#exile and execution are punishments used only as a last resort

[warriors-rewritten-chaos]

Rewrite’s Warrior Code

This is the original list of rules in the Warrior Code at the beginning of my rewrite. Most of these have been copy-pasted from the original, with some new ones added

1. Defend your Clan, even with your life. You may have friendships with cats from other Clans, but your loyalty must remain to your Clan, as one day you may meet them in battle

2. Do not hunt or trespass on another Clan's territory. The only exceptions to this rule are cats who are on their way to the Moonstone, have a message from their Clan’s Leader to give to that Clan, or need to ask the other Clan for help

3. Elders, monarchs, sick or injured cats, and kits must be fed before the apprentices and warriors. Unless they have permission, apprentices may not eat until they have hunted to feed the elders

4. Prey is killed only to be eaten. Give thanks to StarClan for its life

5. A cat must be at least six moons old to become an apprentice

6. Newly appointed warriors will keep a silent vigil for one night after receiving their warrior name

7. The current Deputy of the Clan will become Clan Leader when the leader dies, retires, or is exiled; however, if certain circumstances are present this will not be the case

8. After the death, retirement, promotion (to a Leader status), or exile of the Deputy, the new Deputy must be chosen before moonhigh

9. A Gathering of all the Clans is held at the full moon during a truce that lasts for the night. There shall be no fighting among Clans at this time

10. Boundaries must be checked and marked daily. Challenge all trespassing cats

11. No warrior can neglect a kit in pain or danger, even if the kit is from a different Clan

12. The word of the Clan Leader is the Warrior Code. However, cats may challenge a weak or cruel Leader if their Clan is in danger, and if their leadership threatens the Clan, the Code expects a warrior to challenge their Leader

13. An honorable warrior does not need to kill other cats to win their battles, unless they are outside the warrior code or if it is necessary for self-defense

14. A warrior rejects the soft life of a kittypet

15. Medicine cats may not have a mate or kits, as they must be able to heal all cats equally

16. Kits must stay in camp until they are apprenticed, and are not allowed to hunt

17. The safety of the Clan as a whole is more important than the safety of one cat

18. Clans must not unite together to drive out another Clan

19. Clans must not force another Clan to share territory

20. Enemy patrols must not attack cats if they are on a mission that all four Clans have agreed upon

21. Cats cannot eat when going to the Moonstone or Moonpool to speak with StarClan

22. Attacking or otherwise harming a Medicine Cat for any reason barring self-defense, even in battle, will result in punishment as the Medicine Cat’s own Clan sees fit ranging from chores and hunting for them to exile or even execution

23. Likewise, harming any cat under the protection and care of a Medicine Cat, even in battle, is to be punished as the cats’ own Clan sees fit

24. Each Clan has the right to be proud and independent, but in times of trouble they must forget their boundaries and fight side by side to protect the collective. Each Clan must help the others so that no Clan will fall

[the-worms-in-your-bones]

First up is, of course, The War Games:

tldr if you don't want to go through my notes: this serial gives us our first real depiction of the time lords. they are shown as incredibly powerful and terrifying to be on the wrong side of (it seems that to the doctor death is a preferable option to having to face them). there's a good amount of lore established: their noninterference policies, the fact that they can "live forever barring accidents", we get some examples of time lord clothing (relatively simple, covers a lot), a lot of psychic technology, their willingness to use people to their own ends and do whatever they want to keep the narrative how they see fit. overall good and enjoyable, though with some of the worst visual effects i have ever had the displeasure of looking at

worst intro of any serial (not time lord related, but true, why did they do that)

the war chief does not care about the lives of the humans there (time lord supremacy and all that)

calling the time lords is presented as both a last resort and a deeply terrifying thing to both the war chief and the doctor

i like the weird little psychic cube, they should bring back the weird little psychic cube, give me more weird time lord technology

the doctor seems to be more afraid of the time lords than death

love that this shows just how powerful the time lords can be, they are able to slow local time and redirect the doctors tardis remotely (there's also the mention that they have control over the environment on gallifrey)

"an immensely civilized race" says the guy who'd rather die than face them, which probably says something about how they enforce that civility

"we can live forever barring accidents" i really really want to know what the average time lord lifespan actually ends up being

mention of their non interference (and the fact that interference seems to be a crime punishable by death, which is very interesting given later serials, it seems to be only the interference that messes with the image that they have set up for themselves, but i'm getting ahead of myself here)

it really seems like the doctor only ever had the illusion of freedom

also the distorted tardis noises as they bring the doctor to gallifrey, my girl is in pain

first depiction of gallifrey!!! (though we don't hear it called that yet)

the doctor just seems so resigned to his fate at this point

a trial being a rare event, they probably don't actually let people tell their side of the story all that much

the doctor isn't given any representation at the trial, it's all up to him

its those guys they photoshop sean carlsens head onto (aka the cia, though they aren't named here)

there's a lot of use of psychic technology throughout the trial and just in relation to the time lords

i forgot there were other people there inspecting the tardis

all of the shown time lords on gallifrey are wearing very simple clothing, it's long and tunic like and covers everything but their hands and heads

they put up a forcefield around a planet like its nothing

say that non interference is their most important law

"this is his world he must stay here" you exile him at the end of this but okay

"they like making speeches"

love that the doctor is just lying on the floor playing cards while waiting

they seem to know what the doctor is doing even when they can't see him (some kind of monitoring set up or something psychic?)

the doctor knew that his companions were going to get their memories erased (how common of a practice is this, or would the doctors work before leaving gallifrey have exposed him to this)

there seems to be the implication that they don't even need to touch the person to erase their memories

they are using the doctor however they see fit

they give him the illusion of choice for his next body, but they're still executing and exiling him (shows that there is an element of regenerative control in a super fucked up way)

they take away his knowledge of how to work his tardis (what does that mean for a time lord, what effect does that have for them, because being cut off from time travel is one thing, but being cut off from a being you are symbiotically bonded to, that's got to do something to a person)

so i've decided to watch through every episode that gallifrey appears in and take notes on them (not doing this for every episode a non doctor time lord is in because that's too many) for the purposes of either ranking them, figuring out the lore, or later comparing eu depictions of time lords to how they're shown in the show, i'll figure it out later. this little intro thing is basically just for myself to make a post where i can put the highlights of my notes (very much not putting all of them since so far its been an average of 1.5 pages of notes per episode)

[woozapooza]

Why Sayid Jarrah’s s6 storyline makes perfect sense in theory even if the execution wasn’t perfect

(This is a post I started working on last year during my first re-watch of Lost. I got distracted and put it aside for a while, so I don’t remember everything I was originally going to say, but I really wanted to finish this post, so here it is! Warning: it’s Looong. Like, over 2000 words long.)

“Evil is not a thing. It is not a condition. It is a choice. You are only what you choose. That alone is what makes you.” - Reign 1x15 (YES I’M STARTING MY LOST META WITH A QUOTE FROM REIGN DON’T JUDGE ME oh hey gifset idea!)

While rewatching “Sundown,” I was struck by the scene in the flash-sideways in which Omer asks Sayid to deal with Keamy once and for all:

OMER: Sayid, don't forget who you're talking to. I know what you did in the war. You were an interrogator for the Republican Guard. I know what kind of man you are.

SAYID: If you think I'm going to hurt someone just because you made a bad business decision…

OMER: No, this is not about me! Our life savings... it's all gone, Sayid, all of it! We could lose our home! Please! Look, I know you care about Nadia. If you care about us, about her, you will do this, Sayid.

Omer takes two different, seemingly contradictory approaches to convincing Sayid. When he says “I know what kind of man you are” in the context of Sayid’s history as an interrogator, we can assume he’s implying that Sayid is, if not exactly bad, then at least capable of things that most people would consider bad. Note the phrasing: it’s not “I know what you’re capable of,” it’s “I know what kind of man you are,” implying that Sayid’s actions as an interrogator represent an essential part of him. It’s reminiscent of Ben telling Sayid, “It’s what you are. You’re a killer” (”He’s Our You”). It’s also reminiscent of Sayid himself saying to Ben, “You want to know who I am? ... I am a torturer” (“One of Them”). But then Omer appeals to Sayid’s loyalty and compassion to get him to confront Keamy. 

This is very similar to the approach Dogen takes in the same episode when he tells Sayid to kill “Locke.” (Side note: “Locke” eventually deduces that Dogen's real agenda was for him to kill Sayid, but even if he’s right that Dogen knew there was no chance that Sayid could kill “Locke,” it doesn’t really matter for my argument, as Sayid doesn’t realize that this is Dogen’s real agenda until “Locke” points it out to him.) Dogen enlists Sayid to kill someone—i.e. to commit a morally difficult act that also happens to be one of the things he’s best at—with the argument, “You say that there is still good in your soul. Then prove it.” It’s a lot like what FS!Omer argues: doing a bad thing—thereby giving into the proclivity for violence and cruelty you’ve dealt with all your life—is the only way you can prove that you’re actually good. While Dogen doesn’t explicitly describe violence as an inherent part of Sayid’s identity, surely his instructions would nonetheless have that implication for Sayid. There really isn’t a right answer in either of these dilemmas for Sayid. He can give into his worst tendencies for the greater good or he can resist his worst tendencies at the expense of the greater good. There is no option that won’t leave him feeling like a bad person. It’s predetermined and presupposed that he’s bad.

And this connection in turn got me thinking about Sayid’s whole storyline. My first impression of his storyline was that his central conflict was whether he’s a good or bad person. Now I see another, parallel conflict: whether he gets to decide whether he’s a good or bad person.

Sayid isn’t the only Lostie with this conflict. Kate killed her father because she hated him for making her worry that she was destined to be bad like him. Similarly, Jack’s FS is about him discovering that he’s not destined to be like his father. Sawyer implies that he has no choice but to be a bad guy when he says “a tiger don’t change his stripes.” When Locke says “don’t tell me what I can’t do,” he’s not specifically saying “don’t tell me I can’t be a good person,” but he is protesting against the idea that anyone else gets to tell him who he is. There are two main strands to the Losties’ psychological conflicts: good people vs. bad people and free will vs. the absence thereof. (I phrase it like this because the alternative to free will isn’t just fate. It’s all external pressures, whether they come from fate or from genetics or from other people’s actions.) Sayid is the point at which these strands overlap the most thoroughly.

As a kid he kills a chicken (“He’s Our You”). It doesn’t necessarily mean he has no compassion for the chicken, just that he knows they have to eat. We know it’s not merely the way he was raised, or Omer would have been able to do it. As an adult, the violent promise he showed as a child comes to fruition when Kelvin teaches him to torture (“One of Them”). He says he’ll never do it again, but Kelvin knows he will, and Sayid later confesses to Ben in the same episode that while he “was a good man” when the American army came to Iraq, “there was a part of me that was always capable [of hurting people].”

So on the one hand, we know from the opening scene of “He’s Our You” and Sayid’s words to Ben in “One of Them” that Sayid is naturally gifted with…not exactly cruelty, but the ability to do things that could be perceived as cruel. On the other hand, we know from something he says to Nadia in “Solitary”—that he can’t desert or his family would be killed—and the flashback with Kelvin in “One of Them” that he would never have started torturing people if he hadn’t been coerced into doing it.

In order for Sayid to really come face-to-face with himself, the element of coercion needs to be removed. Sure enough, on the island, for the first time (as far as we know), he tortures someone (Sawyer) completely of his own volition, and I think that’s the main thing he’s dealing with when he goes off on his solo trek—not just that he can’t break the ol’ torture habit, but that he resorts to it even when no one is making him. That’s just my interpretation rather than something that’s spelled out or even heavily implied, but I think it makes a lot of sense. If you think about it, Sayid’s self-imposed exile is sort of a strange reaction to what he did. After all, Jack was complicit in what Sayid did to Sawyer, and he doesn’t even seem to regret it, let alone punish himself for it. You’d think that someone who heals people for a living would be more torn up about about causing harm than someone who hurts people for a living, yet Sayid is the one in crisis. It’s counterintuitive, but it makes sense when you consider that Jack has no reason to define himself as a torturer, whereas Sayid absolutely does, and that’s what takes him beyond the guilt of doing something you don’t want to have done into the shame of being someone you don’t want to be.

So Sayid has two major struggles throughout the show: “am I good” vs. “am I bad” AND “is it up to me to decide whether I’m good or bad” vs. “is it up to other people to pronounce me good or bad.” In “He’s Our You,” when Ben tells him he’s a killer by nature and shouldn’t try to resist his nature, he’s using this lifelong struggle of Sayid’s to his advantage. When this plot of Ben’s rebounds on his younger self at the end of the episode, we see Sayid finally make the choice to let himself be a bad person. He gives in, both to the idea that he’s a bad person and to the idea that someone else (Ben) has the right to identify him as a bad person. (“You were right about me. I am a killer.”) Still, I would argue that even in this episode, Sayid’s arc hasn’t gone as far as it could go. For one thing, he could make the argument that he shot Ben for the greater good, just like he killed the chicken in the flashback at the beginning of the episode for the greater good. More importantly for the point I’m trying to make, Sayid makes the choice to pull the trigger. He concedes that a killer is “what he is,” but his actions are still clearly his own. I mean, after all, he’s messing with the established timeline. It indisputably takes free will to do that. So if he’s going to figure out beyond any doubt whether he has the power to decide that he’s going to be a good person, he needs first to be pushed further into the realm of doubt.

The real culmination of his struggle is when he gets the “sickness,” then Dogen declares him evil, and then finally, after resisting a little, Sayid gives up and teams up with Smokey. He makes his choice: he’s bad AND it’s not his decision. By giving in to the sickness, Sayid gets to give up on the struggle to be a good person and the struggle to convince other people that he’s a good person. But in addition, he gets to give up trying to figure out whether he’s the one who gets to decide if he’s a good person. Remember what he says to Miles: “Apparently I’m evil.” Sure, he says that line kind of sarcastically, but his subsequent actions show that he’s taking that judgment as the gospel truth. He gets to accept that whatever diagnostic Dogen ran on him can measure his moral quality as accurately as a scale can measure his weight. Then he gets to hand control of himself over to someone else (“Locke”).

That’s what makes his ultimate sacrifice so powerful. It’s a combination of the fact that he overcame the “sickness” AND the fact that the “sickness” arc was really just the culmination of his central internal conflicts. If he hadn’t done it, he’d have had an excuse—a supernatural excuse, nonetheless! But he did it, and that means everyone who made him out to be a “killer” or “evil” (or a “terrorist"—thanks, s1 Sawyer) was wrong, not because he was inherently good but because he had the power to CHOOSE to be good, and he used that power. Remember “Enter 77,” the highest-rated Sayid-centric episode? “We are all capable of doing what those children did to this cat. But I will not do that. I will not be that.” I doubt the writers knew at the time what purpose that episode would serve in the grand plan (I use the term “plan” loosely, lol) of Sayid’s arc, but in retrospect, the flashbacks in "Enter 77″ serve a purpose greater than simply breaking everyone’s heart and letting Naveen Andrews act his heart out. They serve a purpose even greater than just explaining why Sayid chooses to stop Rousseau from killing Mikhail at the end of the episode. This episode foreshadows Sayid’s final act by establishing that both good and evil are choices that everyone is ultimately free to make.

In “The End,” Hurley, the character who is probably the most consistent voice of morality on the whole show, declares Sayid “a good guy.” He acknowledges that “a lot of people have told you that you're not. Maybe you've heard it so many times you started believing it. You can't let other people tell you what you are, dude. You have to decide that for yourself.” This is a very succinct, powerful summation of Sayid’s arc. Hurley acknowledges the power other people have to shape our perceptions of ourselves, perceptions that become self-fulfilling prophecies, but also states unequivocally that you write your own story, even if you’re someone like Sayid who has ample reason to give up on themselves. Listen, I agree with fandom that Sayid’s s6 storyline wasn’t handled very well, but I can’t agree with the people who think Sayid should never have turned evil in the first place. His redemption is just way too powerful. When Sayid snaps out of his zombie state with Desmond’s help (the power of friendship!!!), he’s not only deciding that he’s a decent person, he’s realizing that he can make the CHOICE to be a decent person. And in a show with so much destiny nonsense (I mean that lovingly) it’s extremely important to me that my main man gets an arc that affirms that you get to decide who you are. <3<3<3

[troybeecham]

Today the Church remembers the Vietnamese Martyrs (Vietnamese: Các Thánh Tử đạo Việt Nam), also known as the Martyrs of Annam, Martyrs of Tonkin and Cochinchina, Martyrs of Indochina, or Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions (Anrê Dũng-Lạc và các bạn tử đạo).

Orate pro nobis.

The Martyrs of Vietnam

The Vatican estimates the number of Vietnamese martyrs at between 130,000 and 300,000. The Vietnamese Martyrs fall into several groupings, those of the Dominican and Jesuit missionary era of the 18th century and those killed in the politically inspired persecutions of the 19th century. A representative sample of only 117 martyrs—including 96 Vietnamese, 11 Spanish Dominicans, and 10 French members of the Paris Foreign Missions Society (Missions Etrangères de Paris)—were beatified on four separate occasions: 64 by Pope Leo XIII on May 27, 1900; eight by Pope Pius X on May 20, 1906; 20 by Pope Pius X on May 2, 1909; and 25 by Pope Pius XII on April 29, 1951. All these 117 Vietnamese Martyrs were canonized on June 19, 1988. A young Vietnamese Martyr, Andrew Phú Yên, was beatified in March, 2000 by Pope John Paul II.

Vietnamese martyrs Paul Mi, Pierre Duong, Pierre Truat, martyred on 18 December 1838.

The tortures these individuals underwent are considered by the Vatican to be among the worst in the history of Christian martyrdom. The torturers hacked off limbs joint by joint, tore flesh with red hot tongs, and used drugs to enslave the minds of the victims. Christians at the time were branded on the face with the words "tả đạo" (左道, lit. "Left (Sinister) religion") and families and villages which subscribed to Christianity were obliterated.

The letters and example of Théophane Vénard inspired the young Saint Thérèse of Lisieux to volunteer for the Carmelite nunnery at Hanoi, though she ultimately contracted tuberculosis and could not go. In 1865 Vénard's body was transferred to his Congregation's church in Paris, but his head remains in Vietnam.

The Church in Vietnam was devastated during the Tây Sơn rebellion in the late 18th century. During the turmoil, the missions revived, however, as a result of cooperation between the French Vicar Apostolic Pigneaux de Behaine and Nguyen Anh. After Nguyen's victory in 1802, in gratitude to assistance received, he ensured protection to missionary activities. However, only a few years into the new emperor's reign, there was growing antipathy among officials against Christianity and missionaries reported that it was purely for political reasons that their presence was tolerated. Tolerance continued until the death of the emperor and the new emperor Minh Mang succeeding to the throne in 1820.

Converts began to be harassed without official edicts in the late 1820s, by local governments. In 1831 the emperor passed new laws on regulations for religious groupings in Viet Nam, and Christianity was then officially prohibited. In 1832, the first act occurred in a largely Christian village near Hue, with the entire community being incarcerated and sent into exile in Cambodia. In January 1833 a new kingdom-wide edict was passed calling on Vietnamese subjects to reject the religion of Jesus and required suspected Christians to demonstrate their renunciation by walking on a wooden cross. Actual violence against Catholics, however, did not occur until the Lê Văn Khôi revolt.

During the rebellion, a young French missionary priest named Joseph Marchand was living in sickness in the rebel Gia Dinh citadel. In October 1833, an officer of the emperor reported to the court that a foreign Christian religious leader was present in the citadel. This news was used to justify the edicts against Christianity, and led to the first executions of missionaries in over 40 years. The first executed was named Francois Gagelin. Marchand was captured and executed as a "rebel leader" in 1835; he was put to death by "slicing". Further repressive measures were introduced in the wake of this episode in 1836. Prior to 1836, village heads had only to simply report to local mandarins about how their subjects had recanted Christianity; after 1836, officials could visit villages and force all the villagers to line up one by one to trample on a cross and if a community was suspected of harbouring a missionary, militia could block off the village gates and perform a rigorous search; if a missionary was found, collective punishment could be meted out to the entire community.

Missionaries and Christian communities were able to sometimes escape this through bribery of officials; they were also sometimes victims of extortion attempts by people who demanded money under the threat that they would report the villages and missionaries to the authorities.

The court became more aware of the problem of the failure to enforce the laws and applied greater pressure on its officials to act; officials that failed to act or those tho who were seen to be acting too slowly were demoted or removed from office (and sometimes were given severe corporal punishment), while those who attacked and killed the Christians could receive promotion or other rewards. Lower officials or younger family members of officials were sometimes tasked with secretly going through villages to report on hidden missionaries or Christians that had not apostasized.

The first missionary arrested during this (and later executed) was the priest Jean-Charles Cornay in 1837. A military campaign was conducted in Nam Dinh after letters were discovered in a shipwrecked vessel bound for Macao. Quang Tri and Quang Binh officials captured several priests along with the French missionary Bishop Pierre Dumoulin-Borie in 1838 (who was executed). The court translator, Francois Jaccard, a Christian who had been kept as a prisoner for years and was extremely valuable to the court, was executed in late 1838; the official who was tasked with this execution, however, was almost immediately dismissed.

A priest, Father Ignatius Delgado, was captured in the village of Can Lao (Nam Định Province), put in a cage on public display for ridicule and abuse, and died of hunger and exposure while waiting for execution; the officer and soldiers that captured him were greatly rewarded (about 3 kg of silver was distributed out to all of them), as were the villagers that had helped to turn him over to the authorities. The bishop Dominic Henares was found in Giao Thuy district of Nam Dinh (later executed); the villagers and soldiers that participated in his arrest were also greatly rewarded (about 3 kg of silver distributed). The priest, Father Joseph Fernandez, and a local priest, Nguyen Ba Tuan, were captured in Kim Song, Nam Dinh; the provincial officials were promoted, the peasants who turned them over were given about 3 kg of silver and other rewards were distributed. In July 1838, a demoted governor attempting to win back his place did so successfully by capturing the priest Father Dang Dinh Vien in Yen Dung, Bac Ninh province. (Vien was executed). In 1839, the same official captured two more priests: Father Dinh Viet Du and Father Nguyen Van Xuyen (also both executed).

In Nhu Ly near Hue, an elderly catholic doctor named Simon Hoa was captured and executed. He had been sheltering a missionary named Charles Delamotte, whom the villagers had pleaded with him to send away. The village was also supposed to erect a shrine for the state-cult, which the doctor also opposed. His status and age protected him from being arrested until 1840, when he was put on trial and the judge pleaded (due to his status in Vietnamese society as both an elder and a doctor) with him to publicly recant; when he refused he was publicly executed.

Many officials preferred to avoid execution because of the threat to social order and harmony it represented, and resorted to use of threats or torture in order to force Christians to recant. Many villagers were executed alongside priests according to mission reports. The emperor died in 1841, and this offered respite for Christians. However, some persecution still continued after the new emperor took office. Christian villages were forced to build shrines to the state cult. The missionary Father Pierre Duclos (quoted above) died in prison in after being captured on the Saigon river in June 1846. The boat he was traveling in, unfortunately contained the money that was set for the annual bribes of various officials (up to 1/3 of the annual donated French mission budget for Cochinchina was officially allocated to 'special needs') in order to prevent more arrests and persecutions of the converts; therefore, after his arrest, the officials then began wide searches and cracked down on the Christian communities in their jurisdictions. The amount of money that the French mission societies were able to raise, made the missionaries a lucrative target for officials that wanted cash, which could even surpass what the imperial court was offering in rewards. This created a cycle of extortion and bribery which lasted for years.

Saint Vincent Liem Le Duang.

He was born into the Christian community of Thong-Dong in 1731. From a young age he showed great devotion and ability. He was sent to the Philippines at the age of fifteen and took the habit in 1753. After completing his studies at the University of St. Thomas, he was ordained priest and returned to his native land. As he could speak Vietnamese he started his apostolate immediately. He spent the next fourteen years ministering to Christian communities, teaching at the seminary of Trung-Linh and preaching in the non-Christian areas.

From 1767 the Church in Vietnam came under attack from the authorities. Vincent nevertheless continued to proclaim the Gospel openly, regardless of the obstacles and threats. He was captured in 1773, beaten and imprisoned. He was placed in a cage and displayed like a wild animal. However the local Mandarin believed that this ritual humiliation would not help the authorities’ attempt to crush the Christian religion. Vincent was released from his cage and allowed to walk about the prison. He took advantage of his relative liberty and preached the Gospel to his fellow prisoners and all who would come to listen. This status was short lived and he was put back in his cage and taken to Hanoi and the Imperial Court.

At the Court the Emperor arranged a disputation between Vincent, a Buddhist, a Confucian and a Taoist. His reasoning, clarity and elegance, in defending the true faith, left a deep impressio, so much so that an Imperial Prince declared the superiority of Christianity. However Vincent’s fate was decided after a stormy dialogue with the Queen Mother. He was sentenced to death and was beheaded on the 7th of November 1773.

The persecutions of the Vietnamese Church continue. In 1975, the exodus of Vietnamese friars would result in the formation of a new vicariate outside their motherland: the Vicariate of St Vincent Liem. Every day, the brothers of the vicariate, pray for the conversion of Vietnam, through the intercession of St. Vincent.

Those whose names are known are listed below:

(Please keep in mind that for Vietnamese martyrs these are the anglicized versions of their names)

* Andrew Dung-Lac An Tran

* Augustin Schoeffler, MEP, a priest from France

* Agnes Le Thi Thanh

* Bernard Vũ Văn Duệ

* Dominic Mậu

* Emmanuel Le Van Phung

* Emmanuel Trieu Van Nguyen

* Francis Chieu Van Do

* Francis Gil de Frederich|Francesc (Francis) Gil de Federich, OP, a priest from Catalonia (Spain)

* François-Isidore Gagelin, MEP, a priest from France

* Francis Jaccard, MEP, a priest from France

* Francis Trung Von Tran

* Francis Nguyen

* Ignatius Delgado y Cebrian, OP, a bishop from Spain

* Jacinto (Hyacinth) Casteñeda, OP, a priest from Spain

* James Nam

* Jerome Hermosilla, OP, a bishop from Spain

* John Baptist Con

* John Charles Cornay, MEP, a priest from France

* John Dat

* John Hoan Trinh Doan

* John Louis Bonnard, MEP, a priest from France

* John Thanh Van Dinh

* José María Díaz Sanjurjo, OP, a bishop from Spain

* Joseph Canh Luang Hoang

* Joseph Fernandez, OP, a priest from Spain

* Joseph Hien Quang Do

* Joseph Khang Duy Nguyen

* Joseph Luu Van Nguyen

* Joseph Marchand, MEP, a priest from France

* Joseph Nghi Kim

* Joseph Thi Dang Le

* Joseph Uyen Dinh Nguyen

* Joseph Vien Dinh Dang

* Joseph Khang, a local doctor

* Joseph Tuc

* Joseph Tuan Van Tran

* Lawrence Ngon

* Lawrence Huong Van Nguyen

* Luke Loan Ba Vu

* Luke Thin Viet Pham

* Martin Tho

* Martin Tinh Duc Ta

* Matthew Alonzo Leziniana, OP, a priest from Spain

* Matthew Phuong Van Nguyen

* Matthew Gam Van Le

* Melchor García Sampedro, OP, a bishop from Spain

* Michael Dinh-Hy Ho

* Michael My Huy Nguyen

* Nicholas Thé Duc Bui

* Paul Hanh

* Paul Khoan Khan Pham

* Paul Loc Van Le

* Paul Tinh Bao Le

* Paul Tong Viet Buong

* Paul Duong

* Pere (Peter) Almató i Ribera, OP, a priest from Catalonia (Spain)

* Peter Tuan

* Peter Dung Van Dinh

* Peter Da

* Peter Duong Van Truong

* Peter Francis Néron, MEP, a priest from France

* Peter Hieu Van Nguyen

* Peter Quy Cong Doan

* Peter Thi Van Truong Pham

* Peter Tuan Ba Nguyen, a fisherman

* Peter Tuy Le

* Peter Van Van Doan

* Philip Minh Van Doan

* Pierre Borie, MEP, a bishop from France

* Simon Hoa Dac Phan

* Stephen Theodore Cuenot, MEP, a bishop from France

* Stephen Vinh

* Théophane Vénard, MEP, a priest from France

* Thomas De Van Nguyen

* Thomas Du Viet Dinh

* Thomas Thien Tran

* Thomas Toan

* Thomas Khuong

* Valentine Berriochoa, OP, a bishop from the Basque Country

* Vicente Liem de la Paz

* Vincent Duong

* Vincent Tuong, a local judge

* Vincent Yen Do

Almighty God, who gave to your servants the Martyrs of Vietnam the boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

[thefloatingstone]

you can't just NOT tell us what caligula did

Oh ho ho ho HO!!!

*cracks knuckles*

My dear sweet innocent anon…

Here’s an incomplete list of things the real Caligula did (because the movie made some of it up… but a lot of it not…). I’m writing it as a basic list because writing it out in detail might actually kill me. It also doesn’t help that since Rome destroyed most of the evidence of Caligula’s reign we have very little documentation on Caligula apart from a few sources, and many of the finer details are argued on whether they’re true or not.

Caligula was Roman Emperor from 37AD to 41AD (You will notice that is only 4 years. During these four years he;

Possibly killed his adoptive grandfather Tibirius to become emperor (we are not sure but there was some suspicion)

Nullified Tibirius’ own grandson from Tibirius’ will on the grounds of insanity.

The first 7 months of him as emperor were actually very good so not much to report there. He was popular and made moves to make himself popular with both the people and the military After falling ill (or possibly poisoned) all of this changed

he started to kill off or exile those who were close to him or anyone he saw as a threatfor any reason

He started to kill or have people executed who said anything negative about his appearance

had his cousin and adopted son Tiberius Gemellus executed, enraging his and Caligula’s joint grandmother who then either committed suicide or was also killed by Caligula

He had his father-in-law Marcus Junius Silanus and his brother-in-law Marcus Lepidus executed as well (again. For little to no reason.)

His uncle Claudius was spared only because Caligula preferred to keep him as a laughing stock.

Is said to have had an incestuous relationship with his favourite sister Julia Drusilla. (Drusilla died at age 38 from a fever)

had his other two sisters, Livilla and Agrippina the Younger, exiled. Caligula was supposedly having an incestuous relationship with both of them as well

Started executing people without trials

Forced the Praetorian prefect, Macro, to commit suicide

Spent so much of Rome’s money on his own extravagance that Rome fell into financial crisis

began falsely accusing, fining and even killing individuals for the purpose of seizing their estates to spend on himself

Started taxing lawsuits, weddings, and prostitution

Started auctioning the lives of Gladiators during shows

Wills that left items to Tiberius were reinterpreted to leave the items instead to Caligula to further his spending on himself

in the first year of Caligula’s reign, he squandered 2.7 billion sesterces that Tiberius had amassed

grain imports were disrupted because Caligula re-purposed grain boats for a pontoon bridge, resulting in a famine

Ok I’m gonna have to elaborate on this because this is some insane shit and this was where the crazy REALLY starts getting out of control. More so than incest and executing people for no reason;

In 39, Caligula performed a spectacular stunt by ordering a temporary floating bridge to be built using ships as pontoons, stretching for over two miles from the resort of Baiae to the neighbouring port of Puteoli. Caligula, who could not swim, then proceeded to ride his favourite horse Incitatus across, wearing the breastplate of Alexander the Great. This act was in defiance of a prediction by Tiberius’s soothsayer Thrasyllus of Mendes that Caligula had “no more chance of becoming emperor than of riding a horse across the Bay of Baiae”.

(imagine being that full of spite and THAT big of a Chad)

anyway, moving on;

He also had 2 insanely large ships constructed to himself during this same time. During the famine and financial crisis.

Decided numerous senators were not trustworthy and had them executed

Forced the senators he did not execute to weight on him and run beside his chariot to humiliate them

marched his troops to the northern shoreline of Gaul as a prelude to the invasion of Britain but then ordered them to collect seashells, which he called the spoils of the conquered ocean.

Declared war on Poseidon and marched his troops to the beach where he ordered them to throw their spears and stab the water

began appearing in public dressed as various gods such as Hercules, Mercury, Venus and Apollo.(Imagine if Trump started showing up in public dressed as Jesus Christ)

began referring to himself as a god when meeting with politicians 

Had himself be referred to as “Jupiter” in several public documents

had 3 temples built where people could worship HIM

Had a different temple which was dedicated to gods be dedicated to him instead. (Imagine if Trump said the Notre Dame is now a place to worship him instead)

would present himself as a god to the public 

had the heads removed from various statues of gods located across Rome and replaced them with his own.

was represented as a sun god on Egyptian coins 

took things a step further and had those in Rome, including senators, worship him as a tangible, living god. 

ordered the erection of a statue of himself in the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem

The Temple of Jerusalem was then transformed into a temple for Caligula, and it was called the Temple of Illustrious Gaius the New Jupiter. 

Slept with other mens’ wives and bragged about it publicly

Would kill people for mere amusement

Once, at some games he was attending, he was said to have ordered his guards to throw an entire section of the audience into the arena during the intermission to be eaten by the animals because there were no prisoners to be used and he was bored

Prostituted his sisters out to other men

Would send troops on nonsensical missions apparently for his own amusement just to waste their time

Turned his palace into a brothel

Planned or at least promised to make his horse Incitatus into a consulate in the senate

DID actually appoint his horse as a priest

Built his horse its own house and a carved marble manger to eat out of

Planned to move to Egypt to be worshipped as a living god

Displayed his 4th wife Milonia Caesonianaked to his friends on several occasions

Taxed the Roman people when his daughter was born to fund her education and dowry

there’s this little extract from Suetonius which idk how to put in a bullet point

“after the birth of his daughter, complaining of his poverty, and the burdens to which he was subjected, not only as an emperor, but a father, he made a general collection for her maintenance and fortune. He likewise gave public notice, that he would receive new-year’s gifts on the calends of January following; and accordingly stood in the vestibule of his house, to clutch the presents which people of all ranks threw down before him by handfuls and lapfuls. At last, being seized with an invincible desire of feeling money, taking off his slippers, he repeatedly walked over great heaps of gold coin spread upon the spacious floor, and then laying himself down, rolled his whole body in gold over and over again.”

Caligula was assassinated in 41AD at the age of 28 by getting repeatedly stabbed.

Here are some direct quotes from him;

Would that the Roman people had but one neck!

Let them hate me, so long as they fear me

I have the right to do anything to anybody

Having punished one person for another, by mistaking his name, he said, “he deserved it just as much.”

And this which is not a quote by the real person but from the film, and despite it not being a real quote I think it’s excellent stuff

I have existed from the morning of the world and I shall exist until the last star falls from the night. Although I have taken the form of Gaius Caligula, I am all men as I am no man, and therefore I am a god.

(feel free to correct any mistakes on my facts in this post by reblogging but do me a favor and don’t @ me in my inbox about how stupid I am for saying x or y.)

consider ☕️Buying me a Ko-fi ☕️

[mitsybubbles]

(And this is why we have aus to make them interact /lh )

No but on a serious note most if not all of her connections to other characters only strengthen the theory that Marika hid her

The blade of calling’s moveset is like the black knife assassins who used to be Marika’s most trusted guard. The minor erdtree incantation was a secret spell that Marika clearly kept dear to her - and Melina is the only other person who can cast it

Melina’s clothes, weapon, discus of light spell, and association with torrent seem to connect her with Miquella and Malenia but it’s unknown how close she was to them (and neither of them Can really commentate on her considering the Circumstances). There is also an implication that she could be connected because Miquella also needed her fate to be fufilled so the Erdtree could burn but that’s mostly speculation so it’s really up to you to decide what his relation to her is

She has almost no other connection with any other character besides these aforementioned ones, since there is no evidence even she and Messmer interacted- much less her and the Carians, or the Golden Lineage

That does take me to the fact people who prophesized the flame of ruin were exiled to the mountaintops and heretics to the order were tortured, imprisoned or executed. Fire in general seems to be a taboo subject for the order for obvious reasons and Marika isn’t above subjecting her children to the prejudices of the golden order as seen with the Omen Twins and Messmer.

But if she had Melina as her last born child, and if that was when she was planning to divest herself of the Order, so then she needed Melina as her kindling tool as a last resort, so she had to make sure her curse was not discovered so Melina wouldn’t be punished (and it seems something *did* happen since she was burned once and her weapon was found in an office of an official meant to carry out executions and grim rituals)….

Then she could have hidden Melina to avoid what happened with Messmer

Melina thinking hours... I wonder, was she ever held by Marika when she was smaller? People like to say Messmers the abandoned child but at least some of the other kids knew him. Theres not a hint of anything in the game apart from one tiny bit of lore in Messmers kindling item and even then we don't even know if Messmer knows about Melina. Messmer may have been shoved aside but Melina is truly Marikas hidden child, only to be used as a tool to burn the Erd tree.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

The Ellimist Chronicles!

Short opinion: Other books in the series make the point that war is not a chess game.  This book emphasizes that idea—through showing us what it takes to view war as a chess game.

Long opinion:

The Ellimist Chronicles might be the novel with the single largest scope of any book I’ve ever read: it tells the story of how a god becomes a god.  Part of what makes this book so cool and also so creepy is the sense of fatalism and foreboding that pervades it throughout.  Between the Ketrans, the Pangabans, the Jallians, and the Capasins, not to mention all the species casually sacrificed in the Ellimist’s games, we see like 8 different sentient species go extinct over the course of this book.  Add to that the fact that it opens and closes on the death of an Animorph—no telling which one at that point in the series—and this book almost appears to be setting up for the fall of humanity to the yeerk empire.  And our narrator is not the most reassuring one: he expresses empathy for Rachel, yes, but he also plays the yeerk-human war like a game, and we know for a fact that he wouldn’t be unduly inconvenienced if the humans were to lose.  Which is pretty goshdarn uncomfortable to read about, because in this particular game we’re the pawns. 

It’s a huge theme in the Animorphs series that war is NOT a chess game, or even comparable to a chess game (or any other game for that matter) in any meaningful way, not if you’re even a halfway-decent person.  War is about deciding which people from your own side should die horribly in the process of attempting to ensure which people from the other side die horribly, a course of action that should only be undertaken as an absolute last resort after all other choices have been exhausted.  The idea that it’s not even appropriate or good to make that comparison comes up again and again (MM3, #11, #16, Andalite Chronicles). In #53 Jake sums it up: “At the beginning of the American Civil War, both sides thought the war was about taking or holding cities and ports. They thought it was a chess game. By the end of the war, they’d figured out that they weren’t playing chess… The real game was destruction…They burned enemy homes and farms. They burned crops in the field and slaughtered farm animals and wrapped railroad tracks around trees. They starved the enemy. They realized that warfare was no longer about chivalry and honor, but about killing the enemy. Do whatever it takes… Dress it up however you want, that’s what war is about. If there’s glory in there somewhere, I must have missed it.”  

Jake is right, of course, that he’s not playing a chess game.  At that point in the series, he’s deciding whether he’s willing to kill his brother and sacrifice his cousin in order to protect his species.  He’s already made the decision to give up on saving his parents in order to blow up the yeerk pool.  These are his family members and friends on the line, not rooks or bishops… and no matter what he does, some of them are going to die.  Jake’s also a decent human being, enough to realize that the taxxons have families too, that many of them are not there by choice, but that’s the only way he has out of this situation: kill the enemy.  

Anyway, back to the Ellimist.  Who can experience the devastation of losing his own species for decades after the death of the ketrans, but doesn’t spare more than a moment of annoyance for the annihilation of the pangabans. Who exists so far above the lives and concerns of ordinary beings that he can see their entire existence playing out in a matter of seconds.  Who is so far removed from those ordinary lives that he is largely incapable of understanding them at all.  He doesn’t have family members on the line, he doesn’t see the world through the taxxons’ eyes—and he’s therefore just ruthless enough to destroy six children in order to save a species that he considers worth saving.  Jake might be horrified that Crayak uses child-soldiers as his ultimate weapon (#26) but also seems to overlook the fact that the Ellimist uses EXACTLY THE SAME TACTIC when he recruits the Animorphs.  

It’s obvious right from the very first book that the Animorphs universe isn’t run by a benevolent or all-powerful god.  What makes this book so mind-blowing is that it shows that the god of this universe is powerful, he’s well-intentioned… and he’s still not only very limited, but also kind of a jerk a lot of the time.  Toomin does his best to encourage species to thrive and grow as they naturally would, he shows enormous fondness for the infinite variations of life in the universe, and he does what he can to protect life in the universe.  

He also just happens to be condescending as fuck.  

The narration of The Ellimist Chronicles does a really good job of showing why, exactly, Toomin tends to think of ordinary beings as “small” or “helpless,” since he watches the rise and fall of entire civilizations in about one subjective afternoon most of the time—but he also spends a hell of a lot of time describing the hardworking autonomous people whose lives he casually manipulates as “tiny” or some synonym thereof.  There’s no obligation or external stricture which says that he has to care about ordinary beings—and indeed Crayak seems much more comfortable not caring at all—so one can appreciate how much he works at it.  However, he also doesn’t quite get to the level of thinking of humans as (for lack of a better term) fully human: they’re chess pieces, he moves them around, and if he has to sacrifice a few then oh well.  He doesn’t ask whether they’d like to be moved in advance, he doesn’t incessantly turn over possibilities until he finds the one with the least bloodshed, and he certainly doesn’t have a long conversation with Rachel about whether she’s willing to die before it happens.  He sees possibilities and acts on them.  Because he’s a gamer, and they are game pieces.  Who cares what a knight thinks, as long as it’s not in the trajectory of the opposing bishop?  

Toomin tries, to be sure, but he doesn’t think like a human leader and he doesn’t treat his “pieces” like equals or even underlings.  He might even know Cassie’s favorite bands or Jake’s scoring record in basketball (who knows?) but he probably doesn’t consider that information to be particularly important.  Because he’s a gamer, to his core, and he thinks like a gamer.  And Jake and Cassie are just NPCs to him.  

Video games (and to a lesser extent tabletop games) represent this odd nebulous space whose meaning tends to defy interpretation.  The questions that everyone from social psychologists to communication researchers to philosophers to television shows to gamers themselves have asked (What, if anything, does one’s in-game behavior say about one’s true personality?  Does performing certain behaviors in-game influence one’s habits in the real world?  How much does shooting a person during a game have to do with one’s actual willingness to shoot a person if put in that situation in real life?) reflect the sheer bizarre extremity of in-game behavior.  Because the fact of the matter is, the vast majority of people engage in utterly reprehensible actions while playing games that they would never engage in during real interactions.  I myself have crashed spaceships into planets, driven cars off the road using my own vehicle, stabbed people in the gut, and shot unarmed prisoners in the head—because it’s all part of the game.  And it’s just a game, right?  Who cares how I win?

If those were real people, they’d sure as hell care.  If I was a general who only thought of a war as like a game, I’d be no better than Visser Three.  (One of the better moments of dark humor in Visser: the Council of Thirteen considers sympathy for humans a crime punishable by death and execution of several thousand underlings a crime punishable by temporary exile.)  In a lot of ways, Toomin’s perspective on humans has more in common with the yeerks’ or even Crayak’s.  He needs people like Jake and Rachel and Elfangor and Arbron to win this war for him.  

So, yeah, Toomin is a gamer—and it’s almost a natural consequence that he throws lives away any time it’s convenient for him.  He’s not human, he’s not an andalite, and he doesn’t appreciate individuals the way he does entire species.  K.A. Applegate achieves a masterwork by not only giving us the realistic-feeling origin story of a god, but doing so in a way that creates rules which genuinely fit with the Animorphs world as we know it.  

[benikoumori]

The Fate of the Phoenix 53

  “With the medallion you could do more,” Omne said. “You could attempt to merge minds with me and take over. You would have my recent memories to gain, and the body which was once yours. It is not a negligible asset”   “I am tempted,” the Other said. “It is my body. The memories would be of interest, and there would be a certain justice in it, since you have claimed the right to repossess mine. However, I have not time at the moment to fight you for control. There is a fast-moving galactic situation. This body is adequate to my purposes for the present For certain things, it is even useful and interesting. Spock of Vulcan and of the Enterprise can go certain places, do certain things, influence certain decisions which Omne’s body cannot do. Besides, I have begun to become accustomed to it, and a part of me is quite at home. The Omne body is recorded and I could reclaim it at some time through the Phoenix. But the life-to-life transfer process will serve me much better now. The continuity process will reconstruct this body in its original form, without the destruct. That will suit me.”   “Even presuming that I would believe you,” Omne said, “why would I agree?”   The Other hefted the little weapon. “Consider the alternative.”   “Death?” Omne said. “Now that the base dead-man switch tracer has picked me up, the automatic Phoenix machinery would operate. Death would be no more than a serious inconvenience.”   “There is the override,” the Other said. “I could leave you locked in the machine. It is a considerably smaller prison than a universe.”   “Why would you not do that in any case after I gave you the medallion key?” Omne said.   His Other smiled. “Are you saying that we are not a man of honor? I will not strain your trust,” the Other said, “nor trust you unduly. You will have to set the medallion key to work properly for Trevanian. I will use the same setting. And at the same time I will set the transporter circuit to send you off. You will be able to see that the transporter is set for the Vortex, not for death.”   Omne smiled. “I have no objection to the existence of Trevanian. He is decorative and enterprising and appears to have possibilities as an enemy. But why would I go to such lengths for him?”   “Your actual plan for the Empire depends on the Doyen. You would prefer to use her as a political force, rather than a berserk machine of vengeance for a lost Trevanian. However, that is not why you will do it. Do you not know why?”   “Name it,” Omne said with sudden ferocity. “I will not name it for you.”   The Other turned away from Omne and went to face Spock, who was standing beside Jim. “Mr. Spock, have you wondered why I brought you here?”   “I had wondered why you kept me alive,” Spock said, “when you had killed me at the reception. However I believe that is becoming much clearer to me.”   The Other smiled the wolf smile with Spock’s face.   “Indeed, Mr. Spock. Explain.”   Spock straightened and met the identical eyes levelly. “You killed me because you could not fight both your own selves at the same time.”   “Excellent, Spock.”   “And perhaps—you had a use for a recording,” Spock said, a little hollowly.   “Even better, Mr. Spock,” the Other nodded.   “Then you are a murderer,” the Commander said with finality, turning on the Other.   “Am I?” he said. “Is it murder to make a recording? Perhaps it is merely conferring the benefit of immortality. You see, the Phoenix changes everything—even the morality of murder.”   “It is still murder,” Kirk said.   “You are the man who set a trap for me, and killed me,” the Other said. “Was it murder?”   “No,” Kirk said firmly.   The Other shrugged. “It was death. My second death’ which you intended to be final. You planned it in cold blood, almost an execution. Neither the current Omne nor I have settled with you for that, and I do not advise you to give him a chance.”   “Nor you?”   “Nor me. But I will not give you any option. However, the nature of the Phoenix has altered the nature of your act, and of mine, irrevocably. It is now possible for a man to come back to punish you for killing bun. And it is now possible to kill a man without wishing him dead—nor keeping him dead. That is war. But is it murder?”   Kirk looked into the Vulcan eyes which held the soul of Omne. “What has stopped me is that I did not think the man who had been Omnedon would be a plain murderer. A warrior, yes, perhaps responsible for death, as I have been, too, and even in ways which I would not condone. An outlaw, but one who would claim a hell-busted ideal or two, and a purpose of freedom. The wolf, but not the wolf in sheep’s clothing. Not hiding. Not striking by night without warning, against a conference of lambs. You are Omne, and part of you is even Spock—and yet you did kill Spock. Are you saying—you made a recording? That was why you did it?”   Jim’s eyes were wide.   The Other shook his head. “As it happened, Omne transported him into the force field just before the moment of death. But that was my intent. Mr. Spock is far too interesting to destroy irrevocably, unless as a last resort.”   Jim straightened. “I do not begin to forgive you Spock’s death or that risk. But I do see that you have a certain point. The Phoenix alters every morality we have had about life and death. You killed the Old Hegarch, but he did not die, finally. You knew he would not. He has a new life, and his grandson a new lease on life. Is that murder? Spock forced you to kill yourself. I killed you. Omne put you under the gun of a death sentence and thought he could reabsorb you. None of us are dead. If you did not intend irrevocable murder of Spock, I do not forgive, and I do not wish to share the universe with you, but I might not shoot you out of hand like a mad wolf.”   The Other bowed mockingly. “Thank you, Captain. I cannot tell you how that relieves my mind.”   “Accept your own offer from Omne,” Kirk said firmly. “I believe he would gladly cancel the destruct if you accept exile.”   “And you would gladly share the universe with him?” the Other said.   “No,” Kirk said. “He is far too dangerous, but not so lethal as you have been. He has only to wait while your time runs out. You may kill him, but even that, here, is not irrevocable, and it does you no good. You need the code from him. He is as stubborn as you are, and he has everything to lose. So do you. But you have no options if he does not yield.”   The Other shook his head. “I have one.” He looked at Spock. “I believe your logic has arrived at it, Mr. Spock. Would you care to name it?”   Spock looked at him bleakly. “You believe that the resonance of our bodies and the similarity of a portion of our minds will make it possible for you to subdue my consciousness and take over my body—by mind link, without need for the medallion or the equipment.”   “Spock!” Jim said and James turned slowly to look at Spock.   The Commander could feel the sudden metaphysical horror spreading through the room, and she knew that they all believed it—that even Spock believed it was possible.   ��メダリオンによって君にはさらに多くの事ができる ” オムネが言った。 ”君は私の身体を手に入れ精神の併合を試みる事ができる。 私の最近の記憶を手に入れ君の肉体となる。 それは無視出来ない資産だ ”   ”惹かれているさ ” もうひとりが言った。 ”それは私の身体だからな。 記憶も興味深い、そして私が自分の物を手に入れるのだという君の主張には確かな正義がある。 だがしかし、私には支配権を巡る争いをする時間が今はない。 銀河の状況の動きは迅速だ。 当面の私の目的にはこの身体で足りるのでな。 有用な事は確かで興味深くもある。 バルカン人のスポックとエンタープライズであれば行ける場所、オムネの身体では出来ない影響力のある決断もある。 それに慣れ寛いでいる部分も確かにあってな。 オムネの身体は記録されているそして私はPhoenix でいずれ取り戻すことができる。 ライフ.トゥ.ライフプロセスの方が今の私には貢献度が高い。 自爆を除いたこの身体をオリジナルとして再建するプロセスになるからだ。 それは非常に好都合だ ” ”私が君を信じると仮定して ” オムネが言った、”同意する理由はなんだ? ” もうひとりが小さな武器を持ち上げた。 ”選択肢を考えてみる事だ ” ”死か? ” オムネが言った。 ”ベースにある dead-man スイッチトレイサーが私をピックアップし、自動的にPhoenix 機構が働く。 死は深刻な不便以上のものではない ” ”無効化できる ” もうひとりが言った。 ”私は君をマシンにロックし立ち去る事ができる。 宇宙よりもかなり小さな監獄だ ” ”私がメダリオンを与えた後でそのいずれもが行われないとする理由はなんだ? ” オムネが言った。 もうひとりの彼が微笑んだ。 ”君は私たちが名誉を重んじる男ではないと言っているのか? 私は君の信頼につけこんだりなどはせんよ ” もうひとりが言った、”君を過度に信用したりもな。 君にはトレヴァニアンの為にきちんと機能するようにメダリオンをセットしてもらう。 私が使うのは同じセットだ。 そして同時に私は君を送り出すトランスポーター回路をセットする。 君は死へではなく、Vortex へとセットされたトランスポーターを見ることが出来るという事だ ” オムネが微笑んだ。 ”トレヴァニアンの存在に私は意義を挟まない。 彼は芸術的で意欲的で、敵として頭角を表す可能性がある。 だが何故私が彼のためにそこまです��必要がある? ” ”君の帝国への実際の計画はDoyen に依存しているからだ。 君はトレヴァニアンを失い怒り狂った復讐マシンより政治権力として彼女を使う方を好むからだ。 だがしかし、それが君の理由とはならんな。 君に理由がわからないか? ” ”何でも良い ” オムネが突然獰猛さを剥き出して言った。 ”君の為に私がそれを行う理由は無い ” もうひとりがオムネからジムの側に立つスポックに顔を向けた。 ”Mr.スポック、君は私が君をここへ連れてきた事を疑問に思ったか? ” ”私が疑問に思ったのは私を生かしておく理由だ ” スポックが言った、”カンファレンスで私を殺した君がだ。 だがしかし、私にはそれが明らかになったと考える ” もうひとりがスポックの顔に狼の微笑みを浮かべた。 ”確信があるようだ。Mr.スポック。 説明したまえ ” スポックが背筋を伸ばし、同じ瞳を真っ直ぐに見つめた。 ”私を殺そうとしたのは君自身であるふたりと同時に戦う事は出来ないからだ ” ”素晴らしいね、スポック ” ”そして恐らく -- 君はレコーディングを行った ” スポックが言った、僅かに虚ろな声で。 ”ますます素晴らしい、Mr.スポック ” もうひとりが頷いた。 ”では貴様は殺人者だ ” 指揮官がついに口を開き、もうひとりへと向いた。 ”私が? ” 彼が言った。 ”レコーディングを行った事が殺人に? それは不死の利益の授与となるだろう。 知っての通りPhoenix は全てを変える -- 殺人の道徳性さえもだ ” ”だとしてもそれは殺人だ ” カークが言った。 ”君は私を殺すために私を罠にかけた ” もうひとりが言った。 ”それは殺人か? ” ”違う ” カークが確りと言った。 ”もうひとりが肩を竦めた。 ”それは死だ。 君が最後だと見込んだ私の二度目の死。 君の計画は冷酷でほぼ遂行された。 現在のオムネも私も、その事について君と和解をするつもりはないし彼にチャンスを与えるように私がアドバイスすることも無い ” ”君もか? ” ”私もだ。 私がどの様な選択肢も与える事はしない。 だがしかし、君の行動、そして私の性質によって変えられたPhoenix の性質は取り消せない(However, the nature of the Phoenix has altered the nature of your act, and mine, irrevocably ) 殺された事に怒った男が君を罰する為に戻ってくる可能性はある。 今、彼の死を願わずとも男を殺せる可能性がある -- 彼を死んだままにしておく事もない。 つまりは戦争だ。 それは殺人か? ” カークはオムネの魂を持つバルカンの眼を見つめた。 ”私を止めているのはOmnedon であった男が分かりやすい殺人を犯すとは考えられない事だ。 戦士として、そう、私同様死の責任を容赦なく負う筈だ。 自由を目的とし、ひとり、もしくは二人、地獄の様な理想を主張するアウトローだ。 狼は、狼は羊の皮を被れない。 隠れることはできない。 羊たちのカンファレンスに���、警戒されず目につかず相対する事はできない。 君はオムネだ、そして君のいちぶはスポックでさえある -- そうでありながら君は��ポックを殺した。 君の言うように -- 君はレコーディングを行ったのか? それが君の理由か? ” ジムの眼が大きくなっていた。 もうひとりが頭を振った。 ”あれは偶然だ、死の一瞬前にオムネが彼をフォース.フィールド内へ転送した。 だがあれは私の意図した所でもある。 Mr.スポックは非常に興味深い、破壊しつくすのは最後の手段として取っておいた ” ジムは背筋を伸ばした。 ”スポックの死、もしくはそのリスクを犯した事で君を許す事はできそうにない。 だが私は君が確かなポイントを持っている事に気づいた。 Phoenix はあらゆる道徳性を変える。 君はOld Hegarchを殺した、だが彼は死んでしまったわけではない。 彼がそうならないと君は分かっていた。 彼は新たな生を得た、その命で彼の孫と再出発を果たした。 それは殺人か? スポックは君に自殺を強要した。 オムネは君を死刑宣告の銃の元に置き、君を再吸収できると考えた。 私たちは誰も死なない。 君が意図したのでないとしても、スポックを殺したことは変更できないし私はそれを許さない、そして私は君との宇宙の共有を望まない、だが君を手に負えない狂った狼として狩る事はやめるだろう ” もうひとりはからかう様に頭を下げた。 ”ありがとう、船長。 私の心がどれだけ救われたか言い尽くせない ” ”オムネからのオファーを受け入れるんだ ��� カークが確りと言った。 ”君が追放を受け入れるなら彼は喜んで自爆をキャンセルするだろう ” ”そして君は彼と喜んで宇宙を共有すると? ” もうひとりが言った。 ”いいや ” カークが言った。 ”君程ではないが彼も充分に危険だ。 彼はただ君の時間が過ぎるのを待つしかない。 ここで、君は彼を殺すしかないが変更出来ないものではない、それは君に有用ではないだろうが。 君は彼のコードを必要としている。 彼は君同様に頑固だ、そして彼はあらゆる物を失っている。 君同様に。 彼が譲らなくては君に選択肢は無い ” もうひとりが頭を振った。 ”私にはひとつある ” 彼はスポックを見た。 ”君の論理はそれに追い付いたと私は考えるんだがね、Mr.スポック。 君がそれに名をつけないか? ” スポックは彼を厳しく見つめた。 ”貴様は私たちの身体と精神の類似性からくる共鳴により私の意識を征服し、私の身体を奪う事が可能であると考えている -- マインド.リンクを使えばメダリオンも機材も必要ではなくなると ” ”スポック! ” ジムが言い、ジェームズがゆっくりとスポックへと向いた。 指揮官は感じた言い様の無い恐怖が部屋を行き渡るのを、そして悟った皆がそれを考えていたと -- スポックでさえそれが可能であると考えていると。