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villainofmyownstory · 2 months

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Day Zero chapter 3

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pairing: Simon “Ghost” Riley x plus size fem!reader

summary: Meeting another person after 2 years of loneliness was not supposed to be like this.

tags: AFAB reader, plus size reader, dog german shepherd, alcohol, weapon

author's note: I don't know... I'm not satisfied with this chapter. I think I reread it and edited it too many times. From this chapter, what happens after days 730... will be in the present tense because, for example, in the next chapter we will return to day 64, of course it is described in the past tense, so it just seems logical to me. I'm not changing chapters 1 and 2, I hope you don't mind. I think I've been spending too much time on this story and I'm starting to think too much.

Thank you all for your positive feedback. You don't even know how much this means to me <3

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Chapter 3: The one when you met

Day 730

Ghost

There are plenty of things in this damn city that he will never run out of. When Ghost was left almost alone, with Riley by his side of course. Already in the first days, the man noticed that there were things here that would stay with him for the rest of his life. Even when he's gone, many of these items will remain in his warehouses for years to come.

Ironically, what he needed the least, alcohol and clothes.

He was never a demanding person. He didn't expect much from life. He was a rather simple man. A roof over his head, a supply of food, a place to train and peace of mind. So when he realized that this city was only his, he was very happy and satisfied. Not that he hated people. It was just better when they were as far away from him as possible. Somewhere in the background, preferably far from his sight and hearing. For many years he felt irritated by the closeness of another person. Of course, there were a few people who managed to get under the lieutenant's shell and understand his moods, behavior and motivations. However, there were few of them. That's right, they were.

In the army, he worked with several people. For many years he had no one outside of work. No family. No other relatives or friends. So when the captain sent him to a well-deserved rest after another long and hard mission. Ghost couldn't find his place for the first few days. He was simply irritated by mundane, everyday things. Going to the bank, store, clinic or even the gym. Too many people. Everywhere. Constant conversations, gesticulations. Noise.

Too much.

So he was grateful for the development of technology. When he could finally sit in front of his computer in the comfort of his own home and get things done in the office or via an app on his phone. The less contact with other people, the better. That's what he thought.

Now that Riley is missing, the soldier wonders about the meaning of his life. If the world had in some way done him a favor by removing other people from his surroundings, why did he have to take away the one being that made him feel alive. That his life has any meaning.

He wasn't a monster. Of course not. It wasn't like he was hoping for some kind of annihilation of humanity, that he would be the sole survivor on earth and be able to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. He just wanted some peace, on his terms.

However, he felt no sadness or regret as he patrolled the empty streets or checked another empty building.

He had lost too many loved ones in the past to grieve over nameless strangers now.

He shouldn't drink. He knows it perfectly well. Two years. 730 days of sobriety. He had promised himself that big day, he had promised Riley, that he would never feel that burning liquid in his throat again. So that he won't become such a madman when alcohol starts circulating in his system again.

So that he does not become his own father. He couldn't even think of this person as someone close to him. Disgusting creature. Reflective sadists. Sperm donor and that's it. Which should never have existed. He buried that monster a long time ago. Just like Ghost buried his own self.

Apart from losing Riley, this was the man's greatest fear in his life. That by drinking alcohol and getting closer to people, he would show them who he really was. That he was just like his twisted psychopathic father.

And he didn't want to be like that, he couldn't. He preferred to hide behind the façade of a domineering, boorish lieutenant in a mask. Pushing others away from himself. The further, the better. He didn't want to hurt anyone.

He preferred to be alone.

He wore a mask almost all the time. He hid his face from the world. He never showed his true self. He hid his identity and the man he was behind a piece of cloth.

Now that it was just him and the dog, he didn't have to cover his face.... And although sometimes in the morning he was looking for a black mask on the nightstand out of habit, he got used to the pleasant feeling of air on the skin of his face. If necessary, he placed a few masks here and there. Just in case someone, somehow showed up in his town.

Now, standing in the pantry with his heart pounding, he unhesitatingly reaches to the back of one of the shelves where he hid the alcohol.

He purposely hid the bottles in the back of the cabinets behind other things so that every time he looks here, he won't notice the colorful bottles at all.

So that nothing would tempt him.

Pulling out a bottle of bourbon, he moved the cans of food and didn't hesitate. He feels that if he does not immediately drown his sadness in a glass of amber drink, he will not be able to bear the pain of another loss. Looking at the label, he smiles to himself. Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve 15 years 107 proof*. Searching the homes of these rich people had some benefits. Rich motherfuckers who didn't know what to do with their money bought everything expensive. The more zeros in a line, the better.

When he returns to the office, he doesn't even look at the surveillance system.

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Day 731

Ghost

He lost himself. He drank himself unconscious. It was long after sunrise, it is even after noon.

“Dammit”

Ghost mutters, slowly getting up from the chair he fell asleep in a few hours earlier.

He should have been looking for the dog since dawn. He shouldn't give up. He shouldn't lose hope. However, when he lost sight of the dog, something inside him broke. It reminded him too much of the previous two times he'd lost loved ones. He lost control again. Something thwarted his plan. He lost his stability. Monotony, life according to plan.

Barely walking, tripping over his feet and knocking several things off the dresser, he reaches the bathroom. He doesn't care about anything anymore. Everything is the same to him.

When rinsing her face with water, he does not look at her reflection in the mirror. He can't look into his own eyes. Again, he directs his steps to the pantry. To get another bottle. Ghost has already lost count, another bottle to forget.

It didn't matter. It's just that nothing makes sense anymore.

Wobbling on his feet, he returns to the small room, sits in the chair at the desk and takes a few sips straight from the bottle. Regret - he finally feels it. Another sip. Drown, drown. And he only hopes that alcohol will soothe this feeling, that it will help him fill the void he feels after Riley's disappearance.

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Day 732

Ghost

Another day of drinking. Once he touched his lips and felt a sharp substance with his tongue. And he fell into a trance again. It was hard to break out of it. Constant drinking. Vicious circle. Another bottle and another. Let it burn, sting, hurt. Just to feel something. Physically.

Finally, as if something was calling to him, he struggled to get up from the chair and dragged the body to the kitchen, he decided he had to do something. Anything other than just sitting here. With a lot of thinking, wondering, blaming. He's not a victim, he's not. He has to look for the dog. Keep going. He can't show weakness. Even before himself. He felt a little embarrassed. That he gave up again. Too quick and easy. He looks at the mess he probably left behind the night he drunkenly tried to make himself something to eat.

“I'll deal with it later,” he muttered, heading towards the dressing room. Trying to keep his balance, he stops in the hall, next to the small surveillance room, and freezes.

One screen was active. Detected movement.

"Fuck..." Ghost is angry with himself, pissed off. That he hadn't thought about sitting in front of the screens and looking at the city earlier. But now wasn't the time to blame himself or dwell on the situation. He must finally take action.

Looking at the screen, the soldier can't believe his eyes. He not only sees his beloved dog on the screen. Who slowly walks through one of the streets. In the live footage, he sees a figure walking.

Person.

Alive.

Without thinking, he quickly runs to his room to change and grab his gun. It's definitely an ambush. No one in their right mind would wander in the middle of the street in a strange city in the middle of the day. With a dog by my side.

Bait.

Surely the rest of the group was waiting somewhere outside the city or on the roofs of buildings. He has to do something, he has to get Riley back. Adrenaline stimulates his body, his thoughts flow in one direction. Bring Riley home. Punish those who had the nerve to steal his dog.

He had never driven under the influence of alcohol, but he had no choice. It would take him too long to walk downtown, and he couldn't let the intruders get any closer to his house. Or worse, they'll leave town with his dog.

Besides, the only danger in driving a car in such an environment was himself. And he doesn't care about his own health and life.

Before leaving, he checks the camera again, the figure slowly approaches the City Hall building.

"Easy target" Ghost smiled, plenty of space to capture. He loads his gun and runs out the door as fast as he can, his fingers firmly wrapped around the sniper rifle.

While driving through the city streets, he tries to focus on driving straight, but at the same time he is constantly looking around for a potential threat. It definitely has to be a larger group, Ghost is expecting several people. To his surprise, however, he doesn't notice anything unusual.

Finally he stops and he leaves the car a few blocks from the town hall and starts walking towards it. He hopes he's not late. That the intruder and his dog hadn't moved too far.

There were rather low buildings near the town hall, so a block earlier he turned left and headed to one of the skyscrapers, from where he would have a better view. A better place to attack. However, there is no time to enter it. He freezes in place because he hears Riley barking and then a human voice. A woman's voice.

“Shit…”

He muttered through his teeth. Of course he might have expected a group of travellers to send a woman or a child out to scout. To stir up sympathy only to have someone lose their guard.

He has to play it differently. He looks around the street and decides to enter the restaurant on the corner, remembering that there is a passage inside and he will have a perfect view of the street where the town hall was located. As he walks through the abandoned building, he mentally curses himself for drinking so much. Adrenaline helps him focus and stay upright, but he fears what will happen if he ends up having to aim his gun. When he reaches the storefront overlooking City Hall, he freezes.

Woman pets Riley tenderly and happily says something to him.

Dog seemed to sense his presence because it sits on its hind legs and looks towards the building where the soldier is.

Without thinking, Ghost raises his gun and takes aim.

He must get the dog back and show the strange travelers that they cannot take what is his. That he is in charge.

Fractions of seconds. Ghost pulls the trigger, shoots. The woman falls forward. Without even realizing the threat standing in the dark building in front of her. She falls, but not from the shot. There is not a single drop of blood. No screaming in pain.

It was Riley who pulled her over. He saved her. He protected her from the bullet.

Assessing the situation, Ghost quickly leaves the building and continues to aim his gun at the lying woman.

He didn't expect this development, of all the possible scenarios that went through his head. He did not foresee, despite years spent on the battlefield, reading thousands of training materials.

That the dog would be against him and protect some random stranger.

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Day 732

You

Everything happens so fast that it is impossible to rationally connect the facts: the shot, Riley pulling the leash and the fall. So much, in a split second.

But the only thing that is echoing in your head right now is whether or not Riley is okay.

So you don't notice the massive, tall and masked figure slowly walking towards you... The first thing you should do is check the condition of the dog. Riley. That's all that matters to you. You sit on your lap and look closely at the dog.

“Riley, oh boy, are you okay? Show yourself".

You check the dog, and after making sure that the dog is alright, you find no trace of blood or the slightest injury. Relieved, you slowly get back to your feet. Straightening up, you finally see with horror the figure standing in front of you who wanted to shoot you a moment ago. And now it's starting to dawn on you what just happened. What is really happening and that you are in great danger. You open your mouth and then close it, repeating this action several times, you want to say something. But what can you say at a time like this? No words come out of your throat.

“Stand where you're standing and let go of the leash”

The masked man growls lowly, slowly turning his gaze from you to the dog, slowly stepping closer to the two of you.

“Raise your hands above your head and don't move.”

You shiver with fear, chills running through your body. The sound of a man's low voice, any human voice other than yours after many months. Weird feeling. Irrational.

After a while, you finally recover and slowly raise your hands.

“Let go of damn leash!”

You look at the man with fear. It occurs to you that this must be the same man who left the letter on the tower. Anyone else could be masked and not call themselves Ghost. He was tall, well built. He was dressed in tactical gear, a bulletproof vest and... a mask. This was no ordinary balaclava. A skull was attached to the material. The front part, with a fragment of the upper jaw, eye sockets, and forehead. It must have been a human skull. You involuntarily shiver harder in fear, trying to take a deeper breath. This was not what meeting another human being was supposed to be like. This wasn't what you expected.

Ghost will raise his gun higher, still pointing it at you.

“Riley. Heel.., come here"

He calls to the dog, breaking the terrible, prolonged silence. The confused dog stands up and takes one step towards the soldier. But he doesn't go any further.

“This… this dog is mine”

The words finally fall out of you, you muster up your courage and whisper, keeping your eyes on the man

“Don't take him away from me. Not again.”

“Your dog? I think you've got something wrong"

Ghost growled, clearly annoyed. His arm muscles visibly tense, this entire exchange makes no sense to him. Waste of time.

"Y-yes, he's mine..."

You start to say, trying to control the emotions you're feeling. You slowly lower your hands.

“I can prove it. Just let me”

Regardless of the fact that the gun is constantly pointed at you, you have to prove it to him and keep the dog with you. No matter what, at any cost. You want to reach into your backpack and take out that old worn-out photo that you still carry with you to this day. One of the few souvenirs you have kept from your past life.

“Hands up, damn it, I'm not playing any games. Give the dog back and leave town."

Ghost shouts, you can see that he is becoming more and more irritated by your behavior.

“You can take everything you find and leave my city. Riley stays where he belongs - with me."

You shake your head negatively, swallowing the lump in your throat, trying not to cry

“No, the dog is mine.”

“Oh, damn it, I don't have all day for unnecessary discussions. Tell your people not to come back here again. Or at least have the courage to show up in person and not send a woman. Pathetic".

As he says this, he finally lowers the gun and pats his thigh, trying to get the dog's attention.

“Riley! Heel!”

Thinking little, or probably not thinking at all, you reached into your backpack and opened the zipper, looking for a photo.

“Dammit, kid, you don't understand what I'm telling you. Leave the dog and fuck off."

You don't care anymore, if you were to leave this city without your dog, you'd rather die here. Now, at this moment.

You take out the photo, which you have carefully secured to prevent any further damage. You raise your hand, holding the photo, and try to stop it from shaking. Despite your emotions, you calmly say to masked man

"Look, this is my dog. Mine. Look, Riley's missing a piece of his ear. You see? Dog in this photo doesn't have it either…”

The man hesitates for a moment, but decides to approach and take a closer look at the photo in your hand.

“That doesn't prove anything,” Ghost starts to say, but you interrupt him

"What do you mean? How many dogs of this breed have such a wound? How many have a black collar with an engraving on the back, with the exact name and phone number?"

As you say this, you state what is written on his collar

“You could take this off him and read it.”

"How do I know there's something written inside?"

There was silence. Another long, tiring one. You looked at each other without saying a word.

The man was taller than you and towered over you, his broad frame creating a shadow above you, his dark eyes narrowing as he looked at you. As if he was trying to read what was going on in your head.

You feel a little dizzy. The whole situation was so strange, so surreal. This wasn't what my first conversation with another human being in two years was supposed to look like. This wasn't how the first meeting was supposed to go. At least it wasn't what you imagined.

There's something wrong with the man across from you. Weird, dark, terrifying. His attitude irritates you and something inside you finally breaks. You explode.

“Ghost, listen…”

You started, raising your voice slightly

“I don't know what your intentions are, why you're so defensive about this town and this dog. But I came here alone! ALONE! I haven't seen a living person in two fucking years. I don't understand what kind of travelers you're talking about and why you don't want to admit that this dog is mine. But... but I don't want to leave, not after finding Riley."

When you say this, you look at the dog that sat between you and the soldier. Riley lay down, as if he was also tired of all the strange interaction between two people he knew, through which he was confused.

Ghost remains silent, never taking his eyes off you, as if wondering what to do. Pros and cons.

Finally, the sound of the watch interrupts his persistent gaze, and the man sighs loudly, as if resigned, and says

“Let's just say… I believe you. Temporarily”

The man secures the gun and hangs it on his shoulder. Seeing this, an involuntary smile appears on your face.

“Come on, kid, it's late. We have to go”

Ghost points to the sun, which is slowly starting to hide behind the buildings

"We'll finish this conversation somewhere else. Come on, both of you."

He waves his hand and points in the direction to go.

“Go ahead, I'll watch your back.”

The walk to the car doesn't take long, and you're glad that you won't have to walk another distance on your still scarred and aching legs.

"No way!"

You scream in shock when you see a large, dark pickup truck parked in the cul-de-sac.

“You have a working car! I couldn't find..."

Standing at the passenger door, a man interrupts you, stands next to the trunk and you open the hatch

“Riley, get in. You sit in the back too”

He points to the trunk of the pickup truck

"What? Are you kidding me?"

This man was behaving absurdly. You guess that years of loneliness made him unable to behave socially. He forgot what it was like to interact with another living person.

“Just. Get. In. And don't whine unless you want to walk to the tower. You know the way.”

The man looked at you without blinking.

“To the tower? Why are we going to the tower?”

You say in disbelief, letting go of another exchange of words, slowly climbing into the trunk and sitting down next to the dog. Ghost closes the trunk, making sure the dog is safe, and gets behind the wheel.

“We need to visit your companions. Since they're not in town, they're probably waiting for you there. You know my name, so you must have read the letter.”

As the car starts moving, you start to wonder if you did the right thing by getting into the trunk. Letting a stranger take you away, God knows where. There was something wrong with this man. He thought Riley was his and that you weren't coming to town on your own. Maybe he too, like you, has been living alone all these months. And he clearly couldn't cope with it. You hug the dog, just hoping that when you reach the tower, the man will finally believe you and let you stay.

Nevertheless, you did not want to be left on your own again. Only now did you feel how much you missed another living person. How much you needed to feel someone's presence. To know that you were not meant to live in isolation. You felt that the burden that had stuck with you through those many sleepless, weeping nights had finally fallen from your shoulders.

Maybe it was destiny. This was your fate.

So, you accept it already.

Even if from now on, you will have to live with this strange, mysterious man in a mask.

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#simon ghost riley x reader #simon ghost x reader #simon riley x you #cod #ghost #call of duty fanfic #cod au #ghost x reader #dayzero💀

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glitchyred · 4 months

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I think my issue with a lot of modern takes on video game creepypastas, particularly the concept of "fixing" video game creepypastas, is that a lot of them seem to believe video game horror revolves around making things visually scary and not like. Considering what would actually make something like Super Mario scary

I've been on kind of a Mario kick recently so I've been interested in recent creepypasta fangame projects revolving around it and they all have the same energy of like. Distorted faces and bitcrushed noises and running from a demon and all that. Analog horror stuff. In an abstracted way it seems more like they're trying to fix Sonic.EXE than anything, but what was wrong with Sonic.EXE wasn't that it's designs weren't scary enough. It fundamentally didn't understand how to take Sonic and twist its concepts in a way to make it scary

Like, take Mario 64 horror and compare it Super Mario horror. 64 has a legacy as a kind of lonely, vaguely uncanny game in the minds of many people. Lots of Mario 64 horror banks on this with surreal imagery and emphasis on extreme feelings of isolation. The early Super Mario games don't have a history with this sort of innate unease, so what do they have to distort and corrupt?

I think the best example of Super Mario horror is Coronation Day. It understands the assignment, that being - Mario games are whimsical, they tell a story without giving much information, and they rely on graphics to immerse the player in the fantastical world. Coronation Day twists these; the story is whimsical in a very dark way, it uses corrupted, vague messages to convey its plot, and it's backgrounds and assets immerse the player in the feeling that something is deeply deeply wrong. Coronation Day absolutely does rely on scary designs and gore and stuff, but I think it would still be impactful without it.

Idk I'm not sure I'm communicating a coherent point here, I just wish these modern "fix-it" takes on Creepypastas would apply more depth than "good horror art = inherently good horror game/story"

#thoughts are kind of all over the place on this topic hopefully i'm making some sense #txt #i feel like some of these people read like. godzilla nes. and were like oh you make a good creepypasta by making really good art #and like the art absolutely helped that story that story has AMAZING art but. it wasnt the only reason it was good #it had a good story too. you need a good story you cant rely on art alone djshdjsj

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workersolidarity · 20 days

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[ 📹 Civil Defense crews work to recover the dead and wounded after yet another Zionist army airstrike targeted a civilian residence in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, killing 6 Palestinians and wounding several others. 📈 The current death toll in Gaza now exceeds 37'232 Palestinians killed, while another 85'037 others have been wounded. ]

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251 DAYS OF GENOCIDE: GAZANS STARVING TO DEATH AS ISRAELI OCCUPATION CONTINUES CLOSURE OF CROSSINGS, UNRWA WARNS OF CATASTROPHIC ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTHCARE RISKS IN GAZA, 61% OF GAZANS HAVE LOST AT LEAST ONE FAMILY MEMBER IN THE GENOCIDE, 32 DEATHS FROM MALNUTRITION, HALF OF ALL CROPLAND DAMAGED BY WAR, MASS MURDER CONTINUES UNABATED

On 251st day of the Israeli occupation's ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed a total of 3 new massacres of Palestinian families, resulting in the deaths of no less than 30 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, while another 105 others were wounded over the previous 24-hours.

It should be noted that as a result of the constant Israeli bombardment of Gaza's healthcare system, infrastructure, residential and commercial buildings, local paramedic and civil defense crews are unable to recover countless hundreds, even thousands, of victims who remain trapped under the rubble, or who's bodies remain strewn across the streets of Gaza.

This leaves the official death toll vastly undercounted as Gaza's healthcare officials are unable to accurately tally those killed and maimed in this genocide, which must be kept in mind when considering the scale of the mass murder.

Speaking at a press conference published on its social media platforms, the World Health Organization's Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned that the organization had documented “32 deaths in Gaza as a result of malnutrition, including 28 cases of children under the age of five.”

Ghebreyesus went on to add that “Since October 7, we have documented 480 attacks on health facilities in the West Bank, resulting in 16 deaths and 95 injuries.”

Continuing, Ghebreyesus went on to state that “Peace is the best medicine” to the catastrophic conditions faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Additionally, Ghebreyesus said he welcomed the resolution passed by the United Nations Security Council proposing a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal, urging all parties to "take steps to immediately implement the ceasefire decision in Gaza and put a permanent end to the suffering of millions of people."

Additionally, in separate comments, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) issued a warning about the catastrophic environmental and health risks faced by the Palestinian population of Gaza.

UNRWA cautioned that "As of 9 June, over 330,000 tons of waste have accumulated in or near populated areas across Gaza, posing catastrophic environmental [and] health risks. Children rummage through trash daily."

The Palestinian refugee organization went on to state that "Unimpeded humanitarian access and [a] ceasefire now are crucial to restore humane living conditions."

In other news, an opinion poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, conducted in the Gaza Strip, found that 80% of residents of the Strip have lost a relative or had a relative injured in Israel's ongoing genocidal war.

Further, 61% of Palestinians said that one or more members of their family had been killed during the war, while 65% said one or more members of their family were injured in the Israeli entity's war of genocide.

With regards to civilian resources, just 26% of Gazans said they were able to reach a place where they could receive assistance, while 72% say they can receive assistance but with great difficulty or risk, and another 2% said they could not.

Additionally, 64% of residents of the Gaza Strip said they only have enough food for one or two days, while 36% said that they do not have enough food for even one or two days.

According to the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, which is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental academic research Institution, the sample size of the poll conducted included 1'570 people, of whom, 760 were interviewed face-to-face in the occupied West Bank in 76 residential locations, and 750 people were surveyed from the Gaza Strip in 75 locations.

In more news, according to data analyzed by the United Nations and published in the Hebrew

media, more than half of Gaza's agricultural lands have been degraded by the by the Israeli occupation's ongoing genocidal war in Gaza.

The data accumulated for the study revealed a large rise in the destruction of orchards, field crops and vegetables in the Gaza Strip.

The UN used imagery taken between 2017 and 2025 by UN Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) found that 57% of Gaza's permanent crop fields and arable lands critical for food security have shown a major decline in density and health.

"In May 2024, crop health and density across the Gaza Strip showed a marked decline compared to the average of the previous seven seasons,” UNOSAT said, adding that “this deterioration is attributed to conflict-related activities, including razing, heavy vehicle movement, bombing, and shelling.”

The UN also found that crop fields, orchards and greenhouses across the Gaza Strip had sustained significant damage, with an estimated 151-sq. km of agricultural land, making up about 41% of the enclave's territory.

Meanwhile, the Zionist aggression against the Gaza Strip continues unabated as the occupation continued committing massacres across the enclave.

Following a tour of West Asia by US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, where the US's top diplomat attempted to secure a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal, violent airstrikes and artillery shelling targeted several areas of the Gaza Strip.

In the Central Gaza Governate, the area's Civil Defense announced the recovery of three bodies found in a bombed-out house in the Nuseirat Camp.

In the meantime, Gaza's Media Office confirmed that the number of humanitarian aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip had decreased by 12% from levels last week, further exacerbating the catastrophic humanitarian conditions being endured by starving Gazans.

South of Gaza, the Al-Qassam Brigades, belonging to the Hamas resistance movement, stated that its forces were engaged in street fighting with the invading Israeli occupation army west of Rafah, while witnesses reported seeing Israeli Apache helicopters and Zionist gunboats opening fire towards the neighborhood.

Reporting states that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) started a new ground operation, invading west of Rafah, near the Al-Alam roundabout near the coast.

More than 30'000 displaced Palestinians were forcibly displaced again, abandoning their tents to sleep in the streets a distance from the occupation's advancing Merkava tanks and armored vehicles, while large numbers of displaced civilians were wounded as a result falling artillery shells and Israeli gunfire.

Similarly, occupation forces detonated entire residential squares in the Yabna and Shaboura Refugee Camps in the Rafah Governate, while intense artillery shelling pummeled neighborhoods east of Khan Yunis.

Local sources are also reporting intense occupation artillery shelling of residential homes in the Al-Mawasi area, north of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, wounding a number of civilians.

Meanwhile, north of Gaza, several civilians were killed, and others wounded, following the bombing of the Israeli occupation army on a house for the Shanioura family, in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City.

Similarly, IOF warplanes bombed a residential home belonging to the Azzam family, also in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, killing 6 civilians and wounding a number of others.

Israeli occupation forces also began a new invasion into the south of the Gaza City, coinciding with violent artillery shelling and airstrikes.

Further, an occupation bombing on the Ezbet-Beit Hanoun area in northern Gaza killed one civilian and wounded several others.

Additionally, an Israeli drone bombed a gathering of Palestinian civilians on Al-Rashid Street near the Gaza Port, resulting in the death of one person and the injury of several others.

Zionist artillery shelling also hammered Al-Sika Street in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City.

In the Central Governate, Zionist fighter jets bombed a residential house belonging to the Al-Louh family in the Al-Hasayna neighborhood of Al-Nuseirat, resulting in the deaths and wounding of four Palestinians, most of them being children. The deaths included Shams Al-Louh, his wife, and their two children.

Another occupation air raid targeted the village of Al-Mughraqa, north of the Al-Nuseirat Refugee Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, killing 5 Palestinians.

In a statement, medical staff from Al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat Camp stated that the medical center had “received 5 martyrs and 8 injured, as a result of an occupation bombing that targeted a gathering of civilians in the town of Al-Mughraqa.”

Another civilian was murdered, and several others wounded, after occupation warplanes bombed a civilian residence belonging to the Jabr family in the Bureij Refugee Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, after which, the wounded were transported to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.

Zionist aircraft also bombed an area in the vicinity of the power plant north of the Nuseirat Camp.

In more tragic news, a young man and a child, a young girl, died as a result of wounds sustained during the Al-Nuseirat massacre last weekend.

Elsewhere, another civilian was killed, and two more wounded, resulting from an Israeli bombing of a civilian home in the Bureij Camp, in central Gaza, on Wednesday evening.

As a result of the Israeli occupation's ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the endlessly rising death toll now exceeds 37'232 Palestinians killed, including over 15'000 children and upwards of 10'000 women, while another 85'037 others have been wounded since the start of the current round of Zionist aggression, beginning with the events of October 7th, 2023.

June 13th, 2024.

#source1

#source2

#source3

#source4

#source5

#source6

#source7

#source8

#source9

#source10

#videosource

#graphicsource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

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rjzimmerman · 2 months

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Excerpt from this story from The Virginian-Pilot:

A day after news broke of a fourth red wolf death in 10 months on a highway off the Outer Banks, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday announced a new litter for the critically endangered species.

Eight red wolf pups were born last month to the Milltail pack, a family of wolves living at the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge on the mainland just west of the Outer Banks.

“While this is the third year in a row for a litter in that area, it was far from a given that it would occur this year after the tragic loss of 2323 (the previous breeding male in the Milltail family group) in September 2023,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s Red Wolf Recovery Program said in a social media post.

Last spring, “2323” was the only breeding male American red wolf in the wild. He and his mate produced two litters in two years, a major victory in coaxing back a species declared extinct in 1980. He was struck by a car and killed on U.S. Highway 64 in September.

Red wolves live in the wild in five eastern North Carolina counties: Dare, Hyde, Tyrrell, Beaufort and Washington, after a few mated pairs were released in 1987 as an experiment in reintroduction at the Alligator River refuge.

In 2020, recovery efforts began again with the introduction of several wolves from the captive breeding programs.

After the death of Red Wolf 2323, recovery coordinators made “a bold attempt to create a new breeding pair,” the program’s post said.

An acclimation pen was quickly constructed in October at Alligator River within the home range of 2323’s mate. A male red wolf born at Wolf Haven International in Washington state as part of the Red Wolf SAFE (Saving Animals From Extinction) program, was then placed in it. He was released from the pen in late January, timed to breeding season. He and the female soon became a pair.

Biologists monitored them through winter and early spring, seeing hopeful signs that “this somewhat of a longshot new pairing was looking more and more like it was going to be successful,” the post said.

A peek inside the den on April 18 revealed eight “small, content red wolf pups all cuddled together in a ball,” USFW said.

#red wolves #North Carolina #Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge

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cameronspecial · 23 days

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Insta Connection (Part 1)

Pairing: Drew Starkey x Reader

Warnings: None of the pictures used are my own. They are found on Google or Pinterest.

Pronouns: She/Her

Masterlist

Liked by drewstarkey, madisonbaileybabe, and 5, 948, 274 others

Y/N_Y/L/N I’m so excited to announce that I am going to be playing Claire Hars in Outer Banks! Kook life, Baby💸

Comments:

stellastarklover oohh, what’s a kook? and is this the start of her villain era?

madelyncline Yass! Love you queen.

madisonbaileybabe so excited to get to work with you!

y/nandonlyy/n I will watch anything that she is in.

drewstarkey Kook life, Baby💸

→sleuth4life I detect a love interest.

Liked by madelyncline, Y/N_Y/L/N, and 64, 515 others

drewstarkey i do be livin’ my best Kook life

Comments:

Y/N_Y/L/N K4L

→ everythingY/L/N what does this mean???

→ austinnorth55 we are very kooky

hichasestokes Hate the character, love the man.

→ jonathandavissofficial Is that a spoiler?

Tagged: @Y/N_Y/L/N, @drewstarkey

Liked by loveY/L/N, megancarlos, and 3, 534 others

allinfoaboutY/N Leaked pictures from Outer Banks

Comments:

amazingY/L/N Let me be a detective. If Y/N and Drew are dating in the show and Chase says Drew’s character is an asshole, then could this be her villain era?

→ courtneymayers OMG! You could be right!

→ belladeeks Yes, we need villain Y/N

excitedforobx i’m so excited for this show. you don’t understand.

Tagged: @drewstarkey

Liked by zendaya, lgray, and 6, 542, 423 others

Y/N_Y/L/N Best way to end the work day. Although, someone put too much salt 🤤

Comments:

Y/Nismine The only person she can date is me

beatriceY/L/N Was that someone you? Bc the sister ik can’t bake

→ Y/N_Y/L/N I can bake!

→ drewstarkey It was definitely her

→ Y/N_Y/L/N No, it wasn’t!

madisonbaileybabe so rude of you guys not to invite me.

inlovewiththeteenassassin Ahh, what if they are dating?

gordongram I think Y/N did great

Taglist: @loves0phelia @thelomlisrafecameron @wickedlovely121 @thepatriarchykeychain @drewsmusee @starkowswife @maybankslover @forstarkey @loving-and-dreaming

#insta connection #drew starkey #drew starkey series #drew starkey x reader #drew starkey imagine #drew starkey instagram #drew starkey fanfiction #drew starkey one shot #drew starkey insta #drew starkey instagram au #drew starkey social media au

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magz · 2 months

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Palestine summary for April 24 to April 26, 2024 from LetsTalkPalestine.

[Lets Talk Palestin Link Tree, with ways to help and sources.]

April 24, 2024.

Day 201:

• 79 Palestinians killed, 86 injured in Gaza in last 24 hours

• IOF bombed home in Gaza City, killing a mother & her child and injured 6

🇪🇬 Egypt detained 10+ women, among them lawyers, journalists & civil society leaders, protesting in solidarity w/ Gaza & Sudan

• Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoon & Jabalia in north Gaza under continuous Israeli strikes since ordering evacuation in Beit Lahia, giving them minutes to flee

🇯🇲🇧🇧 Jamaica & Barbados officially recognize a Palestinian State

• Israel built 6 new military outposts since Jan, totaling 9 outposts each within 3 miles of Gaza + plan to transfer 2 combat brigades (4-10 thousand soldiers) from Lebanon’s border down to Gaza — fueling fears of a looming Rafah invasion

🇩🇪 Germany to soon resume coordination w/ UNWRA after Israel failed to provide evidence on its allegations against the agency’s employees

🇺🇸 Biden signed to law aid bill giving $26bn to Israel

• IOF abducts 15 Palestinians including former detainees overnight in West Bank

April 25, 2024.

Day 202:

• 43 Palestinians killed, 64 injured in the last 24 hours

🇺🇳 UN to investigate Nasser Hospital mass graves as Israel denies reports of 392 bodies showing severe signs of torture and mutilation

• Hundreds of Israeli settlers storm Al-Aqsa Compound under IOF protection as raids across West Bank cities intensify

🇧🇪 Belgian aid worker & his 7-year-old son killed among 7 others in targeted bombings on Rafah despite disclosing his location to Israeli forces; 6 aid groups affected by recent attacks

🚢 Freedom Flotilla Coalition delays from departing Turkey due to Israeli pressure on Guinea Bissau in an effort to prevent aid delivery to Gaza

• Israeli forces abduct three 13-year-olds from Ramallah, West Bank as 200 children remain captives in Israeli jails

🇫🇷 France to expand sanctions on Israeli settlers involved in violence against Palestinians, with recent EU sanctions imposed on settlers and organisations for similar reasons

April 26, 2024.

University encampments going global 🌍🔥

🎓 Encampments for Palestine which started in US universities have now spread to France, Australia, and the UK, advocating for divestment from companies & arms manufacturers complicit in the Israeli occupation.

The 42 encampments are mostly in the US, but include 2 in Australia, 1 in France, and 1 in the UK, with more expected.

🤐 Arrests at Columbia (100+), Yale (50), Emerson (100+), NYU (dozens), USC (93), Uni of Texas in Austin (55) & more as US political & corporate elites fear the surging power & popularity of the Palestine solidarity movement.

Columbia canceled in-person classes, NYU built a wall around the encampment.

👩‍🏫 Many faculty have joined in protest of their administrations’ Zionist stances.

Biden admin. & Netanyahu, a foreign leader, released statements condemning the students.

🔥 In 1985, students forced University of California to divest $3.1bn from South African apartheid

Inspired? @ pal_actionus posts advice on starting one 🫡

Day 203:

•⁠ 51 Palestinians killed, 75 injured in the last 24 hours

•⁠ ⁠Rising temperatures in Gaza worsens condition of displaced Palestinians in tents, UNRWA added 2 kids so far killed by the heat

•⁠ Former head of HRW accuses Israel of obstructing investigation into Nasser Hospital mass graves

🇳🇱 Netherlands to consider resuming UNWRA funding after Israel failed to provide evidence on its allegations against the agency’s staff’s complicity in Oct 7

•⁠ Eastern Rafah under continuous Israeli shelling, targeting homes, injuring at least 2 Palestinians

🇺🇸 US puts halt on potential sanctions against 1 Israeli military unit, despite allegations since before Oct 7 of severe human rights abuses in West Bank

🇱🇧 2 killed in Israeli strike on a car in south Lebanon

🇪🇺 EU announces $73m in essential aid to Gaza despite refusing to sanction Israel

⚖️ ICJ to soon announce ruling on Nicaragua’s case against Germany, seeking emergency measures to halt German military assistance to Israel

#on palestine #palestine #text post #o post #sij #magz upload

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morgana-ren · 7 months

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Alrighty, everyone mute me here cause I'm about to go on a tirade.

Look, I've been playing video games since I was young. Very young. Probably too young, if we're being completely honest. We had an old Nintendo 64 from my step-dad's youth that I used to play religiously. I played my ps2 for hours and hours a day as a way to cope with a.. shall we say unstable household. I had Gameboy Advanced, Gameboy color, all the way up to Nintendo DS to the switch. This is something I've been doing since I was barely old enough to speak. I used to get games at Blockbuster, okay? I played the OG Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights on a clunky old computer. Even when we were flat-busted ass broke with absolutely no money to spare, I would play at friend's houses. I would play old AV consoles on those fat ass TVs. It's my oldest hobby besides reading, is the point here.

My point is I'm old enough to remember when gaming was a niche hobby that you could actually get bullied for. It was back when studios made games mostly out of passion, and not to sell to a broader audience. There wasn't really even such a thing as microtransactions. You bought a full and complete game. Blizzard released good products, actually (unbelievable, I know.) Games knew their audience, and there wasn't necessarily an assload of money in it, so it was mostly made out of love for the games and their community.

Gaming has grown in popularity over the last 10-20 years, and that can be an excellent thing! Really! It can be! But Baldur's Gate 3 winning game of the year brought something to my attention that has been driving me mad for a few days now. It's a concept I've found myself repeating for a long time, but barely just sort of sat down to analyze it:

Not everything is for you.

The last few winners of GOTY have had some... sour people be very upset. Not that this is uncommon, but especially the last few years. People saying Elden Ring is 'too hard,' people saying that Baldur's Gate 3 is nothing but pedantic dice rolls, etc. People who, in general, were very unhappy that these games did not appeal to them in particular, and they were very vocal about how these games should be changed to appeal to them personally.

What I'm saying is that these people, along with most others, were not there during the days of niche gaming, where when you didn't like a game, you didn't necessarily throw a tantrum and stamp your feet and demand that these games aren't good and that they need to change, but rather, you just... didn't play them. They weren't made for you.

We live in an age where absolutely everything is being scraped for every last dollar. Games that used to be made out of passion for their communities are now being made to sell, sell, sell as many copies as physically possible to everyone. If it won't pander to every last person, it's not going to be made. Things are being 'streamlined' to make the games appeal to anyone and everyone who might play them.

'Streamlined' in this case, means 'dumbed down.' As Bethesda famously says, KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid.

Games that used to be a little bit more 'niche' and 'complex' like Morrowind, are now games like Skyrim, that are dumbed down to sell to everyone. They remove a lot of the aspects that made them beloved in the name of 'garnering a new and broader audience.' Older folks, adults, children, everyone. But this attitude of inclusivity isn't as great as it might seem initially. It isn't done out of community. It is done to get absolutely every last person possible to empty their wallet at the altar. To get every last fucking dollar out of everyone.

Games are passionless money pits. They sell you a half-baked, simple product that insults your intelligence. It's impossible to fail quests, because God forbid one person doesn't like that and asks for their money back. They won't touch on complex topics, because they don't want to cause a controversy that might drain their prospective bank account. They can't make things so intricate that God forbid a toddler might not understand them. They are milquettoast, miserable little games that appeal not even to people who enjoy games, but rather, people who don't.

Yes, they are making games to try and get money from people who don't even like them. They can't make anything nuanced or put a learning curve or put any actual work or fun into the game, because people who don't actually like playing games might realize "Hey, actually, I'm not enjoying this at all." and not give anymore money.

I'll get to the point.

Games being disliked by certain people is a good thing. It means those companies were unwavering on their vision and their loyalty to their fans. It means it was a game made from passion, and not just to be marketed and sold to literally every living person. They were made with their communities in mind, and no offense, but if you aren't one of the people that likes the things those communities stand for, maybe you should seek it elsewhere rather than trying to change something someone loves to suit you instead. You are not the demographic here.

You hear people that hate turnbased saying that Baldur's Gate 3 should not have been turnbased. Guess what? That's literally DnD. It's a DnD game. Don't like the lack of day cycles? Again, that's long resting in DnD. Pedantic dice rolls? That's fucking DnD, baby. Maybe you don't like it, but just because the game got popular does not mean it was made for you. Too much gay? Go away. Baldur's Gate was not made to sell copies to everyone. In fact, it was a relatively niche prospect that gained massive popularity near the end because of a scandal. I've been with them since Patch 2 of Early Access, and it very much was a passion project by people who loved DnD and TT games. They did not think it was going to hit this level of popularity, and they stuck to their guns even when it did. I cannot tell you how rare and remarkable that is.

Dark Souls is too hard? Maybe it's not the game for you. If you don't like certain design aspects, that's fine and okay! But Miyazaki and Fromsoft should not be forced to change their vision of their passion project because you personally do not like it. It was around before you, and they have a loyal community that does love the game just how it is. If you want a game with a difficulty slider, maybe you should play a game that has one. I'm sorry if you don't like the fundamentals of the game, but they exist for a reason, the community likes it, and no, it's not just for elitist reasons like I see all too often. You just do not understand because you don't like the game and do not like being told no for once by a company that has integrity.

I'm not trying to insult you. I'm being honest when I say that it's an attitude that is expected in the current climate where everything is changed when people complain the loudest because changing it means more money, and more money is the goal. These people are not your friends. Do not forget that. They are not changing it because they care about you. They are changing it because they think they can con you out of another dime.

People have a masochistic relationship with these companies. They have gotten used to being pandered to. They have gotten used to being sold a shitty game that everyone from their grandmother to their toddler niece and nephew can beat. And no, there's nothing wrong with games for everyone. But it's not because they wanted to make a game for everyone. It was because they wanted everyone's money.

People make hour long youtube videos about how Baldur's Gate would have been better if it was real time, and if it was more like this game and that game (namely games that pander to everyone) and then, in the same week, release a video bewailing that all games are so bad now and they don't understand why. They grasp that greed has a part in it, but they don't understand that they are directly contributing to the problem.

Games are bad because when everything is for everyone, nothing is truly for you. You won't have a chance to be passionate about anything, because on the off chance you find something you love, you will inevitably watch it die the same way that those of us who have been here forever did, because someone outside of the community doesn't like it, so it has to go because Christ forbid they don't sell two more copies.

And no, I am not talking about 'woke' or 'political correctness' so you alt-right weirdos can keep the fuck off of this post. I am talking about things like a lack of quest markers. Complex puzzles that you can fail. Political nuance. Things that take brainpower and are fun but not everyone likes.

Maybe not everything is for you. Maybe a game is allowed to exist even if you don't like it. Maybe communities are allowed to have their thing while you have yours. Maybe you have gotten so used to being pandered and catered to with every game being this blase, half-baked experience that is sorta liked by most, but... beloved by none. It's a forgettable, boring experience that garners no real loyalty, but at most a "Ha, that was alright." And then you put it on the shelf never to touch it again.

It means these companies aren't thinking of money; they are thinking of their communities. They are thinking of their fans and the people who love their games. Every time Miyazaki says 'no' to changing the formula that we love about his games, he is thinking of his loyalty to his community and his passion to the game. When Sven refuses to change aspects of the game to suit people who don't like DnD, he is staying loyal to the DnD community.

More companies should be doing this. Not less.

But consumers need to remember that one little creedo: Not everything is for me.

It can exist and I can exist. I do not have to play it and I do not have to enjoy it. It doesn't mean that it's bad. It means it's not for me. And that's fine.

#morgana and friends #im going nuts here I just had to say it #so many people whining about bg3 and dark souls and like #these are games I LOVE #and if you don't like them DON'T PLAY THEM #not everything has to be for you #this is a good thing #it means these studios CARE about the people in their community!#it means they aren't thinking with their wallets!#they are making games out of PASSION #something larian is actually famous for #and ill be damned if I have to sit and listen to another whiny toad whinge about how 'they don't like it so it should be changed'#im not tagging this cause I'm not railing for popularity points #I just had to get it out #back to your regularly scheduled filth

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writers-in-moominvalley · 2 months

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The Length Of Almost Every Episode In The Moomin Comic Strip

The Moomin comic strip written and drawn by Tove Jansson, then written by Lars and drawn by Tove Jansson, then written and drawn by Lars Jansson, had a total of 73 distinct stories under its banner after a lifetime of 21 years, but how long are those individual stories, by strip number? If you want to find out, this post is for you!

Unfortunately unlike some Moomin fans I don't have every single story (especially the later ones) in my grubby little paws so I can't tell you the length of those, but if you happen to be one of those fans who do have those comics in their grubby little paws, please be a dear and tell me for how many strips those stories took to tell their truly wonderful stories of borderline illegal shenaniganary committed by the main characters, underbaked political commentary and benevolent racism (uhm. Just talking about Lars' writing choices there).

TOVE JANSSON/JANSSON COMICS

1. Moomin and the Brigands: 91

2. Moomin and Family Life: 68

3. Moomins on the Riviera: 85

4. Moomin's Desert Island: 74

5. Moomin Winter Follies: 82

6. Moominmamma's Maid: 82

7. Moomin Builds a House: 60

8. Moomin Begins a New Life: 62

9. Moomin Falls in Love: 51

10. Moomin Valley Turns Jungle: 65

11. Moomin and the Martians: 68

12. Moomin and the Sea: 101

13. Club Life in Moomin Valley: 61

14. Moomin Goes Wild West: 63

15. Snorkmaiden Goes Rococo: 52

16. The Conscientious Moomins: 81

17. Moomin and the Comet: 81

18. Moomin and the Golden Tail: 109

19. Moomin Winter: 97

20. Moomin Under Sail: 102

21. Fuddler's Courtship: 102

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Longest comic: Moomin and the Golden Tail (109 strips)

Shortest comic: Moomin Falls in Love (51 strips)

Total strip number: 1556 strips

Average length: ≈72 strips

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LARS JANSSON COMICS (published by Drawn & Quarterly)

1. Moomin's Lamp: 76

2. Moomin and the Railway: 79

3. Moominpappa and the Spies: 79

4. Moomin and the Circus: 80

5. Moomin the Colonist: 81

6. Moomin and the Scouts: 82

7. Moomin and the Farm: 80

8. Moomin and the Goldfields: 76

9. Moomin Family Robinson: 82

10. Artists in Moominvalley: 93

11. Sniff's Holiday Camp: 75

12. The Inspector's Nephew: 77

13. Damsel in Distress: 75

14. Fuddler and Married Life: 94

15. Sniff's Sports Shop: 75

16. Mymble's Diamond: 64

17. Moomin and the Vampire: 71

18. Moomin and the TV: 67

19. The Underdeveloped Moomins:95

20. Moomin and Aunt Jane: 96

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Longest comic: Moomin and Aunt Jane (96 strips)

Shortest comic: Mymble's Diamond (64 strips)

Total strip number: 1597 strips

Average length: ≈79 strips

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LARS JANSSON COMICS (NOT published by Drawn & Quarterly)

1. Moomin and the National Park: 76

2. Moomin and the Good Old Days: 80

3. Moomin's Pet: 94

4. Moomin the Private Eye: 89

5. Spring in Moomin Valley: 84

6. Moomin Rescues a Princess: 77

7. Moomin and Agent 008 ½: 95

8. Moomin Lives Dangerously: 89

9. Moomins in Torrellorca: 92

10. Snorkmaiden Crashes Society: 95

11. Moomins in Ancient Greece: 81

12. Sniff Goes Good: 84

13. Moomin the Journalist: 83

14. Moomin and the Orphans: 111

15. Sir Moomin: (Not Available Yet/NAY)

16. Horsey Moomin: (NAY)

17. Moomin and the Mermaid: (NAY)

18. Emancipated Moomins: 88

19. Moomin and the Radicals: (NAY)

20. Moomin Christmas: 85

21. Moomin in Ancient Egypt: (NAY)

22. Sniff Falls in Love: (NAY)

23. Moomin Engagement: 80

24. Moomin and the Flying Dutchman: (NAY)

25. Snorkmaiden the Seer: 94

26. Moomin and the Beach: (NAY)

27. Moomin Gets Rich: (NAY)

28. Moomin and the Guru: (NAY)

29. Moominpappa and Old Age: (NAY)

30. Moomins in Battle: 91

31. Moomin in Neander Valley: (NAY)

32. Moomin and the Ten Piggy Banks: (NAY)

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Longest comic: Moomin and the Orphans (111 strips)

Shortest comic: Moomin and the National Park (76 strips)

Total strip number: 1668 strips (excluding missing comics)

Average length: ≈88 strips

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TOTAL total strip number: 4821 strips (excluding missing strips)

Overall average length: ≈80 strips

#moominvalley #moomin #moomins #lightbulb moment #moomin comics #tove jansson #lars jansson

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magicaltear · 1 year

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How many have you read?

The BBC estimates that most people will only read 6 books out of the 100 listed below. Bold the titles you’ve read.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 2 Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkein 3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte 4 Harry Potter series 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 6 The Bible 7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte 8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell 9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman 10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens 11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott 12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy 13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare 15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier 16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien 17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks 18 Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger 19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffeneger 20 Middlemarch – George Eliot 21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell 22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald 23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens 24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy 25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams 26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh 27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky 28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck 29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll 30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame 31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy 32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens 33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis 34 Emma – Jane Austen 35 Persuasion – Jane Austen 36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis 37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini 38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres 39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden 40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne 41 Animal Farm – George Orwell 42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown 43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez 44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving 45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins 46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery 47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy 48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood 49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding 50 Atonement – Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel 52 Dune – Frank Herbert 53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons 54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen 55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth 56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon 57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens 58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley 59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon 60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez 61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck 62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov 63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt 64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold 65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas 66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac 67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy 68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding 69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie 70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville 71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens 72 Dracula – Bram Stoker 73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett 74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson 75 Ulysses – James Joyce 76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath 77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome 78 Germinal – Emile Zola 79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray 80 Possession – AS Byatt 81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens 82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchel 83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker 84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro 85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert 86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry 87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White 88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton 91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad 92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery 93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks 94 Watership Down – Richard Adams 95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole 96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute 97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas 98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl 100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

As found in the original post I saw by @macrolit

My total: 43/100

#tear-chan talks #reading and stuff #damn this is both more and less than I expected haha #this tells me I should probably read more Dickens #also some of these I read in Spanish so...

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beardedmrbean · 5 months

Text

Federal and local authorities arrested dozens of employees of New York City's public housing agency in a series of morning raids Tuesday linked to a massive bribery and extortion plot, according to prosecutors.

The raids, coordinated by Homeland Security Investigations and the city's Department of Investigation, netted the most single-day bribery arrests in the history of the Justice Department, according to Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

In all, 70 people were arrested in six states.

ILLEGAL MASTERMINDS OF NYC ROBBERY RING HACKED BANK APPS, RESOLD STOLEN PHONES OVERSEAS

"As we allege, the 70 defendants charged today allegedly demanded over $2 million in bribe money from contractors in exchange for giving out over $13 million of work," he said at a news briefing. "And if the contractors didn't pay up, the defendants wouldn't give them the work."

According to court documents, an unnamed co-conspirator allegedly texted another asking how much of a bribe she should demand: "1k per cool?"

NYPD RELEASES MIGRANT RAID PHOTOS AS SOFT-ON-CRIME LEADERS FACE NATIONAL OUTRAGE

"No problem babe, as long as your are being blessed," Angela Williams, a 64-year-old suspect who is not related to the U.S. attorney, allegedly replied.

The New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA, is the country's largest public housing system and takes in more than $1.5 billion in federal funding every year, according to the DOJ.

As a public entity, it is required to bid contracts for most repairs or construction work and go with the lowest bidder. But there is an exemption for essential projects, such as plumbing emergencies or broken windows, that cost under $10,000.

Management at each building was allowed to make "no-bid" deals for those jobs.

All of the suspects were NYCHA superintendents or assistant superintendents when prosecutors say they demanded cuts of between $500 to $2,000 or more per job, ultimately collecting $2 million of taxpayers' money since it came out of the funds contractors received from city and federal agencies.

"That's classic pay-to-play, and this culture of corruption at NYCHA ends today," Williams said.

The kickback scheme was so pervasive it took place in almost a third of NYCHA's properties, he said.

Investigators are asking contractors who may have been victimized by similar demands for pay-to-play bribes to contact the DOJ's whistleblower program at [email protected] or the city's inspector general.

Most of the suspects have been charged with taking bribes and extortion, which carry 10- and 20-year maximum sentences in federal prison, respectively. Several face more charges.

#nunyas news

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mariaofdoranelle · 2 years

Text

Dick Awards

Rowan Week day 7: Aelin admiring Rowan

Forgive me, readers, for I have sinned

Warnings: language, NSFW (very), accidental use of hallucinogens, 64 mentions of the male genitalia and a lot of male sexual objectification

Word count: 6,8k

˜˜˜˜

Thousands of likes. Rowan had joined this out of pity, and this fucking tweet had thousands of likes already.

RULES

- No minors allowed

- DM this account your dick pic

- To avoid scams, the picture must contain #DickAwards on handwriting. Can be in any way from body paint to holding a post-it note, but digital writing won’t be allowed.

“Did you submit your dick?” Aelin said from behind his ear.

Startled, Rowan jumped on his seat and choked on his breakfast. Trying to recompose himself, he asked, ��What the fuck, Ace?”

She smirked. “I’m sorry, is Rowan Junior too sensitive for this topic?”

“We’re not talking about this.”

“About the Dick Awards, Rowan Junior, or Rowan Junior in Dick Awards?”

Rowan opened his mouth and closed again, shocked by her bluntness. “Neither!”

Damn Fenrys and his stupid Twitter contest. Rowan sent a picture of his cock just to protect his friend’s feelings in case the event flopped, but it quickly became the talk of the campus. Thankfully, Aelin had no idea Fenrys was the one behind Dick Awards, neither would she know who owned each dick. One small blessing, at least.

She sat on the table and started eating the breakfast he made her, but her face was still filled with mirth. “I think you’re in the contest.”

Rowan’s pulsed immediately picked up. “How would you know that?”

Aelin leaned back and crossed her arms, a triumphant smile on her face. “You’d tell me if you weren’t, but it’s easier for you to avoid the subject than to lie to me.”

His cheeks were probably red by now, but he didn’t balk. Rowan might not know how to lie to his roommate, but he was damn good at being stubborn. “We’re not talking about this, and I have ways to make sure of it.”

Still chewing, she raised an eyebrow in question.

It was his time to lean back in triumph now. “I did buy a lot of leafy vegetables that could go into your lunchbox—“

“You wouldn’t dare!” Aelin slapped both of her hands on the table, gaping, and Rowan did his best not to smile.

Turns his effort was fruitless. He smiled, hoping he didn’t look too silly, because Rowan could never hide how he felt about Aelin, his only luck lying on the fact that she never picked up on that. Her being a picky eater was just one of the many things he’d judge if it was any other person. But since it was Aelin, he even found that habit endearing.

Aelin looked at the watch they kept in the kitchen and sighed.

“Can you make those sandwiches with the cheese spread we ate last night?”

Rowan nodded, and she got up to hug him from behind while he was still sitting. “Thanks.”

It was almost time for her to go collect some herbs Dr. Valg requested for their research. It was common sense that Maeve was a shit professor, but her work at the Doranelle’s Center for Psychedelic Medicine was groundbreaking enough for everyone to put up with her.

Rowan sunk in his seat just by the thought of having to see Maeve on the weekend. He wouldn’t usually mind the extra work, but their professor didn’t help, neither did his almost empty bank account. They were broke like every student, but he and Aelin had a better situation than most from their program because his Uncle Ellys let them live in his old apartment practically for free.

His friends always teased him for not charging Aelin to live there, but Rowan didn’t mind it. And it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he wanted to give her every reason possible to stay right there with him.

The students had a break room with a small fridge for themselves near the lab, and it was packed with Rowan’s own lunchboxes. The extra snacks were for when he and Aelin needed to stay longer than usual, which was pretty common, but he was well aware that Fenrys often stole their food. Not that his friend tried to keep it a secret, but Rowan refused to assume he was also cooking for Fenrys, of all people.

The sandwich Aelin requested wasn’t in the fridge because she wouldn’t like if it was cold. It was the first one Fenrys went for when he arrived.

Rowan slapped his hand. “That’s Aelin’s.”

Fenrys sat on the couch near him and sighed. “I want you to be in love with me so bad.” Rowan frowned, not that it’d stop Fenrys. “I mean, I’d get free rent, a free cook—“

“That’s enough—“

“You even have a great dick, not that she’s using that for anything—“

“That’s. Enough,” Rowan said through gritted teeth this time, his voice a lot more stern.

Fenrys’s eyes went wide. “Dude! You have a great shaft. Why are you embarrassed?”

“I’m not!” He pinched the bridge of his nose, thinking of the quickest way to change the subject in a way that wouldn’t encourage Fenrys to annoy him further.

His friend snickered and continued, “It’s about Aelin, then. Now you should be embarrassed. She’s been into you forever, man.”

Rowan sat on the couch too and sighed, knowing his friend would never let him be. About anything. “How could you even know that?”

“Because I know chicks. I know how they work.”

“No, you know how their vaginas work.”

“That too!” He winked. “I have many talents, Buzzard.”

Rowan narrowed his eyes. “Don’t call me that.”

Fenrys smirked, a smart remark on the tip of his tongue, when Rowan beat him to it.

“How’s Dick Awards?”

Just like that, Fenrys’ thoughts switched paths.

“It’s great, man! I was doing just one thing, like the Miss Doranelle of dicks, but now there’s so many people I need to divide them into categories.”

Rowan snorted. “Like the Oscars of dicks?”

“Exactly!” And then he snatched his phone to show the preparations for the contest. Rowan had to give it to him, that level of organization was very unusual for Fenrys, his friend was fully dedicated to Dick Awards.

“Us dudes need to hype each other’s dicks up, man. Like that sisterhood thing, but for bros.”

Rowan snorted. Fenrys probably gathered that from one of the times Aelin lectured him about feminism. At least he was listening.

“I don’t need my dick being hyped up by another guy.”

“You shouldn’t open Twitter tomorrow, then,” Fen said with a troublesome smirk.

He paled. He wasn’t expecting all that repercussion from the event. To have the whole campus commenting on his cock, even if they didn’t know it was his. Definitely not on his bucket list. But Rowan had already sent his pic and consented to this, so he wouldn’t balk. He knew Fenrys would understand if he backed away, but it wasn’t like Rowan to back out after everything was said and done.

He was lost in his thoughts while Fen showed him his preparations. Large Dicks, Dicks on Steroids, In the Shower, Dicks With a Costume. Fenrys showed him every category imaginable, which made him wonder which one Rowan was in. His picture was pretty standard if compared to some dudes who did costumes, body art or special lightning.

“Which category is that?” Rowan asked when he saw a few cocks that looked... interesting.

“Cute dicks.”

Rowan’s eyebrows went wide “Is that your idea of hyping guys up?”

“Don’t worry, man. I have great plans for your dick.”

“Why do you have plans for Rowan’s dick?”

The two of them jumped on their seats, startled by Aelin’s sudden appearance.

Rowan’s heartbeat was racing. Where the fuck did she come from?

None of them knew what to say, and Aelin soon gathered that this conversation wasn’t meant for her to hear. Weary, she came closer, her eyes trained on them, until she snatched her sandwich and left the room.

This whole situation was far too awkward for any of them to utter a word.

Fenrys snorted a beat after Aelin closed the door. “I’d pay good money to be in her head right now.”

Cursing, Rowan got up and went after her. He had no idea how to explain whatever she was thinking, or even if he had an explanation for that. But he was almost sure she got upset, so Rowan needed to do something about it. That was how he worked.

Aelin was sitting on the large table on the lab, unwrapping her sandwich. He approached her, still not knowing what to say, and cleared his throat.

“Fireheart, I’m—“

“You don’t need to explain, really,” she answered with a smile, but something about it was off.

Rowan carefully weighted his options. Biting the inside of his cheek, he was damn sure he didn’t want her to learn about his participation in Dick Awards. But on the other hand, he hated to see her upset, and he now had a feeling he knew why she was like this. They never kept secrets from each other. Except for that one thing, that is.

He sighed, his mind made up and knowing he was doomed either way. “You can ask.”

Aelin bit his lip and looked down for a little before asking, “Are you and Fenrys...?”

“What?” He asked wide-eyed and slowly shook his head, confused. “You know I’m not into guys.”

“You wouldn’t be the first to... discover yourself after Fenrys.”

Aelin gently bit her sandwich, and Rowan could cry at how adorable she looked with those furrowed eyebrows and flushed cheeks.

“We’re not together. It’s not a...” He took a deep breath, hoping his cheeks weren’t too red too. “It’s a brohood thing” Rowan almost choked the last words out, recalling Fenrys’ sisterhood justification for Dick Awards.

Aelin choked on her own laughter and began to cough as an attempt to hide it. “He has great plans for your dick because you’re best bros?”

He slowly nodded, completely defeated. “That’s right.”

“Okay...” She took a deep breath to recompose herself. “I’m not sure I want to ask further.”

His cheeks flushed with the realization of what he just implied. What did she think Fenrys was going to do with Rowan’s cock? He opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again. He wouldn’t be keeping his dignity either way, so it was best to give up now that Aelin seemed pleased his answer.

Rowan could question why she was suddenly so interested in his sexual activities, but hoping once more would be too much for today. He sighed, tired of his own feelings, and quickly went back to the break room to grab something to eat.

Rowan always kept many lunchboxes ready for when they needed to stay late in the lab, so he just picked the first one he saw on the fridge and went back to eat it while he read some articles that’d help with his research.

The taste was a bit off and he wondered if it had gone bad, but Rowan was too upset to care about that.

He was reading and making a few notes when he noted one of the authors had a funny writing. Something about his choice of words had him quietly giggling.

“Ro, are you okay?” Aelin asked with furrowed eyebrows.

He smiled to soothe her worries. “Easy-breezy.”

She snorted and went back to work, and so did he.

Until he noticed a few of the pages were green. He didn’t see it when he first got the magazines, but he kinda liked this change. Green was a nice page color. Rowan looked at Aelin, and his Fireheart looked smokin’ hot with her hair all... hairy and her funny nose scrunched up in concentration. God, he loved the shit out of her.

Trying to get her attention, he threw a pencil at her. His aim wasn’t the best, but it was enough for her to notice him.

“What the fuck, Ro?”

“Did you like the green pages?”

She tilted her head. “What green pages?”

He smiled and turned the magazine so she could see. “The new green pages!”

Aelin’s eyes were so wide they looked funny. “They’re white.”

Rowan giggled. It was so her to prank him like this.

She slowly got up and walked towards him. Aelin looked around his desk and carefully studied his face. She was mostly tugging at his eyelids and moving his face around, but Rowan didn’t mind it. Her fingertips on his face were worth the not so gentle inspection.

“Did...” She looked around and whispered, “Did Fenrys give you a pot cookie?”

Rowan shook his head. “Don’t need, thanks. Just had a salad.”

She had both hands on her hips when Fenrys came in.

“Hey, Ace. I can’t find the herbs we collected today.”

Aelin sighed. “I put them in the...” and she frowned. And looked at Rowan’s empty lunchbox. Then looked at Fenrys again. Now she was gaping, and her eyes were wide as saucers. “Fucking Mala.”

Fenrys tilted his head.

“I think...” she swallowed. “I think Rowan ate them.”

His friend gaped, and then started cackling so much it made Rowan giggle too. He liked Fenrys. Fenrys was fun. Not as fun as Aelin, but the boyo was cool.

“Are you telling me Rowan ate all of the hallucinogenic herbs for the research?”

She slowly nodded, but her shoulders were shaking, and then she started laughing too. They had a good moment of just laughing together, but then they heard high heels against the floor that made his friends freeze.

“What’s going on?” Dr. Valg barged into the room and asked between gritted teeth.

Fenrys began to give her a report about his tasks, and Aelin supplied with intakes here and there. Rowan just stayed sat, minding his own business. One would think he was reading his articles, but he was actually admiring the table. Now it was green too. It looked pretty, he thought.

“Okay, bring me the herbs.”

Fenrys swallowed. “They’re not available.”

Maeve pinched the bridge of her nose. “You just gave me a detailed report about bringing them.”

“Um.” Aelin cleared her throat and pointed at Rowan. “He ate them. Accidentally.”

“Are you telling me that Whitethorn.” Maeve took a deep breath and fisted her hands. “Whitethorn got high on my herbs, and you let him stay close to the very expensive equipment?”

He was watching it with an amused smile, but his friends were looking down and exchanging worried glances. He wondered why. Seeing Maeve upset was so fun. Without saying a thing, just the sight of her face gave him a good giggle.

Maeve’s face snapped back at him and she strode his way.

“Whitethorn! What the hell were you thinking?”

He tilted his head, confused.

She snapped her fingers. “Aren’t you Whitethorn?”

“Me?”

She pinched the bridge of her nose. “What’s your name again? I can never remember it.”

He frowned. That was a good question. He didn’t remember his name.

“I don’t know my name.”

Both Aelin and Fenrys hovered closer, their eyebrows pinched.

“What do you mean you don’t know your name?” Maeve asked through clenched teeth.

Aelin quaked, “Rowan, tell her your name!”

“But I don’t know my name!”

“Your name!” Maeve screamed.

He seethed, his eyes bulging. “I. Don’t. Know!”

Fenrys began to gesticulate a lot, a telltale sign of his worried state. “YOUR NAME’S ROWAN!”

“WHO’S ROWAN?”

“YOU’RE ROWAN!”

“IS THAT A RIDDLE?”

“OKAY, ENOUGH!” Aelin interrupted his and Fenrys’ shouting match by shouting stronger.

Confused by the commotion, Rowan screamed, “WHY IS EVERYONE SCREAMING?”

“Because you can’t remember your fucking name!” Maeve said in an impatient tone, the veins on her forehead bulging.

“Oh.” He blinked. “It’s Rowan.”

They let out a collective sigh, and Aelin was the one who broke the silence.

“How are you feeling?”

“Green.”

Maeve rolled her eyes, but it was true. Everything was green.

“Can anyone here who knows where Whitethorn lives take him home?”

“I can take him, we live together,” Aelin said while approaching Rowan’s desk to collect his things.

“Oh.” Maeve raised her eyebrows. “That’s not surprising.”

She winced. “Not like that! I mean—“

Maeve waved a dismissive hand. “I don’t care, just take him.”

˜˜

There was a reason why Rowan was usually the one to drive.

Aelin liked to drive fast. Always cutting her way between the other cars and announcing too late that she was going to make a turn. But now that he thought about it, it was kinda cool. Rowan felt like he was in an action movie of sorts. It didn’t help with the dizziness he was feeling, but that part wasn’t Aelin’s fault.

There was something he needed to talk about with her, but Rowan couldn’t quite grasp what it was. He was trying to remember everything that happened today, until it clicked.

“I’m not letting Fenrys go anywhere near my dick, you know.” He leaned back on the seat and closed his eyes. “I wish I could tell you, but we decided to keep it a secret.”

“Oh.” She swallowed. “That’s fine, you really don’t have to explain yourself to me,” Aelin said in a defeated tone.

“We’re not having an affair!” He knew he’d decided not to tell her, but fuck that. Aelin was his best friend. She could know anything she wanted to. “Fenrys is the mind behind Dick Awards. I’m in the contest. That’s what we were talking about.”

Aelin’s eyes went wide, her arms rigid as she gripped the steering wheel. “You’re joking.”

Rowan giggled. “I wish I was.”

Her mouth opened and she seemed to freeze, until a harsh burst of air left her mouth, and Aelin laughed so much she was fighting to properly drive while her body tried to double over. Intoxicated by her howls, Rowan was laughing along.

The car stopped moving, and Aelin took a deep breath to recompose herself. She unfastened Rowan’s seatbelt, probably because he was a little confused by it earlier, and asked, “Are you ready to be forced into a nap, Buzzard?”

He grunted and let himself be led inside the building.

Rowan mentioned to cook something for them, but Aelin shoved a cereal bar into his hands before he could do anything. He didn’t understand why she wouldn’t let him cook. He was perfectly fine, apart from a few remaining green spots in his vision. But if that was what she wanted, he could oblige for one afternoon.

She took him to his bedroom and gave him a change of clothes from his drawers, turning around and closing the curtains while he changed.

Rowan was already laid down when she sat by his side to say something, but he beat her to it.

“Did I ever tell you your eyes are prettier than the Blue Ribbon Eel?”

She smiled. “That’s your favorite eel.”

“But I still prefer your eyes.” And then this admission made his eyes widen. He didn’t want Aelin to think his feelings depended on her eyes. “I mean, not that you really need them. I’d still like you if you had no eyes.”

Chuckling, Aelin said, “Thanks! it’s good to know I’ll have someone to walk me around if I lose them.”

“I’ll happily walk you around anywhere. It’s my job.”

Aelin’s laughter abruptly ceased. “What do you mean?”

He had a blissful smile. “I knew we were soulmates even in grad school.” Looking deep inside her eyes, Rowan continued, “When you told me your favorite species of eel is the one I have tattooed.”

That earned him a smile, but something about it was off. “You’re high.”

He frowned. “But I still love the Blue Ribbon Eel—and you.”

Rowan noticed her eyes started watering, but she blinked it back. He frowned. That was not the response he was waiting for.

“Did I make you upset?”

Aelin kissed his cheek and tucked him in his covers. “I’m gonna let you sleep now.”

Before Rowan opened his eyes, he already knew his head was pounding. Besides, the loud voices outside weren’t helping.

He risked taking a look at his phone, grimacing because of the light, but he saw it was already Sunday morning. Which meant he had slept for Mala knows how long.

His phone was filled with notifications, but the only thing he opened was the texts from Aelin.

>> hey buzzard

>> lys is coming over so we can vote on some dicks together

>> there’s water, meds and some crackers on your desk xx

Rowan slowly, very slowly came to a sitting position and saw everything was near his laptop, on top of some books. He ate and immediately went back to bed, staying until the painkillers kicked in.

Rowan managed to take a bath without being noticed and stayed in his bedroom, rereading the same paragraph over and over again. The loud voices were still bothering him, but he didn’t have a headache anymore. Rowan just couldn’t get past the fact that his best friend was ten steps away, commenting on other men’s dicks with her friend.

Putting the book down, Rowan could hear the muffled sounds of a heated argument, so his curiosity got the best of him, and he went to see what was going on.

“Are you kidding me? Look at 350’s proportions! Length, girth, ball size, everything!” He could feel Aelin’s agitation just by the sound of her voice.

“I’m not a fan of the veins, though,” Lys argued back.

“How dare you.”

“I prefer dick 72.”

“Ew!” Aelin yelled, too wrapped up in the argument to notice his arrival.

Lysandra leaned back on the couch and smirked. “Come on, Ace. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t pounce on that.”

“That’s the fucking point!” Aelin opened her arms and got up from the couch. “This is Dick of the Year, being pounceable is already required. So, would I pounce on dick 72? Sure. But this?” She pointed at the TV. “I would sell my soul to pounce on that dick.”

And when Rowan looked at the direction Aelin was pointing, he saw his own dick displayed on the TV.

Every muscle he had felt tight, his chest included, and that was exactly when Aelin noticed his presence. She gaped at the same time Lys started cackling, completely different reactions to his discover of Aelin’s enthusiasm.

Aelin’s cheeks turned crimson, but she didn’t balk. She showed him both pictures on the TV and said, “We need your input.”

Rowan’s mouth opened and closed again, before he walked away, shouting on his way, “I’m not commenting on other guys’ dicks!”

He closed the door a little more harshly than intended and got the hell out of his apartment.

I would sell my soul to pounce on that dick.

Rowan walked around the block, completely lost in his own thoughts. All of them running around the same sentence.

I would sell my soul to pounce on that dick.

He knew she didn’t mean it. He knew this contest didn’t mean anything, that this was an overstate. Still, hearing this from the girl he had been lusting after for years. Rowan had no idea how to feel.

I would sell my soul to pounce on that dick.

He went window shopping around the neighborhood, bought some tea, sat on the park. Still, her words couldn’t leave his head.

Worse, they could’t leave the incessant rise of Rowan’s length against his pants. Each time he forced to think of something else, this situation only got worse.

I would sell my soul to pounce on that dick.

Taking a deep breath, he decided to go home. Rowan didn’t even know the time because he forgot his phone, but this situation was unbearable. Completely, utterly unbearable.

The first thing Rowan noticed when he arrived home was that the girls weren’t in the living room anymore. Neither could he hear anything. A quick look at his phone told him they went to a bakery nearby, and Rowan’s posture immediately slumped.

He knew what he was about to do, and he didn’t like it. Actually, he liked it very much, which only made his guilt worse.

Rowan always felt bad after touching himself with Aelin in his mind, but whenever he did it, she found a way to sneak into his every fantasy. And the worst of all, every time she did, things were never soft.

He ran a shaky hand through his head. Aelin deserved so much better than living with a guy who fantasized unspeakable things about her while she was reading a book in the next room. Rowan couldn’t even remember the last time he actually felt lighter after an orgasm, but his underwear was unbearably tight, and he still couldn’t get over what she said earlier today.

I would sell my soul to pounce on that dick, her words from before ringing inside his head like an annoying ad jingle.

Rowan unfastened his clothes and sat on the edge of the bed, his head tipped back. If only he could tell her—

He couldn’t.

Feeling the precum glistening already, Rowan slowly stroked himself, from the tip to the hilt, squeezing his fingers around his base. He took a shaky breath, closed his eyes and let himself imagine.

Aelin was in the kitchen, wearing nothing but his shirt, because that was something she did. Rowan approached her from behind, kissing her neck, because that was something he did. He let a possessive hand slowly wander around her legs, because it was only fair after teasing him so much with them. When it got dangerously close to the spot she loved, Aelin turned around and sent him a sultry smile.

Rowan began to twist his hand while he pumped himself, but he was still going slow. He wanted to drag this one out.

After carrying Aelin to his bed, he dropped her there and didn’t spare a second before laying on top of her and kissing her whole. Rowan trailed luscious, passionate kisses, starting on her lips until he closed his mouth around her nipple. Eager, Aelin wrapped her legs around him and rubbed herself against him.

“Cocktease.”

She did it again and moaned. “You love it.”

And damn him, he did. Impatient, Rowan started to give wet kisses on the valley between her breasts. Aelin immediately picked up his intentions and tugged on the roots of his hair.

“Are you getting me ready for you, love?”

He went back to her lips for a moment, but Aelin soon guided him back to her breasts. He was lucky his girlfriend was just as insatiable.

Impatient, Aelin got up and kneeled beside the bed, looking up at him from below her lashes and thrusting out her breasts as an invitation.

With increasingly quicker pumps now, Rowan squeezed his eyes shut. He thrusted into his own hand and finally stroked himself on the speed he wanted.

Rowan sat on the edge of the bed, in front of her. Aelin immediately grabbed his cock and licked it, brushing her lips against it every now and then. He thrusted into her hand, and she started to rub his cock against her breasts, finding a different way to tease him.

She didn’t stop when Rowan grabbed a fistful of her hair, moaning as he tugged it a little too harshly.

��Baby...” he warned.

Smirking, she placed his length on her cleavage. Closing her breasts around his cock, Aelin made some up and down movements, but mostly just let him fuck them.

He closed his eyes and groaned. Sliding his cock between Aelin’s soft breasts never failed to make him dissolve into pleasure. His body was on fire, muscles so tight they could snap. Their rhythm picked up, and Aelin tilted her head down so she could suck the tip of his cock as well.

She couldn’t speak, but Aelin’s moans sounded delicious when he could feel them around his cock. Almost delirious, Rowan held her head and called out her pet name like a prayer.

Fireheart

“Rowan, did you call—“

Rowan froze mid-pump, not believing what his eyes were seeing.

Not believing Aelin had just caught him with a hand on his own dick. Moaning her name, as it seemed.

His heartbeat was so strong Rowan could feel it in his throat. Two sets of bulged eyes stared at each other, not knowing what to say.

When his mind mildly processed the situation he was in, Rowan quickly threw a blanket over his lap.

“Aelin, I’m—“

“Oh, God!” She covered her eyes a bit too late. “I’m so, so sorry—“

“You don’t—“

Before he could apologize, Aelin banged the door closed and left.

Rowan felt flat on his bed, grimacing and running a hand through his face. He wanted to die. He wanted to erase this weekend from his life. He wanted to shift into a Hawk and fly the hell away from here. God, he had no idea how he’d face Aelin—

His door opened again and Aelin eyed his covered self, cheeks flushed.

“What were you thinking?”

Rowan sat and his pulse skyrocketed once again. Too paralyzed by the situation to utter a single word, the only thing he could bring himself to do was to avoid her gaze.

Aelin softly closed the door behind her. “I mean, what were you thinking about?” She asked while slowly walking his way until they were dangerously close.

“You.” He wanted to thread carefully there, but his hoarse voice might’ve betrayed him.

She hummed. “Did I get to kiss you?” Aelin asked with a tilted head, her voice in a tone Rowan hadn’t heard yet, but was starting to like very much.

“So much.” Rowan’s gaze finally met hers, his breathing fast for many different reasons.

Her hand was on its way to his shoulder when she retreated and bit her lip. “Can I?”

Rowan sneaked a shaky hand behind her neck to pull her closer, but their lips ended up meeting halfway.

Aelin’s lips were the best thing he’d ever tasted.

It started hesitant, both of them not sure of themselves right away. But when Aelin softly sighed and wrapped her arms around his neck, Rowan tugged on her waist and she opened her mouth further, letting him in. Their tongues went on a long and slow pace at first, but it didn’t take long for their kiss to become crushing.

When Rowan felt her completely melt into his touch, he pulled her towards the bed. Mostly because their position wasn’t the most comfortable, but he was also ready for more if that’s what she wanted. But even if they just kissed until bedtime, it’d still be one of the best nights of his life.

Like an answer to his thoughts, Aelin took off her clothes, staying in just her lingerie.

Her red, lacy lingerie.

Rowan almost jumped on top of her, kissing her neck and collarbones while grabbing her curves in a bruising manner. He had completely lost control over himself, but Aelin didn’t seem to mind, moaning when he pinched her nipple through the flimsy fabric.

“Ro?”

He hummed, paying only half attention because he’d just found out he liked playing with her body a little too much.

“I want you to do to me what you were thinking about earlier.”

Resting their foreheads together, he gave himself a second to think. They were just breathing each other’s air, but it was still distracting enough for him. Rowan sighed. He had one chance to make her see… him. He’d not ruin it with his kinky shit.

“I’d rather do something you like, if that’s okay.”

Aelin’s smirk built slowly, until she was grinning like Hellas himself. “It was dirty, wasn’t it?”

Once again, his inability to lie to Aelin was biting him in the ass. If it was possible for him to get any more flushed, he definitely did. Staying silent was the most he could do to protect his dignity, but that was answer enough for Aelin.

However, instead of mocking him like she usually did, she tugged his face back to hers and gave him a languorous, wet kiss.

“You won’t tell me, but I can still guess.” She had a sultry grin on. “We weren’t in missionary, were we?” Aelin said right before flipping them around, straddling him.

The element of surprise was enough for her to throw his larger body into the bed. Her hair was cascading down her sides as she looked at Rowan with a predatory gaze. Said gaze went down, until—

“Dear Mala.” Her eyes widened. “You’re the Dick of the Year.”

Her mouth opened and closed, her cheeks becoming a richer shade of red. Aelin Galathynius looking flustered. Now, that was a rare sight.

“And you heard me.” Her eyes snapped back to his face. “You heard everything.”

“Hey.” Rowan sat too, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. “At least you didn’t need to sell your soul for it.”

She did something between gaping and laughing at him and playfully swatted his chest. “You’re not as funny as you think you are.”

Rowan chuckled and cupped her cheek with one hand, gently caressing it with his thumb. “You caught me jerking off, I caught you praising my cock. It’s pretty balanced for me.”

Laughing brightly, Aelin’s shoulders were shaking, and she rested her forehead on his. He kissed the crown of her head and then she turned her mouth to him, the kiss soft this time. Until it wasn’t anymore.

“Where were we?” Rowan asked when she began giving attention to his neck.

“You were telling me all your fetishes about me.”

He groaned, regretting his last sentence as Aelin breathlessly chuckled. She placed both hands on his shoulders to go to a sitting position while keeping him down. Her golden hair cascaded on her sides as the hands on his shoulders slid down his body.

Unclasping her bra, Aelin purred, “Was I putting on a show for you?”

Rowan gulped, enthralled. “You could say so.”

She slowly slid her bra down, teasing him. When she finally took off that flimsy lace, Rowan’s skin was prickling with the urge to touch her. Taste her further. Aelin was doing unspeakable things to him and she was well aware of it, if her cocky smile was any indication.

When he tried to touch her, she slapped his hands away.

“Baby...”

She bit her lip. “I’ll be nice, then.”

Aelin took his hand and guided it through her body. Their intertwined hands sensually slid through her hips, waist, the curve of her breast, until she took his thumb inside her mouth and sucked it.

He closed his eyes, trying not to lose composure. “You’re killing me.”

She sucked his thumb one last time before taking it off her mouth. “I know.” Aelin gave his wet finger a pointed look before asking, “Do you know where this goes?”

Rowan trailed down the same path with his hand, until he pressed his wet thumb against her clit without ceremony. “In here?”

Whimpering, Aelin arched her back and swayed her hips to chase the friction. Then she took his wet thumb away from her core and placed it on her nipple. “Not yet.”

“You like to make me wait, don’t you?” Rowan was so impatient he could cry, but at the same time letting her take the lead was a lot more arousing than he thought it would be.

“You made me wait for years, Ro.” She mentioned to take her panties away, but Rowan ripped them in two before she could barely move. Aelin moaned, and that was the first time he realized she might be as eager as him to get this over with. Still, she continued, “It’s only fair.”

Rowan focused back on his assigned spot on her breast. He wouldn’t let her get away with the teasing that easily, though. His caresses started being more rough, until he pinched her nipple with two fingers, making her cry out.

In response, Aelin nestled his cock between her folds, grinding herself against it. Rowan was searing, and he was afraid he’d combust if she kept playing with him like this. He got the closest to a sitting position he could, one hand holding himself upright and the other cradling the back of Aelin’s neck.

“Baby.” He tried to kiss her, but it got sloppy since both of their hips were still moving. “Please.”

She moaned into his mouth and then nodded, leaning away a little so she could align the two of them. Aelin took her time to slide herself down, getting adjusted on her way. Both of them moaned the whole time, and when Aelin sunk into the hilt of his cock, Rowan got so light-headed he thought he might faint.

When she started moving, he soon became overwhelmed with pleasure in a way he couldn’t quite grasp. Rowan had one hand holding himself upright and the other gripping Aelin’s waist. She had her back arched, boobs bouncing as she chased her high. Both of their hips were in a frenzied rhythm, but the sight of her alone was enough to put his nerves on fire.

Aelin’s insides began to squeeze his cock, so he leaned on both arms now to thrust into her with more force. She screamed, her legs beginning to tremble, but she kept the pace, and so did he.

Rowan could feel himself ready to snap when Aelin screamed his name one last time. She went still except for the walls clenching around him, and her loud moans became soft whimpers. Rowan’s gut tightened straight after, and his hips jerked until he spilled himself into her.

They laid side to side on the bed, catching their breaths and not uttering a single word.

What the fuck was he supposed to do now?

He was terrified, his heartbeat picking up once again. Still, he scooted closer. And closer. Until he could wrap an arm around her. She didn’t do anything, and that’s when his desire to become a hawk and fly away came back. Rowan gave her a sideways glance, and she was already looking at him. At first he was startled by her extra flushed skin, but then he remembered it was because they just had sex. Which made him panic even more.

But when he was scrambling his mind for something to say, she sneaked a hand around his torso and sighed, resting her face on his shoulders. Rowan’s whole body relaxed, and he didn’t hide his silly grin.

There were many things going on his head right now, but all of them ran around the fact that he was cuddling in bed with Aelin. Sweaty and naked. Rowan kissed her head and she softly hummed in response.

“That was...”

He gently squeezed her. “I know.”

“I’m so spent.”

“Me too.”

She looked up at him, biting back a smile. “Round two in a few?”

Rowan chuckled. “You’re always reading my mind.”

Smiling, she nuzzled her face against his neck. Rowan embraced her a little more tighter. God, he’d never leave this moment if he could.

“Did you know there are people spreading wanted signs of your cock?”

Just like that, Rowan’s post-sex bliss came to halt. “You’re lying.”

Instead of replying, Aelin quickly grabbed her phone and showed him the picture.

WANTED: DICK 350

Right before the dick picture he took himself.

More than a hundred retweets.

Rowan was going to kill himself. Or shift into a hawk and fly away, whichever was easier.

However, Aelin’s giggles brought him back to reality. “You’re blushing.”

Rowan groaned, and then took a deep breath, turning his whole body towards her.

“How do you feel about that?”

Aelin shrugged. “I can’t control the internet.”

He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand, scrambling his mind for a way to make her understand he wasn’t only asking about the pic—

“Oh.” Aelin’s eyebrows raised as something clicked for her, and she bit his lips while running a possessive hand around his abs. “But, you know, I can be very selfish.”

Rowan’s smile was blinding when the only thing he managed to say was, “Yeah?”

She nodded, beaming too, when their mouths were an inch away.

“Good.” He flipped them, staying on top this time. Both of Rowan’s hands ran through her inner thighs, opening them for him, and he didn’t care if his touch was possessive enough to bruise. He could think of many ways to apologize later.

Aelin was writhing for her hips to get closer to him, Rowan’s breaths fanning against her core, when he rasped, “I don’t like to share either.”

A/N: Just to be clear, I didn’t create Dick Awards. It’s actually a national Twitter treasure, and I’ve been voting for it since high school.

2nd A/N: If you were on the LDRV Facebook group around 2015 and recognized my hints of the tá tudo verde viral post, we’re instant friends.

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@fangirlprincess09

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@leiawritesstories

@rowanaelinn

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#rowaelin #rowan whitethorn #throne of glass #throne of glass fanfiction #rowaelin fanfiction #rowan x aelin #throne of glass au #rowan week #dick awards #pinto awards

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whatsgoingoninpalestine · 1 month

Text

Palestinian Life under Israeli Occupation

Every year on May 15, Palestinians mark the Nakba - the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 by Zionist militias.

In the 76 years since the Nakba, Israel’s control over the Palestinian people has affected every aspect of life, from services they can access and where they can travel, to what resources they can use and where on their own land they can build homes.

In this illustrated guide, Al Jazeera takes you through some of the daily struggles under Israeli occupation.

1. Control of land and natural resources

There is a physical separation between Palestinians living in Gaza and those in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Israel essentially bars any movement between these areas.

But Israel still controls it completely and has built more than 290 illegal Jewish settlements and outposts on it, where some 700,000 settlers now live.

2. Control of housing

What would you do if you knew you needed a permit to build a home, but it is nearly impossible to get one because you are Palestinian?

Many Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem are forced to build homes without permits because Israel refuses to grant them.

“All my memories were in that house,” Fakhri Abu Diab, 62, told Al Jazeera after Israeli authorities bulldozed his home in occupied East Jerusalem in February.

Israeli authorities typically require Palestinian residents to pay for the bulldozing of their own homes, leaving Abu Diab concerned that he may not be able to afford the demolition.

3. Control of human resources

Every morning, before dawn, tens of thousands of Palestinian workers squeeze into cage-like lanes to wait to pass Israeli military checkpoints on their way to work.

Israel, with its heavy restrictions on Palestinian movement and resources, has driven Palestinian unemployment rates to the third highest in the world.

The ILO predicts that if the war on Gaza continues until June, unemployment in Palestine will rise above 45 percent compared with 25 percent for the same period last year.

4. Control of financial resources

Israel has significant influence over Palestine's financial resources through mechanisms like the taxes it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has overseen parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the mid-1990s.

Israel collects about $188m a month in taxes on behalf of the PA - 64 percent of the PA’s total revenue.

Israel has regularly suspended these payments, hampering the PA’s ability to pay salaries to its estimated 150,000 employees working in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

5. Control of trade

Since 1967, when Israel occupied all of historic Palestine and expelled 300,000 Palestinians from their homes, Palestinian trade relations with the Arab world have been all but cut off.

Israel controls the movement of goods that Palestinians can import and export.

In 2001, Israeli forces destroyed Yasser Arafat International Airport in Rafah, southern Gaza, the territory’s only Palestinian-operated airport.

6. Control of technology

Palestine is digitally occupied too.

Israel restricts imports of information and communications technology (ICT) equipment, claiming it is “dual use”, or has both civilian and military applications.

Israeli networks can also monitor and censor online Palestinian content.

7. Control of infrastructure

Israel controls most water resources in the region, including the occupied West Bank's main underground aquifers.

Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza often face restrictions on access and usage.

The World Health Organization recommends a minimum safe water consumption of 100 litres per capita per day.

In 2023, Israelis on average consumed 247 litres a day, while Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza got 82 litres.

8. Control of cultural heritage

Palestine’s rich cultural heritage is constantly in danger under Israeli occupation.

Since October 7, Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has destroyed more than 200 cultural heritage sites, including museums, libraries and mosques.

These are just some of the ways daily life in Palestine is restricted under Israeli occupation.

Israel’s control and domination violate international laws and deprive Palestinians of their right to self-determination. They have also diminished Palestine’s economy, making it dependent on Israel, according to a report by the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia.

“We’re traumatised,” Abu Diab, who was forced to pay for the demolition of his own home earlier this year, said.

Palestinians say Israel’s continuing system of oppression has meant that the Nakba has never really ended.

#palestine #free palestine #politics #us politics #israel crimes #stop israel #gaza #gaza genocide #free gaza

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workersolidarity · 2 months

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[ 📹 A Palestinian man trying to recover the body of a murdered civilian in the middle of a street in Gaza is shot and killed by an Israeli sniper for his efforts. 🗺️ A map published by OCHA details the various crossings into Gaza, showing most are closed by the occupation, while the approach of the Mediterranean is blockaded by the Israeli occupation army. The few remaining crossings are only opened at the rare discretion of the Israeli authorities. ]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🏘️💥🚑 🚨

DAY 223: MORE BRIGADES JOIN RAFAH OP, PALESTINIAN CHILDREN TORTURED BY OCCUPATION FORCES, CROSSINGS REMAIN CLOSED WHILE MASS MURDER CONTINUES IN GAZA

On 223rd day of the Israeli occupation's ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed a total of 4 new massacres of Palestinian families, resulting in the deaths of more than 39 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, while at least another 64 others were wounded over the previous 24-hours.

It should be noted that as a result of the constant Israeli bombardment of Gaza's healthcare system, infrastructure, residential and commercial buildings, local paramedic and civil defense crews are unable to recover countless hundreds, even thousands of victims who remain trapped under the rubble, or who's bodies remain strewn across the streets of Gaza.

This leaves the official death toll vastly undercounted, as Gaza's healthcare officials are unable to accurately tally those killed and maimed in this genocide, which must be kept in mind when considering the scale of the mass murder.

"For days now, crossings into Gaza have been closed, unsafe to access or not logistically viable."

This is according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Palestine division.

OCHA goes on to add that "aid distribution is almost impossible, with no regular fuel imports, unstable telecommunications and ongoing fighting."

"The impact is devastating for over 2 million people," OCHA added.

On the 7th of May, the Israeli occupation army stormed the Rafah and Karm Abu Salem border crossings, taking control over the Palestinian side of the crossings, immediately closing the two crossings and preventing the passage of humanitarian aid, including food, fuel and medical supplies.

As a result of the closing of the two crossings, the slow drip of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip has further slowed to a hobbled crawl, forcing more than two million Palestinians into extreme food insecurity, while Gaza's healthcare system faces a looming catastrophe as hospitals run out of fuel and medical supplies.

In the meantime, the Defense for Children International (DCI), an NGO established to protect the Rights of children as articulated by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), issued a statement which accused the Israeli occupation army of continuing to "mistreat and torture the Palestinian children they arrest in a systemic and widespread manner."

The children's rights organization has documented cases of abuse of Palestinian children detained by the occupation forces, including the story of the child Majd Radwan (14yo), who describes his treatment at the hands of Zionist soldiers.

According to the testimony given by Majd Radwan, he was with a group of friends in neighborhoods west of the town of Azzun, east of Qalqilya and south of Tulkarm, in the west of the occupied West Bank, when they were approached and chased by Israeli military vehicles.

Majd's friends managed to get away, while Majd himself stopped running after fearing he might be trampled by the Israeli military vehicles.

After stopping, Majd told DCI that around 10 Israeli soldiers got out of the two military vehicles, pointing their weapons at him before approaching him and beginning to kick and hit him.

"Then one of them came forward and kicked me in the face with his foot, and I fell to the ground. He continued to assault me with severe beatings for about 30 continuous minutes. He was hitting me with the butt of his gun, his hands, and his feet, and I was screaming. I cried from fear and pain, then he tied my hands with a single plastic tie to the back and blindfolded me, then he pushed me into one of the military jeeps and made me sit on its floor.”

Unfortunately, the abuse didn't stop there, following the initial assault, the child Majd was forced into one of the occupation military vehicles, where the abuse continued.

"Inside the jeep, two soldiers renewed their assault on me, severely beating me all over my body. One of them put the front of his military butt [of his gun] in my mouth, simultaneously stomping on my chest with his other foot. I was screaming and crying from intense pain and fear, and I felt like I was going to suffocate, and the assault on me continued."

"I was exhausted and could no longer cry or scream. I felt very thirsty, so I told the soldier about it, but he ignored my request and asked me to remain silent. After that, I was pulled and pushed into a military jeep, and there the assault on me was repeated. One of the soldiers said to me in Arabic, 'I want to break your hands and your feet' before he hit me hard on my hands and feet,” said the child Majd.

That was just the start of the abuse, occupation soldiers then took the boy to a police station in the settlement of "Emmanuel", where he was forced to stand for hours before being beaten yet again.

The child was further beaten, blindfolded, spit on, and sprayed with water while in Israeli detention, before being transferred to the Megiddo prison, beaten again, and then transferred to the Ofer Prison, where a lack of room led occupation forces to transfer the child back to another colony's prison.

For hours he was blindfolded, deprived of food and water, and deprived of access to bathrooms.

Eventually the child was brought to a village near the Ariel colony, where he was pushed unceremoniously from the vehicle and dumped in the street.

"I could not move or stand and remained on the ground until a Palestinian vehicle stopped next to me, and its driver took me to my town of Azzun after I told him what happened to me. There I was transferred to Azzun Governmental Hospital, where I received treatment and first aid, before I returned home."

This story is just one among thousands like it, where Palestinian children are abducted by the Israeli occupation forces, abused and mistreated, and often imprisoned for years at a time on trumped-up charges, such as throwing rocks towards army vehicles.

In other news today, 5 Israeli soldiers were killed, and 7 wounded, following a friendly fire incident near Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip.

According to reporting in the Israeli media, 5 occupation soldiers were killed and 7 wounded, three critically, following the firing of two artillery shells by an Israeli tank on a building occupied by the 202nd Battalion of the Israeli Paratroopers Brigade, an Ultra-Orthodox company.

The five soldiers killed were:

☠️ Cpt. Roy Beit Yaakov, 22, from Eli

��️ Staff Sgt. Gilad Arye Boim, 22, from Karnei Shomron

☠️ Sgt. Daniel Chemu, 20, from Tiberias

☠️ Sgt. Ilan Cohen, 20, from Karmiel

☠️ Staff Sgt. Betzalel David Shashuah, 21, from Tel Aviv

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) continued their violent shelling of various axis of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday night and into Thursday, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians while targeting them in their homes, vehicles, and in the streets of Gaza.

The occupation continued to expand ground operations in Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city, where more than a million Palestinians have gathered to take shelter from the Israeli bombardment, but are now facing further displacement and violence as occupation forces move deeper into the city and expand their bombing and shelling of various neighborhoods.

Israeli tanks also advance deeper into the city, with the 89th Commando Brigade being introduced to the fighting, joining the 401st Brigade and the Givati Brigade in their assault on the southern Governate of Rafah.

In on example, occupation forces bombed a house belonging to the Al-Halaqawi family in central Rafah, near the Rabaa School, murdering four Palestinian civilians and wounding several others.

IOF Merkava tanks advanced towards the Eastern Cemetery area, in conjuction with an advance towards the Mall of Arabia, as well as the Al-Salam neighborhood, east of Rafah, while continuous artillery shelling led to the deaths of four more civilians.

Occupation warplanes further bombarded the tents of displaced Palestinian families in the village of Abasan, east of Rafah, also in the southern Gaza Strip.

Earlier on Wednesday night, a civilian was killed as a result of an Israeli bombing on Aed al-Bashiti Street in central Rafah.

In another strike, occupation fighter jets bombed a Palestinian home in the Al-Husaynat neighborhood, east of Rafah, while the Zionist army went on to bomb several residential homes belonging to civilians in the Al-Nasr and Brazil neighborhoods of Rafah City.

Yet another assault killed a civilian, and wounded several others, after Israeli aircraft bombed the Al-Awda roundabout in central Rafah, while the artillery shelling targeted the neighborhoods of Khirbet al-Adas and Al-Geneina.

The bombardment of the occupation's aircraft also targeted several neighborhoods in the village of Abasan, as well as targeting Khan Yunis.

A civilian was also shot with the live bullets of Israeli soldiers' gunfire in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip.

In another raid, IOF warplanes bombed an apartment complex in Tower 6 of the Ain Jalut Towers, east of the Nuseirat Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, wounding a number of Palestinians.

Further occupation artillery shelling hammered the axis extending from the village of Al-Mughraqa to the city of Al-Zahra'a, north of the Nuseirat Camp, and into the Wadi Gaza area.

In another attack, occupation soldiers opened fire on a gathering of civilians west of Al-Zahra'a, killing one resident and wounding several others.

Meanwhile, in Gaza's north, violent airstrikes and artillery shelling pummeled Gaza City, Jabalia and Beit Lahiya, resulting in a number of casualties.

Another atrocity was committed by the Zionist occupation army in a bombing of a residential home belonging to the Journalist Hail Al-Najjar, on Old Gaza Street in Jabalia, resulting in the death of the journalist along, with his entire family.

IOF warplanes similarly bombed a residential home belonging to the Asalia family, also on Old Gaza Street, in the city of Jabalia, in Gaza's north.

Yet another horrific crime was committed when occupation fighter jets bombed a gathering of civilians at the Al-Oyoun intersection on Al-Jalaa Street, southwest of Gaza City, after which, the pieces and parts of the bodies of 4 victims were brought to the Baptist Hospital, in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City.

Atrocious crimes were also recorded following the bombing of Al-Diri family home, in the Al-Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City, resulting in a number of casualties, while two members of the Al-Ghafri family were also killed after their home was bombed in central Gaza City.

Following the withdrawal of the occupation army from the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, scenes of extreme destruction of Palestinian homes were recorded, including the destruction of five displacement centers, and the widespread destruction of local infrastructure, including streets.

Local medical sources are also reporting the murder of more than 30 civilians just since this morning, resulting from the bombardment of Gaza City by the aircraft of the Israeli occupation forces.

Included were the deaths of at least 10 children as occupation warplanes targeted the homes of the Al-Ghafri, Jahjouh and Al-Dalu families in the areas of Abu Iskander, Al-Sidra and Al-Sahaba Streets.

Five civilians were also wounded after an Israeli drone targeted the Abu Bakr Al-Saddiq kindergarten in the Al-Faluga area of Jabalia, in Gaza's north.

As a result of the Israeli occupation's ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the current death toll has risen to exceed 35'272 Palestinians killed, including at least 15'103 children and over 10'000 women, while another 79'205 others have been wounded since the start of the current round of Zionist aggression, beginning with the events of October 7th, 2023.

May 16th, 2024

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