#and certainly not on behalf of any community

[disformer]

So like... who's the person stealing your designs? Have you asked them to cut it out? They don't deserve to be profiting off your work. Had no idea this was happening :(

I appreciate yall coming to my defence like this but i’m not gonna name names and would appreciate some restraint on y’all’s behalf.

Like A) Any punitive retaliation against fandom design/style theft will always be worse for the community than just letting them be. While I had expected and hoped for better, the worst thing i’ll do is slam the door on my way out, I certainly don’t want people using my anger to start a witch hunt.

B) Unfortunately we’ve seen what this fandom will do when someone with an audience sics their followers onto an art thief. It’s not pretty, I won’t be party to it, and I might be upset but i’m not too upset to know i’m better than that.

C) I feel like I made my point already LOL like attaching my bitchy vent to 5 pages of texaid comic is a pretty pointed cunty move and i’m at peace with it being my closing statement.

[melzula]

Smoke and Shadow

part two

pairing: Zuko x Princess!reader

notes: final part is here! hope you guys enjoy and thank you for being patient as always

summary: the group is one step closer to finding the missing children and Azula, but that doesn’t mean all of their problems will be solved

~ part of the fire lilies series ~

“We decided to do some investigating after Zuko kicked Aang out of the throne room,” Suki explains to you as your trio runs after the Avatar and Fire Lord. “We wanted to see if there were any clues left behind from Kiyi’s kidnapping or Azula’s Kemurikage attack on the palace last night.”

“And even though we couldn’t find anything, I realized there was something fishy about the way she was able to escape so quickly!” Ty Lee adds with a keen smile. “When we used to play hide-and-seek as kids, she’d always manage to win by hiding in this secret passage way tucked into the palace walls. It must be how the Kemurikage were able to escape so quickly.”

“Good thinking, Ty Lee. Although, I still can’t believe she kidnapped her own sister,” you note with a disgruntled shake of your head. “That’s low even for her.”

“This is Azula we’re talking about,” Suki reminds you, and that in itself is enough of an explanation for her behavior.

You finally skid to a stop after reaching the palace rooftops where Aang and Zuko land. The Avatar carelessly drops your boyfriend on the tile, and you wince on his behalf before offering Zuko your hand to help him back up onto his feet.

“Did you have fun?” You ask with a teasing smile only for the Fire Lord to scowl.

“Don’t ever do that again!” He scolds Aang whilst dusting off his robes.

“Okay, okay, but look!” the boy insists before pressing down on a loose brick that opens up a hidden doorway.

“A secret passageway! So you think this is how Azula and the other Kemurikage escape? How did you figure this out?”

“They searched for clues after you kicked them out of the throne room,” you tell him with a pointed look that has him shrinking guiltily under your gaze. “I think you owe Aang an apology.”

“You’re right,” he murmurs sheepishly. “I’m sorry, I should have been more open to your ideas.”

“Apology accepted!” Aang chirps happily. “Now what’s our next move?”

“Well… Kiyi could be on the other side.”

“Tom-Tom, too. I’m coming along,” Mai interjects firmly, seemingly forgetting Kei Lo’s presence until he corrects her statement with a “We’re coming along.”

Zuko instructs Suki and Ty Lee to stay back and guard the palace, so you bid your friends goodbye before beginning your descent into the narrow passageway. The hallway is cold and claustrophobic, but Aang and Zuko lead the way with their fire bending, cautioning you to watch your step behind them.

You’re quiet for the most part, mulling over your thoughts and insecurities now that you’re given a moment’s silence to think. You’re still feeling a bit insecure about walking in on him with Mai and about his animosity towards Kei Lo, but you haven’t had the chance to talk to him yet. The long distance has been hard on your relationship, and sometimes it’s hard to keep consistent communication when both of you have duties to tend to and entire nations to run, but you never thought it would be a problem. Now, you’re not so sure.

You recall what Azula had told you during your time in the Forgetful Valley, how you and Zuko were an “unnatural” pair that would never work. You hate to admit it or even think it, but what if she’s right? What if you’re just kidding yourself? Maybe Mai really has been the right girl for him all along. After all, she is Fire Nation, and she certainly is more qualified to be dating the Fire Lord than you are. You wish Suki were here to talk to, surely she’d know just what to say and could stop you from spiraling like you are now, but without her it seems it’s just you and your thoughts for now.

“Hey, I didn’t get to introduce myself earlier,” a voice says, pulling you out of your thoughts. “I’m Kei Lo, Mai’s boyfriend.”

“Yes, I’m sorry, everything’s just been so chaotic. I’m y/n, Zuko’s girlfriend.”

“That’s right, Mai told me. Say, aren’t you a Chief? Should I be calling you Chief y/n instead?”

“Just y/n is perfectly fine,” you correct him with an awkward laugh. Unbeknownst to you, Zuko is listening in on every word. He doesn’t trust Kei Lo, not one bit, and he doesn’t want him roping you into any trouble. He doesn’t care if he really isn’t in cahoots with the Safe Nation Society, if Kei Lo so much as looks at you in a way Zuko doesn’t like he’ll be tossed into a cell immediately.

“So how’s a Chief of a water tribe end up dating the Fire Lord?” He asks with a laugh.

“It’s a very long story.”

“Please spare me the details,” Mai says with a roll of her eyes.

“Yeah, it may not be the best time for that story,” you note with an apprehensive smile.

“You’re probably right. Still, it’s a pretty awkward situation we’ve all found ourselves in.”

“You can say that again.”

After some time group is finally able to reach the end of the passageway, and the only thing standing in your way from the other side is a solid wooden door.

“This must be it,” Zuko announces hopefully. “Behind this door could be Kiyi and Tom-Tom.”

“And Azula,” Aang adds apprehensively before helping the Fire Lord push the heavy wood open. The creak of the old hinges is deafening, echoing in the silent hallway, and you watch with bated breath as the light from the other side slowly begins to seep in. Carefully, you follow the two out the door only to be met with a disappointing site.

There are no missing children and there is no Azula. Instead, you’re faced with a gloomy and desolate graveyard.

“What is this place?” You murmur in awe, your eyes scanning across the expanse of withered headstones. You’ve never seen anything like it.

“I’ve been here before,” Zuko notes thoughtfully, “this is the royal family graveyard.”

“I thought that’s what the Dragonstone catacombs were for,” Aang questions with furrowed brows.

“No, the catacombs are only for Fire Lords. This place is for everyone else. It’s called the Garden of Tranquil Souls.”

“Really? Well, I hate to break it to you, Zuko, but…” the Avatar begins uneasily, and you follow his shifting gaze towards the clouds of smoke that begin to surround the graveyard. Taking a step back, you reach to unclip your water pouch as the dark figures begin to close in on your group. “The souls here don’t seem all that tranquil!”

The group of Kemurikage don’t hesitate to attack, and immediately your group is split apart as you all begin to defend yourselves against their assault. Blasts of fire are shot your way left and right, but you’re able to deflect it every time with your water bending. You manage to take down two of the spirits by encasing them up to their necks in ice, but your progress only seems to make a dent in their ambush. Zuko and Aang are still corned back to back, and Azula has managed to single out Mai and Kei Lo. She holds the boy by the collar of his shirt, eyes full of malice and hand ready to strike him with her blue flames despite Mai’s pleas for her to leave her boyfriend alone.

Before she can harm him, you send a blast of water towards her with an effortful grunt that shoots her across the graveyard and into one of the pillars. The impact is forceful enough to put a crack in the tombstone and disorient Azula momentarily to allow Kei Lo and Mai the chance to escape.

“Are you alright?” You ask him after rushing towards the couple. Mai helps him to his feet before looking to you, her eyes full of gratitude and sincerity.

“Thank you,” she says earnestly, and you give her an appreciative nod in return.

Rising from the ground with a grunt of pain, Azula is filled with rage at your assault on her. How dare you think you can beat her at her own game?

“Helping out your competition? That’s pathetic even for you, dearest,” she insults, irises aflame with fury. “Perhaps you and Zuko are more compatible than I thought.”

“What’s pathetic is the fact that you’re still obsessed with becoming Fire Lord,” you spit back, water cloaking your arms to form tentacle-like limbs for attack.

“Oh, I’m much past that now. I have a new mission,” she notes airily with a passive wave of her hand. Her eyes harden suddenly then and electricity begins to spread across her fingertips. “One that simply won’t work with you in the picture.”

Before she can raise her hands to strike you with her lightening blast, Zuko is quick to send a hail of flames her way to distract her. “Leave her out of this! It’s me you want!”

“Oh, Zuzu, always so dramatic,” she mocks before creating a cloud of smoke to cover her as she runs away.

“You have to go after her!” You exclaim urgently. “I’ll stay back and help Aang handle the rest of the Kemurikage.”

After ensuring you’ll be fine without him, Zuko gives you one final nod before chasing after his sister. You, on the other hand, rush back towards Aang to see if he needs any help. However, it seems he’s been able to manage the assailants just fine on his own.

“Princess! Where’d everybody go?” He asks, perplexed at the sudden disappearance of your group.

“Zuko went after Azula. I’m not sure where Mai and Kei Lo are,” you note as you scan the garden for any sign of them. “What do we do now? We still haven’t found the missing children.”

As if on cue, a shrill voice coming from the passageway calls out for help. You exchange an alarmed glance with Aang before immediately sprinting back into the doorway. A breath of relief leaves you at the sight of Mai’s father with the children in tow, but your ease is short lived at the sight of the two Kemurikage that hold them captive.

“Look!” One of the kids exclaims. “It’s the Avatar and Chief y/n!”

“Hi kids, we’ve been looking all over for you!” Aang says with an overjoyed wave.

“Are you guys alright?!” You call out protectively. “Is anyone hurt?”

“We’re great!” Kiyi calls back prompting you to let out a relieved laugh. You’re so happy to see her and see that she’s okay, but your joyous reunion is quickly cut short by the two spirits who begin to approach the two of you with whips of fire.

“Hang on, kids!” You tell them before beginning to take on the Kemurikage. There’s two of them, so you and Aang each take on one. They’re powerful fighters, but the safety of the children is on the line, so you use all of your might to fight them off as best as you can.

You counter their whip with one of your own, slicing through their weapon each time before it can strike you. While one of your hands controls the water whip, the other sends constant shards of ice hurtling toward the cloaked woman. You can tell she’s beginning to tire, your attacks too much for her to keep up with, but you’re too focused to notice the second figure approaching closely behind you. The Kemurikage’s whip is raised to strike you in the back, but their attack is halted by the blade that slices through the air and pins their hand against the wall.

“What-!” You exhale in surprise, turning just in time to see Mai swoop in and finish the job. The last two spirits have been apprehended, and you’ve been spared a wound that surely could have been fatal.

“Someone had to watch your back,” Mai explains with a faint smile. “You had ours.”

“Thank you,” you utter with a breathless grin. It feels nice to not hate each other for once, and you actually seem to work quite well together.

“Y/n! Y/n!” A voice calls, stealing your attention away from the girl and back to the children. Kiyi sprints towards you with a gleeful smile, and you’re quick to scoop her up into your arms and give her the tightest hug. “You came back!”

“I promised, didn’t I?” You say with a playful smile, carefully pushing back the hair from her face. “I’m so relieved to see you’re okay, and I know Zuko will be too.”

“Guess what? I’m a fire bender now!” She boasts proudly. “I burned a hole through the door so we could escape!”

“That’s incredible!” You praise with a laugh. “Wait until your brother hears this.”

Across the way, Mai cradles her little brother in her arms and watches you speak animatedly with Zuko’s sister. Your interest in Kiyi’s story is completely genuine, and she can see just how much the girl values your opinion. It’s so different from the way Azula used to talk about you, speaking poorly of your character and diminishing you to nothing but a weak Princess. Maybe Mai had judged you too harshly. After all, she might not have been able to get her brother back without your help.

“Thank you again for your help,” she tells you after setting Tom-Tom down to allow him to bid his goodbyes to his new friends. “I was wrong about you, and I shouldn’t have let my resentment cloud my judgement the way I did. I guess I really don’t hate you as much as I thought I did.”

“I appreciate you saying that,” you express with a careful smile. Perhaps things will always be awkward between the two of you, but this is at least a good start.

After making sure all of the children are accounted for, your group exits the passageway just as Zuko emerges from one of the mausoleums. Kiyi is quick to sprint towards her brother, and you watch on with a smile at the way his eyes seem to light up while hugging her close.

“Kiyi! I can’t tell you how worried I was about you.”

“I wasn’t worried at all!” She notes with a grateful smile. “You should’ve seen it, Zuzu! Y/n helped the Avatar take those nasty ladies down!”

“She did, did she?” He asks playfully, glancing over to you with a grateful smile. You simply give him a sheepish shrug in return. “I’ll have to be sure to give her my thanks.”

“And Azula?” You ask him, but his solemn gaze is enough of an answer. “She said she had a new mission, did she tell you what it was?”

“She wasn’t interested in becoming Fire Lord, she was interested in turning me into the type of Fire Lord she would be. The type that rules with fear, ruthlessness. Just like my father. Azula says I can’t escape who I am, and it will only be a matter of time before I’m just like her.”

“You don’t believe that, do you? You’re nothing like Azula,” you say earnestly. “You never will be.”

“I know,” Zuko murmurs softly, but you can see the slightest bit of doubt in his eyes and it saddens to you to know he doesn’t fully believe it to be true. “But either way she escaped. I don’t know where she is or when she’ll return.”

“We’ll be there to help you if she does come back, buddy,” Aang consoles with a comforting hand on the Fire Lord’s shoulder. “For now, let’s just focus on returning these kids back to their families.”

“Good point, Aang. Now,” you say, looking to the children who stare up at you with tired eyes that immediately brighten when you ask, “who’s ready to go home?”

~~~

Peace has been restored in the Fire Nation; the children have been returned safely to their parents, and Zuko has earned the forgiveness of his people for his mishandling of the situation. Everything is almost perfect.

You lean against the balcony of your room for the night and stare up contemplatively at the moon. Yue shines beautifully as always, and you find comfort in her light as you battle against the darkness clouding your thoughts. Your doubts about your relationship still rage on, and you haven’t been able to fight them off no matter how hard you try. You haven’t mentioned anything to Zuko, not wanting to distract him from his duty to his people, but the suffering in silence act you’ve been pulling all day hasn’t been helping your state of mind. Suki had urged you to talk to him, stating you had nothing to worry about because she’s seen firsthand how much he misses you when you’re away, but you were too anxious to follow through. What if you won’t like what you hear when you finally speak to Zuko?

You’re too engrossed in your thoughts to hear your door open or the quiet footsteps that head towards you, and it isn’t until he’s right beside you that you finally feel the familiar warmth that constantly emanates from his body. You don’t have to look to know that it’s Zuko.

“Suki said I should come to talk to you,” he says softly, golden eyes looking to you inquisitively. “Is everything alright?”

“I… I’m not sure,” you admit quietly, nervously fidgeting with your fingers and refusing to meet his gaze.

“What is it?”

His hand sneaks its way in between your own to halt your fidgeting and reassure that he’s right there with you and ready to listen to whatever it is you have to say. Sighing, you finally look to him with uncertainty swimming in your eyes.

“Do you have feelings for Mai?”

He’s stunned to stay the least, eyes widening slightly in surprise at your question. It’s certainly the last thing he expected you to ask him.

“Is this what you were trying to talk to me about earlier?” He presses gently, frowning at the way you slowly nod your head. “I see…”

“Just be honest with me, Zuko,” you plead desperately. “We promised we’d never keep secret from each other anymore, so if there’s something to tell then tell me. I can handle it.”

“I can’t stand here and tell you that it didn’t look bad when you walked in on Mai and I,” Zuko admits with a sigh. “But I can tell you that nothing was going on.”

“I heard you say you care about her.”

“It was out of context. I was trying to make things right for the sake of finding the children- she was obviously still upset over what went down between us, and I was trying to keep the peace so that we could work together to find our siblings. I’ve known her since we were kids, and if it weren’t for her I never would have been able to escape Boiling Rock and come back to you. So in a way I guess I do care for her, but it’s nothing compared to how much I care for you.”

“What about your animosity towards Kei Lo? You seemed… jealous of him.”

“I wasn’t jealous, I just didn’t trust him. I still don’t,” Zuko says adamantly. “I wasn’t exactly thrilled about having to release him because I didn’t want him to try and pull anything. I didn’t want Mai getting hurt, and I especially didn’t want him putting you in any danger.”

“So… so you don’t have feelings for her?” You ask meekly, the slightest bit of doubt still present in your voice.

“I’ve never had feelings for her,” Zuko says earnestly before gently taking your hands in his own. “You’re the only girl for me, y/n. I was stupid enough to let you go once, but I’m never making that mistake again.”

You can’t help but smile at his admission, tears beginning to well in your eyes as you throw your arms around him in a tight embrace that he immediately returns. It feels like a weight has finally been lifted off your shoulders, and all the worry and self doubt you had is finally beginning to melt away.

“I never want you to feel doubtful or insecure about our relationship ever again. I’m going to do everything in my power to do better,” he professes earnestly. “I love you more than you know, and you don’t ever have to worry about someone coming between us again.”

“I love you, Zuko.”

He pulls you in for a kiss, and with the moonlight shining down upon you both, everything is almost perfect.

For neither of you notice the pair of golden eyes that stare down at you from the rooftops with disdain and disgust before disappearing into the shadows.

“Pathetic.”

| atla tags: @sirkekselord @niktwazny303

| zuko tags: @thebluelcdy @royahllty @the-firebender-girl @ilovespideyyy @yiyibetch @eridanuswave @lammello @a-monsters-love @knaite-solo @taeeemin

| fire lilies tags: @emberislandplayers @kikaninchen-2 @music-geek19 @thia-aep @thyunnamed @haylaansmi @nataliahaslosthershit @idkdude776 @aangsupremacy @thirstyforsometea @ihaveaproblem98 @brown-eyed-thang @xapham @misnmatchedsox @chewymoustachio @that-bucket-hat-gal @chilifrylizard2 @kyomihann @kaylove12 @kiwihoee @freggietale @moon-spirit-yue @bubblegum-bee-otch

[mariacallous]

Pedro Escobar Blanco, one of two hundred and thirty-eight Venezuelans deported by the Trump Administration to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador on March 15th, never met the lawyer who is representing him in U.S. immigration court. They haven’t spoken by phone or texted or communicated through an intermediary. He almost certainly isn’t aware that he’s being represented at all. Yet, a month after he entered Salvadoran custody, an immigration judge in Southern California held a hearing on his asylum case. Escobar Blanco wasn’t in attendance—no one has seen or heard from him since he was sent to El Salvador—and the judge, citing his absence, ordered him removed from the country.

Judges regularly issue deportation orders in absentia for people who are on what’s called the non-detained docket. These individuals have already been released from detention on the condition that they later appear in immigration court. However, if a person is in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as Escobar Blanco had been since October, 2024, he cannot possibly show up for a court date unless the government lets him. The judge’s logic—penalizing him for not being there—made little sense. It also meant that he would be barred from entering the U.S. for the next ten years. “I objected,” Andreana Sarkis, Escobar Blanco’s lawyer, said in a subsequent declaration. “His ‘failure to appear’ was through no fault of his own, but rather through ICE’s failure to produce him.”

The government had deported Escobar Blanco on the basis of a proclamation that Donald Trump had signed in secret, on March 14th. Escobar Blanco was accused of belonging to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, the government claimed that, in effect, it didn’t need to present the actual evidence against him. Sarkis could only surmise that the allegations were related to his tattoos, which included a nautical star on each shoulder, and the names of his parents and his two children, who are ten and thirteen.

The majority of the Venezuelans sent to El Salvador had pending cases in U.S. immigration courts. In the weeks since their disappearance, lawyers across the country have mobilized to represent as many of them as possible. The work mainly consisted of showing up to hearings in their place and explaining to judges where their clients are. To date, the Trump Administration has refused to share the names of the men it has sent to El Salvador. The current list, which is the result of reporting by CBS news and whose accuracy the government still won’t confirm, is incomplete.

“Ghosts” is how one attorney involved in the advocacy effort described her clients. By such standards, Escobar Blanco is considered lucky: a lawyer was at least available to appear on his behalf in immigration court (many of the men lack even that), and the judge issued an order that can theoretically be challenged (other outcomes can be harder to contest). Sarkis, who in six years of practicing law has never before represented a client with whom she couldn’t speak, took on Escobar Blanco’s case two days before the hearing. When Escobar Blanco entered the country, in July, 2024, he did so exactly as the U.S. government had instructed, scheduling an appointment with border authorities. In his case, this led him to wait in Mexico for ten months before he was finally interviewed, screened, and eventually allowed in. He seems to have been apprehended in a worksite raid near San Diego last October; it isn’t fully clear why he wouldn’t have had work papers at the time. “What’s so shocking to me is that I’m seeing no criminal history, no affiliation with any criminal organization,” Sarkis said. “He did everything he was supposed to.”

At the center of the initiative to organize legal representation for the Venezuelans is Michelle Brané, an attorney and longtime immigrants’-rights advocate who helped lead the effort to locate the families separated at the border during the first Trump Administration. When Joe Biden entered the White House and promised to reunite them, Brané joined the Department of Homeland Security, as the executive director of the Family Reunification Task Force. Now she works at Together and Free, a nonprofit that describes its mission as providing “emergency and ongoing support to asylum seeking families impacted by federal immigration policies.”

In February, before the Alien Enemies Act went into effect, Brané and her colleagues were trying to identify a group of nearly two hundred Venezuelans whom the Trump Administration had sent to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The White House had described the men, without evidence, as criminals and threats to public security, and held many of them in the same units once reserved for alleged Al Qaeda terrorists. Brané, who’d begun hearing from the detainees’ family members, connected them to litigators at the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a lawsuit.

The A.C.L.U. sued the Trump Administration again on March 15th, hours after the President invoked the Alien Enemies Act. A federal judge promptly ordered the government to halt the first deportation flights and to turn around any aircraft that had already left Texas, where the detainees were being held. The Administration ignored the order, and three planes full of men landed in San Salvador in the hours that followed. Early the next morning, Nayib Bukele, the President of El Salvador, posted videos of them being marched into a notoriously brutal Salvadoran prison called the Terrorism Confinement Center. “The calls came in immediately,” Brané told me. “The first few cases were primarily people who saw a video and said, ‘My brother or my son was in there.’ Then we started to hear from people who hadn’t seen their family member in a video, but the pattern fit.”

Escobar Blanco’s wife, children, and sister fell into the latter camp: none of them had spotted him in any of the footage. His sister Mariela, who lives in Venezuela, told me that she and Escobar Blanco had spoken nearly every day since he left for the U.S. The only time they lost touch had been when he was travelling through the Darién Gap, a treacherous stretch of jungle between Colombia and Panama. One night in early March she received a call from him. “I don’t understand anything, Mari,” he said. He’d just been transferred from California to Texas, and he told her that the government was planning to deport him and a group of other men to Venezuela because “they were related to the Tren de Aragua gang.” He and his sister are from the state of La Guaira, on the northern coast of Venezuela. “We didn’t have the remotest idea of who these people really were,” she told me, of the gang. A few days later, she stopped hearing from her brother altogether.

On the night of March 14th, a friend that Escobar Blanco had made while in custody called her with an update. The detainees were about to board a plane at the airport—bound for Venezuela, they were told—when ICE officers led them back to the detention center because of bad weather. “He’s still in line because they have to re-register us to bring us back inside,” the friend told her. “There are a lot of us, so it’ll probably take a while. But they told us that any moment, between Sunday and Monday, we’ll be in Venezuela.” Mariela told me, “They didn’t arrive, and the rumors began about the flights to El Salvador. I said to myself, ‘Wow, my brother has to be there because where else is he? Why isn’t he in touch with us?’ ”

Brané and her team began compiling lists based on the calls they received. This was almost exactly how her work had begun during the family-separation crisis in 2018. Then, as now, the government didn’t have a credible or comprehensive account of who it had swept up while executing its plans. In 2018, the cause was a mix of incompetence, negligence, and a general lack of political will; this time, it appears to be more calculated. “All of this is about power,” Brané said. “It’s about showing they don’t have to play the game.”

Brané and the other advocates at her organization began building out detailed profiles of about fifty names on their list. They obtained copies of the men’s Venezuelan I.D.s, spoke to their family members, conducted background checks in Venezuela, coördinated with gang experts and investigative journalists, and searched an Interpol database. They also conducted research in Chile, Colombia, and Peru, where some of the men had lived or travelled before reaching the U.S.

The men were initially detained for a range of different reasons. Some were picked up during traffic stops; others had been apprehended as “collaterals” when ICE had been looking for someone else. The overwhelming majority of the men that Brané and her team looked into had no criminal records. In many instances, the advocates and researchers turned up minor or ambiguous infractions. Two men had once been accused of robbery in a Venezuelan news article, but were apparently never charged. One teen-ager had a marijuana charge in Chile. There were a few exceptions: two men had records of domestic violence, and someone else had been arrested in an alleged hit-and-run incident. One case involved a man in New York who had been charged with the possession of a firearm, but the charge was dropped. “He was held at Rikers Island and handed over to ICE, thanks to the new position of the New York Mayor,” Brané said.

The advocates kept spreadsheets with basic information about each individual and the date and time of any upcoming court hearing. The idea was to try to keep cases open for as long as possible, then to get them formally paused. But at the hearings, the lawyers were frequently stunned by how government attorneys described the whereabouts of the men in question.

On March 19th, Monique Sherman, a managing attorney at the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, attended a proceeding at an ICE detention center in Aurora, Colorado, for a man named Jefferson Laya Freites, whose case was eventually dismissed. “The judge called his name and he didn’t walk forward, because he wasn’t there,” she told me. Sherman told the judge that Laya Freites’s wife had recognized him in a video from the Salvadoran prison. But when the judge asked the D.H.S. attorney to respond, according to a report in USA Today, she said only that Laya Freites had been released to “local authorities.” Sherman told me, “D.H.S. said three times that he was in local-law-enforcement custody. I said I was in touch with the man’s wife. She’s desperate to be in touch with him. If he’s in law-enforcement custody, can the government tell us where he is? The D.H.S. attorney said that, for privacy reasons, she couldn’t.”

Margaret Cargioli, of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, was representing Miguel Rojas-Mendoza, who had Temporary Protected Status when he was deported to El Salvador. His mother told me that she had called him after Trump won the election last year, and begged him to be careful. He was living in Louisiana at the time. “Don’t worry, mama,” he replied. “I’ll be fine. I have T.P.S.” Local police records from January and February indicate that he had been arrested for driving with an expired license plate and without a proper license. When Cargioli got Rojas-Mendoza’s file, the day before a virtual hearing, on April 8th, she hadn’t yet seen photos of him. After the judge appeared, another box popped up on her computer screen showing a room at the Winn Correctional Center, in Louisiana, where Rojas-Mendoza had been held before his transfer to Texas, the previous month. “I see a man, a little distant from the screen, sitting at a table,” Cargioli said. “Next to him was a detention officer. He was holding a piece of paper.” For a fleeting moment, Cargioli thought the advocates might have made a mistake; her new client appeared to be in the U.S. Then the detention officer said, “Oh, no. This is the wrong person.” The screen in Louisiana clicked off. During the hearing, Cargioli asked the D.H.S. lawyer where Rojas-Mendoza was. “I don’t have any information,” the lawyer replied.

It is possible that, in the days after the first three planes of deportees left for El Salvador, some government lawyers didn’t know where the men in their cases were. ICE has a detainee locator that shows only where someone is being held in the U.S.; once that person is deported he no longer appears in the system. After news organizations such as CBS started publishing lists of names, however, the government appeared to take a more deliberate stance. By the end of March, Sherman told me, D.H.S. lawyers were using a “canned” phrase about the men “not being here” and asking to hold cases “in abeyance.” They rarely elaborated or departed from the script.

In the last several weeks, government lawyers may have developed a new strategy—to persuade judges to dismiss cases. “It’s sneaky and it’s wicked,” Ann García, a staff attorney at the National Immigration Project, told me. “The D.H.S. attorney is saying either ‘We no longer want to pursue this case for deportation and we’re exercising our prosecutorial discretion to withdraw the charges here’ or ‘We request dismissal of the case because the immigrant is no longer in the United States,’ which is ridiculous because ICE disappeared the person.” In the case of a removal order, like the one Escobar Blanco received, there is a legal path within the immigration system to file a motion to reopen the case. Dismissals essentially remove cases from the immigration courts. You can technically appeal a dismissal, but, as García said, “it’s unlikely the current immigration appellate body would review that decision fairly.” Without a removal order, she went on, “a federal court of appeals is unlikely to have jurisdiction.”

On April 7th, the Supreme Court delivered a mild rebuke to the President. Those who were charged as “alien enemies,” the Justices found, still had to be notified before they were deported. But the Justices didn’t specify what such a notice was supposed to include, or how men in custody, with limited access to lawyers, could actually respond. A few weeks later, after a federal judge in the southern district of Texas issued a temporary restraining order against the government, preventing it from deporting more Venezuelans under the Alien Enemies Act, the Administration moved one group of detainees to a facility in the northern district of Texas. ICE then distributed notices to them in English, hours before trying to take them to an airport. The notices provided no information about what the prisoners could do to see or to dispute the evidence against them.

At this point, the Supreme Court intervened to halt the deportations. By then, some three hundred people had already been sent to El Salvador, including seventeen more men deported on March 30th, ten others deported in mid-April, and a Salvadoran father of three named Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who had been deported, on March 15th, by mistake. His case prompted a separate lawsuit that also reached the Supreme Court; in a nine-to-zero decision, the Justices ordered the Administration to “facilitate” his return to the U.S.

In the past few weeks, Brané and her colleagues have been learning about new, previously unreported instances of people sent to El Salvador. Late last month, the Times published a story about Ricardo Prada Vásquez, a thirty-two-year-old food-delivery worker living in Michigan who was sent to El Salvador on March 15th. He hadn’t appeared on the CBS list, flight manifests, or government accounts of recent transfers made from immigration custody. Neither had Neiyerver Adrian Leon Rengel, a Venezuelan living in Texas, whose disappearance was confirmed by reporting in the Miami Herald. As Brané put it, “Who knows how many more there are?”

Like Brané, Ann García has spent the last seven years trying to find all the families who were separated at the border during the first Trump Administration. “I still can’t tell you how many families were separated,” she told me. “One of the scary parts of the current situation is that the government won’t tell us anything.” At a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, a journalist asked Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, if he had spoken to the Salvadoran government about returning Abrego Garcia to the U.S. “I would never tell you that,” he answered. “And you know who else I’d never tell? A judge.”

The Supreme Court never addressed what the men sent to El Salvador in March can do now. The A.C.L.U. has recently filed another brief in federal court, in Washington, D.C., to persuade a judge to order their return. In the court filing, the A.C.L.U. cites the Supreme Court’s instruction from the Abrego García case. “Family members of those in [El Salvador] maintain that they have no connection at all to TdA,” the lawyers wrote, referring to Tren de Aragua. “These errors are particularly devastating because many class members came to the United States precisely because of arbitrary arrests and detentions by their government, and have strong claims for relief under our immigration laws.”

Mariela, the sister of Pedro Escobar Blanco, told me that, long before her brother’s sudden deportation to El Salvador, he was in a state of shock. When he was first apprehended, last year, he couldn’t understand why the ICE officers who arrived at his worksite acted as if they were staging a Special Forces operation. “I thought it was a prank,” he told her at the time. “They arrived like they were looking for some criminal who was highly dangerous. They shouted at us to get on the ground, not to move. It almost seemed like a candid camera would pop out.” One day, about four months later, while he was still in ICE custody, he told his sister, “I’m just going to tell them to deport me because I can’t be a prisoner any longer. I’m not doing anything for my children or for you. I’m not even doing anything for myself. I’d prefer just to be sent back.”

[signfromeywa]

AUNGIA TA EYWA (A SIGN FROM EYWA)

Chapter 08: Back in the enclosure

Description:

Anastasia Novak is a behavioural scientist tasked with socializing a captive Na'vi on behalf of the RDA. The longer she works with the Na'vi and the closer she gets to him, the more she has to rethink everything she thought she knew and redefine her morals and values. Can she just carry on like this, or will she follow her heart?

Content: Rating +18, Avatar fanfiction, human x Na'vi ship, Na'vi captured

Characters: Human OCs: Anastasia Novak, Steven Turner, Patra// Na'vi OCs: Ean'tu,

Word Count: 3439 

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❗️English is not my native language! I apologize very much if it reads a bit bumpy here and there.

I’m a German author and this is the first time I’ve tried to translate a story I’m working on into English and upload it. I still hope you enjoy it.❗

The airlock opened and Ana stepped into his old enclosure with Ean'tu by the hand. After a few more weeks, the cultivation of the new plants had finally been completed and Ean'tu was able to move back into the old enclosure. Ana had been eagerly waiting for this, it gave them more privacy but also more space and comfort for the Na'vi. Thanks to the great trust Ean'tu already had in Ana, they were once again able to move on foot. There had been no need to sedate him or use other heavy measures. He trusted her and had walked calmly by her side back to his enclosure. It was always a big risk, Ana was aware of that. He could try to escape at any time, which she would even understand. The desire for freedom certainly burned deep in his heart and Ana felt the same way. This thought was also growing in her mind. The Na'vi could not stay here forever. That wasn't right.

Turner called over the radio: "Novak, everything okay so far?"

"Yes, we arrived safely at the enclosure, you can give the all-clear." Ana replied and Ean'tu looked at her. By now his English wasn't bad at all, she could hardly believe how incredibly quickly he was learning. Communicating with him had become so much easier but also more intimate.

"Was that the other minder of mine?" he asked quietly, still with a strong accent despite his good English.

"Yes, that was Turner, he wanted to know if everything had worked out." Ana looked up at Ean'tu, he hadn't been able to hear the radio because she had a small headset in her ear.

"I'm sure he just wanted to know if I'd done something to you." He still didn't trust Turner and obviously didn't like him. So far, he had also refused any contact with Turner.

"No, he knows you won't hurt me, he's on our side, even if it's hard to believe." Ana stroked Ean'tu's hand and then led the way. "Look, they really did grow the plants in question."

Ana tried to lighten the mood a little. She knew they were still in a prison, but they had to make the best of it. Ean'tu walked past Ana, over to the plants and stroked the leaves. She could see a slight smile on his face, which then gave way to a dull, sad look. Did he remember his home? Should Ana perhaps ask or was that inappropriate and would only open old wounds?

To her surprise, Ean'tu herself began to tell the story, "Sa'nu and I used to go out a lot to collect these leaves. She was a good teacher, she taught me how to weave."

"Your mom?" Ana came over to him and also touched a leaf. He nodded sadly. "Where's your mom now?"

"I hope with Eywa..." it was almost a whisper from Ean'tu, his words sounded sad and heavy. Ana didn't know what exactly they meant, but she thought it had a similar meaning to when people wished their loved ones were in heaven. She would not realize how serious the words really were until much later.

Ean'tu seemed to be grieving. Ana would have liked to know so much more about his childhood, but she didn't dare ask. It just didn't seem to be the right moment. The Na'vi closed his beautiful eyes for a moment and seemed to pause. Then he took a deep breath and turned to face her again.

"I can show you how we weave ribbons." he struggled to smile to hide his sadness.

"I'd love to learn from you." Ana was excited by the idea. So far, Ean'tu had only learned from her and she had felt bad about imposing her culture on him. It was only appropriate that she also learned to understand the Na'vi and their way of life.

Ean'tu nodded. "Okay, I'll look for some nice leaves later so we can start tomorrow. Today I would like to ask you for something."

Ana listened with interest. "Yes?"

"My hair is soft and beautiful again thanks to you, I wonder if you can put it back together for me?" he took his hair and held it together in a half-up hairstyle.

"Yes, I can do that if you like. Tell me how you want it, I'll help you." Ana was proud and honored. It was the first time Ean'tu had actively asked her for help. "I have to get out of the enclosure in a minute, we've got a delivery. I'm sure I'll find everything I need there."

These were the things Ana had asked for. They included all sorts of things. From fabrics and materials to clothing. She didn't know what the Na'vi normally wore, so she had asked her secret contact. They gave her a rough description and Ana had to choose things based on this rough information. She hoped he wouldn't hate the things she had chosen.

"Okay, I'll wait for you at the tree." He smiled at her again, with that warm, friendly smile. Every time he did, her heart leapt for joy. He touched her on the head, almost as if he wanted to stroke her cheek, which was unfortunately not possible thanks to the mask. Instead, he stroked her neck and turned away to go to the tree. His only place of retreat.

Ana breathed a heavy sigh and tried to ignore the longing tugging at her heart. It was wrong, she kept telling herself so as not to lose her reason. Then she too made her way through the airlock to accept the delivery she had ordered.

When she arrived at the top of her department, Turner was already waiting for her among a pile of delivery boxes. He had a digital clipboard in his hand and seemed to be checking that everything was there.

When Ana came into the room, he looked up from his work. "Out of the enclosure so soon?"

"I want to get some things out of the boxes, I hope everything I asked for is there." Ana walked over to the boxes, put her hands on her hips and looked at the mountain of boxes. With a bit of bad luck, it would be a while before she found what she was looking for.

" Have you seen, the plants have settled in well in the enclosure, they look great."

"Yes, Sky has already had a closer look at them too. They were very satisfactory. The responsible staff have done a good job." Ana took the first box, opened it and looked through the contents. "You could take the other boxes from the pile and put them in a row."

Turner nodded and set to work. She was grateful for his help, the boxes looked heavy. "What exactly are you looking for?"

"I requested hair accessories for Sky and some clothes." Ana stuck her head up to her shoulders in one of the boxes and rummaged around.

"I'll help you find it." Turner also opened one and rummaged through the contents.

After what felt like a while and three boxes later, Ana emerged triumphantly. "I've got it!" she pulled the hair ornament out of the box and held it up solemnly. Then she turned to Turner? "So, have you had any luck yet?"

He also straightened up, but shook his head. "No, not yet. I'll try the last box." He opened it and began to search. "I have to say Novak, that's a lot of stuff I don't know what you want to do with."

Ana grinned and came over to Turner. "I won't be able to do anything with it either, but I'm sure Sky knows exactly how to process all the materials. Otherwise, he and I will figure it out together."

Turner paused. "I think that's what you were looking for. At least that's my guess."

He pulled out a pair of pants, they were made of light beige fabric and were very breathable. On Ean'tu they would fit loosely, comfortably and give him enough leg room.

"Yes, exactly, then the other parts should be in there too." she leaned over to the box and picked out the second part of the set. It was also a loose fabric that was wrapped around the chest and fastened at the neck. "I hope he likes it, definitely better than the old leather rag he's wearing now." Ana stroked the fabric.

Turner nodded in agreement. "I think he'll be pleased, at least you've put some thought into it and I'm sure he'll appreciate it."

"Good, then I won't keep him waiting any longer. Take a break, you've done a lot of work. The break will do you good." She smiled gratefully at Turner. Ana knew that he organized and worked a lot for Ana and Ean'tu. Without him, she wouldn't know how she could manage it all, he was a good ally.

Turner looked at her hesitantly for a moment. "Are you sure you'll be all right?" he still seemed slightly worried.

"Yes, you can trust Sky. Just like I do." Ana assured him.

He sighed. "All right, but be careful. I'll be in the canteen."

Ana nodded and grabbed all her things and her laptop, then went back into the enclosure. She had put the clothes and hair accessories in a smaller cardboard box to make them easier to transport.

Packed full, she arrived at the tree in the enclosure, where Ean'tu had said Ana would find him. Before she had walked the last few meters, however, someone grabbed the box. Ana looked up and saw Ean'tu standing behind her. She hadn't even heard him approach her. He was always so gentle and quiet.

"I'll take something for you." he said kindly and smiled.

"That's sweet, thank you." Together they walked to the large trunk of the tree and set the things down. Ana sat down on a raised root while Ean'tu looked curiously into the box.

"What did you bring?"

"Clothes." Ana answered him and he looked at her questioningly. "For you, I think it's time you get rid of that old leather rag and get something new."

Ana pointed to the old loincloth Ean'tu was wearing. It seemed to be made of leather, was very old and looked torn. It must have been long at some point, but now it didn't even go down to his knees. The shred of leather just about did the job.

"That's thoughtful of you, what did you bring me?" Ean'tu squatted down in front of the box and was very curious.

"Go ahead and take it out. It's yours anyway..." Ana squatted down in front of it and watched as the Na'vi carefully took out the fabric. First the pants. "I don't know if you like it, it's certainly not the same as what you wore back then." Ana sounded uncertain.

Ean'tu noticed this. "Let me put it on right now." He smiled at her happily. "Wait here."

He stood up and disappeared behind the tree. It was so wide that he could easily hide behind it to change his clothes. When he had his pants on, he came out. "There's a hole missing for my tail." He turned around to show the problem. The waistband of the pants was still below his tail and he held the pants tight.

Ana took a pair of scissors out of the box and approached him. "I'm cutting a hole, please don't move."

The Na'vi was nervous about having a sharp object so close to his tail, so to be on the safe side he held on to it as well.

Ana quickly made a small cut, "Try it now and if it's too small, carefully tear the fabric a little."

Ean'tu nodded and put his tail through the new hole, it fit well and he was finally able to pull his pants up properly.

"Sorry, I didn't know exactly where the hole needed to be, so I didn't include that, now at least we have it just right." she smiled at him. "So... what do you think?"

The Nave squatted a few times with the pants. The pants were very loose and airy and followed his every movement without any problems. "The fabric is very soft and I can move around easily. I like it a lot."

Ana was relieved. She had been worried that it might come across as insulting if she simply brought him human clothing instead of his traditional clothes, but he seemed to take it positively. He went to the box and pulled out the fluffy top. "What's this?"

"Oh you don't have to wear it if you don't like it, but you wear it sort of like this." Ana indicated how to wear it on herself.

"That's unusual for us, but I'll try it on." With Ana's guidance, he skillfully wrapped the top and tied it around his neck.

Ana smiled at him a little more dreamily than planned. "It looks really good on you, you look very pretty in it."

Ean'tu looked down at himself and stroked the soft fabric. "It's definitely something different." Then he looked at Ana. "Thank you for thinking of me." he returned her gentle smile.

They both blushed and Ana sheepishly tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "It's the least I can do for you."

Ean'tu came to her and knelt in front of her to look into her eyes. "I know you feel guilty about what the sky people are doing to me... but you're not like them."

Ana held her breath and returned his gaze. He had seen through her. In fact, she felt terribly guilty that Ean'tu was trapped here. It wasn't right, but she felt so powerless.

She pressed her lips together in dismay and smiled wanly. "That's sweet of you to say... but I work for those monsters..."

Ean'tu did not take his eyes off her. His reddish eyes were still on her, with all gentleness in his gaze. "Ana..."

The way he pronounced her name, only he had that certain sound with his accent. It made a pleasant warmth rise in her.

"If it wasn't for you, I might have already given up all hope. Eywa... my home... everything is so far away and out of my reach. But your big heart has given me hope again. I will not give up." He then said and touched her chest again, where her heart was.

Ean'tu was such a good soul. Ana didn't deserve that and yet she was happy about his words. She was glad that he hadn't given up yet, even though the situation was so hopeless.

"Would you like to... do my hair? I'd be delighted." He smiled at her encouragingly.

Ana felt ridiculous for moping around like this, even though he was the prisoner here. So she finally shook off the gray clouds that were clouding her mind. "But of course. Sit down, I've brought a few things especially for this."

Ean'tu sat down expectantly and happily. Ana took all the things out of the box that she would need to fix Ean'tu's hair.

He patiently held still, using his hands to gently instruct her where he wanted the half-open plait and what he would like to have braided. Ana did her best. His hair was a little rougher than hers, if only because it was curly and therefore much harder to tame. But after a few attempts and some back and forth, she had the hairstyle done. Finally, she fetched two more things. One was a tablet, from which she used the inside camera so that Ean'tu could look at herself.

"What do you think? Did it turn out right?" Ana watched as the Na'vi looked at himself in the tablet.

He turned his head from right to left and looked very satisfied. "Yes, it's perfect, thank you very much." he breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently it was a great relief to have his hair out of his face in a proper hairstyle. Before he could stand up, Ana held him by the shoulder.

"Wait, I have something else for you, close your eyes for a moment." She had hidden something behind her back.

Surprised, Ean'tu remained seated and closed his eyes. His tail twitched back and forth excitedly. Ana approached him and pulled out a small pearl necklace for his hair. It had a drop-shaped pearl in the middle, which was meant to lie in the middle of his forehead. It was a hair ornament she had made herself. When the secret contact told her that Na'vi liked to wear homemade jewelry, the idea came to her.

When she had attached the pearl necklace to his hairstyle and the pearl was perfectly centered on his forehead, she allowed him to open his eyes. "You can look now."

He opened his eyes and looked at himself in the tablet. His mouth was slightly open and he looked enthusiastically at the pearls on his forehead. "Pearls..." he said, amazed and delighted at the same time. "How beautiful." He touched them carefully.

"Do you like it? I made it myself." Ana came to his side and looked at his reflection in the tray with him.

" If I like it?" he turned to her, "Of course! I love it!" he beamed happily at Ana's face, which now made her beam with delight too.

"I'm glad, I wasn't so sure it was the right thing. I'm glad I could make you happy." She was just about to turn away to put away the rest of the utensils she had used for Ean'tu's hair when he held her by the wrist and turned her to face him again. Then he took her in his arms. He wrapped both his arms tightly around her and snuggled up to Ana.

Ana was a little taken by surprise at first, but then she also put her arms around him as best she could and pressed herself into the embrace.

"Thank you..." Ean'tu murmured into the hug and Ana's heart began to beat excitedly again. A hot blush rose to her cheeks. She had never been this close to the Na'vi in all this time, but it felt great. He was warm and his skin was soft. Even though he was so much bigger and stronger than her, his embrace was cautious, though not lacking in intimacy. Their bodies snuggled together seamlessly.

She felt the Na'vi breathe a sigh of relief beneath her hug. As if it was exactly what he had been longing for. Ana allowed the hug for as long as he needed it, because apparently he really needed it. She wanted to give him the closeness he had apparently missed so much.

Hesitantly, almost reluctantly, he released Ana from the hug. "..." he wanted to say something but seemed to swallow it.

He still had his hands on her hips. Ana stroked his cheek lovingly. "What is it Ean'tu, tell me."

He lifted his eyes and looked at her, slightly embarrassed but also a little sad. "I was just thinking... it would be nice... if we could do this more often."

As soon as he said it, a blush crept onto his cheeks. Ana was also surprised by what he had said and her heart reacted strongly to it. Why did she react so strongly to Ean'tu? Why couldn't she turn off this feeling in her heart? What they were doing here was no longer professional. It no longer had anything to do with her work, but she couldn't escape it either. She was spellbound by the Na'vi.

She lowered her eyelids sheepishly, "If that's what you want."

Ean'tu reached for her hand and gently stroked her fingers. "Is that what you want? I don't want you to be uncomfortable... because... I'm not human."

Now Ana suddenly looked him in the eye. "That's not it! I don't care if you're human or Na'vi!" She put her hand on his chest and could feel his strong heart beating. "What matters is what's here Ean'tu. I like who you are."

Moved by her statement, he bit his lower lip and suppressed tears, she could see it in his eyes. He was very emotional. How could she have ever believed he was aggressive? He was probably the exact opposite.

"I see you, Ana." he said softly, his voice quivering slightly, as emotional as he was at the moment.

Now Ana felt a heavy emotional sigh, which she suppressed. There was no way she was going to come close to tears now. She had to pull herself together. But her heart was heavy and the longing pulled at her more and more. Almost whispering, she answered him, "I see you too, Ean'tu..."

Tag list: @twisteduniverse5 @yukilaaw @mooniequeen @anemonelovesfiction @talialobi @gimmebones715 (If you want to get added, comment it under the post)

[drconstellation]

The Ineffable Ducks

What's with all the ducks in Good Omens that Crowley seems to be inordinately fond of? Turns out, they do have a narrative purpose, they're not just in there as a running joke about Crowley's fondness for the animals of Earth.

They appear in both S1 and S2, and get mentioned in several seemingly random places. Like, really random. There are quite a few in St James Park, where the ducks live, where the international spies also clandestinely meet, where Aziraphale and Crowley meet on several occasions, and where Crowley and Shax have a meeting, exchanging information in S2E1.

Ducks also get referred to here, when Aziraphale suggests they use humans to search and spy out the missing Antichrist, but Crowley insists it will be near impossible because suspicion slides off the boy like water off, what ever water slides off, because he has an automatic defense system.

The he remembers the ducks(!) later in the Bentley when they discuss using their respective networks of highly trained human operatives (Shadwell and the Witchfinder army), and Aziraphale asks if Crowley has a better idea than his. "Ducks!" Crowley suddenly utters.

The ducks that are always there, that you see but don't see, gathering bread crumbs, when any kind of surveillance or secret spy work is being discussed.

Nah, I thought, it couldn't be a sly ref to this famous cartoon by Larson, could it?

Aziraphale and Crowley are always afraid that someone is watching, or listening to everything they do, from both sides. I mean isn't that partly why we got the ending we did in S2, because they have had to be so covert with their communication to each over the centuries they've forgotten how to speak plainly to each other?

Heaven has definitely been watching...

And Hell certainly noticed Crowley's act of kindness in the Edinburgh cemetery, swiftly summoning him to Hell for punishment after his kind deed on behalf of Elspeth.

Then when the duo meet in again 1867 Crowley wonders if "ducks have ears" before declaring they must do - that's how they hear other ducks. So its no surprise that when Crowley asks Aziraphale for holy water that he writes the request on a piece of paper to hide it from those invisible ever-present watchers they know are never far away.

When we come to the start of S2, where Crowley is slouched in St James Park once more, reading the Tadfield Advertiser, and yelling at the Azerbaijani secret agents for feeding the ducks bread. Crumbs, it was alright to do this in the book, and S1, why is wrong now? Has Crowley suddenly become woke and caring for the ducks? Nah.

There's a lot more to it than that. I realized this is the missing Grain offering from my post about altar offerings (see The Altar of Eccles Cakes) in S2. A Grain offering represents a voluntary expression of devotion to God - or the other side you're supposed to be aligned with, in this case.

Shax is part of this scene, discussing the latest news from below, and she mentions some special intel that Hell has received, from their own secret squirrel network. Of course they would meet in St James Park to discuss this, along with all the other spies. While Shax tries to get some intel out of Crowley about what might be going on in Heaven, because she knows he has contact with a certain angel who owns a book shop, Crowley responds by refusing to show any devotion to his former side at this point, and isn't going to give any information away that could be useful. He also doesn't have any intel at this point, anyway, but he's not going to give that away either! Heaven and Hell are toxic, and no one should be going anywhere near them, in his opinion. So stop feeding them that devotional bread!

After Shax asks what they should be feeding the ducks, he eventually says "Frozen Peas. It's good for them, they like it."

The short period of "peas" since they stopped the impending Apocalypse has been enjoyable, and good for Crowley and Aziraphale, but the forced meeting with Beelzebub later that day soon jolts Crowley out of any complacency when they indicate that the "generalized understanding" Crowley thought they had with Heaven and Hell after the body swap to leave them alone, the one Aziraphale-as-Crowley negotiated, while asking for a rubber duck, no less, was looking very shaky and fragile indeed.

And one more random duck ref to discuss.

I was inspired to write this section by lalalunamoth's post calling Muriel a duckling imprinted on Crowley, and of course I did not save it, did I, and a search does not bring it back up again (found it!), so if you're reading this, or know that post, please let me know! I read it, and thought, cute, but nah, then realized that Muriel was sent on a surveillance mission to Whickber St to ascertain the truth of Aziraphale's 25 lazurii miracle. And she did act as the eyes of Heaven, writing up some reports, called Crowley "grice," then followed him around during his escapade in Heaven just like a duckling following a grumpy gander drake while he did his own surveillance measures in a Tactical Turtle neck, channeling his best imitation Sean Connery voice (have you noticed that as well, people?)

No, no, the op wasn't wrong - those big cross ducks, er grice geese, they make good guard dogs, no?

With special mention to Crowley acting as a surveillance duck just prior to this, and Mr Brown doing his own "spying out" of Aziraphale.

To finish this meta, there is one other figure who notably offered the ducks bread, in the book. This passage, which is surely relevant to S3, but didn't appear in S1, shows another character still devoted to God in a way. Lets give Death the final word:

Crowley: "Maybe it's it's all part of a great ineffable plan. All of it. You, me, him, everything. Some great big test to see if what you've built all works properly, eh? You start thinking: it can't be a great cosmic game of chess, it has to be just very complicated Solitaire. And don't bother to answer. if we could understand, we wouldn't be us. Because it's all - all - "

INEFFABLE, said the figure feeding the ducks.

"Yeah. Right. Thanks."

[justdiptych]

The original Fallout had one group of raiders. That was the name the game map gave to them - 'Raiders' - but they were in fact known as the Khans. They were a relatively minor faction, being tied to quests in the first town the player is likely to visit, but we learn a lot about them in their brief appearance.

Many of the Khans are given names and dialogue, and will tell the player about their history - including how they came from the same place as the people of Shady Sands, Vault 15, and feel entitled to share in the town's wealth. Some see their raiding life as a way to claim control of the post-war world - ruling through strength and fear, believing that old ideas of morality died with the rest of the world. Others treat it as just another job - they support their group by trading, maintaining equipment, preparing food, and other everyday tasks.

In short, the Khans are a fully-realised community, as much a part of the story as any other. We learn that their brutal leader, Garl Death-Hand, took command after killing his abusive father. The player can kill him, or negotiate with him, or impress him with acts of cruelty, or even challenge his nihilistic views by convincing him that they're his father, back from the dead. Killing Garl and destroying his compound is treated as the best choice for the region as a whole, and is confirmed to have happened in the next game in the series, but it's certainly not the only option.

Fallout 2 has two groups of raiders. One - again marked 'Raiders' on the map - turn out not to be raiders at all, in that they're not attacking towns to steal their wealth. Instead, they're a mercenary company, hired by a disreputable businessman from one town (New Reno) on behalf of another town (Shady Sands again, now the capital of the New California Republic) to harass a third town (Vault City) to convince them that they need outside help in maintaining their defences. It's part of the game's major subplot about the three societies competing for control of northern California and western Nevada.

The other group are the New Khans, founded by Garl's son Darion after the original Khans' defeat. These Khans aren't nearly so fearsome as their predecessors - they mostly operate in secret, hiding behind a group of squatters who have moved into the ruins of Vault 15 and pretending to help them restore it for use. Darion is wracked with resentment over what happened to his father's crew and guilt for having survived, and his gang ultimately present little real threat to the outside world.

What I'm getting at here is that, in the world of Fallout as it existed in those early games, 'raiders' were not a major factor. There was one group who conducted raids as part of their regular economic activity, but only against particular communities - Shady Sands saw them as raiders, but to the Hub, they were just traders. Raiders only existed in a particular context - they had particular interests, beliefs and opportunities that would not always be possible or applicable.

Most of the games' conflict came not from the existence of raiders but from bilateral political and economic competition between groups with overlapping but not identical interests, which was reflected in their respective ideologies. We see this in Killian and Gizmo fighting to control the future of Junktown, and in the Master's attempt to reshape the world with the Unity while the different groups of New California try to retain their independence.

We particularly see it in Fallout 2, with its three-way battle for economic domination between the constitutional democracy of the New California Republic, the mafia-ruled narco-state of New Reno, and the elitist technocratic slave state of Vault City. Which of these groups continue to rule and expand, and which crumble, is what ultimately shapes the region's future - with control of Redding and its gold supply as the linchpin.

While the Enclave are the story's primary antagonists, they're chiefly characterised by their refusal to engage with this new socio-economic order - they believe that all outside authorities are illegitimate, and all outsiders non-human, and their only plan is to release a bioweapon into the atmosphere and kill literally everyone on Earth but themselves. The Enclave's defeat is necessary for New California's survival, but, otherwise, they change very little about how people live their lives. They're like Darion's New Khans on a larger scale - relics of a fallen order, robbed of their purpose, hiding in an old bunker and driven by nothing but resentment of having been left behind.

I might, in future, talk about the contrasting depiction of raiders in Fallouts 3, 4 and 76, and about New Vegas's use of raider and bandit groups like the Khans, the Legion, the Fiends and the White Legs. For now, I think I've made my point - that raiders are not a fact of life but a product of a particular place and time, and much less relevant to the universe of Fallout than other forms of competition and violence.

[hatoheart]

hey so I’ve said before I prefer to keep my blog a drama free place but

Oh well. It’s my blog and I can break my own rules as I see fit lol.

My background with Lily Orchard: I had been a fan since about summer 2019 (20 years old, I was born December 12, 1998) and had heard her talk about the various abuse she claims to have gone through throughout her life. With no reason to believe otherwise, I just accepted this. I bought into everything she said when allegations came out against her because I had already anchored my beliefs to things she’d said. It’s hard to dismantle beliefs that are so ingrained in you.

In June 2024 I made a tumblr post asking for actual evidence, and to be fair, I had plenty of people come to me in good faith. Unfortunately, I was unwilling to believe a lot of what I was sent, parroting the same excuses for them I’d heard Lily use. I like to think of myself as someone who’s objective and looks at things from every side, and yeah, I’ll fully admit I was not doing that at all here. I got dunked on a bit, rightfully so.

I was a member of Lily’s Patreon server from June-September 2024 (I only just joined Patreon itself in June 2024). I started as a $1 Patron before bumping up to a $5 Patron for access to the Patron chat. I wouldn’t say I was especially close to Lily, I certainly wasn’t part of her “inner circle”, and got reprimanded by her a few times for various minor things, but ultimately she trusted me enough to let me into the private “server regulars” chat she implemented a week or so before I left.

The first major crack came when she used me venting in her stream chat about my beef with KP as an excuse to drop her and Sai’s full names. I did not at all endorse that and was actually quite pissed at her for doing that. I value my privacy a lot, and I try to extend that courtesy to everyone else I come across online. I’ve got plenty of good friends online and I couldn’t tell you the real-life names of about 90% of them.

Ultimately, the incest game folder was the major incident that got me thinking. She did her best to debunk it, but it was just… such a flimsy excuse? It seemed like she was desperate to cover it up. I don’t know, I’d bought into plenty of things she’d said in the past, but this seemed… unbelievable. So after spending a few days conflicted, I looked back into the evidence I’d been given months prior. And it was… a lot. I lashed out at some people trying to help me during this time, and blocked someone who’d been very cordial to me in DMs. I was stuck. I didn’t know what to believe. I suppose you could say this was my breaking point.

Ultimately the evidence did prove overwhelming, so on September 13th, 2024, I quietly left Lily’s community. No big statement, no fuss, just quietly retracted my Patreon sub, unfollowed on tumblr, and unsubscribed on YouTube. I’ve been quiet for the past month, give or take.

And man, has hindsight been 20/20.

She frames everything as “my boundaries tho” so that she can excuse being rude to her fans. She consistently denies Tara Callie/Stockholm and other wrongdoings without any proof to back up her claims.

I’ve watched KP and Courtney’s videos. I’ve looked at Britt’s evidence. I’ve privately made amends with all three of them.

I had already planned on watching Joon the King’s video when it released. I was a fan of his prior and figured if he was covering Lily… then there must be something I was ignoring.

Part of the reason it can be so difficult to look into Lily’s past is because the resources aren’t neatly gathered in one place. Joon’s video does just that. An easily digestible resource for people to get the gist of who she is.

And I’m sorry to anyone I may have hurt on her behalf. I am not claiming to be innocent here, I knowingly dug my heels in while claiming to want evidence, and then refused to look at it. I’m sorry for the rancid shit I’ve said and done to people in defense of Lily.

But I’ve opened my eyes. I’ve stopped hiding from the truth.

I’m not going to discuss this further, as I’ve said I prefer to keep my blog a fairly lighthearted place for me to hyperfixate and shitpost. I’m not interested in dunking on Lily or harassing her (please don’t harass her), but just being transparent and letting everyone know where I stand as of right now. This needed to be said eventually.

[bluespiritshonour]

I was thinking and it probably isn't coherent because I haven't thought it through—but I have found a way to make sense of Mai's behaviour regarding her father in Smoke and Shadow.

From the show, I got the impression that Mai's dad was the distant one and her mum was the one that enforced all the rules on his behalf.

"my mother said I had to keep out of trouble. We had my dad's political career to worry about"

So. After the show, Mai has finally managed to get away from her family. She's also certain that as long as her parents are together, Tom Tom, being a son would have their love. But if her father were to go MIA, she might wonder if her mum could keep things together. She does say in the comic that she needs her father to be there for Tom Tom. (And it certainly isn't because she thinks he can fight of spirits and ghosts? Or does she???)

So, my reasoning is: if it's only her mother, the responsibility for Tom Tom would fall to her as well and she Does Not Want Any Of It.

Hate on her all you like—but this is one of the things I like about Mai. We have enough characters that judge their worth based on bad parents' evaluation of them (Zuko, Azula) I was glad to get Mai not caring much for her family. Because they didn't care for her! It does make sense she's goth—I mean it beyond aesthetic, goth as an alt culture. A lot of alt culture engage in socially unacceptable ways because the society failed them. Not necessarily anti-community ways, note: Mai has overcome that flaw of hers, one that was presented as a flaw (unlike her resenting her parents and not being a "dutiful daughter") and has formed meaningful connections with a lot of other people at this point! Goth and emo are more passive forms of alt compared to extremely active forms such as punk and grunge but they're alt nonetheless. Teenagers are stupid but that doesn't make their pain—or the way they chose to lash out—any less valid.

Lashing out at society for having hurt you or failed you isn't something you "grow out of", rebellion isn't something inherently juvenile (although teens do engage in it a lot). It's knowing your worth. What does change, I think, is that adults have more agency.

I can see Mai healing when she has more agency and even changing society in a way that's worthy of her participation instead of apathy, as she does in Ashes.

Mai is so goth right down to her form of rebellion: passive. Yes, she's passive, but she does rebel as long as she can get away with. Very, very goth of her.

I don't understand, in a show where Zuko and Toph got to break away from their toxic families and not look back (yeah, yeah, I know, Yang rolled that shit back. He fucked everyone over, didn't he?) why can't Mai do that? And I think by having her happy ending be with Zuko, Ty Lee and the Gaang, the show (kinda?) allowed Mai to break free of the confines of her family. (I hate Yang for the messages he sends, they're an antithesis of ATLA)

I think Mai deserves it too, to not go back to people who hurt her (and who were supposed to love her) to do her duty to people who never did their duty to her. I think she should've been free of that burden post-show (but... You know the drill with the words that follow post-show)

I think only Tom Tom is exempt from this because he's a toddler and doesn't have a duty towards Mai lol. So while I don't think Mai needed a "gets along with Tom Tom" character development, I'm not opposed to it. It can be done beautifully, however, I'd like for it to be based on Mai starting to like Tom Tom for himself when he shows a personality and she's healed from her parental trauma. Then maybe they can get up to shenanigans together. I have no interest in Mai bonding with Tom Tom by essentially being a parentified teenager. That trope is tired and old and why does she have to be like everyone else? Different characters should have different motivations and paths to keep things interesting, why are we turning her into second Sokka and Katara (I think they're both parentified but at least their sense of familial duty is born out of mutual love and isn't unrequited or imposed the way Mai's is)

I wouldn't mind it if Mai keeps limited contact with her family, choosing instead, her more meaningful connections with Zuko and Ty Lee and we do see her making friends with Suki at the end too! I wouldn't mind it if she were never to grow affectionate with Tom Tom or forgive her parents. I think she should be allowed to get away from them and find happiness on her own with family of her choice.

Because let's be honest. She doesn't have to mother Tom Tom (see above: would be much better if she likes him for himself once he's grown)

All that I needed to get off my chest. Back to the point of this post: as long as her parents have their shit together she wouldn't have to play mother to Tom Tom.

Then what changed?

Again, something that happened offscreen like just Mai being Tom Tom's second mother (remember I'm ignoring that bit and operating with the assumption that Mai does not want that responsibility!): Michi got her shit together.

So, Mai sees this: her mum can actually take care of Tom Tom. She chose Tom Tom's well being over their father (something she didn't do for Mai). Mai doesn't have to take on a responsibility she's not ready and ill-equipped for.

Yeah, it still doesn't track with the comics exactly. (Notice how I keep saying "her meaningful connection with Zuko" as if they aren't broken up lol but that's another gripe I have) But I have a hard time trying to digest Mai's comic characterisation anyways. I don't think Mai cares for her family beyond their immediate physical safety and I don't think it's necessary to change that.

I would, however, accept Mai mending her relationship with her mother and growing closer to Tom Tom if it's her mother who extends the olive branch and tries to do better by her (Michi isn't Ozai, she's not unforgivable, she probably thought whatever she was doing was for all of their benefit) and with Tom Tom, if it's natural and organic and isn't forcing Mai to be another untimely mother. Because not every female character needs to end up at that exact same point and Mai was already mould breaking in that department, there's no need to hit her with a hammer until she's a perfect square that fits in the square peg.

Edit: I made a mistake when I said lashing out isn't juvenile and something to grow out of. Given what "lashing out" means. It means you're hurting—and that's not good. Meaningful change and healing is the right way (Mai's doing that as of late!)

The rest of my statement remains: rebellion isn't juvenile when there's cause for it. And Mai's resentment isn't without cause. I think she should be allowed that.

[toastandjamie]

Thinking about Mat’s first meeting with Olver. Just this twenty year old who’s so frustrated with responsibility that despite hating fighting goes into this situation looking for an excuse to hit someone. Then he sees that a kids involved, and he tries to diffuse the situation, he’s tired and just wants to solve this quickly so he can go back to the inn and get some sleep- then this full grown man threatens to kill a child, for the crime of roughing his horse. And Mat, Mat KNOWS what it’s like to be that kid, too curious for his own good and getting into trouble, but never NEVER has anyone threatened to hurt him over it. And Mat without any thought for potential repercussions breaks a dudes wrist and hits the other right between the legs. And then he threatens to have the lot of them run out of town by the Band because they had the audacity to say that Olver was “just a peasant child” as of that changed the situation for Mat, a horse traders son in fancy clothes. Because to Mat that’s all he is, a peasant in nice clothes. Then he’s trying to figure out what to do with Olver, since his parents are no where to he found, and Olver tells him not to talk about him like he isn’t there. And Mat ACKNOWLEDGES that, he apologizes and kneels down so they can be eye level. He doesn’t talk down to Olver, because he knows what it’s like to have other people make decisions for him. He is so keenly aware of his Olver feels, the frustration and rebelliousness that comes from being a child because he isn’t that far removed from it. Just three years ago he was still just a kid, older and a bit more mature than Olver perhaps, but still just a kid and one who hadn’t seen the horrors that ten year old Olver had seen. He acknowledges Olver’s feelings and talks to him like he’s anyone else, and redirects Olver’s stubbornness so skillfully. He’s just so good with kids in a way that not even just having two younger sisters can account for. He Gets It, the parts of him that others consider immature are what make him so good at communicating with Olver.

Then think about this from Olver’s perspective. He’s been alone for who knows how long, forced to flee his home, to bury his mother, and now all alone in some strange place. He was likely sleeping in the stables, and that was how he ended up trying to make friends with the Hunter of the Horns horse. Then this Hunter drags him out to the middle of the street, threatening to Jill him. Olver was brave about it but it must’ve been terrifying. Especially upon realizing that none of the other refugees would help. Then suddenly a man in nobles clothes, a strange hat and the coolest looking spear he’s probably ever seen intercedes on his behalf. A man Olver has never seen before, a foreigner no less, but here he is coming to rescue Olver like some gleemans hero. Then Olver sees Mat fight, while to Mat this was hardly even a struggle, a few cracks with the blunt of his spear and the ‘fight’ is over, but to Olver, Mat probably looked like a warder with how easily he handled two armed men presumably trained in using those swords they carry. We as an audience see Mat mainly through the eyes of people who don’t take him seriously, Mat himself included, so it’s easy to overlook just how badass Mat must seem to anyone else looking from the outside, especially a young angry boy who wants to fight the aiel who killed his father. We don’t know how Olver found out, or when, but imagine being Olver and hearing the most certainly exaggerated story of Mat “dueling” Couladin. Is it any wonder that Olver hero worships Mat? That inspite of what Olver perceived as Mat being hypocritical and foolish(or as Mat sees it trying to properly care for a child and be a good influence) he still considers Mat to be someone to emulate. Whether Olver sees Mat as more a mentor, brother or father figure he very clearly idolizes him. He wants to be like Mat, he wants Mat’s attention and praise because despite Mat being “no bloody hero” to this little boy he IS a hero, one worthy of any gleemans story

[a-polite-melody]

Just blocked another two people who showed up in the transandrophobia tag because they’ve decided they can’t support discussions around transandrophobia in light of these recent sexually harassing anons that trans women have been receiving that are supposedly on behalf of trans men.

And I just…

Can you imagine if there had been a similar response months ago when there were anons about correctively raping and impregnating trans men that were supposedly on behalf of trans women? If there had been people posting that we can’t take discussions of transmisogyny seriously anymore?

Honestly though? I think the people who’ve been making these posts weren’t really taking discussions on transandrophobia seriously in the first place, and were just waiting for a “good reason” to voice their antagonism.

And to be perfectly fair, there probably were some transmisogynist trans men/mascs who, months ago, when the copypasta targeting us was going around, similarly used the fact that those asks existed to further their bias against trans women.

But I can say that I only ever saw condemnations of that possibility months ago, and never any actual posts going around claiming we should trust trans women less or dismiss the concept of transmisogyny.

And I certainly never saw people saying that it would be understandable for the trans men who had been receiving these asks to trust trans women less because of it—because the ask, as heinous as it was, was a troll, it was sent to portray trans women as dangerous and untrustworthy to divide the trans community—unlike what I’ve seen in the wake of this current wave of asks.

[someprettyname]

✨GF FC INDIGO AWARDS 2024 PT 7✨

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 | winner's list | after party

Some points to note before you move to the event visualizer : 

🟣 My anchoring style is highly energetic and bubbly so you can imagine me doing a lot of hand gestures, changing pitch and tones of my voice, moving around on the stage a lot, etc. Hehe.  

🟣 The theatre/event venue has been engineered by the best engineers of the world, with the most modern technology. The petals of the lotus can close or open to hide or reveal the night sky. It can also change its colours. For tonight, it's indigo!  

🟣 The "OUTFIT CHECK" were clicked in different places (according to where the member was spotted first) hence the different background. 

🟣 I didn't want to write too dialogues on yall's behalf but I can't really bother you with every small detail, so I hope whatever dialogues I've made up are not too out of character! 

🟣Ignore the contradiction of same blue locker entering the scene multiple times, pretend there are a few copies of each member 🥰👍🏻

🟣 Ignore the outfit mismatch in the edits (any edit after the outfit checks please, our editing skills only go so far 🙏🏻 ) 

🟣 I highly suggest that you listen to songs as you keep finding them being embedded in links for added feels and extra hype! 🔥

🟣 The performances where multiple songs have been used is supposed to be a mashup. You can imagine the mashup to be as you please! The songs I've bunched together are for the sole purpose of creating a particular vibe, so as long as to they are fulfilled it's all good! 😌🤝🏻

🟣 The posts are scheduled at a gap of 3-4 hours each, this event is going to be spread throughout 2 or more days. Feel free to go feral in the comments/reblogs/community my mates. 🔥 

🟣 I hope you enjoy this! Tagging all the attendees here : 

@glue-thief  @getosugurusbangs @bueris @soleilonthesun @galaxynajma

@sid3buns @mariyumemi @pinkinsect @refrigeratedboombursts @satosuguhastakenovermylife 

@10renz0 @simp-simp-no-mi @boinin @sharkissm @milkteansugar 

@thebestsetter @merlucide @jujutsustraycats @kurona-theshark @nskiyuriz

@asarajaa @writingonthewalls1832 @hooudie212back @sadao-tsuki @milaisreading 

@8-xnny @licoririce @rinitoshisgirl @luvingshidou  @duckydee-0

@kuro-min @gojoracle @marcsnuffy @filecurropt0 @riririnnnn 

@wroophruh @sanaexus @melodiclune

Previously on GF FC INDIGO AWARDS : 

GLITTER GALS SPREADING THEIR 🌟SHIINEE🌟 ON THE STAGE AND TO EVERYONE IN THE AUDIENCE!! 

✨OSHA✨ memers were awarded. 

Newest member showcase performance by @/8-xnny! 

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·. .·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·. 

Nami : MY OH MY CAN YOU ALL 🎶FEELLLL THE RHYTHM🎶 IN MY VEINS?? (⁠＾⁠3⁠＾⁠♪ 

Nami : THAT WAS SOOOO GOOD MY GOD!! EVERYTHING FEELS ROYAL RIGHT NOW, DOESN'T IT GANG? *turns the mic to audience* 🎤

*hears loud cheering and hooting*

Nami : HELL YEAHHHHH YOU ALL BETTER KEEP THAT HYPE UP BECAUSE WHAT WE GOT OVER WITH WASN'T 50%. 

Nami : In fact, it was barely 30% ha! I am not going to reveal how many award category are left, yet. But there are certainly a LOT OF THEM. And how can there not be? You all are GRAND existences. Plainly simply just so special. 🥹❤️

*Hears a sudden cheering and clapping uproar from the audience.* 

Nami : HAHA! FACTSSSSSS I KNOW RIGHT? 😈😎 

Nami : Alriiiiight ladies and gentlemen HOOOLLD ON TO YOUR SEATS BECAUSE THIS NEXT PERFORMANCE IS DEFINITELY GOING TO LEAVE YOU !!!!SHOOK!!! 🤩😈😎😌

Nami : LET. THEM. FEEEEEL LIKE A ROYALTYYYY WITH YOUR LOUD APPLAUSE : TEAM PLATINUM PRINCESSES!!!

[ links : monster - lyrics | favourite | popular | espresso | typa girl - lyrics - choreography ]

Nami : 😙🎶

Nami : Told y'all didn't I? 

Soleil : EVERYONE LOOKS FIRED UP NAMI 🤩 NOW'S THE TIME TO MOVE TO THE NEXT CATEGORY!! 🔥💪🏻

Nami : ALRIGHT ALRIGHT! But before we move to buisness, COME ON EVERY ONE!! GIVE ME A WOOP! WOOP!  *Turns the mic to audience* 🎤

*The member in audience reply with WOOP!👏🏻 WOOP!👏🏻*

*Some members and blue lockers are so fired up they are standing and throwing their hands in air to cheer and encourage.*

Nami : PERFECT! 😌😎🔥💪🏻

Nami : LET US INTRODUCE YOU TO THE NEXT AWARD CATEGORY : GF FC INDIGO GRAND AWARDS!!! 

(*Fireworks are seen blasting on the stage and the audience bursts into applause, hootings and cheers as camera zooms past trophies.*) 

Soleil : As the name suggests : this is for the members who are the ABSOLUTE BEST at what they do. Unlike honorary awards, only ONE member can win this award for a sub category. Some awards have nominations and some are won by members who are no less than ONE MAN/WOMEN ARMY, hence no nominations. Simply gracing them with this award. Because it would be a sin otherwise.ヽ⁠(⁠･⁠ˇ⁠∀⁠ˇ⁠･⁠ゞ⁠)

Nami : That's right ladies and gentlemen, in a way or the other, these awards are nothing less than the main awards of tonight!! So who will take these absolutely ethereal trophies home tonight? 💁🏻‍♀️✨

Soleil : Well, that's a mystery for us to unfold 😌

(*They both give each other a knowing look and share a high five.*) 

Nami : Since we started the night with a note of 'not forgetting our roots', it's only fair we continue it with that. 

Soleil : PLEASE WELCOME ON STAGE, OUR BELOVED COACH WITH 70 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE AT THE RIPE AGE OF 19 : @/marcsnuffy ON THE STAGE FOR THE AWARDING OF FIRST CATEGORY. 

(*The crowd claps and cheers enthusiastically as marcsnuffy makes an appearance.*) 

Marcsnuffy : (*nods and wait for the cheers to die down before continuing*) Thank you! To be the coach of such an amazing team? Pleasure all mine! 😌

Marcsnuffy : The first GRAND AWARD that we'll be giving out tonight is THE GF FC INDIGO GRAND AWARDS FOR BEST BACKBONE TO THE COMMUNITY. 

marcsnuffy :  And I know Soleil said only one member can win this, but we have a history with bring exceptions don't we? 

(*Distant hooting can be heard from the crowd.*) 

Marcsnuffy : The two members who are sharing this award are....

🥁

🥁

🥁

Marcsnuffy : VAL AND NAJMA!!! 

(*Val gasps while Najma almost tears up, Kaiser pats her on the back encouragingly and proudly [opposed to Isagi's energetic BAM! BAM! BAM! back pats] and they both make their way to the stage grinning greatefully.*) 

Galaxynajma : When I first started Girlfriend FC I never thought in my wildest dreams that would get this big. I will forever be grateful to have met all of you this in this journey and I’m honored to be a nominee/won for these awards. 

Galaxynajma : I wish I had the words to describe how you all make me feel how this team makes me feel

Honestly I couldn’t do it without my cat kitty kisser by my side and ofc Ben and Eli

Nami, Soleil and others : 🥹❤️

Glue-thief : it has been an honour to (accidentally) become one of the founding members of girlfriend fc! i didn't know what would happen when i decided to join najma and eli with a matching profile picture, and i didn't know what would happen when i decided to make one for each character. it has been awe-inspiring watching more and more people with these profile pictures show up in my notifications, and i know i wouldn't have made so many good friends without this experience. thank you girlfriend fc for this award. i love you all.

(*Crowd breaks into huge round of applause.*) 

Soleil : oof! (*Fanning her face*) That almost made me cry. 

Nami : Well, worry not then~ 

Soleil : Hm? 

Nami : I think I got just the right performance to light you up!! 😎

Soleil : oh? 👀

Nami : 😌

Nami : HOLD ON TO YOUR HEARTS LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!! BECAUSE THESE FOLKS COMING ON THE STAGE NEXT? THEY MIGHT STEAL IT!! :3 

Nami : PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER FOR TEEEEAAAM RADIANT RAVERS!!!! 

[ link : stereotype - choreography | ASAP - choreography | After school - choreography]

Nami : I'm a good MC guys, ain't I? 😚 I warn y'all before a performance takes your breathe away ~

Soleil : You're saying that as if that helps them with their breaths anyways. 

Nami : Hah? Are you blaming me? The ones to be blamed are our amazing performers. 

Nami : And a certain someone else too, who blows away people's mind with their beauty ~ 

Soleil : You're changing the topic aren't you? But I'll let this one slide because we have coming up on stage @/mariyumemi for GF FC INDIGO GRAND AWARDS FOR BEST MANAGER!!! 

(*A pleasant theme plays over speakers as mariyumemi comes up on stage.*) 

Mariyumemi : I think this one's pretty obvious so let's just put our hands together for....

🥁

🥁

🥁

Mariyumemi : @/licoririce!!!!

(*She gasps and Anri instantly hugs her happily before she gets up, hugging the ones on her table and making her way to recieve the award.*) 

Licoririce : It can’t be put into words how grateful and honored I am to be nominated for these award(s)! First and foremost, I’d like to thank my boyfriend/wifey, Anri Teieri, for existing! I probably would not have found out about the Girlfriend cult icons had I not been looking through your Tumblr tag. Love you miss girl 🫶🫶

Licoririce : I’d like to shout out to Riri (riririnnnn) and Kira (merlucide)...[ *Camera cuts to both of them who are then seen all hyped up and cheering for their miss manager* ].....for being the first interactions I had within GFFC. They’re consistently funny and I love whenever I see their posts on my dash. I can’t believe they nearly killed each other for my kisses!! 

Licoririce : Actually thank you to girlfriend fc as a whole ! I’ve only interacted with a small portion of the community through my askbox but I love how friendly everyone is. Drawing Blue Lock characters in a bright pink football jersey is hilarious and has gotten me to pick up drawing as a hobby again. It’s been great fun to bond over everybody’s fictional girlfriends. You guys are amazing!

Soleil : And we're glad to have such a amazing  manager as you, miss!! 🥹✨

Nami : Now then Soleil, what do we have next? (⁠＾⁠3⁠＾⁠♪

Soleil : Let's see. Till now, we as gf fc have had battles over beauty [*camera cuts to RIRI and KIRA who wave proudly*]...

Soleil : ...gone to space [*Camera cuts to IZZY and a feral (🤑🤪🤟🏻🔥) shidou can be seen in the background all hyped up*]...

Soleil : ...discovered the our roots and realised the family tree we are part of [*camera cuts to ISH*]....

Soleil : ...won car racing tournaments [*Camera cuts to Hooudie with a pleased looking REO in the background*]...

Soleil : ....lost out hairs and gotten it back, investigated Kidnapping [*camera cuts to a nervous yet relieved looking Kira who's patting her hair just in case*]....

Soleil : ...got kidnapped [*camera cuts to Oki whom Otoya hold protectively at the words*], and so much more. 

Soleil : BUT one thing we shouldn't forget is we all started as FOOTBALL players. And it's only fair to award those of us who are the stars on the field. 

Nami : True. True. (*nods*) 

Nami : And even though that would practically be...all of us really. Some are a god's angel on the field, contributing largely to our wins. 

Soleil : Indeed! So let's start shall we? 

Nami : ABSOLUTELY!! 🤩🤩

Soleil : well, it only makes sense if we start with GF FC INDIGO GRAND AWARD FOR BEST COACH, since we are nothing without our coach!! 

Nami : That's right! Ladies and gentlemen, out your hands together, for we have coming up on stage ASH (@/refrigeratedboombursts) to hand out this award!!! 

[*Camera cuts to marcsnuffy who has a very proud and pleased looking marc snuffy sitting beside her, with his hand on her shoulders : a gesture of proudness.*] 

ASH : Huge round of applause for.....

🥁

🥁

🥁

ASH : @/MARCSNUFFY!!!!

(*She smiles widely, hugging marc snuffy and moving on to the stage with people patting her back on the way.*) 

Marcsnuffy: Thank you all for being here tonight. Strikers, defenders, midfielders, goalies and observers, it's wonderful to see everyone come together in such an elegant and well organized event. 

Marcsnuffy : Back when it first started, this team was conformed by a mere handful of players. Today, there are over 50 girlfriend (and boyfriend!) havers amongst us. I might not even know some of you, but just know I'm grateful for each and every single one of you. 

I want to thank my not girlfriend, Marc Snuffy. He has been my inspiration for a long time and every single merit I am awarded with is dedicated to him. (Please ignore the fact I am the most hands off coach to ever exist. I don't think I've told any of you anything about the sport or anything). Literally the only man ever of all time. He's very dear to me. I also want to thank Najma for making this profile picture for me. I would not be here, amongst every other talented player at GF FC, if it wasn't for you. Lastly, I want to thank every member of this football club/group/cult. You're all appreciated, no matter what you do. Thank you for all your hard work and participation.

Soleil and Nami : THANK YOU COACH!! 🤩🔥

Nami : You might be a hands off coaching style kinda coach, but your words always motivate and encourage us!! 

Soleil : Yes Nami, indeed! I'd personally go as far as saying a huge credit of all our victories goes to her!! ❤️❤️

Nami : I know, I know! We are nothing without her 70 years of experience are we? 🤧

Soleil : No we're not. But a FOOTBALL team ain't nothing without their STRIKER either, are they? 

Nami : Oh well 😈 true that 😈

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·. .·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·. 

Best striker award coming up.....stay tuned!!

[ organiser : @/someprettyname

script writing credits : @/someprettyname

proofread by : @/melodiclune

editing credits : @/soleilonthesun ]

[putschki1969]

Hi Sarah!

Thank you so much for always providing such great content on your blog. It's incredibly kind of you to consistently follow the girls' activities and share the information with the English-speaking community. I know it must take a lot of effort, and I truly appreciate it.

I'm really heartbroken by the recent developments, especially the rumours and backlash against the girls. I don't believe for a second that they "betrayed" Kajiura on purpose. I just hope people can be more rational and avoid jumping to conclusions, especially when so many details are still unclear. Anyone who has been following them knows they aren't the type to be ungrateful to Kajiura. Your unwavering support for the girls really means a lot and has made me feel much better during all of this.

I was tidying up my mailbox and came across an old recording of the girls' cover of 茉莉花 (the Chinese folk song "Jasmine Flower") from their 2016 Far on the Water Live Tour in Shanghai. I'm not sure if anyone has shared it with you before, but I’d be happy if this is new to you and hope it brings a little joy to your day. It's certainly not the best quality since I recorded it secretly during the concert, and halfway through, Keiko gestured for the audience to sing along, so there's a lot of background noise. Still, I wanted to share it as a small token of thanks for all the hard work you put into supporting the girls.

Hope you like it and have a wonderful day!

Hello! 😊

Awww, thank you! ❤️ I appreciate your kind words🫂 My love for the girls is still very strong so I'm more than happy to share this love with my fellow fans. I know it can be incredibly hard to follow all the information, updates and releases if you are not willing or able to invest a lot of time and money into the whole thing.

I hate seeing all the backlash against the girls. Yes, Yuki Kajiura has every right to feel slighted and her loyal fans can be disappointed or angry on her behalf. It's understandable. But remain reasonable and stick to facts. Don't treat the girls as if they are not even human, as if they were just instruments used by Yuki Kajiura, without their own feelings or thoughts. You really think this decision for the reunion live was made lightly without putting a lot of thought and consideration into it? You really think the girls didn't weigh all their available options in advance and decided this was the best possible course of action for everyone involved even if that route would ultimately lead to them being in a position where they simply weren't allowed to speak of the matter? Sometimes life puts obstacles in our way and we have no choice but to grit our teeth and move past them to get where we want to be. Along the line, sacrifices have to made and not everything will be sunshine and rainbows. The entertainment industry sucks and there are a lot of people in high positions who don't always have everyone's best interest in mind. I am sure Yuki Kajiura, Wakana, Keiko and Hikaru are very much aware of that fact and will find a way to clear up any existing misunderstandings in a civil manner.

Everyone, please realise that name-calling the girls and accusing them of every horrible thing under the sun is unacceptable, it's just beyond disrespectful and it's no way to treat someone you claim to be a fan of. Even if your loyalty lies more with Yuki Kajiura, I assume you are still a fan of Kalafina so please treat the members with the respect they deserve and don't readily dismiss them just because of an incident we don't know any details about.

I 100% understand why Wakana, Keiko and Hikaru are currently trying to lay low in the aftermath of the announcement. Still, it's sad that they are forced into a corner like that, that they feel the need to "hide" from their fans during a time that was surely intended to be celebratory for all of us. It's been unusually quiet on all of their social media channels. Not even a random Instagram story by Keiko or a new YouTube video from Hikaru...*sighs* They obviously don't want to stir up any more trouble and are waiting for things to blow over but I personally feel that it would actually help some fans to see reason if they heard the girls speak up about the reunion in a more casual and frank manner. We'll obviously never find out anything about the internal machinations of the whole thing but it would be nice to know how the girls feel about this reunion on an emotional level. Unfortunately, the official announcement statements felt a bit too stilted and coordinated so I think they came across as not entirely genuine to many fans. Oh well, that's not how situations are usually handled in the Japanese entertainment industry so we'll just have to wait and see...

..••°°°°••....••°°°°••....••°°°°••....••°°°°••....••°°°°••....••°°°°••..

Waaaaahhh!!!😲 OMG!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!💖💖💖 No one ever shared a full recording of this 茉莉花 performance with me. All I ever had was that tiny snippet from a news report.

This is SO PRECIOUS!!✨ I ADORE every second of it! They are clearly putting so much love into every syllable of the song. I could listen to it again and again (even if the audio quality isn't too great😅). Just melting during Keiko's tender melodic embellishment. So beautiful🥹 Again, thank you for sending this to me, I really appreciate it🙌

[autumnmobile12]

My Hero Academia: Healthcare?

I don't know if any fanfic writers will find this useful or not, but I think the information is interesting and worth speculation in the My Hero setting. This also applies to any fanfic writers in the anime fandoms who want to have more immersive and in-depth writing. Obviously, writing fics that are 'accurate' is not a requirement since the point is to have fun, but here's some knowledge to use (or not use) if anyone is interested.

Obviously, Deku's been in the hospital a lot. A lot of the characters are injured and in the hospital a lot. But for all the hospital visits, nobody in the series is going to be bankrupted by astronomical healthcare costs. (Yes, that's a jab at America's system.) And it's not because the Pros, especially the popular ones, have money.

Here's why:

Quick rundown of how healthcare in Japan works: Everybody receives healthcare, everybody has health insurance. In Japan, your employer is legally required to provide you with health insurance. If you are unemployed, you will be on a community healthcare plan. There is also a plan for citizens over the age of 75. This also applies to foreigners who have established permanent residence of three months or longer.

Article 25 of Japan's Constitution is paraphrased as follows:

“all people shall have the right to maintain a certain standard of healthy and cultured life” and that “the state shall try to promote and improve the conditions of social welfare, social security, and public health” for this purpose.

I'm not going to reiterate the system in its entirety, but if you would like to learn more, this site here (the Article 25 quote I used is also found on that page) has a brief and comprehensive explanation of how healthcare is handled. However, one thing I am going to mention that is relevant for Deku and other Pros is the threshold out-of-pocket expense.

In Japan, citizens enrolled in healthcare do not spend more than ¥90,000 per month out of pocket, protecting them from financial disaster.

(To Americans, this may sound like a sweet deal, but hold your horses because Japan also funds this system through heavy taxation. Medical procedures are expensive and people will be paying for them one way or another.)

The question that needs asking now is how does this system apply to the hero society? Well, first off, since My Hero does take place in a slightly futuristic setting, we could take into consideration the system has been revised.

Assuming not much as changed, are heroes that operate their own agency technically considered business owners and are required to insure their employees and sidekicks?

Or...

Because they are all government employees, is the Safety Commission responsible for insuring all heroes and sidekicks no matter what they rank in their popularity?

Personally, I think it would be the latter since, in the coldest sense of the word, the heroes are essential to the Commission in upholding their system. So that makes them an asset. The Commission would want to protect its assets because as shady as they are, their own system could work against them. They certainly don't want heroes going on strike for lack of benefits or complaining the government doesn't take care of their people. So I assume it's the Commission who is covering insane healthcare costs on behalf of heroes.

(And since the system is probably funded by taxpayers' money, that also feeds into the prevalent societal discontent that's ongoing throughout the series.)

Now what about Deku and his classmates since they have not graduated and are not officially licensed yet? Honestly, I think it's probably UA itself that insures the students. That probably has to do with accreditation and so on, which is another matter entirely, but again, the backing is likely coming out of the Commission (and taxpayers') pockets.

And there you have it. Happy writing, happy research.

[fanfenomenon]

i just know haytham would be the type to keep a locket with a picture of shay on it

in an AU where haytham took a young connor under his wing, I could imagine that he would give his son the most elite education in languages, literature, arts, and philosophy. one of them being drawing classes. 

when connor grew up, his skills in the arts further improved. being older now, he would notice how his father had grown rather fond of his associate, shay. connor didn't mind it though, he even thought this would be a good thing for haytham. after all, his father has been through so much pain. and with the death of his mother and the only woman haytham ever felt deep affection for, died any hope within the older man to find another lover.

even so, he thought his father deserved a second chance at love. thus begins connor's multiple attempts to win shay's heart on behalf of his father.

his father's birthday was coming up, and he wanted to give him a gift. shay was away on a mission for a few months, leaving him and his father stuck with each other’s company. haytham became more uncharacteristically irritable as the days went by, though connor understood it. communication was scarce, and due to the nature of their work, there will always be the possibility that shay wouldn’t be able to return.

it was unlikely for shay to be able to return on his father’s birthday, and both connor and haytham knew that. every year, the other templars would hold a celebration for the grandmaster, which undoubtedly would be the same this year, but what makes it so different is the absence of his father’s source of affection. well, connor would also be in attendance, as he always was years before, and haytham certainly wouldn’t be displeased with that. the older man missed the first few years of his son’s life and always wished to make up for lost time by celebrating milestones and happy moments with his only child.

still, connor couldn’t ignore his father’s forlornness, and he wanted to cheer him up in a way, but… how?

one night, a few days before haytham’s birthday, connor decided to visit his father’s quarters. he knew he had been feeling a bit lonely recently and thought perhaps he needed some company. after knocking a few times, he opened the door and found the older man fast asleep. walking closer to the bed, he found a letter on the floor. the younger man picked it up and saw the familiar penmanship of none other than shay cormac. he quickly took his eyes off the letter and placed it on the bedside table. he didn’t need to read their correspondence; he was taught to respect the privacy of others after all, and… he really didn’t want to know that much about his father’s love life.

connor looked back at haytham, feeling relief at how peacefully he was asleep. he was worried his father was having trouble sleeping and taking care of himself in the absence of one of his most special members of the order. the mohawk smiled as he glanced at the letter on the bedside table. he really missed his associate…

…and that was all he needed to know to decide what he was going to give to his father as a birthday present.

haytham was having his usual afternoon tea in his garden. he had been trying to distract himself from thinking about the irishman. it only hurts him to know that he’s so far away, that sometimes he even regrets sending him on that mission. but, they both know that they have a responsibility to the order and the safety of humankind itself. he was about to take another sip of his tea when the loud yet familiar footsteps of his son came crashing in.

“what is it now, boy?”

“happy birthday, father.”

oh, was it already his birthday?

he’d been so preoccupied with work that he’d forgotten what most people deem as the most special day of one’s life. he looked at the small locket his son held in his hand and gently took and inspected it a little more carefully. his eyes widened at the portrait of the person within the gold-plated pendant.

“this is… shay…”

connor smiled at how his father’s eyes seemed to sparkle in an instant. 

haytham examined the locket even more closely. the brushstrokes and the colors, he felt like he’d seen a great many artworks that had the same motifs before.

“did… did you make this?”

connor was grinning at this point, delighted to see his father’s surprised expression. before he could nod and comment on his father’s uncharacteristic show of mere shock, he suddenly felt a pair of arms wrap around him.

“thank you, son.”

connor stood still, startled at the unexpected physical contact. it was rare for his father to show some vulnerability, though he would always be glad to see his father open up to others more. he hugged the older man back, squeezing tightly and patting his back. as haytham pulled away, the brit couldn’t seem to hide his smile. he looked at the locket again, sliding his thumb over shay’s portrait. he glanced back at connor and asked,

“but, why…?”

“why not?”

haytham sighed, and connor could sense that the other man wasn’t satisfied with his answer.

“well, i’ve noticed that you’ve grown rather… fond… of master cormac.”

haytham slightly blushed at that, looking away from his son in embarrassment. he heard his son snicker and glared back at him. connor wasn’t intimidated at all, however. he stood still, grinning and beaming at his father.

“i’d rather you not mention that ever again.”

connor chuckled at that, placing his hands behind his back, he stood straight and excused himself. 

“as you wish, sir.”

he sarcastically replied, turning his heel to leave the gardens. once he was face to face with the estate’s double doors, he glanced back at his father sitting on one of the benches. there was a gentle smile on haytham’s face, looking peaceful as he was when connor saw him fast asleep in his quarters a few nights ago. he was still holding the locket, gazing at it in pure adoration.

connor smiled and went back to his quarters, thinking perhaps he should also paint a portrait of his father for shay when he returns.

[goblincow]

In light of the news that disabled people in the UK will soon be finding out if our right to access the payments that make us able to work and/or be alive at any given time will be stopped in a blatant human rights violation and escalation of class warfare, I wrote something.

I am keen to learn how bad my personal human rights violation is going to be.

A reminder that benefits fraud has been less than 0.001% (DWP record it as "statistically insignificant") for over two decades.

It feels unresolvably strange to know that even if I call it a human rights violation (it is) or class warfare (it is) or an unprecedented escalation of the stochastic mass murder of disabled people (it is) there are many members of my family & friends who will not be able to stop themselves from dismissing me as over-reacting or be willing to take any action on my behalf, who will certainly not do as I say or as I do: the "model retard" speaks out of turn.

While I predicted this move happening roughly now in 2020 (consistent across several governments, I wonder why) nobody believed me because disabled people who speak for ourselves are not to be listened to, even by our "advocates" – I'm conscious that this experience of active marginalisation is one that I have heard many people express, most notably trans folx in my spaces, in part because a significant part of the disabling effect is not in Impairment itself* but Dis-Ability as a verb, an active process, as in: "what are you Dis-Abled of?"

The answer to that question is always ACCESS: to spaces, to support, to healthcare, to quality of life, to agency, to basic necessities, to community, to advocacy, to our own bodies and minds.

No wonder I hear experiences from trans folx that read to me as explicitly Disabled experiences, and it's no coincidence that our shared enemies who scapegoat the lot of us use the same tactics and violences across the board – profit invented eugenics, so the two go hand in hand.

*I have also seen many physically disabled people rightly express their frustration in people like myself speaking over them on this topic, so I want to explicitly point out that people who experience "direct" disability more prominently as compared to those of us who could become functionally Abled in a context that is not hostile to our existence will always experience "Impairment" that is disabling in itself – not all Disability, not all Disabled people.

If you aren't aware of our history (and why would you be, they bury it with us), there is a great episode of 99% Invisible on the Rolling Quads, guerilla curb cuts & the early emergence of the disability rights movement in the US.

I struggle to tell this story myself because I get extremely emotional when I do, these people are heroes to me & we have legacies we owe to live up to.

People died for our rights – we must be willing to die to keep them or we will die without them.

[brightlotusmoon]

(All I'm doing in this post is describing adult/child interactions that I observed, but I want to give you a heads up that it's kind of infuriating. I think that's important to share and to talk about, but I wanted to put this heads-up here because I know that some readers have been more intensely subject to *experiencing* this type of treatment from adults in their childhood or adulthood, and so I just wanted you to know before going in.)

I had an incident where schedules got mixed up. The result was that another staff member, who doesn’t usually come into my therapy gym, came to pick up a child from my gym, rather than the usual routine of me walking the child to their next location.

This adult was not at all used to the way things run in my room. When the student told me “I’m going to carry a dinosaur in the hallway,” the adult told them, “That’s not the appropriate way to ask permission.”

I said, “They don’t need permission. They always do this, it’s part of our routine.”

The staff member wanted to save face. They stammered, “Well, are they taking the dinosaur and keeping it or just carrying it?”

I said, “Carrying it in the hallway. It’s allowed. It’s fine with me. They already know that.”

The adult turned to the child and said, quite unnecessarily, “Well then, when we get to the next room, you have to give it back.”

Which the child already knew; they had done this routine every week for two years, and they were making no indication that they had any intention of doing otherwise. The staff member’s need to not “be wrong”, to do something “instructional”, was getting in the way of them just…being quiet, letting us do our thing.

We walked out into the hall. My student said, “I hope we don’t walk past that scary beetle I saw earlier.”

“What, a beetle? How scary could a beetle be?” said the adult.

My student bristled a little bit at being dismissed this way. “It WAS scary.”

“Well, how big was it?” asked the adult.

My student held up fingers apart from one another and said “this big.”

To which the adult replied, “I bet it was only this big,” and held up fingers smaller than that. “Where did you even see it anyway?”

My student, frustrated, said, as politely as they could, “Can I stop asking you questions about this now?”

The adult gave me an amused glance, like adults do when they expect to share a joke, and said, “what, huh? You ask me questions? You’re not asking me any questions.”

Now in a frustrated tone of voice, my student yelled, “can YOU stop asking ME!!”

The adult said, “First of all, that’s not an appropriate way to speak to me. And second of all, yes. That’s all you had to say. There is no reason to get so worked up about this.”

It had been a grand total of about 120 seconds, and *i* wanted to throw things and scream. I couldn’t imagine how my student was feeling.

I had a meeting with this staff member a day later. It was about something else, but my frustration on behalf of my student was boiling just under the surface as I tried to keep it in control. I tried to diplomatically say, “I know the two of us have very different philosophies about working with children.

“Yes,” said the other adult. “I know you see them occupationally and I see them educationally. They have so much potential, but no boundaries. The way you let them behave in your room carries over into the rest of their day, and they think they can just talk to any adult like that. I can’t let them act that way.”

But I don’t want them to have to ask permission to have an idea.

I certainly don’t want them to ask permission to follow a routine.

I don’t want to tease them when they’re feeling dismissed and belittled.

I don’t want to brush off their fears.

I don’t want to pretend I don’t understand what they’re communicating.

I don’t want to push them to breaking and then fault them for breaking.

A few days later, we had ironed out the schedules. It was time for me to pick up the student from the staff member’s room. When I arrived the student saw me and lit up and slipped out quietly.

“Hang on,” I said. “I want to catch [adult]’s attention so they know we left and know where you are.”

“Okay,” my student said, and then, “[Adult], I’m going to OT!”

And the adult said, “I am *teaching* right now. You may leave my room *silently*.”

And I thought…my children, my heart, I am so sorry. You can’t win. You are over-policed for every single little thing you say or do. You can’t win.

_