#gen 5 belle

[simmie-stories]

Gen 5. Belle #66 Wedding Preparations

Leia was elated to be the Sim of Honor (the royal couple was staying over until the wedding at the end of fall).

Belle wished her father could walk her down the aisle....

But only now did Belle FINALLY get a pomegranate.

"Cooking... again?" "Practicing our wedding cake."

"My dear... let me get you a spot of tea. Maybe it's time to take a break from the obsessive cooking? I can take care of all that for you. You're wearing yourself out too quickly."

Main Back Next

[samssims]

[mhizzberryart]

The gang's all here! ...except for two more of the main cast 👀

From @antihibikase's Pokemon BW/BW2 rewrite! I also drew the antagonists here!

[clockwaysadmin]

City Pigeons Bleed Green

Update Subscription Post

(Since apparently this is going to be my Trauma Tuesday fic...)

Ship: gen batpham

Ao3 Link

CW: canon typical violence, blood, stitches, panic attacks, bad parent Fentons, experimentation, dehumanization, self esteem issues, more tags to be added

"Do you have a place to go to?” The kid laughed again. Somehow it sounded worse this time. “That’s the thing. I do. I might, I guess. Just no one is going to believe me.” “Why won’t they believe you? Where do you need to get?” Tim asked. The kid looked up. Jason felt Tim tense against him. Hell, Jason tensed. They were the wrong color, but Jason knew those eyes, those brows, that slope of the nose. Everything was just a little sideways, but Jason knew that face. He knew what the kid was going to say. “I need to get to Bruce Wayne.”

All parts are being posted here on Tumblr in their first draft version. The fic will be posted to Ao3 after it goes throughan edit.

All things related to this fic can be found in the 'city pigeons' tag on @clockwayswrites. Major links are below.

Part 1, Part 2 Part 3, Part 4 Part 5, Part 6 Part 7, Part 8 Part 9, Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14, Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18, Part 19, Part 20 Part 21 Part 22 Part 23, Part 24

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(For those very few with ability to comment on this post, DO NOT.)

[thatwholethingwiththeduck]

In the year of our lord 2024 I wrote a lot of fanfiction about these stupid medical malpractice guys.

It seemed easier to note the ones that weren't Hilson.

(Other fic: a03)

post-series

He Wants

Dying Men 

Suspicious

Favor 

Cocktails 

The Sixth Stage

pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name

eternal themes 

One More Story

Happy [stacy/cuddy]

The Open Road

Declarations 

a thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices

season 8

the drinks always have subtext

depends on how much you have to drink

season 7

Ten Days

He'd Know 

(He'd want to be left alone) [gen]

between pain and not 

season 6

absolution

Wonder

Manly Heterosexual Beers

Third Wheel

Regular Friendship

Couch Politics

star anise with caramelized onions

cures for insomnia 

Set The Date 

Rings

the secret sits in the middle and knows 

your slightest look easily will unclose me

we dance around in a ring

I'm Your Man

Proposal 2024 

Curious [bonnie/nora]

season 5

Personality Flaw 

Someone Always Cries [cameron/wilson with background hilson pining]

Not Friends

season 4

James Wilson and the Cozy Blanket of Denial

season 3

Questions and Answers 

True Hate's Kiss 

a light breeze

season 2

In The Human World

Autopilot

Hypotheticals 

Don't Cry 

Miserable 

season 1

Spaghetti 

vague timeline

Kinder

Hiring Practices 

5 Feelings 

the thing is 

Drinking Game

Distraction [houseteen]

Data

Fourth Time’s The Charm 

Pain Relief [houseteen]

Souvenirs You Never Lose 

Sensitivity Training 

Diagnosis

what we talk about when we talk about big pharma 

The Replacement 

Guys' Night Out

whumptober 2024 [mostly hilson]

Monday Morning

Open Bar 

miniatures [drabbles]

everyone deserves the chance to fly 

Up Is Down

Desperate Wilsonwives

pre-series

you love him more 

Wedding Bells 

Before [gen]

Feminist Sisterhood Something Something [stacy/cuddy]

the opposite of waiting for godot [gen]

au

two roads diverged in new orleans and i (i took the road less traveled by) 

(do stand so close to me) [bonus amber/stacy, choreman, taubner]

say hello to your friends (diagnosis club!) 

crossovers

Flamingos (Boston Legal)

Divorced Men's Club (Friends)

Napa (Mom)

Second Wives Club (Frasier)

assume it will be brilliant (Grey's Anatomy)

Love is itself unmoving (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

my own beginning, my own ending (Star Trek)

[srfreeman42]

zenless headcanons that i thought up of in da bath

the cunning hares watch jerma clips together in their free time

belle and wise can quote the godfather word for word

grace knows different speedrunning strats and can reach ultrakill cybergrind wave 50 in under 8 minutes

koleda watches and still cant fathom it

anton’s favorite band is motionless in white

soukaku once dressed up as ice kirby for halloween

yanagi dressed up as tiff for that same halloween

jane and seth are a married couple.

qingyi sometimes listens in on zhu yuan’s conversations with her mom just to dick around

the sons of calydon is a polycule (except lighter, hes gay)

one time someone asked burnice for a glass of water. she went through the stages of grief during that experience

piper and ellen have sleepovers

caesar is very fun to be around when hammered. one time she ran up to a table, kicked its leg, and nailed it right on the dartboard (in the bullseye, too)

lucy gave her a 10 minute lecture after that

lycaon trying to use gen z slang in sentences and failing is enough to make ellen lock tf in for 5 minutes (she hates it and that hatred fuels her)

anby would hold her sword to your neck if you said the phrase “nothingburger” around her (bc nothingburger reminds her of no burger)

miyabi has some serious abs.

corin has different outfits for work but is too nervous to wear them (theyre all very cute)

thats all i got right now

[witchpassing]

interview_3aC

I got into piloting during the Third Generation. For the historically illiterate, that’s before the breakpoint, not after. Summer Offensive, Chelsk Offensive, ‘81, ‘82… All that shit.

When you say pilot now, people get a certain mental image. It wasn’t like that, back then; end of the day, a G3 frame is basically just another kind of tank. Hot like hell inside and full analogue control. You had to think five, six, seven seconds ahead sometimes, because that’s how long it’d take you to string together the inputs for what you were doing next.

I was good. I mean, I’m good at my job now, sure, but… you should’ve fuckin’ seen me then.

... Anyway. Long and short of it is, I got unlucky. Everyone does, sooner or later. Coterie railcannon caved in part of my cockpit, crushed my leg to dogmeat, and that was that. A few years later, they’d have amputated, plugged in a spare, and sent me back in, but this was ‘83, the tech wasn’t there yet. We were hearing about it, you know, shit on the grapevine about the brain-machine barrier, weird tests underground out in Lysk, but I don’t think any of us really believed in it.

I wanna say I knew what was coming, but I didn’t. Nobody did.

So. Cockpit breach. Fucked leg. They did a lot of work, got it to where I could walk on a good day, but it was obvious I wasn’t gonna cut it any more. Took my pension, checked out, spent eight years in the worst dyke bars I could find. Don’t really wanna talk about that part. That’s not what you’re here for, anyway.

So I’m a few years down the line, losing my mind somewhere in Sengrade, and I get a call. It’s this guy I used to know, I never really nailed down what he did, Information maybe, and he’s telling me about this program they’re spinning up over in Lysk, and sure that rings some alarm bells but what am I gonna do, say no? I don’t even need to hear the specifics, he’s trying to tell me it’s the next big jump in frame tech, it’s gonna win us the war, whatever, I’m already halfway onto a train.

The job turned out to be the Fifth Generation. Not only was the brain-machine barrier real, but they’d smashed clean through it. I said a G3 is basically a tank, right? So I was expecting an iteration on the form. Sharper, sleeker sure, but at the end of the day just a prettier-looking tank.

Well, I was dead fuckin’ wrong. Seeing something that size move that way, it’s… I don’t think I can put it into words. Go find a poet or something. Ask them what they think about Gen 5.

… Didn’t come for free, of course. The neural throughput on a machine that size will cook an unprepared brain like a fuckin’ egg. You need to be dosed to the gills on a whole cocktail of ten-syllable shit to take it for more than a few minutes, and the drugs make you weird. Horny, mostly - I’m sure you’ve heard about that - but you’re also looking at impaired impulse control, difficulty with long-term thinking, emotional disregulation, mania… Plus, there’s something in the cocktail or the link or both that is bastard habit-forming. You see them counting the hours between sorties. They adjust to the hyperstimulation, get calibrated to it, and then everything else is just too god-damn quiet.

Think maybe it’s carcinogenic, actually, but you didn’t hear that from me.

So, yeah. Weird. Command doesn’t want weird operating superweaponry. Weird doesn’t make sound tactical decisions. Which means all the shit that makes somebody a functioning soldier - the long-term decision making, the impulse control, the ability to give a fuck about the rules of engagement - it had to be outsourced.

The term they used at first was “special consultant”. Then “special consulting officer”, once we hit field testing. It wasn’t “handler” until later.

The first crop of us - I’m just gonna say handlers, I know how you’re gonna wanna spin this, I get it - were all ex-pilots. G3, mostly; Gen 4 didn’t leave a lot of material to work with. I guess the idea was we were the closest you could get to a G5 candidate’s frame of reference, but it was pretty clear within the first few months that that was bullshit. Some of us took to it, some of us washed out. A lot couldn’t take the wetwork, which I guess I can sympathise with.

Me, I handled it fine. Better than I should’ve, maybe. Being a tanker didn’t do shit for me, but my dad, he was a dog trainer, and… Yeah, well, you get the idea.

… No, no. The other kind of wetwork. You know what I mean.

…

The leg? Ha. Yeah, they offered me a prosthetic. ‘Course they did. But, call me a hypocrite, whatever you want - by that point I was six months in and I knew with total fuckin’ certainty I didn’t want the link. I spend enough of my time helping the military put their shit into peoples’ bodies, you know? I don’t want it walking home with me.

… No, I don’t understand why they keep signing up. Early days, sure, nobody knew what it did to you back then, but there’s been leaks, people’ve talked - hell, I’m talking right now. You can find our burnouts in any dive in the country, or what's fuckin' left of them. The candidates now, they know what we do to people here, and they just keep coming, and coming…

Though, you know… I think sometimes about the first time I saw a Gen 5 machine take off, that first day on the program. The way it moved against the blue-black of the sky, like it weighed nothing at all. And I almost get it.

[chrome-barkz-aac]

little aac tour from my instagram. i know im a bit sassy in this but everything i say is lighthearted and i loved getting that question about my aac /gen

image ids: ten screenshots from an instagram reel by cytochromesea.

1. an ipad running an aac program with the caption “i get question on tumblr that say do my aac have bling”?

2. same device with the caption “of course it have bling”

3. same device with the caption “who do you think i am?”

4. back of the ipad. it is pink and has a glittery case. caption reads “glittery case with rainbow strap because i can still serve cunt while using aac”

5. the strap of the aac device. a blue and pink pin that says THEY HE on it and a pegasus pin are attached to it. caption reads “my pronouns bc i am a dirty leftist who is obsessed with my gender”

6. a small plush eevee clipped to the aac strap. caption reads “eevee”

7. a party poison shrinky dink clipped to the aac. caption reads “party poison <3 becuase i am soooooo normal about mcr. i’m so normal”

8. a glittery bubble stim toy with a bell on it clipped to the aac. caption reads “bell so my mom hears me coming and doesn’t get jump scared (happens frequently)”

9. a card that states that the user of the device has autism clipped to the aac. caption reads “disability explanation because being an adult with free will to use aac isn’t a good enough reason not to speak with my mouth like god intended /s”

10. back of the same card that states some censored information about the wearer. a text box on the card reads “i can hear and understand you i just can’t talk”. caption reads “I CAN HEAR AND UNDERSTAND YOU I JUST CANT TALK 💚 aka please treat me like an adult 😀🔪”

end id

[nell0-0]

Yep, Celestial Tower not only is the traditional graveyard each game has, but it does have the tradition to ring the bell. I’m the first game Skyla has us ring it before we go to fight her, and later Alder rings it to help comfort the spirit of his deceased Volcarona. And in the sequel you can obtain a quest to defeat four former associates to a newlywed couple in order to ring the bell. The tower is even where you encounter Mesprit!(given its the emotion pokemon, Sinnoh and Unova have an unspoken connection, and the bell “sound is said to reflect the nature of the one who rang it,” this makes a lot of sense). It seems tradition for someone each Unova game to ring that bell whether it be us or someone who lost something like Alder(if the Champion Emmet thing is true, Alder probably be a good person for Emmet to at least try to talk to given they both be Unova Champions who lost someone close to them), so Emmet ringing it in a third game to both literally and metaphorically put his ghosts to rest would honestly be an amazing Pokémon scene that ties things together nicely and a little nod to putting Marowak ghost to rest given Gen 5 original origins

I may have gone a bit nuts with this, but oh well

Emmet on his way to ring the bell, to let Ingo rest at last...

[shinyhappysims]

Alright besties, a new gen has begun so you know what that means. It’s family picture day! If you want an idea of how good Jamilah and Niran were at indoctrination, only 3 of their children have children, their oldest child has only been married for 8 years, but they already have almost 13 grandchildren. Today’s update will be from Jamilah’s pov, with a few interjections from me. Despite how much she thinks she knows everything, she in fact does not. Enjoy!

Hello to my SISTERS in CHRIST! I have been active on this blog for MANY years so I think it would be a great idea to INTRODUCE my FAMILY to you ONCE MORE!

My name is Jamilah (49) and I have been married to my WONDERFUL HUSBAND Niran (54) for 30 years! We have been working DILIGENTLY together to lead the people of TOMARANG to Christ! We, along with a few of my cousins, established a church here that has nearly 100 MEMBERS! Our work is not finished, however, until EVERY knee in Tomarang bends to the Lord!!!!!!!

God has blessed Niran and I with SEVENTEEN children! Out of them, 10 still live at home with us: Blessing-Belle (21), Angel-Gabriel (17), Andrew-Redeemer (15), Heavenly-Rose (14), twins Disciple-Phillip and Noble-Peter (11), twins Mark-Patriot and Liberty-Sue (10), Kathryn-Praise (7) and Hallelujah-Mae (5). Every day spent with them is a TESTAMENT to God’s GRACE! Also, if you know any ELIGIBLE young men please direct them to my DEAR Blessing-Belle.

My OLDEST SON Arrow-Michael (30) is married to Kanyawan (31), with whom he shares 6 BEAUTIFUL children: Baifern (7), Pimnara (5), twins Cherprang and Adisorn (4), Navin (1), and Kannika (0). Arrow-Michael works hard as a police officer here in Tomarang, while Kanyawan does her DUTY of homeschooling Baifern and minding after the little ones! I am very TOUCHED to see my son life his live in a way that is PLEASING to Christ and continue to pass these TEACHINGS onto his children!!

My second son Courage-John (29) is married to Kimber (27) and has 1 daughter, Darcy (3) and just welcomed his NEW BABY BOY Wilder (0)! Courage-John resides in NEWCREST and works as a journalist for a CONSERVATIVE news outlet. The work he does is very IMPORTANT in a world that values the WOKE AGENDA and suppresses the VOICES of us GOD-HONORING Simericans! I have noticed that Courage-John and Kimber have ABANDONED a few values that they were raised with but they are STILL strong in the faith. I hope they do not waver much more!

The “wavering” in question is that Kimber now wears pants sometimes and they pop out kids at a slightly slower rate.

Honor-Luke (27) is married to Kimber’s IDENTICAL TWIN Lauryn (27)! They have 3 children: Lincoln (4), Hope (2), and Hadley (6m). Lauryn is also currently 3 months along with TWIN BOYS! They also live in Newcrest and Honor-Luke works in the tech industry. Like Arrow-Michael, Honor-Luke takes great PRIDE in training his children up in God’s Word and keeping GOD as the head of his household!

My FOURTH born and ELDEST DAUGHTER Glory-Jane (25) is STILL missing! I PRAY for her safe return!

Janie lives happily alone in San Myshuno, working as a model and actress. She’s booked and busy and never coming back lol.

Emmanuel-Paul (23) lives with his wife Desta (23) in Sulani. I did not FULLY approve of their relationship, so I don’t have as much CONTACT with my SON as much as I would like!!! Emmanuel-Paul is a marine biologist and APPARENTLY Desta works OUTSIDE THE HOME as a lifeguard. If a woman MUST have a career, I find GALLAVANTING around the beach in a swimsuit to be a DEGRADING one, but it seems her HEADSHIP has no problem with it. From the FEW conversations I have RECENTLY had with Emmanuel-Paul, he insists that God has laid it on his heart to not have children until he and Desta were more “STABLE”. There were certainly days where Niran and I were short on FUNDS or PATIENCE but that’s why we TRUSTED in God!!!! I hate that my son doesn’t see children as a BLESSING but rather as a BURDEN!!! While they don’t have children, they do raise a CAT together. I’m SORRY I can’t RECALL the little one’s name right now. A cat isn’t a replacement for a SOLDIER in God’s army anyways!

The cat’s name is Piccolo. She’s so insufferable. And I don’t picture these two having kids at all actually, or at least for the next 10 years. They also aren’t religious anymore. Saying that God laid something on his heart was just Manny’s way of getting Jamilah to not question it.

Blessing-Belle’s TWIN Mercy-Marie (21) just got married to Emery (22) in a GORGEOUS ceremony in San Myshuno. They are heading to their honeymoon in TARTOSA soon! Emery and Mercy-Marie both have their own ONLINE MINISTRIES catering to men and women. I know from EXPERIENCE that it’s a beautiful thing to SPREAD the word of God as a COUPLE.

Then there’s Sunday-Grace (19). She ACTUALLY still lives with us but that’s not for long as she’s ENGAGED to Cameron (23). Cameron does the online ministry ALONGSIDE Emery. Sunday-Grace is excited for the move to San Myshuno and to be entering the HIGHEST CALLING for a woman: a housewife and mother!

[eggbombshell]

˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚ Im very new to tumblr so please bare with me! ₊ ⊹

𐙚 Im dollie :P Im gyarucore .₊ ⊹

𐙚 Tcc. Surprisingly... I really like the menedez brothers!! 🎀︶꒷꒦︶ ๋࣭ ⭑

𐙚 Weebo 🤪 I really like ddlc and fruits basket ₊ ⊹.𖥔 ݁ ˖

𐙚 PROSHIP + DARKSHIP

𐙚 Objectum and hybristophile

𐙚 Dni "alters", posers, homestuck fans, adam lanza supporters/fangirls, Wrathbah (And people who support them), people with bpd, Gatekeeps, Xenogender, ANY type of kin unless it's kinnie, people with npd, people who say they're goth but they're under 13 😭, nine inch nails fans, emo people, mcr fans, age regressors, therians, furries, antipedo, rad queer, feminists, Mexican people (you aren't latina baddies..), zero day fans, shedblr, cvtblr, sh mfs, people with adhd (it doesn't exist, people use it as a excuse to not listen.), people with chronic illness (it's a myth and everyone who says they have it are lying), people who say "name 5 songs" "tmi" "I can fix him/her" "youre*", bad humor (ex. tiktok humor, gen z shit), polyamarous people (cheating isnt okay), people who like crumbl cookie, "grunge" people, necrophiles, the people who are too tcc (bad side of tcc), people who like hello kitty, annoying people, under 15, columbiners (thin ice), selfshippers/self inserts, fat people (**ESPECIALLY ONES WHO SAY THEYRE ANOREXIC**), incels, femcels, girlblogs, poor people, people with strict parents, Bobby lemon haters, kpop fans, swifties, alterhumans, creepypasta fans, belle delphine haters, THOSE tcc artists, stimboard makers

𐙚 That's it! Bye niggers 🤪

[simmie-stories]

Gen 5. Belle #59 Healed

The next morning, Adam sought out Belle first thing. "Belle, I want to show you something."

Adam knew that Belle needed his prized angelfish, and he was willing to give it up for her sake.

"Are you feeling better today, Adam? What was it you wanted to show me?"

"Belle. You can have the angelfish. I know your father is your world, and I had robbed you of your time with him."

This act of giving seemed to have an effect on the curse. At last, Adam was able to transform to his human self.

I finally figured out it was some sort of bug and had to go through CAS to change Adam back to human form...

Adam wanted Belle with him for this crucial moment.

"Belle! I'm ... me!"

Demonstrating he was no longer a self-absorbed, selfish prince, Adam was no longer accursed to remain a beast.

Even though I don't have Lovestruck and it says they're lovebirds, Belle was rejecting ALL of his flirty moves and their romance bar kept decreasing. Finally I added likes/dislikes so they could become compatible enough to romance. Considering how he treated her initially, it made sense for Belle! But it wasted so many sims days...

Main Back Next

[samssims]

[crocordile]

Some art based on @hoeratius's AU fic [La belle dame sans mercy], where Gen and Irene marry different people and live to regret it :'D

1 Chapter 10 -- Among many liberties I took here, I put Irene in a stool instead of a chair (because I didn't want to draw a chair...)

2 "Oh, it's you, Eugenides." -- Chapter 16

3 Attolia and Attolis

4 Eugenides and Agape

5 "He stood on the balcony threshold, just inside the cover of the curtain like a child hiding behind his mother’s skirts." -- Chapter 10

6 "‘Better’ turned out to mean Eddisian linen so fine it was easy to see the shape of his arms right through it. It was covered by a sleeveless tunic in dark blue, so closely woven that it kept Sophos warm despite its light appearance." -- Chapter 16

Extra: first version I did of the first picture out of memory, then scrapped once I reread the scene again and realized the vibes were completely wrong:

[theoraekenapperciation]

♡ Theo Christmas Week 2023 ♡

this event is for Theo Raeken centric fan works and will run from December 20th — December 25th 2023, it can be gen works or ship, all characters & au’s are welcome! feel free to send in an ask with any questions or concerns!

to participate in this event tag your creations with #theoraekenchristmasweek23 and/or #theochristmasweek23 then tag this blog @theoraekenapperciation — please make sure to read the rules found here before posting a work for this event

Prompts : these can be mixed & matched however you please and if you don’t want to follow them that’s fine too!

Day 1 - Mistletoe — is theo caught with anyone under mistletoe? is he the one setting two people up to walk under it? is he avoiding it? did he hang it? — December 20th ♡

Day 2 - Pack Party — is this his first pack holiday party? is he hosting? how does the night go for him? is he excited about going or is he dreading it? — December 21st ♡

Day 3 - Presents Under The Tree — does theo buy everyone in the pack a present? what’s the significance to them? does he receive a present from someone in the pack? how does he react to it if he does? — December 22nd ♡

Day 4 - Pre-Canon — how did theo spend christmas before coming back to beacon hills? was it a happy time for him? is he remembering times from when his family was alive or is it from when the dread doctors were around? how does this affect theo’s mood around the holidays? — December 23rd ♡

Day 5 - Chimera Christmas — how does theo celebrate with the other chimeras? does he do something special with them? or how does he grieve his lost pack around the holidays? does he ever think about what it’d be like with the other chimeras still around? — December 24th ♡

Day 6 - Dealers Choice! — December 25th ♡

Visual Prompts:

Day 1 — Winter Wardrobe

Day 2 — Snow Storm

Day 3 — Bundled Up

Day 4 — Holiday Baking

Day 5 — Starry Night

Day 6 — Dealers Choice!

Alternative Prompts:

Alt 1 - Jingle Bells — what holiday song do you associate with theo? does he have a favorite? is he a christmas music hater or lover? do him and the pack do christmas karaoke?

Alt 2 - With Tara — does he go to visit her grave on the holidays after she’s died? was there a tradition he did with her that he still does? does he talk about her more or less around the holidays?

Alt 3 - Deck the Halls — does he hang up decorations? does he put up christmas lights or fancy scented candles? does he ask the pack to help set up whatever space he’s decided to decorate? does he hate decorations? does he want nothing to do with them?

[mariacallous]

NATO will call for all 32 members to put in place civil defense plans in case of an Article 5-level attack at the alliance’s Washington summit, officials familiar with the plan told Foreign Policy.

“We’re going to push the idea in Washington that all allies should commit to having some kind of national planning process that brings together both the military planning and civilian planning for Article 5,” said one NATO official, speaking anonymously based on conditions set by the alliance.

The move is part of an ongoing effort within NATO to prepare for a possible future Russian attack on the alliance that members believe is likely to include long-range missile strikes, disinformation, disruption of ports, and assaults on the energy grid—similar to what the Ukrainians have faced during the country’s full-scale invasion.

The expectation is that countries may have to plan to fend for themselves while they wait for NATO’s political leaders to decide whether to invoke self-defense.

“You have to be capable of being defendable while waiting for Article 5 to come into play,” said Dalia Bankauskaite, a nonresident senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, a Washington-based think tank. “You have to be self-sufficient for self-defense within your territory with whatever resources you have.”

The notion that Europe has to prepare for war after NATO’s 75 mostly peaceful years of post-World War II life is slowly becoming the status quo in many allied governments as they grapple with a resurgent Russia that is picking itself up off the canvas from the initial beating it took in Ukraine far faster than anyone expected. But the alarm bells are coming as a shock to the global public square.

Swedish defense chief Gen. Micael Byden’s January statement that all Swedes should mentally prepare for conflict went viral on TikTok. Frightened children and teens flooded the telephone lines of Sweden’s largest child protection group. Then-British Army chief Gen. Patrick Sanders called on Britons to get ready for a level of mobilization not seen since World War II, forcing the press flacks at No. 10 Downing St. to clarify that they weren’t reinstating the draft. (Sanders also got a tongue-lashing from his boss.) German officials have even suggested that Russia could conduct missile attacks against NATO countries.

The reaction within NATO has been to call on member states to further link military planning and civil planning in the event of a regional war. “Deterrence is not only something for the minister of defense and the armed forces—it is a whole-of-society event,” said Royal Netherlands Navy Adm. Rob Bauer, the chair of NATO’s Military Committee. “Financial institutions have a role to play. Industry has a role to play. We need the right infrastructure in our nations to transport military equipment over roads, over bridges. A bridge has to be able to carry a tank.”

NATO countries need sufficient harbor facilities, airports, rail gauges, and energy infrastructure that are not dependent on a small handful of nations. The idea is for each country to have a plan for ensuring continuity of civil government, food, and fuel in the event of a crisis, NATO officials said.

NATO will also have to think about how to deconflict roads and transportation networks in a war if masses of people move west while tanks and logistics trains move east. Countries such as Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland are coming up with plans to evacuate civilians at least 50 miles from the front lines of a conflict with Russia, Bankauskaite said.

The problem of preparedness for an alliance covering more than 10 million square miles and 970 million people—about 4 million of them in uniform—is sprawling. It doesn’t lend itself well to neatly drawn government organizational charts and jurisdictional boundaries; it’s somewhere between defense and homeland security.

But the idea that NATO members need to build up antibodies to resist an attack dates back to the alliance’s founding. Eight years ago, NATO leaders built on that foundation with seven planning requirements for resilience. And they added to that in the 2023 Vilnius summit communique, calling resilience a basis for credible deterrence and defense.

Still, there’s no 2 percent standard for resilience. Just as NATO nations have the ability to set their own defense budgets and structure their own militaries to fit their plans, officials said, member states are likely to be able to set their own requirements for civil defense. The standards will vary from country to country.

“It doesn’t have to be the same, because each country is different,” said one Nordic official involved in the planning. “But everybody should have a minimum level of resilience.”

NATO also has a pool of civil experts to build capacity for resilience in countries that are less prepared. The European Union also has pre-positioned medical stockpiles and supplies of equipment to protect civilians from chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats.

Some think that the urgency is still being driven by the United States putting more and more troops in Europe to reinforce NATO soil against Russia. “Since the beginning of this war, the U.S. presence in Europe has steadily gained,” said retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, a former NATO supreme allied commander and head of U.S. European Command. “What we see today are further refinements and continued efforts toward getting more ready.”

Historically, the Nordic countries have set the pace for NATO, and many of the new alliance members in the region are already out in front. Newly minted NATO member Sweden has a so-called “total defense” plan that calls on every citizen between the ages of 16 and 70 to help the nation prepare for war, whether through military conscription or assisting with emergency services. Stockholm is set to update the plans this year. They’ve been learning from the Ukrainians: Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin has made multiple visits to Kyiv since the Russian invasion began.

Sweden, which already regularly issues a pamphlet to all 10 million citizens with checklists for how to prepare for a terrorist attack or war, plans to update it later this year. “It will reflect the more dire security situation that we are finding ourselves in now,” Bohlin said. There is even consideration about whether to invoke civil conscription for the rescue services.

Finland, which has universal male conscription, can mobilize 300,000 reservists to fight with a snap of its fingers. The Finns also have a rule of thumb to stockpile enough food, water, and medicine to last 72 hours. Helsinki has increased stockpiling requirements for petroleum by businesses and government entities to a five-month supply. Even the mindset in Finland is changing toward a more wartime economy, the Nordic official said.

Countries have also begun dusting off and tallying up their Cold War-era bomb shelters. Sweden has 65,000 shelters, enough for about 7 million people. Finland has 50,500 shelters, with space for about 90 percent of Finns. Norway has some 20,000, enough for about half the population.

The Baltic countries took up “total defense” plans after the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea and invasion of the Donbas in 2014. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are building a 600-mile line of defense installations along their borders with Russia. Latvia has reinstated a military draft.

These are necessary measures, Baltic officials said, with Russia already conducting low-level hybrid warfare activities on NATO soil, from vandalism to beatings of dissidents in Eastern Europe.

“We know for a fact that there is an active kinetic activity happening in the Baltic states, in the wider region, today,” Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s top diplomat, said at an event in March at the National Press Club in Washington. “Russia is able to have people for hire that would in some cases vandalize buildings, tear down the flags—such things that have happened in Lithuania—and attack people.”

The call for new civil defense requirements is a window into how European societies are changing—and how they will need to change—in light of Russia’s growing military threat. Russia has fired missiles at Ukraine’s electrical grid, kidnapped Ukrainian children, and attacked the transit corridors for much of the world’s grain. NATO is preparing for Russian President Vladimir Putin to use the same playbook in an Article 5-level assault on the allies.

“It’s not only about military effects,” said Bauer, the NATO military chief. “It’s also about hybrid warfare. It’s about energy. It’s about migration. It’s about food. All these things have been used by Putin [and] will be used again by Putin.”

A new reality of preparing for war could have expansive ripple effects on civilian life after seven decades of mostly peaceful times on the continent. But NATO nations will need a plan to deal with Russia’s efforts to target civilians—through attacks on critical infrastructure and buildings, neighborhoods, and schools as well as through disinformation that has been on display in two years of full-scale war in Ukraine.

NATO militaries have become adept at dealing with small numbers of wounded soldiers in the past two decades, as most of the alliance fought in Afghanistan. But in an Article 5-level war, there might be mass military and civilian casualties all at once, and hospitals may need to run around the clock.

The logic goes that the quicker NATO countries can prepare, the readier they will be for massive numbers of troops to flow in. Especially in NATO’s front-line states, where nations are on heightened alert about Russia’s hybrid threats, there’s a desire to start pushing back.

“They are pushing the line,” said Landsbergis, the Lithuanian foreign minister. “They are testing us. And I’m sure that somewhere down the line, we will have to start pushing back