#babak mahjoub

[eye-of-enigmatic-thought]

[Note: Image description is in the alt text of the images due to its length. Let me know if writing them down on the post's description is more preferred!]

My sad static dad! Babak is a character that I still want to do a lot with, to the point he's not really based in TMA before as he used to be. I really want to write a full on story with him someday.

More info under the cut!

Babak is a mysterious being and not even he's sure what he is, he doesn't remember much of his past and who he was aside from being Iranian in origin, but now roams the earth seemingly aimlessly, often appearing as any other person who you may brush past by when you're on walks and the like. He is only seen around where humans will reside, places with zero population of humans will not be visited by Babak, so he is inherently tied to humans in a way…

Despite the very strong human resemblance, there will be some odd effects when one is near Babak and his presence. Such as: The feel of tingling static, mild tinnitus, visual snow, and the imagery of boteh/paisleys in ones dreams and vision. Not all of these have to apply when around Babak and it will vary with each person, but its especially apparent in anyone who has had prior encounters with him…

Babak has a tendency to make contact with and make himself visible to anyone who has had a trauma or is going through a trauma and will appear as a 'imaginary friend'. He will always act very personable and friendly, and will attempt to even protect anyone going through a traumatic event. Those that have had Babak will then thus remember the trauma as a strange fuzzy event they can't recall entirely, and Babak as some vague friend they can't entirely recall, if there's any memory at all.

However, Babak has a tendency to then come back to these people he had previously cared for, and will revisit them as a way to see how they're doing and also as a reunion. However these often end tragically, as Babak's return often come with the resurfacing memory of the traumatic event. If one accepts Babak's presence and does not reject him, he will be very accommadating and kind, and will do his best to help you even if you are retraumatised by him. If one rejects him and tries to drive him away or pretends he's not there, he will become incredibly aggravated and unstable, becoming harder and harder of a presence to ignore and may even unintentionally become hostile as he sorrowfully cries at you to remember and acknowledge him.

As Babak becomes more unstable… his form will change and become incredibly static-like, to the point he would not resemble human at all, but more like some ambiguous haze thats made completely of static, as if his human appearances was some 'mask' for that no longer is able to hide, like a type of anchor thats now become broken...

The moral of this story is don't bottle up your trauma!!

[newsintodays-blog]

Unrest intensifies in Iraq as Iranian consulate and oil facility stormed

New Post has been published on http://newsintoday.info/2018/09/08/unrest-intensifies-in-iraq-as-iranian-consulate-and-oil-facility-stormed/

Unrest intensifies in Iraq as Iranian consulate and oil facility stormed

BASRA/ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) – Civil unrest fueled by anger against perceived corruption and misrule by Iraq’s political elite intensified across the south of the country on Friday, as protesters stormed the Iranian consulate in Basra while others briefly took workers hostage at a nearby oilfield.

Iraqi protesters are seen in front of the burnt Iranian Consulate in Basra, Iraq September 7, 2018. REUTERS/Essam al-Sudani

After five days of deadly demonstrations in Basra in which government buildings have been ransacked and set alight, protesters broke in and damaged the consulate’s offices, shouting condemnation of what many perceive as Iran’s sway over Iraq’s political affairs.

Security sources said the consulate was empty when the crowd burst in. Iraq’s Foreign Ministry said the storming of the consulate, which it deeply regretted, had nothing to do with protesters’ demands.

“The targeting of diplomatic missions is unacceptable and detrimental to the interests of Iraq,” said ministry spokesman Ahmed Mahjoub.

Iran, however, blamed Iraq for failing to protect its embassy and said it expected Baghdad to “identify and punish the attackers quickly,” Bahram Qassemi, the spokesman for the ministry, told journalists, according to state media.

The Iraqi ambassador to Tehran was later summoned to the foreign ministry over the complaints.

Several foreign governments have consulates in the city, including the United States and Russia.

In a statement, the U.S. State Department condemned the violence against diplomats and called on “all parties, including security forces and protesters, to uphold the right of peaceful protest and to protect diplomats and their facilities.”

Late in the day some 65 kilometers north-west of Iraq’s second biggest city, another group of protesters entered a water treatment facility linked to the West Qurna 2 oilfield, managed by Russia’s Lukoil.

Oil prices were steady on Friday, with U.S. crude slipping on weak global equity markets while Brent inched up on geopolitical factors, including violent protests in Iraq.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled down 2 cents at $67.75 per barrel. Brent crude futures settled up 33 cents at $76.83 a barrel. [O/R]

The protesters held two Iraqi employees hostage for about an hour before leaving the facility peacefully, according to a Lukoil source and a source with Basra’s energy police. Production was not disrupted, a manager at the oilfield said.

The unrest in Basra could have deeper implications for a country that imports most of its food.

Since Thursday, protesters have shut Iraq’s only major sea port at Umm Qasr, 60 km (40 miles) south of Basra. It remained shut on Friday, local officials and security sources said, although oil exports, carried out from offshore platforms, have not been affected.

An Iraqi protester gestures in front of the burnt Iranian Consulate in Basra, Iraq September 7, 2018. REUTERS/Essam al-Sudani

SWEEP CLEAN

Residents say they have been driven to the streets by corruption that allowed infrastructure to collapse, leaving no power or safe drinking water in the heat of summer, with protests intensifying on Monday.

Since then at least 12 demonstrators have died in the city of 2 million, mostly in clashes with security forces, as demonstrators torched government buildings and the offices of political parties, whose leaders are all vying to form Iraq’s ruling coalition.

On Friday, two protesters died from gunshot wounds and 39 were wounded, local health and security sources said. A curfew was imposed shortly before 9 p.m. local time, but residents still targeted a building belonging to Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, the grouping of mostly Iran-backed Shi’ite militias.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s national security council met on Friday and said it was investigating casualties at the protests.

The storming of the consulate came hours after Iraq’s most revered Shi’ite cleric called for a political shakeup in Baghdad and a halt to violence against the protesters.

Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the ultimate authority for devout members of Iraq’s Shi’ite majority who normally holds himself above day-to-day politics, placed blame for the unrest with political leaders and said a new government should be formed, “different from its predecessors”.

Smaller protests also took place on Friday in other cities including Karbala and Baghdad.

Slideshow (6 Images)

NEW CRISIS

The unrest has thrust Iraq into a major new crisis at a time when politicians have yet to agree a new government after an inconclusive election in May. The new parliament finally met on Monday for the first time, but broke up after a day having failed to elect a speaker, much less name the next prime minister.

Parliament’s interim leader summoned lawmakers to an emergency session on Saturday to discuss the unrest.

Leading political figures, embroiled in government formation negotiations in Baghdad, have scrambled to respond to the crisis, condemning rivals for inaction.

Iraq’s political factions mainly came together in the past four years during a war against Islamic State. Baghdad’s two most influential allies, Washington and Tehran, also backed the government despite their deep hostility to each other.

But since Islamic State was largely defeated last year, divisions have resurfaced. Shi’ites in the south, where most of Iraq’s oil wealth is produced, say Baghdad politicians have squandered state funds while leaving them desperate.

Moqtada al-Sadr, a populist Shi’ite cleric whose electoral bloc came first in May’s election, said on Twitter that Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi must release more funds for Basra.

Sadr, the former leader of an anti-American Shi’ite sectarian militia who has reinvented himself as an anti-corruption campaigner, has allied himself with Abadi.

Their alliance is competing to form a government against a rival bloc backed by Abadi’s predecessor Nuri al-Maliki and the leader of an Iran-backed Shi’ite armed group, Hadi al-Amiri. Amiri called on Abadi to resign over the crisis on Friday.

Reporting by Aref Mohammed in Basra and Raya Jalabi in Erbil; additional reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh in Geneva; Writing by Raya Jalabi; Editing by John Stonestreet, James Dalgleish and Diane Craft

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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[eye-of-enigmatic-thought]

You swear you didn’t know him, that he was a stranger you never met, but as he talked to you, and how he knew so much about you, you couldn’t help but remember… remember that he was there in a place you knew so long ago… You don’t want to remember…

So! I made a TMA fear avatar oc named Babak Mahjoub, who is an old Iranian man that well, is essentially based and inspired by my repressed traumatic memories and confusion over my racial identity. He is also your dad now.

More about him under the cut! Warning for themes of trauma.

Babak is a man of unknown origins that not even he knows or remembers, but he can speak in Persian and has a Persian accent when speaking English, his imagery is often accompanied by distorted and warped boteh, so its believed he is Iranian of origin, though little is known beyond that. Babak seems to be a avatar of several entities, mostly the Stranger or the Spiral with hints of the Lonely, and represents the very specific fear of repressed memories and trauma, and confusion over one’s self and origin. Babak will appear to people (often children) who are going through some kind of traumatic event, and will be a supportive and protective being that tries to shield them from harm. Once he is sure they are okay and will get better, he leaves to help others. With the people only remembering him as some vague imaginary friend or old friend they hardly remember… with only memories of boteh and static for their trauma, making them often think their trauma wasn’t even real. However Babak may often revisit those he had visited before, but these are barely heartwarming reunions. Due to how the people he visited barely remember him, they will at first be confused and unnerved by this oddly familiar stranger talking to them, and once they remember him, so too do they begin to remember their trauma, revealing that it was real all along.. Should whoever he’s revisiting react to him aggressively and in denial, denying him and denying their trauma was real, Babak will turn more and more monstrous and his static-like distortions will worsen, pursuing them and will (albeit unintentionally) make their reemerging traumatic memories hurt worse. He acts incredibly obsessive, begging with them to ‘please remember’ and to not turn him away when he just wants to see 'my child’ again, not understanding why they’d run away from him… Should someone react accepting of him and his presence, Babak will act very accommodating, and will do all he can to comfort them through their traumatic memories coming back. It will still hurt, but it is much more manageable. Despite being a fear avatar, Babak does not want to harm anyone, and really only wants to protect those vulnerable and help them come to terms with their trauma, but due to his effects in bringing back repressed trauma, he often causes major distress and fear, not even understanding why..

[eye-of-enigmatic-thought]

“But... I remember you...”

[ID: Traditional pencil art of The Magnus Archives fan oc Babak Mahjoub. Babak is a light brown skinned Iranian man with black and grey hair and boteh patterns on his neck, he wears a red scarf and a grey coat. The art is a bust of a front facing Babak as he looks wistfully at the viewer as the left side of his face corrupts into static, he asks “You.. don’t remember me...?” End ID.]

[eye-of-enigmatic-thought]

Earlier doodles of Babak Mahjoub, my TMA avatar oc.

Ft. @gremlem’s oc Gilbert, who deserves a hug by the static dad.