#halogen crushing

[halogens-vs-shinonomes]

Irons.

[ This blog is run by @calleigator ]

Hello! I am a firefighter. In the fire service, we use various irons—one of which is a modified crowbar called a halogen. I like halogens. They’re fun.

However I also like the Shinonome siblings from Project Sekai. I also like assigning characters from other media to be part of the Shinonome family.

Then the thought came to crush all Shinonome siblings with halogens. So that’s what I will do.

This blog runs on a semi-daily schedule that goes as follows:

Days that end with 2 or 6: Ena will be crushed.

Days that end with 4 or 8: Akito will be crushed.

Days that end with 0: Other Characters are adopted into the Shinonome family and then crushed. These can be from any media.

This runs by rotations and 0 days can be requested!! The crushing began on October 2nd, 2024.

Tags:

#Ena is crushed for Days 2 and 6

#Akito is crushed for Days 4 and 8

#NAME is crushed for Day 0

#Shinonome Adoption also for Day 0

#Halogen Crushing for Shinonome’s being crushed

#Anti-Halogen Crushing for Shinonome’s NOT being crushed

DISCLAIMER: I am a minor and am NOT affiliated with SEGA, Colorful Palette, or anything official related to Project Sekai NOR creators of any media showcased. This was inspired by @i-run-saki-over-with-trucks specifically and all others with a similar theme.

If you need to contact me, I am @calleigator and if you wanna friend me on PJSK my ID is [432929375353335813]

[halogens-vs-shinonomes]

ATTACK

11k notes and I'll reveal every blog that I own

side note: comments don't count

[iamnotlookingidonotseeit]

oh god i think i'm in love with k.d. lang

[kangaracha]

QUEENMAKER | CHAPTER 18

---

pairing chan x reader

genre ninth member au, angst, fluff, coming of age, social media, cancel culture, anxiety, depression, forbidden love,

summary To JYPE, the solution is simple; take the sole trainee that will not debut with your brand new girl group, and use her to replace the missing vocalist in your male group that insisted on starting as nine.

Unfortunately, to the fans and the members themselves, it isn't that simple.

status ongoing

taglist OPEN

a/n thanks again for 1k followers! also, taglists are sort of working again, if you're someone that only comes here when you get a tag, you've probably missed a few chapters

previous | masterlist | next

---

The airport is a crush of bodies and phones and flashing cameras, staring you down as you follow Seungmin's back through the glass doors and try not to stutter under the weight of so many eyes on you at once.

It happens fast and yet also so very, very slow, every second dripping past so discernibly that you swear you can feel time moving around you. Every breath hitches in your lungs as you walk, every blink of your eyes blinded by the halogen lights overhead or the lense of another camera, searching for the face a manager has tried to hide for you under cap and hood and mask. The clothing is hot and stifling, the collar of your shirt suffocating where it is tucked into the black hoodie, the ends of your hair scratching at the back of your neck, but you're too scared to pull it down or to even look up, your eyes fixed on Seungmin's heels and the tails of the loose shirt he's pulled on just for this walk through the line of fire.

You'd looked for Chan when you'd gotten out of the car, gravitating naturally towards the leader (the one that had defended you online, the one that could look you in the eyes and tell you the truth and went out of his way to prove it the moment he had an opportunity), but he'd fallen back and you'd been steered towards the centre of the group, sticking to Seungmin's side instead. Seungmin was dependable too, like Changbin; unafraid of the crowds that pushed and pulled at each other and tried to lean in close as security shove their way through, and fiercely loyal when the situation called for it.

Seungmin doesn't look back though. He doesn't have time, when the hands to either side are reaching for him just as much as they do to shove you, when hired bodies keep nearly separating you as they move in circles around you, carrying out their job. You're not sure how you could feel so small and alone in such a large crowd of people, seen by so many eyes, but for a moment you do, and then-

An arm lands across the back of your neck, a hand resting casually over your shoulder, pulling you into someone's side. Felix, recogniseable by the soft blue jumper he's wearing and the blonde hair that pokes out from underneath his beanie. You have a feeling he's not supposed to do it, from the wicked gleam in his eye when he glances at you and the way that he marches onward, feet placed deliberately beside yours as if to challenge anyone to tear him away, but you can't find it in yourself to make an excuse and pull back, to walk on your own two feet. 

You were scared, after all; you are scared, even with the reassurance of the weight of his arm around your shoulders and the angle of his body blocking some of the cameras that angle and click and glare at you like if they stare hard enough, you might freely divulge your secrets. You've never seen a crowd like this before, so close and so...mob-like, uncontrolled and ready to roll over each other if it means getting their two seconds of fame, their photo that's unlike any other.

"I get scared too sometimes," Felix says, close enough to your ear that you can hear him over the mayhem. "Just keep walking. The faster we get there, the quicker it'll be over."

"Thanks, Felix," you say in return, but you don't think he can hear you over the crowd. 

TAGLIST

@kokinu09 @rainfallingfromthesky @lixie-phoria @mysweethannie @chlodavids

@hanniemylovelyquokka @tfshouldidohere @lauraliisa @puppysmileseungmin @kalopsian-thoughts

@puppy-minnie @readerofallthingss @dvbkie099 @kthstrawberryshortcake-main @acker-night

@d-chagi @lynlyndoll @borahae-reads @ihrtlix @yienmarkk

@minhwa @i2innie @jinnie-ret @conwunder @amesification

@starssongs98 @weirdhumanbeinglol @morinuu @the-weird-mold-in-the-sink @bokkiesplace

@amyyscorner @jiisungllvr @skzstaykatsy @blackhairandbangs @jungkookies1002

@hyuuukais @imsiriuslyreal @thatonedemigodfromseoul @gini143 @mercurywritesstuff

@splat00z @filmbypsh @palindrome969 @crabrangoongirl25 @enzos-shit

@jabmastersupriseee @kayleefriedchicken @hynjinswrld @duhgurl @cheshireshiya

@keepswingin

[sil-te-plait-tue-moi]

Lovers' fevers.

Quick summary: Rust tries to overcome the night you spent together.

Word count: 655 words

Warnings: Mentions of smut; don't chain-smoke???

A/N: Last drabble before I actually commit to a longer story. Read context for this (and eventually that) here!

***

To remove himself from his tendency to think and think and think, Rust smoked, slumped over the wiry railing of the upper balcony outside his place. His first instinct had been to drink, of course—but, once he had opened the fridge, he was consumed by the image of your fingers curled pretty over the neck of the Corona he really shouldn’t have given you. 

So far, he had made his way through half a pack, sucking down smoke as if he’d be nearly as lucky enough to be granted his silent death wish. At least, then, his skin would stop buzzing like a halogen bulb, give way to true silence. 

It was evil, really: if there existed a God, He sure loved violence. Rust would’ve loved to blame it on external possession: it had not been him reduced to an animal, really, but something other, and that something had touched and been touched and had indulged in that pointless hunger. Selfish. 

He shuddered quietly at the memory, which pulsed thickly, rhythmically, just behind his eyes, an all-consuming vibration. Half-convinced that there was something supernatural about your touch, Rust hastily lit another cigarette, crushing the previous beneath his matted work shoes, counting on the habit to numb this inconvenient distraction. His skin was thick. So thick, in fact, that there were times where Rust felt it was really a suit, some aspect he could step out of and inspect for maintenance. No sensation, no pain, could ever compare to the fact-based knowledge that everything happens in the head. Manage the mind; manage the self. The mind outlasted the self. Nostrils burning, eyes blown wide, Rust would tell that to Crash before receding, so that his brain would not leak from his ears. It usually worked. Here, he felt acutely aware of every temperature shift, every varying texture upon his skin, writhing secretly with near overstimulation.

Still, you remained, like a ghost. He dragged a hand across his face, like he might manually remove the anguish there. 

He should’ve liked to blame you. Temptress, Eve in the garden. Only, in what world would that ever be fair? Rust only existed to deliver what was fair, what was just. He refused to align with the supposed blameless. Marty considered himself blameless, and some unmanaged part of Rust loathed him for it, itched to apprehend him.

Rust was not blameless – far from it. Every bad thing that happened to him, he knew he deserved. Call it karma. Nature carried out its dues – why shouldn’t he?

You had smelled so fresh. 

You were trying to quit – he had almost felt guilty, smoking so openly in front of you. Then too, it had been a last-line defence against the craving that only grew every time he allowed himself to look at you, that gnawed and tore at his gut when your tired voice had quietened to a low drawl. You: threat to his realm, soft, wanting. When you had opened yourself to him, took him in deep, you were close and warm and wet – Rust would have liked to have blamed it on his programming, the way he responded. He knew, though, that it was just him.

He would not sleep tonight, he understood. He would not even approach his bed. The whole place still smelled like you, even though the linens had been to the laundromat’s, even though he had had the windows cracked open to Louisiana’s summer heat every night since. 

Maybe Rust would drive to a bar. Maybe he would stop at a gas station, stock up on Camel Blues. Then, he would shower. In the morning, he would shower again, knowing that, in any proximity at work, he could risk weakening your resilience to quit with the cigarette smoke that seemed infused into his very being. Or perhaps he would let you be tempted by this – perhaps you would then understand what was happening to him. 

[halogens-vs-shinonomes]

I made this in 5 minutes but it’s beautiful I hope

Anon does this suffice

can you do a special episode where you punt a brick at akito

If you really want to murder Akito, I suggest checking out @i-bonk-akito-with-metal-pipes, @halogens-vs-shinonomes, or @i-run-over-akito-with-trains! None of them are bricks, but as long as he's murdered, it's basically the same.

Die, Akito.

[entities-of-posts]

do you have an idea for what a domain or ritual for the Dull could be?

An office job with a perfect grid of grey cubicles, bright halogen lights and hidden ceiling speakers that play only a quiet drone of white noise. Each come with a small, perfectly identical plastic plant and the same empty corporate motivational poster as only decoration. You are not allowed to decorate them yourself. There is a strict business formal dress code. You are always busy, but the purpose of your work is inane and vague. You fill forms. You push your pencil. The workload is not necessarily enough to make you feel crushed, but enough that you don’t have time to chitchat. Enough that you stay a little late every day. It’s strongly encouraged by the blankly smiling faces of the managers. You start to feel like you never have time for yourself when you get home, even though you work perfectly reasonable hours on paper. The cafeteria is free, but everything tastes so bland. Everything you cook yourself starts to taste the same way. On your days off the weight of the week that passed and the week that’s coming oh so soon keep you glued to your sofa, apathetically scrolling social media or watching empty reality tv, until it’s time for another week, again, again, again. But you’re lucky to have a job that pays well enough, and you won’t find any better. Your coworker Carlos’ name is spelled as “Carl” on his cubicle. But it doesn’t matter, you hardly know him anyway.

An idyllic suburbia. 2,5 children per home, good Christian marriages. An HOA that makes sure no one breaks the dream with any colorful paint outside the identical house, any colorful paint inside them, anything less than a perfectly manicured turf lawn, any decoration, anyone out walking past sunset or other irregular hours, any car too cheap or too old or in another color than a pleasant muted grey or an unapproved model, any children’s lemonade stand, any children drawing in chalk on the sidewalk, any children yelling, any children outside the houses, any fruit tree, any flowers, any bird, any bug, any pet, any backyard party, any inside party, any overnight visitors, any daytime visitors, any flag but the star spangled banner, any words but the right kind of English uttered, any lights on past nine, any unusual outside furniture, any unusual inside furniture, any unhappy faces, any noise, ever, ever.

[i-drop-pianos-on-tsukasa]

i mean, he plays piano. we might as well.

url is self explanatory. i make pianos fall on that gay boy.

let me know if you're uncomfortable with my interactions!

i won't crush people's fan art with pianos UNLESS i know they are okay with blogs like this doing their thing.

for example, if they tag another blog like this in a post of theirs, or respond to one making an edit of their art with the gimmick in a way that shows that they're not uncomfortable with it.

tag me in tsukasas you want me to drop a piano on!

i might only make piano crushing edits sometimes for a multitude of reasons.

run by @mizuribbons

-

blogs like this:

@i-run-saki-over-with-trucks (the original blog!)

@metal-pipe-tsukasa-bonker

@i-set-ruikamishiro-on-fire

@i-set-tsukasa-on-fire

@i-crush-rui-with-anvils

@i-bonk-akito-with-metal-pipes

@canaries-kidnap-nene-kusanagi

@kanades-chair-stalks-her

@i-explode-rui-and-tsukasa

@halogens-vs-shinonomes

@i-hit-airi-with-meteors

@i-trap-shinonome-ena-in-bubbles (won't tag for some reason)

@mizukis-bell-tolls

@i-run-akito-over-with-trains

possibly more i haven't seen yet?

-

tags:

#get crushed idiot - a piano falls on tsukasa!

#tsukasa is spared... for now - no pianos... yet.

#a piano has been summoned! - posts i get tagged in so i can drop a piano on tsukasa.

[halogens-vs-shinonomes]

Hi daily nightamins here!! Unfortunately Ena is currently being a menace with Akito and I’ve had to take halogens against them to create the vitaenas needed for nightamins

project sekai characters are providing nutrients toward your survival by becoming vitamins and you guys are trapping them in bubbles????? and setting them on fire ????? and running them over with trucks????????????? what did they do??????

[jacksprostate]

Tyler is hopping around on his pogo stick again. When he lands, it's with a mushy thump as he sinks into the rotting floorboards. Sometimes he gets stuck and just tips over instead of bouncing back up. It makes him stumble and jump ship. Moment of perfection ruined.

I need to renew my driver's license, I say.

"What are you telling me for?"

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

If Tyler's bed had a backboard, this is how it would sound before he and Marla pounded through to the next room.

I am Jack's throat of bile.

"Fine," Tyler says. "We'll go."

I do not say, we? Questioning Tyler is an amateur move I've managed to avoid for two months now.

Getting to the DMV takes three buses and a thirty minute walk. Presumably, they've decided you'll be driving there. Sometimes I think about the Audi I had before my Dakapo halogen torchiere speared it. One of Zeus' modern day lightning bolts, making sure the debris from my exploded condo totaled my car.

I could've gotten the windshield replaced. Somewhere, in a junkyard filled with unloved 50s salvage, there's the crushed up cube remains of this year's luxury sedan.

Tyler spends the entire time walking one half step behind me, making me lead him around. It makes me feel blind, like I'm a thirty year old boy still trying to get his father to take him places. I am the world's most easily played instrument. Whenever I look back he's grinning, chipped teeth and split lips.

It's a Saturday and we've arrived two hours or so after opening. This means that when I get my ticket stub, it reads an obscenely high number. I will be sitting here for the next six hours. Give or take.

The thing about seating in a government building is they know you have no choice to be there for at least two hours, if you're lucky. Naturally, the chairs are cheap, yawning plastic bolted into the floor at a height most optimal for slightly tall seven year olds.

Tyler and I toss ourselves into the only two person gap we can find, between a large man giving Bob a run for his money on hormone reversal and a frail woman in her eighties. Both look like I'd see them on a weeknight. I wonder if this is where Marla lurks in the time between when she's fucking Tyler and fucking up my support groups.

"You don't need this shit," Tyler says.

He's slouching into the chair, arms crossed and legs long and in the way. If I were to look where his shirt is rucked up, I'd see his skin disappear into the dark gap between his chiseled hip and the beige slacks he puts on when he pretends he's pretending to be a nice person. It's an obvious farce, since he hasn't even bothered to put underwear on.

This is one of those things that I try not to think too hard about, but I have something like four hundred minutes left to wait around here. I should've brought a few National Geographics.

I need a driver's license for my job, Tyler, I say. The old woman gives me a look.

"Christ." Tyler spits on the floor. I try not to be jealous. My seat neighbor, she gets right up and goes to the other end of the building. "Just roll over, why don't you."

I can tell, this will be a lesson. He gets this huge sureness about himself, like his dick is so big it's slapped his face into that smug false contemplation.

I need some kind of ID, Tyler.

Tyler says, "No you don't. Your bank already has you by the balls with your social security number. You ride the bus around. You're at the airport so often the airline staff recognize you. You only drive when work sends you to a small town, which happens fuck all three times a year. Tell me, you get a good fake, you think the overworked and underpaid car rental employee writing down your information would notice it unless you crashed his car? You know if that happened it'd be because you did it to kill yourself, so where's the problem?"

You could be a perfect driver and die on the road at any second, I protest.

We're attracting attention. Not Bob shifts around. Our conversation is quiet but unnerving.

Tyler says, "Does it feel nice, signing yourself up like a feedlot steer?"

Fucking hell, Tyler. It's not like anyone wants to do this. No one wants to be here. Not everyone can work three night shifts and have no identity according to the government.

Tyler says, "The only thing stopping you is the little set of rules you've set up for yourself."

What does Tyler know about my ability to do things?

"More than you," Tyler says. "You didn't think you could fight. You didn't think you could live without your perfect IKEA nest."

He's right. I still want to kick him to the floor and introduce his teeth to the tile. I notice, Not Bob has cleared the area. Retreat to safety. Bomb detonation in five, four. We've got a three seat berth on each side with people standing packed against the walls of the place.

A lone security guard floats our way.

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave, sir."

It's not the way that the men at fight club have started calling me sir. The security guard is looking at me like he knows about my condo blowing up, and he feels awfully sure about the cause.

I need to renew my driver's license.

Tyler says, "If we pay taxes for this building, these workers, doesn't that mean we pay your salary? You're going to kick out your kindest boss?"

"If you don't leave, I'll have to call the police."

Tyler says, "Can't even do it yourself?"

I think, every second of this day has been excruciating, and I have been awake for 77 hours.

Tyler socks the security guard right in the jaw, and the crowd goes wild.

It happens like this: Tyler hits the security guard with all four knuckles, all the people start screaming, and the security guard goes for his gun. I am standing in the middle of this hurricane, calm like a baby that's just been left in the car in 90 degree weather. I start walking.

Behind me, Tyler wrestles for the gun. He tosses it towards the kiosk that spat out my waiting ticket. He lets the security guard hit him in the gut. The face. The face again. He's on the ground, bloody spit threading his rebroken smile, and the security guard is kicking him in the gut. Tyler curls into a ball, the security guard kicks him in the kidneys. This will give Tyler bruises like size thirteen boots and make him piss blood for three weeks.

I reach the door, and Tyler's crawling after me. The security guard has come out of his haze, and now the crowd is staring at him. The headline: local DMV worker brutally bludgeons mentally ill constituent. People stare at him, now aware of the violence he is capable of. They wonder. He wonders.

Tyler limps out the door. We get on the bus and the driver stares at us and does not make us pay when we walk past him to the seats. The driver had a black eye. We saw him at fight club last week.

We sit, and I tell Tyler, because of him I'm definitely on a list now. Like they had for all those communists, but now it's for schizophrenics who might bomb their local state Department of Motor Vehicles location. I tell him if I get a letter saying I have to show up in court because I beat up a government worker, I'm sending him, and he can have fun explaining that to whatever rancid old judge presides over our case.

He laughs, and laughs, and laughs.

[halogens-vs-shinonomes]

Fuuta Kajiyama Shinonome has been crushed

[i-explode-rui-and-tsukasa]

hi nerds

this is my info post ig

blog is run by serial dumbass @willowthefoxxo

so basically until i get a few people who i know are ok with my gimmick blog shenanigans I'll only explode gays I've been tagged on or that have already been subjected to gimmick blog chaos

uh

yea lemme know if you want me to fuck off basically. you are allowed to tell me to fuck off it you don't want my gimmick blog chaos in your notifs

also here are some other pjsk character tormenters

@i-run-saki-over-with-trucks (the og)

@i-set-tsukasa-on-fire

@metal-pipe-tsukasa-bonker

@i-crush-rui-with-anvils

@i-set-ruikamishiro-on-fire

@i-drop-pianos-on-tsukasa

@i-bonk-akito-with-metal-pipes

@giving-pjsk-characters-sweets

@canaries-kidnap-nene-kusanagi

@kanades-chair-stalks-her

@halogens-vs-shinonomes

@i-hit-airi-with-meteors

@i-run-akito-over-with-trains

@mizukis-bell-tolls

[bubster3020]

ALBUM REVIEW #1 - We are Beautiful, We are Doomed - Los Campesinos!

We are Beautiful, We are Doomed is an amazing record. Despite the insane turnaround on this album (just less than 8 months), it improves on everything their debut already did exceptionally well. Gareth's writing, which was already one of the standout points of "Hold on Now, Youngster", has somehow improved even further on this project, exploring themes of love and its absence more tactfully while still keeping the cheek the band came onto the scene with fully intact. This is only helped further by how much more cohesive WABWAD is than its predecessor.

On the record, every song flows so seamlessly into one another that despite the fact I've listened to every song individually probably hundreds of times, I am always invested the full way through. There is no song that takes you out of the experience or makes you do a double take; it's a front to back vibe that sucks you in effortlessly. The blaring synths and distorted guitars all over the album give way to an angst that is so addicting you can't turn it off. This is the band's noisiest and arguably most raw endeavor, and they use that noise to deliver some of the most energetic tracks they have ever produced.

The album opens by hitting you with a brick of a song, "Ways To Make It Through The Wall." This song is a loud, self-loathing banger of a tone set, showing off just how different this album is from their debut. This is an intentional reference to their song "My Year In Lists" where Gareth says that "hope is tantamount to hopelessness," and works wonders to show you that this is something new. That hopeless feeling translates into a series of failed relationships throughout the album. Whether it's looking back into memories of failed romances in "Miserabilia" or realizing you've been forgotten about on "It's Never That Easy Though, Is It?," there's always an acute sense of nostalgia that permeates the project, no matter the subject.

Despite its often boisterous production, it doesn't go without it's moments of sincerity that can just be crushing when coming right after the rest of this record. Songs like "You'll Need Those Fingers For Crossing" and "Heart Swells/Pacific Daylight Time" are brutal yearnings for past partners, even if neither person deserved the other. These songs act as payoffs to all the wit and angst, showing that no matter how cocky Gareth may come off, he's not the image he projects as; he's as vulnerable and regretful as anyone else. These songs are more subdued and by nature, they really show off Ellen's superb bass talents, Tom's killer riffs (especially on "You'll Need Those Fingers For Crossing"), and of course Gareth's signature glockenspiel.

Overall, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed is an excitingly loud entry into the LC! discography that delivers on everything it promises to, and then some. It features some of the band's tightest, most poetic writing, talking about futures as bright as halogens and writing letters to God as a means to win Pascal's wager. The entire album feels like a bittersweet, melancholic and romanticized trip down memory lane that ultimately acknowledges that while there was beauty in past flings, they were ultimately doomed.

Favorite song: We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed

Least favourite: N/A

Score : 10/10

[medicatedmaniac]

Hyperuranion

A place in heaven where the perfect forms of all things reside, and everything we experience in our lives is a shadow of these ideal forms.

Read on Ao3

11.29pm 

September 1995

She'd shot him and he'd thanked her. 

They talk in codes about Navajo code talk. 

They don't talk about his father's blood on his shirt. 

They don't talk about her sister's blood on her floorboards. 

The things they do talk about: Probability. Plausibility. Deniability. 

They talk in the darkened interior of the car about lightning (relativistic electrons, cosmic rays, ions in cumulus clouds) , teenage angst (she confesses she smoked cigarettes on the porch much to her fathers disappointment, he confesses he purposefully flunked the honor roll much to his fathers indifference) . 

They theorize the terrible things they would have wrought had they been Darren Peter Oswald. 

It all seems so easy to talk and talk without ever really talking. A sesquipedalian purgatory. 

Mulder rambles, his words as restless as his hands on the steering wheel. "Never had a crush on any of my teachers. Too much blue rinse for me." 

Rambles on and on and on until he hears a soft twitchy snore from the passenger side. 

He shuts up. Eyes back to the road. The sound of miles passing. 

In his mind he keeps rambling. 

Mulder wants to ask how she is. 

How are you sleeping with the rusted iron of your sister's blood under the hallway rug? Can your mother look you in the eye yet? Has the dirt settled on the grave?  

He feels, irrationally, foolishly, that he will call her Dana. Wants to confide that he has several books on anthroponymy collecting library late fees. That he practices saying her name in his dreams. 

Wants to confess this the way a criminal confesses for leniency, a sinner confesses for absolution. 

Dana. Dana. Dana. 

From the corner of his eye he watches her hands fold and unfold in her lap as she sleeps. They remind him of the pale seafoam of the pacific coast. 

Dana, I wore your cross for you. Dana, I'd carry your cross for you.

He wishes to be her panacea. 

In the dark there is a flash. A cracking sound of the firmament breaking open. Thunder. 

On one long exhale he says woefully to himself: "People used to think lightning was a sign from the heavens."

"Maybe they were right."

He doesn't mean to turn so quickly to her. So quick it's almost whiplash. Her eyes shimmer in the dark. The edges of her fuzzy. She looks like a nereid peering up from briny black depths. 

Barbed light spears the skies ahead. A ghostly flash fills the car. Mulder blinks and sees shadows. 

Licks his lips and wonders if the Scully women possess the powers of clairvoyance, telepathy. Thinks of the Scully women, fracturing apart around him. Haughty and intangible, stoic mythoi. 

Collateral damage.

He replies: "Oh yeah? What sign do you think the heavens have deigned to send down to us mere mortals, Scully?” 

The thunder rolls over them. “I don’t know.”

Mulder worries his back molar with the tip of his tongue. 

Would it make any difference to know the signs?

“I don’t blame you, Mulder.”

Halogen white cuts the opaque night as his heart is torn asunder. A heavenly shout follows.

Dana.

“Scully.” 

“I don’t blame you. I don’t blame you for anything. You didn’t make my choices for me. This is my life. She was my sister.”

Mulder feels a pang of guilt, so sharp and unyielding that it makes his ears ring. “Scully, if I hadn’t—”

“Mulder, stop. It wasn’t your fault." Her voice crackles with the syllables, tenuous with grief. "And… and it wasn’t my fault either.”

He tries to swallow past the painful lump in his throat. Feigns to himself a great interest in the asphalt of the interstate under the headlights. The first rivers of rain sliding along the windshield.

“And I chose… I choose to stay, Mulder. I believe in what we’re doing. I believe in you.”

He wishes she would believe in anything else. 

"I don't know if I deserve that kind of faith, Scully." The words barely audible over the engine, the tires, the thunder, the terrible four chambers of his heart constricting. "You've given up so much." 

"So have you." 

Mulder turns to face Scully and for a moment, he sees her clearly within the mortal realm of their entwined lives. 

He wants to argue with her. Tell her he didn't choose to give up anything. That it was taken from him in a flash of white light on November 27, 1973 and he can still feel the metal of his fathers gun cold in his sweat slick child sized palm. This is his life, not hers. 

He wants to tell her that she can, that she should , walk away and choose anything else. 

Choose her family. 

Choose her happiness. 

Choose a life without him in it. 

It's only been three years. It's not too late for you (it is for me) . 

Be a doctor. A sister. A daughter. A mother. Dana, Dana, Dana. 

The words stick in his throat, unspoken and heavy, and he hates himself for being selfish. 

For all his rambling he can’t find words now.

[suntelecomcn]

High-Performance Fiber Optic Cables for the FTTH Access Network Application

With the continuous development of FTTH (Fiber-to-the-Home) network construction, there will be more and more new varieties of fiber optic cables for the FTTH access network application. This article will discuss the three types of fiber optic cables for FTTH in detail.

Fiber Optic Cables for FTTH Access Network

FTTH is an access network architecture that allows deploying xPON technology to provide high speeds of Internet access downstream (from the network to the end-user) and upstream (from the user to the network) over optical fiber from the operator’s switching equipment to an individual home. The main fiber optic cables implemented to build up the FTTH access network are the FTTH feeder cable, FTTH distribution cable, and FTTH drop cable.

FTTH Feeder Cable

FTTH feeder cable, such as stranded loose tube light-armored cable connects the central office/hut to the fiber distribution hub (FDH). It is ideal for duct and aerial installations. This cable has good mechanical and temperature performance, high hydrolysis resistance, high strength loose tube, good crush resistance and flexibility, high tensile strength ensured by steel wire, and good moisture-proof ensured by PSP (steel tape).

Stranded loose tube light-armored cable construction is that 250um fibers are positioned in a loose tube which is made of high modulus plastic and filled with a water-resistant filling compound; A steel wire, sometimes sheathed with polyethylene (PE) for cable with high fiber count, locates in the center of core as a metallic strength member; Tubes are stranded around the strength member into a compact and circular cable core; The PSP is longitudinally applied over the cable core which is filled with the filling compound to protect it from water ingress; The cable is completed with a PE sheath.

FTTH Distribution Cable

FTTH distribution cable connects the FDH to the fiber access termination (FAT). FTTH distribution cable, such as indoor distribution cable uses φ900um tight buffer fibers as an optical communication medium and aramid yarn strength member. It is compliant with a PVC or LSZH jacket. Generally, FTTH distribution cable is available in fiber counts ranging from 2 to 144 fibers. It has excellent stripping performance of tight buffer fiber, good tensile strength, and small size. FTTH distribution cable is used in indoor /outdoor and backbone cable distribution in building applications.

FTTH Drop Cable

FTTH drop cable is used between the fiber terminal and the building or home. It is ideal for aerial, direct buried, and ducted installations. FTTH drop cable has good crush resistance ensured by parallel strength member, good tensile strength ensured by single steel wire, low smoke, small diameter, zero halogen sheath, simple structure, lightweight, and high practicability.

FTTH drop cable construction is that the optical fiber unit is positioned in the center. Two parallel steel wire strength members are placed at the two sides; A steel wire as the additional strength member is also applied. The cable is completed with an LSZH sheath.

Things to Consider When Choosing Fiber Optic Cables for FTTH Access Network

When choosing the three fiber optic cables for the FTTH access network, there are some general elements that you should pay attention to that influence the method of cable deployment.

Type of FTTH Architecture: The FTTH architecture implemented will influence the data rate and the optical power budget, which will affect the choice of fiber optic cable for the FTTH access network.

Fiber Type of Existing Network: If an existing network is expanded, you must add hardware that can integrate seamlessly with the existing infrastructure.

Installation Environment: No matter the indoor or outdoor applications, there are always different environments where the cable will be installed. For instance, in rugged spaces where your cable may suffer damage, such as basements or in conduits sharing space with electrical or other wirings, you may choose a rugged sheathed cable that is flexible and crush resistant.

Conclusion

FTTH allows a fiber optic cable to be laid from the provider’s equipment directly to the user’s home. Choosing the correct fiber optic cables for FTTH access networks will directly affect network reliability, operational flexibility, and the economics of FTTH deployment.

Sun Telecom specializes in providing one-stop total fiber optic solutions for all fiber optic application industries worldwide. Contact us if you have any needs.

[mariacallous]

Meduza's The Beet: Moldova’s knife-edge election and 96 hours in Tbilisi

Hello, and welcome back to The Beet! 

Eilish Hart here, the editor of this weekly newsletter from Meduza that brings you underreported stories from Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. To begin, a big thank you to everyone who wrote in to say they enjoyed last week’s dispatch about the nationalization of Kyrgyzstan’s largest gold mine. My inbox is always open for fan mail and feedback, so feel free to hit reply and share your thoughts! And don’t forget to subscribe to the Beet if you haven’t already. 

This week, we’re straying from our usual format to bring you a double feature about the recent elections in Georgia and Moldova. First up, journalist Will Neal captures the tense atmosphere in Tbilisi in the days since the ruling Georgian Dream party claimed victory in the country’s crucial parliamentary vote. Then, I share key excerpts from my conversations with Moldovan journalist and writer Paula Erizanu and Ecaterina Locoman, a senior lecturer in international studies at the University of Pennsylvania’s Lauder Institute, about Moldova’s constitutional referendum and presidential election. These interviews were for tomorrow’s episode of The Naked Pravda podcast, which you’ll be able to listen to here or on your podcast platform of choice ahead of the runoff vote scheduled for this Sunday, November 3. Enjoy! 

96 hours in Tbilisi

By Will Neal

In the crush and heat of what seemed a hundred bodies or more, the walls of a tiny sixth-floor office off Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Avenue shook as a cry of joy went up on Saturday night. Only seconds before, opposition officials, aides, consultants, and journalists had been packed around a monitor in febrile silence, steeling themselves against the countdown to exit polls in an election set to define a generation. 

The day had been brutal. Scenes of violence, bribery, intimidation, and surveillance broke out from almost the moment polling stations opened throughout Georgia at ten that morning, and continued throughout the day until the polls closed at 8:00 p.m. Videos circulated online of government officials frantically stuffing ballot boxes in Marneuli, thugs brawling in Zugdidi, open-air vote buying in Samegrelo, and an attack on a TV crew in Telavi. 

When the exit polls came, it appeared the ruling Georgian Dream party’s confidences had been for nothing. The elation at the Coalition For Change headquarters off Rustaveli was matched across town at those of Unity-UNM, Strong Georgia, and For Georgia — a loose opposition coalition pledged to safeguarding their country from the deepening authoritarianism of a populist government under the control of Russian-made billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili.

But within the hour, joy gave way to confusion and then, to a terrorized quiet. Cigarette smoke drifted pale under the halogen ribbons of the office’s hallways as the official tally crept in, reporting not an opposition win but an almighty loss — the count inching up in line with the numbers released by the pro-government channel Imedi TV. 

Tbilisi held its breath. Streets devoid of the usual Saturday night revelry were silent enough in places to hear the soft pad of stray dogs’ paws and the wind rustling the branches of autumn-pared trees. After convening behind closed doors, opposition leaders announced well into the small hours that with the vote stolen, as they claimed, a longer and far less certain fight would now lie ahead. 

By Sunday afternoon, the battle lines had been drawn. Though couched in diplomatic language, assessments from international observers, appointed by NATO, the European Parliament, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe, also deemed the election neither free nor fair. Georgian Dream, meanwhile, took victory laps under fawning praise from Hungary’s “illiberal” prime minister, Azerbaijan’s dictator, Moscow’s propagandists, and Venezuela’s despot.  

President Salome Zourabichvili — born in France to the children of exiled officials from Georgia’s first democratically elected government — took the podium at 9:00 p.m. Backed by opposition representatives standing in a somber line behind her, she spoke clearly and determinedly. “We were witnesses and victims of a Russian special operation, a new type of hybrid warfare waged against our people,” she said. Calling for a rally outside parliament the following night, she urged Georgians to proclaim “to each other and the world that we don’t recognize these elections, we defend our constitutional right, and every vote, and our future.”

Georgia’s capital is not unaccustomed to protests, scenes of unrest, and massive state violence. All in all, Monday’s demonstration proved a measured and orderly affair. Crowds gathered from 7:00 p.m. along Rustaveli under the flutter of Georgian, E.U., Ukrainian, and U.S. flags. Having promised to reject parliamentary mandates, the opposition told the tens of thousands not to despair, urging peace and patience as they gather evidence of electoral fraud and abuse in hopes of securing an independent, international inquiry. The numbers thinned around 10:00 p.m., and the avenue reopened to traffic by midnight. 

Minor rallies followed on Tuesday evening. The next morning, the prosecutor’s office summoned the president and heads of local watchdog organizations to answer for their claims that the election had been rigged. But by then, the normal circuitry of life appeared to have otherwise largely resumed throughout Tbilisi. The weather has been bright and cold, the market stalls up at Dezerter Bazaar are bustling, and in the winding alleys of old town Sololaki, bars and restaurants serve food and wine to music playing under warm light. At the time of writing, it’s 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 30 — exactly 96 hours since the polls closed on Saturday; since elation and relief gave way to horrified uncertainty and, in turn, an eerie calm set in across the city, with the fate of a nation still hanging in the balance.

Moldova’s knife-edge election 

By Eilish Hart 

On October 20, Moldovans cast their ballots in both a presidential election and a constitutional referendum — and the results came as a shock to many. In the referendum, which asked whether the country should change its constitution to include the goal of joining the European Union, the “yes” vote won by just over 50 percent. Meanwhile, in the presidential election, pro-E.U. incumbent Maia Sandu came in first but failed to win an outright majority. 

The day after the vote, Sandu accused “criminal groups” of attempting to undermine the democratic process by working with foreign forces to try and buy as many as 300,000 votes. Now, she’ll face pro-Russian candidate and former prosecutor general Alexandr Stoianoglo in a high-stakes run-off scheduled for November 3. 

What does all of this say about Moldova’s political landscape in 2024? To find out, I spoke to Moldovan journalist and writer Paula Erizanu and Ecaterina Locoman, a senior lecturer in international studies at the University of Pennsylvania’s Lauder Institute. The following excerpts have been lightly edited and abridged; be sure to check out the full episode of The Naked Pravda podcast here, when it comes out tomorrow.

Eilish Hart: Moldovan elections are usually framed as a stand-off between pro-E.U. and pro-Russian political forces, so I wanted to set aside the geopolitics for a second and ask, what domestic issues were top of mind heading into the presidential election? 

Paula Erizanu: Geopolitics have been very linked to internal political issues. Of course, what Moldovans have been concerned about is inflation. We’ve had around 40 percent inflation since 2022, if you add it up. And although salaries and pensions have increased, they haven’t caught up with the inflation rate. So, people have been really affected by the rising prices, which of course is a global phenomenon due to the pandemic and also the war in Ukraine. But Russian narratives and some opposition parties have tried to put the blame on the government for this rise in prices. 

Before the war in Ukraine broke out, one of the top issues that Moldovans were worried about was big-scale corruption. Moldova was a captured state by an oligarchic regime between 2016 and 2019, and the reform of the judiciary was one of the top priorities for Sandu when she was campaigning in 2020. The fact that the government knew about this vote buying fraud for a while and that they had tried to address it, but at the same time haven’t addressed it in time to secure the election process also reflects on how the judiciary reform ultimately failed. This is something Sandu has kind of taken responsibility for, in the sense that she says if she wins again, she’s going to “drop her white gloves” and consult the population on a more radical approach to reforming the judiciary. It’s not exactly clear what she means by this. It’s also not exactly clear how the November 3 vote is going to go, and whether the fraud is going to basically prevent Moldova from continuing its reform of the judiciary. 

On the other side, the presidential candidate Alexandr Stoianoglo, who was a prosecutor general, also blames the government for the failed reform of the judiciary. But at the same time, he hasn’t really condemned the vote buying practices, and he’s accused of having votes bought for him, even if perhaps he didn't know about it. Also, some of the vocal supporters that Stoianoglo has are former oligarchs, like Vlad Filat, Veaceslav Platon (who is now in London), Igor Dodon (the former president of Moldova, who is close to the Kremlin), and Ilan Shor (who is now in Moscow). So while Stoianoglo has been broadly talking about reforming the judiciary, the question that arises is: How is he going to fight these oligarchs who openly support him? 

What was the logic behind holding a simultaneous referendum on changing the constitution to include E.U. accession? How did Maia Sandu and her government communicate this to the public? Was it an attempt to separate the presidential vote from geopolitical issues or did they frame it as something else? 

Erizanu: When Sandu announced the referendum, she said it was needed in order to show that it wasn’t just her government that wanted to join the E.U. — as Russian narratives were portraying it — but that the integration process reflected the will of the majority of Moldovans. And it’s within the same logic that she organized a pro-E.U. demonstration where tens of thousands of people came to show their support. That was at a time when Shor kept organizing these protests where he paid people to go and demonstrate on the streets, and those [protests] were making international headlines that seemed to portray Moldovan society as against E.U. integration. 

Because presidential elections normally attract the biggest number of voters, Sandu suggested having it on the same day as the presidential vote. But then critics would say that she came up with this initiative to hold the referendum in order to hide her failures in reforming the judiciary, for instance. It’s ironic that it’s precisely this failure to reform the judiciary that has compromised, to some extent, the E.U. referendum.

Other critics would say that Sandu has been trying to kind of monopolize the E.U. integration process and capitalize on it politically. And it’s interesting to actually see that a lot of the forces that are linked to pro-Russian parties, including Stoianoglo, claim that they are pro-European. That shows that, yes, actually, Moldovan society has become pro-European and perhaps the referendum outcome indeed does not reflect the real geopolitical landscape in the country. Moldovans do support E.U. integration, and that’s why even Russia’s candidates have to say that they support it, too. 

The referendum results were very, very close with just over 50 percent voting “yes” and just over 49 percent voting “no” to amending the constitution. What do these results tell us about the political landscape in Moldova? 

Ecaterina Locoman: The results show that the political landscape is very divided, in a sense. It’s been like that since Moldova got its independence back in 1991. For the last 30 something years, we’ve had this polarized society in which foreign policy orientation is usually the main thing that determines elections. So, unfortunately, to the detriment of a lot of domestic politics and reforms, oftentimes, the question of foreign policy orientation trumps all the other questions that are important to voters. But because of Moldova’s geopolitical location, again, foreign policy orientation matters. 

The numbers show that the [political landscape] is divided. The “yes” camp won the referendum by some 10,000 votes. However, there were a lot of reports showing that unfortunately, a lot of the voters were corrupted into selling their votes. So I think the election results basically say that there’s political instability. Unfortunately, after so many years of building [Moldovan] democracy, it’s a fragile democracy. We’re still very much prone to external influence, to propaganda and disinformation, and some people voted a certain way because they paid. But many other people voted because they truly are afraid.

In both camps, actually, but especially in the pro-Russia camp, I see a lot of politicians using narratives very much based on fears about what is going to happen if Maia Sandu remains president and if the “yes” [vote] wins. Moldovans are usually socially conservative so they are very prone to messages about religion and [LGBTQ+ issues], so a lot of pro-Russian candidates were playing on these fears. Another one was this idea that war will come and what’s happening in Ukraine will happen to Moldova, as well. So a lot of people are afraid because they truly think that if we continue on the Western path, then it’s more likely that Russia might attack Moldova. 

There are also narratives based on fear in the pro-E.U. camp. I hear from some of my relatives and friends back home that if a pro-Russia president comes to power, then Moldova will be completely isolated; we won’t be able to travel abroad. So again, it’s amplifying these fears and this memory from the Soviet past when you needed the visa to go out of the country. Some people who have more liberal views, who are more pro-Western, they’re afraid that this will happen. But some of the [narratives] from the pro-Western camp are true. I tend to think that if a pro-Russia candidate wins the elections then any efforts to reform Moldova and to fight corruption will stop completely, and Moldova will basically stop being a sovereign state, in a sense.  

Round two

In terms of the scale of the vote buying, the Moldovan authorities said it targeted as many as 300,000 people, which is a very big number in the context of Moldova’s population but doesn’t account for everyone who voted “no” in the referendum. Do you think it’s an oversimplification to interpret this result as purely driven by anti-E.U. or pro-Russia sentiment? I feel like there’s probably some nuances here in terms of public opinion. 

Erizanu: The referendum was to some extent poorly communicated, in the sense that while in the public space it was phrased as a kind of pro- or anti-E.U. referendum, on the actual ballot, you had a clunky sentence saying: Do you agree with changing the constitution with the vision of integrating Moldova into the E.U.? (Or something like that.) I think some people got scared of what this change to the constitution means. For instance, when I came out of the polling station, I saw an older woman asking a younger woman, “What’s the referendum question? What, does she want to change the constitution the way she pleases?” (referring to President Sandu). Even pro-European opposition parties portrayed the referendum as a kind of electoral exercise for Sandu, so that definitely influenced the vote, as well. 

Another narrative that was circulating was that it’s not really necessary to have this referendum for Moldova to integrate into the E.U. — and it’s true that other countries have only organized referenda quite late in the accession process. At the same time, as you could see in international media and the reactions of political leaders across Europe, this referendum was seen as a kind of exercise in getting the political pulse of Moldovan society and actually witnessing whether Moldovans support E.U. integration.

Locoman: One of the paradoxes in terms of public opinion in Moldova is that some of the people who work and live in the European Union countries are more conservative and don’t think that Moldova should join the E.U. I would call some of them the “pragmatists.” Some of them are afraid that joining the European Union would mean Moldova losing sovereignty. Even Alexandr Stoianoglo, who promotes a pro-Russia foreign policy, holds a Romanian passport. And there are many more people like this who are very pragmatic — they see the benefit of holding an E.U. passport to go and work abroad, live in a free country, feel the security, while at the same time, they don’t want Moldova to be part of the E.U., which, again, I think is paradoxical. 

To be frank, I don’t think this is a significant number of people. I still think that a lot was based on fear; even if people voted “no,” they didn’t really understand how much they were voting against their own interests. Because in the end, E.U. membership is the best Moldova can get. In the last four years, I’ve been going to Moldova regularly and I’ve seen how much change there’s been in society, in infrastructure, in the economy. Yes, Maia Sandu has only been in power for four years, but I remember how unstable and corrupt the country was, and how much it’s changed for the better. I can see the efforts Sandu has made in reforming Moldova, and how much good enshrining E.U. membership in the constitution could do for Moldova going forward. 

Maia Sandu didn’t secure enough votes to win the presidential election in the first round. There’s going to be a second round of voting on November 3, where she’s running against Alexandr Stoianoglo, a political newcomer. What is his platform? 

Erizanu: We had a presidential debate on Sunday, and it seemed like Stoianoglo was trying to appeal to everyone. He said he was pro-European and he wanted good relations with our most important neighbor, Romania. But at the same time, he also accused Romania of doing too little in Moldova and for failing to have enough investment projects here, which is false in the sense that Romania has truly helped Moldova, for instance, in repairing the majority of kindergartens in the country, in building bridges, in providing gas, and in providing vaccines. Stoianoglo also tried to present Russia as a force that had invested in Moldova. But when Sandu asked him to name at least three ways in which Russia has invested in Moldova’s development, he wasn’t able to answer the question. So you can see how his speech has been quite ambiguous. 

I think the target [audience] was the disappointed pro-European electorate that is frustrated with the slow pace of Sandu’s reforms or who don’t really like her personality-wise. At the same time, he was also trying to push Russian narratives in a manner that, to me, looks a bit like the Georgian Dream scenario in Georgia, where you also have a kind of pro-European population and a government that claims that it’s pro-European but actually follows a Kremlin line in terms of its actions. 

Moldova is a parliamentary republic, so the role of the parliament is more important than that of the president. But what would it mean for Moldova if Maia Sandu loses? 

Locoman: It would basically be a very big warning sign for the 2025 parliamentary elections, because whoever is in the parliament forms the government and rules the country. The president has more of a diplomatic role, but Sandu has been so much the face of pro-E.U. reform in Moldova; I’m not exaggerating when I say she’s the best president Moldova has had. So I think it would be a very big blow to Moldova’s dream of finally becoming anchored in the democratic world. It’s very risky and so there are very big efforts in Moldova right now to coalesce the vote around Maia Sandu. 

There’s also one other candidate who was very strong, his name is Renato Usatîi [Editor’s note: Usatîi came in third in the first round, with 13.79 percent of the vote]. Everybody was saying that Sandu needs his electorate for her to win in the second round, but in his post-election speech he told his supporters to vote for whoever they want. He didn’t endorse Sandu or Stoianoglo. So I think it’s a very close election. It’s very tense and I wouldn’t be as worried about people’s decision making so much as about the capacity of these criminal groups to bribe voters. If we take this out of the equation, then I have much more confidence in people’s capacity to choose what orientation is best for the country, but because of these allegations of bribing voters and buying votes, I’m more concerned and uncertain about the election results. 

If Maia Sandu wins, there’s hope that the pro-E.U. camp has a big chance of winning. I’m still worried about the parliamentary elections in 2025, but the goal of Moldova actually joining the European Union by 2030 is much more credible if Maia Sandu continues to be the president and Moldova can rest assured that it will stay on the agendas of Western governments. Unfortunately, my research shows that for most of the independence period, it was difficult for Moldova to really be on the radar of Western governments. The biggest success of Maia Sandu’s presidency on the international stage was to really bring Moldova to the forefront of Western politicians’ attention. And so another mandate for her would mean that Moldova would stay [there] and even become more prominent in the region.