#child soldiers mention

[grrlofswirls]

I wonder if Roche was one of the Third Class SOLDIER rookies who Zack addressed in Crisis Core?  I think he would have been the right age to be part of that group.  Makes you wonder if they could have become friends if things didn’t go to shit for Zack.

On a different note, I thought it was interesting that the English voices of said Third Class SOLDIERs sound a lot younger in Crisis Core Reunion in comparison to the original game.  It really hammered home just how young some of the kids Shinra recruited into their army were, and is another subtler way of telling the audience how awful the company is.

[krdaaaa]

Obsessed with the idea of Bruce getting either isekaied or reincarnated and adopting various orphaned shonen protags.

Imagine Bruce in the Naruto verse. Just him dealing with all of that shit.

[abyssal-ilk]

posting that sketch yesterday made me remember just how much i love my taashath so i did another doodle <3

[drekkavac-moving]

𝙽𝙴𝚆  𝚅𝙴𝚁𝚂𝙴.    𝙲𝚛𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝙼𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜.  " i was hurt by bad men. now i hunt them down.    //    criminal minds. "

Anya & her brother had been taken from their parents when they were very young , being taken from a 𝙳𝙰𝚈𝙲𝙰𝚁𝙴  𝙳𝙰𝚈  𝚃𝚁𝙸𝙿  when  they  were  no  older  than  four.  They  were  sent  through  a  𝚑𝚒𝚍𝚍𝚎𝚗  𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚐𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍  𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐  that  specialized  in  training  child  soldiers  to  be  sold  off  to  the  𝙷𝙸𝙶𝙷𝙴𝚂𝚃  𝙱𝙸𝙳𝙳𝙴𝚁.  The  questions  as  to  what  they  wanted  them  for  not  being  something  they  typically  asked.  Anya  &  Jamie  were  put  through  the  program  ,    𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚐  𝚑𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚎𝚛  𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗  𝚝𝚑𝚎  𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛  𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚗  ,    &  being  among  the  few  graduates  &  survivors  of  the  program.  But  that  han't  been  the  end  of  it  for  them.  Being  among  the  𝙶𝚁𝙰𝙳𝚄𝙰𝚃𝙴𝚂  ,    they  were  separated  &  sent  off  to  other  assignments  around  the  world.  Praying  they  wouldn't  end  up  having  to  fight  one  another.  Salvation  came  in  the  form  of  a  group  of  FBI  agents  ,    that  had  been  looking  for  𝚊𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛  𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎  𝚐𝚒𝚛𝚕  ,    &  stumbling  on  the  entire  operation.  Anya  &  their  brother  Jamie  were  𝚁𝙴𝚂𝙲𝚄𝙴𝙳  &  𝚁𝙴𝚄𝙽𝙸𝚃𝙴𝙳  with  their  family  when  they  were  fifteen  years  old.  She  lived  a  normal  life  ,    with  the  exception  of  the  𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚝  𝚒𝚗𝚟𝚘𝚕𝚟𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝  𝚘𝚏  𝚝𝚑𝚎  𝚐𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚗𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝  ,    &  the  countless  requests  to  interview  them  or  help  publish  a  book  ,    she  decided  to  put  her  skills  to  good  use  ,     enlisted  in  the  FBI  Academy  ,    &  climbed  the  ranks  to  the  BAU.

[hunter-the-sad-skeleton]

*Leans in close to mic* would.(Reblogs appreciated!)

Closeups under cut!

[burlowbeanie]

One of the many blink-and-you-miss-it incredible worldbuilding moments in Gideon the Ninth is when Judith casually mentions in her file at the end that she's living in a full-on Ender's Game child-soldier war-game thing but it literally never comes up in the actual book because Gideon's too caught up in her Hunger Games-The Bachelor plot to talk much about it.

[autumnoakes]

man... rhoam's "redemption" in aoc really sucked, huh?

like botw SHOWED us, several times, how much pressure rhoam put on zelda to unlock her powers, despite her telling him, several times, that it wasn't working. he got angry and banned her from doing not only something she saw as useful, but something that she was clearly very interested in and passionate about because she "wasn't dedicating enough time to her prayers." yes, his diary expresses regret for it, but at the end of the day, if zelda saw that it wouldn't mean much to her. the actions rhoam took, and the way zelda grew up under so much pressure that she nearly died as a child in one of the springs (this is in urbosa's diary, iirc) mean so much more than his regrets and his intentions. it took him nearly 10 years to realize that he fucked up, and by that point it was too late. the calamity had returned, and rhoam had lost any chance he had at making things right with zelda.

meanwhile, in aoc, all that's there is some half-hearted scene in the temple of time that's supposed to make everything better? yes, aoc had a very different and arguably better outcome than the calamity that led to botw, but the damage was still done by rhoam. it's still the same hurts and abuse and trauma that he put his daughter through all because of the prophesized calamity.

[sleepyfan-blog]

Exhaustion

Author’s note: this is the second part of Sirass’ backstory! First. Next. I hope you enjoy the fic!

Tagged: @egrets-not-regrets @the-pure-angel @whorety-k @gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan

Warnings: medical horror, child endangerment, child soldiers, child death, child abuse mention of brainwashing/indoctrination, Iron Warriors Aspirant Training, please ask me to tag something if it bothers you/I missed something

Summary: A look into the day of Aspirant Sirass, immediately post surgery.

Sirass woke up, as he did most days after his capture by the Iron Warriors, in pain. He gritted his teeth and breathed in through his nose, out through his mouth as he waited for the agony from the most recent surgery he’d been forced to endure. He heard a quiet sob from one of the other aspirants in the bunk above him. Part of him desperately wanted to reach out to his brother to try and comfort him… 

But Sirass was keenly aware of the fact that their captors were watching them most if not at all times. They saw compassion as a weakness. They saw kindness as pointless unless it was in service to manipulate others. If they were being watched, saying a kind word, or poking his head over the side of the other’s bed and trying to crack a joke, or offering a light touch to the shoulder or arm would get their entire squad beaten black and blue if they were lucky.

So Sirass forced himself to ignore the quiet sniffling and hiccupping from the occupant of the bunk above him, breathing through the pains of the surgery inflicted upon him. He’d been informed that it was another organ meant to make him stronger, better, faster. To turn him into an Astartes. He knew when the pain was at a level he could start to move at, as the aching, bone-deep ravening hunger in the empty pit his stomach had become started to gurgle and grumble.

The Iron Warriors aspirant looked at the chronometer and suppressed an annoyed sigh. He had an additional hour and a half before he and his squad would be collected for the morning meal…

Though to call the thick, porridge like substance filled with chalky vitamins and gods knew what else a meal was generous at best. It tasted awful, but it filled his belly up like nothing he’d ever eaten before. Sirass closed his eyes, muttering to himself the many if arbitrary seeming rules that he’d been told that sticking too would allegedly allow him to survive the trials ahead of him into becoming an Astartes.

Sirass didn’t necessarily want to become an Astartes, but he’d also been told that if he did survive and pass all of his trials, he would eventually be able to go back home. He might be able to see his mother again, which was the main hope driving him onwards. He’d heard over and over again how it was an honor for him and the others to be chosen to become Astartes. To Serve the Imperium of Man, to serve the Tyrant of Olympia in such a direct and honorable manner. Sirass privately thought that was a lot of groxshit, but he knew better than to say that out loud. 

Rebelliousness was severely punished. Dissension meant death - and often not just of the mouthy Aspirant who said unwise things, but those closest to his physical proximity. 

~

“GET UP YOU LAZY LAYABOUTS! IT IS TIME FOR FIRST MEAL AND TRAINING!” The training sergeant yelled as he kicked down the door, startling awake the nearly dozen aspirants who’d been sleeping in their bunk beds. 

There were startled sounds coming from the others, and Sirass had jumped in his bed as well, but he waited three seconds before getting out of bed, immediately turning to make it before standing at attention at the foot of his bed, hoping that he hadn’t bled through his bandages and sleeping tunic from the abdominal surgery he and the others had received yesterday. He’d be scolded for being messy.

The others slid out of bed at varying levels of coordinated and stumbling. The aspirant two bunks above him rolled off the edge of his bed and began to fall.

Sirass reacted on instinct, taking a half step forwards and catching the other before he could fall all the way to the floor, setting him on his feet as fast as possible, silently hoping that the training sergeant either didn’t notice, or didn’t care that had happened.

The training sargent swept past the two of them  without so much as a glare in their direction - which caused Sirass to let out a tiny sigh of relief, making sure to make as little noise as possible.

The brother he caught murmured a soft “Thank you!” Before going up on his tiptoes to make his own bed before standing at attention.

Two of the aspirants at the far side of the sleeping room hadn’t left their beds. They hadn’t even moved when the Sargeant had called for everyone to leave their bunks.

Sirass could understand why they didn’t want to move - his body ached from the surgery and he was so hungry he was shivering and felt a little weak at the knees and clammy. But such open defiance meant a beating.

The training sergeant stomped over to where the two unmoving aspirants were and looked at them both. There was a small sneer on his face “Weak. These two were week. Not enough Iron Within to handle the process. Cadet Sirass!”

“Yes sir!” Sirass called out, snapping a crisp salute the other’s way, ignoring the way that it tugged at his stitches.

“Lead this group of your brothers to the cafeteria. I will hold you personally responsible if anyone gets lost or the group loses discipline on the way to the grubhall. Understand?” The sergeant ordered.

“Yes sir.” Sirass acknowledged, swallowing hard. “You heard the sergeant. Everyone line up in two lines. Cadet Malix, you’re my second.” Several of the others looked at the unmoving Aspirants, but no one wanted to be accused of Questioning Orders and hurried to obey. That and Sirass suspected that they were just as hungry as he was.

~

The trip to the cafeteria was mercifully short and silent, though He had been forced to reprimand four of the others for trying to start an Unauthorized Conversation in the hallway of the massive ship they’d been training on. He wanted to know what was going to happen to the unmoving aspirants as they did, but as he was “in charge” of them, and cross-chatter wasn’t allowed in the hallways, he had been forced to maintain discipline. 

The hot sludge they were being fed today was greyer than normal, and the liquid that was too sweet-salty to be normal water was thicker as well. Sirass couldn’t find it within himself to care or wonder about the whys behind it, eating his position of food as quickly as possible. 

“I wonder why Umil and Shay weren’t moving… They’re going to be in trouble.” Malix murmured quietly, a worried frown on his face.

“They were the last ones out of surgery, yesterday.” Sirass responded quietly “And their surgeries took twice as long as ours. I don’t… I’m not sure…” While most of the time, if an Aspirant was going to die because of a surgery, they died on the table, not returning to the squad they’d been assigned to, from what SIrass had seen. But sometimes an Aspirant or two died in his sleep after being released from the butchers… Apothecaries… Who’d cut him open and shoved an additional organ inside of them before sewing them back up again.

“Ah. I… Oh.” Malix sighed, staring forlornly at his half-full bowl of sludge. 

“You need to finish eating. You know how they get when we don’t.” Sirass encouraged. “It’s best… Not to think about it. There’s nothing we can do.”

Malix huffed silently but nodded, morosely digging his spoon into the grey sludge, swallowing down another mouthful.  The two of them diligently watched over their remaining brother-aspirants for breakfast.

~

The only positives about the handful of weeks after a Surgery Day was that the physical training was less gods-awful, if only to ensure that they didn’t rip their stitches and bleed out over the training floors and waste the time and expense poured into them by the trainers and medical staff who were shaping them into astartes. The downside was during those weeks, they pushed the propaganda and indoctrination into How Amazing The Imperium Is and Serving The Imperium hard.

Sirass dutifully repeated the mantra of the Iron Warriors over and over again, to the beat that the training sergeant set, alongside his fellow aspirants. They would be doing this for another hour, before being told more Glorious Stories about the chapter, and the brilliance of their Primarch, Lord Perturabo. 

The more he learned about the incredibly powerful being, the less he ever wanted to be anywhere near the near-godlike being. He sounded equal parts tyrannical bastard and unholy terror, both in the forge and on the battlefield. All Sirass wanted was to be able to see his mother again, to apologize for not listening to her. He could still remember what she looked like, and the sound of her voice, at least…

He did most of the time. It scared him, the days when he forgot what his home had been like. To know that he couldn’t recall the color of his mother’s eyes. On those days he’d take out the purloined needle he’d taken and practice the stitches his mother had taught him on the blanket he had, or the inside of his clothing, making sure to undo it before anyone could see what he was doing. The needle wasn’t something he was allowed to have as an aspirant, and practicing a skill that would probably be seen as frivolous… Sirass did not want to be beaten for trying to remember the one person who had truly loved and cared for him.

Not in this place of blood and fear and misery. Sirass was fairly certain they were trying to beat all of the kindness and humanity out of him and his fellow aspirants. This one, small act of defiance was something that he was hoping he’d be able to have.

[balsa-margarita]

Still can't fully believe that both Kuvira and Azula's comics arcs involved absolutely zero reckoning with authoritarianism - which is a huge part of both their characters, if for different reasons - and instead settled for mommy issues. If that's not proof they aren't worth the read then I don't know what is.

[imogenkol]

In the year of our lord, 2024, some of the fandom is still approaching the Jedi Order with zero nuance

[scores-of-antiheroes]

@marvelmyriad [to Bucky Barnes] @shootsxruns

Erik packed up his things from work. His tools, and the remnants of the lunch that Magda had packed for him. Erik had met Magda while hiding out in Pruszków, Poland three or four years ago, taking on the name Henryk Gurszky. They fell in love and got married and a not long later they had a little girl, who was now two years old, Nina. Erik, in his flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up, his serial number tattoo from his time in Auschwitz, 24005, visible, and his work pants and boots, took his bag and walked out of the factory, turning left and heading down the road that headed to the northern edge of town. Erik and the girls lived in a cottage right outside town.

Everyone in Pruszków knew "Henryk", and care about him and his girls. As he walked down the road he waved at each person that he saw. They all waved at him, but not back at him, more of the exact same time. Erik smiled at them as he walked by. Erik consistently has to push back the thoughts, anxieties and fears that these people would turn him over in a heart beat. Or that they would fear and hate him and his family for Erik being a mutant. Erik had experienced so much trauma in his life. Starting with his time at Auschwitz during the second World War. The Nazi's experimentation on the Jewish people, his people, on him. Being forcibly taken from his family in 1944, never to see them again. Then Nazi's experimentation on the people with the gene, that at that time was unknown, but would later become known as the X-gene. The Nazi scientist, known at that time as, Dr. Klaus Schmidt and later Sebastian Shaw, took a particular liking to Erik's mutation. He had found a new family in his rage fueled pursuit of vengeance toward Sebastian Shaw. Charles Xavier and Division X. Erik then looses that family, once again because of Shaw, even if he did get his revenge in the end. At what cost, though? Keeps losing those he loves the most in his life. Wait. A familiar face, not someone from Pruszków. Someone Erik had not seen since he was a child. A ghost of Erik’s past. The ghost had a little child with him? Erik follows the ghost and the child. He followed them for a few blocks and around a corner. Erik never seemed to get any closer to them. It was like a nightmare. Was he dreaming? No he was definitely awake. The ghost and the child turned another corner. Erik was losing them and rushed forward and rounded the corner....

[nonuggetshere]

GOD I HAD AN IDEA AS I WAS FALLING ASLEEP TODAY

About FaaF naturally

A sad one, TW fir near child death and harm

Involves Xero's attempt at an assassination, or it could be literally just any guard controlled by the Radiance

PK and WL need to talk about something private, and WL looks at the tiny vessel tagging along by her wyrm's side

"Should it be here?"

"It wouldn't understand anything anyway."

"Still, it's...a little..."

He sighs lightly, "Yeah, I get where you're coming from... Vessel, come here."

He kneels down and orders them to sit by the door and wait for them while they talk, says he'll come pick them up once they're done and not to move, then the two go to talk on the balcony and close the door behind them

At some point, Xero/the guard bursts in and attacks PK in the middle of the conversation, managing to take them by surprise and so gets one good swing in before PK darts away and retaliates, pinning them down with soul blades, though he has to keep his wife from killing them on the spot - he doesn't want to be so hasty, knowing they're infected and not themself. He pulls out the sword from his chest and that's when they realise, it's covered in void...

Child harm/near death TW beyond this point

After a moment of shock White Lady, who's closest to the doors, runs out and all her husband can hear is a horrified, heartbroken scream. He feels nauseous, his stomach twisting into knots and feeling like his heart is in his throat as he runs out after her. He sees her in tears, cradling a tiny bundle soaked in void. There's- there's so much void. It covers the floor where he left their child vessel and soaks through his lady's shawl and clothes as she cradles them in her arms.

For a moment he's paralysed, before he just snaps. He flies back onto the balcony, screaming at the possessed guard that he'll kill her, he'll make her pay for this, and he slays them in his rage (something he'll regret and feel ashamed of later), still hitting and screaming at Her well after the possessed person is dead and she can't hear him anymore.

He collapses, panting, near tears, and just gets himself up and stumbles out the door and towards the two, he wants to see how bad it is for himself.

Flower survives, but just barely. They had multiple stab wounds and lost their left arm, if not for their parents immediately healing them they'd be dead. They're barely older than 5, still so very little and defenceless, PK is horrified at how could anyone hurt a baby this young and helpless (hypocrite), even if they're not alive.

They're still on bed rest because that was so much damage and their mother doesn't leave their side and their father only leaves when necessary. They still don't realise Flower's alive and they know they shouldn't be so attached but it still feels like their baby and they can't just leave them. WL spends the entire day by their side, gently stroking their hair and horns with her now permanently void stained hands and softly coos and sings to them

Of course, they quickly realise they ARE alive because no way in hell a toddler is getting this hurt and NOT crying and screaming the second they wake up <3

Which just makes this situation so much worse

[lanayrutower]

being a child of divorce will make you conscious of things like 'bird misogyny' and 'bird grounds for divorce'.

[suckinitup]

fuck !

[drekkavac-moving]

criminal minds verse ideas under read more for sensitive contend.

okay ... so here's what i'm rolling around in my head for anya's criminal minds verse. i'm thinking her and her brother were probably victims of some sort of child soldier ring/human trafficking ring. they were rescued , and that inspired them to become an agent. i'm thinking she specializes in cases involving children/human trafficking. maybe starts as a consultant , but over time would end up working in the BAU proper.

[absolutehumandisaster]

It’s my brainrot and I get to choose which parts of canon to remove with a hacksaw