#but you can't argue they weren't concentration camps

[heatheniousmaterials]

Daily reminder that "internment camp" & "concentration camp" mean the same thing

No, this is not an exaggeration. They are not similar. They do not differ in their motives or their execution. They are, definitionally, identical. Any concentration camp may be called an internment camp & vice versa without loss of information in all cases.

[fullofgutsndopamine]

tonight we lie awake (stories take us back)

summer camp au where charlie is the camp nurse you can't seem to stay out of his office

TW/ cursing, mention of injury (not graphic), bad attempts at flirting. reader is they/them except one instance of "miss", brief mention of charlie having a tattoo(i don’t make the rules)

more here

Your eyes are on the bench in front of you, a pile of various skateboard decorate the bench, all donated, some in better shape than others. some other consuler at camp complained about spending too much time in one center, sick of being in the lake all day, having pruny hands and telling kids to stop splashing each other, threatened to quit mid summer if they weren't moved.

which is how you found yourself outside of the comfort of the shack you were use to, tucked away in the heart of the camp ground, a wooden porch wrapped around and a screen door that creeks when it opens. it was small, bordered on being a closet, one where you couldn't keep everything in, but it was home and the kids would run to you with the biggest smile on their faces, showing off macaroni art with smiles so big it had to border on being uncomfortable. so it was home the last few summers, and you were fine with that.

this was outside your comfort zone, and you told your boss as much, but with a sly grin he slid your resume back, questioned how you put: up for anything, relaxed, likes a challenge on there if it wasn't true.

you told charlie as much, months later, when he stayed late cleaning up the mess hall, always surprised by what a mess a group of kids could make. a bonfire was happening at the same time, and you were promised a s'mores by a group of small children who routinely chanted "beads! beads!" while your head disappeared into a creaking cabinet for more. friendship bracelets were practically currency here, you learned quickly, a small stack of bracelets from kids that made it impossible to sneak around the camp yard, always pulling them up

you knew of charlie, of course.

everyone had-it was a matter of who said it, who thought differently of him.

Candace, who rolled her eyes when you mention him: "of fucking course i know that asshole. if you see him, he owes me $5 bucks-" you open your mouth to challenge it but she shakes her head:

"he knows what he did."

Sam, who flinched when you mentioned it.

"Stay away from him," she says, her voice is practically a hum as she speaks, low and something you have to strain to hear, "he's bad news. I mean it."

she doesn't elaborate, and you don't have the courage to ask her as much.

fate would bring you two together.

charlie would argue stupidity, but you'd argue they don't pay him for his opinions, and instead to just hand over the damn bandaids, instead of him carefully unsealing them, sticking them to you with the kind of concentration that a child calls for

"Mr.Charlie!"

Look, you didn't ask for the dramatics. but the accident happened so quickly, wasn't even able to put on the brave face before Annie was pulling you (more like yanking you) to the office, barely giving you enough time to yell over your shoulder for your co teacher, Bailey, to keep a watchful eye on them

"i'm fine, Annie. look-"

you're trying to insist but it's to no luck.

"Mr.Charlie will take care of you.” Annie insists, practically rolling her eyes at you, leaving it at that.

Charlie appears almost immediately, half hidden in a cabinet where he's re stocking his ever disappearing stockpile of bandaids and gauze, the latest accident at the makeshift skatepark partially ran him out of business.

"Annie!" he smiles widely, "my favorite patient!"

"Charlie," she shakes her head, "it's miss. they hurt themselves during craft-"

Charlie, who has his hair pushed back from his forehead in the messiest ponytail you'd ever seen, wears shorts and a obviously handmade tie dye shirt, the walkie talkie clipped to the top of his shirt that pulls it down so a tattoo peaks over the top that you can't quite make out-

"and here i was thinking you were just coming to visit me," he pouts before ruffling annie's hair,

"thank you for bringing them in. i'll take it from here."

she looks at his shirt until he leans down, still towers over her as she cups her hand to his ear and whispers into it, the way his eyes narrow as they scan over to you, the smirk that pulls at his lips.

"ah," he nods, "i got it from here."

if you weren't so afraid it was a symptom of a concussion you could swear there was a hint of an accent in there.

annie nods, holds her hand out in front of you in a way that seems very similar to someone telling a dog to stay, before darting out of the small cabin.

"if you give her like, two minutes to get back to camp i can sneak through the back door and get out of your hair."

he laughs. the bastard laughs.

"and risk my medical degree? i don't think so." he's back to the cabin, riffling through it before he appears with a small clear tub at his hip. groaning, thinking you'd get out of this easier as he drops to his knees in front of you-

"what medical degree, exactly?"

he laughs, the gauze inches from your face:

"are you questioning my medical degree when you're quite literally bleeding?"

"you not answering makes it more suspicious, just so you know."

he laughs, dips the gauze in some dark liquid before it comes in contact with your face:

"noted," he says gently. he doesn't say anything, but hums gently as he blots at your face.

"it's charlie, by the way." and when you don't answer back immediately, don't indulge him with your name like he's use to, "for later googling. when you're looking up my credentials, no doubt."

"depends on how good a job you do." you grumble back, still mad your missing your favorite project of the year.

he laughs: "i see. my google review depends on it."

his thumb rests under your chin as he tilts your head, his eyes narrowed as he checks you out, ignoring the growing red on your face:

"¡ think you'll be okay," he sighs, "hold this." he hands over one of the ice packs for you to hold and with an eye-roll you obey, holding it onto your face, feeling like you're in middle school again.

he makes his way to his desk, comes back with a small mason jar with brightly colored sweets at the bottom.

“what’s this?”

"all the patients get a bandaid and a sweet?" it's a question, not a statement, suddenly unsure of himself, not the confident charlie you'll later know.

"it helps, yknow?"

"pass," you say again, "look, can i go? it's just a scratch-"

he shakes the jar at you once more and you know you aren't leaving without one. making sure to make a big show of it, you roll your eyes, finally accepting the treat.

"most kids at least say thank you."

he says gently, his voice is low and quiet, unsure of itself.

"thank you."

you try to sound genuine, because your face isn't bleeding anymore and that alone is a reason to be nice, but you're unsure what to say of him, all the warnings you got before are running through your head-

"i owe you one."

it comes out before you can stop yourself, and you're about to open your mouth, take it back, but finally he’s laughing "yeah," he says, "alright, ill hold you to that."

"right," not going to let him have the last word,

"sure."

"sure," he agrees, "i'll see you tonight. the dining hall."

you shrug, acting like it won't be nice to finally have someone to sit next to.

"sure."

your feet guide you to the door and you beg for them not to betray you, not to fall-

"it's a date."

he calls back and that's enough for you to race out before he can see how permanent red he makes your face, or how steady your heartbeat in your ears are.

[mananabuffins]

// content warning for discussing the holocaust and queer people twitter TERF said trans women weren't victims in the holocaust. They provided a link to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust... and one of the first things it said was "Repression of gay men, lesbians, and trans people started shortly after Hitler became chancellor." Like literally their own link disproved them and they still try to argue that trans people weren't targeted by the Nazis. Like they told me 100% seriously that trans women wouldn't be targeted unless they were also gay or also jewish or also roma. (They also said researchers had tried and failed to find examples of straight trans women being targeted, right after I had provided a link to AND QUOTED an example of exactly that.)

And that's when you get a glimpse into the awful fucked up torment nexus of a mind where they somehow believe nazis respect gender identity enough to differentiate between a gay man in a dress and straight trans woman when deciding who to send to concentration camps. Like.... why... would you trust nazi records to accurately record people's gender and sexual identities when they burned down a library which had the explicit purpose of recording knowledge on gender and sexual diversity. Or when they're, yknow, Nazis. But that's when the torment nexus brain fuckery gets worse, because you realize not ONLY are they trusting nazi record keeping, they're also imposing the belief that any trans women who was targeted was "Really" just a male pervert in a dress. And so the reason the "researches couldn't find any examples" isn't because they don't exist or can't be found, it's because they reclassify every example as being violence against gay men. It's not just historical revisionism of violence, it's revisionism of the victims themselves.

[hearts4golbach]

Zombified. (Larry Johnson x Fem!Reader.)

part 2

co-written by @cupid-isgone

it's been ages since I'd last seen the group! Seeing the three work together so smoothly... they were different. but somehow the same, as well. sal laughed when he saw who I was and doubled down on Larry, taking care of me.

as if I needed 'taking care of'.'

I glared at Larry, immediately hating every second of what just happened. he has sold me skunk weed countless times until I cussed him out, resulting in me being shoved into a locker. we had fought every day until graduation. I rolled my eyes. "I can take care of myself. I don't need Larry, thank you very much."

"As if! you can't even stand right now on your own." Larry smirked at me.

sal clapped his hands once. "Great, so you agree to help her until she's better, right?"

"I did NOT say that."

"Glad we agree. now, we all need to head somewhere safer. this city is overrun by zombies by now. but there should be a forest nearby."

"Yeah, i don't really want to become a human happy meal." I smiled, ignoring Larry's rude manner.

I began to stand by myself before falling on my ass.

"for fucks sake, Larry, just help the poor girl." sally rolled his eyes.

Larry grunted as he lifted me to my feet and adjusted, moving my arm around his shoulders and his around my waist. I could feel my face heat up with embarrassment.

by now, my arm had been put into a makeshift sling, and the pain was easier to ignore.

"Let's just get going." I didn't want to deal with Larry's standoffish behavior, but at least he was cute.

his muscular arms flexed as they wrapped tighter around me. my face was still hot, but with more than embarrassment.

"okay, look, if we get through the forest we will come across a different town. the further south we get, the less there are. there should also be a stable amount of supplies." sal cleared his throat, pulling up a map.

"You know that's just a rumor? they same the same thing about here." I mention.

Todd piped up from where he was standing. "it's the best we can hope for right now. if there's even a small chance, we have to take it."

"he's right, and we should leave now before the hoard circles back around." sal said.

Larry and I nodded, and we set off. ignoring the fact that I could barely move, the trek started out easy enough.

"By the way, sal, the hoard was already here and almost killed Y/n."

sal rolled his eyes. "You know they're  fucking everywhere, right?"

we began our March towards the woodlan, which was more or less an awkward hobble for me.

the forest was quiet at first, but then the sun started setting. there weren't any in sight, but we could hear some zombies. we had to find somewhere to stay soon. it was barely a few minutes later that we saw a small building.

"the fuck is this? Larry asked, cautiously opening the door.

"a fucking shed, you idiot. what does it look like?" I retorted.

"It looks like this is camp tonight." sal groaned, placing his sleeping bag as close to the wall as he could so that there was room for all of us.

"You've gotta be shitting my dick." Larry grumbled, setting up out sleeping bags next to Todd's.

my sleeping bag was against the other wall, but I had to be turned towards Larry to avoid putting pressure on my bad arm.

"What are you looking at?" he whispered, not wanting to wake anyone up.

"You." I replied bluntly. I was having trouble sleeping, but I wasn't going to tell HIM that.

"You're so weird." Larry closed his eyes.

"Why did you turn to look at me?" I looked away from him and began working on my snapped bandages.

Larry's eyes flickered open to look at me once more. "Let me help."

"I'm fine." I attempted to argue, but he ignored me. his soft hands gently caressed my arm, sending goosebumps around my whole body. I looked up at him, admiration forming as I watched his concentrated face. "...thanks." I shivered as a cold wind passed through the run-down shack. Larry, without even looking up, pulled me closer. he hummed a vague acknowledgment, but otherwise said nothing. I exhaled slowlythroughh my nose. "weirdo." I teased.

"shut the fuck up dude, I'm cold too." I rolled my eyes at him. I looked down at my tattered jacket. Larry seemed to sense my worry and sat up.

"Where are you going?" I questioned him. he didn't answer as he reached into his backpack and brought out a black hoodie that said 'Sanitys Fall' on the front.

"I was keeping this for memories, but I guess you need it more." he whispered, tossing it to me before laying back down and pulling me close once more.

the hoodie smelled vaguely of cologne. it was neatly folded so it would fit as small as it could in his bag. I closed my eyes and exhaled the musk.

we were just laying down, looking at each other.

it was like Larry was trying to look into my soul and pull me apart, like he was trying to figure something out.

I shifted the best I could without agrivating my injuries. "stop looking at me like that."

"like what?"

like I was a particularly tough puzzle, like I was somebody he wanted to know.

"like a loser."

"I look like a loser? I'm not the one with a broken arm." he held a proud smirk on his face.

"yeah, you do." I frowned.

"flip that frown upside down, babe. there's no need to be sad." he chuckled, pinching my cheek.

I slapped his hand away. "get your crusty hands off of me." I mumbled.

"awe, someone is a little moody."

I huffed. "anyone would be moody if they were stuck with you for too long."

"you sat that, but you don't seem really upset, do you?" Larry snorted as I was silent for a short moment.

"oh, shut up." it was late and yawns were interrupting my sentences often. I could hardly think of any good comebacks anymore as my eyes finally fluttered shut.

"falling asleep on me already, y/n?" I could hear the smugness in his voice, but it was strangely comforting.

"Yeah, stupid. I'm in a lot of pain, and having to look at your face makes it worse."

Larry mumbled something incoherent under his breath. I snuggled close to his chest and fell asleep.

[hyenaswine]

"zionists aren't jews, they're nazis" y'all have got to come up with some more synonyms for bad people. not everyone with an evil ideology is a nazi. i know video games & movies have led you to believe otherwise, but nazi isn't just a word for any generic bad guy - it actually means a really specific thing.

my concern isn't insulting zionists or israelis, cuz i am far from giving a shit about them. but you just sound very lazy & like you have no frame of reference for the types of right-wing ideologies that exist in the world, or history, or anything prior to or since the one war they taught us about in school. my ancestors weren't chased out of the pale by "nazis," they were chased out by russian tsarists. fascists. please just say fascist i'm begging you, that originally had a more specific meaning too but it doesn't now. all nazis are fascists but not all fascists are nazis.

nazis didn't invent racism or racial purity or concentration camps or genocide. nazis did not only target jews, but eradicating jews was absolutely their main goal. even neo-nazis hate jews. there is no non-antisemitic form of nazism. you can't just take the jew-hatred out of nazism & apply it to whoever you want. antisemitism is essential to nazism.

also saying (jewish israeli) zionists aren't jews is a no-true-scotsman fallacy & it does not help. not all zionists are jews, but SOME jews are zionist. but i'm less interested in arguing that one, especially if it's a philosophical debate among jews.

[kaelor0409]

So I've been watching @ohnoitstbskyen's play through of The Mageseeker, and been having a great time. The commentary is entertaining and insightful, as you'd probably expect if you're familiar with his content, and some of his comments got me thinking about a few things myself.

I've been on the fence about Mageseeker, since the whole point of the game seems to be to neatly wrap up the Mage Revolution plot that has been Demacia's ongoing arc for literally years now. I was on the fence about the Mage Revolution plot anyway, since it feels very much like the writers asked "how can we make our Generic Good Guy Fantasy Kingdom more nuanced and edgy", and the answer they came up with is "make them White Mana from Magic: The Gathering".

Still, TBSkyen's analysis in the videos below convinced me that there were interesting stories to tell with that premise, even if some of the writers weren't really handling it with the care it deserved.

Not having played the game, the concept of The Mageseeker felt like a hasty attempt by Riot to sweep a poorly thought out plotline under the rug so they could move on to other things. Who would have guessed that a "good" faction herding innocent people (including children) into concentration camps would be controversial?

Having watched a good chunk of the playthrough (and skipped to the end to get the final analysis), I can say that my fears were...somewhat unfounded? The game does mostly wrap up the plots around the Mageseekers and mostly puts a lid on the Mage Rebellion, but admits this is not a "clean" resolution and that the struggle will continue.

The real reason I've come around on The Mageseeker, however, is because I think it moves Demacia into a more narratively interesting place. "Outwardly good faction is secretly xenophobia, dogmatic, and committing a genocide" has honestly been done to death these days. What hasn't been done is "good faction realized 'whoops, we "accidentally" did a genocide', now what?". This is honestly pretty relatable, because if you live in Europe or anywhere Europe colonized, your national history probably includes some genocide.

So let's talk about Javan and Garen.

Jarvan ordered a genocide by knowingly signing an execution order for hundreds, potentially thousands of helpless mages (including children). It doesn't matter that he was "reluctant", it doesn't matter that he had to be talked into it, he willingly gave the order to exterminate an entire ethnic group ("magic" is technically not an ethnicity, but let's not split hairs here). Also his "preferred" alternative to executing them was to keep them locked up forever (which, yes, is still technically genocide), so even if you entirely blame the Mageseekers for the execution order he's still at fault.

Garen remained a loyal soldier even after Jarvan gave the order to commit genocide. He did initially object, but his objections were that his sister and friend might also get executed, not that the order itself was morally wrong. Even afterward, he only went outside of his role as Demacia's dutiful soldier to try and save his sister Lux. Only Lux, not any of the helpless mages she was sheltering, and when she asks him to join her in defending these defenseless people, Garen refuses. You could argue that Garen never actually harmed any mages himself (any mages that weren't trying to kill him first, anyway), but he certainly helped and when given the chance to flip to the oppressed side, he turned it down. At the end of the day, Garen was "just following orders", and we all know how much water that excuse holds.

So you have two "good" characters who very clearly did something monstrous. You also can't have them stop being "good" characters, because Riot sure as hell isn't going to go through all the effort to rebrand them at this point. So what do you do?

To be continued...