evacuation orders, often delivered by announcements made by hovering quadcopter drones, were massacred by Israeli artillery and airstrikes.

Rescue workers and civilians attempting to save others have been shot at by Israeli forces or simply rounded up and ‘disappeared.’ There have been reports describing numerous instances where Palestinians were targeted while trying to help injured individuals. This has left the people of Gaza without any medical or emergency services, forcing a complete halt on health and civil defense services.

Even hospitals were not spared. Critically injured patients and the doctors treating them faced the same impossible ultimatum – evacuate or die. After returning home, western doctors who had volunteered in Gaza expressed their shock at how many children arrived at the hospitals, shot not only once but twice, directly in the heart and head. “No toddler gets shot twice by mistake by ‘the world’s best snipers.’ And they’re dead-center shots,” surgeon Mark Perlmutter told CBS News. Israeli snipers and drones opened fire deliberately not only on children but on those trying to rescue them.

Palestinian families fleeing were forced to pass through checkpoints where soldiers separated the men from women and children. The soldiers then dressed the men in white jumpsuits, bound their hands, covered their eyes, and loaded them into beds of military trucks to be taken away by night to Israel’s notorious torture camps. In detainee camps such as Sde Teiman over the past year, Israeli soldiers have starved, beaten, and anally raped Palestinian detainees. They shackled the limbs of detainees so tightly that prison doctors were regularly forced to amputate limbs. [...]

Fearing such a fate and knowing that the Israeli army planned to repeat the Nakba of 1948 and never allow them to go back to their homes and lands, many Palestinians in northern Gaza refused to flee. Those who were forcibly expelled saw images of occupation forces lighting the remains of their apartment blocks ablaze and proudly posing for selfies and group photos posted as ‘trophies of war’ across social media platforms. [...]

The use of starvation as a weapon of war proved embarrassing to Netanyahu’s backers in the White House, who enthusiastically support the genocide but also wish to avoid backlash from American voters that may cause them to lose power in the upcoming US presidential election. On 13 October, the White House issued a letter publicly demanding Netanyahu increase aid to Gaza, otherwise Washington’s “continued offensive weapon shipments” to the Israeli army would be in jeopardy. The letter, written by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, noted that the amount of aid delivered had “dropped by more than 50 percent” since the spring and that the amount delivered in “September was the lowest of any month during the past year.” However, Blinken wrote in the letter that Netanyahu had a 30-day window to comply, deliberately ensuring the Israeli prime minister could ignore it without consequence. As the Times of Israel observed, “The letter was sent just weeks before the 5 November US presidential election.” As a result, “its 13 November deadline would ostensibly mitigate some of the political fallout, given that US President Joe Biden will be a lame duck when deciding whether Israel has taken the necessary steps to ensure compliance” with the US demand.

In other words, no matter how many Palestinians are burned to death, torn to pieces, or starved, Blinken will continue to play his role in ensuring that Israel’s supply of bombs continues to flow unimpeded.

please, help palestinians in gaza by sharing and contributing to their donation posts.

[byllsbytch]

Cumming home to you <3

Nicholas Alexander Chavez

Ok, it’s pretty shitty, I’ve written this in 30mins, n im too lazy to write smut. (Besides I’m shit at it on a good day.)

here ya go cuties.

Genre: Fluff

Summary: Nicholas Alexander Chavez comes home late to his gf after a long day of filming, after many attempts of trying to get freaky they decide - fuck, we’re both too tired.

Warnings: Girl none?

I’d sat on the couch watching a cooking show, it was the most entertaining channel on at the time and seeing as the night was drawing to a close, I needed something easy to watch. It was my first week in our new apartment and Nick certainly was working his ass off for it. I numerously checked the time on the microwave in the kitchen and watched as the minutes passed.

I pulled the blanket up higher to my chin, slowly fluttering my eyes trying to keep them open. A tough inner battle. Being alone in the house it wasn’t hard to keep them open, when alone I’m always restless, however I was overtired. A wave of sleepiness hit me harder causing me to slump to the side of the couch. The words from the television became unintelligible and I began to drift away.

It felt like it had been two minutes before I woke to see Nicholas had finally gotten home and stood over me, pecking my cheek and playing with my hair.

“Come on princess off to bed.” He whispered. I struggled to open my eyes and glanced at the time again.

“2am! Nicholas! Are you ok baby?”

He smiled at my concern.

“I’m fine babe, just let me get you to bed.”

I mumbled before nick swooped me up in his arms and carried me to bed. I stretched and sprawled out in the centre of the bed before groaning in satisfaction.

“I’m sorry baby, I’m so tired.”

“You’re fine my darling girl. I’ll just go for a shower and I’ll be right back. I’m sorry for coming home late and waking you.”

He walked into the bathroom the next room over and turned the water on.

-

The steam began to snake its way into the bedroom. After a few minutes I managed to pull my dead weight up off the bed and dragged my body to the bathroom doorway staring at Nick’s physique behind the shower glass.

I slowly began to pull off my shirt and kick off my pants. I heard the water turn off and Nicholas got out drying himself then wrapping the towel around his waist. He finally noticed me standing in the doorway in my old, ratty underwear. He bit his lip before coming close to me.

“What are you doing babe? You ok?”

I smirked at him, placing my hand onto his abdomen. He looked down to my hand and smiled closing the gap even more.

“I was going to get into the shower.”

“Oh damn it!” He joked, “Come on baby, let’s just go to bed it’s late.” He lent over and kissed me on the forehead.

I looked up at him and gave him puppy eyes a slight frown.

He looked away. “Oh come on! I feel bad that I woke you up.”

I placed my hand on his cheek before pulling him into a kiss.

He leant in with no hesitation and tangled his fingers into my hair. We both closed our eyes in each other’s embrace as Nicholas began to make his way from my lips down my neck. I took my hands behind my back before undoing my bra. He kept all his attention to my collar bone leaving sloppy kisses. He pulled away sensing the warmth from my breast and stepped back to glance at them. My forearms rested in his, he stared in complete adoration and love.

“You’re so gorgeous and perfect.”

He placed his hands onto my chest before going back into the kiss. I moved my hands down to his towel and gently tugged, teasing him.

“Mhmm” He hummed, nodding in the kiss.

I pulled it off before he lifted me up and carried me back to the bed.

He placed me down delicately before crawling over me.

He was out of breath and visibly excited.

“How was work handsome?” I asked keeping my hand on his face his stocky frame above me.

He stopped puzzled, already panting from the little action.

“Yeah it was alright baby. Long and boring but it’s ok because we’re about to wrap up filming soon. Tell you what got me through it, you. I couldn’t help but think about you all day. I’m so happy it’s over so we can be in this moment right now.”

I felt a grin grow wider across my face.

“Especially the snap that you sent earlier, that REALLY helped me wind down.” He chuckled, winking.

My eyes widened as I gasped, slapping him playfully on the chest, “Nick! Oh my god!” I couldn’t help but laugh and he soon joined in with me placing his forehead against mine.

“You know what this is nice. How about we just do this.”

“Oh thank god!” I said, “I’m so fucking knackered.”

I rolled onto my side and felt Nick press himself up against me, wrapping his arms around me and resting his head into the crook of my neck.

He smirked at my reaction. “Oh ok! You came onto me remember!”

I smiled at him, “Well it’s hard not to.”

“You wanna know what’s hard?”

I turned my head back to look at him grinning before rolling my eyes.

We had some more pillow talk while he continued to spoon me.

“We’re definitely on in the morning, you know that?”

“Oh yes!” He triumphantly pumped his fist.

[jillsandwhichs]

Joel Miller x Reader Smutshot Collection , Chap 4 , Between you and me

Masterlist

Pairing: F!Reader x Joel Miller

Summary: Joel is your dad's best friend, he has been since you were a bit younger. Now, you're a College student and Joel still works with your father and is still close with him. Little does your dad know, you and Joel have a little something on the side

Status of your guy's relationship in this one shot: Complicated

WC: 3.4k

Type: NSFW

Warnings: Reader is early 20s & Joel is late 30s, Degrading kink, Blowjob, He cums in your mouth, Making out, Light spanking, Unprotected P in V, Missionary, Pinning & He finishes inside of you

A/n: Hi! Hope you all enjoy. Please check out my masterlist, there's a lot of stuff there. You can get to know me, you can see the rules of my blog and then you can see all of my fanfictions. You'll be able to find the previous chapters to this fic and upcoming ones. You'll also be able to find my Wattpad & AO3. Comments, reblogs & likes are appreciated. Thank you

You had your earbuds in as you were listening to your study playlist. The current song playing was called 'Take on Me' by A-Ha; It is one of your favorite classics. Currently, you're studying for an environmental science test you have to take in class. Your major has literally nothing to do with it so you have to study extra hard considering you don't know much about the subject. The test is tomorrow morning-just great.

You've been home alone all day.

Your father works from the earlier hours of the morning until the later hours of the day. He is a contractor, he has been since you were a little girl. Ever since your mother, his wife, left the two of you, he's been awfully career focused.

It isn't necessarily a bad thing but you miss your father dearly, all the time. You're glad he's working though, it's a massive distraction. Your mother left the two of you a little over three years ago. Within that time, a lot has changed. You and your dad have grown more distant. You two are close, yes, but he's been too down in the dumps. You've told him numerous times to just go on a dating site or ask a pretty lady out but he completely shuts it down immediately.

That doesn't matter right now though, you have to get it off of your mind.

You've been studying for what feels like forever and you're getting awfully hungry-you've hardly ate today. You tend not to. The stress of school causes you to forget to. You know your dad will be home soon, it's possible he'll bring home some dinner. Practically everyday he does since he can't cook and he also doesn't want to burden you with cooking either.

Until he's home, you'll just focus on your school work.

You've been flipping through this damned pamphlet for like an hour and have gotten barley any progress done. It's hard to. You've got so many things on your mind. Your mother, your friends, Joel...

Shit, Joel...

He floods your mind constantly.

Admittedly, you've been hooking up with your dad's best friend. It started back in June-it is September now.

It was when he picked you up from Campus one day. Your dad had asked him to, trusted him to-you two fucked in his truck. You think about it often and how it all went down. One second he was driving, the next he was fingering you then he was deep inside of you as you rode him hard & fast. You'd never came like that before. That dick has some powers or something.

Then it happened again when you dropped lunch off to your dad at work.

Joel caught and glimpse of you and pretended to want to show you something in his little office then boom, he had you in his desk as he pounded into you.

You can't help but think about him. You get so wet at the simple mere thought of him. He knows what he does to you; He knows damn well. Whenever you two sext, he makes sure you cum just by his stupid, slutty messages.

You haven't seen him in a week or so and you two haven't hooked up since the last time which was when he fucked you at his place. You had lied to your dad, telling him you were going over to your friend McKennas house but truly, you headed over the Joel's. That's where he ate you out so good then fucked you, lovingly and passionately. You miss it. You miss him.

Suddenly, you heard your dad calling for you from downstairs. It sounded like he was in the kitchen.

"Sweetheart, I'm home, I brought you some dinner!" Yay! You were happy now and you can finally have a break-you totally deserve it. "Coming!" You shouted. You stood up and shut your music off, shutting your bedroom door as you exited it. You stammered down the stairs with haste, excited to eat. It smelt like Mexican food, you could smell it anywhere. You usually get the chimichanga with orange rice, it is heavenly!!!

Hopping off of the last step, you adjusted your tank top and walked through the open archway that led into the kitchen. On the marble island counter, you saw a bag of food and assumed yours was in there too. You glanced over at the brown table in the dining room and saw your dad. "Hi!" You said with a gleeful voice. You treaded to the bag and began to go through it, grabbing out the package with your name written on it. "Hi darling." Your dad said softly, he was already eating.

Were you two about to have an actual father-daughter dinner together? This is bound to end up in the history books.

You brought your container over to the table and right as you were about to sit down, a pair of fingers wrapped around the chair. You knew those fingers immediately-they were inside of you not to long ago. What the hell is Joel doing here? "Oh yeah, forgot to say something, Joel is here. He offered to put your new dresser together. You know I would darling but I have paperwork to do in my Study." This is just your fucking luck.

"Hey." Joel whispered, gazing at you. "Hi Joel." You breathed in deeply. The eye contact between the two of you was intense and clearly had sexual tension hosted in it. Your father cleared his throat and pointed at the chair. Joel pulled it out for you and you sat down and began to eat.

"I can get started on the dresser now. Where's it at?" Joel asked your father. "Just upstairs in her room. First door on your right." "Alrighty." Joel nodded and walked off.

You couldn't believe your goddamn dad let Joel go into your room to build your dresser. At this point, you'd rather do it yourself. It's not that you dislike Joel, not at all, but it's so difficult to be around the man. He makes you so aroused so easily. You practically need him.

You cut into a piece of the food and took a bite, chewing quickly. Your father was eating his dinner as well, he ordered some tacos, that's his usual. "How was work?" You asked. "Boring. We had to men fired today, bout goddamn time." You nodded at his words. "How's College been?" "Stressful." "You're a smart girl, I bet you're doing amazing." Your father praised you which honestly felt amazing.

"I have a test tomorrow on environmental science, I'm frustrated studying for it." "I'd help if I could but I never took that class. Just try your best, my dear, you'll do just fine." You were grateful for his confidence in you.

The food was really good, especially the rice. It felt great to finally eat. "Is your food good?" "Yeah dad, thank you for getting me some." "Of course." He welcomed you. You continued to eat. There was an urge though-an urge to go and check on Joel. Not necessarily check up on him, rather jump in his pants. You need him, the urge is present and so very clear.

You decided to eat a bit more before you'd excuse yourself.

"I was thinking that this weekend I'll stay over at Lydia's." "Lydia? You haven't spoken of her in a while." Wow! He actually noticed! There's a dad point for him. "Yeah well, girls fight, it's what we do. I miss her though. We want to see that new movie." "Do you need any money?" "No thanks dad, I have some." You assured him. In all actuality, Joel gave you some money recently, he enjoys spoiling you.

You scooped up some rice and ate it, chewing more slowly now. You didn't want to seem as if you were in a rush, that would just make this dinner awkward. You love your father, truly, you don't want to make him feel as though you want to get away from him. Your yearn for Joel is just so much more.

"We should have Chinese food tomorrow." You giggled, sipping from your water bottle. "That's funny because I was going to order that tonight but I switched last minute." Your dad chuckled. "We can definitely have Chinese tomorrow." You two smiled at each other. You love spending time with your dad like this.

After taking a couple more bites, you cleared your throat and sipped your water. "Dad, I'm gonna go help Joel. I feel bad after all, I could be building it." A little white lie can take you far. "Sure thing darling, I'll put your food away. I'll just be in the basement doing my work, ok? Holler if you need me, either one of yous." "Got it. Love you, thanks for dinner, it was tasty." You kissed your dad on the head and rushed up the stairs; So much for not seeming urgent.

You heard the sound of shuffling as you walked up the stairs. He must've already started working. You were nervous. You two haven't talked one on one in a bit.

Entering your bedroom, you saw Joel's burly figure kneeled as he was screwing some pieces together. He looked up at you with a smirk before talking, "Hey sweet thing." "Hi Joel." You kneeled down beside him. There were screws and other random teeny parts beside him. He was determined to get this dresser complete for you. There was also a toolbox a few inches from his body.

"Do you need any help?" "Not at all, this is easy." "Okay." You chuckled. You were extra nervous now, very much on edge. The tension between you two was something else. You wish you had the balls to just make a move.

The dresser appeared to only be in the beginning stages of completion. It wasn't surprising, he only started minutes ago. "Thank you for doing this." "S'okay, anytime, anything for you." He hummed.

You finally built the courage to say something to him, anything. Anything that would indicate you yearned for him, longed for him.

Joel stood up and walked over to your other dresser, grabbing some random miscellaneous tool. "I've been thinking about you." You admired. You were still on your knees, just looking up at him as he stared down at you. "That a fact?" "Mhm." You nodded. "Been thinkin' 'bout you too baby." Joel whispered. You looked behind you and scooted over to your bedroom door, closing it & locking it all while remaining on your knees.

"You have?" "I always am." Joel grunted, ambling towards you. You wanted him even more now. He's so attractive, so sexy. "What have you been thinking about?" "You know... Your face, your body, your touch and how good it would feel if you had me down your throat." He was such an ass in the best way possible. You giggled and looked down at his crotch area. He was wearing his work pants with a leather belt. "Is that what you want?" "Hm?" "For me to give you a blowjob?" You said seductively, slowly inching your way towards him.

He got the hint and chuckled. "What if your dad hears?" "He won't, he said he's going down to his study." You reassured him. Your hands were already at his belt. He scoffed and snickered. "Such a dirty girl, you're so needy." He slightly degraded you. He knows you're into it. "You need me down your throat." Joel grunted. You messed with his belt till you tossed it to the side, quickly pulling his stained jeans down along with his briefs.

His erect cock sprung out. He was rock hard. He's also so big, so long, so girthy. You've never had it so good. You gazed up at him, your eyes locking with his dark brown eyes. You licked your lips sexually and bit the lower one-pre-cum squirting out of his tip as you did. "Goddamn baby." He groaned, admiring you. You smiled and looked down at his member. It was directly in front of you, just waiting to feel your pretty wet lips around it. You did in fact need him down your throat. You want to feel his warm seed seep down your tight throat.

You wrapped your pink lips around his pale tip. You licked up his pre-cum, allowing it to coat your tongue. You heard him moan from above you. It's adorable how easily you get him going. He tasted amazing. "You're so pretty." He whispered, standing still and just letting you do your thing.

You shoved your head forward, taking him deep in your mouth. His cock is so big, you practically feel like you're choking on him anytime you blow him off; He loves it though. You held onto the base of his dick as you sucked him off, occasionally looking up at him. The first time you glanced up, his eyes were closed due to the intense pleasures but the second time, he was looking down at you. The look in his eyes was dark and stern. He looks so sexy when he's horny.

"Choke on me baby, that's it, good girl." Joel praised you. You love that too. You share not only a degrading kink, but a praising one too-you are a two in one deal.

Bobbing your head forward and backwards, you began to move it faster. You couldn't wait to feel him release. Him cum doesn't taste bad. You love it. You're obsessed with Joel in a way words couldn't describe. It's hard to explain. You don't particularly think you love him or are in love with him but... Maybe? You licked his tip, then all the way down his hardened dick, earning a twitch out of it. "Feels so damn good." He muttered, his hand going to your hair, the other remaining at his side.

The sounds of you gagging on his dick filled the room. Your spit was all around him and dripping onto the floor-you couldn't help it. He made a 'tsk' noise.

"Oh pretty baby, drooling for me, hm?" He teased. With his hand in your hair, he tugged your head upwards so you'd be looking at him. The grip he had on your hair was firm. "I'm gonna cum." Joel grunted, pushing your head for you now. All you did was use your tongue. You just kept slurping and sliding your wet tongue along the base of his length.

With only a few more licks & sucks, you felt his warm, gooey fluid flood down your throat. Like the good girl you are, you swallowed every last drop for him. "Jesus Christ..." He panted out, still holding your soft, silky hair. "That's it darlin'." Joel murmured.

You pulled away, wiping away the excess cum from your lips, cleaning them off. You looked up at him with watery eyes and he cooed. "Come here princess." You listened, you couldn't. You can't resist him.

As you began to lift yourself up, he pulled you into him. Your lips pressed against his. His hands went to your ass cheeks, squeezing both of them as he slipped his tongue into your wet, needy mouth. "Mmph." You moaned, caressing his scruff as the two of you made out passionately. You loved feeling his tongue in your mouth-you could just think about it flicking your clit. "Need to fuck you." He growled, bringing his hand to your ass, hard.

You giggled against his lips, sliding your tongue along his.

"Do you think you could be quick & quiet." "I know I can, the question is, can you?" Joel teased, caressing your ass as the two of you made out. It felt so good, so pleasurable. Yes, you could. Anything for him. You nodded, indicating you could. You seriously need him-now.

Joel practically tossed you onto your bed. You snickered and pulled your shorts down, along with your panties. Joel's eyes were stuck on your lower half the entire time, he was clearly enthralled. "Are you going to sit there and gawk or fuck me?" You bit your lip, laying your head against your soft, large pillows. He scoffed and mounted you, his arms holding himself up on either side of you. "This what you want babygirl?" "You know I want it, I need it." You were basically begging at this point.

With a chuckle, Joel pumped himself a couple times before aligning his cock with your entrance. You were still beyond soaked-it'd be enough lubricant. You were a bit nervous. With your father in the same house, just two stories below, he could potentially hear the two of you. You'll just pray for the best; Joel can keep you silent.

You winced slightly as he pushed his girthy dick inside of you, it was extremely hard; You were surprised he was able to come back from his high so quickly. "Joel..." You whimpered, wrapping your arms around his neck. "I know baby, I know." He grunted, becoming used to the feeling of your tight cunt around him. "Missed this." He whispered to you. He brought himself down to your face, kissing you a few times before he began to thrust into you at a decent pace, knowing you could take it.

With every movement, you could feel him going deeper inside of you. His cock rubbed so well against your clenched walls. You needed this, and you got it. You love it whenever he fucks you; You go dumb on his dick.

You couldn't help but watch his face, the way it contorted and shifted. You are honored by the way you're able to make him feel. He gets pussy drunk so easily. "You're so damn tight." He groaned, his mouth agape as he stared down at you. The stare the two of you shared was loving and lustful. You two needed each other. You would've never imagined you'd be getting fucked by your dad's friend but, here you are. Here the two of you are.

As he picked up the pace, his force got rougher. His pelvis was slamming into you; Your thighs will definitely be bruised after this. Your bed was slightly creaking to, but not loud enough to where your father may hear. "Just like that." You whined. Your head tilted backwards. The pleasure is immense, it's so much.

Joel slowly removed your arms from around your neck as he pinned them to the bed. You love being able to touch him just as much as you love being restrained. "Wish we could do this more often," Joel hummed, "I love seeing you like this baby." He added on. You giggled, gazing at him. "I need this more often." "Ya, you do, don't ya?" Joel was so cocky. "Need me inside of you, always." You moaned at his words. He isn't wrong.

At this point, he was pounding into you. Every thrust, every slip & slide, every movement in general was bringing you closer and closer to your breaking point.

"You feel so fuckin' good."

"I wanna see you cum around me."

"Gonna fill this pretty pussy up."

Each sentence also brought you closer. He is such a dirty man.

"Look at you, lookin' dumbed out as I fuck you."

"Just a little dirty slut."

"Keep takin' it darlin'."

Every. Sentence.

"I think I'm gonna cum." You whined. You attempted to get your wrists out of his grasp but your attempts were futile. "Please, don't stop." You begged, closing your eyes tightly. "Mmm, cum for me." And just like that, you did. Just by his words, you can so easily finish.

You moaned softly. Your entire back arched as your orgasm washed over you. You could feel your already tight walls clench further, and that only helped Joel cum sooner. You felt his semen spill inside of you, marking it's territory. "Goddammit." You heard Joel mumble under his breath.

Both of you were shaking with pleasure as you two both came down from your high. Sadly, no aftercare can happen, your father is just downstairs-no risks.

"That was perfect." Joel whispered, leaning up at kissing your nose, then your forehead. You laughed and breathed in deeply, "I'll be thinking of this next time I touch myself." "Oh babygirl, you better." Joel snickered, kissing you passionately before unfortunately having to pull away.

"C'mon sweet thing, let's get dressed before your daddy comes up here." "Ugh, alright." You obliged.

What a perfect evening...

[dailyakira]

home is where the heart is ft. tooru oikawa

gn! reader

a/n: hi guys! it's been a while since i've wrote a ff, so forgive me if it isn't that good. i've been fixating on haikyuu ever since the movie!! also this is not grammar checked.. i wrote this within an hour at 2 AM!!!

warnings: a bit angsty, tooth rotting fluff at a certain point, i forgot how to write, oikawa is sad and yearning, oikawa is scared to come back home, childhood friends to exes to something else?, tears are shed, please don't cringe i will cry

oikawa inhaled the familiar cool breeze surrounding him. he hadn't been in japan for years due to his hectic volleyball schedule. he was lucky enough to fly back for a short break before his season started again in a few months.

a wave of homesickness hit oikawa the second he landed. the memories of his mundane lifestyle in japan compared to his ever-changing way of life in argentina had shocked him.

oikawa wrapped his scarf around his neck tighter as snowflakes scattered from the skies. the delicate crystallized flakes began to litter his chestnut colored hair.

he hadn't told anyone that he was back in japan - oikawa felt no need to celebrate his arrival. he had burned too many bridges while chasing his dreams. arguments out of pure pettiness had ended relationships that he could never repair.

whenever oikawa thinks of japan, he thinks of you.

his dearest childhood bestfriend, who could never leave his side. until of course, he left for argentina without much of a say from you.

the only person he could say he loved, even through numerous flings and failed relationships.

he blames his fiery passion that became suffocating to be near. he blames his refusal to change his behavior. he blames every part of himself for driving you away.

because when he thinks of airports, he can't help but wander back to the memory of you not showing up to see him off. when he's gifted an alien keychain as a gag gift, he thinks of the two of you at ten years old, staring into the sky all night attempting to spot a flying saucer.

being back in his home country opens new wounds that he's tried to heal over and over. he wanted to enjoy his time off season without any worries.

his shoes tapped against the concrete evenly as he began to approach the convenience store. oikawa had left his hotel room earlier to clear his mind, and the only thing that could put him at peace was a slice of milkbread.

he hoped to go unnoticed, since he heavily disliked wearing an obnoxious disguise that would make him stand out even more. still, he raised the hood of his maroon sweatshirt over his head. oikawa desired some semblance of anonymity.

the bell clanged against the door loudly as oikawa quickly avoided the front of the store. he observed the vast selection of packaged milk bread loaves, before deciding on his usual choice brand.

he sauntered towards the beverage isle in curiosity and ended up settling for a bottled green tea to pair with his bread. he had never been a fan of green tea, but you had made it for him consistently after his practices to 'calm his nerves.' a tiny smile stretched onto his face as he thought back fondly.

he wanted to head home and collapse in his bed. the jetlag refused to leave him without a good night's sleep. after making sure he was satisfied with his choices, he walked up to the counter.

with his head down, he placed the items in front of the cashier. they scanned his items while he shuffled in the pocket of his pants for his wallet.

oikawa lifted his head slightly, comparing his money to the price shown on the register. he placed the money on the counter, not bothering to pay attention to the cashier.

he turned to leave and quickly get back to his hotel.

"i thought you hated green tea?" an easily recognizable voice remarked behind him.

he felt his heart drop as a lump began to form in his throat. out of anyone he could've ran into on his first night back, it had to be you? he contemplated putting on a brave face and telling you how he felt all these years or running out of the store just to avoid you.

he decided on the former, quickly turning around to face you. his breath paused as he looked at you for the first time in years. oikawa remembers you being beautiful before, but you had changed entirely.

you looked like you were crafted by the gods themselves.

the blush inched on his face as he tried to find the words to say. he had never been this anxious in his life. you looked at him with a puzzled expression as he continued to gape at you.

"i was... came home... off season...you're gorgeous?" he spoke in gibberish since he was unable to formulate his thoughts.

you laughed at his words as he stared at you with a stunned face, trying to determine whether or not you were real. you decided to ignore his shock and ask him about himself.

"how has your professional career been going? i heard you went to the olympics!" you gushed as he embarrassedly nodded along. you ignored your unpleasant past with him and continued with the formalities.

"i was glad to represent argentina in the olympics. going abroad to play volleyball was one of the greatest decisions i could've made."

oikawa sighs as he continues on.

"i still regret it, you know? arguing with you and leaving our relationship on bad terms. i think about it all the time. you inspired me to keep improving everyday. i'm so sorry for leaving.."

silence echoes throughout the store as he finishes his thoughts. you cut him off, beginning to explain your faults.

"i should've came to the airport. i knew that you were leaving, but i held a grudge." the regrets spilled out of you as the two of you continued to think about your every decision.

oikawa blinked away tears that formed in the corners of his eyes. he had missed you more than he could comprehend. there hadn't been enough words in his language to express how much he cared about you.

a few tears escaped his eyes, rolling down his cheeks. you leaned forward, wiping away the stray tears from his face. you softly grasped his jaw with a gentle smile.

"i've regret letting you go for years. you mean so much to me, tooru."

oikawa grins elatedly at you as he stares back into the comfort of your gaze. he could never get tired of this feeling.

the security of your embrace, the jokes that only you would laugh at, your support of his passion, your fixation on romance movies that you force him to watch with you, the longing gaze you send him whenever you're apart, and his overwhelming love for you.

there was nowhere else he'd rather be than with you.

whenever tooru thinks of home, he thinks of you.

[veganism]

The genocide is also experimentation on living beings

Israel is currently testing new weapons in Gaza, some of which will soon be sold globally as "battle-tested," according to Antony Loewenstein, an author who has written a widely acclaimed book on the issue.

For years, the Israeli defense sector has used Palestine as a laboratory for new weapons and surveillance tech, he told Anadolu, adding that this is also the case in the current ongoing war on Gaza.

One of the main reasons why "many nations, democracies and dictatorships support Israeli occupation" of Palestine is because it allows them to buy these "battle-tested" weapons, asserted Loewenstein, author of The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World.

Another aspect of Israel's war on Gaza has been the use of artificial intelligence technology, he said.

According to Loewenstein, AI has been one of the key targeting tools used by the Israeli military in its deadly campaign of airstrikes, leading to mass killings of Palestinians-now over 28,500-and damage on an unprecedented scale.

The current war on Gaza is "inarguably one of the most consequential and bloody," he said.

He described Israel's use of AI against Palestinians as "automated murder," stressing that this model "will be studied and copied by other nation-states" and Tel Aviv will sell them these technologies as tried and tested weapons.

In the last 50 years, Israel has exported hi-tech surveillance tools to at least 130 countries around the world.

To maintain its illegal occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and blockade of the Gaza Strip, Israel has developed a range of tools and technologies that have made it the world's leading exporter of spyware and digital forensics tools.

But analysts say the intelligence failure during the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks casts doubts over Tel Avis's technological capabilities.

Israel's reliance on technology "is an illusion of safety, while imprisoning 2.3 million people under endless occupation," said Loewenstein, who is Jewish and holds Australian and German nationalities.

He described Israel's response in Gaza as "apocalyptic," stressing that the killings of Palestinian civilians, including children and women, is "on a scale of indiscriminate slaughter."

- 'BLOOD MONEY'

Loewenstein, who is also a journalist, said Israel has honed its weapons and technology expertise over decades as an occupying power, acting with increasing impunity in the Palestinian territories.

This led a small country like Israel to become one of the top 10 arms dealers in the world, he said, adding that Israeli arms sales in 2021 were "the highest on record, surging 55% over the previous two years to $11.3 billion."

In his book, Loewenstein explores thoroughly Israel's ties with autocracies and regimes engaged in mass displacement campaigns, and governments slinking their way into phones.

The Israeli NSO Group sold its well-known Pegasus software to numerous governments, a spyware tool for phones that gives access to the entire content, including conversations, text messages, emails and photos even when the device is switched off.

Israeli drones were first tested over Gaza, the besieged enclave that Loewenstein referred to as "the perfect laboratory for Israeli ingenuity in domination."

Surveillance technology developed in Israel has also been sold to the US in the form of watch towers now used on the border with Mexico.

The EU's border agency Frontex is known to have used Israeli drone technology to monitor refugees.

Loewenstein explains in his book that the EU has partnered with leading Israeli defense companies to use its drones, "and of course years of experience in Palestine is a key selling point."

"So again, one sees how there are so many examples of nations that are wanting to copy what Israel is doing in their own area in their own country on their own border," he said.

These technologies and "are sold by Israel as battle-tested," he said.

In other words, he contends that Palestinians essentially have become "guinea pigs," and despite some nations and the UN publicly criticizing the Israeli occupation, in reality "they're desperate for this technology for themselves for their own countries."

"And that's how in fact, the Palestine laboratory has been so successful for Israel for so long," he said.

In his exhaustive probe into Israel's dealings with arms sales around the world, he noted that the country has monetized the occupation of Palestine, by selling weapons, spyware tools and technologies to repressive regimes such as Rwanda during the genocide in 1994 and to Myanmar during its genocide against the Muslim Rohingya people in 2017.

"This to me is blood money. I mean, there's no other way to see that and again, as someone Jewish, who has spent many, many years reporting on this conflict, both within Israel and Palestine but also elsewhere, it's deeply shameful that Israel is making huge amounts of money from the misery of others," he said.

"This is not a legacy that I can be proud of."

- 'NO NATION ACTUALLY HOLDING ISRAEL TO ACCOUNT'

Profiting from misery is to some extent the nature of what capitalism has always been about, but Israel does this with a great deal of impunity, "because Israel does what it wants," said Loewenstein.

"There is no accountability, there is no transparency, there is no nation actually holding Israel to account," he added.

Israel's regime is shielded from any political backlash for years to come because nations are reliant on Israeli weapons and spyware, said the author.

Israel may not be the only player employing surveillance technology that leads to human rights violations, but it still plays a dominant role, which is why Loewenstein insists that it deserves singular attention.

Israel's foreign policy has always been "amoral and opportunistic," he said, calling on all nations to take a stand and hold Israel accountable, and acknowledge that the world is buying what Israel is selling.

[zvaigzdelasas]

Arab leaders decrying the deaths of thousands of Palestinian civilians in the Israel-Hamas war pushed for an immediate cease-fire Saturday even as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that such a move would be counterproductive and could encourage more violence by the militant group. After an afternoon of talks with Egyptian, Jordanian, Saudi, Qatari and Emirati diplomats and a senior Palestinian official, Blinken stood side by side at a line of podiums with his counterparts from Jordan and Egypt [...]

The dissonance in the messages was evident. Nonetheless, the joint news conference between ministers from the Arab world and the top diplomat from Israel’s closest ally and numerous photo opportunities contrasted with Blinken’s time in Tel Aviv on Friday, when Blinken met alone with reporters after closed-door talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Arab ministers repeatedly called for the fighting to stop now and condemned Israel’s war tactics.

“We cannot accept the justification as considered as the right of self-defense, collective punishment” of Palestinians in Gaza, Egypt’s Sameh Shoukreh said. “This cannot be a legitimate self-defense at all.” Blinken held firm to the U.S. position that a cease-fire would harm Israel’s right and obligation to defend its citizens after the surprise attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 across southern Israel. He said the Biden administration’s commitment to Israel’s right to self-defense remains unwavering. “It is our view now that a cease-fire would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did,” Blinken said.

He said the U.S. supports “humanitarian pauses” in Israel’s operations to allow for improved aid flows [...] Blinken’s colleagues from Jordan and Egypt did not think that went far enough.

In another direct contrast, Arab officials said it was far too soon to discuss one of Blinken’s main agenda items, Gaza’s postwar future. Stopping the killing and restoring steady humanitarian aid are immediate that must be addressed first, they said. “What happens next? How can we even entertain what will happen next?” said Jordan’s Ayman al-Safadi. “We don’t have all the variables to even start thinking about that.” He added, “We need to get our priorities straight.” But as they appeared before news cameras and reporters, the three men lent at least an appearance of solidarity. [...]

From Beirut, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told reporters that Blinken “should stop the aggression and should not come up with ideas that cannot be implemented.” Hamdan said the future of Gaza will be decided by the Palestinians and that Arab foreign ministers should tell the American diplomat that “he cannot build an Arab coalition that is against the Palestinian people.”

Blinken’s first meeting in Jordan was with Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati,[...]

Blinken thanked Mikati for his leadership “in preventing Lebanon from being pulled into a war that the Lebanese people do not want,” the U.S. State Department said. Blinken then met with the foreign minister of Qatar, whose country has emerged as the most influential interlocutor with Hamas. Qatar has been key to negotiating the limited release of hostages held by Hamas as well as persuading Hamas to allow foreign citizens to leave Gaza and cross into Egypt. Blinken also held talks with the head of the U.N. agency in charge of assisting Palestinian refugees, thanking Phillipe Lazzarini for his group’s “extraordinary work every single day as a lifeline to Palestinians in Gaza and a great, a great cost.” The agency has seen about 70 staffers killed in the war so far and is running critically low on necessary supplies such as food, medicine and fuel.[...]

While in Amman, Blinken will see Jordan’s King Abdullah II, whose country has recalled its ambassador to Israel and told Israel’s envoy not to return to Jordan until the Gaza crisis was over. On Sunday, Blinken will travel Turkey meetings with President Recep Tayyep Erdogan and other top officials on Monday, the State Department said. Turkey on Saturday followed Jordan’s lead and announced it had recalled its ambassador to Israel. Arab states are resisting American suggestions that they play a larger role in the Mideast crisis, expressing outrage at the civilian toll of the Israeli military operations but believing Gaza to be a problem largely of Israel’s own making.[...]

Still ideas on Gaza’s future governance are few and far between. Blinken and other U.S. officials are offering a vague outline that it might include a combination of a revitalized Palestinian Authority, which has not been a factor in Gaza since 2007, with international organizations and potentially a peacekeeping force. U.S. officials acknowledge these ideas have been met with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.

4 Nov 23

[girlactionfigure]

How to End the New War of Attrition

Welcome to that familiar location, the one between a rock and a hard place.

Since the day after the invasion and massacre on 7 October, Hezbollah has been waging a successful war of attrition against Israel. More than 80,000 Israelis have been displaced from their homes on the northern border, and more than 50 have been killed by rockets and antitank weapons. Border towns and kibbutzim have become wastelands. Homes and other structures have been destroyed, and fields burned.

Israel has responded in a carefully measured, tit-for-tat fashion which, as anyone familiar with the Middle East knows, sends a message of weakness and an invitation for further depredation. There are three apparent reasons for this:

The IDF does not want to fight a two-front war.

Hezbollah has between 130,000 to 200,000 rockets, missiles, and drones that it can launch at Israel, some of them with precision guidance systems that can strike within a few meters of a target. The home front is expected to suffer thousands of deaths and massive destruction of property and infrastructure.

The American administration has told Israel that if it attacks Hezbollah preemptively, it will not support us (presumably with weapons deliveries or at the UN).

On 28 July, a Hezbollah rocket with a 50 kg warhead struck a soccer field and playground in Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights. 12 children and teenagers were killed and numerous others injured, some critically. There was an alert, but it came only a few seconds before the explosion, and the children did not have time to reach a nearby concrete shelter. One child was missing for a day, before it was determined that his body had been blown to bits.

Majdal Shams is the “capital” of the Golan Druze. The Druze mostly live in Lebanon, Syria, the Golan, and the Galilee region of Israel. They have a unique religion, and a tradition of loyalty to the states in which they live. They also have a military tradition, and Israeli Druze serve in the IDF and Border Patrol. They are considered among the best fighters and officers and have paid a high price in blood in Israel’s wars.

The entire region is watching to see how Israel will react to the murder of 12 children. Such an atrocity demands a disproportionate response. If the reaction is typical of the recent past, our enemies will know that the understanding that murdering Israeli civilians is normal behavior is still in effect. The Druze will know that Israel does not care about them or value their contributions to the state. After all, we hit the Houthis’ oil industry and port after they killed one Jew in Tel Aviv.

The Americans have already informed us that yes, we are allowed to retaliate, but no, it cannot be disproportionate. And we may not touch Beirut, where Hezbollah boss Hassan Nasrallah is holed up.

When we were invaded on 7 October, the Biden Administration expressed its horror at the massacre of 1200 Israelis and expressed its support. But in the following days it tried to delay or prevent a ground invasion of Gaza. Once the ground war started, it supported Egypt’s demand that not one Gazan would be allowed to cross the border; but at the same time it complained about civilian casualties in the Strip. Then it tried to prevent us from entering Rafiah and taking control of the border between Gaza and Egypt to cut off Hamas’ weapons supply. Even after we demonstrated that it was possible to move civilians out of the way, it continued to throttle our supply of ammunition, to “protect” them. The administration also delayed the delivery of “smart” munitions which enable precise strikes at military targets! All during the war it has pressed for a hostage deal on terms that would leave Hamas in control of Gaza. And it has encouraged the “bring them home at any price” movement in Israel, as well as the forces opposing PM Netanyahu, who wants to keep fighting. Following the philosophy of never allowing a crisis to go to waste, the Biden administration wishes to turn the “day after” the war into a “two-state solution” that would put most of Israel into jeopardy from 7 October-style invasions.

Many seem to have forgotten that on 13 April of this year, Iran launched a direct attack on Israel, launching more than 300 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones against us. Israel – with some help from the US and others – succeeded in shooting most of them down (at an estimated cost of $1 billion). But had a large number of them reached their targets, the destruction and death would have been beyond estimation. It was an attempt to destroy the fabric of our nation and demanded a suitable response. Instead, we bombed an Iranian air defense radar installation. We were told this would “send a message” to Iran. It did, but not the intended one. It informed them that it’s acceptable to shoot at Jews, and they should keep trying. After all, what do they have to lose?

The Majdal Shams attack cannot be allowed to go unavenged. We cannot afford to allow our deterrence to erode further. The wolves are circling. Yesterday, the little pisher of Turkey, Tayip Recip Erdoğan, threatened that he too could invade Israel. Why not? Everyone is doing it. But still more important: we cannot betray our Druze citizens (and those in the Golan who still hold Syrian citizenship but more and more are becoming Israelis). We owe them, and we need them.

There is little chance that we can make the Americans agree. I would like to think it is because they don’t understand the Middle East, and it’s partly that, but it’s also because the Democratic administration is still following the pro-Iranian policy established by Barack Obama. Nevertheless, we have no alternative but to do it anyway.

But what about the danger from Hezbollah’s arsenal? Many analysts think that Israel could not survive the full force of the blow it could inflict. Of course the state of Lebanon would also be bombed into the stone age, but the Iranian puppeteers are perfectly happy in sacrificing the hosts of their proxies if it will achieve their goal.

We are in a bad spot, but there is one strategy that might succeed: that is to strike a massive blow at the Iranian regime and Iran’s infrastructure, to cut off the head of the snake, so to speak. If this could be done quickly and effectively, Hezbollah would be left high and dry, and could be persuaded to avoid the mutual devastation that would result from all-out war with Israel.

Would it work? How would we do it? I am not a military expert. But I do know that we cannot continue along the road we are following today, because it leads only to destruction.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from EcoWatch:

Researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) have studied free-ranging fruit bats in a colony in Egypt to answer the long-standing question of whether animals have complex cognitive abilities previously thought to exist only in humans.

The study focused specifically on mental time travel, episodic memory, delayed gratification and planning ahead, a press release from TAU said.

“For many years, the cognitive abilities to recall personal experiences (episodic memory) and plan ahead were considered exclusive to humans. But more and more studies have suggested that various animals also possess such capabilities, but nearly all of these studies were conducted under laboratory conditions, since field studies on these issues are difficult to perform. Attempting to test these abilities in wild animals, we designed a unique experiment relying on the colony of free-ranging fruit bats based in TAU’s I. Meier Segals Garden for Zoological Research,” said Dr. Yossi Yovel, a lead researcher of the study and a professor in TAU’s School of Zoology and Sagol School of Neuroscience, in the press release.

The study, “Time-mapping and future-oriented behavior in free-ranging wild fruit bats,” was published in the journal Current Biology.

“Episodic memory is the memory of our individual experiences. In animals, people talk about episodic-like memory which is the ability to remember what-where and when an event happened. We show that bats remember how much time (when) passed since they visited a specific tree (what) at a specific location (where),” Yovel told EcoWatch in an email.

The research team surmised that bats who depend on fruit trees to survive would need to develop the ability to track food availability both spatially — where trees are located — and across time — when each tree produces fruit.

“We think that fruit bats map time in order to keep track of available fruit. For example, they know that if two weeks have passed since their last visit to one kind of tree, then there will be no food on that tree, but if only one week passed there might still be food. We show that they plan their visits according to such reasoning,” Yovel told EcoWatch.

To navigate landscapes with numerous nectar and fruit trees, the bats would also need to be able to mentally track resources so that they could revisit them at the right time.

[troythecatfish]

On June 19, Israeli Minister of Religious Affairs Michael Malchieli informed the Hebrew media that Tel Aviv was getting ready for the possibility of

"mass burials" in the event that the confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon escalated.

This comment comes after Hezbollah unveiled a nine-minute drone footage video the day before Nasrallah's speech. The footage revealed numerous sensitive, key targets in Haifa. The Hezbollah video, according to Israel's Channel 14 news outlet,

"conveys an unequivocal message to Israel: that the party is present inside Israel by air, land, and sea, and that it is capable of carrying out severe strikes."

Source: Mintpress

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Israel paid for a foreign influence campaign to disseminate pro-Israel propaganda and disinformation to U.S. lawmakers, The New York Times confirmed on Wednesday. The campaign had been flagged and reported on for months across numerous social media platforms, but it was unclear the extent to which the Israeli government was involved in the operation. Turns out, the Israeli government directly commissioned the whole thing—and it was targeting Black Democratic lawmakers in particular.

The influence operation—which seeks to sow criticism of pro-Palestine and campus protests and to bolster support for Israel’s attacks on Gaza—began in October, according to the Times. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, identified the operation last week. Meta described the campaign as “likely AI-generated” with ChatGPT posts from accounts posing as Jewish students, Black Americans, and “concerned citizens,” according to Reuters, and a focus on audiences in the United States and Canada.

The Times reports the campaign is still active on X (formerly Twitter), where fake accounts posing as real Americans spammed pro-Israel propaganda in reply to predominantly Black U.S. lawmakers. The campaign targeted Ritchie Torres, a Democratic representative from New York well known for routinely espousing pro-Israel propaganda, as well as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Both, coincidentally, are two of AIPAC’s largest donation recipients: Both Torres’s and Jeffries’s largest donor is AIPAC, while Jeffries is AIPAC’s top recipient.

Israeli-based newspaper Haaretz also reported numerous examples of the fake accounts and included one reply from a ChatGPT-fueled fake account posing as a Black woman in response to U.S. Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove, who represents California.

“Israel’s role in this is reckless and probably ineffective,” Achiya Schatz, the executive director of Israeli disinformation watchdog FakeReporter, told The New York Times. That Israel “ran an operation that interferes in U.S. politics is extremely irresponsible.”

According to sources involved in the campaign who provided documented evidence to The New York Times, the campaign was commissioned by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs—a government body largely focused on pushing pro-Israel and pro-Netanyahu talking points to U.S. Jews and advocating for a highly controversial proposed definition of antisemitism. The ministry paid $2 million for the campaign, tapping Israeli political marketing firm Stoic.

The exposure of the government agency behind the influence campaign is almost entirely too convenient: In January, a Tel Aviv University report called to shutter the ministry and fold its initiatives into the offices of the prime minister and the foreign ministry, consolidating power around far-right figureheads Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Affairs Minister Israel Katz.

[beardedmrbean]

Archaeologists have uncovered dozens of ancient Egyptian tombs and numerous artifacts, including a remarkable set of objects made from gold foil.

An Egyptian archaeological mission coordinated by the Supreme Council of Antiquities unearthed 63 mud-brick tombs and some simple burials at the Tel el-Deir necropolis in New Damietta, a Mediterranean coast city in the country's north.

The tombs are thought to date to ancient Egypt's Late Period, which lasted from 664 to 332 B.C., the country's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced in a statement.

Among these, researchers uncovered a "huge" tomb containing burials of people who appear to have been of high social class. Inside, archaeologists found a collection of gold foil artifacts in a variety of different forms, such as those shaped like religious symbols or figures.

The archaeological mission also uncovered a pottery vessel containing dozens of bronze coins from the later Ptolemaic era during the excavation, as well as a group of local and imported ceramic artifacts. The latter shed light on trade links between the ancient city of Damietta and other settlements along the Mediterranean coast.

The Ptolemaic era began following Alexander the Great's conquest of Egypt—then controlled by the Persians—in 332 B.C. A Hellenistic polity known as the Ptolemaic Kingdom was subsequently established in 305 B.C. and ruled Egypt until 30 B.C., when the region was conquered by the Romans.

Another intriguing find during the excavation in New Damietta was ushabti statuettes, small figurines used in ancient Egyptian funerary practices. They were placed in tombs in the belief that they would act as servants for the deceased in the afterlife.

The layout of the newly discovered tombs at Tel el-Deir has been seen in other ancient Egyptian tombs of the Late Period, the ministry said.

Mohamed Ismail Khaled, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the latest discoveries at the Tel el-Deir necropolis highlight the fact that ancient Damietta was a center of foreign trade during different historical eras.

Earlier this month, archaeologists announced that a collection of ancient Egyptian artworks and inscriptions had been uncovered hidden below the waters of the Nile.

A joint Egyptian-French archaeological mission identified works in an area of the iconic river, near the city of Aswan, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a statement.

The settlement that existed in this location in ancient times was strategically significant, marking the southern frontier of pharaonic Egypt.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

There is also a border with Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. And, lest anyone forget, there is a maze of underground tunnels one recently-freed Israeli hostage calls "Lower Gaza" which presents numerous illegal exit opportunities.

As Ari Zivotofsky observes in the Jerusalem Post, a September 19, 2023, episode of the Palestinian television show Emigration claimed that, "in the past 15 years a quarter of a million young Palestinians left for abroad." In 2022, over 15,000 of them who lived abroad (having apparently escaped the "prison") willingly returned to it to celebrate the feast of Eid al-Adha.

This is not how prisons work.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has been running a series on "Gaza Before October 7" refuting the "concentration camp" and "open-air prison" claims with pictures and videos. The first two episodes follow Palestinian "influencer" Yousef Alhelou as he travels around Gaza, showing off the top spots for tourists, including a gold market. Subsequent episodes include an Al-Jazeera feature of the economic boom in Gaza, Turkish television reports on the markets of Gaza, and various Arab media outlets covering the many sporting events in Gaza.

Hamas propagandists argue that Gazans are denied goods and services they are entitled to because of Israel's "land, water, and sea blockade," but Israel only blocks weapons from entering Gaza. Even after October 7, Israel has continued to supply electricity, food, and medicine.

What the "pro-Palestine" luminaries will never admit is that Israel has been forced into controlling Gaza's ports by the long history of weapons shipped there. In 2001, two vessels, the Calypso and the Santorini, were seized with weapons destined for Palestinian terrorists, and in 2002, a Palestinian ship called the Karine A was seized with 50 tons of Iranian weapons destined for Gaza. Since then, Israel has acted to prevent further shipments of weapons from reaching Gaza by sea. In 2007, after Hamas took over Gaza completely, Israel imposed an inspections regime and began more aggressively searching ships for smuggled weapons. Food and medicine are not prevented from entering Gaza.

Poor access to healthcare is another complaint about life in the Gaza "open-air prison." In April 2023, the Jerusalem-based anti-Israel activist group B'Tselem faulted Israel for preventing Palestinians from leaving Gaza in order to be treated in Israeli hospitals. But Israel treats plenty of Palestinians. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh sends his entire family to Israel for medical care. In 2013 his 1-year-old granddaughter was treated in an Israeli hospital; in 2014 his daughter was treated at Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital and his mother-in-law was treated at Jerusalem's Augusta Victoria Hospital; in 2021 his niece was treated at Ichilov Hospital. Just this month, it was reported that Haniyeh's grandniece was being treated at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva. But why should any Gazans be treated in Israeli hospitals? There are 36 hospitals in Gaza, many of which are run by foreign nations (Indonesia, Turkey, Jordan, European countries) serving a population of around 2 million.

Of course, hospitals in Gaza are dual-purpose buildings, offering both healthcare and camouflage for the entrances to Hamas's elaborate subterranean infrastructure. An IDF spokesman said that "Hamas systematically built the Indonesian Hospital to disguise its underground terror infrastructure." The Al-Shifa hospital, where IDF soldiers found a stash of rifles, ammunition, and ballistic vests, also sits atop a major tunnel junction. IDF soldiers recently found unopened boxes of medicine for Israeli hostages at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

If Gaza is a prison, Hamas is the jailer.

[mariacallous]

Washington CNN  — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu grabbed Brett McGurk’s arm as he walked out of a tense meeting of the Israeli Cabinet over securing the release of hostages Hamas was holding in Gaza.

“We need this deal,” Netanyahu told the White House Middle East coordinator a week ago in Tel Aviv, according to sources familiar with the exchange.

Earlier that day, Netanyahu and President Joe Biden had agreed over the phone that they were ready to accept the broad contours of a deal for Hamas to release 50 women and children who were being held hostage.

A major breakthrough had come two days earlier on November 12. Hamas – after refusing for days – had relented in offering identifying information about several dozen hostages, such as their age, gender and nationalities. The information confirmed that numerous children and toddlers had been taken captive on October 7.

Even though Israel and the US believed there were more than 50 women and children hostages, both sides agreed that they needed to move ahead with securing the release of those 50 – and hope that the deal might incentivize Hamas to release more after the initial group.

Hamas goes dark

But hours after McGurk’s meeting with Netanyahu, everything went dark.

The Qataris – who had been playing the main mediating role – couldn’t get a hold of Hamas. When the group finally resurfaced, Hamas threatened to derail the talks: It demanded that the Israel Defense Forces, which had gone in to raid Al-Shifa hospital, leave the hospital grounds. IDF declined but indicated that it would keep the hospital running.

Once the talks resumed, Biden – who was in San Francisco having just finished a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping – placed one more call to the emir of Qatar. His message: Time was up. The emir gave Biden his assurances that he would do everything possible to close the deal.

The next day, McGurk met in person with the emir in Doha to examine the text of the final deal that by this point was around half a dozen pages long. It laid out how women and children would leave in the first phase, as well as incentives for Hamas to release more hostages beyond that. CIA Director Bill Burns was dialed in to the meeting by phone.

Israel’s war cabinet approved the deal after making minor changes on Sunday, and the text of the agreement was passed on to Hamas for the last time by the emir of Qatar.

The emir made clear: This is the final offer.

On Tuesday morning, Hamas responded to their Qatari interlocutors: They approved the deal.

A ‘pilot’ negotiation

While efforts to negotiate a deal began in the immediate days after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, the groundwork for the deal started coming together weeks later, after the Biden administration had confidence that communication with Hamas via the Qataris was effective. Officials would later describe this as their “pilot” negotiation.

On October 23, the White House had successfully secured the release of two American citizens from Gaza – Natalie and Judith Raanan. As the mother and daughter made their way across Gaza, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, principal deputy national security adviser Jon Finer and McGurk were huddled in Sullivan’s office, tracking the Raanans’ movements in real time. Sources described their multi-hour journey as “excruciating.”

When the women arrived at the border, Charge d’Affaires Stephanie Hallett was waiting for them. At this point, Biden placed a call to Natalie Raanan’s father to share the joyful news, and later in the day, he would speak with both women.

That day would serve as proof to Biden’s top national security officials that the White House had successfully established a means of communicating and negotiating with Hamas via Qatar. And it triggered what would ultimately become the weeks-long effort to secure the release of a larger group of hostages.

Foundations of a deal

After the Israelis delegated the director of Mossad to negotiate on the hostages, back in the US, Burns, too, became intimately involved.

In Doha, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani engaged directly with senior Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, a person familiar with the discussions said.

In multiple phone calls in October, Biden impressed upon Netanyahu that there was a path for a large group of hostages to be released. On October 24, Hamas appeared to agree to the parameters of a deal to release women and children hostages. American and Israeli officials furiously deliberated whether Israel should delay its ground invasion.

Ultimately, Israel wasn’t convinced. At this point, they still had no proof of life of any of the hostages that Hamas claimed to have, and they also didn’t buy Hamas’ claim that they couldn’t determine the identities of the hostages until there was a pause in fighting.

Israel began its ground invasion on October 27.

In the weeks that followed, the US, Israel and Qatar went back and forth with Hamas, negotiating with the group about every detail of a possible deal: the timeframe, number of hostages, safe passage corridors and surveillance.

Blinken returned to Israel in early November to press the Israeli government to accept “humanitarian pauses,” something that the US argued would advance progress on the hostages. Although there was an agreement in principle after Blinken met with Netanyahu and the war cabinet, the Israeli prime minister publicly rejected the idea just hours after that meeting. It took days of pressure from the US for the Israeli government to institute and acknowledge “tactical pauses.”

The talks at times seemed to move painfully slow, as each step of the communication moved from Doha, Qatar, or Cairo to Hamas in Gaza, then back again, before being relayed to Israel and the US.

“Every step of this is like pulling teeth,” one official said at the time.

Behind the scenes, the hostages were the key issue that prevented Israel from initially agreeing to a humanitarian pause, because the Israeli government did not want to signal any kind of relief in exchange for hostages, a senior State Department official said.

Numerous different permutations of a deal were discussed.

Israeli and US officials initially insisted that all women and children come out in the first part of the release. Hamas would only guarantee 50 and refused to produce identifying information about the hostages. By the time that Burns met in Doha with the emir of Qatar and David Barnea, the director of the Mossad, the fact that there was no identifying information about the hostages was a major sticking point.

On November 12, Biden informed the emir of Qatar that the negotiation could not move forward without this information in what a senior administration official described as a “very important and very intense call.” Shortly after, Hamas finally relented, seemingly guaranteeing that any final deal would entail the release of 50 women and children hostages.

Next steps

While the deal reached this week only returns 50 women and children, US officials projected confidence Tuesday that the agreement will ultimately pave the way for additional hostage releases.

There are 10 Americans who remain unaccounted for, including two women and a 3-year-old girl. Pressed by CNN on the remaining Americans, a senior administration official said the White House remains “determined to get everybody home,” and suggested that the deal is structured to “very much (incentivize) the release of everybody.”

An agreement to release hostages from Hamas would “unlock the potential for delivery of more humanitarian assistance” into Gaza, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Tuesday.

After their safe passage, the released hostages will be given medical attention in Israel, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, suggesting that some could have longer-term medical needs following six weeks in “abhorrent conditions.” Then there will be efforts to repatriate citizens to their home countries and connect them with their families.

For any American citizens released, Kirby said, after medical care is prioritized, the US State Department will provide consular assistance.

It could be 24 to 48 hours before the Biden administration has confirmation as to whether the two American women and orphaned American 3-year-old were among those released, one US official said.

[todaysjewishholiday]

22 Sivan 5784 (27-28 June 2024)

Today, New York City has the largest Jewish population of any urban area in the world, with three times as many Jewish residents as Jerusalem and four times as many as Tel Aviv. It’s without a doubt one of the great Jewish cultural centers of the modern world, and is famous worldwide for its varied and diverse population. Today, on the 22nd of Sivan, we celebrate the first Jewish immigrants who helped create that multiculturalism.

Four hundred years ago, Amsterdam was an early European testing ground of religious freedom, having thrown off Spanish rule and celebrated in part by accepting Sephardi refugees. The Dutch were also a mercantile powerhouse determined not to let the British outdo them at overseas colonization.

The Dutch West India Company was established by Dutch merchants to organize colonial ventures in the western hemisphere. The company appointed Peter Stuyvesant as Director General of its overseas operations and Stuyvesant set out for the Dutch Colony of New Amsterdam. Ironically, much like the English Puritan settlers who left Amsterdam for Massachusetts because they were distressed by the wide cultural toleration of Dutch society, Stuyvesant yearned for life in the new world in part because he wanted to build a new society in which religious and cultural toleration had no place, ruled strictly by and for members of the Dutch Reformed Church. Stuyvesant had no interest in creating an inclusive religious environment for fellow mainstream Protestants such as Lutherans or new sects like the Quakers, much less Catholics or Jews.

But Stuyvesant’s ambitions of intolerance almost immediately ran up against the ideals and mercantile values of the company that paid his salary. The Dutch West India Company had Jewish merchants among its stockholders and didn’t want to risk offending any potential settlers willing to bring their capital to the new colony. In 5414, the first Jewish settlers arrived. They included a small contingent of Ashkenazim who had come directly from Amsterdam, and a boatload of Portuguese Sephardim who had begun practicing Judaism again in Dutch occupied Recife, and then fled to avoid the Inquisition when the territory was again seized by Portugal. Stuyvesant was horrified, and immediately wrote to the West India Company board seeking permission to expel the Jewish arrivals before a Jewish community took root. The board refused Stuyvesant’s request.

The next ten years, right up until the English conquest of the colony, consisted of Stuyvesant’s repeated attempts to impose restrictions of one kind or another on the Jewish colonists, Jewish protests against these restrictions through the courts or through appeals to Dutch Jews with influence on the company, and a string of letters from the West India Company reiterating the policy of toleration and insisting that Stuyvesant give the Jewish community of New Amsterdam all the rights that Amsterdam’s Jewish community enjoyed.

The 22nd of Sivan 5416 is the date of the board’s third letter to Stuyvesant overturning his attempts to restrict the rights of the Jewish settlers. In classic Dutch fashion for the period, it emphasized the rights of minorities to “quietly and peacefully” engage in business, and to privately practice their religion so long as doing so did not intrude on the public sphere. This final limitation meant that although New Amsterdam’s Jewish community regularly met for prayer and Torah services in each other’s private homes and had two licensed kosher butchers, the first official synagogue wouldn’t be built until seventy-six years after the first Jewish colonists arrived.

So today we celebrate the first Jews of New Amsterdam, who continued to fight for their rights through numerous bigoted attempts to restrict them, and for the victories they won. Their efforts laid the groundwork for a vibrant and thriving city that Jews—and many other minorities— now consider a beloved home.

Today is also Erev Shabbat. Prepare to welcome the sabbath queen when the day is almost over and the sun starts dipping under the horizon.

[toughpaperround]

Sasha Roiz

In 911, we know him for his portrayal of Detective Lou Ransone of the LAPD, often seen working alongside Athena Grant (actor Angela Bassett ofc) and Det. Romero (actor Danny Nucci).

Roiz was born in Tel Aviv, but raised in Montreal. He then trained theatrically in the UK and returned to work in theatre in Montreal.

Sasha Roiz now lives in LA and has had a role in Grimm (as Sean Renard) and Chicago Med (as Jack Dayton), though he has also made numerous guest appearances on other big name TV shows like House, The Mentalist. He has also produced some short films.

[IMDb] [see other 911 cast bios]

[uzurimisery]

chapter 1: the night things went to shit. / choso kamo / nsfw

wc: approx. 6k

Warnings: MDNI, DEAD DOVE DO NOT EAT, zombies, dubcon, violence, gore, eventual smut, slow burn, dead bodies, cannibalism, reader uses guns, guns, torture scenes, graphic depictions of violence and injuries, warnings to be added and updated

Sometimes the green blinded you. The vibrant, verdant shades, spiralling up the sides of buildings, breathing life into the dead cityscape. Where once doors stood, vines dangled hanging like beaded curtains. Roots thicker than your arms weaved through the cracked pavement. New species, ones thought dead, ones birthed anew, living and breathing in the death of mankind. Plants everywhere and in everything, and tiny white flowers in broken ceramic.

In the distance a pack of wild dogs were barking, no doubt hunting down a bird or two for dinner, or whatever rodent they could find. It was always so quiet when you were out here on your own. 

You still remember the before. When glass panes went high into the sky, the sun's light reflected off them and hurt your eyes. When your eyes were closed you could feel the heat from them, smell your mother's perfume as she pulled you by your sticky three-year-old hands to go in the building. Sometimes you could hear the wind whistle against the buildings as they swayed with it. The rumble of engines, horns, music, the sounds of traffic.

One day you’d wake up and forget that memory too. The dead were numerous and remembering them living hurt more than not. There were more important things to focus on than the dead, or you’d become one of them. Food, shelter, keeping your logs up-to-date, reporting to your commanding officer. 

How it happened was blurry. A mess of fragmented images, grating against each other, clashing between what was real and what was imagined. One day things had been fine and the next 90% of the population had died. And some came back to life. Shambling corpses decaying and composted as walking plants. The schools said that it was humans' fault it happened. That we warmed the planet to the point where things that were dead came back to kill us. Things that once were no threat became one. Others, a sect of religious people called The Followers of the Prophet said it was the result of all our sins, the hatred of mankind made manifest. Whatever the case, the world ended minus the small encampments of people left in safe zones. 

Some people still lived out in the wilds, apart from the remnants of civilisation. Some were small communities and some were lone wolfs. It was better to keep your distance from them regardless. The dead were dangerous, but humans were deadly.

Teton neighed under you as you led him out of the city limits, annoyed that you stopped petting him as you went. He was a funny horse, more personality than some people you knew. 17 hands tall, American Saddlebred, dark bay, and very opinionated. Breaking him had been a nightmare, no one else had ever gotten close to it, but one day the two of you reached an agreement and he’d been your mount since then. Even if he fought the bit from time to time. He was the only real perk of the job.

The stock of your Ruger 10/22 Carbine bumped against you awkwardly as you leaned forward to pet the needed horse. “Whiny boy today.” 

You were one of the lucky few. Taken in by The Federation, fed, educated, trained. All because you had potential because you had a gift. There were a few people like you. They called you all blessed but it felt more like a curse. Certain people, not many, could sense the hordes. Some of the more gifted ones could even control one or two of the corpses. Influence them to act differently.  You weren’t that talented, you just had enough sense that 

allowed you to do scouting on your own just like you were now. There were moments, darkness pooling behind your eyes, where it felt like there was more but it’d disappear as soon as it got there. Right now you could feel that power pulling at you, telling you that there were dead nearby. 

Another one of the dogs barked, pulling your attention back up. You squinted, turning behind you, one hand raised to shield your eyes. It was quiet today, more so than usual. It was easier to prefer the days which were chaotic and filled with events. When things were calm it felt like your nerves were on fire, primed and ready to burn. Waiting for a spark that never comes. 

The rounds were simple today. The sun was still high in the sky, hitting your back and you did the east route. It was cleared out years ago, with traps and mines put in place to keep any of the dead or looters from getting close to the walls of the Federation. Something about the silence today felt like a living thing, like a bumble was put around you, pressing against your eardrumbs blocking sound. It crept under your skin till the only thing you could hear was Teton’s horseshoes hitting the pavement and your own breath. 

Coming over the crest of Overpass 3E, the source of your anxiety came into view. A small pack of the dead, three of them, were rambling towards you. They were a mess, most of their flesh falling off in disgusting grey clumps, attached to the bone only by sinew.  You could sense they were on the last stage of this life cycle, soon they wouldn't be able to move anymore. They would become one with the environment, wherever they fell to the ground. There they’d sit and wait for some poor soul to walk back that they could reach and drain the life out of them, dooming them to become just like it had. 

The butt of your rifle slotted snuggly against the shoulder of your firing hand and you gave a low whistle, sharp and urgent, to Teton to stop moving and brace for a shot. Your cheek met the riser as you steadied the gun with your other hand. The chamber was loaded with six shots and you had reserve bullets on you if they ran out. Your Federation standard issue Glock 17 was holstered on your left hip in case things went south too quickly. 

Lining up the first shot was always the hardest but once you had it, you had it. Your finger tightened on the trigger, the metal cold against your skin. Everything was right in your sights, no need to adjust for wind. It was grim, how practised and patient the hundreds of drills you ran growing up made this second nature to you. Switching the safety off was as easy as your ABCs. 

Another dog barked. Teton snorted. And then, muffled by the suppressor, a bullet whizzed through the air landing in the centre of the foremost zombie’s skull, knocking it to the ground, the bullet casting falling, jingling when it landed. 

Two more shots followed suit. One hitting its mark and the other a foot off. The zombie had jerked erratically, somehow dodging the bullet. You lined up a fourth shot, accounting for its movement, but this one only hit its shoulder. It seemed to move with your gun, knowing to dodge. 

“Shit.” You muttered under your breath, adjusting to shoot again and you nudged Teton forward a few paces to make it easier. Finally, with the air filled with gunpowder, the fifth shot hit its mark. 

There was something off about the last one. It was too agile and aware for the state of decay it was in. Removing the magazine to load it again, eyes peeled on the final corpse. Thirty seconds passed by before it moved again. This time it was faster, spurred on by some unknown force. 

Your heart hammered against your ribs as the zombie screeched, lurching forward. Teton whinnied, ear flat against his head, starting to back the two of you up from the imminent danger. Your own fear echoed his, this wasn’t the normal lumbering dead you knew. This was different, something smarter, something angrier, something that wouldn’t die.

Training kicking in, you steadied yourself as Teton continued to back up slowly. He knew to keep his head lowered for you to have a clear sight while doing so. The silence only seemed to grow thicker, no birds or bugs were heard. Just the groans and screeches of the zombie in front of you. 

You pulled the trigger, the bullet flying out and hitting the zombie’s throat. It gargled, coagulated black goo pouring out of the entry point but it didn’t stop moving forward. Another shot. This one hit the mark square in the forehead. The zombie paused for a moment but it kept moving forward. 

One shot to the head killed them permanently. Two should make it so there’d be no chance of it being alive. But it was still moving.  A third shot rang out, hitting the left eye socket. Finally, it dropped to the ground, twitching and moaning. It wretched and jerked around for nearly a minute before finally, with a haunting death rattle, it stilled. 

You stared, watching it for a few more minutes, afraid it would move again. It was only after the birds started to chirp again that you felt secure that it was truly dead. Teton had lifted his head and shook out his mane. Digging your heels into his side, you spurred him forward, still having to complete your route. 

As you got beside the zombie which gave you all the problems, you shot it again. 

Teton neighed, annoyed that you were wasting his time, ready to move on and get home. 

“Just making sure,” you spoke while adding more bullets to the magazine. Something was happening out in the wilds, and not knowing was making you anxious. But there had been a change out beyond the Federation’s walls. “Let’s get back before sundown yeah? Don’t want to be out here longer than I have to.” 

───※ ·❆· ※───

You had returned before sundown but were kept at the barracks accounting for why your ammunition was spent. They didn’t believe you when you told them that it had taken so many shots to kill one zombie so you have a meal ticket docked from your pay. Stupid pricks. The food was never anything good anyway. Always tasteless and looked like sludge. 

The streets of the inner city were full of people today. Restrictions had finally lifted after the last attacks from the Followers. Not that the restrictions had any impact on you. Being gifted meant that you would never be out of the military until you hit 50. If you hit 50. People like you were too valuable to let go, no matter how much you begged. The last person who had tried to run, they had shot him in the leg to make him limp. Now they carted him around in a convoy on trade runs.

You took a moment to swing onto Market Street. Teton deserved a treat for being so calm today. Making a horse get used to gunfire, zombies, and near-death situations was not an easy process, but he was. He was as much a weapon as your gun was. 

You pushed through the crowds as you went, the events of today gnawing at you. Children ran past, screaming as they played tag. A pregnant woman was haggling with a vendor over a sack of potatoes. A few horseback patrol guards were moving down the centre of the street, maintaining order. Sunlight filtered through the ripped tarps strung 30 feet above street level. They were installed 15 years ago after a particularly rough winter left six feet of snow covering the stalls. 

The normalcy of it all, the sheer mundane nature of life after the world had fallen apart, made you feel sick. No one was taking what you had reported earlier seriously. What if things were changing out there? Would all of this disappear? 

There was no other option but to keep your guard up and move forward, the smell of fried dough hitting you. You stopped at the same stall you have been stopping at for the past four years, Dickson’s. An old man, who had been this old since the day you met him, wrinkled and worn down. His spine curled like a cat's, hands covered in scars and callouses. 

“Well hello there soldier,” he rasped, his voice wheezy and dry like leaves in the wind. “How was afternoon patrol?” 

You sighed. “Hey, Dickson. It was… fine.” He eyed you. He had practically raised you during the times when you were kicked out of the barracks for misbehaviour. 

“Just fine?” 

“You know I’m not allowed to talk about it further.” 

“Oh I know,” he waved you off as he bent down slowly to retrieve a small satchel. Refined sugar. The one good thing about the Federation was the fact it had quickly spread itself into agricultural endeavours. Old Twin Falls was able to process the sugar beets that they grew. Granted the price was insanely high, but there was still sugar. “Teton’s been good?” 

You nodded handing him five meal tickets for some of them. “As good as he can, ornery fucker.” You rocked on your feet and you recounted the afternoon. “He’s been real steady round the guns lately, finally- think he won’t bolt anymore.”

Dickson laughed. “Only you would be able to get any use out of him. Swear that horse can read minds.” 

Suddenly, a little girl interrupted the two of you, her mother watching from a distance. Her hair was tied up in pigtails, looked to be about seven, her eyes wide with excitement.

“Excuse me, mister!” her voice chirped out. “Please can I get 500 grams of sugar please?” 

Dickson chuckled again, pulling out a 500-gram bag, and weighing it to confirm the amount. “Of course young lady. That will be 25 tickets, please.”

The girl looked confused, she had been told the amount would be less than that. Quickly she composed herself, ready to haggle with Dickson. Her mother wanted her to practise it seemed and Dickson was willing to be her first practice. When she finally got her target amount she handed him the tickets and skipped off back to her mom. 

Dickson watched as she left. “Sharp one. Reminds me of you at her age.” 

“Oh please. I was hardly that nice.” 

“Well now ain’t that the truth? You were a real shithead. Lucky you’re gifted or they would have kicked you out years ago. I damn near took you out myself one day.”  Dickson winked before he leaned in. “Now tell me, what can you share without getting in trouble?”

The sun dipped lower, the patrol moving onto the next street. Your voice dropped to a whisper. 

“The zombies, they’re…different. It took three bullets to the head for one to finally get down. It moved differently too. It only had a month or so before it became a sitting duck but it jerked around and moved with more speed than I’d ever seen before. Somethings happening out there Dickson.”  A new patrol rounded the corner. “I’ve gotta get going, but you take care of yourself. I’ve got a bad taste in my mouth and my head won’t stop pounding.”

Dickson studied you. He knew you were telling the truth, your eyes darting between him and the patrol. He added more auger to your satchel as he spoke. “You stay safe out there.”

You nodded and then slipped back out onto the promenade, ready to get back to your place and shower. There had been a renovation project a year back you had helped out on. By reclaiming parts of the old city, they had the resources to create private accommodations for the specialist division. Only military personnel were allowed to live in them due to their location at the very edge of the wall, which was still unfinished due to the expansion. The real benefit was the stable they had in the back, which you could lodge Teton in. The shower worked as well. They were always cold, but they were something. 

The motions of getting home, showering, dressing down out of uniform, and feeding yourself went by blurry, the exhaustion hitting you full force. You had danced with death many times, seen soldiers die as they were ripped apart by hordes like wild animals. Killing the zombies had been a near-everyday occurrence for you for nearly seven years now. In all that time you had never had something like today happen. All you could do was hope that it never happened again and it was just a fluke. 

───※ ·❆· ※───

Today you were assigned to the western patrol night shift for four days. Command had deemed you ineligible to return to the eastern patrol until you had proven to them that you weren’t losing your grip. Bullshit. You hadn’t lost anything, you knew what you saw but no one believed you. 

Night shift meant you had to sleep outside the walls as well at the outpost station. It was a half-bombed-out building the Federation had converted to watch over the trade route. The bunks there were cramped, pushed close together due to half the ceiling being gone, the stale with the scent of sweat and rations.

The twilight cast eerie shadows as you made your way on Teton, saddlebags packed full, the pit that had settled in your stomach four days ago when you were on the eastern patrol refused to leave. The one good thing about the Western Outpost is that you could sleep on top of the building if the weather was clear and stare at the stars. The death of mankind did allow for the galaxies to be seen again. 

When you got there and settled the lieutenant handing out patrols gave you a joke of one. He had heard about what you had reported and thought you were stupid. The route you had never had anything going on. The last time a zombie had been seen on it was three months ago. They deemed you jittery and fearful now. But something deep in your bones, older than the Federation, knew that what you had seen was real. You had sensed the shift, the whispers in the winds, a chilling awareness chewing at the back of your skull. For a people so hellbent on keeping gifted in their ranks they sure didn’t take one seriously. 

The patrol was just as uninteresting as you expected. The nothingness of it made it more nerve-wracking if anything. The whispers might have been faint four days ago but the volume was building. 

The next two days passed without incident but the unease never left. Every night that the sun dipped below the horizon, the long shadows blending into each other, the whispers intensified. They became a tangible hum, pawing and pulling at you. You had tried speaking with the other gifted stationed at the outpost but they looked at you like you were crazy. No one else had felt or seen anything different. 

Nightfall came again. Teton whinnied softly as you mounted him, ready to get the final patrol done, his ears swirling, listening out for any sudden noises. The route was now known by heart, each curve in the road familiar. Once you were done with this patrol hopefully you could go back to being on the western patrol. 

Tonight felt worse. A sick, twisting feeling, circling you and settling into the ground. Your head felt like it was going to burst, eyes popping from their sockets from the pressure. Everything in you was screaming to run, to get far away from this place, to hide. The saddlebags had extra rations in them, your paranoia made you keep adding to them. 

They said there was nothing like a bond between man and his horse, and Teton’s eyes reflected your fear. His usual temperament had shifted to being nervous, his ears pinned back, nostrils flaring. He felt it too, the unseen danger that was building around you.

Panic squeezed its cold hands around your throat, threatening to close your airways and leave you for dead. Your grip on the reins was tight, knuckles white, as Teton moved forward. The night was dark, the whispers deafening, but you were armed and ready. 

The first hour of the route was calm. No surprises or action, just stillness. The feeling of being watched, someone peering over your shoulder as you went, was neverending. There was something out there, watching you, toying with you. 

The second hour passed by with no reprieve, only a suffocating repetition of the calm, still night. You were unable to find any peace in doing the route, instead only spiralling further with your speculations. What was out there watching you? Each rustle of the leaves, the movement of animals, and the occasional gunshot made you jump, your skin crawling. 

It was only halfway through the third hour, when the route led you back to having a view of the outpost and the walls of the city, that you saw it. The outpost was burning, the flames bright and high, a funeral pyre. From the distance, you could see people fighting, the gunshots now accounted for. You reeled, trying to dissect the scene, the whispers now screaming. 

Was this it? Was this what you have picked up on? A desperate urge to turn and flee spread throughout you, but you knew you couldn’t. You were duty-bound to join the ranks and fight. 

Teton whinnied, refusing to move forward as your heels dug into his flank. 

“Teton c’mon, we have to go.” 

He neighed, bucking up and he turned away from the outpost. “Teton no! We have to go back there.” 

It was as you turned him back around, his winny frantic, a large deafening boom rang out. It came from the city walls, a section collapsing from the attack. Now it made sense. The outpost was a distraction, meant to draw the defences away from the walls so they could attack it. But the noise was what threw you off, zombies went towards the sound, so why would they bomb the wall? 

Then, all at once, a horde screamed in the distance, thousands of undead moving towards the cause of the sound. Your blood ran cold, and the pressure in the back of your skull felt like your head was being pressed by hydraulic plates. You leaned off to the side of Teton and heaved, bile burning the back of your throat. You needed to leave, get as far away as you could. There was no helping anyone inside the walls now. The city was doomed. 

The evacuation point was only 500 feet away from you. There was doubt any other soldier would be there now, and anyone who had escaped would be in danger. They needed help. 

As you tightened your grip on the reins, urging Teton towards the evacuation point, the gravity of the situation began pressing down you you, threatening to crush you if not for the adrenaline course through your veins. The screams grew louder the more time passed and the longer the attack went on. 

Teton’s hooves were heavy on the pavement, normally a gallop like this would have them ring out like thunder, but in the chaos of the night, they fell silent. The air was growing thick with the scent of smoke, burning wood and flesh. 

The evacuation point was just ahead of you, around 30 people had made it there. It was empty of any fellow soldiers, no doubt everyone else had run towards the city. 

Disregarding protocol, you yelled at the group of survivors, telling them to get further away from the city. That there was no hope there. As you did so, a scream came from behind you, so loud that you felt your eardrums burst and blood trickle out from them. 

The people in front of you screamed, scrambling to run away from what they saw behind you as you spun Teton around, horror seeping into your bones from the noise. 

It was a mutant. They were thought to be rare in this area, part of why the Federation had settled here. Its body was contorted and deformed, its limbs too long in comparison, twisted at unnatural angles. The skin it had left was peeling off, revealing a purple shiny oozy leaking out of it. It had no eyes, flesh had grown over it and fused it into a mask. 

It reeked, the smell of death permeating as it screamed again. 

You unholstered your handgun, training kicking in, and fired a shot at its chest. The bullet sunk into its skin, but the creature didn’t stop moving, it was like the bullet did nothing to it, it simply staggered for a moment, the oozy substance leaking out of the entry wound, reacted to the bullet. The wound closed up as the goo filled the hole and hardened. 

It turned its head to face you, pinpointing your location from the gunshot, clicking its tongue repeatedly, interrupted by short screams. Ice ran through you, your hand clammy, goosebumps covering every inch of skin. There was a very real chance that your gun would do nothing to stop the mutant. 

Frantic, you kicked at Teton’s side. He moved quickly, well aware of the danger you were in. A handgun didn’t do shit against it. There was 50 feet between it and you, and a crowd of people 50 feet behind you. 

Desperate you led Teton away from the crowd, shooting the Glock in the air to keep the mutant's attention, to make it follow you. You could hear its joint snap as it spurred into action, chasing you down. It clicks and screams growing louder the closer it got.

The side streets were a maze, the terrain made rough by the decay over the years. Teton was managing the best he could, jumping over a car in the middle of the road at one point. Your heart sat in your throat, its beating making breathing hard. The pressure on your head felt so great that it was going to crack in two. 

As you rounded a corner, sharp and fast trying to break its line of sight, the mutant rammed into a wall.  It slowed but the chase continued until you hit a more open area. When you looked over your shoulder, the mutant wasn’t behind you. 

Before you could question it, an impact hit you from the side, knocking you off of Teton and flat onto your back. The wind was knocked out of you as you hit the ground, rocks stabbing into your back. Gasping for breath you struggled to regain yourself as the pain shot through you. Your fingers dug into the pavement, cutting on the rough edges of the cracks, as you rolled over to your front, crawling forward. Blood trickled down your face and into your eyes. As you pushed yourself up you heard it. Click. Click. Click.

By instinct you reached for your handgun, only to find it was knocked away from you in the fall. 

The ooze leaking out of the mutant glowed faintly in the moonlight as it charged at you. Teton rushed at the creature, rearing up and knocking the zombie down with his front hooves. It allowed you to pull your knife out of the sheath at your side, spring to your feet, and move to attack. 

While the zombie was disoriented, its clicks gargled, you lunged at it. Your knife cut through the air before hitting its right shoulder. The ooze once again leaked out and harder around the wound. The only way you’d be able to kill this thing was through decapitating it. 

The mutant retaliated, swiftly, its partially healed arm swinging out, trying to scratch you. You managed to dodge it, stepping back away from it, but as it attacked you the ooze splashed onto your face. It burned as it settled on your skin. 

It swung again and you sidestepped it. The movement allowed you to strike it again, this time aiming for the neck. The attack connected, perforated blade sawing through part of the fresh, but stopping short of the vertebrae. The ooze sprayed out once again, some landing in your eyes. 

Blinking rapidly you readied yourself again as, despite the injury, the mutant didn’t stop. You had to get a full cut before it was able to heal the wound. 

With grim determination you swung again, this time aiming for the opposite side of the neck. The blow was strong enough that you felt the muscles in your shoulder tear slightly at the impact. But the creature still stood, clicking at you, the sounds muffled and gurgled by the liquid now spilling out of its mouth as it attempted to heal. The bone was still intact. 

With a scream you kicked the zombie back, making it stumble over rubble and fall down. You were swift, placing one foot on its chest while you bent down and grabbed it by the head. 

Its clawed fingers dug at your calves, digging into them and leaving wounds. The shimmering liquid escaping from its wounds and mouth smeared across your front as you fought to maintain control. 

You gritted your teeth as you forced yourself to ignore the pain and to pull upwards with all your strength. The bones in its neck resisted the tension, the ooze running down the bone and hardening to try and keep it intact. 

With a sickening crack, the vertebrae gaw way. You fell back as the head broke free in your hands, the mutant’s body convulsed in front of you, joints snapping at unnatural angles as it flailed. You threw the head to the side, the final clicks dying out at it lulled against the pavement, the shimmer from the ooze fading. 

Teton snorted as he came up behind you, attempting to nudge you up and to move.

Every part of you hurt. The wounds on your calves burned, and blood started to coagulate already. It was far too soon for the wound to be doing that. The muscles in your shoulder felt like they were repairing themselves the longer you sat there. Your eyes burned, a mix of your own blood from a head wound you got from the initial fall, dirt, and the liquid from the zombie stinging them. Strangely, the pounding in your head felt lighter, less urgent. Like being in contact with that thing had helped.

You wanted to scream and cry, to throw yourself against the ground and cry. But you couldn’t. You had survived it, but there was so much more still happening in the city. You couldn’t go back there, you’d be no help to anyway in your current state. The best you could do was go help the survivors and make sure those at the evac point had gotten away safely. 

You hauled yourself up, pulling against Teton’s saddle to do so, a goan tearing out from your throat. Teton lowered himself so you could mount him more easily. Things were never going to be the same after tonight.

───※ ·❆· ※───

Only 5 people had survived besides you. What they told you had happened was devastating. It had been the Followers again, this time with heavier ammunition than they had ever had before. They said that they had control over the horde as well. Could control them like puppets. Now they partied in the remnants of the city. 

The survivors said they were going to go north, to Old Twin Falls, and warn them, begged for you to come with them. There were no military personnel besides you there to guide them. You didn’t know if it was pity or guilt but you did. First, you had to sneak into the outpost. They had left that for the city itself. There you stocked up on more ammo, rations, and a first aid kit. Luckily one of the group was a nurse trainee and able to bandage up the cuts and bruises people had. When she looked you over on the second day of the journey your wounds had mostly healed. 

The saving grace had been the ammunition. It was still limited, but it was 75 rounds for the Glock 17 and 200 for the Ruger. The group would have to move quickly, and quietly. By some universally divine intervention, a paddock of horses had remained untouched as well, with a cart there. This allowed you to fit the two people too injured to walk in the cart. Perhaps you weren’t shit out of luck yet. 

The road to Old Twin Falls was something you knew by heart, having run it eleven times in your life. You had never had to lead a group there, but you had been there. It wouldn’t be an easy journey, through the mountains and desert, but it could be done. It was fall so the weather was neither too hot nor too cold, the only worry being the nights. But with enough dry sagebrush and tumbleweeds, you made fires. The issue was that the route had suffered damage from a storm that had passed through the third day of your journey.

It took eleven days to go the 225 miles, stopping frequently for breaks. There had been a few encounters with zombies, mainly in the ruins of old cities, but they were small enough groups you were able to take them out or avoid them. 

The days were long but the nights were longer. Finally seeing the walls of Old Twin Falls was like getting into bed after a long day, your joints achy and painful, the exhaustion seeping out of you and into the bedding. The relief of getting off your feet after standing for hours. 

When you approached the gates, the guards had their weapons drawn, ready to fire. Their uniforms looked different from how you remembered them. 

“Identify yourself or we will shoot!”

Your voice was hoarse, dry and sandy from the lack of water you had in the final stretch of the journey. “Capitol Lake Special Taskforce Private Y/N L/N reporting.” 

“Capitol Lake?” The man in charge lowered his gun, the others following suit. 

“Yes sir, Capitol Lake. Behind me is a group of survivors remaining after an attack by the Followers of the Prophet.” 

There was a pause, minutes passing, turning into an entirety, as reports and information were exchanged up in the watch towers. 

“Come inside Private, there is much to discuss.” 

The relief washing over you almost made you collapse, its warm and heavy feeling blanketing over you with the promise of rest. The tension carried in your whole body, tight with having the ensure the survival of the people behind you, slipping away with every creak of the heavy gate opening. You ushered them forward, each one of their expressions haunted, changed by what had happened. 

The guards, their initial hostility now gone, quickly organised proper transport for the injured, taking them to the medical centre. The familiar and comforting smell of smoke and metal hits you. In the distance, you could hear what you knew to be the market street. Thighs were normal here, calm, spared from the madness that had happened at Capitol Lake. 

The officers had led you to the medical centre and told you that you’d need to speak with their commanding officer. There was a brief mention of how things had changed in Old Twin Falls in the past three months since the last trade run, but no one was clear with you on what had changed. But that would be tomorrow's task. For now, you let yourself get poked and prodded by the attending doctor before passing out after they injected you with morphine. 

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