#Then Kirby has to step in to stop the fight

[pain-indeed]

Gotta love the idea that Taranza, upon learning that DMK is from the mirror world, would immediatly assume that he corrupted Sectonia like literally all the fandom and confont him

Meanwhile DMK himself would not have a single idea who the fuck is this spider guy or who is that Sectonia he's talking about

[persevereforahappyending]

No Man's Land |10|

Pairing: Sam Carpenter x Reader

Summary: Sam can’t help but be drawn to the cute stranger from her gym, even if everything about them makes them the perfect suspect, just when Ghostface has returned.

Warnings: Fighting, Attempted Murder, Stabbing, Strangling

Word Count: 4k+

Main Masterlist | Series Masterlist

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15

You sat on the back of an ambulance as one of the medics checked you out. You didn’t get hurt in the fight, but you didn’t realize you had ripped open your stitches until a medic was running over to you, asking if you were okay and pointing at the drops of blood. You denied them when they asked if you wanted to go to the hospital, you didn’t have time for all that, so they just stitched you up there and gave you a disapproving look.

“Gone up against Ghostface twice and game come out on top both times,” someone said. You looked up to see Kirby walking over to you. “Not many can say they’ve done that.”

“Seems like plenty have survived Ghostface,” you mumbled. Your eyes moved to focus on the figures behind Kirby. Sam was next to Tara as they were checked out by a medic and gave their statement to an officer. You took notice that the detective who was apparently on the case was the one person yet to be on the scene.

Kirby bobbed her head back and forth. “Not usually on their first encounter, unless they were running away or someone else showed up.”

“What the hell do you think you were doing?” Bailey shouted as he stormed up to you and Kirby. “You had a gun?”

“It’s licensed,” you snapped. “And it came in handy, would you like me to not have a weapon when a psycho is attacking us?”

Bailey scoffed and shook his head as if he couldn’t believe you dared argue with him. “Lot of good that did, he got away,” he gestured to the store.

“I got him, it’s not my fault you didn’t arrive in time.”

“Well, you didn’t finish the job,” Bailey snapped, as if it were your fault Ghostface got away. “Thought you were supposed to be special forces,” he scoffed.

You slowly rose from the ambulance until you were standing tall, staring Bailey down. “I’m a soldier, not an executioner,” you kept your voice steady but there was an edge to your tone, one daring Bailey to cross the invisible line.

Bailey let out a chuckle, as if he were truly amused you said that. “Your file isn’t even legible with how much is redacted,” Bailey stepped forward, puffing out his chest. “How many missions have you had involved you getting your hands dirty?” You clenched your jaw, he was trying to compare your missions to Ghostface, they were completely different, as a cop he should know that. “How many people have you executed without them even knowing you were there?”

“It’s different,” you said, your tone quiet as you tried to contain the rage underneath. You were aware of Sam’s eyes on you from where she still stood next to Tara, though she moved forward a few steps, as if she were going to come intervene between you and Bailey.

“Why?” Bailey chuckled. “Because those were your orders?”

You stepped forward, ready to give Bailey a piece of your mind when you felt a hand on your shoulder. You looked to the side to see Kirby, silently asking you to let it go. “Let’s all just take a breath,” she said, looking between you and Bailey.

“I got civilians dead because-”

“Because we haven’t got this guy,” Kirby snapped. She positioned herself in front of you, so she was now standing between you and Bailey. “So, why don’t we stop placing blame and catch this fucker.”

Bailey gave a little snarl but finally backed away. “I have a crime scene to work,” he mumbled as he turned and walked towards the store.

“When did you get the call?” You asked, your eyes tracking Bailey as he crouched down at the body of the store owner just inside the door.

“A thank you would suffice,” Kirby said when she turned around. The amused smirk on her face told you she wasn’t actually mad at you.

“Thank you,” you said sincerely anyway. “When did the call come in?”

“About twenty minutes ago. Someone saw Ghostface chasing after some people down the street,” Kirby looked back at the bodega. “Then several calls about shots fired came in a minute later.”

“Response was quick,” your eyes scanned all the cops working the scene. There was more than what would usually be considered necessary, but most of the officers were being used to hold back random people trying to get a look and the media.

“I was at the station.” Your eyes instantly snapped to Kirby. “I actually thought we might get here in time,” she let out a humorless chuckle. When she looked back at you, she furrowed her brow. “What?”

“Where was Bailey?” If Kirby was at the station, then there was no reason for Bailey to arrive as late as he did. All the other cops and Kirby arrived well before the detective who was supposed to be working the case, who claimed to care so much about the innocent lives being lost.

“I’m not sure,” Kirby shook her head. “Wait, you don’t actually think…” her voice got quieter with each word. “But you hit Ghostface.”

“Only in the chest,” your tone dropped to barely above a whisper. You didn’t know who to trust, you couldn’t risk anyone over hearing you. On top of that, just because you had your suspicions you didn’t have proof, you couldn’t be spreading rumors about Bailey if he wasn’t actually guilty, it could ruin his career. As much as you hated the guy you weren’t about to destroy a man’s career without evidence that he was dirty. “Whoever it was, was wearing Kevlar.”

Kirby followed your gaze and watched Bailey with the same kind of gaze as you. “They could have just seen the movies, learned to always wear a vest.” You nodded, that was likely, based on what little you heard it seemed like these psychos studied each other, trying to learn where the previous incarnation went wrong.

“Everything in me is telling me not to trust him,” you said.

“Better safe than sorry if you trust no one.” You looked at Kirby, watching as her eyes scanned the crowd, memorizing every face, just in case someone stood out or someone popped up again.

“Even you?” You raised an eyebrow.

You liked Kirby a lot more than Bailey. She’d done nothing but treat you with respect so far and you’d return the courtesy. At the end of the day though, you didn’t know her, you didn’t know any of them. Kirby hadn’t given you a reason to be suspicious of her but that didn’t mean she couldn’t possibly be involved. It was hell of a coincidence for Kirby to show up right after Ghostface attacked Sam, but she said she investigated Ghostface attacks, she knew Sam, they had a shared history, it was clear Kirby had a history with at least one of the previous Ghostface’s, like Sam and her friends did.

Kirby turned her head and looked at you, her eyes seemed to analyze you. She gave a little shrug. “Can never be too careful,” she said, nodding her head. “How much do you know about Ghostface, the attacks?”

You shrugged. “Not much,” you said. Of course, you knew the stories, everyone did, but you didn’t know the details. “I know the rumors whispered about Sam,” you looked across the way where Sam still stood with Tara.

“Well, I won’t say anything about Sam, that’s her story to tell.” You gave a ghost of a smile at that, you didn’t believe the rumors, you wanted to hear Sam’s story from herself. “But Ghostface is usually connected to the group of friends he’s going after. The first attacks were done by Billy Loomis and his best friend Stu Macher all to get back at Sidney Prescott, who Billy was dating.” You nodded, you were aware of that much of the story. “Me and my friends were attacked in 2011.” You furrowed your brow, you had been a freshman in high school, you probably heard people talking about the attacks in school but didn’t know any details.

You looked at Kirby when she didn’t immediately continue. She was clearly trying to remain composed but there were tears in her eyes, and rage underneath. “My best friend and the guy I liked were the ones behind the attacks. All because Jill wanted to be famous,” she shook her head and let out a humorless chuckle. “Of my friends, I was the only one to survive.”

You looked at Kirby in a new light, you understood now where all her pain and motivation came from. “I’m sorry,” you whispered. Those words wouldn’t do anything, but they were the only thing you could offer. It wasn’t easy being the only survivor, it was lonely, no one could quite understand it, you knew that all too well.

Kirby gave you a thankful smile. “I know why you didn’t finish the job,” she whispered. “But this kind of thing,” she shook her head. “It only ends in two ways, kill or be killed.”

You looked down, taking in Kirby’s words. You had done a lot of terrible things, things you never talked about. You did all of them for the greater good though, at least that’s what you told yourself, you were following orders, trying to stop someone bad from doing something worse. Killing Ghostface in self-defense was one thing but executing him when he was already down was another. It wasn’t like you hadn’t done it before, but those were always terrible people, terrorists, crime lords, people who did unspeakable things. You knew Ghostface wasn’t good but in your head, there was a separation, that being in New York, being home, it made things different, war was one thing, this was another altogether.

“Are you okay?” Kirby asked, bringing you out of your thoughts. You looked up to see Sam and Tara had approached.

“Now that we’re done with the endless questioning,” Sam grumbled.

“It’s just protocol,” Kirby gave her an apologetic smile.

“Are we free to go?”

“Of course.” Kirby looked back at you, “I just need your gun.” You let out a displeased sigh. “Protocol.”

“I know,” you said, still clearly displeased. You pulled out your gun, releasing the magazine and making sure there wasn’t one in the chamber before dropping it into the evidence bag Kirby held out.

You fired your gun, it was an active crime scene, and that meant your gun was evidence. Even though you didn’t kill anyone they still needed your gun to at least know which bullets were from you and which ones were from Ghostface, even though your 9mm was completely different than the shotgun Ghostface was using.

“Don’t worry, I will personally make sure the lab gets this,” Kirby said.

You watched her walk off. “Are you okay?” Sam asked, making you look at her. “Things with Bailey seemed tense.”

You rolled your eyes and looked around until you found Bailey across the way talking to one of the other officers. “Apparently he wasn’t satisfied with the way I handled things,” you said, glaring at Bailey.

“You saved our lives,” Sam said softly, you stopped glaring at Bailey to give Sam a grateful smile.

“Did you have a gun this whole time?” Tara asked, speaking for the first time since the attack happened. She was looking at you suspiciously, trying to appear strong with her arms crossed, but you could see the fear behind her eyes.

“Yes,” you answered honestly, you knew it would do no good to lie to Tara.

“Did you know?” she looked at her sister.

“Yes,” Sam said. Tara’s face morphed into one of hurt. “I thought it was better if no one knew, we don’t know who to trust.”

Tara clenched her jaw as she wordlessly nodded. “You could have told me.” Sam guiltily looked down as Tara stormed off.

You gently tapped Sam’s shoulder and offered her a small smile. She returned your smile and the two of you followed after Tara. You understood why Tara was upset, if the roles were reversed, you’d probably feel the same. On the other hand, the only reason you were able to get the upper hand on Ghostface was because no one else knew you had the gun on you.

The three of you walked back to the apartment without another incident. You noticed how Sam shoved her hands in the pockets of her jacket as you passed people, keeping her head down, probably hoping none of them recognized her. Three of you trekked up the various sets of stairs until you finally got back to the sister’s apartment.

“Where is everyone?” Sam asked as soon as she stepped through the door.

You came up behind her, peeking around her to see Ethan and Quinn were nowhere in sight. “Quinn is with a gentleman caller,” Mindy said, wiggling her eyebrows.

“Ethan left a little bit after you,” Chad said, not even bothering to look up as he mindless flipped through channels on the TV. “Said he had Econ.”

Sam rolled her eyes as she walked towards the kitchen, opening the refrigerator and pulling out a bottle of water. Tara flopped down in the chair next to the couch and you made your way to the far end of the couch, taking a seat next to Chad. A moment later Chad furrowed his brow and sat up straighter. You looked up to see he had stopped flipping through the channels and had stopped on the news. You furrowed your brow as well when you saw a picture of Sam pop up on the screen. Mindy plucked the remote out of Chad’s hand and turned up the volume.

“Ghostface is taking on New York,” the report said. “And the prime suspect seems to be Samantha Carpenter, daughter of the original Ghostface killer, Billy Loomis.” You looked to the side to see Sam standing in the doorway, her eyes filled with tears as she stared at the TV, trying to remain strong. “She is rumored to have setup her boyfriend, Richie Kirsch, in the killings last year.” Your ears instantly perked up at the name, it was the same name that popped up on Sam’s phone before the recent attack. “Right before killing him herself. Now-”

“Bullshit!” Chad snapped, aggressively pressing the power button. “They don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about.” He slammed down the remote on the coffee table.

Chad jumped up from the couch and stormed over to the dining table where Tara was sitting next to Sam, Mindy following close behind. You watched as Sam curled in on herself, trying to make herself as small as possible as Tara tried to comfort her. You couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying, and you didn’t feel right about eavesdropping, they deserved their privacy. You decided to focus on your feet, as Sam’s friends tried to comfort her. You tried not to let what the reporter said invade your mind, you learned a little more about Sam, but you didn’t want to take the media’s word for it. Sam wasn’t a suspect, they already got that wrong, she was the victim.

You heard loud banging coming from Quinn’s room but didn’t think much of it as everyone laughed it off, seeming to go on as if this was regular occurrence. Everyone’s phones, besides yours, went off, shifting the energy in the room. You slid next to Anika, looking over her shoulder as she opened a message on her phone, showing a picture of Quinn being stabbed by Ghostface.

Everyone shot to their feet, the yelling from Quinn’s room got louder then suddenly stopped. Everyone gathered in the middle of the living room as they stared at Quinn’s door, waiting to for what would happen next. Before you knew it the door flung open and Ghostface tossed Quinn’s body out, which landed on Anakin, sending her to the ground.

“Go!” you shouted, pointing at the front door.

Chad grabbed Tara and yanked her out the front door. When Mindy tried to follow Ghostface slashed her across the arm and sent her to the ground.

Anika pushed Quinn’s body off herself and pulled herself to her feet. Ghostface was right there though, grabbing her by the neck and slamming her into the wall. He raised his knife, twirling it back and forth as he got ready to stab Anika. Without thinking you rushed forward and tackled him to the ground before he could stab Anika.

You punched Ghostface in the face, ignoring the pain that radiated through your knuckles with each hit to the mask. You grabbed his hand that was holding the knife and slammed it on the ground until he dropped it. You pushed the knife away before trying to stand up. As soon as you started to get off Ghostface he swung his legs around, tripping you and sending you back to the floor. He scrambled away from you as he grabbed his knife again.

He jumped back to his feet and stood over you, tilting his head as he waved the knife back and forth. You smirked when you saw Sam come up from behind him and hit him on the back of the head with a wood block of some sort. When Ghostface stumbled forward you kicked out your foot, tripping him and sending him tumbling to the floor.

Sam held out a hand to you and as soon as you took it, she yanked you up. While Sam was helping you, Anika helped Mindy up, then Sam ushered the three of you into the bedroom. She ran across the room and into the bathroom to lock a door while you slammed the door closed as soon as you got inside. Everyone rushed around the room, knocking over furniture and using anything to try and barricade the doors.

“Danny?” Sam asked, furrowing her brow as she looked out the window. You followed her gaze to see her neighbor waving his arms out his window as he tried to get someone’s attention.

Sam opened the window. “Are you crazy?” she called out. You made your way next to her to see Danny pushing a ladder out of his window. You helped Sam grab the ladder and stabilize it so everyone could crawl across.

“Go,” you said, nodding at Sam.

Sam looked back at Mindy and Anika as they tried to hold the door closed as Ghostface attempted to shove his way in. “But-” she looked back at you.

“Go,” you ordered, your tone leaving no room for argument.

Sam reluctantly got on the ladder and began making her way across. You ran to Mindy and Anakin, falling into place right beside them as you helped hold the door. “Your turn,” you nodded at Anika.

Anika shook her head, there were tears streaming down her face. You looked at Mindy for a little help and when she looked back at the door you assured her you had it. Mindy grabbed Anika and dragged her over to the window. Anika’s crying only got louder as she convinced Mindy to go first. Once Mindy was out the window and making her way across Anika turned back to you.

“Go!” you ordered again. “Go,” you gestured with your hand. “I’ll be fine.”

With shaky hands Anika lifted herself out of the window and began making her way across the ladder. Almost as soon as you loosened your hold on the door Ghostface plowed through, sending you falling to the ground. You recovered almost instantly and jumped across the bed when you saw he was making his way for the window, to Anika.

You grabbed the curtains and wrapped them around Ghostface’s neck before he could get his hands on the ladder. You pulled the curtain tighter, feeling his body spasm and kicked as he clawed at the fabric, but you were stronger than him. You caught a glance out the window, seeing Anika be pulled to safety. It wasn’t until you had him so close that you were confident this Ghostface was one of the ones from the gym, not the one from the bodega.

Ghostface stopped pulling at the cloth, but a second later you felt a sharp pain in your thigh. You gritted your teeth, suppressing a scream as best as you could. You looked down to see a knife sticking out of your leg before Ghostface ripped it out. You let go of the curtain, releasing Ghostface as you brought a hand to the wound.

You tried to stand up as straight as you could, but blood was gushing between your fingers. Ghostface recovered quicker as he whipped around and swung his knife down. You raised your hand, making sure the knife only sliced your forearm.

Your hand shot out, catching Ghostface’s arm before he could bring the knife down again. You ignored the blood running down your arm, you didn’t have time to worry about stopping the bleeding. While your other hand was still pressing against the wound on your thigh, Ghostface took his free hand and punched you in the side, right where your stitches were.

You let go of his hand as you brought your hand to your side, surely having ripped your stitches again. You ignored the others yelling for you as Ghostface brought down his knife again, this time when you blocked his arm with yours and brought your knee up, nailing him in the stomach. While he was doubled over you brought your good leg up and kicked him square in the chest, sending him tumbling over the side of the bed.

As much as you wanted to finish the fight you knew you were in no condition to do so. You limped over to the window and climbed out onto the ladder. When you looked ahead you could see Sam and Danny gesturing at you to hurry. You crawled as best as you could with one good leg and one good arm, ignoring the way the blood dripped down your hand, making the ladder and your hand slippery with each movement.

“Hurry!” Sam yelled; her voice strained. You looked up to see her eyes wide and not focused on you but something behind you. You glanced over your shoulder to see Ghostface standing at the window. He impaled the knife in the windowsill before using both hands to grab the end of the ladder.

You gritted your teeth; you were really starting to hate this guy. You continued to crawl, your grip tightening as Ghostface lifted the ladder, jostling it back and forth to try and get you to fall. You nearly lost your grip once, having to wrap your arm under the rungs and keep your body low so you didn’t go over the side.

You looked up, judging the distance from where you were to the window. You let out a shaky breath as you slowly loosened your grip, despite Ghostface still shaking the ladder with all his strength. You got into a crouch position and kicked off, ungracefully launching yourself off the ladder and at the window. You reached out, catching on the windowsill with one hand. You brought up your bloody hand, which instantly found the home of someone else’s. You looked up to see Sam holding onto you as Danny held your other hand and began to pull you up.

You made it through the window, instantly collapsing on the ground next to Danny. You looked back at him as he moved out from underneath you, his hands instantly going to your wounds to try and stop the bleeding. You couldn’t help but groan at the pressure. Sam helped drag you against the wall to prop you up. You let your head flop against the wall, you strained to stay conscious, focusing on Mindy’s voice as she called for an ambulance, and on Sam’s hands as they wrapped a scratchy cloth around your arm, trying to stop the bleeding.

Taglist: @thatshyboy1998 @artrizzler19 @btay3115 @acutenobody @godamnityess

@luvwanda @rqizzu @riyaexee @bella423

[radioactive-earthshine]

Orla's Non-Bat Comic Recs.

Hello folks, in light of the 'all published comics are BAD' wave that has been swept everywhere recently I would like to share a collection of comics that are good actually and are generally isolated (you don't need a spreadsheet to read them).

1.) Impulse (1995)

Why: This is about a neurodiverse coded teenage refugee from the future who cannot live with his blood family in the 20th century due to circumstances that are beyond his control. It is about learning to adapt to a world that doesn't make sense, and learning to love it too. As time goes on Bart learns how to love and he discovers who he is and what is important to him really. All the while some of the most chaotic things happen that you may ever see in a comic (Bart tricks the whole school into getting into a brawl and drives a car off a cliff). Primary themes: Found family (for real), loss, immigration coding, neurodiversity, foster homes, friendship, self discovery, school. Trigger warnings: child abuse, ableism, ptsd, gangs and gun violence (a shocking amount) mental illness. Available in Trade Paperback: Partially. Reckless Youth - collects Bart's first appearances from The Flash plus issues #1-#6 in Impulse. Flash/Impulse: Runs in the Family - collects Impulse #1-#12 plus supplementary issues from The Flash. Mercury Falling - Collects the entire Mercury Falling arc.

2.) Jack Kirby's New Gods (1971)

Why: This is the epic that started it all with Darkseid as he scours the earth in search of the Anti-Life Equation. It is about many deep layers of history involving the New Gods, the divide between New Genesis and Apokolips. In desperation to stop an endless war Darkseid and Highfather of New Genesis agree to a pact - to trade sons and in return a long period of truce and a ceasefire would pass between worlds. Highfather agreed, trading his son for Darkseid's whom he raised with love on New Genesis. Orion, years later, is a god of war and he fights for New Genesis and he fights for Earth, undogged he persists in vanquishing Darkseid's evil wherever it dwells. But Orion has a secret, and deep shame, for he experiences anger and wrath like no other on New Genesis but there is deep compassion and love that tempers it. As Orion fights for Earth he uncovers many secrets about himself, and at his side is his 'friend' Lightray who knows the darkness in him but never turns away. Primary themes: war, anger, ptsd, secrets, space opera, family, anti-war, malice, self discovery Trigger warnings: ptsd, this was written in the 70s but was pretty liberal for its time, still has some awkward moments that are slightly sexist and racist (mostly with names of black characters Vykin the Black and Black Racer which some people are uncomfortable with). Available in Trade Paperback: Complete. 1 book. Jack Kirby's New Gods - Collects all issues of Jack's 1971 series plus Even Gods Must Die and The Hunger Dogs. NOTE: Jack Kirby's entire Fourth World epic with Mr. Miracle and The Forever People is also highly recommended and is part of the New Gods tale. All 3 series has been complied into one massive trade called Jack Kirby's Fourth World, and all are available individually as well. Either way you might be able to find these at your library, or on Hooplah.

3.) Orion by Walter Simonson

Why: Decades after Jack Kirby wrote his final chapter for New Gods Orion finally gets his solo where he faces his father on Apokolips and steps up as its ruler. Now the leader of Apokolips Orion begins the arduous task of cleansing it of its malice and cruelty, a feat that is not easy and even more so when he does it without aid. With sinister deception at every turn Orion struggles and finds himself being tempted to use the very force that he was sworn to protect everyone from; the very anti-life equation itself. Primary themes; deceit, temptation, rebirth, life and death, redemption, mercy, compassion, love, forgiveness. Trigger warnings: torture, sexual assault implications. Available in Trade Paperback - Complete. 2 books.

4.) Barda by Ngozi Ukazu (NEW!!)

Why: This is a graphic novel and is a retelling of Barda as she comes to understand love and what she really wants from her life all while navigating the cruelty of Apokolips. Primary themes: love, cruelty, malice, torture, imprisonment, hope Trigger Warnings: torture, execution. Single complete graphic novel.

5.) Superman: The Harvests of Youth by Sina Grace

Why: This is a heartbreaking coming of age story about Clark Kent as a teenager in Smallville as he finds his place among his friends, family and himself as an alien during a time of death and hatred. It is a young Superman story that is incredibly relevant today in an age of internet toxicity and leaves you feeling hopeful. This blends some elements from Smallville (the show) but tweaks them to make this its own unique bubble world that feels believable and fresh. Primary Themes: toxic masculinity, incels, bullying, suicide, capitalism, teenage coming of age, teenage romance, high school Single complete graphic novel

6.) Superman Smashes The Klan by Gene Luen Yang

Why: In the 1940s the Superman Radio Show released the story "Clan of the Fiery Cross" that told a terrifying story about the KKK targeting a Chinese-American family that moved from Chinatown into Metropolis white-dominated suburbs following WWII. This is a graphic novel that is based on the same story. Primary Themes: racism, identity issues, internalized racism, police brutality. Single complete graphic novel, and also has 3 separate novels.

7.) Bad Dream: A Dreamer Story by Nicole Maines (New!!)

Why: This is Nia Nal's solo and origin story that has been confirmed to take place in the main verse for the current comics. Nia was born and raised in a small heavily isolated Sanctuary where aliens live safely. Even among dozens of alien species Nia is still seen as different as she is the only person who is trans. To complicate everything even more, Nia inherits her people's precognitive powers when her sister Maeve was raised her entire life to accept the powers into her. Terrified of her new powers and destroying her family by revealing them she inherited them instead of her sister, she flees from her hometown to Metropolis where she for the first time in her life meets other queer people. But there is a threat to her family on the horizon, and in order to protect them she must go back and face her fears. Primary Themes: transphobia, self discovery, xenophobia, acceptance, fearfulness, family, secrets, deceit. Trigger Warnings: see above, also internalized queerphobia. Single Complete Graphic Novel

8.) Static: Season One

Why: This is a modern retelling of Milestone Comic's Static as bullied nerd Virgil Hawkins comes into his powers at a protest when police discharge an experimental tear gas. The gas leaves many of his classmates dead, but some like him gain amazing powers - unfortunately some other people, like his bullies, also gain powers. Caught between law enforcement, capitalism, and the complexities of being a new teenage superhero Virgil works to uplift his community and stay strong within his nerdy friend group. This series is heavily based on the Static Shock TV show so fans of that show will be delighted with familiar faces, and names. And yes, Richie Foley is gay. Primary Themes: racism, police brutality, bullying, anger, frustration, dehumanization. Trigger Warnings: See above Available in Trade Paperback - Complete in Static: Season One which collects all six issues. Note: We also have its sequel Static: Shadows of Dakota out as well.

9.) Superman: American Alien

Why: This is a collection of short stories about Clark at varying stages of his life that range from funny to incredibly heartfelt. Primary Themes: finding ones self, self discovery, compassion Trigger warnings: I cannot think of one Available in Trade Paperback - Complete as Superman: American Alien which collects all 7 stories.

10.) Legion of Super-Heroes: Post-Zero Hour Reboot

Why: In the 30th century R.J. Brande Industries creates the Star Gate System, finally connecting the galaxy closer than it ever had before. Travel that once took months or years to complete now could only take hours and with it came the United Planets with Earth as its home headquarters. In an effort to promote the United Planets and unify the galaxy, the Legion of Super-Heroes was formed by Brande as a peacekeeping unit and an inspiration to cooperation. Sadly, it was co-opted by political parties and turned into a draft for talented teenagers to serve, or risk their planet's enrollment in the U.P. Over the course of over 200 issues teenage super heroes are given unfathomable responsibility and power while unifying to protect their galaxy and friendships while combating xenophobia and political corruption. This series is everything people wanted TTv3 to be but never got. Primary Themes: Dehumanization, loss of autonomy, death, life, space, technology, capitalism, political corruption, manipulation, deceit, hope, romance, found family Trigger Warnings: See above plus ableism and teenage pregnancy. Available in Trade Paperback: Partially. We have 2 volumes called Legionnaires which collect approximately 20 issues, plus extra content, of this run. We also have various other trade collections such as Legion Lost in its entirety.

11.) Ascender and Descender by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen

Why: Tired of superheroes? These are two separate series that follow the same story about a young companion robot named Tim who was assigned to be his human brother's best friend and companion. Unfortunately, during a mining accident his entire colony had to flee and leave him behind as they attempted to escape toxic gas. 10 years have gone by since then, and a lot has changed in the world since he was shut down. Mostly being 95% of all robots have been destroyed and are targeted for destruction after a mysterious robotic alien force attacked all sentient worlds and obliterated the populations down to catastrophic levels. All Tim wants to do is find his brother Andy, but what has become of Andy in 10 years, and what will happen to him in 10 more years after they reunite? This story takes place over 20 years as Tim and Andy both grow and change, as they face the challenges before them and unravel the mystery of the Artificial Intelligence that swore to destroy all organic life. Oh, and magic is also involved too. Primary themes: hatred, violence, abuse, xenophobia, forgiveness, found family, brothers, dehumanization, life, death, magic, balance, manipulation, deceit, mysteries, will probably remind you of Mass Effect. Trigger Warnings: see above Available in Trade Paperback: the entire series is available across multiple books.

That's all I have for now folks, I'm tired of writing.

[jacaerysgf]

hii! can you do where gf!ethan and reader are dating, and he tells Bailey & Quinn to not hurt you but during the reveal bailey/quinn actually kill you and ethan goes feral on them

Unable to save you

summary | ethan loses the thing that is most important to him, you, and he loses it.

a/n | changed it up a little i hope you dont mind, enjoy !

warnings | murder, angst, im not good at writing fight scenes, not proofread

“leave her out of this, i dont want her to be hurt.”

quinn rolled her eyes at her brother, “stop being a little crybaby ethan.”

“enough you two.” wayne interrupted the two of them giving ethan especially a pointed look, “theres no time for this nonsense.”

Ethan grows more irritated and rolls his eyes turning away from the two of the with an annoyed look.

The original plan was just for ethan to infiltrate the friend group and get them to trust him but then he had met you.

You were anika’s friend and when anika and mindy got together you had ended up joining the group as well. he could tell you had a crush on him and wayne had told him to get with you to make his spot more secure and he did.

what he hadn't expected was for you to charm him, to make him fall in love with you, you were always so sweet and kind to him. you had payed for his coffee when he forgot his wallet, you had even helped him make his haloween costume for the party you guys had went to not even two nights ago.

Ethan had grown attached to you and he was now attempting to convince his family that there was no point in attacking you.

he left the meeting with a sour taste in his mouth.

You watch in horror as the boy youve grown to love stands in front of you with a ghostface mask in hand. This cant be happening, not your sweet boyfriend ethan. You barely register quinn also taking off her mask until shes making her way over to you, “i want her.”

“quinn i told you not to hurt her-”

“shes one of them!”

quinn points her knife towards tara and sam while ethan glares at her, his grip on his knife growing tighter at the fear on your face.

“enough quinn.”

Before he can ever take a step forward quinns knife quickly drags along your throat and she drops your body to the drop.

“no!” ethans screams and rushes over to you leaning over you, “please please….” he tries covering the wound with his hands as if that will help, “please baby stay with me please.” He feels his whole body begins to shake as his eyes well up with tears, “please stay with me…..”

Your wide, tear filled eyes are shaking. He hates this, he continues to mumble and press his hand's tighter to your neck but with the last of your strength you grab his arm and squeeze it.

You had always squeezed his arm, it was your little code when you were out in public to tell him you loved him.

He lets out another loud sob once your hand drops and the light leaves your eyes. His head drops to yours, resting his forehead on yours.

Quinn watches his quivering body with annoyance, “oh god youre such a crybaby, how many times do i need to tell you shes one of them!”

Ethan finally stands, his body perfectly still, he stands tall, his back still turned away from quinn, “what are you finally done, you know we got two more people to-”

Ethan tackles quinn swiftly, “ethan!” wayne shoust but ethan ignores him and stabs her over and over again, “you bitch!”

“ethan!” wayne runs over and rips his son away from quinns bleeding out body.

“what the hell are you doing?!?”

wayne slams ethan on the chest and rushes over to quinn who has at least twenty stabs wounds all over her body.

ethan watched with annoyance as wayne fuses over quinn, “she killed her!-”

“so what! you dont just go and kill your own sister!”

Ethans chest falls and rises quickly as he glares at his father, “so what?”

Tara, sam and kirby watch in what can only be confusion as ethan and wayne fight. “arent they supposed to be killing us?”

Ethan holds his own but wayne is crazy leaving ethan severely wounded. Ethan gets lucky and manages to kill his father while being on the verge of death himself, the only thing keeping him standing with the image of your dying face.

He barely manages to pull himself back towards you, he falls to his knees and lays on top of you.

“im sorry.”

His life fades from him, he can only hope wherever hes going afterwards you'll be waiting there for him.

[theoriginalkaminari]

Dabi with an S/O that has a bad scar

(that he gave them)

Uh...Dabi with gn!reader and stuff.

Warnings: burns ig, stalking and kidnapping, Dabi is a little bitch, swearing and choking.

Also pls don't reblog my stuff! Or repost shit like that. Anyways enjoy :D

Dabi was never good with showing his emotions.

He tried to avoid talking about anything of the sorts as much as he could.

So when he felt a strange feeling in his chest when he saw you, a hero, he didn't recognize the love he felt. He thought of it as hatred. Which ended up in him attacking you.

At first, you dodged all his attacks and hit him with your quirk at least once. You were doing pretty good for yourself. Until your colleague got attacked by Toga, distracting you.

Dabi took this as an invitation to strike. With a flick of his wrist, he sent a wave of fire towards you, and you weren't able to dodge in time. The fire struck your neck, leaving you with a third degree burn.

Your colleague managed to get away from Toga, and get you to safety.

Dabi felt wrong. He felt a sinking feeling in his chest, like he made a mistake. He didn't know why. After all, when did he ever do anything wrong? He had this deep urge to see you. Maybe it was to finish the job. To burn you alive. Maybe it was to play with you a bit. But eventually, he gave into the urge and tracked your agency down.

You were sitting in you office, unfortunately finishing some paperwork. Rubbing your tired eyes, you lean back in your office chair. Being a hero was a great job, but you hated the paperwork. Especially when Hawks dumped all his baggage on you, ditching you do go do something stupid.

You heard a tap at your window, interrupting your thoughts. Looking up, you see a dark shadow perched on the window seal. You squint to try and see it better, and you'd be lying if you said you weren't scared. You hesitantly step forward, reaching out to open the window.

Dabi gets tired of waiting for you to open the window, so naturally, he breaks it and climbs in. You can see him clearly, and you feel your heart beat faster. Your mind was racing. There was a villain in your hero agency. You ready your quirk, ready to strike first and ask questions later. You raise your hand, when he suddenly grabs it.

The villain tilts his head, looking at your fist in his hand. He feels the strange feeling in his chest again. This annoys him. Deeply. So he breaks your wrist, causing you to yell out in pain. Your secretary hears this, and runs in. She freezes in place, scared out of her mind. You quickly stand up, ready to fight back.

Only to find out the villain has fled.

Weeks pass. No sign of Dabi. Well, to you that is. He keeps getting this...feeling..in his chest. He hates it. And the worst part? It happens any time he thinks about you. So he decides to stalk you.

Watching you in battle from afar, watching you in your agency, he even managed to find your house. Unfortunately for him, you're not an idiot. You close your curtains at night and lock your doors and windows. Damn.

Dabi eventually gets tired of this feeling. One day, he's on a misson with Toga. Toga is rambling about some random girl from U.A, the one that looks like Kirby. The thing that catches his attention, is the way she describes her feelings for the girl.

And everything she says, is how Dabi feels about you.

Toga suddenly mentions that she once considered kidnapping the girl. Dabi stops in his tracks. Thats it. Thats how he can face this fucking feeling in his chest. So he breaks into your house when your asleep, burns it down, waits for you to fall unconscious due to the smoke, and takes you back to the League of Villains hideout.

Only, he keeps you to himself. The others don't even know you're there. Dabi ties you to the bed, and waits. Then he gets tired of waiting after ten minutes. So he pinches your cheek, hard.

You jolt awake, your eyes wide. Dabi looms over you. "Morning." He finally says. You growl at him, and trash in your bonds. Dabi rolls his eyes, leaning against the wall. "Thats not going to work." He says, very unamused by your antics. You continue to ignore him. Dabi walks over to the bed, and grabs your jaw. His grip is firm, and almost hurts.

"Easy, creep." You spit back, trying to squirm away from his grip. Dabi tightens his grip on your jaw, but you won't let him win by wincing. "What the hell do you want?" You growl, narrowing your eyes. Dabi ignores your question, and lets his hand travel down to your neck.

You're wearing a turtleneck that successfully hides your scar. Annoyed by this, he rips your shirt off. Dabi ignores your discomfort.

His fingers lightly trace around the scar, making you squirm, wanting nothing more but to be away from him. Dabi grips your shoulders, making you hold still. He smirks. "Cute scar." He murmurs. "You really shouldn't keep it covered. It makes you look better." His statement makes you glare at him.

"You think I want people to see that? Its ugly." You bite back.

"Ugly? What makes you think that?" Dabi lightly squeezes your throat, making your breath hitch.

"Because you made it." You growl, trying not to let the fear show.

Dabi squeezes again, a bit harder. He leans down to your ear. "Well, personally..." He whispers. "I quite like it." He chuckles, pulling away.

Dabi runs a few fingers down your chest, now sitting on the edge of the bed.

"You're cute." He grins devilishly. "I think I'll keep you."

[icedragonlizard]

Shadow Kirby headcanons

I did a Skirby hc post before, but it was before I did a bunch of changing to my verse. His characterization is now very different from what I had before. I deleted that old post, so this is the post to see how I now interpret this character.

Shadow Kirby, much like his titular pink counterpart, is the hero of his homeland. He obtained the status as the hero of the mirror world some time after the events of Amazing Mirror.

Here's how he got to that point: Shortly after AM, when Skirby and Kirby became friends, Skirby then came to Kirby to ask for help on how to use copy abilities. Kirby, of course, was more than glad to help, and after enough exercise and training with copy abilities, Skirby stepped up and became willing to protect the mirror world.

Dark Mind managed to survive its fight against Kirby, and continued to be a threat to the mirror world for about another year after Amazing Mirror. But after Skirby mastered the use of copy abilities, he then eliminated Dark Mind for good. That establishes his status as the mirror world's hero, and it puts some weight off of Kirby's shoulders because his counterpart protects the mirror world without him needing to constantly come back to do it.

More down below by clicking the 'Keep reading' tag.

Skirby is the hero of his homeland just like Kirby is the homeland of his, but there are plenty of personality differences.

Kirby eats a lot, isn't very talkative, and generally prefers not to spar outside of doing it with one person. He spars with Meta Knight, albeit only because Meta stubbornly keeps challenging him to sword duels, but Kirby generally only gets combative when it's necessary, such as during adventures, breaking up fights between his friends and stopping his morally bankrupt friends from causing minor trouble after they became his friends. Other than that, he's chill and would rather nap instead of fighting when he doesn't need to.

Skirby is different in all of those aspects. His appetite isn't nearly as big as Kirby's, and he's a lot more talkative. He also loves to do things like sparring. He'd gladly engage in a sparring match with anyone that wants to clash swords (or any other weapon) with him.

His best friend is Dark Meta Knight. They became friends after Dark Mind was killed off for real post-AM, as that's when DMK was finally set free from Dark Mind's influence. And sparring is one of the main friendship activities that happen between Skirby and DMK.

There's another big personality difference between Skirby and Kirby: Their niceness and forgiveness. Kirby is well known for being so incredibly nice and sweet, and always forgives every villain that stops being hostile to him. He also never dislikes or hates anyone.

Skirby, however, is not quite the same in that regard. Unlike Kirby, Skirby is actually willing to dislike/hate people. He's not quite as forgiving as Kirby, and he's less nice.

He's still a nice guy overall, but definitely less so than Kirby. And he can get pissed off easier than Kirby can. That's not necessarily even to say he's a temperamental person, but he definitely has his limits a lot more than Kirby does. And he's capable of being a hater if pushed to that limit.

There are notable figures that Skirby has dislike for, and I'll go over them:

He absolutely hates Dark Mind. There is nobody that Skirby hates more than Dark Mind. He immediately respected Kirby for fighting Dark Mind, and when that monster somehow survived and still went on for a bit more, Skirby decided to eliminate it himself. He's glad that being is no more.

Shadow Dedede and Dark Taranza are other people that Skirby has negative opinions of. Like DMK, they were also minions of Dark Mind that were then set free from its influence after Skirby killed it. But unlike DMK, those two had no interest in becoming friends with Skirby and were even mean to him. They simply stormed off and did their own thing, and this made Skirby decidedly not like them. He thinks they're ungrateful because of how they acted after he killed Dark Mind. At least DMK became his friend in the end, though.

Skirby also has not-so-great opinions on a few of the dream friends. But before we get into them right away, let me talk about Skirby's deal with the dream friends in a general sense.

He hadn't actually met most of the dream friends until after Star Allies. The reason why he didn't join the team during Star Allies is because the mirror world was effected by the Jamba Heart threat, and Skirby wanted to protect the mirror world from it. That's also what led to DMK joining the star allies team; Skirby and DMK made a deal where the former stayed and protected the mirror world while the latter went out to join Kirby and the others.

When Skirby met all the other dream friends after Void Termina's defeat, he has varying opinions of them. His favorite dream friend is... DMK, of course, because they're besties and have been for years before Star Allies. And then after DMK, Skirby's next favorite dream friends are the others of Wave 2: Daroach, Adeleine and Ribbon, as he's grateful to them for being DMK's friends. Skirby himself also became friends with them because of it.

Wave 2 + Shadow Kirby friend group baby let's goooo!

And now we talk about the dream friends that Skirby isn't so fond of. His two least favorite dream friends are Marx and Zan Partizanne.

Skirby really doesn't like either of those two. He has distaste for them both, and generally avoids them as much as he can.

He thinks Marx is insufferable. The jester can get on his nerves with pranks, and he also tells edgy jokes that piss Skirby off. Not just that, but Skirby also doesn't appreciate how Marx just treats DMK like an entertaining cringe compilation. He thinks he's sort of cruel for that.

As for Zan, Skirby dislikes and resents her because she called him a bastard after mistaking him for a shooting star. He took offense to that. And then things just got rather petty between these two. Skirby just thinks that Zan is really unpleasant and doesn't want to be around her.

Skirby also doesn't like Magolor and Susie, but he can stand them a little bit better than he can stand either Marx or Zan.

And then Skirby has a rather complicated dynamic with Taranza. This is, of course, because Taranza hates DMK's guts for being involved in the corruption of Sectonia - which, to be clear, corrupting her was an order made by Dark Mind.

The thing is, Skirby doesn't blame Taranza for hating DMK, but he thinks he's going too far in wanting revenge on the guy, especially considering that Dark Mind, the one who was really behind Sectonia's corruption, is now gone. That being said, it's not all bad, as Taranza does give Skirby some credit for being the one to kill Dark Mind, but they hugely disagree about DMK and thus have some trouble getting along.

That sums up Skirby's favorite and least favorite dream friends. For the others that weren't mentioned above: He has friendships with Bandee and Gooey, he quite likes the animal friends, and he gets along decently alright with both Meta Knight and King Dedede despite the former still having distaste for DMK. And although Skirby dislikes Zan, he actually gets along pretty well with both Francisca and Flamberge. Especially the latter, who he considers his favorite out of the mage sisters, while Zan is absolutely his least liked one.

Skirby is a member of Kirby's ginormous friend group. He'll be there in the big events that all of Kirby's friends are invited in, including the pink puff's birthday parties. A good chunk of Kirby's big friend circle, namely a lot of the dream friends, know Skirby by his association with DMK, but he's a lot more liked than DMK as people give him credit and applause for becoming the mirror world's new hero.

He's given credit as a benevolent person that stepped up to be the hero of his homeland, as he made the true killing blow to his homeland's most infamous villain and befriended one of its minions, who become a part of Kirby's big friend group just like Skirby himself.

More Kirbies mean more charm!

[imagionationstation]

And also for the rise x 2912 separate au

that does mean the hidden city, and draxum and stuff exist

my idea for draxum is that he’s one of the scientists that made the mutagen that mutated the turtles but accidently got mutated himself. He ran, found the hidden city and became how he is in the rise show.

— ♊️

Connected to This Ask.

See, there’s a different between “Big Mama exists” and a Rise x 2012 au, mkay. I have about six hundred things to rethink. We’re stepping into unprecedented territory. I assumed the Hidden City existed (there is no Hotel without residents) but Draxum exists?? And he was a scientist that made the mutagen?

So what does that mean about the Kraang???

No, no, wait- I GOT IT.

Draxum was a scientist like Rockwell and Victor Falco who was working on the mutagen UNTIL he found out that the Kraang were aliens. Then he learned why they were on the planet and realized that he probably shouldn’t be working on this for them. Upon finding out that one of the humans were pulling away, the Kraang decided to eliminate a potential threat and take back their mutagen.

Since he’s “how he is in the Rise show”, maybe he intended to make the turtles using the mutagen. His experiments were interrupted by the Kraang who starting blasting things. Draxum touches goat DNA and turns into goat-man, stumbling away from the wreckage.

He sees an open portal, and hearing sirens in the distance, escapes through it to avoid getting back into Kraang hands.

Why was there a portal? Well, Big Mama had heard of a substance created within the city that could turn normal creatures into something more. She was keeping an eye on Draxum when the place exploded. The Yokai in charge of watching the place was there when crazy went down. They found a baby Donnie in the wreckage. Upon hearing the sirens and seeing movement in the rubble, they scooped him up and took him back to the Hidden City. From there, Donnie found his way into Big Mama’s curious appendages.

Now, Draxum thinks his turtle experiments are gone.

In reality, Splinter is drawn to the explosion and finds a sobbing Leo alone and injured. He accidentally steps on a rat, catching his balance on a dumpster coated in mutagen. After his transformation, the poor man escapes to the sewers to hide with his baby boy <3

The O’Neil’s were driving past a while after the place went ✨boosh✨. They almost hit the turtle crawling in the road, barely swerving out of the way. Toddler April claimed that turtle as her own. And Kirby, heartbroken over his wife and hoping to bring joy to her life, let her keep the turtle mutant. He keeps any suspicions about where the creature came from to himself.

Shredder had his Foot Ninja casing the joint. (Maybe he has suspicions of something happening within his city?) When the place exploded and the little freak of a turtle was launched at the building that they were perched on, the ninja were shocked to find it still alive. The tiny turtle struggled to move, brazenly attempting to hiss and bite when they came close. They scooped him up and brought him back to their master.

AND SO- Draxum has an obsession, similar to the show. And he thinks creating stronger mutant creatures will solve this. (Humans are mutant monkeys, apparently.) Draxum has spent his life trying to figure out how to rid the world of the Kraang. And he doesn’t care what he has to do to stop them from taking over. Or who he hurts.

And there you have it. ✨2012&Rise backstory✨

ALSO WHAT DRAXUM’S CANON?

WELL WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY SO-

(Based off the fight scene from Rise’s Bug Busters)

“Mother!”

Big Mama snaps her head towards Donnie’s voice, his arms pushing against the vines that hold him down, struggling to get out from inside them. He winces as they squeeze; the turtles trapped in her web cry out in alarm. The vines continues to coil tighter around shell as she picks up on the grin in Draxum’s tone. “It seems we both have something that the other wants.”

“Big Mama is not a high pillow to be intimidated, Draxy.” All premise of civility drops from her tone, letting a dark fury slip in. “Now I recommend you get off my primy-prom premises before Mama gets nasty.” 

“Oh, I plan to.” He sneers. “With my property. And you’ll let me leave, or I’ll squeeze your turtle until he pops. How’s that for a deal?”

“Ngghh-” Donnie’s hands slip as the grip tightens, pain and panic consuming his features. “Moh-hhh- Mother!” 

“Have it your way.” She presses the pad on her little boy’s invention. It releases the hover feature as her thumb taps a button underneath, pushing it over to the goat man. “Take the mutagen. But this will not be the last you hear of Big Mama.”

“Perhaps it should be.” Draxum lays his hand on the box. “Or I’ll do much worse.”

He flicks his hand and the vines holding Donnie whip, sending him flying. He slams into one of the glass windows that surrounds her office, carapace shattering it on impact, flying through to the street below. She doesn’t notice Draxum call out to his pets, or hear the turtles’ shout. A blur of green races past her and to Draxum.

She doesn’t pause to think. She chucks herself out after him. Glass cuts at her but her hairs prevent her from feeling a thing. She falls, her weight and momentum bringing her straight to him. 

She grabs him, burying the limp form in her arms, and shoots a web. It splatters against the building and she swings, launching herself into one of her lower floors. The room is vacant as she crashes into the bed, knocking several expensive items off the dresser and shelves. The room may belong to a human who won’t appreciate the mess, but she doesn’t spare it a thought. 

She uncurls from her protective ball, two large arms cradling him as her smaller ones cup his face, scanning for any major injuries. Her poor, innocent baby boy is cut and bruised from all the excitement, ever as light and tiny in her arms. “Oh, my clever, sweet boy. What kind of fizzlewinkle have you gotten us into?”

Obviously unconscious, he doesn’t say a word. She holds him close, moving over to the panel on the wall. She brushes along the side, mutant DNA unlocking the shield, and then flips it over. She presses the shimmering button, stating, “Send security up to my office. There are multious invaders and I want every one detained.”

“Right away, Big Mama.” 

[desultory-novice]

I'd gotten a shocking number of asks in over the past few days so it was inevitable I'd hold another... Lightning Round!!

Featuring: King D-Mind, Magolor, Adeleine + Noir, Dark Meta Knight, Sectonia, Dedede, Dark Taranza, Leongar and...

...SPECIAL NECRODEUS THEORY INSIDE!

Edit: OOPS! I meant to set this post up for tonight instead of unleashing it at some ungodly hour of the morning. Amateur mistake. Don't mind if you see me reblog it later when people are awake.

-

Considering regular Dark Mind has some strong callbacks to Nightmare in his design (being a visual melange of Nightmare + Zero) you could believe they were partners/allies/frenemies at one point. It's possible that it was Parallel Dark Mind (because it pretty much as to be the Parallel of Dark Mind, right?) who decided, after possessing Parallel Dedede, that they had surpassed their fellow long-faced wizard rival-friend and stopped answering his calls.

Speaking of friends, I wonder if Parallel Nightmare had any underlings of his own akin to Dark Taranza and Pres. Parallel Susie. Ones that maybe wouldn't stab him in the back? ...Hmm, I wonder where Parallel Magolor and Parallel Marx are right now?

(If they're still vicious trouble makers, I wonder if it was one of them who was like "Oh, you TOTALLY ought to reach out to this guy if you get in trouble." "For sure! The results will be a real spectacle, I bet!")

Haha! I wonder if I could start alternatively calling DMK x DMK (Shadow Dedede vers) DMKx2 or DMKsquared? But now that I think about duplicates and parallel selves (thanks to Crash's ask above) isn't it a little worriesome (/lh) that there are probably MANY "parallel" versions out there? Because again, D-Mind is probably possessing a Parallel Dedede but NOT the Parallel Dedede from Star Allies. And there may also be yet a third Dedede in the Clash verse who isn't possessed by anyone?! I mean, when it comes down to it, "parallel" just means "a universe that turned out differently!"

There could be dozens of "same character" down the line...

I certainly think the potential for this idea is HUGE!

I myself am a fan of Magolor having to confront versions of himself that turned out wrong but the idea that he'd run across a version that was "wrong" but also did HARM to his friends...

Yeah, the "pay for one's sins" guy would definitely step in.

And I agree that is probably how he learned so much about events he wouldn't otherwise be around for. Dark Matter Clone? Susie's Father? Although I feel there's a chance he knew about Joronia from earlier all on his own. After all, he includes an accurate description of her in his weapon's catalogue in his shoppe! (And again, we've got the portraits on the abandoned TDX castle to suggest Magolor and Taranza communicated on some level in the past.)

As for the equipment, it's possible that those were in a way his "redemption" to Kirby - the only Kirby he had access to until he was able to "return to Dream Land" - and so keeping them didn't make sense. They were gifts. I also get the feeling that he doesn't have a huge interesting in physical fighting, and at least half of the gear is swords and axes. (The way he uses his version of the Ultra Sword is very particular and indicates no proficiency in swordsmanship on his part.) But if he really is dimension hopping on a semi-regular basis, he may also just need to keep it in stock at the shop!

Awwww...! Dess will never admit this ask actually got Dess to draw a super quick sketch of Noir as an angel watching over Adeleine from heaven(What even is "heaven" in the Kirby-verse anyway?) right after reading it! Oh fudge, I just admitted to that very thing didn't I?! Nooo! What have I done?! It's so DeviantArt-tier sappy though that I don't want to post it. It's so cliche it would utterly ruin my rep! Definitely don't politely ask me to post it because then I might give in...!!

...A-ahem. But yes, Adeleine will be okay!

As to whether poor, poor Noir will ever learn that for himself, all I can say is... hold out hope for the final two parts of the story!

I feel so embarrassed because I had to go back and look at the pic to realize they were even there. It was completely subconscious on my part. I guess that's the thing about being a novice artist. Sometimes you stumble upon something really cool without even noticing!

But now that you've pointed it out, it's something I think I'd like to keep doing. DMK as a sort of chipping crystal ball is neat~

Despite all that I wrote in my initial post about this...

...I kinda want her to come back too! She was a great tragic villain! And the possibility of a Triple Deluxe remake... it could still happen!

(I mean, we just got Amazing Mirror with modern online multiplayer! It feels like they went the extra mile for that and so I think the Kirby series is still in a good place for receiving (good) fan service!)

Yesss! It is SO good! Big, muscle-guy Dedede being tech-oriented?! It's out of type in the best way! I love that Dedede continually unlocks his potential, both in the changes to his personality but what he's capable of in skill sets too! It is, to me, the reason WHY he is Kirby's rival rather than Meta Knight or another character.

And if Meta Knight pilots a ship anything like he does a car in Dreamy Gear, it's a good thing he isn't the pilot. I wonder if there's a disconnect for him between flying and piloting? Like going from playing a 2D side-scrolling/overhead shooter where "up" is up versus playing one in first-person with reverse camera controls?

Poor Vul must put up with so much...!

It could just be me (I think multiple interpretations are best) but I've always taken Dark Taranza's garb to not as a sign he took over Sectonia's role but as...a form of mourning for her?

Like he dresses and styles himself that way as tribute? So I suppose in that sense, I don't think Mirror Sectonia got corrupted.

Oh boy, I suppose my brief theory there works REALLY well for the people who think main world Sectonia got swapped with her Mirror World self if Dark Taranza "lost" her and then took up her "style."

(Although I also adore your "Mirror Sectonia started crazy and became good" theory too! It's wild in the best of ways!/genuine And just because I saw Dark Taranza as dressing that way doesn't mean Evil King Taranza isn't also an amazing idea!)

Y-You know, my family often catches me on my accidentally using phrases that are maybe a little more coded and/or have different and deeper meanings than I probably intended. ^^;

So :cough: to clarify, I wouldn't necessarily say Leon's worthy of a full on diagnosis, but in his short pre-fight monologue (11 text boxes long) two of those contain a variation on the phrase "left behind."

And two more talk about long-held dreams and years of planning.

It suggests to me that Leon thinks about the animals being left behind by humanity a lot. Which is really interesting when you realize that as the literal King of the Beasts with a pack, nay a whole planet full of animals at his call and the entire run of the natural landscape to their own... he should really WANT for nothing??

Having Humanity ditch would be ideal for an animal-led society. And Leon doesn't specify what he wants the miraculous power for but...I get the feeling he wouldn't mind a chance to sink his teeth into AHEM "talk" to the ex-Forgotten Landers.

Now, whether Leon has felt their being ditched happened enough for it to become a reoccurring condition, uh... I guess Elfilis did shatter his soul and leave him for dead?  But the truth is I probably just exaggerated a wee bit. (But it got me this ask and a chance to talk about Leongar and I love the Beast Pack so it's all good!)

Also, you know, I'm just generally pretty notorious (?!) for reading a LOT (...too much?) characterization into very little! 

Heh. I just know some of you are out there patiently trying to persuade me to become a Necrodeus fan~! XD

That said, I think the idea of him being a "...for the cost of your soul" Devil is very neat. It's a role the Kirby-verse doesn't have currently and could surely benefit from, at least when it comes to interesting interactions with the cast as a whole!

But, heh, you see, I think it's MORE interesting if he's not...!

...BecauseI pored back over the Skull Lord's wiki page for this (I wanted to see if he had some kind of title that would support the "devil" interpretation) and I spotted something that was of EXTREME interest to me given my obsession with the theory that :cough: 

All Ancient Artifacts Corrupt Absolutely!!!

Because Daroach says that the Skullys as a whole "changed" noticeably AFTER Necrodeus got ahold of shiny new Magic Staff...

Gosh! What's this?! Sudden personality changes associated with the acquisition of a magical artifact?! You don't say!!

And look at the dang thing! I point specifically to the clawed talons clutching the center jewel. Like the talons of a certain crown...?

Also, how else could someone like Necrodeus (no offense to Necrodeus fans) split OUR nearly invincible Kirby into ten weaker copies? ...Sounds like an Ancient Artifact at work to me!

(Necrodeus another victim?! Uh oh, I may become a fan after all!)

Edit: ...Actually, I just got a weird sense of deja vu. Did I write about Necrodeus' staff being a Master Crown-tier object before??

That'd be embarrassing! (I've crested 1k posts though, so it wouldn't be too surprising if I start repeating myself at some point. ^^; )

[bords4life]

Part 3

3 months later (June)

It will be Noah’s birthday next week, I can’t believe my little baby is about to be four. Quinn has called me a few times and we got caught up. Luke and I got back into the weekly facetimes so he and Noah could chat. Jack has been stopping by as much as he could, the second he got home from Jersey he was on my doorstep apologizing. We aren’t fully back to what we are but we’re getting there. Trevor however has reached out, he wants to make amends; he says he wants to find a way for him to be a part of Noah’s life. After talking to my parents, Kirby, and Quinn I realized I need to forget my feelings and give Noah a chance to let him know his dad. So after Noah’s little league baseball game I am having my mom watch him while I go meet Trevor. I want to take this all slow and make sure he knows how much responsibility this is.

THUD. THUD. THUD.

“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON UP THERE” I hear my mom yelling as I am walking into the house. During the year I live with Kirby however I recently bought a small apartment in Michigan for myself, as Noah would be starting school soon and I don’t want to settle him down somewhere to only have to move for Kirby. Plus being close to home makes it easier to have help when I need it.

The entire Hughes household is coming to Noah’s game, it’s literally a bunch of three to five year olds just rolling around but some of us get very intense over it *cough* Luke *cough*.

“No! I am wearing it! Mommmmmmm!” I hear my younger brother whining, damn sometimes I think Noah is older. Luke comes barreling down the stairs launching himself into my mom's arms as if she would protect him. Not far behind him comes Jack, who is wearing a bigger version of Noah’s baseball jersey. He stops on the last step seeing me standing in the doorway with Noah on my hip. I walked over to Jack and even though I am standing right in front of him he isn’t looking at me, his eyes are on Noah who is currently twinning with him. Even though Jack apologized and we have been speaking again I wasn’t ready to let him around Noah. However it was finally time to stop torturing him plus I am pretty sure my mother would’ve found a way to ground me if I didn't let up eventually.

“Wuncle Wack!!” Noah yelled trying to reach for Jack, after that night at the rink I explained to Noah who the boys were. Except Trevor of course, which he didn’t question thankfully.

Jack’s eyes lit up with so much joy, he looked at me for permission to take him. I nodded and boy should I have made Jack sit down because next thing I know Jack is bouncing about the house.

“Jack, can you please be careful? Plus we need to get going or we will be late.” Our mother scolds him.

After the most annoying car ride ever we finally arrived at the field. I swear Luke and Jack are three years old at heart. If only I wasn’t meeting up with Trevor right after I could’ve gone with my parents and Quinn. I am surprised Noah still has energy to play after non-stop chattering with the two idiots.

I initially thought Luke was intense when it came to Noah playing, boy was I wrong. My dad has come to one or two games before but he just sits back and watches which is surprising. Now Quinn and Jack my god they nearly got us kicked out of the stands. Jack nearly started a fight with the other team's coach. Over what you may ask, well another kid accidentally tripped into Noah which cost him a home run.

In the end his team won, I think. I am still pretty new to this sport. My family was going to take him for ice cream and then home while I met with Trevor.

Pulling up to the coffee shop about twenty minutes early, it gave me time to breathe and have a mini freak out. Deep down I knew him and I would have to have this talk eventually. I felt my phone buzz in my hand and saw that Trevor had texted me that he was waiting at a table. I look up and can see the back of his head by one of the window tables. Well I guess I have no choice but to go.

It has been about five minutes of silence since I sat down. It is so awkward, neither of us know who should speak first. It’s not like we left off on a good note so we can’t just pick right up.

“Kirby said you got your dream job, which job did it end up being?” Trevor broke the silence first, making a little joke. Throughout the years he knew me I had changed my mind multiple times.

“I am actually the head power skating coach for the Detroit Red Wings, I coached for UMich for the last two years.” I proudly told him, he knew out of all the jobs I thought of this one was the one that kept coming back to me.

“I finished school in the criminology program but I just couldn’t fully commit to it due to raising Noah. So Thomas talked to his old coach and helped me get a job.” I tell Trevor, thinking back on the first time I coached the boys. I was so hard on the guys especially Luke because as his older sister I had too.

“Thomas was really there for you wasn’t he?” Trevor sadly says to me.

“Yes, the morning you woke up to me gone I was with him because I saw Emma texted you. He was the only person I told at the time about what really happened. He even helped me plan numerous ways to tell you, however I could never go through with it and he respected me.”

“I am sorry y/n. I am sorry for everything. Not just for hurting you but also for taking your brothers away. If I could go back and change things I would. But I can’t. I would like a second chance. I want to show you I can be there for you and Noah. I understand you are with Kirby and I am not asking for anything past the friendship of two parents-” Trevor softly tells me while holding eye contact with me, but is interrupted to the sound of my phone ringing.

“Hello?” I answer after seeing it’s just my dad calling.

“Sweetheart, you need to come to the hospital right away.” My dad says and every bad thing that could’ve happened starts swirling around in my mind. Trevor, noticing the panic in my eyes sits up even straighter then was.

“What do you mean? Is Noah okay?” I rush my words out as I start to find money to put down on the table.

“He collapsed at the ice cream shop as we were walking back to the car. The doctors won’t give us an update. He has no broken bones or any cuts, but the doctors say you need to get here now.” My brain just shuts down and I feel like I am floating. My ears are buzzing and my heart drops to my stomach. Millions thoughts are racing through my head. My hands are trembling and I can't get a word out to my dad, I am looking at Trevor like a deer in headlights.

"I-I-Trev?" Is all I can muster up to say, Trevor quickly takes my phone out of my hands. My brain isn't developing anything he is saying, but I can tell he looks concerned.

Trevor quickly stood up after ending the call, he threw some money on the table and grabbed my car keys. He helped me up and walked me to my truck, helping me into the passenger seat. Trevor drove stupidly fast and I remember I use to get mad at him for it, but I couldn't care less at this moment.

I haven’t felt this scared since the accident, waking up in a trauma room alone and worried for my baby. I had no one with me for hours. However this time I have Trevor.

We arrived at the hospital in record time, I nearly flung myself from the car the second we got into the parking lot but Trevor put his arm over me to keep me from jumping out. So here I am running to the 6th floor to get to the children’s ward with Trevor not too far behind. I see my dad pacing back and forth outside of a room while my mom is talking to a doctor. I slow down and walk right up to them. I peer inside the room and see Luke and Jack watching something on the tv with Noah.

“Mom? Dad? What's wrong?” I can see tears in my parents eyes.

“Miss Hughes I am Dr. Adams, I have been treating your son.” I look over towards the older woman.

“We ran some tests to see why Noah fainted, I am sorry to tell you but we have found a tumour in Noah”s brain.” The minute she said tumour I collapsed to the floor, quiet sobs screaming out. Even in my worst pain I don’t want Noah to hear me crying. I felt arms pick me up into his lap as he held me close to his body. I could feel him shaking and muttering “no, no, no”, I looked up at him through all the water in my eyes and he too had tears streaming down his face.

After what felt like forever holding each other, Trevor stood up still holding me. He sat down in the chair as I could feel him still shaking.

“How bad? Is there anything we can do?” Trevor somehow managed to form his word even though it took him a few tries to get it all out.

“Your son has a glioblastoma which has a very low survival rate. Surgery is an option, however at his age we are very careful with a risky surgery like this. In my opinion chemo is the path we should take. I will leave you all alone to discuss, if you have any questions ask a nurse to page me.” Dr. Adams' words started to echo in my head, I wasn’t fully understanding anything she said. My world felt like it was falling apart and there wasn’t anything I could do.

Tag list: @hockeyboysarehot @thg02 @jayrami3 @goldenbrokenheart @nhlbaby @lwstuff @juuuuuse @mack-samo @nolanmoylee

[blue-jester]

Big ass lore dump about my kirby/oc lore

MOSTLY to do with ocs. This doesn't even cover everything I didn't even TOUCH on all my detailed headcannons about other characters or the other bits I've written for specific artifacts and places

-Void exists. It creates darkness, souls, hearts and dreams- and with them four gods are born from it, Nyebreus, Anichi, Corluv and Somiro - The first fight between mortals happen and Void becomes inconsolable, as Void is a eternal child they have a breakdown and start destroying their creations left and right, the four matter gods step in to stop them and seal them away- shedding their mortal flesh and becoming full on gods in the process

-The matter gods then leave, and find Paradise, there they'd live and watch over the mortal realm until gods started spawning from the land of paradise-

-Gods in birth order: Faye[light], Aradite[beauty], Avia[wind], Lazoliph[water], Floranya[plants], Kerivika[war], Raver[trickery/chaos], Magiajam[magic], and Fehaili[sleep- somiro dreampt her up so she's technically their kid] -Nyebreus creates dark matter from Void to balance out the now growing Astral population

-One of the astrals becomes a star eater who feeds off of beings of power and huge energy sources, and becomes an eldrich horror

-Magiajam in an attempt to get attention, fights the matter gods, destroys some of paradise accidentally and gets beaten, and banished

-They land on Halcandra and cry, their tears becoming the first halcandrians, they teach and nurture their creation until they decide to try and find paradise again, where they rip out their heart to lead their creation- thus the birth of King Jorrolor -Seeing as Magiajam accidentally created life the other gods decided to purposefully create life, and thus the universe was diversified with new beings

-The star swallower attempts to eat Halcandra, Jorrolor curses his ass and flings him across the unvierse, banning him from even coming close to his planet

-Later Jorrolor would get badly poisoned while fighting a dragon, and become weak to the point where he's on his death bed, knowing his time is nearing he gives his crown to his daughter and crawls to the surface [halcandrians were a burrowing species who lived underground] and gives all his magic to enchant an apple-like artifact he'd carved, then he dies over it before planting it

-Raver creates a face stealing beast that can transform into any person and copy their powers abilities and memories flawlessly. Loses it

-Many many many generations later, a halcandrian king has a bastard child with a maid, the childs name was Misteletenn and would grow to kill off his legitimate siblings and father for the crown, where he got and began his reign as a tyrant king, always hungry for more power. Accumulating more and more every chance he could get

-In another part of the universe, Void began stirring for the first time in eons, and was about to break free! However, four heroes stepped up, they'd been friends for awhile, and their bond would help them seal the void- Rei, Brioche, Azoth and Chiffon, second gen heroes of yore

-After hearing of this, Misteletenn decided "OHH VOID WOULD BE SUCH A GOOD POWER SOURCE" and manipulated Rei into helping him get more power, in turn he'd teach her dark secrets and more magic, curiosity killed the astral though because she became corrupted and evil after finding a way to give some of Void's power to Misteletenn

-Rei killed Brioche on accident after he tried saving her from her own darkness, causing Azoth to turn to necromancy to stop her, and Chiffon had to venture to the deep crystal caverns under ripple star to receive the crystal gun from her goddess Faye. Together, they killed off Rei- who was a world eater astral so she ascended into the goddess of secrets, who'd become a hermit, forever regretting her mortality and chilling out a shit ton because the matter gods are scary

-Back to Misteletenn, during all this he was still ruling Halcandra, now with his own children. His heir he would spoil rotten and shower in love would eventually be the one to stop him, Imiolor would trap her father in his own crown after hearing the pleas of her people and deciding the corruption had gone on too long. -After creating the master crown, she lead the halcandrians to the surface where they began becoming an intergalaxtic superpower -Now going to the prism galaxy with all the fectos, they held a belief that every fecto without color were evil and children of a fake god called "Listah". See, their goddess Fehaili fell into hibernation after creating the fectos, thus they did not know of their true god and due to the colorfulness of their home, created the color gods to worship -Matter overflows are when someones matter composition is in wack, and one of their matters is overflowing- causing them to be incredibly powerful but at a cost of some pretty debilitating side effects that make them both dangerous to others and themselves. So much so that they were seen as a bad omen specifically in the prim galaxy which eventually lead to their discrimination -Divai'kto Laufohkto thought it best to drown the brats the moment their born to prevent any issues, and kill any full grown endcoats- because "Monochrome is an evil color and you're evil" -Fast forward to Abbadon. An endcoat child thrown into the gray lake to drown, but was recued by a cruel fortune teller, who'd abuse him to make money off of his strong psychic abilities due to the dream matter overflow. -Eventually Abbadon would kill him, then become worse and worse, killing to make himself seem strong because he's a deeply depressed teen at this point -He hears Void after attempting to end his own life and misinterprets their words, believing them to ask him to make all life end when they really just wanted the pain of being sealed to end

-Cue: Death cult. Mind control. Bad shit. Fuck Abbadon -The Divai'kto Kalakto is sent to stop him, however she fails and Abbadon indoctornates her into the cult by fucking around her memories and making her dependant on him alone -Later he and Kalakto would kill the rest of the divai'kto council and find the jamba heart, where instead of immediately unsealing Void Abbadon decided to have an heir to follow in his hoofprints after he falls to the lords hand. Thus, Elfilis and Ceraphima are born- though Ceraphim did not survive birth. -Then Abbadon releases Void, it destroys the prism Galaxy, he sends Elfilis through a rift, where he lands in the space near Halcandra and is promptly adopted by two loving noble woman -Heroes of yore time baybe. Bastalor was an effort at revitalizing Halcandra, Magiajam had blessed her because they had returned to Halcandra but refused to interact directly out of guilt and also believeing they should carve their own path, but they couldn't ignore the underlying issues that King Mapolor had made much more appearant, so Bastalor was born. -Morpho was the second reincarnation of Void Termina, born from it's unsealing by Abbadon. They land in Halcandra as a normal astral, carried by the spring breeze -Galacta's an ACTUAL normal astral, and crash landed into the captian of the royal guard's garden who immediately took him in as his son. -The four heroes would later meet and become best friends, solving mysteries and having adventures together, uncovering an old dragon egg and hatching Landia, fighting all kinds of Villains from the past to the shape shifting face stealer to necrodeus -A Zero called Innanis attempts to invade and take over Halcandra, however is sealed within the dark matter immune Queen Bastalor because she couldn't think of a better place to put it -Bastalor would become queen and inherit the master crown, then, she'd start work on the novas, perfecting them within a few years along side countless other magical artifacts

-Morpho and Galacta would fall in love and get married, even adopting an astral daughter by the name Andromeda who all the heroes adored -Nightmare, Bastalor's advisor decided to put his plan to gain ultimate power and get the powerful queen all to himself- first he would kill Morpho with a spear that would immediately kill any who gets stabbed and disintegrate immediately after, wished for by the nova- he then hired an assassin to kill Morpho in the middle of a flower field they took Andromeda to. They became the god of death afterwards and spectated what their friends were doing after as a butterfly. -Nightmare then manipulated the minds of many nobles to hate Galacta, and would then frame him for destroying two neighboring planets [one of which was Lazoliph's] -Bastalor sealed Galacta for this 'crime' and Elfilis left to destroy earth to show Bastalor what a REAL planet destroyer looked like -Depression -Bastalor left, hiding away the master crown and the magitech war was kicked off, both sides attacking eachother over how to go forward after losing their queen. They'd tare apart the castle to find the master crown- the caslt would teleport into AD after getting attacked because of a spell queen Onalor casted -The tech side found the crown, used it to blow up the blue-lava volcano and blown up MOST of the planet, killing off a large chunk of the magic side and also some of their own. But the crown would corrupt and posess it's bearer, casting down more destruction upon halcandra until Landia stopped it, taking the crown for herself and guarding it so no one would get hurt by it again -The magic side was banished, and would be scattered throughout the stars.. Eventually dwindling till there was one remaining settlement and it's people could HARDLY be called halcandrian anymore -as for the tech side, though they won the war they were worse off, trapped in a hellhole that would eventually get mechanized and invaded by the haltmanns in an attempt to steal the blueprints of one of Bastalor's Novas -Going back a bit- Elfilis was captured by humans on the new world and experimented till they used it's rift powers to build the Lor Starcutter and many simular ships and get outta there. Eventually humanity would evolve into two species: magiman and corman- Magiman is the mage sister species and corman is the max haltmann species- susie's a hybrid -Anyways, back to halcandra, immeidantly after the magitech war kicked off Andromeda ran away with Morpho's sword Galaxia [which held the soul of Morpho's blessed mentor], Nightmare was also chased off the planet and became a galaxtic threat, his attempts to gain power caused a group of astrals to band together and form the GSA, which would- with help from Andromeda, seal Nightmare inside of the dream fountains -Andromeda gave Galaxia to Iridescent Knight who used the sword to seal away Dark Nebula on a nowhere planet [popstar] -On said nowhere planet…. There was a lonely penguin that was far from home. He wished upon a star, and the star crashed into him. That's how Meta and DDD met, and they'd go on adventure and accidentally release dark nebula cause meta was geeking out about Galaxia and took the sword, they sealed it in a BOX with NO magical seals and swore to never speak of it again. -Later, on another far off planet the last descendants of halcandra falls to a plague carried by a god cursed rain [Thanks Raver], only one kit survives this event, Maporei who changes his name to Magolor and embarks on a journey to find the legendary halcandra, lor starcutter and master crown -Hyness finds the mage sisters -Years later, a spring breeze blows through popstar... -The kirby games happen from here

[beardedmrbean]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Muslim Americans and some Democratic Party activists say they will work to mobilize millions of Muslim voters to withhold donations and votes towards President Joe Biden's 2024 reelection unless he takes immediate steps to secure a Gaza ceasefire.

The National Muslim Democratic Council, which includes Democratic Party leaders from hotly contested states likely to decide the election, such as Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, called on Biden to use his influence with Israel to broker a ceasefire by 5 p.m. ET (2100 GMT) on Tuesday.

In an open letter entitled "2023 Ceasefire Ultimatum," the Muslim leaders pledged to mobilize Muslim voters to "withhold endorsement, support, or votes for any candidate who endorses the Israeli offensive against the Palestinian people."

"Your administration's unconditional support, encompassing funding and armaments, has played a significant role in perpetuating the violence that is causing civilian casualties and has eroded trust in voters who previously put their faith in you," the council wrote.

Former U.S. Representative Keith Ellison, Minnesota's attorney general and the first Muslim elected to Congress, and Representative Andre Carson of Indiana are the organization's founding co-chairs.

The letter is the latest sign of growing anger and frustration in Arab and Muslim American communities about Biden's failure to condemn Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip after an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants from Gaza that Israeli officials say killed 1,400 people and took 239 hostages.

Medical authorities in Gaza on Monday said 8,306 people, including 3,457 children, had been killed in Israel's three-week-old air and ground onslaught.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he would not agree to any cessation of the attacks on Gaza. U.S. national security spokesman John Kirby said, "Hamas is the only one that would gain from that right now."

Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian American lawmaker from Michigan, on Monday released a 90-second video on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, decrying Biden's support of what she called "Israel's genocidal campaign in Palestine," adding "Don't count on our vote in 2024."

Basim Elkarra, executive director of the Sacramento Valley Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said Muslim votes could be crucial for Biden in his 2024 bid for a second term, noting that Michigan's 16 electoral votes were won by a narrow margin of just 2.6% in 2020.

Muslim Americans in Minnesota, where Biden plans to visit on Wednesday, last week issued a similar ceasefire ultimatum, with a noon Tuesday deadline. They said they planned a protest on Wednesday when the president visits their state.

Biden's reelection campaign had no immediate comment.

Biden hosted a meeting last Thursday with a handful of Muslim leaders, a White House official said, adding that administration officials continue to meet with Arab and Muslim community members concerned by Biden's handling of the crisis.

Although a self-described Zionist president, Biden has appointed more Arab Americans and Muslims to political posts than any predecessor, as well as the first two Muslim federal judges.

Jaylani Hussein, executive director of CAIR in Minnesota, said Muslim American leaders in other contested states that are crucial to Biden's 2024 reelection will make similar demands.

"We expect Wisconsin, Ohio and other states to do the same this week," said Hussein.

Hussein said he had no option but to vote against Biden in 2024 unless he called for fighting to stop. He said he was speaking as an individual, not on behalf of CAIR.

Around 70% of Muslim Americans backed Biden in 2020, Hussein said.

Muslim American community leaders in Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ahmet Tekelioglu, executive director of CAIR in Philadelphia, said Muslim Americans in the state were calling for an immediate ceasefire but he was not aware of plans to set a deadline.

[the-big-dissapoint]

Here’s some art for the side story I was talking about. The side story happens some time after the main crossover au is finished. (Reposted the information from Amino.)

Basic plot is as follows, after the whole Team Rainbow Rocket incident another Ultra Wormhole to Kirby’s Universe opens up in a cave. Red decides to investigate, as he has heard of interesting things happening with them. Ends up getting possessed by a weakened 02, and unwillingly works with him and the dark matter’s to take over Alola. (Probably not gonna be part of the main au though, the idea isn’t really finished…)

(Also as a bonus, here’s both versions of a fic I made featuring this idea. (Pokémon side is from Red’s pov, Kirby side is from 02’s.))

DARK ENCOUNTERS

It was another sunny day in Alola, as Red’s tropical vacation continued. During their stay in Alola, the two of them were personally invited to fight in the Battle Tree. The experience was exhilarating, although the battle facility would often be packed to the brim. Due to how many people would come, in hopes of challenging the legendary duo. However during this, strange things would come to pass... The dangerous threat of the Ultra Beasts, Team Rocket’s rebirth and attempt at controlling Alola, and most recently the defeat of Team Rainbow Rocket by heroes from another universe.

Currently Blue was out exploring Alola’s many tourist spots, to greet and challenge his many fans. While Red was exploring a large cave, that was reported to have many strong Pokèmon inside. (Truthfully, he also was hoping to catch a glimpse of the other universe that the heroes who defeated Team Rainbow Rocket were from. If he could find them, Red would thank them for the deed and challenge them himself.) While in the cave, a strange feeling began to slowly creep it’s way into him. As Red went in deeper into the cave, that feeling intensified to the point where his whole body felt heavy... Stopping in his tracks, Red noticed a Ultra Wormhole forming in front of him. Carefully Red made his way up to it, with a pokéball clutched firmly in hand. As the wormhole suddenly closed, as quickly as it appeared.

Feeling confused, Red took a cautious step backward. Noticing the strange feeling was gone, before reeling backwards in alarm. Red felt his heart skip a beat, as a new sense of wrongness began to overtake him. Seeing eyes staring at him in the shadows of the cave, and strange voices calling out from beyond the darkness. Cold sweat ran down Red’s face, as the eyes suddenly faded back into the shadows and the voices stopped. Taking a deep breath, he quickly made his way back out. As Red returned to his and Blue’s shared hotel room, the memory seemed to linger in the back of his mind. Fading into the background, until later on at night. As Red felt that same feeling of wrongness slowly creep up, noticing a blurry figure behind his reflection in the mirror. Unbeknownst to him, the strange figure seemed to stare back at him….

──────────⋆✩⋆───────────────

It was another bright and sunny day in Dreamland, as the inhabitants happily went about their business. Among them were none other than Dreamland’s finest heroes, who were busy resting up. After finding themselves on an adventure involving going to another universe, and stopping a evil team from taking over Popstar. This evil team, had Susie the former Haltmann Works Company secretary working alongside them. She seemed to have her own agenda for doing so, which was quickly revealed. Susie were using the other members in order to take control of their universe, and revive the HWC back to it’s former glory. Thankfully the heroes put a stop to her, and were able to bring both universes peace.

Unbeknownst to the inhabitants, a enemy from another world had heard of this news. And made their way to their leader, none other than 02. Who was still weakened from his last fight with Dreamland’s protector Kirby, haven been forced to go into hiding with his fellow Dark Matter brethren. 02 was intrigued by this other universe, it seemed like a perfect hiding place for the Dark Matter. As it was further enough from Popstar to not rouse suspicion, and it seemed to lack proper threats to their kind.

Using the wormholes that had popped up around Popstar and the other surrounding planets, 02 and what remained of the Dark Matters made their way to the other universe. Ending up in a odd cave, 02 decided to lie low. The Dark Matter curiously surveyed the cave, as another presence soon made itself known. A human surprisingly enough, his dark eyes darting about in suspicion and worry. Despite this, he pressed on unknown to the danger that lied within. The Dark Matter hiding in the shadows of the cave, curiously stared at the human. Who seemed to jerk back in alarm, suddenly made aware of their presence. 02 using this opening, quickly possessed the human.

Hoping to learn more about the new universe, the ruler of the Dark Matter let the human properly control his body again. As he hurried back to his human dwelling, 02 observed the human with interest. Having learned from his observations that the human was a former “Champion” named Red, and a tourist to this tropical region called “Alola”. Now fully intrigued, 02 decided that this would be quite interesting. Wondering what Alola had in store, it seems this “paradise” is a perfect home for the Dark Matter kind……

[forthedancingandthethriving]

Juliano smiles, gripping the sphere atop the staff he held. He presses it down against the ground. He can feel it sinking into the earth below. He clutches it, trying to not focus on the pain.

He slowly exhales, eyes trained solely on the activity he had the younger Avatars doing today. Working together to be properly able to use their energies and differing personalities.

And while he was proud of them, he really was, the pain from his damned scars were killing him. They never got this bad, only whenever his nostalgia and sadness for home got too much. But he had been fine for the most part..

"JUL!" someone shouts, he jolts, and his eyes widen. Juliano quickly steps to the side, watching a chain chomp whizz by him and collide into a tree. His face falls flat and he immediately looks over at Mario.

Said Avatar immediately points at Nimbus. "She did it."

"I did not!"

"Just be more careful." Juliano chuckles softly, trying to keep his voice even. He smiles the calm, practiced smile he's been using since his 1st year of being an Avatar.

He watches them resume their activities, and suddenly, the missing texture scars flare in pain. He can't stop a small gasp and pain, and he stumbles, gripping his staff to steady himself. He presses its end into the ground more, and he looks down, some hair falling over his face.

His body was screaming, burning, and aching, and it felt like it was fighting against itself. Turning and ripping itself apart each chance it got.

Juliano squeezes his eyes shut and tries to breathe. After a few moments, he steels himself and looks up, and he jolts, seeing Mario looking at him quizzically. He quickly smiles to the fellow Avatar, hoping to reassure him.

Mario's slowly narrowing eyes tell him the other doesn't believe his smile, but the hero has no time to question it as a flung Kirby makes the plumber going flying as well.

"Careful!" Juliano calls, voice stern like a father scolding his children. He pauses to think about that before shaking his head.

It's a while later, when the activity has ended, everyone's said their goodbyes and are heading home, that Juliano and Mario begin walking back to the castle.

"Are you okay?" Mario asks halfway through their walk, and the former Avatar pauses.

"Of course I am." Juliano looks down at the other. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Mario simply points to the former ringmaster's staff, and he becomes painfully aware of how much weight he's been putting on it.

"I just hurt my side and back this morning, that's all." he waves it off.

"That's-" Mario goes to counter.

"Come on, I heard Meggy say that she's going to cook dinner tonight." Juliano narrows his eyes and winces. "If we hurry, maybe we can convince SMG4 to cook tonight."

At the mere thought of potentially having to eat Meggy's food, Mario breaks into a sprint, and Juliano laughs softly and chases after his friend.

It helps distract him from the pain.

[retiredcultistredux]

Shadow anon: what kind of deal. Oh I'm more than interested.

(I look like a black cloud with a creepy smile,)

((ended up interpreting my own design based on the description and also inspired by kracko, even made my own little mini ref image so you don't have to make your own i just hope you like the design i came up with lol. anyway,,,,,))

Ester: "...Anyway...Kirby! The deal is...you help us with our plans, and in return, we'll find a way to turn you back into your normal pink self afterwards. Oh, and we'll make sure to bring your friends back too."

Kirby paused for a second.

Kirby: "...Bring them back, poyo...? Does that mean...they might..."

Ester: "Die? Yeah. But we can bring them back! Trust me, it's a win-win. And, I mean, they'll understand. ...Eventually. Though you're gonna have to fight them off if they try and stop us. So, what do you say?"

Kirby: "...I..."

The puffball hesitated, weighing his options. On one hand, Ester had a point. He didn't have much else to lose. The Friend Heart was broken, the ritual was pretty much complete, and Void Termina would be revived stronger than ever. No one stood a chance against a god of destruction, especially if they had to deal with Ester and Javez as well.

Normally, if he was in the right state of mind, he'd turn the deal down without any second thought. He wouldn't want to put his friends through this for the word of some guy who could very well just be lying to get what he wanted. But, if Kirby made sure Ester kept his end of the deal...if this was really what would be best in the end...if there was a way to save everyone after the fact...

...Maybe they'd just have to go through some dark times in order to reach the light at the end of the tunnel. And Kirby was too far detached from his sense of right and wrong to think otherwise...and he figured Ester wasn't going to take 'no' for an answer in the first place. So, still appearing as emotionless as ever, he sighed before eventually stepping forward and shaking Ester's hand, sealing the deal.

Ester: "Now c'mon! We don't wanna keep Javez waiting, and if your friends try to stop us, we've gotta be there!"

Kirby: "...Ok."

[Kirby has...joined Ester?? That definitely couldn't be good.]

[icedragonlizard]

Kirby AU talk: "A New Alien Force"

There's a new group of villains running rampant. A giant intergalactic army of aliens, known as the Xtra-Terrestrial Army, is going around and invading every planet they come across.

King Draxon, the king of the Xtra-Terrestrial Army, has a desire to rule the universe with an iron fist. The entire army he has behind him attempt to enforce his will by conquering as many planets as possible.

The army has two generals, and their names are Naxor and Virexa. The former is an alien man, and the latter is an alien woman. They're siblings, and have coined their duo as the "X-Siblings". They're the son and daughter of Draxon. They're helping their father out on his mission for universal conquest.

The Xtra-Terrestrial Army eventually encounters Planet Popstar and attempts to conquer it. As they begin invading it, Kirby rises up and takes them on. He's joined by Bandana Waddle Dee, King Dedede and Meta Knight during this. The Dream Team together takes on and defeats the Xtra-Terrestrial Army invasion on Popstar.

The Dream Team encounters Naxor and Virexa during this. A dual boss fight happens, as the X-Siblings band together in an attempt to stop the Dream Team, but they get handily defeated. Then, after the X-Siblings get defeated, the army is sent packing as they leave Popstar.

However, the army is still an active villain even after getting defeated on Popstar. In fact, a few of Kirby's friends from outside of Popstar have been kidnapped and are being held hostage by the army. They need Kirby to save them.

Taranza and Susie have been kidnapped by the Xtra-Terrestrial Army.

Before the army began its attempted invasion on Popstar, they successfully invaded and conquered Floralia and the Haltmann Works Company headquarters, and kidnapped Taranza and Susie.

Magolor and the Mage Sisters are the first ones to find out about those two being kidnapped. After the Dream Team defeats the Xtra-Terrestrial Army on Popstar and sends them packing, Magolor and the Mage Sisters show up and tell the Dream Team about how Taranza and Susie have been kidnapped.

Kirby is shocked upon receiving the news, and then quickly becomes determined to save Taranza and Susie. There's admittedly some sort of irony to it, because those two kidnapped people in the past, but that's not important right now. They still became Kirby's friends after their respective villain arcs, and so he's still going to save them.

Kirby switches around companions during this adventure. Bandee, Dedede and Meta Knight stay in Popstar after helping Kirby defeat the invasion on the star-shaped planet. The next step is Kirby flying out to space to take on the Xtra-Terrestrial Army's core spaceship to defeat them for good, and the ones joining him in this part of the adventure are Magolor and the Mage Sisters. They're tagging along for this part because they are Taranza's and Susie's closest friends, and want to help Kirby save them.

More under the cut, click below for more details.

Kirby, Magolor and the Mage Sisters go to infiltrate the heart of the Xtra-Terrestrial Army and defeat it from the inside. As they go through the spaceship, they find out that Taranza and Susie were forced to join the army against their will, as they're being brainwashed by the new enemy.

The reason why Susie and Taranza have been kidnapped and forcibly recruited is because the army was impressed by them. They were impressed by Susie's technological expertise and Taranza's magical prowess. The army has both technology and magic in its disposal, and they decided to force Susie and Taranza to enhance their technological and magical aspects.

The X-Siblings are the very individuals controlling them around. Susie is being controlled by Naxor, and Taranza is being controlled by Virexa. Susie and Taranza are both being controlled with shock collars that were strapped around their necks, and those things violently zap them to force compliance with the army.

Unfortunately, Kirby ends up having to fight the brainwashed Taranza and Susie, as the X-Siblings unleash them on him for boss fights. During these fights, Taranza uses magical abilities the army forced him to learn, and Susie's business suit was given an Xtra-Terrestrial Army style makeover.

But after defeating them in fights, Taranza and Susie then become free. Kirby, Magolor and the Mage Sisters rescue them. They then go to finish off the Xtra-Terrestrial Army and beat them for good.

When they reach the throne room, the X-Siblings suddenly show up in a desperate attempt to stop them, but fail to do so as the group overpowers them in a fight rather easily.

Then, after that sudden fight, Draxon appears. He reiterates his mission to rule the universe with an iron fist. He then turns his attention to the X-Siblings and vehemently condemns them for failing him.

He reminds them that he executes subordinates that fail him. He tries to execute the X-Siblings, but Kirby intervenes and stops him, as he immediately becomes sympathetic to the X-Siblings after seeing their father attempting to hurt them. Draxon becomes enraged at the "audacity" of someone interfering in one of his executions, and this is when he initiates a boss fight.

Kirby beats Draxon up in several phases, with the Mage Sisters helping out by enchanting the weapons that Kirby uses with their elemental powers.

Draxon displays a ton of unbridled anger during the group's encounter with him. He's extremely angry and livid during his multi-phase boss fight. He angrily screams a lot, slams the ground a lot with his fists, and generally has violent rage outbursts as he attempts to destroy Kirby and his friends.

The X-Siblings help Kirby fight Draxon. They understand that Kirby winning will be the better outcome, and so they help make it happen. They help Kirby and the rest of his companions defeat the utterly enraged king.

After Draxon realizes he's lost to Kirby and can't beat him, his rage turns up a notch. He eventually gets to the point of performing a catastrophic ragequit and attempts to blow up the entire spaceship, killing himself and everyone else in it.

He rushes over to the spaceship's detonator button located in the furnace room. Kirby and the others chase him to stop him from doing it. But unfortunately, they're just a little too late. Draxon ends up pressing the button, and then Kirby rams him with a turbo-fast flying saucer, which ends up knocking him over into a pit of lava and killing him.

Kirby is flabbergasted to have done this. He didn't mean to cause Draxon's death. But then begins a timer that signals everyone to get out of the giant spaceship before it blows up. Everyone evacuates as quickly as they can.

Thankfully, Kirby and all of his companions manage to get out before the spaceship blows up. The X-Siblings manage to get out, too. As do many other Xtra-Terrestrial Army soldiers, but not all of them do, which results in some casualties as the spaceship explodes in a similar fashion to the explosions of Galactic Nova and Star Dream.

The Xtra-Terrestrial Army has been destroyed. The threat has been eliminated. There are survivals, but they have no plans to revive the army. They're disbanding it and are choosing to live in Planet Rock Star (the Rock Star from Kirby 64) in peace.

Interestingly, the X-Siblings have a tragic backstory. Draxon wasn't always a power-hungry tyrant. He used to be a better dad until the family ran into a golden inventor machine that ended up mind-corrupting him. The X-Siblings' mother, Xanthea, was killed by this same ancient artifact, and the family just changed for the worse after that. It's what led to the Xtra-Terrestrial Army being born.

Kirby manages to befriend the X-Siblings, as they become new "redeemed" villains and are welcomed into Kirby's huge group of friends.

Although... there's still a lot of complications that happen in the aftermath.

Even though Naxor and Virexa stopped being actively evil and have allowed themselves to become friends with Kirby, they're still arguably not good people. They're only sort of redeemed. They don't show much regret for their actions, and they don't apologize to Taranza and Susie for kidnapping them and putting them through all of that tormenting.

Taranza and Susie are NOT doing well for a while after what just happened to them. Early on, they struggle going back to their regular lives, and they unfortunately suffer from irreversible damage as a result of being zapped by those shock collars several times.

Susie suffers hard damage to her voice-box, and so she doesn't sound the same anymore when she talks, and it's affected her ability to sing. Taranza suffers hard damage done to the four eyes on the back of his head, which affects their eyesight, and so he's stuck with only four truly functioning eyes and it drives him insane. Both of these instances were caused by the constant shock collar zapping.

They were healed up by paramedics, but Susie's voice-box and Taranza's back eyes couldn't be reversed of the damage done to them, and so unfortunately they're stuck with having to grapple with that.

And they go through an entire journey of painful realizations. At first, they absolutely HATE the X-Siblings for what they did to them, and even have a physical fight with them. They then start angrily ruminating about them, and rant about how despicable they are.

But then they're eventually reminded of their past atrocities. Taranza and Susie both eventually come to the realization that they're basically no different from the X-Siblings. Because, well, they've also kidnapped and tormented people in the past.

In the past, Taranza kidnapped King Dedede and used him as a puppet, and Susie kidnapped Meta Knight and turned him into a security robot. They hurt Dedede and Meta Knight in similar ways to how the X-Siblings hurt them.

Parallels, more or less. Taranza and Susie getting kidnapped and tormented serves as parallels for when they themselves did it to others.

They basically got a taste of their own medicines.

Taranza and Susie don't immediately understand it right after being freed, because they're too focused on their own suffering at first, but then they eventually understand it after going a brief arc of having mad beef with the X-Siblings. For a time, they've wanted to beat up Naxor and Virexa for what they did to them, and then they get hit with a wake-up call over how Dedede and Meta Knight could've very easily been the same way to them.

... It's hard. Taranza and Susie both spiral in despair for a little while after they accept the fact that they're no different from the X-Siblings. They come to believe that they deserved what just happened to them, and wallow in pain believing that they had what was coming.

But then they basically get "therapy" from others. The Mage Sisters, as well as Magolor, come by to give them support and help the both of them back up on their feet. They help them work through some of it. And then Taranza and Susie eventually go out to have talks with Dedede and Meta Knight, who give them advice on what to do going forward.

Taranza and Susie eventually become more rational about the situation. Thankfully, they stop wallowing in pain and stop acting like they deserve to be hurt. They also become more self-aware and attempt to move on and heal without seeking violent revenge on the X-Siblings, as they were told that getting revenge on them wouldn't help them heal.

They've both been humbled some more by what recently happened to them. They've both matured up months after the Xtra-Terrestrial Army incident. And they've learned to adapt with the irreversible damage they suffer. Susie wishes her voice could go back to normal, and Taranza wishes his back eyes could go back to normal, but they're having to come to terms with it and try to live on life with it.

The X-Siblings are trying to move on and heal on their own. They've had to grapple with the death of their father, and are trying to grow accustomed to their new lives as recluses that mostly stay in their new home. And they're recluses, alright, because they don't really make any new friends other than Kirby, as they're not really interested in making friends.

After Taranza and Susie have matured up, they start seeing their previous selves in the X-Siblings, who act very much like they used to do. They've come to eventually stop hating Naxor and Virexa, understanding that they're similar to them, and at one point they're even able to have some sympathy for them after learning some more about their story.

But alas, the two parties still don't really make amends. Taranza and Susie end up having a truce with the X-Siblings where they just simply ignore them, and vice versa.

It's been a huge learning experience for Taranza and Susie after they've been freed.

.......

That's it for the summarization of the important parts of the story!

The AU has a lot of other details, but I'll talk about that in future Tumblr posts. For now, you've got the main meat of what this AU has to offer.

I've written about this AU over on AO3. Click this link to see a more detailed version of the story in three chapters!

Anyways.... the idea of Taranza and Susie getting kidnapped and tormented to serve as parallels for what they did to Dedede and Meta Knight was an idea that stuck in my mind for several months. The idea first came to me early this year, and it eventually snowballed into the creation of this AU.

Interesting idea, isn't it? It's a reversal of sorts! It can be considered a "role swap" from the games that Taranza and Susie debuted in. How ironic is it for them to become victims to the same thing they were perpetrators of in the past. And it forces them to REALLY reflect on themselves. It heavily emphasizes on them both being victimizers and victims.

The reason why Magolor and the Mage Sisters make major appearances in the story is because... well, I have them being close friends with Taranza and Susie. The AU complies with the character dynamics in my regular verses, and so that means the Kumazaki-era floaty hand Dream Friends are all close friends with each other. And so because the AU complies with my regular verse dynamics, Magolor and the Mage Sisters got upset about Taranza and Susie getting hurt, and so they wanted to join Kirby in saving them.

As for the OCs invented in the AU... Naxor, Virexa and Draxon. Sorry there's no artwork of them yet, but I'll eventually get around to doing it. The AO3 story provides descriptions of their appearances: they're all green-skinned aliens with yellow eyes and sort-of-humanoidish bodies. They also have floaty hands like many of the others.

I decided to make them... arguably very similar characters to the 3DS Kirby villains. Ironic, huh? It turns out that the story of King Draxon and the X-Siblings is a similar story to Queen Sectonia and Taranza, and to President Haltmann and Susie. And ALSO similar to Hyness and the Mage Sisters.

I'd argue that Taranza and Susie would get along and become friends with the X-Siblings if they weren't their victims. In that hypothetical, why wouldn't they? They're so similar. The X-Siblings literally even lost their corrupted loved one like Taranza and Susie did!

But alas, Taranza and Susie are still their victims, and so that absolutely has a huge effect on their dynamic with the X-Siblings. Quite a story to piece together, isn't it?

I'd say that's it for this post. This is my last Kirby AU for the year, and I consider it my most ambitious AU out of them all. I'd say it was the most fun to create out of them. I wonder what you think? Do you think this is my best Kirby AU, or do you prefer any of the previous ones I came up with?

I'll talk more about other details of the story in future posts, but for now, enjoy what I've got here.

[bllsbailey]

House Foreign Affairs Report: Biden Left Taliban $7B in Weapons After Afghanistan Withdrawal

Gold Star families of US military members who were killed at Abbey Gate in Afghanistan in August 2021 speak during the third day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 17, 2024.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee has released its startling 354-page report on the disastrous Biden Administration Afghanistan withdrawal of U.S. troops. 

The three-year report criticized the Biden administration for failing to anticipate the Taliban’s takeover and neglecting to prepare for the orderly departure of non-combat personnel. 

The erratic decision led to a horrendous evacuation effort and numerous American civilians and U.S.-allied Afghans left stranded and killed by the Taliban. 

“Our investigation reveals the Biden-Harris administration had the information and opportunity to take necessary steps to plan for the inevitable collapse of the Afghan government, so we could safely evacuate U.S. personnel, American citizens, green card holders, and our brave Afghan allies,” Foreign Affairs Chair Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said in a statement Sunday. “At each step of the way, however, the administration picked optics over security.”

Additionally, the report reveals testimony from 18 administration officials including Gen. Austin Miller, former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki and former acting ambassador to Afghanistan Ross Wilson.

The report states that the Biden Administration’s decision led to classified documents and military equipment being left behind worth over $7 billion as well as the death of 13 service members who were killed by a suicide bomber at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. 

Additionally, the report states that the agencies failed to coordinate and accuse the White House of faltering to listen to recommendations to leave a small military presence in place. 

However, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby insisted that “there was no handover of US equipment to the Taliban,” in response to the damning report. 

“That equipment had been provided to Afghan security forces appropriately and with congressional approval over the course of two decades of war,” he said. “That equipment was left by those Afghan forces when they surrendered or stopped fighting.” “The Taliban claim to have recovered 40 operational aircraft from the former Afghan government, including two Mi-17 helicopters, two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, two MD-530 light helicopters, two Mi-24 helicopter gunships, and one fixed-wing transport aircraft — all of which have since been observed flying according to the UN Sanctions Monitoring,” the report said.

Meanwhile, some of that equipment was seen just last month, when Taliban fighters hosted a military parade to celebrate the three-year anniversary of recapturing Kabul.

“During the parade, the Taliban showcased their ability to operate tanks, helicopters, and Humvees left behind by U.S. and coalition forces,” the report said.

Furthermore, the equipment left behind also included key technological tools and sensitive databases that put Afghans who were helping the U.S. at great risk. 

“American technology has empowered the Taliban to systematically target Afghan allies,” the committee said. “A 2022 report by the Defense Education Enhancement Programme (DEEP) of NATO discovered the Taliban gained access to US military-maintained biometric devices and databases after the withdrawal.”

“The biometric devices in question are enabled to recognize fingerprint, eye scan, and facial information, and the DEEP report warned that the Taliban had access to biometric data allowing them to identify civilians that worked with the United States or NATO.”

McCaul also said on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that the Taliban “goes door to door [and] checks fingerprints” of residents before torturing and killing those found to have assisted the US and NATO.

During the time of the botched withdrawal, the military cut off the installation’s water and left in the middle of the night, keeping the base’s new Afghan commander unaware about the withdrawal. 

“Afghan General Mir Asadullah Kohistani — who took over command of Bagram for the Afghan military — asserted he heard a ‘rumor that the Americans had left Bagram … and finally by seven o’clock in the morning, we understood that it was confirmed that they had already left Bagram,’” the report said. “Darwaish Raufi — Afghanistan’s district administrator for Bagram — confirmed General Kohistani’s account, stating the U.S. departure from Bagram had occurred without proper coordination with local Afghan officials.”

However, Gen. Frank McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command at the time, denied the allegation when asked by the committee.

“We did this in close coordination with our allies and partners,” he told the committee. “Every departure of every element was carefully synchronized across the coalition and with our Afghan partners. On no occasion were they caught unaware by our movements.”

Meanwhile, McCaul said he expects the panel involved with the report to continue to investigate and will obtain testimony from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

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