#and it's considered Too Political to inform people about something that is actively killing them

[docmerlin]

public perception on illness has shifted so far that people think i'm insane for not wanting to hug them when they're visibly sick but if they see a medical mask in any context they freak the fuck out

[horreurscopes]

So, I could be out-of-bounds here since I think you meant it as dark humor, but what did you mean in the tags of that 'israel-hamas war' post? I suspect you(and op) are criticizing that framing because Israel is obviously demolishing much more than 'Hamas'(and probably doing a terrible job of actually targeting terrorists- they seem content to reduce Gaza to rubble even if the brass of Hamas escapes). I'm guessing that by saying "joining the Israel-Hamas war on the side of Hamas" you mean, if they're going to conflate Palestinians with Hamas unilaterally, then you're saying, whatever the media wants to call Palestinian civilians- you still support them. I am asking anyways though bc, given reports of increasing antisemitic activity in the US and Europe, I am worried about the potential for blurring lines between the cause of Palestinian civilians and the alt-right individuals who are likely masking their antisemitism in the context of being anti-Zionist. Although Israel's government has been the source of Palestinian loss for decades, (it seems to me that) even joking about supporting terrorism is enough to reinforce the persuasion that Israeli/Palestinian Jews and Palestinian Arabs must be mutually-exclusive peoples. I don't think it's fully rational per se(tho I'm not claiming to have all the relevant information myself, and I'm white US American goyim so like- grain of salt-), but I think that existential fear is the incredible hurdle facing Zionist Jews. (Idc too much about the opinions of non-Jewish Zionists bc I don't grant that they are dealing with the same emotional complications at this time, although that doesn't stop me from arguing w my acquaintances abt their callous acceptance of US/Israeli propaganda.) I just think..... isn't it overall harmful to allow anti-semitic rhetoric, even used sarcastically, to enter the genuine humanist cause for Palestinian liberation? Or, have I misunderstood, and you actually are not in opposition to Hamas, or something else I didn't think of?

hi! thank you for approaching the question thoughtfully and with curiosity, i really appreciate it. i was being kind of flippant with that meme, but this is the only ask i'm going to reply to on the matter given that i am neither jewish nor arab, so i'm going to answer in earnest:

hamas is a political resistance movement with an armed wing, much like the black panthers party was, and like the bpp, a large part of the organization is dedicated to social welfare and civic restoration.

they have stated that they are not against judaism, but against the zionist project. they openly support political solutions.

labeling hamas a terrorist group is a propaganda tactic used by the united states and israel to justify the horrors of settler colonization.

hamas is palestine, a part of it, even if palestinians like any other demographic on earth, are not a unified, single-minded people. to declare hamas a separate entity falls prey to the imperialist lie that there is an enemy to fight "fairly" within the people they are displacing and exterminating.

am i rejoicing in the deaths of israelis? of course not. killing civilians and taking civilian hostages is a war crime, whether it is committed by the opresor or the oppressed. the israeli government is not its people, and many jews, within israel as well as in the US, are bravely risking their lives to publicly dissent the criminal acts of the israeli government. all loss of human life is a tragedy.

no one should ever be faced with the choice between annihilation and murderous violence after exhausting all other forms of peaceful protest and being massacred like animals.

but why is it that we consider a resistance group formed within a population with a median age of eighteen a terrorist group, and not the IDF, a US-backed military force with an annual budget of twenty billion dollars?

i am currently reading hamas and civil society in gaza by sara roy to learn more about hamas and the history of israel in palestine. i'll remember to post more excerpts which i am admittedly terrible at.

but all of the information above can be found by reading wikipedia. investigating with duckduckgo searches (not gonna pretend google isn't prioritizing propaganda, to be fair), and reading reliable news coverage like aljazeera and the many journalists who are at risk of, or have lost their lives, reporting on the ground.

i have also appreciated reading posts from @determinate-negation @opencommunion @fairuzfan @ibtisams and @bloglikeanegyptian amongst others

in conclusion:

[lemonhemlock]

Out of our main cast of people who do you think should become the ruler? (/2)

(Sorry just wanted to elaborate)

I'm going to use this ask as an opportunity to evaluate the HotD characters individually, since I suspect this is what you crazy cats want anyway! You can read my general thoughts on the matter here (Part I)

What we need to keep in mind with thought exercises like this is that, for people who are down the line of succession to become King/Queen, many other members of their family need to die, so that might leave them in a much more traumatized state and directly affect their ruling abilities. Furthermore, as a result of GRRM not understanding how children work, a lot of these characters are very young and haven't had a chance to prove themselves as a potential candidate, so there is simply not enough information.

I will say this, though - legal debates over Aegon's and Rhaenyra's claim can be conducted until kingdom come, but it doesn't change the fact that Aegon is the option that leads to the least amount of bloodshed. Rhaenyra's rule will always be threatened by her trueborn brothers. Aegon's rule would never be threatened by Rhaenyra's, because no one IRL would actually believe Rhaenyra has a better claim.

During the Anarchy, Stephen fought Matilda for years over the crown and he had less of a claim than Aegon. This notion that the greens are "usurping" the throne is absurd. It is not misogynistic to recognize Aegon's superior claim; it is borne out of the absence of codifying absolute primogeniture within a feudalistic patriarchal system that functions based on common law.

Alas, here we go.

Greens

Aegon II - I have spoken about this before in my House Hightower post, but I suspect that Aegon is the type of laissez-faire King that would allow his councilors to administer the realm without having to haggle too much. As long as his councilors are competent and Aegon doesn't do anything too outrageous, I don't see why this arrangement couldn't work.

Aegon as a political actor doesn't matter here, since he seems disinterested in ruling in the first place, his role is ceremonial and he exists just as a vessel to inhabit kinghood temporarily. His Small Council only needs him breathing, so they can leech out sovereignty from him. If/when Aegon dies from cirrhosis or an STD, a regency can be established for Prince Jaehaerys.

If we want to consider Aegon as an active political actor, we have to account for the fact that he doesn't really get a lot opportunity to decide for himself. We have no idea what Aegon's policies would be, whether he'd "levy a tax on the sale of new wool" or not. We only see King Aegon in war conditions and under extreme duress caused by his injuries.

That being said, he exhibits some traits we can take into consideration. One cannot deny Aegon is brave: he fights his own battles on the frontlines. He exhibits tremendous levels of grit, determination and ambition: he simply refuses to die despite his debilitating injuries (if he sets his mind on something, he will not give up until that task is completed). He tricks Rhaenyra out of Dragonstone - he somehow manages to convince several smallfolk to defect to his side and help hide him. Later on, he takes over the entire island with minimal casualties - he can inspire people to believe in him or at least has enough car saleman skills or the gib of the gab.

He allows his enemies to bend the knee and spares them (more than can be said for Rhaenyra). He wants to kill/castrate/send Aegon III to the Wall and behead Baela, but his councilors talk him out of it. Aegon is not without cruelty, but he is not without humanity either. He hates and he loves with equal fervor.

He is not the most merciful King at the end of the war, at his worst, in great pain and having suffered many losses. But his actions are not so dissimilar to something Robert or Stannis or Tywin might have done in his place. He refuses milk of the poppy so it won't cloud his mind, such as it remains. Aegon is the poster child for wasted potential.

Aemond - Another post on Aemond as King. A post on how Aemond could become King. With him it's important to keep in mind which version of the character we're talking about and at which point in time. Aemond in the books comes off as a cackling psychopath who is not exactly king material, regardless of how entertaining he is. However, the maesters writing down the histories do not give us a look inside his mind. We're not going to get a novel with Aemond's POV, so we have to see how his characterization evolves in the show. As we've seen so far, there are many directions you can take with a character like him.

Yes, Aemond will put House Strong to the sword. But so does Tywin Lannister eradicate the Houses Reyne and Tarbeck. Yes, he will ravage the Riverlands, but so does Tywin. Yet the general consensus of the people in-universe is that Tywin is a competent administrator of the Realm. Even Stannis waxes poetic about him at one point. What's important here is to establish whether Aemond's trauma will make him veer towards the Joffrey side of the spectrum or would it be more in line with the advice Tywin gives his grandson?

"Joffrey, when your enemies defy you, you must serve them steel and fire. When they go to their knees, however, you must help them back to their feet. Elsewise no man will ever bend the knee to you."

Daeron - I've spoken a little bit about Daeron here. I don't see why Daeron wouldn't be a decent king if given the chance, but the same question applies to him: would Daeron remain his charming, popular self after suffering so many losses?

Helaena - The line of succession is as follows: Aegon -> Jaehaerys -> Maelor -> Jaehaera -> Aemond -> Daeron -> Helaena. In order for Helaena to become Queen Regnant, it means that all her family, sans Alicent and Otto, need to die. I don't think she (or anyone) could possible handle this. She removes herself from the story for this very reason. If we are to consider her potential ruling abilities in a vacuum, she is known to be so popular with the smallfolk that they storm the Dragonpit because they are alarmed at her fate. That must speak to her charity work or at least good PR skills. She seems to be a generally well-liked person.

Blacks

I've spoken before about how Rhaenyra disqualifies herself from queenship in the second part of this post.

I've also touched upon why Daemon is a menace here. In addition, I would argue that Daemon is also simply incompetent. He is assigned various portfolios within the Small Council and he fails at his job every time. His stint as head of the Gold Cloaks is a terror regime.

I'm also going to disqualify Rhaenyra's bastard children as well, since their rule will inevitably turn into a succession crisis, if we are not to compromise on the internal logic established in Fire & Blood and in the main series. That being said, if Jace wants to take the throne by conquest (not by appealing to the law), he's going to be threatened in his rule by his trueborn half-brothers and/or their descendants. For Black supporters peddling this loving family narrative that Aegon/Viserys would never dream doing such a thing to their beloved bastard brothers, I kindly direct their attention to the story of Daeron II Targaryen and Daemon Blackfyre.

Aegon III was (understandably) a broken, depressed man that appeared aloof and cold to others (he is "not remembered fondly"), but his reign seems to have been pretty decent, all things considered, with nothing egregious happening. I would suggest that Aegon III is a depressed and repressed iteration of Aegon II, what with him locking himself in his room to "brood for days". It is said that his brother, Viserys II, was the one truly responsible for managing the affairs of the Realm.

Nevertheless, Aegon III and Viserys II produced such disaster children between them that it really effed up the realm for quite a long time afterwards. What I truly gawk at is their utter failure as parents, a fault that, when monarch, has institutional reverberations. Their treatment of Naerys, for example, is baffling.

Neither Aegon III or Viserys II recognized Rhaenyra as Queen. Aegon III became King as Aegon II's heir and was quickly married to Jaehaera to unite the two rival claimants. When his nephew Baelor the Blessed died, Viserys II passed over the claims of his nieces, further invalidating his mother's own legal argument. Even by Andal law, Daena was ahead of him in line to the throne. Viserys' own son Aegon IV is considered one of the worst kings in Targaryen history. Make of that what you will.

After the war, there is this interesting discussion about who should succeed Aegon III - Baela or Rhaena. They both lead an active life in King's Landing for a time and become very popular with the people, even meeting with envoys and visiting lords. As the eldest, Baela has the better claim, but the regents dislike that she is mischievous and willful and prefer Rhaena instead.

Baela befriends a variety of people from all walks of life in KL and has an adventurous, free spirit. She seems open-minded and enterprising and I wonder if that would reflect in her social policies. However, she would have had a better chance at being named Aegon's heir had she not ran away to marry Alyn Velaryon. The regents do not consider him royal consort material and turn to Rhaena as an option. The legality of this is questionable, but Baela loses the support of the lords by refusing to compromise. Perhaps the regents think they can pick the more malleable Rhaena, should anything happen to Aegon III, since Baela would be unlikely to contest her sister.

Out of the two, Rhaena appears to be more diplomatic and conciliatory. She marries a Hightower and ends up having 6 daughters. She hatches one of the last surviving dragons, Morning. It is not known what happens to Morning exactly, but she does not have a very long life for a dragon. I will say that the image of Rhaena as Queen with her pink dragon passing her throne onto her Hightower daughter is a pretty charming one. Perhaps this could have been the opportunity to codify absolute primogeniture or at least provide a strong, legal precedent within Westerosi common law for a regnant Queen. And we would have been spared the catastrophe of the Daeon I to Aegon IV pipeline.

Rhaena is also the last possible claimant. For her to become Queen, the Dance of the Dragons needs to happen, literally every other claimant in front of her (her family members) needs to die and Baela has to cede her the throne. The question of female inheritance has the possibility to be settled, but for a steep price.

[archaeocommunologist]

imagine posting on the leftist antisemitism tag only to show you're a leftist antisemite. imagine.

The reason principaliteas was getting hate is because they supported peace instead of yelling about killing all the evil baby-murdering Israeli civilians. Not very pro-Palestine of them, since in order for Palestine to be free half of the world's Jews simply must be gotten rid of.

Also you were being absolutely moronic in the comments. "Anyone can know things regardless of their background." imagine telling that to any other minority. Imagine telling a black person calling out racism that, imagine telling a trans person calling out transphobia that. You don't know bigotry better than the victims dumbass.

Whoever you are, and I suspect you're a fan given that this sounds very similar to another ask I received, you should know by this point that I'm not susceptible to this line of argumentation. Anyone can know anything regardless of their background. This is a true statement, and also a good thing.

Compare to your assertion, that only the "victims" of a social system can credibly understand it. This is 1.) very obviously not true, 2.) trivially easy to disprove, and 3.) actively detrimental to good activism. Now, you don't care about any of these things, because the actual purpose of this argument is to use as a cudgel, but I will nevertheless grace you with an explanation.

1.) It just isn't true that the only people who can understand a social system are its victims. This isn't true for antisemitism, it's not true for racism, and it's not true for transphobia, homophobia, and misogyny. This assertion is a corrupted form of the actual insight, which is that it's important to consider the perspectives of people who have direct experience with bigotry. It is important to listen to Jewish perspectives on antisemitism, rather than getting all your information from gentiles. But it doesn't mean that only Jews can understand antisemitism as a social and historical force, and it absolutely does not mean that gentiles need to blindly defer to any particular Jew on the topic.

Also: isn't it funny how you don't apply this exact logic to Palestinians? I mean, logically, as the victims of Zionism, you should be asserting that only Palestinians can understand it, right? If not, why not?

2.) Here, I'll disprove your assertion right now. So as a goy, I need to defer to Jews when it comes to antisemitism and anti-Zionism, right? OK, I pick Meir Kahane. Heck, I pick Netanyahu! After all, they also say that I, as a goy, ought to defer to them when it comes to the meaning of Zionism and antisemitism. Oops, guess I'm a Kahanist now. Am Yisrael Chai!

Obviously, gentiles need to be able to apply critical thinking to Jewish perspectives on antisemitism. We need to develop the capacity for discernment, in order to confront and dismiss the demand from people like Kahane to blindly defer to them based on their identity. You yourself fucking believe this, you just pretend not to when you want to beat somebody about the head.

3.) Maybe I'm biased because of my background in HIV activism and as an HIV+ person, but when I do activism, my goal is to provide people with the tools and understanding to come to the correct political stance on HIV, regardless of their identity. I want HIV-negative people to be able to speak confidently on the history of the AIDS Crisis and on the importance of U=U. Insisting that only HIV+ people have the right to speak is actively detrimental to my political goals. Yes, I think it's important that HIV+ people be able to speak for ourselves too. But that doesn't mean I want to silence HIV-negative people who are working to understand and support us.

You, however, want something different. You are interested in silencing, which is why you insist that only certain people can credibly speak on certain topics. This is also why you insist that I am an antisemite, despite the fact that my views on Zionism are developed in large part by listening to Jewish anti-Zionists. Oh, but of course, they don't count, because they're the wrong kind of Jews. Hypocrite.

Anyway, feel free to come off anon if you tire of this ludicrous game of telephone, and decide to quit being a spinless little coward. Otherwise, get thee gone, and darken my doorway no more.

[steampunkforever]

13 Hours was a movie I only watched because I read the book, and the book was frankly better.

Part of this comes from the lack of nuance in the movie. The book delivered a brief but informative background for the motivation behind the Libyan conflict that led to the murder of the ambassador and attack on the US Annex in Libya, the movie did little to explain it other than “Gadaffi gone = unrest, see also: Somalia.”

The movie definitely tried to drop into the shoes of films like American Sniper where you ignore the larger scope of the conflict and stay glued to the personal development of the characters, but unlike American Sniper, it failed to attempt artistic elevation, instead choosing sensationalist Michael Bay action. Which makes sense because it was directed by Micheal Bay himself.

The Bayhem is what really made it unenjoyable for me. Not that I dislike guns-blazing action at all, but having read the book first the action star treatment felt overdone and tacky considering that Benghazi was a tragedy stemming from poor government leadership and dismal security protocols that allowed for the murder of a US Ambassador who was actively trying to help the country recover. What part of that situation calls for lensflare and overblown tough guy performances? There are ways to make an action focused film that respectfully commemorates those who lost their lives heroically, but this just felt tone-deaf about it.

I recall on the films release hearing someone mention how the movie was a moving portrayal of the attack and how everyone who watched it would condemn the US government for throwing the entire Benghazi delegation under the bus and laud the heroism of the handful of private military guys who stepped up to do what the Government wouldn’t and save American lives. I don’t disagree with the sentiment (Benghazi itself was a clearly preventable trainwreck) but this movie is not what would wake me up to that. The only way I’d look at this movie and question anything would be if the film made me read the book.

Nowhere in the film did it question why six mercenaries were the best hope for the Ambassador’s security, nor did it ask why the mercenaries were there in the first place. It didn’t even think to ask why the attackers were attacking, and its only condemnation of state dept. waffling was solidly placed on the shoulders of the CIA handler and didn’t even begin to question why things were so bungled higher up the chain. For a “condemnation” it seemed happy enough just showing bearded muscle men shooting scary looking foreigners and then crying when their guys got killed. Considering the comprehensive account of the debacle in the book, the whole movie feels empty.

Speaking of social impact, this movie was released in 2016, and calculatedly omits any mention of Hillary Clinton’s name in any part of the script, despite her involvement in the administrative decisions that resulted in the deaths of American citizens under her watch. I completely agree with the choice to shy away from making explicitly political art on an election year (always feels like a hack job) but I also think Bay’s a coward for not committing to the bit and going all the way. He was going to release it in 2016 anyway, why not take it one step further and do something REALLY funny? Instead we got an annoying military movie that wasn’t even about enlisted soldiers.

In the end, the movie isn’t even remarkable enough to impact an election and the biggest contribution it has to society is making people more aware that Mercenary “Operators” and special ops units are allowed to wear cool beards into combat. It’s a forgettable action flick that plays too loose and sensationalist with real world events to make me care.

The worst part of the entire film was the Mercedes Benz sponsorship that found them replacing all the interesting BMWs and Toyota Land Cruisers with shiny looking Mercedes sedans. I want my interesting cars gosh darn it! A single Land Rover Defender in the beginning doesn’t make it any better, and I feel robbed. Go read the book, the movie isn’t worth it.

[all-0f-the-above]

"the world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." - attributed to Albert Einstein

(American politics time- not usually something I post, so apologies to everyone in every other country, I'm talking about something that only applies to ~4.3% of the world's population)

remember that refusing to vote means refusing to have a voice in the change. does that suck when the current candidates are, for Palestine, Bad and Much Worse? YES, but to CHANGE the system, we must first work WITH it. we're not going to be able to improve the situation if we don't get people representing our concerns in Congress.

genocide is wrong. Israel shouldn't get military funding from the US. these two things many of us can agree on, and are simple to explain to others. if you want to be an activist for Palestine, get people elected who CARE about them. is that a perfect solution? no. but the presence of hard choices doesn't mean our own character is poor, it means the situation itself is. context is so fucking important- think: who is spreading information about refusing to vote for a Democrat in November? why might people want you to do that?

remember: all the activism for Palestine in the US has amounted to something. the US has been so tied to Israel since its conception and american military leaders consider them an incredibly important ally. progress does not occur in a vacuum, you must put it in context

our UN reps finally backed a ceasefire, Sen. Schumer (who went to college with Netanyahu, was his main lobbyist in the US government, and happens to be the highest ranking Jewish person in the US) publicly condemned the genocide in Gaza and called for a new vote in Israel, and Biden has spoken out against the government of Israel.

is it late? yes. but it is not too late. there are still Palestinians fighting for their country. Israel has not taken Rafah yet. we can not back down now just because of the past failures of our leaders. are their previous actions unforgivable? you decide. how? with your vote. throw them out of office.

not all of us can spend our time to help via activism. and that doesn't make you a bad person. find out how to help the world in the way you can. put on your oxygen mask first, then help others. you can help so many more people when you yourself are safe.

the people who should carry guilt are those with money sitting in vaults, in yachts, in houses they'll never live in. the representatives and party leaders who decided they cared more about the status quo than saving millions of lives. Hamas who, in committing mass murder and kidnapping, gave Israel the last push to wage major war with the backing of other countries.

many of you reading this are 19 and under, many are in your 20s. remember, you must not burn yourself out now. the best ally you can be for people persecuted and killed is an ally for a lifetime. get out there and live

[ if this is one of dozens of posts you've read, please put your phone down for 20 seconds- just 20 seconds, the video was longer than that- and breathe with your eyes closed ]

I'm just going to leave this here, because this woman said what I've been trying to articulate for ages much more effectively and succinctly than I've been able to

[head-post]

HP Insight

Geopolitical gain from Kyiv’s agony for Trump

Ukraine has always considered itself the heart of the world as the geographical centre of Europe, so it is not surprising that Ukrainian politicians and experts are panic-stricken, calculating how much and what they will lose as a result of Donald Trump coming to power in the United States and scaring each other with rumours about Trump’s almost ready “secret” agreement with Russia, which will either come into effect at the moment of inauguration of the 47th US president or will be implemented by the Biden administration.

Terrified Europe

However, it is not only in Kyiv that vague stories about something “terribly secret” and “insanely scary” are popular. Adrenaline addiction, unlike cocaine addiction, is not prosecuted by law, but it is popular in much wider circles, and it drives you crazy no worse than synthetics.

TV and social networks are the same syringe and white powder for an adrenaline junkie, only under their influence it is not money that is stolen and random passers-by who are killed, but states are destroyed and people are disposed of by the millions. So the European horror before the “unknown Trump” is also understandable in principle. They frightened themselves, and now they are afraid of themselves.

It is only unclear why in the EU and even in Russia, subjects of international relations with global interests and ambitions, most politicians and experts are also fixated on the topic of Trump and Ukraine. Even given the partially subordinate position of the EU, which has sovereignty, albeit very limited, it is obvious that neither the US as a state nor Trump as president see Ukraine as the centre of their political activity.

Zelensky is no longer a “hero”

Ukraine resembles an exhausted coal mine that is no longer needed by anyone except its own miners, and then only that part of them who have not found another job, have not left for another region and have no idea how to earn a piece of bread if the mine is gone.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, like the chief of a mine that is closing down and has found no other use for him, feels that he is about to turn from a respected member of society, the head of a town-forming enterprise, on whom both the people and the authorities depend in a particular locality, into a marginalised person, who nobody cares about so much that they are too lazy to kick him when he sleeps under the fence.

He is no longer the “main newsmaker of the “civilised world,” no longer a “hero defending civilisation from the savage barbarians” from the East. Most of the resource, which previously fed his “unprofitable mine,” is going to be transferred to other needs, and he will be left alone with an unsolvable problem called Russia, on which he barked gleefully and even tried to bite in those “wonderful years” when he worked as his master’s favourite dog.

But no one plans to throw him out. Europe is worried that Trump intends to shift responsibility for financing Ukraine’s agony and funeral to it, but there is no hint yet of Trump’s intention to make peace with Russia “without Ukraine and at Ukraine’s expense,” which Zelensky fears so much. And it is unlikely that there will be any.

Russia-Trump relations

Trump would love to “get along with Putin” by giving him as much of Ukraine as Russia wants, but keeping a piece of it for the future. But whatever Trump can offer Russia, Moscow either already has it or can take it in the coming weeks or months without Trump’s consent. America has traditionally tried to sell Russia what the US doesn’t own or what Russia already has. If it were a matter of giving, then maybe an agreement could be drawn up, but Trump wants to sell something unnecessary and get something useful in return.

Unlike the outgoing Democrats, Trump is informally ready to agree to Russia’s complete dominance in the post-Soviet space, but with the preservation of national “sovereignties,” including Ukraine’s. It is important for Washington to feel that it can get back in the game at any moment. But this is not the main condition. Much more importantly, Trump wants Russia to give up its active foreign policy outside the post-Soviet space and to engage in pointless settlement of the latter.

Meaningless because the US plans to use Russia’s disengagement from global political processes and its immersion in the topic of post-Soviet integration to suppress China, regain lost positions in the Middle East and then return to the fight against Russia, including by relying on national, mainly nationalist, post-Soviet elites, for whom Washington plans to once again act as a “saviour” from Russian integration projects.

Priorities for the US

So, at this stage, the US prioritises Asia and the Middle East. It is in their favour that Trump is going to redistribute the funds saved at the expense of the Ukrainian direction. In Asia, the main recipients of American aid will be, in descending order, the Republic of Korea, Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan.

Taiwan is needed to fuel the crisis. The Philippines should play the role of an advanced American base, where air and naval forces will be deployed, if necessary, in order to put pressure on China by its very presence without engaging in combat, pulling the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) air and naval forces away from the Korean-Japanese theatre. Japan and the Republic of Korea are the main strike fist. Tokyo provides defence of communications in the Republic of Korea-Japan-Philippines triangle with its fleet.

Seoul is the main land strike force, providing a bridgehead on the Korean peninsula and the landing of US allied forces under the pretext of “defending” the Republic of Korea (ROK) from the North Korea. It is assumed that North Korea will not be able to withstand a comprehensive attack by several Pacific armies and fleets, and China will be forced to intervene in its defence, which will draw its land forces away from Taiwan and the Philippines, break the united strategic front of the PRC and allow Washington to strategically outplay Beijing without entering into direct confrontation with it.

This is the pattern of the future Pacific war, which follows from the legend and the nature of American exercises, deployment of troops and bases, as well as from the pace and structure of their arms deliveries to their allies in the region.

Long-term plan

This plan was developed and started to be implemented under Biden and even before the official nomination of Kamala Harris, which additionally shows that the Republicans and the conservative wing of the Democrats reached an internal compromise at the expense of the left-liberal wing of the Democrats. Obama was prevented from nominating Michelle because the Democrats were leaking the election, and it was more convenient, reliable, and safe to leak the empty-headed, giggly Harris.

But the consensus of American conservatives has another consequence for global politics – Israel is once again becoming the main US ally in the Middle East. “Doubts” of the Democrats, inclined either to turn away from Tel Aviv altogether in favour of the Arab monarchies of the Gulf (Obama), or to restrain Israel’s ambitions by referring to the position of American voters (Biden, who did not allow Israel to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities), are being replaced by the return of the US to its traditional policy of unconditional support for Israel in all its actions.

Moreover, in the Israeli-Iranian conflict, Trump is clearly going to push Israel to take a tougher position. At the same time, the US president-elect is ready to impose new sanctions against Iran, including a blockade of its oil trade, as well as to increase the pressure on Tehran through the deployment of new US forces in the region, primarily naval forces.

In this case, Trump intends to ignore Europe, which is panic-stricken by the fear that the Israeli-Iranian war, causing another jump in energy prices, will destroy the remains of European industry and the economy as a whole and destroy the EU’s financial system. He is sure that the EU will not go anywhere and will obediently follow the American foreign policy.

The Iranian direction

The Iranian direction for Trump at this stage is even more important than the Chinese one. During his presidency, Trump may manage to unleash the Pacific war, but has no chance to finish it. In addition, Washington’s plans, even before Trump’s election, were undermined by Russia, which concluded a strategic partnership treaty with North Korea, with a military convention obliging Moscow to defend Pyongyang if North Korea is attacked by a third country or bloc.

This treaty has caused bipartisan hysteria in the United States because it dramatically reduces the possibility of military pressure on North Korea, while in the event of a military conflict on the Korean peninsula, it allows Beijing to maintain a grouping of its forces in the South against Taiwan if necessary. It will be impossible to break the North Korean army backed by Russia, the northern flank of the Pacific theatre is in a positional deadlock, and the chances of strategically outplaying China fall to almost zero.

Iran, from Washington’s point of view, is worse armed, less stable internally and, most importantly, despite the information that Russia is preparing a treaty with it similar to the treaty with North Korea, Iran itself has not yet confirmed its readiness to conclude a strategic partnership agreement with Moscow with a military convention in the near future.

Trump is counting on the fact that a strategic defeat of Iran can be inflicted by Israel alone, if it is well armed, as well as by “showing the flag” of a strong US naval group. But, if necessary, is ready to directly support Israel.

Iran is a non-nuclear state. Even if it can quickly produce a dozen warheads, its available means of delivery can reliably raid the Middle East, southern Europe, and even European Russia, but cannot threaten the US except with its forces in the region. Neither Russia nor China has a binding military treaty with Iran. From the US perspective, Iran can become “their Ukraine” in a mirror image where they get a free hand and Moscow and Beijing go no further than formally condemning and supplying arms to Tehran.

Washington’s ambitions for the Middle East

A quick victory over Iran should strengthen the Republicans’ position in the midterm (2026) congressional elections and in the 2028 presidential and legislative elections. It should also restore Washington’s monopoly position in the Middle East, allow it to regain control over Turkey and give it direct access to the Caucasus and Central Asia from the south. It should drastically worsen the strategic position of Russia and China, jeopardise the land communications that connect them and thus sharply diminish their international standing.

In general, Trump plans to win back everything lost by previous administrations in one blow to the “solar plexus” of the Middle East. To realise this idea, he needs a strong Israel, which will assume the main risks from igniting and waging this war. The US and Israel are Iran’s enemies. Russia and Iran are fellow travellers, if not exactly allies. Israel supports Ukraine, which, from Tel Aviv’s point of view, restrains Russia, preventing it from taking a more active plunge into Middle East politics and dramatically increasing its power presence in the region.

And now let’s think, with this arrangement of geopolitical forces, will Trump deliberately sink the already almost drowned Ukraine or will he let it flounder as long as he can to the delight of his Israeli allies, redirecting the main flows of American aid to Israel and its allies in the Asia-Pacific region and giving Europe, which actually refused to support Israel and criticised its policy, the “honourable right” to finance Ukraine “to the last Ukrainian?”

European money will replace American money in Ukraine and American money will be diverted to the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East. Trump will not save Ukraine, but he won’t finish it off either because it’s unprofitable. The US president-elect will most likely try to squeeze geopolitical profit out of its agony and death.

THE ARTICLE IS THE AUTHOR’S SPECULATION AND DOES NOT CLAIM TO BE TRUE. ALL INFORMATION IS TAKEN FROM OPEN SOURCES. THE AUTHOR DOES NOT IMPOSE ANY SUBJECTIVE CONCLUSIONS.

Emma Robichaud for Head-Post.com

Send your author content for publication in the INSIGHT section to headpost.social@gmail.com

[captainadwen]

finally hit the scaramouche cutscene in sumeru. it might have been more impactful if i hadn’t seen it before on youtube, thinking it was just another instance of genshin putting relevant character information not in the main storyline, instead of an actual cutscene from the main storyline

....oops?

anyway jokes aside, my favorite parts of sumeru are 100% when the fatui show up. everything else varies from yikes to boring, - even the dream loop got tiresome after a few repetitions, especially since i had worked out it was nilou’s dream (unspoiled!!!) like 3 whole attempts before the traveler did.

nahida and the traveler come off as SUCH hypocrites when discussing dottore’s mind altering. like, oh she’s so indignant and protective of her people, but it’s fine when she and the traveler torment someone for ‘the greater good’? the discussions about racism and dubiousness of this have already been done so im not gonna comment on it more, but i got kinda pissed off

that said, hypasia getting duped by scaramouche as a god was... good? because what’s stopping him from turning himself into a god, really? not much. he wants to be an archon-type god which is something else, but like... i think it would be interesting to see a god-cult form in real time in genshin, bc it would be a nice contrast from the prior themes of “the time of gods is fading” (ignoring inazuma bc i did not play it all and everyone just conveniently deciding they were okay with their archon again was such a boring take)

ngl, a direction i think this would be really interesting to take would be him doing the god-mind-jump-thingy that nahida does as well and then uh, getting stuck in the body of someone else. rip them but i just think it would be interesting to force scaramouche to co-exist with humans again, in a little human body. (nahida too, but ...)

on that note, as nahida becomes an increasingly one-sided character whose personality is uwu baby my interest in her continues to decrease... they could have taken her character in SO many different angles and they chose the most boring one.

ffs, make this a discussion about the power of gods and the legitimacy of them!!! make it about self-forming gods and what that means in a world where, canonically, the gods are just really powerful being who duked out for chess pieces a couple thousand years ago!!! make it about whether nahida should even be considered a god, since she doesn’t have her gnosis and no one really wants her in any way except “we kinda need an archon to be on the world stage so she fits i guess”...

like, i guess it’s already about those things??? but it also isn’t because genshin’s overarching plot was never examining the dichotomy between gods and humans in a world where divinity is sometimes akin to a political figurehead but can also be the result of cult-like devotion, and to be an archon one does not need to be a god but also just because you’re not an archon doesn’t mean you /can’t/ be a god or revered like one, and the era of archons is actively being pushed away by several of the archons themselves...

anyway nahida should have been selfishly keeping up the timeloop for traveler interactions and she should have accidentally killed dunyazard in the process and that could have served as a catalyst to have her examine her position; not “oh no she is so good :c look at how much she cares for her people :c but they do not love her except for these waifus we also want you to pull U.U”

[theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin]

In your latest post, you said that Dumbledore MEANT to put Harry in a abusive household. That, or when he found out he did nothing to stop it. Why is that?

You’re going to get a lot of people angry with me. Well, I suppose they’re already angry. Somewhere out there, on the wider internet.

Right, anyway, the evidence of Harry’s abuse is so overwhelming that it seems improbable to me that Dumbledore wasn’t aware of what was happening. More, every interaction he has with not only Harry, but characters in similar circumstances, lends me to believe that in the event that Dumbledore does know he’d take no action.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Scene 1

We start out the entire Harry Potter series with Minerva and Dumbledore waiting in the early dawn for Hagrid’s arrival and to place Harry with the Dursleys. Minerva immediately announces her discomfort with this, 

She specifically says the following:

"You don't mean — you can't mean the people who live here? Dumbledore, you can't. You couldn't find two people who are less like us."

Lily Evans’ relatives are infamous enough such that Minerva McGonagall, who is presumably not as close as her like aged peers (i.e. Sirius, Remus, and Peter) knows about them.

Granted, some of this is anti-muggle sentiment. Minerva isn’t sure that suburban muggles raising a magical child like Harry Potter is a good idea. Nevertheless, she has deep misgivings, and relays them to Dumbledore.

We know from further evidence that Dumbledore is perfectly aware of what Petunia and Vernon are like as well. He gives Harry to the Dursleys anyway.

Dumbledore, for his own reasons, chooses not to listen.

Dumbledore’s Letter to Petunia

Dumbledore writes a letter to Petunia, knowing it is highly necessary, as he gives Harry to the family. The letter is... vaguely threatening but in a very polite Dumbledore way. It pretty much implies “Take Harry, or else, also be nice to your dead sister.”

The point is, Dumbledore is aware that this letter is highly necessary. And then... other things happen.

Dumbledore Sends Hagrid

Dumbledore sends Hagrid to pick Harry up.

Ordinarily, in such circumstances, Minerva is sent to introduce muggleborn children to the Wizarding World. “Perhaps she was busy,” you say, too busy for Harry Potter? Wizard Jesus and the child of perhaps her favorite students who she openly favors throughout the series?

“Perhaps Dumbledore was being nice to Hagrid, and he had an errand to do anyway,” well, it’s all well and good to be nice to Hagrid, but is he really the best guy to introduce anybody to the Wizarding World?

This is Hagrid, the likelihood of him having taken Harry to an exotic pet shop where Harry then gets eaten by the Chupacabra is 95%. The 5% where it didn’t happen is because Hagrid went to the pet shop alone and some, distant, rational part of his brain told him that Harry would want the pretty owl vs. the one-eyed blood sucking rat demon in the cage next to her.

You don’t send Hagrid if you want a child returned to you with all its limbs intact.

So why do you send Hagrid?

When you want someone who’s so painfully oblivious, loyal, and stupid that they could stare a hellscape in the face and wouldn’t even notice.

Hagrid gets a firsthand view of Harry’s living conditions. He learns that Harry’s relatives have been actively blocking Harry’s letters, that they have run across the country to avoid them. He sees the state of Harry’s clothing in comparison to Dudley, how thin Harry is in comparison to Dudley, and the way the family interacts with each other.

Harry’s child abuse is staring Hagrid right in the face.

Minerva would demand that Harry be placed somewhere else, they can find some other means of protecting him.

What does Hagrid do?

He gives Dudley a pig’s tail illegally and proceeds to tell Harry that Dumbledore is the greatest man who ever lived. 

Other Evidence Comes to Light

Other characters start getting pretty big warning signs that all’s not right at the Potters.

Ron and Hermione know the situation is “bad” and that Harry’s relatives “hate magic”. They’re also kids and don’t really understand what this means, the idea of being abused and hated by your guardians is unthinkable to them and Harry doesn’t come out and just say it.

That said, they’ve seen enough that they drop hints to those around them. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley are told about the bars on Harry’s window. Ron was so concerned about Harry in the summer after first year that he steals his father’s car with Fred and George to go pick him up. That is not normal behavior, that is deep concern for your friend.

Despite all of this... nothing happens.

Hermione spends far more time at the Weasleys then Harry ever does. Every summer, he returns to Privet Drive, and it’s likely if Arthur and Molly did have concerns Dumbledore told them off.

Arabella Figg

Arabella has been keeping an eye on Harry for years. She’s noted some very disturbing trends and been witness to years of the Dursleys interacting with Harry Potter.

She passes this information on to Dumbledore.

He knows how bad it is.

Harry Potter

Harry tells Dumbledore he does not wish to remain at the Dursleys, he notes that they don’t like him and he doesn’t like them. Now, he tries to downplay it, but this is a child saying some pretty disturbing things. You don’t brush this off.

Dumbledore does.

Dumbledore Visits the Dursleys

In book 6, Dumbledore visits the Dursleys and sees, in person, how bad it is. However, he shows no surprise, only vague disappointment in Petunia. Tsk, tsk, Petunia, I thought you were better than this.

He offers a few threats and then he and Harry go on their merry way.

Severus Snape

Snape is Dumbledore’s spy who reads Harry’s mind for half a year. Granted, Snape is a bastard who loathes Harry Potter, but he sees evidence of the Dursleys abuse of Harry.

We know, from what he relays to Dumbledore later, that he had at least some concern for Harry and was very disturbed by Dumbledore’s plan to murder him in cold blood due to the horcrux.

I think it’s very likely Severus Snape knew and told Dumbledore that Harry was being abused. I’m sure Albus’ response was, “Bitch, I know, would you like a lemon drop?”

Point being, there is no conceivable way that Albus Dumbledore, even if he was the world’s dumbest man, didn’t know exactly how bad it was. He let’s it happen anyway.

But What About the Blood Wards?

Dumbledore eventually tells Harry that the reason he can’t run away from Privet Drive is because of the blood wards created by his mother. They can only be applied if he lives with blood relatives and protect the Dursley house as long as Harry considers it home.

Now, this is a bit suspect given that Harry really considers Hogwarts his home, Privet Drive is just that hell hole he has to go back to every summer. Even the Burrow is more his home than Privet Drive so... That doesn’t sound right.

More, though, there are other means of protection.

There’s the Fidelius which Dumbledore casts on Sirius’ house in book 5. Given that, Harry really could have lived with Sirius (well, Sirius is not in a good place to have a kid around and that would be a disaster and a half). Point being, Harry could be raised elsewhere and there are wards that could protect him.

More, Voldemort and the Death Eaters are out of commission for thirteen years. Indeed, we see Dumbledore up Harry’s security detail by secretly assigning the Order to tail him after fourth year.

So, for a very long time, it’s not about Harry’s protection and when it does become that we see Dumbledore make significant changes.

So, what could it be?

Well, let’s look at Dumbledore’s other actions. Dumbledore prevents Harry from becoming prefect because “he thought it would go to his head”. Which, Harry should absolutely not be made prefect at all, and Ron’s a laughable candidate too but...

To me that’s very telling.

I hate to say this, but this is Dumbledore, but I think he has a very similar reasoning behind Harry going to the Dursleys.

He doesn’t want Harry to be corrupted by the Boy Who Lived persona. He wants him in a certain state of mind when he enters into the wizarding world and... Frankly, he wants him vulnerable. Dumbledore, in time, will need to either murder this boy or have him kill himself. If Harry has a halfway decent guardian, that task becomes a hell of a lot harder.

Harry has to love the wizarding world so much, trust Dumbledore so much, that these things are worth dying for.

You Mentioned Something About Dumbledore’s Other Actions?

Dumbledore has no sympathy for victims of child abuse.

Tom Riddle, an impoverished orphan loathed by those in his orphanage, he thinks is the very devil and sends him back into the Blitz with a smile and a wave. Enjoy the bombs, Tom, hope you die.

Severus Snape, the half blood child of an abusive muggle father and absentee mother, who is nearly murdered by Sirius Black via Remus Lupin, is told to shut the fuck up and sit down before he ruins the lives of his betters.

Dumbledore has a very bad track record with this and, well, Harry Potter is not an exception.

To be fair, I think the wizarding world has not concept of CPS or even child abuse. There’s no hint of a foster system, you go to the closest relative of the godparents. So, I think to them, you’re stuck with whoever you’re stuck with and if your uncle rapes you then it sucks to be you.

[jesvshotsaucechristmascake]

ㅤHer question actually stopped him to consider the answer as she got her shoes on and kept going, because she...actually wasn't wrong. "I think I just always thought of Chris as a Clark type and Chris is funny, but he's definitely kind of a nerd," he admitted, because it was something in the way Clark Kent put on that sorta-awkward act, right? It definitely wasn't the glasses, though he never understood how people didn't recognize him just because of a pair of glasses. "You're right, though, the guy playing Superman and Clark Kent right now is super hot, so I'll take the compliment, thank you very much."

ㅤWas she intending to call him super hot? He didn't know and he wasn't asking because there was nothing hot about him right then when he was covered in cuts, bruises and stitches, literally missing fingers and probably some of his sanity, but he would have liked for that to be her intention. "Comic cons? Nope, but I could be enough of a superhero fan to go to one as Superman if you're looking to go as Lois Lane," he teased, about 90% certain that he already knew what the answer to that was, so it definitely wasn't a serious offer, not that he thought any of them would be doing anything too exciting in the way of activities for awhile, anyway.

ㅤThe media issue was certainly a good portion of the reason to avoid something like that, and Sam might try to tell herself that she didn't have to worry about headlines, but she was so very wrong. Ashley had blabbed to the wrong reporter once and the media was loving this crazy sounding story about monsters and psychos and this big mystery of what happened up at that lodge in the mountains, and both Mike and Sam were at least fortunate that her story had painted them like some kind of heroes in the chaos. It was still insanity to talk about it, and so Mike sure as hell wasn't, but it was almost like denying them an answer made the media hungrier for information. "Uh, well, like I said, mom's in campaign mode so everything has to be perfect for her image and the media probably would have been looking my way sometimes even without all this extra shit," he admitted, shrugging a little and hoping that it wasn't a big deal. He remembered how she dealt with that agent they talked to, and the police and rangers before him.

ㅤThen she hit the nail on the head with the question about his mom specifically, and he winced, trying to turn it into a smile and distract himself with getting Wolfie out the door without bowling anyone over or hitting sensitive spots like her knee or his clawed up calf. It worked for about ten seconds. "Yeah, you know how she used to be and she's worse now that it's more 'big time' with the politics. It's kind of a big deal when part of her platform is families and education, then her media-perfect son comes home from a shitshow up in the mountains looking like I do and taking the semester off of everything to do with school. Then, of course, everything else."

ㅤHe didn't go on, partially because he figured maybe she knew what else just from seeing what was hitting the news, and partially because bringing it up sucked. With the lack of a concrete story, it was true that he wasn't being charged with anything, but the media was speculating aggressively and his mother had been quick to remind him that it didn't matter if there were official charges if the public decided something must have happened. It hadn't even struck him until then that he could be believed to have hurt or killed anyone, and it didn't sit well with him, especially after how he'd failed to save Josh. Hell, that had been his fault, hadn't it? Josh wouldn't have been in that situation if Mike hadn't put him there, not really. "You think sprinkles? Can't remember the last time I got sprinkles. You're on. Rainbow or chocolate?"

−−−¨༺ "Is Clark a nerd?" Sam passively asked as she pulled on some shoes. Her hand hovered over the only pair of climbing shoes she had left before settling on some old tennis shoes. "Is it just the glasses that make him a nerd? If so, that feels a little rude. Isn't he supposed to be like super hot or something?" She didn't know much about Superman and even less about Clark Kent, truthfully. Which was surprising that Mike knew more? He didn't give off the comic vibes that Chris did. "You a superhero fan or something? You been going to comic cons secretly?" Once everything was tied and placed, she stood up as readily as she could and gave a thumbs up to head out.

−−− Looking up as if she could see the hat on her own head, Sam gave a small smile and a shrug. "I mean. it wasn't the intent, but I guess it works." For the most part, she didn't have to worry about things. Mike wasn't so lucky. There was often a weird bit of feeling left out of the money club, but then at the same time feeling lucky that she didn't have to worry about headlines in this instance. Okay, potentially bad thought, she was absolutely in headlines as news outlets covered the tragedy. However, for the most part, she wasn't hounded for some exclusive.

−−− "How caught up in a media circus are you?" she inquired, giving him a sidelong glance. Because how behaved did Sam have to act. She was never a particularly wild presence, however, she had a penchant for being snippy at stupid questions. It was a miracle that she didn't get in trouble with the police.

−−− There was a pause between them. "Has your mom been up your ass, too? Or just the press?" she asked, despite having an inkling to the answer. Sam realised how lucky she was to have her dad who never pushed her or berated her for what happened. Either time. Her gaze was on Mike and Wolfie to an extent, wanting to hear what it was that was going on with Mike. It was something, he admitted as much. But any details? She loved a distraction from her own problems. "It has been a while," she let out a soft laugh. High school felt like ages ago, despite being roughly a year or two. Hell, that Sam felt like an entirely different person. Sam from last year was different. Sam from a few days? Like she was dead. "I'm feeling something with sprinkles."

[sluttbuttsstuff]

Silver Chariot Agency: An Introduction

This is the first chapter/prologue to my jjba sugar daddy au.  To clarify, it’s modern day, with reader x various Jojo characters, all of which are of age, and “sugar daddies”.  I’m hoping to have several options/outcomes for various characters, kind of like a chose you own adventure story, or a dating visual novel.  As a note, this story may contain some dark themes and content, including drug use, yandere, sex scenes, and other things I haven’t currently planned out.

TLDR: this is the story about Y/N, who starts working at Polnareff’s sugar daddy agency and meets lots of hot jojo guys

ENJOY!!!

“Mr. Polnareff is ready to see you now!”  The cheerful secretary (Suzy, you think)  calls out, breaking you from your stupor and ushering you behind large, intimidating doors.   You grew up with dreams bigger than this, having a good career, doing something important with your life, but life had other plans.  You’ve been unemployed for nearly a year, and despite all the classes you’ve taken, interviews you’ve aced, and concessions to pay and pride just to be considered, you still had no job, and your unemployment had finally run out.  Long story short, you were desperate.  That’s when you first heard about the Agency.

You had noticed an email from the Silver Chariot Agency buried between job applications and rejection letters, and confusing it for a job offer, had opened it to read.  According to the email, you had been “scouted” as someone with the qualifications to apply for what appeared to be a Sugar Daddy, or Escort, service.    The email was polite, open and honest, but you couldn’t help but be a bit skeptical, if not mildly offended. There’s nothing wrong with sex work, mind you, but it wasn’t something you had any interest in if you could avoid it. You weren’t interested in selling yourself, and even if you weren’t wealthy, you weren’t ready to auction off your time to creepy old perverts just yet.  Not to mention, how safe were these agencies?  Still, the email had an open doors policy for any questions, as well as a phone number and email to direct all your questions.  You were going to delete the email, but somehow you couldn’t bring yourself to.  You saved it in your folder, and forgot about it for a few months.

Cut to today:  you couldn’t cover your rent, your auto bill, and your credit cards were maxed out.  After sending an email, and talking on the phone to a cheerful woman, she convinced you to visit their offices and talk to their C.E.O,  who was visiting your nearest location on business.  Surprised by their openness, and relieved not to have a door slammed in your face for once, you made an appointment and were now following Suzy through an impressive office space.  Silver Chariot had its own expensive looking building, with high ceilings, metal tones and spotlessly clean wall to wall windows and mirrors.  The place reeked of elegance, intimidatingly so, and you regretted your outfit choice for this interview.  

Suzy finally escorted you into a conference room, with an expansive metal table and tufted leather chairs that probably cost more than your car.  Then, at the end of the conference table, you saw a silver haired gentleman, who Suzy introduced as, “Mr. Polnareff, this is y/n, call me if you need anything!”  and with that, she left and closed the door.  You noticed  Mr.Polnareff didn’t stand up to greet you and shake your hand-not out of rudeness, but because he was in a wheelchair.  On top of that, he had an unusual looking eye patch, and despite clearly being too young to be considered elderly, had prematurely grey hair slicked back in an unusual pompadour.

He shook your hand firmly, and smiled at you as he greeted you, “It’s so lovely to meet you, y/n, I've been looking forward to seeing you in person.  Tell me, what brings you here today?”  He asked, sitting forward and listening intently.  You fiddled with your hands, trying to politely, but vaguely, explain your situation, without sounding too much like a sob story.  Polnareff listened without interrupting, merely nodding, as you explained what you’ve been through.

  “That sounds like a difficult situation- it is difficult in this day and age for young people to support themselves, even more so when they have no one to help them when needed.  I, myself, had to support not only myself, but my younger sister, Cherie, when I was your age.  It was difficult, to say the least, and I didn’t always handle it gracefully to be honest with you.  When my sister saw how much we were struggling, she decided to try helping herself and me by turning to sex work.”

You were shocked by his openness, telling so much of his personal story to a total stranger interviewing at his agency.  He continued,

“Back in my day, the streets of France were not a safe place to sex workers, least of all vulnerable women unable to defend themselves.  It was one of those nights, while my sister was working, that she was tragically attacked and killed.  She had no way of protecting herself, as I wasn’t with her, and the police were just as dangerous.  She died alone because no one was willing to help save her, myself included.  He paused, rubbing his temples as he remembered.

You tried to stop him, “Um, you don’t have to-”  you began, but he held up a hand and assured you,

 “I am fine, it is a painful, but old wound, and important you hear.  It was the most devastating event of my life, but it shaped me into the man I am today.  You see, because of what happened to my sister, I was determined to provide a safe place to any and all women and sex workers, no questions asked, to protect them from things that could happen to them.  Sex work is not something to be criminalized or judged; it is the oldest profession and a valuable work. So, The Silver Chariot Agency provides a safe way to support those in the industry.  That being said, working as an escort, or as it's sometimes called, ‘sugar baby’-”

 he punctuates the term with bunny ear fingers, “-Can be dangerous work.  There is always a risk of assault, and rape, however hard we may try to combat it, but our agency has extremely strict policies and protection plans to protect our workers in either case. I promise , should you decide to work here, that I will do everything in my power to keep you safe.”  Polnareff grabs your hand, looking into your eyes, intensely.  

You know you’ve just met him, but you’re inclined to believe Polnareff.  He’s either an excellent liar, or simply cares deeply about his company and employees.  

“There are, of course, other things to consider before you decide to take this job.  It is  a job, and many of our clients aren’t looking for romance, but some are hoping to find love and a potential romantic partner via our agency.  Some are looking for purely sexual relationships, and some want nothing to do with sex.  Some of our clients are involved with...less than legal hobbies and activities, and we strongly caution you not to get involved, as our legal department and contracts can only protect you so far.  If you decide to engage, do so with caution. 

“ Lastly, you ultimately get to decide who you want to pick as your clients, so choose wisely.  I have Suzy-”  He gestures to the woman, presumably waiting down the hall to escort you when ready, “Write up summaries and information on every applicant who have expressed an interest in our agency.  Make sure to carefully review them, and choose the client you think will have the best relationship.”  He finishes, giving you a lot to think of.  He can see the gears turn in your mind, and gives you time.  “Please, don’t feel like you have to respond today. Or, if you try this out and don’t like it, you can leave the agency or specific clients, with no fear of repercussions.”  He Pulls away from the table, and turns towards the door, before pausing.

He seems to change his mind, shaking his head as Suzy gets the door for him.

“I look forward to seeing you again, regardless of your decision, mon amie.  I’ll let Suzy handle the rest for today, thank you.  If you decide to accept, just call Suzy and ask her to see some client applications to pick out who you’d like to work with. Au revoir.”  And with that, Mr. Polnareff disappears with surprising speed.  Any other questions and details are handled by Suzy, who cheerfully tells you about the position, average salaries, tax information, and your typical FAQ.  You listen mutely, occasionally nodding along,  but you’re still thinking about everything Polnareff told you.  You could not only support yourself with this  job, but make a killing, while still being safe and having a say in the relationships.  This could work. This could work…

Less than 24 hours later, Suzy gets another phone call at the office.  “Silver Chariot Agency, this is Suzy, how may I assist you today?”  She asks cheerily.  A familiar voice whispers on the other end, “Do you think I could see some of those client Applications, please?”

[stonefreeak]

OH WOW, LOOK AT THE TIME. AHAHAHHAHAHAAAAA... oops?

Anakin can't believe what he's hearing and seeing. He can't believe that the investigation really would find something on Palpatine. The man has been nothing but devoted to the welfare of the galaxy for years! There's no way that he would do something like this. There just isn't.

Just then, something Palpatine said to him comes back with a vengeance. "Well, I know my innocence, so I feel that I have little to fear… Unless, of course, someone has tampered with evidence or files to implicate me, of course."

He feels cold, shudders and shivers running through him and immediately it's as if a hand is holding his throat. Not squeezing, just holding there, like a threat, making his throat feel clogged and his breathing speed up.

Could someone have interfered with the investigation and planted evidence against Palpatine? It is possible that all of this is a sham of a trial, held on false evidence? Palpatine suggested the possibility after all, surely that must mean that he suspected he might have a political rival willing to stop at nothing to smear him?

... It... It can't have been Obi-Wan, can it?

All of this began with Obi-Wan, after all. Obi-Wan took over Palpatine's position, ousting him from office without a shred of remorse. Obi-Wan locked himself in his room after that Senator had suggested it... Was he plotting something? Working on how to make his plans proceed even as he pretended that he was just an unwilling Jedi Master being put in an impossible situation his sense of duty wouldn't let him ignore?

Because... Obi-Wan was the one who confiscated Palpatine's possession and it was Obi-Wan who started this infernal investigation in the first place! Maybe he planted information while he did his "research" into Palpatine's conduct?

Maybe... Maybe this has all been a bid for power and Obi-Wan's been lying to Anakin all along. Maybe that's why he hasn't given up his place on the Jedi high Council or his place as a High General of the GAR.

Pressing his palms against his eyes, Anakin grits his teeth and breathes harshly through his nose, trying desperately to get it together. Is it really possible that Obi-Wan would do such a thing?

... He would if the Council ordered him to. But that... that doesn't make sense either, does it? Why would the Jedi want to be in charge of the Republic anyway? There's nothing in it for them, not really.

And the only thing Obi-Wan's really done since coming into office is being a stabilising influence on the political scene, start investigations he doesn't participate in, and send laws out to be deliberated on by groups of senators without his presence. Padmé has said all of that, has talked at length about what good she thinks Obi-Wan is doing in the Senate.

But... What if... What if...

He pulls his hands away and straightens, suddenly feeling the way Padmé's hand is rubbing his shoulder. He glances up at her, but her eyes are still trained at the screens.

There's a smile on her face. She looks pleased. There's a light in her eyes and Anakin can tell that she thinks this is right, that she doesn't harbour any sort of suspicions against the investigation.

But... But it all fits so neatly together. It makes sense that Obi-Wan would have set everything up.

Except then, like lightning from clear skies, he remembers something incredibly important, something he had overlooked.

Senator Mandai is a Naangni from the planet Haa'ndu.

All Naangni are impervious to Force suggestions.

There is no way Obi-Wan could have influenced her into doing what she did, not unless he did it entirely without the Force. But that would have taken time and effort, and Obi-Wan had been off Coruscant almost as much as Anakin had before that session ever happened.

It's as if a huge weight is lifted from his shoulders, and he almost wants to cry.

Obi-Wan hasn't orchestrated all of this in some mad bid for power.

It's such a relief to realise that he'd simply jumped to conclusions that Anakin nearly forgets that it means that Palpatine really must be guilty of these crimes. That he really must have abused his position and accepted bribes.

Anakin feels cold, like he can't breathe.

That means that Anakin was wrong.

And Obi-Wan was right.

~~~~

Padmé feels like she's torn between satisfaction and dismay as she watches the results of the trial come in. On one hand, she feels like this further proves that her realisation that Palpatine used her when she was still Queen is true, because clearly it was not the only time Palpatine decided to ignore convention, the law, and his duty to do something that improved his own standing above everything else.

On the other hand, however, she's watching a man she long considered a mentor be proved a corrupt liar, who missed the fact that his close colleague and the Vice Chair of the Galactic Senate was beyond corrupt.

It makes Senator Mandai's words during that fateful emergency session ring painfully true: "He’s been inefficient, slow to act, and allowed his own term to be dragged out without a new vote for far longer than any competent politician should have allowed! The war has dragged on because our Chancellor has done nothing to stop the powers that drive it, and it is the Jedi and the Clones that shoulder the weight of his incompetence!"

She has long since harboured worries regarding the usage of a Clone army, creating living and sentient beings simply for the sake of throwing them into war for a Republic they have never known... And this is just another layer of anxiety on top of that.

If Palpatine had been a better Chancellor... Would the war have ended already?

Or...

Perhaps the war never would have begun in the first place...

~~~~

The news are all over the Holonet as soon as the sentence is dropped. Some quite large fines, but no jail time.

The people seem conflicted, as many of them had been holding on to what they've been told throughout Palpatine's time in office: that he's a hard working man who's doing his very best for the Republic to even his own detriment at some times.

Some are weeping and in denial, claiming that it cannot be true.

Others are mounting protests, that the punishment is too little for someone who abused the highest political office in the entire Republic.

And Palpatine...

Palpatine is locking down all of his rage and disgust, down as deep inside himself as he can, lest he ends up killing multiple people in an explosion in the Force.

As satisfying as he would find it, he can hardly expose himself like that.

Regaining his reputation will be hard work, harder than he ever expected, but he cannot create more bodies to bury with no control. There are enough people that need to die without him adding random pathetic rabble to the list.

He'll take his time, things will blow over...

And when they do, he'll mount a charm offensive that will make everyone forget about these pesky little convictions. They're barely anything at all—though he's almost impressed that the investigation managed to pin them on him. Seems he might have underestimated the Jedi just a small amount.

It's not a mistake he will repeat.

And they will come to regret ever taking part in this farce in the first place.

Not that they would have been spared even if they hadn't put their noses where they don't belong.

Death to all Jedi...

Just as soon as he can formulate and enact a plan to enact Order 66. There must be some way...

As long as he can activate the chip in the mind of just one single commander, he can ensure that commander spreads it to the others and then the destruction of the Jedi will commence.

And the revenge of the Sith will finally be complete.

—

(Supreme Chancellor Obi-Wan Kenobi masterpost)

[violet-t-9]

My take on why Caleb doesn’t trust Essek

I’ve seen a lot of discussion about “why doesn’t Caleb trust Essek” and here is just my two cents (spoilers, written after the new episode 131 talks machina). This will be very, very long, so beware. 

Before I start, this post is not meant to be against Essek and he is actually one of my top favourite characters. I wanted to get my thoughts out because I saw many people take Essek’s side and I want to consider Caleb’s perspective.

Also, the quotes are not EXACTLY accurate, but please bear with me. NOTHING I say reflects anything other than my own, biased interpretation of the events, so take it with a grain of salt. 

While it has been a long time in real life for us, in game time the peace talk was not that long ago. Liam has mentioned both as Caleb and in talks that Caleb had been very paranoid about Essek for a long time, thinking he was working them for his own agenda and could be Dynasty’s traitor. However, it is also confirmed that Caleb started to actually trust Essek because “the other shoe never dropped” and consider him a true friend - right before (“like two days later”) being the first one to discover (through Frumpkin) that he had been right about Essek since day one.

Imagine what that would do to Caleb, to finally letting himself trust just to get betrayed right away and to have his paranoia proven correct all along. Of course he still doesn’t trust Essek now, of course he is hurt. After the peace talks, Essek didn’t even seem to regret what he had done (he straight up said “I can’t say I regret what I have done”, also said seeing Adeen in chains was “freeing”). The first time he showed a genuine change was in episode 124, even then, Caleb failed to read his intentions with a nat 1 insight check, so he could not actually confirm that Essek was telling the truth (he was just given the “hard to read”) so basically he had no way of knowing if Essek was lying.

When Caleb thinks back on their past interactions, he would have to think about how everything Essek had said could be a lie, and that would taint any good memories they had. Even if we, as viewers, know that Essek was probably sincere most of the time, Caleb doesn’t know that. 

Essek had been lying to the party since they first met, he got close to M9 precisely because he wanted to use them to cover his beacon heist, to make sure that they “did not get too close to the truth”. He steered the party in the directions he wanted them to go in, like actively directing them to focus on Obann. And Essek was GOOD at what he did. M9 told him a lot of secrets - that they suspected a mole and that there are two beacons in the empire, etc. Essek succeeded in his objective and got a lot of information he wouldn’t have gotten otherwise because of his deception. Yes, he started to care for them somewhere along the line. At some point, he found himself actually wanting to be friends with M9, but that is a separate issue. He kept them in the dark, lied to their faces, betrayed their trust before they even met regardless. Now obviously he was in a very difficult position and probably felt like he could not tell them the truth (how would he tell them, anyways?), but it doesn’t change the fact that he used them for his goals and succeeded. 

Now Caleb and Essek had a mutually manipulative political-game-like dance going on when they first met, but that was more or less on equal footing and they probably both knew what each other was doing (they were both pretty obvious). Caleb also used his training to “keep [Essek] on the rails”, but that imo kind of pales in comparison to Essek using M9 to cover up his entire heist. Essek did help them a lot, but he did those things for favours, at least at first. He never cashed them (except the one vial Caleb gave him) but he didn’t have to - the favours worked, M9 decided not to expose him because he went out of his way to help them. Even after discovering the truth (that he was the catalyst of a war between two nations, one of which is 3 party members’ homeland), the M9 did not try to fight him or report him to literally ANYONE which would have gotten him killed. Caleb even gave Essek the hope that there IS a path to redemption when Essek didn’t believe in it. So yeah if I were Essek I would too be very grateful to M9. If I were Caleb I would probably never trust Essek ever again. 

Essek is shown to be completely uninterested in the Eyes of Nine but it was a valid concern. He did commit high treason for knowledge, it’s really not that much of a stretch that he’d be tempted by the city (exhibit A: Caleb himself, exhibit B: poor, poor Yussa). Good for him that he is not tempted, but Caleb’s suspicion was not uncalled for.

The thing is, M9 do trust Essek still. They told him literally everything about the TT and the city. Caleb even showed Essek the eye. It just makes me uncomfortable every time people say that M9 are “bad friends” for leaving Essek alone, or that Caleb is “mean” to Essek for not trusting him (by the way, the line about “that won’t help with the inside” was meant by Liam as “commiseration, not condemnation” if you didn’t know) but look, M9 doesn’t revolve around Essek? They have a lot of things to deal with and Essek was not on their top priority. They don’t have a responsibility to “fix” Essek’s morality issues (tbf, they still kinda did kick start that process). And hey, it’s great that Essek has obviously been doing pretty well for himself in terms of personal growth without the M9, and he could have reached out to them if he really wanted to. Remembering to use slots to message and check in with people is never M9′s strong suite.

Caleb also really didn’t endanger Essek more than Essek himself did. Caleb did used dunamancy in the empire (not resonant echo that he specifically learned from Essek, but something he reverse engineered by himself), but Trent would never have figured it out if Essek didn’t voluntarily work with Trent and the Assembly in the first place. Also, Caleb did apologize for endangering Essek (like he was supposed to, Essek deserved that apology).

So yeah, imo Caleb is right to not fully trusting Essek right now, for reasons I have mentioned above. However, Caleb clearly still cares about Essek, from the “just breathe” moment, the worry he felt, how he emphasized on the amulet. A lack of trust does not mean he just doesn’t care. Caleb was also very adamant about trusting Essek (“one person we can trust is better than three we cannot”) over his old friends (and obviously Trent). So again, I don’t really see him saying “we trust you more than my old teacher” as an issue - it’s just a statement, which is true, they do trust him more than Trent even if Trent may come with more power and numbers.

Yeah, Essek is very remorseful now, but they’ve seen this side of Essek for exactly two episodes (124 and 131), so I am not really surprised that they don’t just immediately go back to full trust mode with Essek. It will take some time, some bonding, but I’m sure the trust can be re-established. 

Just want to make it clear, I’m NOT saying Caleb is perfect. Caleb is a very flawed character (e.g. a hypocrite in terms of the eye tattoos) and I can see why some would see his interactions with Essek as problematic (but really, it’s from both sides). However, I do believe that some people twist Caleb’s words to Essek a lot and interpret them to be more vicious, manipulative and colder than he intends them to be/than they actually are because they dislike Caleb, or like Essek a lot, or for many other reasons. This post is about Caleb’s perspective so I’m not going to list all of his own flaws. I just think that in many posts I’ve seen people take Essek’s side and blame Caleb or the M9 and seem to forget that Essek did betray the M9 and “did a lot of shitty things” like Matt said. So this is just an alternative perspective for those people to consider.

Feel free to disagree, like I said these are only my opinions. That said, I’m really looking forward to the next episodes. I feel like they can establish how Essek may fit in the M9 now and maybe start some great trust-building. I cannot wait to see Essek’s interactions with M9 and I think the next few episodes will be very important for the character dynamics. 

[robininthelabyrinth]

Strange Creatures Brothers Be (aka WWX & NMJ sworn brothers) - part 1, part 2, part 3

-

“Not in a million years,” Wei Wuxian said flatly. “We could all reincarnate a thousand times over, and the answer will still be no.”

Lan Xichen seemed surprised by his refusal, or perhaps merely the vehemence of it. “Is there a reason you won’t consider it, Wei-gongzi? As you know, sworn brotherhood has many advantages for both sides –”

“No. You wanted to ask me: I answered. No.”

“It’s bad luck to have a brotherhood of four,” Nie Mingjue opined, offering up a face-saving reason when it was clear to anyone who had eyes that Wei Wuxian wasn’t the sort of person to be deterred by superstition, especially superstition around death and dying. He would be a very poor demonic cultivator if he were. “Besides, Xichen, even if we aren’t sworn brothers, we are friends who went through life and death together – that’s a bond in itself, a well-respected one.”

Friends of life and death was, in fact, a well-recognized bond between men. It just wasn’t as good as being sworn brothers.

Take that, Meng Yao.

…in reflection, Wei Wuxian will admit that his motives to reject Lan Xichen’s proposal were, perhaps, somewhat petty. 

Lan Xichen clearly wanted to establish a close tie between them, to balance his old friendship with Nie Mingjue with his new closeness with Meng Yao, to help Nie Mingjue repair his relationship with his old deputy. Just as clearly, Nie Mingjue was halfway seduced by Lan Xichen’s arguments that being sworn brothers would give him the ability to act as a guide and check to Meng Yao, to help him the way he had previously (and still) helped Wei Wuxian.

And Meng Yao –

Meng Yao probably just wanted to leverage it for his own personal promotion, the rotten snake. Scheming fox.

Dog.

Wei Wuxian was aware that his hatred for the other man might be a little irrational.

After all, Meng Yao had explained, and oh so very earnestly, too, how he had had no choice but to take certain actions necessary to lead to Wen Ruohan’s demise: the bodies of the Nie cultivators he’d killed, the cruel words and vicious strikes he’d subjected Nie Mingjue to, even citing as necessary that Wen Ruohan be distracted by the joy of Nie Mingjue’s capture, which obviously he’d arranged himself by sending false information through Lan Xichen.

Three days and nights of torture, Wei Wuxian growled in his heart, no matter that Nie Mingjue was already shrugging it off – he really would do anything if it helped the war, and while that may have benefited Wei Wuxian once before, such blatant disregard for his own well-being was no longer acceptable now that they were sworn brothers themselves. Mark your words, da-ge; if you want me to care for myself, you’d better do the same!

And of course Lan Xichen took the dog’s side, arguing that he knew Meng Yao, that Nie Mingjue knew Meng Yao, that his motives were just even if the actions were questionable –

“What about his actions in Langya?” Nie Mingjue had shouted when Lan Xichen had first raised the idea to him. Wei Wuxian had overheard him from the next room over, still in bed and recovering the way Nie Mingjue should have been doing - but Wei Wuxian wasn’t a sect leader, with all the obligations and duties that came with it; Nie Mingjue had had to drag himself out of bed far too early to deal with it all, and now he had to deal with this, too. “The premeditated murder of his own superior…!”

Wei Wuxian hadn’t heard Lan Xichen’s defense to that, too low to be listened in on, but whatever he’d said, it had been convincing enough to get through Nie Mingjue’s defenses, to wiggle in through the cracks created by old affection –

That was the worst of it, in Wei Wuxian’s opinion. 

Nie Mingjue liked Meng Yao.

He had liked him very much once, and still did: Wei Wuxian was painfully aware of that, even though Nie Mingjue had never talked to him about it. It had been obvious even before from the way Nie Mingjue had continued to search for him, clearly hoping to find him safe even as he claimed he wanted to kill him or break his legs, and it was even more obvious now, when the newly dubbed Lianfeng-zun was trying very hard to get back into his good graces.

The chance to help someone he had once cared for, someone he believed needed the help desperately, someone who had wandered off the road of righteousness but could still come back if only someone held out a hand in trust…yes, that was the right way to appeal to someone like Nie Mingjue.

Pity there was a roadblock there, name of Wei Wuxian.

Sometimes Wei Wuxian wondered if his hatred of Meng Yao was truly justified, the way he thought it was. Was the man truly as vile and conniving as he thought? Or was he just drinking vinegar, filled to the brim with petty jealousy that his adored big brother liked someone else too? Spying meant doing things you didn’t like, after all, and the reasons were so seductively convincing…

But Wei Wuxian was petty where Nie Mingjue was not: even if the motive for his refusal was just jealousy, the answer was still no.

It was a good thing that Nie Mingjue was a good brother to those he already had first, willing to help others second: even though he’d been clearly tempted by Lan Xichen’s forthright words and Meng Yao’s slippery arguments, he insisted on consulting Wei Wuxian for his views, since he would be at minimum affected if not explicitly involved.

Wei Wuxian had never once doubted that when he refused, Nie Mingjue would back him entirely.

“Four isn’t always a bad number,” Meng Yao said, and his voice was as pleasant as a rippling brook, his entire demeanor friendly and harmless, as if he only think he wanted or could ever want was to be of service. “After all, with the four of us bound together, we would have a representative from each of the sects: Nie, Lan, Jiang, and Jin.”

“Jin? Has your father accepted you, then?” Lan Xichen asked, attention distracted, and he smiled broadly when Meng Yao inclined his head with a shy smile that Wei Wuxian desperately wanted to punch off his face. “A-Yao! That’s wonderful!”

“There will be a formal ceremony later this week, to which you are all invited,” Meng Yao said. “But he has already recognized me before his attendants, and has even given me the name ‘Jin Guangyao’.”

“Great name,” Wei Wuxian said. “So thoughtful of him to make you part of the older generation, rather than the inheriting one.”

Nie Mingjue somehow managed to make stamping on Wei Wuxian’s foot look as if he were merely shifting his weight from one side to the other. “Congratulations,” he said, and even managed to sound mostly sincere. “I wish you much happiness for having obtained the result you have been striving for.”

Mostly sincere.

Lan Xichen looked a little disappointed in them both.

(It wasn’t nearly as effective as Lan Wangji’s disappointed look, though, so Wei Wuxian considered himself immune.)

“Sadly, we’ve already promised Jiang Cheng that we’d go with him to the Lotus Pier for the second half of the week,” Wei Wuxian said, lying through his teeth with a smile. “With the Nightless City having finally fallen, I need to go light incense for Uncle Jiang and Madame Yu, and I invited da-ge. I need to introduce him, after all.”

There was a flicker of irritation on Meng Yao’s face, quickly suppressed. He was going to say something, probably a suggestion of rescheduling since the dead wouldn’t mind but phrased in a nice pretty neat way that would almost not sound like an insult to Wei Wuxian’s intelligence, when Nie Mingjue nodded.

“And after the Lotus Pier, we must return to the Unclean Realm,” he said. “For much the same purpose. Those who died at Wen Ruohan’s hand or by his order deserve to know that their deaths have been avenged.”

Whatever argument Meng Yao might have been able to muster died at once; Wei Wuixan gleefully hoped he would choke on it. He didn’t even mind the fact that he was now (apparently) committed to going to the Unclean Realm – if anything, that was a good thing, since it’d get him away from the work of rebuilding the Jiang sect.

Something he still hadn’t found a good excuse to avoid.

“I will of course write a letter to Sect Leader Jin congratulating you both on the event,” Nie Mingjue continued, because he was a better person than Wei Wuxian and far too kindly disposed towards Meng Yao. “It will formally recognize you as being my friend of life and death – you can have it read aloud, if that would help.”

If even Nie Mingjue could figure out that their presence was being requested to bolster Meng Yao’s political standing, Meng Yao had clearly been too obvious – he immediately demurred, insisting that he had only wanted to share the joy of the day with them, and only Lan Xichen pretended to believe him.

Maybe he did. More fool he, if so.

After they left, Nie Mingjue turned and leveled Wei Wuxian with a look.

Wei Wuxian grinned shamelessly back. “Next time, ask before announcing changes to your schedule?”

Nie Mingjue looked as though he was on the verge of rolling his eyes. “You’re my sworn brother; if you need me to lie for you, I will do so without requiring explanation,” he said dismissively, as if it was nothing, as if it was obvious, and that was why Wei Wuxian had used the Stygian Tiger Seal for this man. “What I want to know is – why do you dislike Meng Yao?”

Wei Wuxian crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Why are you asking me? You don’t like him, either.”

“I mistrust him,” Nie Mingjue corrected him. “I believe he’s gone down the wrong path – that he’s still focused on glory instead of righteousness, on what people can do for him rather than what he can do for them. Moreover, I’m concerned that the Jin sect will only aggravate those tendencies, and I hope to see him return instead to the man I know he can be. You, on the other hand, actively dislike him. Why?”

There were plenty of reasons, most of them childish – Wei Wuxian would rather die than say it was because Nie Mingjue liked him so much, he felt like Jiang Cheng just thinking it – but the first one, the foremost one, was simple.

“He shouldn’t have said what he said to you,” Wei Wuxian said. “In the Sun Palace. You shared your weakness with him, and he used it against you – it doesn’t matter if it was to keep up his identity or not, he shouldn’t have done it.”

Personally, Wei Wuxian suspected the answer was not. Even before he’d known who Meng Yao was and what he’d done before, he’d heard – as Nie Mingjue, injured, blinded by blood and deafened by pain, had not – the shades of real pleasure in Meng Yao’s voice as he’d mocked Nie Mingjue.

When later, he found that Meng Yao had castigated Nie Mingjue for not understanding him, portraying his lust for glory and power as if it were something virtuous, when he’d heard the full story of Langya, he’d become certain of his conclusion: Meng Yao might have needed to say such cruel things in order to keep his cover, but he’d enjoyed doing it, too.

He’d liked seeing Nie Mingjue at his feet.

Wei Wuxian would never trust someone like that. Not ever, even if Nie Mingjue eventually did.

Nie Mingjue’s harsh features relaxed a little, something almost like a smile curling his lips. “You remember I’m the older brother, right? You don’t need to be offended in my defense.”

Wei Wuxian sniffed and turned his head away, suddenly (belatedly) sympathetic to Jiang Cheng for all the times he’d made a similar argument: that he was older, that he was born a servant, that he wasn’t as important in the great scheme of things…

No wonder it had always sent Jiang Cheng straight into a fury every time without fail. It was, in fact, incredibly irritating to be told that you could only ever be the protected one, never the protector.

“Well, as you know, I’m not very orthodox,” he said lightly. “You’ll just have to put up with it, I’m afraid.”

Nie Mingjue huffed, clearly amused. “Very well. Now that you’ve implicated me, go tell Jiang Cheng about the invitation you issued on his behalf before someone catches you out on your lie.”

Wei Wuxian grinned and sauntered off – Jiang Cheng would be among those helping purify the Nightless City of all the fierce corpses there, same as always. 

They’d finally gotten it to the point that it no longer felt like fighting an uncontrollable forest fire and more like a normal night-hunt. Jiang Cheng had volunteered for practically every shift that was available, using it as informal training for his new disciples, and he went up there with them more often than not.

He hadn’t yet asked Wei Wuxian to join him, though it was only a matter of time – Suibian had been rather pointedly left on Wei Wuxian’s bedside, and it was only the fact that he’d been injured in the attack on the Nightless City that had served as an excuse. An excuse that wouldn’t last much longer.

That was a later problem, though.

“Lighting incense to let them know we’ve avenged them?” Jiang Cheng said when Wei Wuxian informed him of the plan. “Yes, that’s a good idea. We should bring jiejie, too; she hasn’t had an opportunity to go back to the Lotus Pier at all since – since before, anyway. I’ll go pick her up from the Jin camp, if you’ll stay and organize the training shifts for the next few rounds of night-hunting…will you and Sect Leader Nie meet us there when you’re done here?”

Arranging shifts was little more than paperwork. Wei Wuxian could do that, and Nie Mingjue would certainly assist with anything else that might need to be done, if it came to that.

It was good to have a big brother.

“Sounds good to me,” he said with a grin. “Tell shijie I’m looking forward to seeing her.”

“More like eating her soup, you pig,” Jiang Cheng said, rolling his eyes. “Tell Sect Leader Nie that he’s in for a treat…you’ll be going to Qinghe after, you said? For how long?”

“Da-ge didn’t say,” Wei Wuxian said, temporizing. It was a really good excuse to get out of the Lotus Pier, actually. “And we’re going to be friends of life and death with Sect Leader Lan and that dog Meng Yao, though now he’s going to start going by Jin Guangyao; we may need to visit them, too, to solidify it. Though hopefully not.”

Hopefully yes.

“Well, don’t be away too long,” Jiang Cheng said. “I need your help back home. Besides, the Jins have already started talking about setting up some sort of celebration – a hunt at Phoenix Mountain, I think. You have to join us there.”

“Oh, I’ll be there,” Wei Wuxian said. A hunt at Phoenix Mountain – he’d wager Meng Yao would be involved in setting it up, and it’d be a shame to miss that. Besides, it’d be a good opportunity to see some of the people he hadn’t seen in a while, like Lan Wangji. 

He wondered if Lan Wangji would be happier now that Wei Wuxian, who’d been scared straight by his close encounter with disaster at the Nightless City, had started practicing some of the Nie sect techniques designed to help temper resentful energy in their saber spirits.

It helped. He hoped Lan Wangji would find comfort in that – maybe even be proud of him.

“I’ll definitely be there.”

[julia-bunncat]

Additional information about me and my blog 📝

Hi! 🤗 I could have written this post earlier, but I thought that there is no better time than now! After all, people began to be interested in me and they may not have enough information from the main block (and I don’t want to overload it)… So, let's get acquainted!

Based on my nickname, you are free to call me Ju or Julie! ^-^

Being a "fan of many fandoms, especially Danganronpa", I'm going to dedicate this blog mostly to posts about this series of visual novel… But I also like anime and (obviosly) some games, namely:

Shaman King Fruits Basket (Furuba) Sasaki and Miyano (new yaoi anime) Cookie Run MazM: The Phantom of the Opera

Most likely, I will mention them according to my mood or as crossovers. And also, I'm not sure if I'll be posting anything about my personal life… Unless, images of my rabbit xD Everyone loves fluffies, right? 🐰

Another info: from this day on, I plan to open the ask function! You can ask me questions of any nature and about all the above fandoms! In fact, I love answering questions and seeing that people are interested in any kind of my works! ~

I'm not an artist or video-maker – just can write fanfics in my native language (and sometimes use photoshop, photo editors or different templates)… But you have to start somewhere!

The only thing, is let's respect each other and be at least polite! I really dislike conflicts, shaming, accusations, and I myself will try to respect your opinion and tastes, even if everything inside me boils and rages. There will definitely be ⚠ disclaimers ⚠ under each of my posts, and I will try to inform you about topics that are unpleasant to me in advance (like, for example, politiсs)!

And since I have more or less indicated everything that I wanted, let's move on to Danganronpa again 👀 ehehe :>

For this post, I have prepared a couple of introductory tier lists so that you can find out about my tastes, and at the same time be able to ask something… But first, some important clarifications:

My favorite part of Danganronpa – it's DRV3: Killing Harmony, but as strange as it may sound, I have not yet completed this game :'D HOWEVER, I'm very calm about spoilers and, accordingly, I have already managed to find out a lot myself. All wiki info, all Free-Time events, Ultimate Development Plan, Danganronpa S, Salmon Team, Love Hotels, all fan thoughts, articles, executions, video with analysis of individual characters, some screenshots from the main game and plot twists… Seriously, I'm prepared for ALL of this. So can consider myself quite competent. And I'll start playing very soon anyway!

In DRV3 story, I prefer to ignore the pre-game ending, i.e. fake personalities. I also almost deny the Gopher project. It can be said, that I have my own Universe (really love generate various AU). I can provide an explanation if anyone needs it :^

Also, I am completely satisfied with the cast of the second Danganronpa known as Goodbye Despair, but haven't started watching anime yet (actively moving towards this goal, I want to know as much as possible)

I'm ULTIMATIVE Shipper (pairing maker ? xD). Doctor of shipping science. It affects a lot of my perception of things.

A-a-a-and… HERE IT IS!! First Tier-List 😅

It's pretty simple, but let me clarify one (so as not to deprive you of the opportunity to ask something) thing – tier D doesn't mean that I extremely hate these characters. Rather, I just can't accept their nature and principles, can't understand; but I will NEVER judge the people that like something in them. Although Kurokuma just annoyed me, I confess.

Second Tier-List – my favorite theme, PAIRINGS (yes, as you can see, I ship both het and femslash and just slash, and OT3)👩‍❤️‍👩👨‍❤️‍👨👩‍❤️‍👨

Sorry for the possible ripples in the eyes, Danganronpa is too wealthy in character combinations, phew. And before I start making clarifications on the wording, I would like to bow to the author of this tier-list 🛐

Because he seems to me to be the ONLY one who listed all the combinations, regardless of their popularity. In other variants, for example, I did not find either Shinsai or Shintojo (and as you can see, this was very important for me). There's no cross-game shipping, but I don't do it.

Now to the wording:

"Taking off my hat" means that "don't ship myself (although Ryoma/Kirumi is questionable and Mahiru/Soda isn't so clear), but I respect the fervor and dedication of people who consider them a good couple".

Some opposite of it – is "?¿ I don't understand". I mean, in this case, I'm REALLY confused. How. Why. They weren’t even close, in my opinion. But again, all without hate. Please don't hate for the pairings 🙏

And let’s wrap this up! I hope I could intrigue you 😉 There will be a new post soon!!

Link to the picrew if it's not displayed in the description under the photo: https://picrew.me/image_maker/1414503

[madamebaggio]

Notes: As promised, here is the Margaery ship chosen by you!

This is a direct continuation of this.

I hope you enjoy it ;)

***

Thranduil was incredibly old. He remembered things that history itself had forgotten, and some that he himself wished he could.

He’d seen countries rise and fall, kings and lords losing everything, humans learning and destroying. He loved dearly, he lost things…

Thranduil could go on for days about things he knew -when he was feeling particularly bored he’d do exactly that, just to make his guards sweat.

Legolas -still young and impetuous -would roll his eyes and call his father dramatic. And Thranduil imagined he could be considered dramatic by some standards, but he was too old to actually care.

Besides, drama was one of the last things he could actually enjoy.

As he was this old and experienced in life, it was downright insulting that a human would think of lying to him. Most wouldn’t even try, because they could see in his eyes that he wouldn’t take kindly to it.

But this woman…

If Thranduil was in a generous frame of mind -he hardly ever was -he’d concede that she wasn’t exactly lying to him. She was -at most -hiding parts of the truth, and Thranduil normally didn’t care humans all that much to really be bothered by it.

However, this time, there were dragons involved.

“Let us try this again.” He told her slowly. “What does your Queen want?”

At least Lady Tyrell was smart enough to stop flowering her words. He could see she was still smarting from him calling her out a few minutes ago.

“As you probably already know, Your Majesty, my Queen had to fight hard to get what was rightfully hers.” She started again. “This led to a war, and that itself brought many consequences. Most of all, we are short on allies and some goods. I am here as her emissary to question about those things: friendship and trade.”

Thranduil hummed his understanding, now knowing she was speaking the truth. It wasn’t as pretty as she’d made it sound at first, but it did make sense that the Queen would look for new allies.

He hoped Lady Tyrell wasn’t in a hurry.

“We can discuss this later.” He decided. “I hope you enjoy your stay.”

***

Margaery had dealt with many people throughout her life. She was raised to be the lady of a big house, groomed to be a Queen if the chance presented itself. Her grandmother had sat her on her knee and taught Margaery a lot.

From a young age she’d learned how to read people, and -consequently -how to get what she wanted from them. She always hoped she’d get to be like her grandmother one day.

She talked to lords and ladies, made them think she was sweet and kind; talked to commoners and made them love her. Margaery knew that alliances were important to get what she wanted and she had wanted a lot.

The war for the Iron Throne curbed her ambitions, to the point she was happy to be alive. Many hadn’t  had the same luck; like her grandmother.

Margaery had always wanted to be a Queen, but she’d learned that she’d rather survive this. She wasn’t unhappy serving Queen Daenerys, but she wasn’t sure what she wanted anymore.

She enjoyed the respect brought by her position, and even liked the fact that she was actively doing something for Westeros, but…

Some days she felt as if she was doing things just to survive, just to keep going.

Like this, right now.

It had been a week since she’d been ‘welcomed’ into Greenwood, and she hadn’t seen King Thranduil since then.

When Daenerys suggested going to the elves, everyone thought she’d finally lost it. There had been no contact with the elves for centuries at that point, and everything that was known about them came from songs and legends.

Daenerys had pointed out people thought the same about dragons.

Therefore, Margaery, Tyrion and Varys had sat down and tried to figure out what could be real and what was fantasy.

At that point, immortal beings didn’t seem that far fetched. There had been an army of undead and dragons, so why would that be impossible?

The songs agreed on a few things: elves were beings of pure light, they were beyond beautiful, and they lived for a long time. Everything else was… Not so simple. Some stories pictured them as extremely benevolent creatures, full of goodwill and wisdom. Others portrayed them as fickle and untrustworthy, always willing to sacrifice what they considered ‘lesser’ creatures. It was hard to determine what was fiction, personal impressions, and they didn’t feel comfortable considering any of that actual information.

They poured over maps and figured a general direction and sent messengers.

Margaery hadn’t expected an answer, but she got one.

Tyrion had wanted to go, but Daenerys asked him to let Margaery go instead, since she was much better at first impressions. Marge was starting to think Tyrion might have had better luck with the King.

They were all beautiful; it was downright ridiculous. There wasn’t a single elf she’d seen that was less than stunning; men or women, they all had perfect facial symmetry. And there was this… Strange glow. It did look like they were made of light -or at least had great skin care. And the King…

Margaery wasn’t a girl to be infatuated with good looking men, but… She had never seen a face like his. It was… It was perfect, because there was no other word for it. Even his hair was perfect.

She was still figuring out what was true from what she’d read, and mostly elves were… Odd. She could imagine that being immortal could get boring after a while, and maybe that’s why they seemed too detached from the world.

The only elf who’d talked to her more was Lady Tauriel. She was supposedly guarding Margaery, but the young woman knew she was just keeping an eye on the human.

Tauriel was a fierce warrior, and extremely young by elves’ parameters. She wasn’t even a thousand years old yet.

She was also full of questions. She wanted to know about Westeros, the dragons, the dead, the Queen, the war…

Margaery didn’t mind talking to her, because she was the only one willing to talk back and let the lady know what to expect from elves in general.

There was also prince Legolas, who was also extremely beautiful -not as much as his father, of course. He seemed to mistrust her on principle, but Margaery didn’t care about his opinion at all.

She wanted to talk to the King, but he was never around.

Tauriel admitted that the King did this occasionally, then came around saying that weeks were a blink of an eye to him, so he’d forgotten. She was also unsure if he was serious about it, or just messing with them all.

That wasn’t encouraging.

“Lady Tyrell, the King has invited you for dinner.”

Well, finally.

***

The dinner was intimate, for lack of a better word. If he was anyone else, Margaery would think he was trying to get her alone and seduce her, but the idea seemed laughable when it came to him.

They sat together for the meal and she was served the best wine she’d ever tasted. She tried making small talk for a while, but then got the distinct impression he was amused by her attempts, so she became quiet and waited for him to say something.

“Tell me about your Queen.” He asked eventually. “Not the pretty lies and the poetry. Tell me the truth.”

Margaery took a minute to think about it. “What do you know about the Targaryens and the war that almost ended then, Your Majesty?”

“Nothing about that.” He replied easily. “I don’t pay attention to human affairs. Once the last dragon died, I didn’t care anymore.”

“I see.” Margaery told him about the Mad King and the rebellion against him, and how Daenerys and her brother had escaped and lived in exile. She told him about Daenerys being sold into marriage in exchange for an army.

During the whole tale of Daenerys’ conquests in Essos, Thranduil barely moved. Margaery wasn’t even sure he was actually listening to what she was saying, but -as he didn’t tell her to stop -she just carried on.

That was until she spoke of their first meeting.

“What did you think of her when you first met?” He finally asked.

“I thought she was pretty.” Margaery admitted. “I thought she couldn’t possibly be the woman of the stories. She’s quite short, and looks very dainty.”

“And after?”

This was a tricky question. Margaery had already learned she couldn’t lie to him, and the answer to that question was…

“I was…” She took a sip of her wine to buy herself some time. “I was intimidated. She’s fierce and the people that serve her are loyal. Honestly, at that point I just wanted someone to kill Cersei Lannister.”

���So you didn’t mind what type of person she’d be.”

“No, not really.” Margaery confessed. “I just wanted her to end Cersei, I didn’t particularly care how. I barely escaped King’s Landing with my life, I wanted retribution.”

“Do you believe in your Queen?”

“She’s young.” Margaery spoke diplomatically. “I think she will grow into her role, and she’ll be a great Queen.”

“How political of you.” Thranduil took a sip from his wine, and Marge felt as if she’d lost his interest. “Do people in Westeros still talk about the gods tossing coins to know if a Targaryen will be mad?”

“I… I didn’t know that story was that old.”

“Trust me, it is.” His eyes turned back to her. “Is your Queen mad?”

“No.”

He hummed. “You are uncertain.”

She was. Margaery didn’t dislike or envy Daenerys, and she had supported the Queen and intended to continue doing so.

But…

“Only time will say, sire.”

“You do have a way with words, Lady Tyrell.” He sighed. “I don’t care to listen more about the Dragon Queen. Tell me about yourself, Lady Tyrell.”

“Myself? What would you like to know, sire?”

“The truth, but only the interesting parts.” He was still watching her. “You don’t strike me as a simple woman, and you do seem smarter than most humans.”

Margaery couldn’t help but chuckle. “How kind of you, sire.”

“There’s something about you, Lady Tyrell. Something that is vaguely interesting.”

This time Margaery couldn’t hold in her laughter. “Oh sire. You are so charming.” She couldn’t stop giggling. “I think this wine is too strong.”

The corner of Thranduil’s mouth was curled up. “For some, yes.”

“I can tell you whatever you want to hear, sire, but it’s not that interesting. Or pretty.”

“Pretty stories are normally lies, Lady Tyrell. I’m interested in the truth. Tell me something that will make me pay attention.”

“I’ve been married three times and all of them are dead.” She blurted out a bit less gracefully than she’d have liked. That wine was going way too fast.

Thranduil arched an eyebrow. “Now that is something that sounds interesting.”