#cw: crime

[romances-not-tragedies]

"Bless me, Father," the young man began murmuring in the shadow of the confessional, "for I have sinned. My last confession is--" He hesitated, trying to find the right words before he quietly went on, "I do not know, but it has been months, Father."

He watched from under his eyelashes the patient, understanding expression in the face of the priest, a Spanish Dominican assigned to tend to the flock of Binondo attending the church for the Chinese converts centuries ago. It was as if he had witnessed many, if not all, confessions that had passed through the confession box. The priest nodded, urging him to go on.

He took a deep breath and began listing his sins--from the smallest of his sins to the worst ones that mattered, working for an evil man running a fraudulent firm, not speaking up when needed out of fear of being fired, not doing anything about the disappearance of a friend, forcing himself to distance himself from his loving family out of fear of possible repurcussions that might befall them.

Tears began to prickle behind his eyelids, but he forced them back. He took a deep breath and went back to pouring out his heart and soul to the priest, who only nodded as he spoke, and ended it with, "I am sorry for these and all my sins."

The priest did not speak for a while, then he asked, the heavy Spanish accent inflecting his voice, "My child, it is indeed true that you did sin. However, God knows and understands what you are going through." He paused before asking, "You said you have proof of evil. Have you brought it with you, my child?"

"Yes, Father," the young man whispered. From his small satchel, he produced a wad of documents, all copied by hand by his friend and hidden in a secret compartment of his office where no one--not even his former bosses--would find them. He had stumbled upon it a few months ago, agonized about if he should bring the evidence to the authorities. But he hadn't trusted people of authority before, moreso during the anti-Chinese riots that had almost wrecked their community two years ago. He couldn't tell his office co-workers, not even his dear family lest he'd risk having their lives made a living hell.

I am not going to risk it, he had vowed as he had made his decision weeks ago. Let the punishment fall on me, not on them.

His only hope was the Church. At least the priests would not betray your confession to anyone who'd dare force them to divulge what had been whispered in the secrecy of the confession. Besides, a confession was a sacred sacrament one must respect, as the catechism pointed out.

The priest leafed through the pages and whispered in shock, "Dear heavens."

The young man nodded. "Forgive me, Father, for having committed the act of shocking a man of cloth."

"Please do not worry about it, child," the priest assured him. "Tonight, you are doing the right thing, and may our Father forgive and bless you." They finished the sacrament, and the young man stayed at a darkened corner to pray a litany of prayers recommended to him as his penance.

The young man did not know how long time had passed, but it was the dead of night when he left the Church, not looking at the image of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary that hovered over the altar of the church. He had vaguely remembered the story of a young escribano wrongfully accused of murder and ran away to Japan, only to be martyred there. He didn't know whether it was true or not, but the lore had been passed on in whispers.

He was no saint, he was sure. He was a sinner who only took action when opportunity struck gold. But he hoped that he had done the right thing as he kept himself in the darkness to get himself home, hoping no one would pounce upon him and kill him.

[b33viemm]

WE ARE NOT FOUND DEAD, WE DO NOT PASS AWAY UNEXPECTEDLY, WE ARE NOT JUST BULLIED. WE ARE ATTACKED AND MURDERED IN COLD BLOOD BY HATEFUL BIGOTS THAT ARE ENABLED BY THE TERRORIST RUN LEGISLATION.

edit: ID in alt

[wilson-apologist]

The collection so far. If anyone has any other ones, pleaseeee I need them

[mellific]

FASCINATE, a new minicomic that i will have at SF ZINE FEST this sunday (9/3)! come to table 38 and pick it up along with uhh slkfjsd books that will hopefully have arrived at my house before friday! i guess!!

[bluerosefox]

Assassin Heir? Crime Fighting Furry? NOPE NO THANK YOU!

"Danyal, its time to end this game and return with me."

Danny should had known Clockwork had something in mind when he sent him on this mission. He knew he should had been suspicious of the time keeper when he noticed the little 'this is going to be fun' smile on his face when he sent Danny off into the portal.

"Get back here you demon spawn 2.0!"

But how was he supposed to know that he'd wake up in this world version of himself in a pit full of corrupted (AND NASTY) ectoplasim at the tender age of five or that when he swam up to the surface he'd be meeting face to face with what was apparently a cult.

"-O just spotted him a block away! I'll try to cut itty bitty bridie off!"

An Assassins Cult his, new to him, loving yet a little insane mother was in charge of (though during the few months he stayed in the compound he heard rumors and gossip from maids and others alike that if his grandfather returned from the dead he'll take over once again, no doubt punish Talia for creating another heir after the failure of the last one, most likely was going to kill Danny and that... that was can of worms Danny didn't wanna deal with yet)

"Ten bucks says they try to stab RR when we get the feral thing home"

"...Losers bet...."

Danny had lived with his mother for a while after being brought back from the 'dead' for apparently the first time, it turned out training a five year old with an actual sword and a dumbass hidden revenge seeking teacher was a terrible idea.

"I swear if this one tries to murder me like the others I'm asking Zatanna if there is a curse on me."

He dealt with her high demands of perfection, the endless training, and the constant comparisons to his apparent older brother Damain... Who didn't know Danny, or rather Danyal existed.

Nor did his father (when Danny, using his powers he's kept hidden since 'waking' up in this Realm, he sneaked his way around the base and discovered how he came into the world. And tbh he couldn't blame his mom how she made him, she was an assassin first and foremost, being naturally pregnant would had painted a target on her for to long... but he also felt it was unfair and an asshole move on his unsuspecting father as well)

"As your elder brother I demand you to stop running!"

Now don't get him wrong, he did like his new mother (total badass assassin lady and all that) and he knew she loved him in her own... deadly way. But yeah, she really shouldn't be taking care of kids. He could tell she struggled with wanting to be a normal mother but her first instinct after so many years was to be an assassin first.

Something she was trying to engrave into Danny with as well.

"Ah, hello Beloved. I see you've learned of our Danyal."

"Talia. Back away from him and leave Gotham now."

"I can not do that. The League needs an heir and since Damian refuses to return... I have decided to create a new one and I shall not be leaving until he returns with me."

"Talia."

Hence why when Danny, or rather Danyal al Ghul had gotten decent control over his powers he decided to leave the League. Again nothing wrong with the life his mom leads, to each their own, but he... really, really didnt want to be an assassin. Or an assassin heir.

So here he was, after almost a year on the run, using his powers and training to out smart and out maneuver his mother and her many band of Assassins, in Gotham. One of the last places he ever wanted to run to cause he knew his father and brother lived here.

It was just his luck that his mother had managed to intercept his train ride that passed into Gotham for a few hours and forced him to run into the city...

Add her assassins into the mix and running into Robin, who heard from Oracle his mother had been spotted chasing a young boy across the city, that same night.

After that it became a full on "catch me if you can" chase for not only his mother but for the batclan as well.

And after two whole days of chase, it seemed like the final showdown was about to begin because everyone was on top of this rooftop, his mother and her assassins on one side, his father and the batclan on the other and Danny well... he was right in the middle of all of it.

He just had to hope no one would notice him once the fighting started...

[cry-ptidd]

” Am I not right to weep? O my children, cursed children of a hateful mother - ”

[horygory]

Anamorph (2007)

[filurig]

some of my kin liken humans to beasts to illustrate their ruthless ambition.

i do not.

the wolf hungers, and hunts to sate that hunger.

the bear must rest, and hunts to sleep once winter comes.

the human does not merely 'hunt'.

they torch forests and poison rivers. they build giant constructions which spew gas as black as night into the very air we breathe. they hunt and hunt and hunt until nothing is left.

describing them as anything other than 'human', is to undersell the reality of their callous disregard for any semblence of mercy.

[gor3sigil]

I really need y'all to understand that answering to transmascs who complain about being invisible "yeah but see, transfems are being actively murdered so you have it easier" is batshit. Because one of the hardest part of being invisible is that transmascs are, too, being actively murdered, but we don't know who the victims are, if we even know it happens at all.

One time I got told that transmascs don't deal with homelessness and involuntary sex work and when I said that every transmascs I know have dealt with both in one way or another, myself included, I got told "that's just your surroundings, in a grander scheme that's false". How fucking cruel can you be ?

You think I don't see trans men and transmasc people scattering newspapers and the web every year during TDOR because the ones we lose are almost never on the fucking lists ? And we should be happy and glad we don't know about them ? It isn't bliss to live knowing that if some of my friends die they'll most likely be misgendered and you can't do shit about it. It's not peaceful to see how trans men and transmascs' deaths are always downplayed, treated like it's not the Real Brutal Deaths that deserve to be adressed (and don't tell me nobody says that, I've been in queer spaces long enough).

We shouldn't be asking for basic fucking decency from our peers. Don't treat us as disposables.

[tpwrtrmnky]

threat

[ID: Four panel comic with crudely drawn stick people.

Panel 1: A turquoise person is walking along a street while an olive green person comes running around the corner.

Olive: "Shit!"

Turquoise: "Huh?"

Panel 2: The olive green person dashes towards the turquoise person, who stands there cluelessly.

Olive: "Run. Now!"

Turquoise: "Huh?"

Olive: "Seriously, run!"

Turquoise: "What's going on?"

Panel 3: A low angle view of the corner from Olive's back reveals a masked grayscale individual with a bloody knife, and corresponding slash wounds on Olive's back as they point to the corner. The turquoise person is still standing around.

Olive: "There's someone around that corner, and they're attacking chromatic people. We need to get away now and get help. Listen to me!"

Turquoise: "Wow..."

Panel 4: Zoom in on Turquoise, who says:

"I can't believe you're threatening me with being subjected to a hate crime if I don't do what you say. This is a real new low for you, I'm so disappointed. You really need to work on being less aggressive and demanding. Look up 'lateral violence'."

End ID.]

Start - Previous - Next

[vamp-bites]

Woah cant believe i almost missed michaelmas… anyway happy birthday to Adam Milligan<3 and happy michaelmas to Michael too i guess. Take this quick doodle of Adam and his guard dog of an archangel

[romances-not-tragedies]

Not yours truly using the last seven paragraphs from "The Amber Fan" as prologue to a story for my Perfect 'Verse fanfic. Of course, this is not mine but Raoul Whitfield's.

[enbycrip]

Finding out that Nex was Choctaw means I can’t help seeing the difference in media response between their death and that of Brianna Ghey, the young middle class white trans girl horrifically murdered by her schoolmates last year in the UK.

Because the US and Canadian media actively erases the mass deaths of indigenous people, especially those of marginalised genders (women and nonbinary people) and especially queer, gender-divergent and two-spirit indigenous folk.

This is such a horrendous fucking crime by both the school and the perpetrators, and a horrendous fucking tragedy for not only Nex, their family and their friends, but all of us. They deserved so much fucking better than this.

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A post shared by Dallas Goldtooth (@dallasgoldtooth)

[odinsblog]

tw: child death

The body of a six-year-old Palestinian girl, missing for 12 days after an Israeli tank targeted their family car in Gaza, has been found along with the bodies of two medics dispatched to look for them.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and the family of the girl, Hind Rajab, confirmed on Saturday that all seven people inside the car were killed, with the Palestinian relief organisation saying it lost crew members Yusuf Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun in the Israeli attack on civilians in Gaza City.

Family members found Hind’s body along with those of her uncle and aunt and their three children near a roundabout in the city’s Tal al-Hawa suburb, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Another of Hind’s uncles, Sameeh Hamadeh, said the car was peppered with bullet holes.

“The occupation deliberately targeted the ambulance upon its arrival at the scene, where it was found just metres away from the vehicle containing the trapped child Hind,” said the PRCS statement.

“Despite prior coordination to allow the ambulance to reach the location to rescue the child, Hind, the occupation deliberately targeted the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance crew.”

(continue reading)

[reasonsforhope]

"Palestinian plaintiffs and their legal representatives on Friday [January 26, 2024] presented a powerful case in federal court accusing President Joe Biden and other top US officials of complicity in Israel's genocide in Gaza.

People around the world tuned in for the long-awaited hearing in Oakland, with plaintiffs appearing in person and over Zoom in an unprecedented effort to hold the Biden administration accountable for its actions in Gaza.

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed the lawsuit in November 2023 on behalf of Defense for Children International–Palestine, Al-Haq, and eight Palestinians in the US and Palestine. The complaint accuses President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin of failing to live up to their legal responsibilities under the 1948 Genocide Convention and the 1988 Genocide Convention Implementation Act.

The United Nations convention classifies complicity in genocide, or the intentional destruction of a people in whole or in part, as a crime under international law and requires that states take measures to prevent such atrocities.

[Note: This is a big reason why politicians almost never call it a genocide, btw. Because if a country recognizes that it's a genocide, then they actually are legally required to do a bunch of things to stop it, under international law.]

The historic lawsuit contends that the Biden administration has failed to uphold its obligations by continuing to provide diplomatic and military support for Israel's brutal campaign in Gaza. Plaintiffs are asking the court to stop Biden from sending more weapons and munitions to Israel that are being used to kill Palestinians en masse.

The hearing before the US District Court for the Northern District of California took place just hours after the International Court of Justice issued provisional measures against Israel in a landmark case brought by South Africa.

-via TAG24, January 26, 2024. Article continues below.

Court contends with questions of jurisdiction and responsibility

In evaluating the allegations, questioning in Friday's hearing revolved around the so-called political question doctrine, by which federal courts regularly refrain from ruling on political matters seen as best resolved by the president and Congress.

The Department of Justice argued that according to the doctrine, the court has no jurisdiction to rule in the case.

"If the court condemns United States foreign policy toward Israel, it could cause international embarrassment and undermine foreign policy decisions in the sensitive context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," defense counsel Jean Lin told Senior District Judge Jeffrey S. White.

Katherine Gallagher of the CCR countered that the court does, indeed, have a responsibility to step in: "Here, the question is a legal one, whether the actions undertaken by the United States failed to uphold the obligation to prevent genocide, and that is an active obligation that requires that the United States not provide the means by which a genocide is being furthered."

"There is no discretion for any state to evade its obligations, its legal obligations. These are not policy decisions," she said.

Palestinian plaintiffs share powerful testimonies before the court

After legal arguments in the case, Judge White heard two hours of gut-wrenching testimony from Palestinian plaintiffs and a renowned Holocaust and genocide expert.

Rubin Presidential Chair of Jewish History at Wake Forest University Dr. Barry Trachtenberg shared his remarks before the court in spite of vehement US government opposition.

"To have an event fall under the 1948 Convention on Genocide requires both action and intent, and here we see that very, very clearly in a way that seems really quite unique in history," he stated, noting that there is now an opportunity to stop Israel's unfolding genocide in real time to prevent further loss of lives...

Judge White said he would take the testimonies to heart as he evaluates his constitutional responsibilities, describing the case as "the most difficult judicial decision" he has ever had to make."

-via TAG24, January 26, 2024

-

Note: I know a lot of people are really not gonna appreciate that last line. I'm not thrilled with it either. But it is worth noting that having a federal court overrule the US president's huge foreign policy and military decisions would be an absolutely massive deal/precedent

This is a case that deserves to be ruled on with an incredible amount of seriousness, if only because if you're a federal judge who's going to make that call, your written decision/legal justification needs to be unimpeachable

That said, if the judge uses jurisdiction to pass the buck here and avoid his legal and human responsibility to do what he can to stop a genocide, I'm gonna be pissed

[bwallure]

DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) dir. Billy Wilder