#it leads to dehumanizing and othering innocents like children
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pollyanna-nana · 9 months ago
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I think it’s so interesting that Kui decided to show us how differences in lifespan affect tallmen and elf relationships from both angles with Kabru and Thistle and also how that reflects real-life abusive situations. And then goes on to deconstruct that by showing how genuine understanding and respect CAN exist between the races with other characters!
Kabru being raised by an elf (who is shown to only have a superficial respect for short-lived races, the same one might have for a pet in a lot of ways) and treated like a child even though he’s in his 20s. After all, a 20 year old elf would be a kindergartener, and Milsiril seems to have a rather toxic combination of overprotectiveness and dehumanizing tendencies that leads to perpetually seeing the children she raises as children, even well into adulthood for their race.
And yet, we see with characters like Otta that this doesn’t have to be true of EVERY elf (nor should it logically be, especially those who spend actual time around short-lived races.) For all the jokes made at her expense I actually think it’s really interesting that she’s also canonically queer since recognizing the agency and maturity of short-lived races is in itself a type of queerness in elf society from what we’ve seen. Senshi too, as funny as his misconstruing Chilchuck as a child is I think it’s really important that he realizes his mistake and rethinks his assumptions on short-lived races following his example. It doesn’t HAVE to be the way it is, but it will take work on each side to improve things.
Then on Thistle’s end… woof. Complete opposite of Kabru, it was difficult for the tallmen of the golden kingdom to comprehend how someone in their, like, 60s could still behave like a teenager and chalked that up to a personal and moral failing rather than literal differences in biology (kind of an autistic mood but that’s a conversation for later.) It’s just as disturbing as Milsiril’s treatment of the children she adopts really, since they explicitly didn’t want an adult that could exert their own agency and control over their situation. And the thing is it’s not like that’s totally uncalled for, the previous points show how a non-insignificant number of members of long-lived races do genuinely see short-lived races as inferior, or are otherwise ignorant, like with below.
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It ended up working out just how they wanted, because Thistle’s child-like innocence and singleminded desire to make the only family he had happy meant he was never going to do anything he didn’t think would help them… which then backfired, because of course it would. It’s overcontrolling and manipulative parenting, but with the added spice of lifespan differences and magic. Kabru ended up detesting the elves that raised him and wanting nothing to do with them, and Thistle basically had a massive breakdown trying too hard to please everyone. Infantilization vs adultification, as some have said, with predictable results.
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frizzle-mcshizzle · 10 months ago
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what r your thoughts on forkle /gen
as a writer i think hes a very well written morally grey character, as a reader i hate his freaking guts here is the list i literally keep in my notes of why i hate him.
he broke into her room who knows how many times when she was a little girl (idc if he had REASONS its FREAKING WEIRD)
he asked Sophie to meet him (a grown man) on a island alone and when she took Keefe with her he told her she had to come in the cave with him alone
he just about left Dex for dead in the Neverseen hideout and only brought him because Sophie refused to go without him. Dex was a innocent child. Dex wasn’t just anyones child he was a member of the collectives child someone who he worked with side by side for years, and he was still willing to leave him behind (he later said he was going to back for him but like...)
Dex ended up with scars because he didn’t bring enough elixirs for him.
he thinks of Sophie as an accomplishment and doesn’t expect her to want him to think of her as anything more (Everblaze, Page 447.)
he calls her his moonlark. which sounds sweet until you realize that’s her project code name he’s literally calling her “my creation” aka “my weapon”
he will act very cryptic and only give out bits of information, just enough that she will look into what he was talking about then act proud and flatter her, saying things like “i underestimated you kids” when she and her friends figure out the thing he wanted her to know.
he will tell her about problems in the world making it sound horrible and hopeless, then saying "this is the thing we made you to fix, but that’s your choice"
he’s constantly switching from dehumanizing her because she is the Moonlark and it’s her job to change things and this is what she was created for. then treating like his child at the drop of a hat
excludes her parents from the conversations and tells her she has control over her life, not them, like she isn’t a young teen
he told a fourteen year old that if he and the rest of collective died Sophie and her friends would take their place, not care about what kind of pressure that would put on her. then admits to grooming Sophie and her friends to lead the Black Swan one day
he is constantly reading her mind and never lets her have her thoughts to herself but expects her to not read other peoples minds.
he put all this importance on Prentice and told a child that they where going to use her to brake into prison and almost got another child killed who didn't even need to be there (they could have done that without her they have dwarves)
finds it funny to exclude Sandor from conversations that could potentially put her in danger
had Sophie recruit other children, which is disturbing, because fine they don’t have a choice if she’s in danger but putting other children in danger and taking on missions is completely unnecessary, he could have done it himself or had adults do it.
Ignored tam being taken by the neverseen, and told them to focus on other things
Not to mention he basically took advantage of Emma Foster's health issues, knowing full well he'd be taking her child away from her and her husband at a later date. Sophie's human parents were done so dirty, and all they wanted to do was let her be a kid for as long as possible
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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 7 months ago
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Nick Kristof offers twenty points to unraveling the moral tangle over Gaza. Generally pretty good as an approach. If you can't accept most of these points, you're not participating fairly in the discussion.
1. We think of moral issues as involving conflicts between right and wrong, but this is a collision of right versus right. Israelis have built a remarkable economy and society and should have the right to raise their children without fear of terror attacks, while Palestinians should enjoy the same freedoms and be able to raise their children safely in their own state.
2. All lives have equal value, and all children must be presumed innocent. So while there is no moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel, there is a moral equivalence between Israeli civilians and Palestinian civilians. If you champion the human rights of only Israelis or only Palestinians, you don’t actually care about human rights.
3. Good for President Biden for pushing a proposal on Friday for a temporary cease-fire that could lead to a permanent end to the war and a release of hostages; as he said, “It’s time for this war to end.” Let’s hope he uses his leverage to achieve that end. It’s also true that Biden’s failure to apply enough leverage over the last seven months has made the United States complicit in human rights abuses in Gaza, because it has provided weapons used in the mass killing of civilians, and because it has gone too far in protecting Israel at the United Nations.
4. We can identify as pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian, but priority should go to being anti-massacre, anti-starvation and anti-rape.
5. Hamas is an oppressive, misogynistic and homophobic organization whose misrule has hurt Palestinians and Israelis alike. But not all Palestinians are members of Hamas, and civilians should not be subject to collective punishment. In the words of a 16-year-old Gaza girl: “It’s like we are overpaying the price for a sin we didn’t commit.”
6. There was no excuse for Hamas attacking Israel on Oct. 7 and murdering, torturing and raping Israeli civilians. And there is no excuse for Israel’s reckless use of 2,000-pound bombs and other munitions that have destroyed entire city blocks and killed vast numbers of innocent people, including more than 200 aid workers.
7. When Israel began military operations after Oct. 7, it was a just war.
8. What starts as a just war can be waged unjustly.
9. Israel was entitled to strike Gaza after the Oct. 7 attack, but not to do whatever it wanted. In particular, there should be no argument about Israel’s practice of throttling food aid. Using starvation as a weapon of war against civilians, as the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court alleges Israel has done, is a violation of the laws of war.
10. Each side justifies its own brutality by pointing to earlier cruelty by the other side. Israelis see Oct. 7. Palestinians see the “open-air prison” imposed on Gaza before that. This goes all the way back to the displacement of Palestinians at Israel’s founding in 1948, the 1929 massacre of Jews at Hebron, and so on. Enough obsession with the past! Let’s focus instead on saving lives in the coming months and years.
11. Hamas’s brutality toward Israeli hostages, such as credible reports of sexual assault and starvation, is unconscionable. So is Israeli brutality toward Palestinian prisoners, such as CNN accounts that some Palestinians have had limbs amputated because of constant handcuffing.
12. War nurtures dehumanization that produces more war. I’ve heard too many Palestinians dehumanize Jews and too many Jews dehumanize Palestinians. When we dehumanize others, we lose our own humanity.
13. Zionism is not a form of racism. And criticism of Israel is not antisemitism. Both sides are too quick to fire such epithets.
14. Each side sees itself as a victim, which is true — but each side is also a perpetrator.
15. “Apartheid” isn’t the right word for Israel today, where Palestinians are treated like second-class citizens but can still vote, serve in the Knesset and enjoy more political freedoms than in most of the Arab world. But “apartheid” is a rough approximation of Israeli rule in the West Bank, where Arabs have long been oppressed under a system that is separate and unequal.
16. “From the river to the sea” refers to the dream of a single state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, encompassing what is now Israel and the Palestinian territories. The slogan as used by protesters can mean many different things, some peaceful and some the militaristic vision of the Hamas charter, while a parallel vision is in the original platform of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. Hamas imagines a Palestinian state with no room for Israel, and Netanyahu wants perpetual Israeli sovereignty from the river to the sea to deny a place for a Palestinian state. I think that instead of either version of a one-state solution, a two-state solution is infinitely preferable.
17. Pro-Palestinian demonstrations have too often tolerated strains of antisemitism, which in recent months has shown itself to be stronger than many imagined. How can a movement that claims the moral high ground make excuses for any kind of bigotry?
18. Campus protesters would do more good raising money for suffering Gazans rather than using it to buy tents for themselves.
19. We probably know what an eventual Israeli-Palestinian peace deal would look like. The plan was outlined in the Clinton parameters of 2000 and in the Geneva Accord of 2003. The only question is how many innocent people on both sides will die before we get there.
20. To establish peace, both Israel and the Palestinian Authority will need new leaders with vision and courage. This won’t be achieved tomorrow. But there are peacemakers on each side. To understand how a path toward peace may emerge, consider the words of the Chinese writer Lu Xun more than a century ago: “Hope is like a path in the countryside. Originally, there is nothing — but as people walk this way again and again, a path appears.”
[Nicolas Kristof]
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He held him as a baby. All the anger and regret of months trying to cover up a scandal melted away seeing him for the first time. Looked down into those big, beautiful eyes. Izuku was different from his other children. Smaller. Smaller than even Shouto when he was born months later. He held a certain innocence. Something about being born by chance instead of created with a purpose. And his enthusiasm for life was infectious. His other children seemed so melancholy.
Enji had Izuku visit the house every now and then to try and cheer them up. It worked on him. Just having him around set him at ease after a long day of work. Even his quirklessness was endearing. Like a rare, endangered animal or a fragile, one-of-a-kind treasure. Something precious and delicate that needed to be protected.But what good are my feelings if they didn’t reach him? Enji gritted his teeth behind pressed lips and squeezed his eyes shut.He kept his name off the records to hide his connection, so he had no legal claim. Spent millions to keep people quiet, so Izuku believed he wasn’t wanted. Denied him his own life unless he fought his brother for favor, and his son realized the favor wasn’t worth it.
And now, Enji waited too long to speak up. He assumed it was a challenge, a game of chicken or something, so he waited to hear from Izuku or Inko first. A week later, Izuku must have assumed he was happy someone else took him. The boy himself seemed happy. All Might couldn’t keep his hands off him in the press conference. And the infirmary. Enji’s skin crawled. Inko once told him Izuku didn’t like to be touched, yet he ran right into All Might’s waiting arms with a smile.I pushed him away, and now I’ll never hold him again. Just like I’ll never hold Touya. At that, he wept.
Diving into Endeavor’s perspective on the situation was fascinating. Making him an irredeemable monster who only sees his family as controllable game pieces, as some parts of the fandom often do, just wasn’t interesting. Someone who genuinely loves his children but can’t look past his own perspective to show them the kind of love they need not only makes for a better story, but also made it easier to write. I think i finished the Endeavor POV in a single sitting with only minor edits later.
Notice how even in his descriptions of his love for Izuku, it’s almost all about how Izuku made him feel, with no consideration for anyone else’s feelings. There’s the ‘innocence’ comment, which not only infantilizes Izuku with an implied assumption that he’s incapable of accomplishing as much as his half siblings, but that those siblings new from birth that their existence had anterior motives. To the bit about bringing Izuku around his house because he made him happy, completely ignoring what bringing around the child of an affair would do psychologically to the child himself and the rest of his already straining family. And the straight-up dehumanization of Izuku via his quirklessness; comparing him to positive objects like treasure doesn’t change the fact that it’s literally objectifying.
But all that leads into self reflection that he knows is too little too late. He did less than nothing to give Izuku any indication he was cared for because Endeavor’s reputation was more important. So much so that he compares Izuku running away to pretend to be All Might’s son may as well be on the same level of irreversible distance as Touya, who’s dead.
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mechlizard · 5 months ago
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Shinsekai Yori (AKA From the New World)
Spoilers ahead.
This anime takes place in a world where all humans are wielders of psychic power. Our main characters are in a school learning to train their skills with these powers, and everything appears to be fairly innocent at first, even whimsical. However, after a while, hints are dropped that lone angry spirits aren't the only dangers in the world. There are other species that are subservient to humans, and we start hearing rumblings of dissatisfaction about their position in the world. 
An interesting take on the mutants with powers trope. I would liken it to the darker takes on X-Men. There is a segment of humans that acquire powers from a mutation of a type and come into conflict with other humans. This is where From the New World takes a divergence. While X-Men shows conflict and potential peace with other humans, From the New World shows a different outcome where other humans and other races are bent to the power of the new powerful mutants. Even at times, becoming a danger to themselves.
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One of the dangers to themselves is that children can suddenly wield great power that can harm many people. We find out that the elders put in safeguards that will identify children as potential dangers and make them go away, implying that they are killed. This proverbial "wild child" is an issue that we face in modern times, which is likely why it was included in the anime. While it was an issue in Japan, I feel like we are even more wary of it in the US, as sudden great power can be wielded with a gun if a child gets access to one. The children in this anime are surveilled and watched not too dissimilarly to the way that children in real life, although more technologically advanced using cameras and potentially AI.
Ultimately, we find out that the humans in the town we start out in are not necessarily good people. In fact, it is revealed that the paths that lead up to this cozy little town with their whimsical magic school are through a path of war, war crimes, and genocide. This race of people has dehumanized their opponents so much that they turned them physically into a different, uglier race to finalize their dehumanization so that later generations will look down upon them. This feels like an ultimate evil that can't be topped, but unfortunately, this is something that is very common in war in real life. Dehumanization of the perceived enemy is practically required to get the general populace on board with doing horrible acts to get the upper hand. I have no doubt that if given the power to edit the entire genome of a particular group of people to label them as less than human, someone would have done it in one of the conflicts on our planet.
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graduatestudentmusings · 7 months ago
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Potentially the best article on Gaza
Nicholas Kristof wrote an excellent piece in the NYT:
1. We think of moral issues as involving conflicts between right and wrong, but this is a collision of right versus right. Israelis have built a remarkable economy and society and should have the right to raise their children without fear of terror attacks, while Palestinians should enjoy the same freedoms and be able to raise their children safely in their own state.
2. All lives have equal value, and all children must be presumed innocent. So while there is no moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel, there is a moral equivalence between Israeli civilians and Palestinian civilians. If you champion the human rights of onlyIsraelis or only Palestinians, you don’t actually care about human rights.
3. Good for President Biden for pushing a proposal on Friday for a temporary cease-fire that could lead to a permanent end to the war and a release of hostages; as he said, “It’s time for this war to end.” Let’s hope he uses his leverage to achieve that end. It’s also true that Biden’s failure to apply enough leverage over the last seven months has made the United States complicit in human rights abuses in Gaza, because it has provided weapons used in the mass killing of civilians, and because it has gone too far in protecting Israel at the United Nations.
4. We can identify as pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian, but priority should go to being anti-massacre, anti-starvation and anti-rape.
5. Hamas is an oppressive, misogynistic and homophobic organization whose misrule has hurt Palestinians and Israelis alike. But not all Palestinians are members of Hamas, and civilians should not be subject to collective punishment. In the words of a 16-year-old Gaza girl: “It’s like we are overpaying the price for a sin we didn’t commit.”
6. There was no excuse for Hamas attacking Israel on Oct. 7 and murdering, torturing and raping Israeli civilians. And there is no excuse for Israel’s reckless use of 2,000-pound bombs and other munitions that have destroyed entire city blocks and killed vast numbers of innocent people, including more than 200 aid workers.
7. When Israel began military operations after Oct. 7, it was a just war.
8. What starts as a just war can be waged unjustly.
9. Israel was entitled to strike Gaza after the Oct. 7 attack, but not to do whatever it wanted. In particular, there should be no argument about Israel’s practice of throttling food aid. Using starvation as a weapon of war against civilians, as the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court alleges Israel has done, is a violation of the laws of war.
10. Each side justifies its own brutality by pointing to earlier cruelty by the other side. Israelis see Oct. 7. Palestinians see the “open-air prison” imposed on Gaza before that. This goes all the way back to the displacement of Palestinians at Israel’s founding in 1948, the 1929 massacre of Jews at Hebron, and so on. Enough obsession with the past! Let’s focus instead on saving lives in the coming months and years.
11. Hamas’s brutality toward Israeli hostages, such as credible reports of sexual assault and starvation, is unconscionable. So is Israeli brutality toward Palestinian prisoners, such as CNN accounts that some Palestinians have had limbs amputated because of constant handcuffing.
12. War nurtures dehumanization that produces more war. I’ve heard too many Palestinians dehumanize Jews and too many Jews dehumanize Palestinians. When we dehumanize others, we lose our own humanity.
13. Zionism is not a form of racism. And criticism of Israel is not antisemitism. Both sides are too quick to fire such epithets.
14. Each side sees itself as a victim, which is true — but each side is also a perpetrator.
15. “Apartheid” isn’t the right word for Israel today, where Palestinians are treated like second-class citizens but can still vote, serve in the Knesset and enjoy more political freedoms than in most of the Arab world. But “apartheid” is a rough approximation of Israeli rule in the West Bank, where Arabs have long been oppressed under a system that is separate and unequal.
16. “From the river to the sea” refers to the dream of a single state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, encompassing what is now Israel and the Palestinian territories. The slogan as used by protesters can mean many different things, some peaceful and some the militaristic vision of the Hamas charter, while a parallel vision is in the original platform of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. Hamas imagines a Palestinian state with no room for Israel, and Netanyahu wants perpetual Israeli sovereignty from the river to the sea to deny a place for a Palestinian state. I think that instead of either version of a one-state solution, a two-state solution is infinitely preferable.
17. Pro-Palestinian demonstrations have too often tolerated strains of antisemitism, which in recent months has shown itself to be stronger than many imagined. How can a movement that claims the moral high ground make excuses for any kind of bigotry?
18. Campus protesters would do more good raising money for suffering Gazans rather than using it to buy tents for themselves.
19. We probably know what an eventual Israeli-Palestinian peace deal would look like. The plan was outlined in the Clinton parameters of 2000 and in the Geneva Accord of 2003. The only question is how many innocent people on both sides will die before we get there.
20. To establish peace, both Israel and the Palestinian Authority will need new leaders with vision and courage. This won’t be achieved tomorrow. But there are peacemakers on each side. To understand how a path toward peace may emerge, consider the words of the Chinese writer Lu Xun more than a century ago: “Hope is like a path in the countryside. Originally, there is nothing — but as people walk this way again and again, a path appears.”
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smonk-wonk · 1 year ago
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Me when I eat lead paint
Also a lot, and I mean a lot of people supporting Palestine aren't overprivileged (in fact many against it are powerful figures- look at how many rich celebrities are anti Palestine). Genocidal bootlickers write off supporters as upper middle class whiny little white kids when so many aren't- not to mention there's a strong history of black and Palestinian solidarity. Malcolm X was a well known supporter of Palestine in the civil rights era and personally visited Gaza, and also met with the The Palestinian Liberation Organization. Black activists supported Palestine so to continuously write off supporters as bratty stupid white kids hopping on a trend erases that history. Which is what colonialism is best for, hence the unity in anti colonialism and anti racism. It matters to me for the same reasons it mattered to my ancestors and relatives. Not that it needs to- plenty of people can be decent without those historical ties. But to reduce it to a trend and erase that history is deplorable and very much racist. These communities have a strong historical solidarity
Many poc know the immense weight of the racist reblogs in most posts like this (its even in the reblogs here and its not like op cares to comment on it so i can only imagine they agree. i wouldn't be silent on that shit idk) calling Arabs things like goat/donkey fuckers- which is how all of you sound btw. And you can't go "oh they're just saying that about Hamas!" because where are they getting that generalization from? Pretty sure it's the racist stereotype that Arabs all partake in bestiality. And there's also a lot of weight in calling them things like animals, children of darkness, beasts, and savages, more weight than some realize.
Painting a group as sexually predatory and deviant to dehumanize them is something very often used to justify killing them. Gay people, trans people, black people, Native Americans. Maybe you don't think about the claims of black people being "super predators", don't think about people like Emmett Till or events like the Duluth lynchings when you hear that kind of shit and see that image painted of a people, plenty of us do though. The language we hear every day by people on this side of history is language we've never heard from people on the good side of history. Never.
Do the good guys use words like savages? Goat/donkey fuckers, beasts, animals, people of darkness, inhuman, monkeys, sand people (or sand n*ggers if you're feeling spicy), pigs, bloodthirsty, collateral damage (in reference to human lives)? You got anything like that for me written by the good guys in history? The ones that weren't the oppressors and aggressors? Did the oppressed need to "defend" themselves by committing crimes against humanity?
The justifications for occupying Gaza and the actions taken against innocents mirror stories I've heard passed down from formerly enslaved family members during WW2. How Hitler and other figures spoke of them, treated them, dehumanized them, assaulted them, tortured them, exterminated them. The atrocities I see coming out of Gaza are often similar to events I've heard out of the mouths of people who survived genocides. So yeah it's not like there aren't white people who also see what's going on and can't help but think back to injustices their people have faced. So again even though it's not like that generational trauma is required, you can't generalize white supporters as all performative or stupid. And plenty of Jewish people recognize what genocide looks like for obvious reasons and stand by Palestine
Also if protesting were pointless they wouldn't be trying to illegalize boycotting businesses! They're shitting their britches actually! Look at all the Starbucks closing down and all their new "holiday deals". Look at the prices of Squishmallows right now. Public protests get a lot of coverage and show just how many people strongly advocate for the liberation. People on your side of history are no different from the people who have told my people (from multiple lineages) to shut up, obey, be good, accept the lynchings and the injustice and the slavery, they're all bad and all the oppressors are doing is putting them in their place and/or defending themselves against animals. Savages unworthy of dignity
You also can't dismiss all criticism of the Israeli government's actions against Palestine as antisemitism. Any government deemed exempt from criticism deserves the most criticism. You can't dismiss criticism as if it's all coming from a place of ignorance, ignoring the context of so many people's advocacy. I don't support Palestine for followers or praise or whatever, just the right thing to do. When I see what's happening I do this crazy radical thing called having some fucking humanity. Try it sometime, it's free
I'd make sure another October 7th doesn't happen by not occupying Palestine anymore, personally
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newstfionline · 1 year ago
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Tuesday, October 31, 2023
Left revolts over Biden’s staunch support of Israel amid Gaza crisis (Guardian) On Wednesday afternoon, hundreds of liberal Jewish American activists staged sit-ins in the Capitol Hill offices of top Democrats to demand a ceasefire in the escalating war between Israel and Hamas. The discontent on display in Washington was a testament to the rising anger among the party’s left over the response from Biden and Democratic leaders to Israel’s war in Gaza. Nor were the scenes in the House the only signs of discontent as US politics—and civil society as a whole—becomes increasingly roiled by Israel’s response to the 7 October Hamas attack. That same afternoon, Joe Biden was asked about the rising Palestinian death toll during a news conference at the White House. Biden replied that he had “no confidence” in the death count provided by the Gaza health ministry, which says nearly 7,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began. “I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war,” Biden said, in comments the Council on American-Islamic Relations described as “shocking and dehumanizing.” “The White House and many in the US government are clear as they should be that 1,000 Israelis killed is too many,” said Eva Borgwardt, the political director of IfNotNow, a progressive Jewish group leading many of the demonstrations in Washington. “Our question for them is: How many Palestinian deaths are too many?”
Hurricane Otis death toll rises to 48, missing now number 36 (AP) At least 48 people died when Category 5 Hurricane Otis slammed into Mexico’s southern Pacific coast, most of them in Acapulco, Mexican authorities said Sunday as the death toll continued to climb and families buried loved ones. In Acapulco, families held funerals for the dead on Sunday and continued the search for essentials while government workers and volunteers cleared streets clogged with muck and debris from the powerful Category 5 hurricane. The cost of damage could climb as high as $15 billion according to estimates. Clean up efforts are likely to take time, and the government in an update on Sunday said Otis damaged 273,844 homes in Guerrero along with 600 hotels and condominiums.
New danger for Ukraine: Taking Israel’s side in war against Hamas and Gaza (Washington Post) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s immediate and forceful support for Israel in its fight against Hamas has imperiled almost a year of concerted efforts by Kyiv to win the support of Arab and Muslim nations in its war against Russia. But with Israel’s military operation set to enter its fourth week, and Palestinian civilian casualties mounting, the war in Gaza is posing one of the most difficult diplomatic tests for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. Countries like Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which at times have provided crucial support to Ukraine, have accused the West of double standards in Gaza, alluding to the broad condemnation of civilian deaths in Ukraine compared with the muted criticism of Israel. Tension with Muslim and Arab nations, however, is just one risk facing Kyiv, which must now also contend with the world’s attention shifting largely to a new war in the Middle East, as well as competing demands for U.S. military support at a time when House Republicans just elected a new speaker, Mike Johnson (La.), who has opposed sending additional aid to Ukraine.
Hong Kong, Facing an Exodus, Offers Money for Babies (WSJ) Hong Kong’s government is grappling with an exodus of citizens and a plummeting birthrate. Its solution: subsidize baby-making. The city’s government hopes to address the world's lowest fertility rate by paying a cash bonus to couples who have children—the equivalent of around $2,550—as well as other perks such as priority when renting or buying government-subsidized housing and increased access to in vitro fertilization.
Australia's tight rental market forces tenants to make tough choices (Reuters) Australia's red-hot rental housing market, supercharged by record migration and a chronic supply shortage, could be reaching a breaking point for affordability as tenants grapple with rising costs of living. Nationwide vacancies are at all-time lows and prices are up 30% over three years, forcing renters like Sydney office worker Lara Weeks into unenviable situations. With no way to afford stratospheric inner-city prices when her landlord decided to sell the apartment she lived in for 18 years, Weeks and her cat recently downsized from a two-bedroom to a one-bedroom farther from the city centre that costs 22% more. Rent is now one of the country's biggest drivers of inflation, which at an annual rate of 5.4% in the September quarter is well above the central banks' targeted band of 2% to 3% and could lead to further interest rate hikes as early as next week. That in turn would push up the variable rate mortgages held by most Australian landlords who are typically private investors with one or a few properties rather than large corporations, pressuring them to lift rents further and forcing tenants to make tough decisions.
Israel’s slow and deadly advance in Gaza (Washington Post) Israel has now launched what it is calling the second phase of its assault to destroy Hamas in Gaza, a conflict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as his country’s “second war for independence.” Israeli troops are inside the Gaza perimeter—probing, destroying tunnels. The early movements, even near-term objectives, of the Israeli military’s ground assault remained shrouded in secrecy. Still, a general outline is emerging. Israeli tanks and military bulldozers have entered the territory. Israeli forces are spending the night. They are fully in. This is the beginning of what Israeli leaders are warning could be a very long war, which would see Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, destroyed, and a new entity installed to govern the enclave. But instead of a massive D-Day-style assault, military analysts in Israel say it appears that the IDF is moving slowly, cautiously into the strip, not mile by mile, but 100 yards at a time, searching for and destroying Hamas booby traps and tunnels around the perimeter and preparing corridors for the quick deployment of tanks and troops to the periphery of Gaza City. Gaza is only 25 miles long and six miles wide. At present, Israeli troops are mostly operating at the very edges of the narrow enclave, in farm fields and emptied villages.
Netanyahu Finds Himself at War in Gaza and at Home (WSJ) Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday issued a rare apology that inadvertently framed the political crisis that has engulfed him. A few hours earlier, facing mounting criticism for the Hamas attacks that killed 1,400 Israelis, he publicly blamed the security failures on Israel’s defense and intelligence services. He hadn’t been warned of Hamas’s intention to start a war, he wrote in a tweet on X, saying that defense and intelligence officials had “assessed that Hamas was deterred.” Soon after, he deleted the tweet and apologized. The unusual reversal illustrates Netanyahu’s increasingly fraught position. Over 35 years in politics, he has cultivated an image as a security hawk tough on Palestinian violence and ready to face down the threat of a nuclear Iran. That image shattered Oct. 7 when more than a thousand Hamas militants entered Israel in what many Israelis are calling the worst security and intelligence failure in its 75-year history. Even if Israel wins the war, it may not save his political career.
34 Hours of Fear: The Blackout That Cut Gaza Off From the World (NYT) For 34 hours, the vast majority of the more than two million Palestinians who live in Gaza had no way to reach the outside world, or one another. They had no way to know whether their loved ones were alive or dead. Emergency phone lines stopped ringing. Desperate paramedics tried to save people by driving toward the sound of explosions. Wounded people were left to die in the street. On Friday at sunset, three weeks into Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza—and as Palestinians braced themselves for an impending Israeli ground invasion—the weak phone and internet service that had allowed some semblance of life to continue inside the blockaded enclave was suddenly severed. Two American officials said the United States believed Israel was responsible for the communications loss, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Panic rippled through the territory. Connectivity restarted spontaneously on Sunday around 4 a.m., said Abdulmajeed Melhem, chief executive of Paltel Group, the main Palestinian telecommunications company. The company had made no repairs and had no understanding of how or why service had partly returned, he said. He added that he believed that the Israeli government was responsible for the cut and the restoration—although service remains limited after an Israeli airstrike on a telecommunication tower early in the war.
Extremist attacks escalate in Niger after coup topples American ally (Washington Post) Islamist militants in Niger have significantly stepped up their attacks in the months since generals here ousted the elected president, jettisoning the counterterrorism support of French forces and throwing into doubt cooperation with the American military. Until the coup in late July, this West African nation had been a reliable ally of the United States and Europe—a democratic success story in a region plagued by coups, a key ally in battling Islamic extremism. But the coup leaders, buoyed by a wave of anti-French sentiment sweeping France’s former West African colonies, are increasingly isolated from their onetime allies. Directing much of its vitriol at France, the new government has pressured the French ambassador to leave and asked all of France’s 1,500 troops to depart in the coming months. Violent incidents targeting civilians by the Islamic State’s Sahel branch quadrupled in the month following the coup, while dozens of soldiers have been killed in attacks blamed on ISIS and al-Qaeda-affiliated Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam.
South Africa Rugby World Cup: The Springboks give hope to a troubled nation (BBC) South Africans erupted in celebration and relief across the country as their team edged out New Zealand to win the Rugby World Cup final in Paris. As South Africa faces economic troubles, sporting success is a welcome distraction and a unifying force. "We hold hope for the country," captain Siya Kolisi said after the victory. "There aren't a lot of things going right in our country and we have the privilege to be able to do what we love and inspire people in life, not just sports people," he added. High levels of unemployment and poverty, along with frequent power blackouts, are some of the issues he was referencing. After the nerve-shredding 12-11 win by the Springboks, those day-to-day issues can be put to one side for a while as the nation basks in the afterglow of victory. South African sports journalist Mohammed Allie, who was in Paris for the match, said that the squad, and the nature of their hard-fought success, contained a lesson for the nation. "If there is one thing the country can learn from this Springbok team and this victory is that how, if you work together, if you're determined to achieve a goal, you certainly can do that," he told the BBC.
Not enough time to walk 10,000 steps? (GMA) Walking 10,000 steps per day is known to improve a person’s health, but reaching that goal can be difficult for many, considering it’s the equivalent of walking around 5 miles. Now, new research is showing more efficient ways to get similar health benefits without devoting at least an hour per day to walking. Taking the stairs is one way, according to a study of over 450,000 adults. The study, published in the medical journal Atherosclerosis, found that climbing five flights of stairs per day—or around 50 steps—lowered the risk of cardiovascular disease by 20%. In addition, the same benefits are found when the climbing is broken up into smaller segments throughout the day, versus climbing five flights at once, the study found. In addition to helping to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, climbing stairs can also help reduce the risk of diabetes and can help improve muscle strength.
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maddie-blogs · 1 year ago
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How the Portrayal of Prisons on Film and Tv affects how people are treated on the outside
This paper is going to talk about the portrayal of prison inmates in media and how their dehumanization is part of why we see an uptick in incarceration. The reason why this is the topic in a paper about feminist and anti-feminist issues is because of the division in how the prison system affects Americans. As many people are aware, the judicial system oftentimes shows favoritism to white cis men, which inherently allows cis Black men and other minoritized groups of people to be harshly sentenced or to be the target of programs such as the say ‘No to Drugs’ era during the Reagan administration. But the reason why the racism in these types of programs is so prevalent is due to manipulative propaganda or negative portrayals in media that go out to American consumers. In this paper, we're going to be seeing media from YouTube that talks about Holes and how it portrays the prison industrial complex. Also, in that same vein, we're going to talk about Criminal Minds and how their portrayals of prison lean into some of bell hooks arguments about white innocence. From there, we're going to look at a TED Talk talking about how the dehumanization of prison inmates leads to an inability to properly reassimilate and truly be rehabilitated. Unless they were going to talk about how universities are being tough on crime and how that presents itself as inherently Pro police in the eyes of students that don't want Police on campus due to the inherent policing of minoritized students who are more likely to be racially profiled than white students. leading back to minoritized communities being portrayed as inherently violent through media consumption about prisons and perpetrators of violent crimes. 
Film 
Holes & The Prison-Industrial Complex | Criminal Minds 
In Yhara Zayd’s youtube video Holes & The Prison-Industrial Complex, Yhara discusses the parallels between Camp Greenlake and the prison system. This includes how poverty and homelessness are two of the many reasons why children end up at Camp Greenlake. These examples, whether intentional or not, are, in fact, two of the largest reasons why people end up in prison or juvenile detention centers in the first place. Many people often don't think about how poverty can affect one's outcome in life, especially when the outcome eventually ends in a prison or detention center, with the exploitation of hard labor and how it equates to changed behavior. Another topic this movie also demonstrates is the inherent racism in the prison system and the portrayal of inmates in prisons. Yhara gives us the example of Zero and how he is living at the intersection of Blackness, poverty, and illiteracy. With this combination of disenfranchisement, the viewer sees how Zero is treated at the camp and his treatment once trying to improve his ability to read and write. So this very particular instance falls in line with how people treat passed felons when trying to better themselves. 
Washington, DC has a 46.31% Black and African American population; however, this same group of people has a 25.64% rate of poverty, similar to the last paragraph of this paper. This may tell us why so many Black inmates are portrayed in D.C. prisons. When looking at the series Criminal Minds, which takes place in Washington D.C. In season 12, Dr. Spencer Reid goes to prison, and the viewers can see that Spencer is one of the only white men in this prison. What this means is that he is largely surrounded by Black men and other minoritized groups of people. To the viewer, this portrayal of prison inmates allows for a certain stereotype to move to the front of their heads about how Black men and other minoritized groups are inherently mischievous and criminal. This stereotype is perpetuated by dialogue between the characters and the other plot lines. So if this is the way that Hollywood is portraying prisons and the people in them, how are anti-feminists and consumers meant to look at people being released from prisons or entering prison? 
In both of these film examples, we can see the way that whiteness is used in contrast to minority groups, specifically Blackness. In Holes, the white characters are allowed to focus on their mental health and are often spoken to by the camp Green Lake counselor with compassion while minoritized children are often dismissed, The example in the video was of Zero and the intersections of his disenfranchisement which led him to Camp Green Lake in the first place. While in Criminal Minds, Dr. Spencer Reid is basically set up from the beginning as an innocent white man in a sea of “guilty minorities,” and he is inherently seen as nonviolent while being all consumed by the rules outside the prison instead of trying to assimilate and survive in the prison that he currently resides in. This very much falls into hooks thinking of the inherent white innocence and the idea that white people do not need to assimilate, but Black people and immigrants have to assimilate in order to survive in America. So it's almost as if the example of immigrant assimilation is flipped on his head when Spencer refuses to assimilate, leading to this idea that white people inherently think that their way is the best way.
Humanizing Prisoners
The humanization of inmates is very important when talking about prisoners' re-entry into society, but also, the humanization of inmates in portrayals on TV allows wider society to understand what it's actually like in persons instead of allowing misconceptions to fill the minds of viewers. Speaker Anthony Wyatt uses the example of jokes often told about prison, an example being ‘don't drop the soap’ this example makes light of the sexual assault of prison inmates. Wyatt tells the audience about how this joke allows the public to dehumanize prison inmates and the violence they face in prisons. Wyatt also poses two different kinds of mentors in prisons: the content and the ambitious. The way that he describes these inmates is how content prisoners don't particularly learn from their experiences, and they tend to just sit in their anger while people who are ambitious are active in encouraging new inmates to find spiritual release, read, deal with their emotions and accept what they've done and try to grow from it. This kind of mentorship can be seen in the portrayals of prison leave; however, it's usually only one individual who holds this ambitious mentor characteristic. Oftentimes there is inherent blame on other inmates who do not hold this characteristic of ambition.
 The dehumanization of prisoners really does lead to many of the debates that we see happening right now about mass incarceration and prison reform programs. Many people who do not agree with prison reform still view inmates as less than people and as objects or as their crimes. Instead of seeing these people as someone who has made a mistake or someone who is capable of rehabilitation. This again stems from the portrayal in media and what consumers are engaging with. If white people see something on the news that involves a Black man doing something violent or even the assumption of a Black man doing something violent they are inherently wary of all Black people. This reaction is due to the historical realities of white supremacy and the objectification of enslaved Africans during the Atlantic Slave Trade and its continued repercussions. Again because of these white realities, it makes it harder for felons to assimilate back into society after their prison sentence. That felony is on their permanent record, and people and employers have preconceived notions of people who have been to prison. 
OSU’s  “Tough on Crime” 
Dr. Shari Stone-Mediatore is a professor at Ohio Wesleyan who has an article titled Tough Questions for Tough-on-Crime Policies this article talks about how tough-on-crime politics didn't really help anyone. In fact, just made people feel more unsafe; the abuse of minorities and those in prison skyrocketed and made the right to a speedy trial much harder to obtain in our current legal system. This reminded me of universities implementing neighborhood safety emails, especially the neighborhood emails at The Ohio State University, which have been the talk of students for the last year now since they implemented them on the Columbus campus. Some of the questions that stem from these discussions are generally about if the school is using this to trigger white parents and push them to demand more police presence on campus, using it as a way to police students and the community surrounding campus, and are they using it as an excuse to gentrify places in Columbus? This definitely comes from the tough-on-crime generation, as administrators are constantly not listening to students at universities across the United States. The general consensus among students is that this is for parents or for the advantage of schools and not for the safety of students, as many students don't feel safe with police on campus. This does have to do with the portrayal of prison inmates because of the view of crime even before a perpetrator is arrested and the way that crime is portrayed on college campuses in cities all across the US. 
This paper did not directly engage with anti-feminist sources; we did talk about the outlooks and topics that anti-feminists use when talking about tough-on-crime politics and pro-mass incarceration policies. Hopefully, this essay was able to bring to light some of the ways that media consumption can subliminally imprint stereotypes and negative feelings towards minoritized groups of people. As well as how if mass media corporations made the active decision to portray people in humanizing light that the public opinion of formerly incarcerated people may change and allow for former inmates and current inmates to have the opportunity to be rehabilitated truly and get the help that they need in a place that largely disenfranchises those with felonies. 
References
Clarke, Matthew. 2018. “Polls Show People Favor Rehabilitation over Incarceration.” Prison Legal News. https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2018/nov/6/polls-show-people-favor-rehabilitation-over-incarceration/. 
Heiner, Brady T, and Sarah K Tyson. 2017. “Feminism and the Carceral State: Gender-Responsive Justice, Community Accountability, and the Epistemology of Antiviolence”. Feminist Philosophy Quarterly 3 (1). https://doi.org/10.5206/fpq/2016.3.3. 
hooks, bell. "Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination". Displacing Whiteness: Essays in Social and Cultural Criticism, edited by Ruth Frankenberg, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 1997, pp. 165-179. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822382270-006 
National Research Council; Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education; Committee on Law and Justice, etc. 2014. “Read "The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences" at NAP.edu.” The National Academies Press. https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/18613/chapter/14. 
Stone, Shari. n.d. “Tough Questions for Tough-on-Crime Policies.” Ohio Wesleyan University. Accessed April 28, 2022. https://www.owu.edu/news-media/from-our-perspective/tough-questions-for-tough-on-crime-policies/. 
Vangsness, Kirsten, et al. Criminal Minds, Season 12, episode Spencer- Green Light, CBS Television Studios, 2017. https://www.netflix.com/title/70153390 
Vera. n.d. “Ending Mass Incarceration | Vera Institute.” Vera Institute of Justice. Accessed April 28, 2022. https://www.vera.org/initiatives/ending-mass-incarceration. 
World Population Review. Washington, District of Columbia Population 2022 (Demographics, Maps, Graphs). Retrieved Apr 28, 2022, from https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/washington-dc-population  
Wyatt, Anthony. 2014. “Re-humanizing inmates | Anthony Wyatt | TEDxGraterfordStatePrison.” YouTube. https://youtu.be/2cRc7nxRD0o. 
Zayd, Yhara. 2020. “Holes & The Prison-Industrial Complex.” YouTube. https://youtu.be/ZhGELPFmmMw. 
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myrfing · 2 years ago
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do you have any thoughts about how fordola was handled? i'm not really comfortable with the way the writer portrayed her dad, like he was an innocent victim when he was literally a collaborator tbh
hi I feel like having opinion again thank you for the wait.
Uh, with fordola, it’s a errr she has one of the best moments in sb to me (“I will never forgive you…but I will thank you”) & what the story wants us to take away from her is a story of how the ala mhigan’s futures (their children) were robbed and twisted in the occupation, and I can appreciate that. I think they tried to handle her with more thought and honesty than a lot of other characters….BUTTT.
YEAH. she doesn’t and can’t escape from xiv’s various syndromes in its writing, one of which is the uh extreme aversion and downplaying of what occupying forces and their allies did. and this isn’t so that we can point fingers at The Bad Guys and yell shame on you or whatever, it’s just like…you need the full weight of what you’re dealing with to contend with it. They’re willing to show some heinous act seperately; through a minion doing the deed, through some flashback, through the account of a side npc, but then we get to the heart of something and all those things are left outside of this weird protective boundary drawn around them, where they turn all unspeakable. Fordola’s father was portrayed as an honest loving family man who was just doing what he could to survive (and his wife a helpless whatever dragged along with the tides) and the other ala mhigans an insane violent criminal mob…and maybe this was just to accentuate how fordola saw it, but it’s never brought into perspective in any way that her parents were trampling on those other people in order to gain the status and comfort they had, even if they weeerreee victims and would always be considererd inferior and second class anyways. they were the ones who threw away those people first; but the faceless angry mob of dirty riled up poors gets no sympathy, no dignity, and none of the nuance people call out for. There could be something interesting here right, like, how can you contend with the fact that the people who caused the most earth shattering tragedy of your life were not just rabid animals, but people with reasons for going that far, and that the person you loved the most and felt all this soul-twisting grief for was not innocent. but they wont GOO THEREE because it’s too incriminating to the person they want to garner sympathy for, even though it’s just…something canonically they wrote in. and like it fucking works every time they do this because people in the fanbase continue this weirdness where if you talk about some canon actual thing a character did you’re villianizing them. ???. like some things about some characters can never be talked about because it’s automatically considered hate and that’s where the argument is always moored even though there’s a lot if interesting and thoughtful things to be said about what lies beyooondddd.
fordoler herself, without euphemism, lead a murder gang of youth military police whose express purpose was to terrorize and rob the local population into submission through brute violence. her capacity for it is what gains her favor with zenos. and so you think okay sure they’re making their point about how dehumanizing and miserable living under occupation is, what it does to both these youths and their victims, and how false her idea of being a model ala mhigan is. but then in the job questlines in EW, it’s now made out to be that it’s the fault of the ala mhigans themselves for not granting mercy and compassion to fordola’s family. one of the npcs even says “we need to take a hard look at ourselves”, which is fucking like, what? did these people have that power? were they in the position to be kind and gentle to the people who dragged their families out of their doors and beat them to death in the streets? are we still talking about who and what and why and how people have power in this situation, or. A lot of things are talked about: her guilt, her self-hatred, her emptiness—but none of it mentions who she was and what exactly she did anymore because the people on the other end of her stick are no longer relevant now that the protective bubble goes up, and it’s about her, even though her story is inextricable from these excluded people. the game has no idea how to talk about people hand in hand sometimes you know like. there’s a mom who is terrified of her and hides her child from her and you’re meant to think of her as paranoid and unreasonable while her child represents the innocence and humanity and purity that “the situation needs” but is her mom not human for her fear too lol. was she really being unreasonable. they want to extoll kindness but is it kind narratively to have this woman’s child shame her for her natural terror. not very long ago fordola was not above harming that child or leaving her orphaned and was implied to do similar things as a routine. but then it’s not about this random ala mhigan family and it’s not about the victims anymore they’re not relevant. it’s like they dont know how to contend with the starting point they wrote in, like if they said it out loud everyone would be like uhhh yeah huh that’s uhhhhh cant think of a way out of this one guys. even though there are ways to write it beyond an angry aggravated mob coming to kill her and not someone being like WE failed you…We should have been nicer…like in either of these options the audience doesn’t have to face what she did alongside her because the actual tangible effect of what she did is never portrayed it’s just these one off evil acts or whatever beyond how it supports her angst. meesa not fan
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lesbianholster · 11 months ago
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Let me tell you a story.
In 1946, a Christian child from Kielce went missing for a time. He later returned and claimed to have been kidnapped by Jewish residents of a particular building; most of these were Holocaust survivors. Polish soldiers stormed the building and ordered the residents to turn over their possessions; one thing let to another and suddenly the soldiers opened fire. When the residents ran outside, civilians began attacking them with clubs and stones. 42 Jewish people died that day—men, women, and children.
The boy lied.
He was ordered to lie by his family and to not ever speak the truth, even years after the pogrom. He was an adult when he first admitted that he was staying with a family who treated him well, and certainly not the Jews of that building.
On the basis of a lie, 42 Jewish people, most of whom had already endured the horrors of the Holocaust, lost their lives. To this day, the Polish government still denies culpability.
I never want a justice system that could, even on accident, even once, lead to the death of an innocent person. Especially not when those dead innocents are more likely than not going to be groups of people society at large airway dehumanizes. It's mostly going to be Jewish people, people of color, and queer people who get served violent justice, while cis, straight, gentile whites walk off scot-free. That is how the world works. That it how this world has worked.
Besides, statistically countries and states with the death penalty don't even have a decrease in crime. Sometimes, it's the opposite—removing the death penalty and instituting other policies actually reduces crime. Violence is not an effective deterrent. Revenge isn't justice. Killing the people who do bad things won't stop others from doing bad things.
You can have fantasies. You are not wrong for wanting your abusers dead. But I don't want to give the state or roving packs of vigilantes the power to kill on that basis.
re: that last post, ive said it before and ill say it again: no one deserves to die (deserving is fake and death is bad) but some people need to be stopped and choose to make death the only way to stop them
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jedijesi · 3 years ago
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Luminary Love
Prince!Din Djarin x F!Princess!Reader
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🤍Masterlist🤍
Warnings: Angst, Fluff, Smut (F receiving, PiV, Breeding kink)
Summary: Tonight is your (unwanted) wedding to the soon-to-be King of Mandalore, but is there more to him than meets the eye?
Word Count: 3,100+
A/N: I’ve had this idea for several days now and I just needed to write it. Don’t worry tho bc the next ch. of biblichor will b out soon. Enjoy some Din content!🤍
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All night long, you received congratulations and cheers. Thousands, billions of people would kill to be in your position, but you dreaded this more than anything. You never wanted to marry the soon-to-be king of Mandalore, but the Royal administration never gave you an option. Throughout the fantastical wedding, you repeatedly reminded yourself it was for your people - they are the ones who will prosper from this. Thankfully, his creed forbade him from removing his helmet in front of others, therefore you weren’t allowed to kiss him. The only time you had to touch him during the ceremony was when you held hands. Even then, his mastiff-leather gloves create a barrier from any real contact.
After the ceremony, you avoided your new husband as best you could. When it was time to put on a show, you had forced yourself to put on the royal smile you had been practicing. When eating, you sat as far away as possible from him but not far enough to worry the royal administrations that watched you two tentatively. The times you were called to waltz, you performed what you had been learning for months but never made eye contact with him. After a few dances, the royals watching had joined in and forgotten about you, giving you the perfect chance to escape.
You spent your time talking with other royalty, expressing your worries and concerns to Princess Mary of Ryloth. Unlike you, she was happily married, but it was her 3rd time. The first two suitors weren’t ‘good enough’ for her, so she became the royal’s biggest scandal and ignored her administration to marry for love. Luckily her experience with terrible lovers led to wonderful tips and tricks that she gladly gave you for your wedding night. You knew she was telling you these things to help, but in reality, it only made you feel worse about your new life.
“Djarin, my oldest friend, how are you enjoying your wedding?” General Paz said with a heavy pat to Din’s pauldron.
“It’s… grand.” Din sounded unconvinced by his own words.
“Grand? Is that all you have to say?”
“Well, everything appears wonderful, but my wife won’t speak nor look at me.”
“Have you attempted to talk to her?”
“Of course!” Din and Paz turn to watch you talk to Princess Mary. “She never responds, though.”
The uncomfortable feeling of Din’s stare props you to turn around. The blue and silver beskar statues jump when you catch them and quickly turn back to avoid any further embarrassment.
“I haven’t seen her in years, but she has grown to be quite beautiful, you must admit.” Paz shrugs.
“I know, it’s one of the many reasons I married her. I just… wish she’d give me a chance.”
“Well, she better. I overheard that the administration is already seething that you two haven’t gone back to your honeymoon suite.”
Din rolls his eyes under his helmet. “I don’t care about them. They shouldn’t have a say in my marriage.”
“Good luck arguing that. You know they expect an heir to be conceived tonight.”
“I already have Grogu. Is he not enough?”
“Nothing is enough for them, my friend.” Paz pats Din’s back reassuringly. “Just be kind to the poor girl. I’m sure she isn’t pleased with all of this.” He gestures to the grand chandeliers and dramatic towers of cake and food.
Din sighs as he fiddles with the edge of his cape. “Alright. I should probably go fetch her before the Administration creates any more drama.”
“Good luck, your majesty.” Paz bows as Din walks your way.
Din let’s go of his cape before wiping his armor of any lingering bits of dust and dirt, wanting to be as presentable as possible for you. When Din arrives behind you, he clears his throat and bows.
“My Princess, it is time for us to leave for the Honeymoon Suite.”
Without a word, you give him a nod and take his arm. The guests cheer and whisper as you and your husband make your way out of the ballroom. You could hear Royal Administers whisper their concerns regarding your fertility or your performance in bed. It was dehumanizing, to say the least. You fought for justice and equality on Naboo, but this was not the way on Mandalore. Your new role would be diminished to a supporting queen who would raise the future heirs. Meanwhile, the other women of Mandalore were busy serving valiantly in wars. This was the way. Mandalore was born out of extremists, and you had to embrace the consequences.
Din hated the whispers. If he were king, he would have lashed out long ago, but the coronation isn’t for another few days. You didn’t deserve to be treated as an object. Din saw you to be the goddess that would help lead his people into prosperity and the gorgeous woman who may one day graciously birth his children. Such slander against someone so perfect made Din rage under his helmet. A few more days. Din would remind himself.
.
The Suite reflected Mandalore: grand and majestic. Silver swirls of beskar outlined the stained glass windows that watched over Mandalore. The bed was larger than any other you had seen before. It looked cozy; a complete contrast to the large and uncomfortable dress you’ve been wearing all day. You walked over to touch the silk-like blankets and sighed at its softness.
Din watched you with interest - mesmerized by the way the roaring fireplace creates a golden glow on your features. “Wife?”
“Hmm?”
“Why don’t you look at me?” The flicker of sadness in his voice took you by surprise. You weren’t sure if Mandalorians could feel emotions underneath the layers of cold beskar. “Do I… scare you?”
You turn to look at him, your nerves shining through by the twiddling of your thumbs. “I… I don't know.”
“What is wrong, my dear princess? I want to fix this. I don't want to start our marriage off on the wrong foot.” You sit down on the luxurious bed, your eyes now watching as you fiddle with your dress. Din walks towards you, taking a knee to be at eye level with you. “I understand this isn't what you wanted. I heard whispers that it took the maids an hour to get you off your ship. That you fought off any guard that laid a hand on you.” Din chuckled at the image he had created in his head. “But then the fighting stopped… why?” You couldn't find it within yourself to respond. “Won’t you please entertain my curiosity?”
You sighed and looked up into the dark visor. “I realized I was being selfish. I had forgotten that marriage among the royals was for the people… not for love.”
“You do not love me?”
“We barely know each other, your majesty.”
“What are you speaking of? We used to be best friends.”
You scoffed at Din. “We were children, your majesty. You were just a servant boy in the palace back then, but times have changed, haven't they, your majesty.”
“Please refrain from calling me ‘your majesty.’ I thought we were beyond that.” Din groaned, annoyed by the ridiculous title.
“Din, you're to become the Mandalore - the king - in a few days' time. I understand the rules - I understand why you had to marry me.”
“What? So that I could officially hold the title as king? I don't care about a stupid title - the administration does.”
“Then why marry me? There are millions of royals lined up to marry the Mandalore, but why choose me, Din? Why?” You started getting hysterical at it all. Your life's work had come to a halt just so that Din could be crowned king. It was disgusting and unfair.
“As an orphan-servant boy, the days your family visited were the best days of my life. Your parents always treated me like their own - the complete opposite of how the Kryze family did. I meant it when I said you were my best friend. You were the only person who could beat Paz and me in a fight. The only person who would sneak out of the palace to play in the garden at night with me. When your parents… passed and you stopped visiting me… It crushed me. I never stopped thinking about you, my princess.”
You could hear the build-up of tears in Din’s throat, but he wasn't the only one. You too had tears in your eyes, remembering the once pure and innocent life you had. You bring your hand up to din's helmet, holding where his cheek would be.
“Do you remember that last night?”
“Of course I do. It was a cold night in the rose garden. I gave you my coat since you had insisted you didn't need your shall.” Din smiled and chuckled at the memory.
“I... I never saw your lips, but I had never felt such pure joy than the moment they molded against mine.”
Din leans his head forward to rest your foreheads together. Underneath, he continued to beam. It had been so long since he had felt such love - such love that could only be created by you.
“My princess, I never stopped loving you. Even as we grew up and apart, I would watch the holovids that spoke about you, and all the wonderful things you were doing for your people. It was the only thing that kept me going through those torturous years apart from you. I love you.”
Din’s arms wrapped around your waist, pulling you into a tight hug. You reciprocated by wrapping your arms around his shoulders and burying your head in the crook of his neck. “I love you too, Din.”
“My wife?”
“Yes, my husband?”
“Will you take this ridiculous helmet off of me so that I may kiss you and make love to you?”
Your glowing smile melts Din’s heart. Your hand reaches up to slowly slide off the silver beskar helmet that covered those features you dreamt of. An audible gasp escapes past your lips when Din’s lips appear. It took everything in you to not pounce on him and cover him in kisses, but you maintain your composure. His nose was strong and beautiful, and his cheeks… oh, how you wanted to leave lipstick stains on them. Then were his perfect eyes. Those chocolate eyes that expressed an amount of love you'd never completely fathom in your life.
“You're stunning, Din.” Din’s heart flutters at your words. The only compliment he's ever received was about his combat skills and valor. He's never been complimented on his looks before.
“I’d never compare to my gorgeous wife.”
Din takes your face into his palms and slowly pulls you in for a kiss. The moment your lips touch, you feel fireworks exploding all around you. The glowing lights flash behind your eyelids as you mold your lips together. The tickle of his mustache causes you to giggle into the kiss, which Din finds to be enchanting. One of Din's hands leaves your face to grip your torso, massaging and kneading your skin.
“I love you.” He murmurs into the kiss. “I love you more than the moons and stars.”
As the kisses become more intense, so does your lust for one another. Din’s hands undo the strings of your wedding dress as you shed his armor off - lips never leaving each other. Once you two were completely naked, Din had you crawl to the center of the bed.
“Now, lay back, my love. I want to show you how much I love and miss you.” You follow his instructions and rest your head on the large cloud-like pillows.
Din crawls between your legs, taking one into his hand. Starting from your ankle, he works his way down, leaving a trail of sloppy yet delicate kisses. He takes his time at your inner thigh, sucking and licking at your skin to make you emit whimpers.
“D-Din, please don't tease me.”
“Hush, now. Let me take my time loving you.” And he does. He spends his time worshiping your body - kissing and sucking the skin around your lips while his hand massages your breasts. Suddenly, Din dives into your sopping wet cunt, immediately sucking and licking your swollen clit. You let out a loud gasp followed by a moan, making Din’s cock bounce up in excitement.
Your noises sound like music - the most angelic music he's ever heard in his life. Each moan and whimper you let out only addicted him more. Din wraps his hands around your waist and sits back, lifting your hips from the bed and to his mouth. You grip the blankets with a scream as Din explores further into your pussy. The animalistic grunts and growls he lets out only make you wetter.
“Come on, Princess. Cum. Cum all over my face. I need it.” And just like that, you let out a scream as you convulse around his tongue. Din slowly lowers you back onto the bed as he licks up your dripping cum. “You're sweeter than a meiloorun, darling. I've never tasted anything so divine. I’d love to stay between your legs forever and drink your cum until the day I die, but I wanna put a baby in you too badly to do so.” You let out a whimper at his filthy words. “Can I, darling? Will you let me fuck a baby into you?”
“Wait, we're not done?” You ask through pants.
“Not done? We’ll be done when the sun wakes up. Even then, I'm not sure if we'll ever be done. Why?”
“The other princesses said it would only be a minute of discomfort, and it’ll be over.
Din tsks and shakes his head, pressing a few kisses to your clit. “Oh, my darling. I'm not like those other royals. I care about my wife’s pleasure, and you…” Din presses more kisses to your overstimulated heat. “Are nowhere near done with your, please. So, I'll ask you again. Are you ready for me to fuck a baby into you with my thick, hard cock?”
“Stars, yes! Please, Din!” You hated how completely and utterly desperate you sounded, but you were completely and utterly desperate for Din to fuck you.
Din crawls up to meet your half-lidded eyes, drooping with lust. He places soft kisses on your cheeks before pressing one to your lips. “Are you ready for me, Princess?”
“Yes, my husband.”
Din grabs his cock, lining it up with your entrance. With a loud moan, he enters your sopping wet pussy.
“Oh, you're so wet! Ungh… Stars, you're so tight too!” Din’s thrusts speed up to a steady pace, your moans echoing through the room along with the lewd, wet sounds of your bodies pounding together. “From this day forward, y-your. Pussy. Belongs. To. Me.” Din emphasizes his words with his cock hitting against your g-spot.
“O-Only i-if your cock b-belongs - Oh yes, Din - To me.”
Din chuckles through his labored breaths. “Of course, my love. My cock is forever yours to do what you please with. I don't care what time- ugnh- or what p-place. It's yours.” You lean up to capture din’s parted lips, swallowing his beautiful moans. The knot in your stomach starts to tighten. Desperate for your release, you buck your hips back into Din. “Yes, take my cock. It's yours. All yours.” Din takes your legs, pushing them to your chest. Both of you let out a series of loud moans at the deeper feeling.
“Oh, Din! I'm going to cum if you keep doing that!”
“Ugh, I can see the galaxy when I'm inside you! Can you feel that, my love?”
“Yes, I-I can feel your throbbing cock!” You throw your head back at the euphoric feeling. Your exposed neck allows Din to swoop down and suck marks onto it.
“Th-That's me, claiming what's mine. You're all mine, my princess.” Din’s thrusts speed up, desperate and ready for you to cum. Each thrust was accompanied by a loud grunt that made you clench even tighter. “I'm gonna cum. I'm going to give you a baby - our baby. Are you ready?”
“Yes, Din! I love y-you!” You scream out a slew of ‘i love yous’ and clench tightly around Din’s swollen cock. Your orgasm and words of love cause Din to cum, sending spurts of his cum into your womb, where your future child would soon grow.
Din collapses on you which you gladly accept. You wrap your arms around his neck and place kisses on the crown of his head. Both of you stay like that for a while, basking in pure love. Once your breaths are back to normal, Din slowly pulls out of you to lay on the bed beside you. He pulls you closer to him so that no space lingered and adjusted the blankets to create a cocoon of comfort around you two.
You smile as you listen to his heartbeat against his chest. Din’s index finger presses to the underside of your chin, adjusting your eyes to look into his.
“Are you okay, my love?”
You nod lazily, completely worn out. “You know, having a husband isn't so bad after all.” Din lets out a hearty laugh before leaning down to kiss you.
“Yeah, having a wife isn't so bad either.” Din smirks at you, causing you to shy away in embarrassment and return your attention to his chest. Your fingers trace shapes and words onto his chest until you stop. A mark on Din’s torso prompts you to inspect it. “What are your curious fingers doing, my love?”
“What is this?” You ask as your finger traces the mark.
“It’s just a scar, dearest.”
“A scar?” You look back at Din with worry in your eyes.
“Oh, don't worry, my love. I've collected so many over the years, I've become immune to them. That one was either from when I fought Bo-Katan or when I fought a mudhorn to save my son.”
“Goodness.... I've missed so much of your life.” Your face droops with sadness, but Din is quick to relieve your worries.
“Now, it's nothing to be upset over. Yes, we've missed a lot, but that means we can spend the rest of our lives catching up and making new memories. Plus, you can meet my son tomorrow.”
You smile and press a chaste kiss to Din’s lips. “I’d love that.” You pressed another kiss to his lips, but this one wasn't so innocent.
“Did I not satisfy you, my love?” Din chuckles into the kiss. You climb on top of him and shake your head. “Oh, does my princess want more?”
You give Din a mischievous grin and shrug.
Din smirks before leaning in to kiss you. “Well, who am I to deny my wife of her wishes?”
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A/N: Idk who from my Javier Peña taglist wants to be on this one, but those who are interested in being added to a Din Djarin taglist or a perminante taglist, please let me know.🤍 Can’t wait to hear what you all think!
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ashintheairlikesnow · 3 years ago
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Misread Details, Part Two
CW: Described death of whumper, BBU, implications of pet whump, references to noncon, dehumanization, sadistic whumper
Part One: Nanda | Part Two: Brute | Part Three: Robert
The Unsolved Murder of Henry “Brute” Hanlon and the Box Boy Killer
r/LetsTalkTrueCrime
•Posted by u/oshaycanyousee
2 weeks ago
I’m back, r/LetsTalkTrueCrime! I really appreciated the questions and discussion under my last write-up, and a few of you really encouraged me to keep working to provide a part two to my Serial Killer Box Boy series, so here it is!
In Part One, we looked at the mysterious death of Nathaniel “Nanda” Benson, who died of cardiac arrest due to an undiagnosed heart defect (and likely head trauma played a part) and was found at the bottom of the stairs inside his California home. The only valuable possession missing from his property was his legally-purchased Box Boy, who fled the city wearing Nathaniel Benson’s shoes and using his money to buy a bus and then train ticket. 
The last confirmed sighting of the runaway Box Boy (and Benson’s possible killer?) was in Red Hills, California, a large-ish city a couple hours south of Benson’s house by train. 
Questions remain around Benson’s death: did he suffer cardiac arrest and fall down the stairs? Did the Box Boy push him, with the shock of the trauma and injury leading to the heart attack that killed him?
Is the Box Boy merely a witness to a tragic but natural death, or the prime murder suspect?
And most importantly: If he wasn’t guilty, why did he run?
Less than a full calendar year after Benson’s death, the question of where the Boxie went after Benson died was answered… but even that answer only opened up more questions, and the sudden death of a second man places even more uncertainty into the story of a Boxie who might simply be an innocent victim - or who could be a serial killer whose makes a victim out of those who give him shelter.
Which leads us to the story of Henry James Hanlon, known to nearly everyone - including his wife - as “Brute”.
Henry Hanlon was born in a small town in Texas, but moved to Red Hills, California after finishing a stint in the Air Force. 
His parents, James Hanlon and Estella Hanlon, maiden name Brickers, had had their first child, Henry’s older brother William “Bill”, right out of high school, born six months after their wedding day. Henry came three years later, and his sister Roberta “Bobbie” one year after that.
Henry was a perfectly normal, cheerful little boy, always toddling after his older brother and trying to join in the games of the older kids in town. His parents recalled him as the quintessential “middle child”, always resolving disputes and quietly getting things done. He received his nickname of “Brute” in fifth grade, when a classroom bully was harassing a female friend of Henry’s and Henry decided to take action. The only information I could really hunt down on this was some old school records that I found on a message board, and I can’t really verify if they’re real, but they suggest that the bully was sent home injured and Henry received a three-day suspension.
After that, it seems, anyone and everyone - even teachers - called Henry Hanlon “Brute”, and he never seemed to mind.
He received perfectly average grades, enlisted in the Air Force, served without distinction but without any significant incidents, and afterwards he moved out to California, where he settled into Red Hills (then a city with a thriving industrial district that was slowly beginning its slide into something rougher) and took a job with a manufacturing company, working in their warehouse.
“Brute” dated around a bit, but it wasn’t until three years after his move that he met the woman he would marry, Ellen Patricia Barry. She was a few years younger than him, and they met at a local bar that both were known to frequent. One of Brute’s former coworkers told police that Brute was big into pool and poker, both of which he would engage in when he went to the bar, and that he met Ellen during one of the poker nights, and that Brute stated that how easily she beat him was one of the reasons he was interested in her romantically.
Ellen claims they first spoke while playing pool, not poker, and also claims she’s never played poker in her life. Why Brute would have told his coworkers a different story is unclear. 
They dated for about a year before they wed at Grace Baptist Church on a sunny summer day in 20XX. Ellen’s father gave her away while Brute’s little sister was the maid of honor. A year later, Brute’s daughter Elizabeth was born, and a couple years after that, their son Daniel.
The Hanlons lived a charmed life - they owned a cute three-bedroom cottage home (bought and given to them by Ellen’s parents as a wedding gift) in a good part of town with a little white fence around the property and a yard big enough for the children and dog to play in. Ellen was part of the local PTA and active in her church, and Brute himself had the appearance of a man totally content with everything he had.
But Brute Hanlon had a secret.
Ellen continued to believe he was employed by the manufacturing company, but he actually left his employment there years before his death. Instead, he seems to have transitioned into making his money “under the table”. Ellen wouldn’t discover any of this until after his body was located… in a secret house he’d never told her about, in one of the roughest parts of Red Hills.
Without her knowledge, Brute purchased a two-bedroom home with cash directly from its previous owner that was badly in need of repair in the Pauls Mill neighborhood. Once a “company town” from the 1930’s - 1950’s that was absorbed into Red Hills as it grew in the 60’s, Pauls Mill today is the kind of neighborhood where everyone knows if you belong there, or don’t, and it’s best if you belong.
Brute performed a few very cursory repairs to keep it livable, laid down some new carpet, and then used it as a kind of secret base for the unsavory activities he didn’t want Ellen or the children to know about.
While his family believed he was at work at the factory, Hanlon was in fact hosting poker games, selling illicit narcotics and unlicensed firearms, and generally making quite a bit more money than he had with legal employment entirely under-the-table. He would spend his day making connections (and money) through these activities, then go home right at 5 pm sharp to his loving family, eat dinner at 6 pm, help his kids with their homework and hear about their day, and settle in for an evening playing the loving husband and doting dad.
Somewhere during this time period, Brute told Ellen he was setting up a “poker night” with his friends again, now that the kids were school-aged. 
What he did instead was drive down to the corner of Holt and McCormick streets, known to all locals as the Red Hills “red light district”, and pick up prostitutes, usually simply meeting with them in his car, but occasionally taking them to a nearby motel.
After his body was found, police showed his picture around to a variety of the individuals who make their living at Holt and McCormick, and more than a dozen locals immediately recognized him. 
Some described him as a regular customer who wasn’t particularly special or notable beyond the simple fact that he never tried to renege on payment and could be relied on to always be looking for someone on a particular night of the week… but others, almost entirely male, said he could be violent. A few described being injured enough that they had to seek medical treatment after meeting him. The same individuals stated that he insisted on using dehumanizing and insulting language to speak to them during these encounters, and that he was often unable to perform unless he did so.
One individual, who gave his name as “Mix”, mentioned that the last few times Brute had engaged his services, he had brought along a collar and insisted Mix pretend to be a Box Boy. 
During this time period, Brute continued to be an active, involved, and loving parent. 
He was home right on time every night except “poker night”, attended his chlidrens’ recitals and baseball games on the weekends. He often took them to the Red Hills Zoo, local parks, and even did a weekend trip to Berras to see the Berras Aquarium, stay overnight in a hotel as a family, and then visit a redwoods park before returning home.
Six months before his death, Brute’s visits to the red light district abruptly stopped. Instead, he apparently met with a local prostitute, engaged his services, and took him home… for good. 
The best record we have is that one woman, Needie Brandt, remembered seeing Brute leading a shorter, angular young man to his car one night, and described the young man as “one of those runaway Boxies, collar and all. Poor thing was half-starved”. 
Runaways, especially Romantics, are picked up by police from time to time in Red Hills. Most Romantics don’t really know any other way to survive, so prostitution is a common way to make ends meet. Needie said the young man had been seen around the area for a couple of weeks, right alongside the rest of the working people in the red light district, and that after this one night she saw Brute Hanlon lead him into the car, she didn’t see him again.
Asked if she remembered a name, Needie only shrugged and said that even if she did, it wouldn’t be a real one. Which is probably a good point. 
Somewhere in here, Brute began to date outside of his marriage while his family believed he was out with friends playing poker. He took dancing lessons with one Susan Krieger, had a serious relationship with a Lucy Graham, and was apparently occasionally taking a Natalie Dorn out for dinner.
Ellen was never informed about these out-of-wedlock interests. 
Brute’s family knew nothing. When his eldest son went to state with marching band his freshman year of high school, Brute Hanlon was right there cheering him on.
Then, just two days later, he presumably went right back to brutalizing the Box Boy he was keeping in his secret second home.
We don’t have a record of what exactly transpired within the house after Brute took the runaway Box Boy in. What we do know is what the police found later on.
On October 18th, 20XX, around midnight, Ellen Hanlon called police to report her husband missing after he did not return from his regular poker night. His car was located in the parking lot of an abandoned FoodMart, but a friend of Brute’s came forward to say he often parked there and carpooled with friends when going out.
None of Brute’s possessions were inside, and it didn’t appear the car had been touched by anyone but Brute himself when it was dusted for fingerprints or signs of DNA. Brute’s friends who knew about his secret activities weren’t telling, and Ellen and the children didn’t know anything about their seemingly loving husband and father’s double-life. 
At first, the trail seemed like it would go cold, and investigators were frustrated that they had so little to go on.
Then, on October 29th, 20XX, Brute’s neighbor (who apparently asked that his name not be given) called the police department complaining about how the small two-bedroom house next door had begun to smell “like something died in there”, and that he hadn’t seen his neighbor leave or return in days, which was very unusual.
When police arrived, the front door was unlocked. Officer William Keys, the first one inside, later described the smell as “unmistakable. I knew exactly what we’d find the second we walked in that door.”
He was right.
What they found was the bloodied and decomposing body of Henry “Brute” Hanlon, lying on his back in the middle of a small unremarkable living room, on a dirty and stained carpet. He had been viciously stabbed more than fifty times. One even went so far into Brute that there was an exit wound through his back. Medical examiners would later state that at least seven of his wounds would have been directly fatal, but that he had died within the first few and most of the wounds were technically post-mortem.
The murder had been committed by someone who had a very personal reason for the killing. Investigators believe this individual was “absolutely enraged”.  
Next to his body was the murder weapon, along with a set of buckles and strips of leather that mystified the officers. These were eventually identified as modified leg braces, but rather than straightening bent or injured legs, they forced the wearer to keep their legs at nearly right angles, which would ensure they had to crawl rather than walk. They appeared to be homemade.
Bloodied smears and footprints led the officers down a hallway and to the bathroom, where there was evidence someone had showered, changed clothes, and then left.
The same neighbor who informed police about the smell also remembered seeing, on October 16th or 17th (later determined that it was likely the 17th, the day that Brute did not return home from “work”), a young man wearing an oversized coat, sweatpants, and a too-large t-shirt walk out of Hanlon’s house and down the street. The young man was on the short side, the neighbor said, had an angular face, and a visible scar at the corner of his mouth and another along the side of his face. He had the collar of the coat flipped up, and the neighbor doesn’t recall if he wore a collar or not.
He had dark eyes, and short but shaggy dark hair that seemed to have been cut hurriedly and unevenly, and he waved at Hanlon’s neighbor without pausing or speaking as he walked past.
Tests on fingerprints and DNA located within Brute Hanlon’s secret second home would reveal that the Box Boy who once ran from Nathaniel Benson after his death was the exact same one who ran from Brute Hanlon after murdering him. The Boxie’s fingerprints were all over the murder weapon… and everywhere else, too.
Within Brute’s home, more knives were found, along with what looked like a badly-crafted homemade whip and some other supplies. A few of the things investigators found appeared to be essentially identical to what was found in Nathaniel Benson’s home. Other things were different (“animalization” was mentioned in some of the reports, but what I’ve been able to find is seriously vague for some reason). 
Possibly related, a series of dog leashes purchased from a local pet-supply store were found throughout the home, but there was no evidence of an actual dog. In the home’s main bedroom was a perfectly normal queen-sized bed that was clearly Brute’s, with a small side table, a large dresser, and an attached bathroom. 
There was absolutely nothing outwardly out of the ordinary, besides the room being very plain and impersonal. Makes sense, since Brute almost never slept there. 
In the second bedroom, however, there was army-style cot with a thin blanket and sheet, three folded shirts on the floor, two sets of bloody metal handcuffs hanging off the cot’s frame at the top and bottom, and a bucket next to the bed. Two metal bowls, clearly of a style meant to be a dog’s food and water bowls, were next to the door. One still had water in it. The window was painted and nailed shut, and bars had been installed over the windows.
Investigators determined the bars were on the house when Brute Hanlon purchased it and had been installed by the previous owner. No reason for that installation was ever given.
Investigation revealed trace amounts of evidence of blood, but nothing much. However, the living room and dining area both showed poorly-cleaned bloodstains that were much older than Hanlon’s murder, including discolored patches on the walls.
A contract for a 24/7 “master/slave” style relationship was found in the top drawer of the dresser, signed ‘Pet’ at the bottom, and with Brute’s name alongside it. However, both signatures match Hanlon’s handwriting, and the Boxie is not believed to have actively signed it, as he would be illiterate at best. Plus, Box Boys are not legally allowed to enter into any contract, anyway, since they can’t understand obligations at that level, so even if he had signed it, it wouldn’t have been considered remotely valid.
I mean, not that those contracts are legal, but... you get my point.
Also located in that drawer were more than one hundred photographs showing the Boxie in a variety of compromising situations and positions. Several of these photos had Brute himself clearly visible in them, and a few had other individuals who have since been identified as Brute’s associates in his more illicit activities.
Interrogations of those associates led to more than seven further arrests for illegal gambling, the production and sale of illicit drugs, and illegal weapons sales. Those interrogations are also how we know about what Brute Hanlon was up to in-between Little League games and Girl Scout meetings.
Those associates claim that Brute kept a “secondhand Box Boy”, muzzled him so he couldn’t speak whenever guests were over, and that often ‘poker night’ simply turned into a game where the assorted guests and Brute himself repeatedly assaulted the Boxie. The associates claimed they thought the entire thing was consensual, but frankly… given the overwhelming evidence that the Boxie had to be kept restrained and was often seriously injured by these assaults... that’s doubtful.
Ellen and her children, who had previously been very visible and spoke often to local news stations about Henry’s disappearance, withdrew after his body was found and his second, secret life revealed - and have never given a single public statement or made a public appearance since. 
Ellen moved her children out of Red Hills, moving back in with her own parents, briefly, in northern California. Where they went after that is unknown, but they appear to have left the state and Ellen may have changed her surname. Investigators are firm in their belief that Ellen knew nothing about her husband’s secret life.
I would give my right arm to know what his son and daughter think about it, and if they ever suspected what their devoted dad was up to when he wasn’t at home.
So, what happened to the Boxie after he left the house and disappeared down the block from the witness who saw him?
In short… no one knows for sure.
After murdering Brute Hanlon and cleaning off the evidence that must have been all over him, the Boxie simply fades away. He could have been anywhere, doing anything at all. There is a brief sighting of him on CCTV footage at the local bus station, where he is in line to buy a ticket… and then abruptly looks up, apparently noticing the camera and looking directly into it, then turns and walks quickly away.
The footage is grainy, but the Boxie does appear to be wearing his collar.
He isn’t seen in Red Hills again.
Instead, he reappears one more time before his final murder and disappearance… more than a year later, in a little town right along the border with Nevada.
Part 3 will go into how the investigation into the death of a quiet little oddball named Robert Weber reveals a basement full of skeletal bodies. But our Boxie isn’t the cause.
Instead, Robert Weber’s murder solves a series of related murders police had been stymied by for more than a decade, and a Box Boy who may have been meant to be Weber’s next victim instead turned accidental vigilante with a final killing of his own.
Or maybe I should say, his final killing so far.
-
@astrobly @finder-of-rings @burtlederp @whump-tr0pes @raigash @eatyourdamnpears @orchidscript @doveotions @pretty-face-breaker @boxboysandotherwhump @outofangband @whumptywhumpdump @whumpfigure @thehopelessopus @downriver914 @justabitofwhump @butwhatifyouwrite @newandfiguringitout @yet-another-heathen @nonsensical-whump @oops-its-whump @endless-whump @cubeswhump @gonna-feel-that-tomorrow @whumpiary 
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seragamble · 4 years ago
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Season 12 of SPN but Better
This is my rewrite of s12 in which the main changes are after Lucifer knocks up Kelly he fucks off back to the cage, the BMOL are actually scary, and the narrative finally interrogates how people who aren’t human are treated. Note: I use monster and non-human interchangeably here. (Thank you @autisticandroids for your help with this post.)
The season starts off the same. Sam is perhaps a little more suicidal during his kidnapping, having just lost Dean and fresh off of having to be around Lucifer.
Sam’s myriad of mental health issues pop up here and there throughout the season, after Lucifer and dealing with what Lady Bevell did to him. He does his best to make sure none of this is seen by his family, but Dean eventually figures it out.
At least two episodes where the A Plot is Cas and Crowley investigating a case.
“American Nightmare” is just the start of a theme we see throughout the season of Sam bonding with monsters/non-humans/the ‘other’. He becomes a resource for them and in turn connecting with them helps him feel better about himself.
Cutting the Hitler episode because that was seriously just… :l
Instead Aaron comes back and it’s just a fun episode
Samantha Smith is amazing as Mary but please just take a moment to imagine “Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox” if Mary’s actor was actually ~28
At the end of “LOTUS” Lucifer goes back in the cage 
The events of First Blood take place over two episodes so we can gets stuff like: 
Cas and Mary hunting together
Cas and Mary (separately and together) threatening people they think can help them find Sam and Dean
Dean and Sam (Sam especially) losing their grip on reality whilst in confinement 
Instead of the American hunters largely rejecting the BMOL many of them embrace them. Mostly thanks to the weapons they freely provide. The BMOL also import their idea of “Hey shouldn’t ALL monsters be dead actually.” This becomes a serious issue as we get to see that there are plenty of monsters who aren’t hurting anyone, but are now being hunted.
At the end of “The Raid” we get our first foreshadowing of what else the BMOL are doing when that hunter, who betrayed them to the vampires, is taken to an onsite facility full of various monsters in cages.
The boys have a case that ends up being hunters who fucked around by going after innocent monsters, and found out. It’s a not at all subtle allegory about two monster siblings, where the older sister killed a pair of hunters to protect her little brother. This is the tipping point where Dean finally has a major mental shift in how he views and treats monsters.
There’s also a case where they look into weird supernatural phenomena and it turns out to be the result of hunters disrupting completely (super)natural stuff. It’s an episode about a supernatural creature that has zero interest in killing humans, they’re just strange and otherworldly, and hunters persecuting them has caused a major local disruption in the world.
Instead of the BMOL having their students fight one another to death, they have them kill monster children. We get a flashback of Mick killing a crying werewolf boy.
After Mick has his change of mind about what the BMOL are doing they don’t kill him. Instead he is taken to the facility (seen previously at the end of “The Raid”). This is where the BMOL experiment on monsters, as well as dispose of humans by using them as test subjects. There’s a scene where we see that hunter from before get injected with something, go through a weird mutation, and dies.
The timeline has to be shifted around a little, but instead of Cas being off in heaven trying to find something to find Kelly (which lead nothing to the narrative and went nowhere) the BMOL just make it seem like that’s what he did, while really they have him locked up.
Their reasoning being that if a nephilim is going to be born they want to know all they can about angels, but also they just genuinely don’t see anyone who isn’t human as a person so why not experiment on them. The whole experience is really dehumanizing.
Ketch is there, and I would like to remind everyone about the line, “I do enjoy an angel,” which is a) haunting, and b) implies Ketch has dealt with angels before.
Remember how in “Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets” Cas can immediately identify that angel blade as being Benjamin’s? Ketch has a few and taunts Cas about what he may or may not have done to their owners.
They torture Cas/do a lot of medical experimentation. The torture is “extremely horny for no reason, shave your chest father of two it’s fanservice time”-y (thank u autisticandroids).
On the brighter side, Mick and Cas bond during their captivity because Cas deserves to have a friend who isn’t a Winchester. Also go ask @autisticandroids about this.
We see Mick question his long held beliefs about monsters and grow more as a character. He also gets turned into something, perhaps a Shapeshifter.
During this time we get to know various other monsters being held and undergoing experimentation.
Instead of Mary finding out Mick is dead she finds out about the facility. Same thing happens as in canon where they brainwash her. This time she’s just killing hunters who won’t fall in line with the BMOL, instead of all American hunters (which I feel made no sense).
Garth comes back at some point because of course he does. Why have an entire season about people who want to eradicate all monsters and then not bring back their one friend who would be most affected by this? His whole family and community are at risk of death if the BMOL have their way.
“Twigs and Twines and Tasha Banes” happens next season because I want Max and Alicia to be part of the attack on the BMOL and it’s better for their narrative if they disappear for a while before coming back after that episode. Instead they show up in a standard motw episode to drive home the fact that it’s fucked up to automatically consider witches to be evil.
One of the narrative points would be how the BMOL tolerance of witches is extremely conditional on them only using their magic for them, and the presence of the BMOL in America has led to an increasingly hostile environment for the Banes family.
The people the Winchesters recruit to help them attack the BMOL facility are a mix of monsters they’ve helped out, and hunters who respect them/didn’t fall in line/have noticed their friends getting murdered. 
The end result is the beginning of a new relationship between hunters and non-humans.
It might be odd after a season long narrative about not demonizing people just because they’re not human, to have the Winchesters still be all “Let’s forcibly abort this fetus,” but, with the added element of Sam dealing with his Lucifer trauma all season, I think it would make sense to have Dean be in extra Protective Mode™. That combined with Cas, fresh off of having to be rescued and feeling even worse about himself, decides to take the Kline issue into his own hands. The narrative follows along with canon. Since Lucifer isn’t around it’s AU!Michael who kills Cas and Mary tackles back through the rip.
Alternatively if you hate that and want something more domestic you can picture the following: with their newfound POV TFW rescues Kelly and takes her back to the bunker, promising they’ll take care of her child.
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hellpastel · 2 years ago
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[ ID: There are eight slides with a red background and yellow text.
The first slide is a title slide which has a header that reads "Orientalism: Next Gen" below that it says "How mass consumption of East Asian media of the teenagers of today has led to a new generation of East Asian fetishization."
The second slide's header reads "What is Orientalism?" And the paragraph below that says "Orientalism refers to the fetishization of the 'Far East' - from the Arabian peninsula to Indonesia. For centuries Asia has been painted as a strange and exotic place that Westerners love to ogle and point at. Without going to far into it, Orientalism is incredibly dehumanizing as it reduces Asians as nothing more than a peacock on display; the aesthetics are nice but the thing that goes with it doesn't matter too much. The Orientalism of todays youth revolves around the surge in East Asian media- namely anime and K pop.
The third slide's header reads "The downside to the anime girl" and below that is a paragraph that reads "Media has always been interlocked tightly with our perception of reality. Anime is no different. While the Japanese cartoons display characters who look nothing like your average Asian (snow colored skin, large brightly colored eyes and hair), Western teenagers have created a heavy link between Japanese (and other Asians) in the real world and the cartoon character who share the same name and culture. The most popular waifus are often teenage girls with high voices who play submissive roles to the male lead, which is an exact replica of the stereotyped and fetishized Asian woman. The western audience of anime largely consists of teenagers and they will absorb this portrayal of Asian women right up. 'Well they aren't real, so how does it matter?' As a racial minority (only 7% in America), these characters are often the only exposure to Asians some will get." To the right of the text is a shoulder up picture of Rem from Re Zero, a very pale anime girl with blue eyes and blue hair which covers the right side of her face, she is wearing a maid outfit.
The fourth slide's header reads "Feminization + Infantilization of East Asian men" below the header is a paragraph that reads "A society's perception of what is masculine is what makes a person masculine. Asian beauty standards are different than western beauty standards, especially when it comes of men. While body hair is a sign of masculinity in western countries, in East Asia it's considered undesirable and ugly (on both men and women). It's common for male celebrities in East Asia to shave regularly. This absence of body hair, along with the shorter stature of Asian men, has resulted in this idea that Asian men are undesirable. While Asian women are often hypersexualized, the opposite happens to Asian men. The fan bases of idol groups such as BTS, which largely consists of teenage girls, treats the members as though they are little toys, little children. They are pure and innocent and can do no wrong. This is racism. By seeing full grown Asian men as children you are effectively dehumanizing them." To the right of this texts shows two pictures of K pop idols, both with cutesy doodle filters over them that contain drawn on things like blush stars and hair clips.
The fifth slide's header reads "EA-Baiting" below that is a paragraph which reads "While yellow face has historically been used to mock Asians in cinema, a new trend has arised; Non-Asian people are manipulating their features (usually with eyeliner or eye tape) to make themselves look East Asian sometimes it's more subtle with elongated eyeliner (EA-Baiters love to defend it by calling it 'dolly makeup') paired with EA makeup styles and fashion. Another version of EA baiting involves wearing school girl uniforms and advertising (slash) creating NSFW content, where the sex worker often acts submissive. This is obviously disgusting and harmful as a full grown woman is wearing childrens clothing and profiting off fetishization of East Asian women. While pushing the idea that East Asian women are purely sexual objects to dominate." To the right of this text are two images of girls in skimpy japanese school girl costumes wearing cat ears and posed sexually infront of the camera.
The sixth slide's header reads "It's not just pop culture" the paragraph below this reads "Along with the rising consumption of East Asian media, the interest in Asian culture has grown as well. Suddenly everyone wants to wear a kimono, hanfu, or a hanbok. Many websites sell highly sexualized versions of traditional clothing because, once again, Asian cultures are treated as an aesthetic rather than attributes that are unique to a particular group of people." To the right of this text is an image of a cheaply made garment with a short skirt with a split at the thigh. It appears to be roughly based on a kimono.
The seventh slide's header reads "Perfect Paradise" the paragraph below this reads "After being introduced to Japan and Korea through television and music, more and more Americans are moving there to live life in what they see as a paradise, East Asian cities, especially Tokyo, are heavily romanticized. People are taking trips there to gawk at the sites and report back to their friends (and usually internet following): 'I love it here. This place is amazing! The culture is so... different.' Think about it. What is so 'different', so 'exotic' about East Asia? What is it that draws you there as opposed to other cities? To NYC? To London? To Paris? Why is it so different?" To the right of this text is a picture of Tokyo.
The eighth and final slide's heading reads "To Conclude" and under that is text that reads "Just start recognizing Asian people as actual human beings and stop being gross. Thanks."
End ID]
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Happy AAPI month! I really wanted to talk about the Orientalism and East Asian fetishization that comes from young people who claim to be so anti-racist. If you're non-Asian and consume a lot of Asian media (or even if you don't) please take the time to read through this, and reflect on what ideas about East Asians you may have been digesting. Thank you.
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dreaminpetals · 4 years ago
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Oog the Andrew appreciation is making me feel fuzzy and warmmmmm! Could we get some skin specific headcannons for Andrew? Like how his train conductor or "cheese" skins would act?
🧀 skin specific hcs for andrew . . . 🚂
desolate sand ;;
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♡ sandrew (hehe) is a lot braver and stronger than his other skins but also more exhausted and gloomy.
♡ a person with albinism being stuck under the relentless sun of the south is a recipe for disaster.
♡ he's seen outlaws do awful, awful things to people which has left him with a grim outlook on life.
♡ though he'll do all he can to protect innocents, especially women and children. he views it as his duty on this earth.
♡ speaks with a southern drawl.
♡ views his horse as his best friend and companion for life.
♡ while people turn their heads and refuse to serve him at some bars, his horse, named after his late mother, has always been there for him.
♡ despite how rough around the edges and unfriendly this andrew is, he's an angel towards his horse and spoils her rotten.
♡ if he had an s/o he wouldn't want them to be a shooter or freelancer like him, he'd prefer a friendly face he could come home to.
♡ andrew has dreamed of a domestic life for far too long but being viewed as a devil means he has to hunt for resources and live in tents all on his own, never staying in one town for too long because he gets chased out with torches and pitchforks. he doesn't have a home as much as he desperately craves one.
♡ a romance between you and him would be slow and sweet, you'd potentially go months without seeing each other but every time you reunited he could relax and get a taste of paradise.
♡ i feel like you would be a hotel owner that was willing to serve him so he associates you with warmth and safety, during nights when he had nothing to do but hitch his horse and stare at the stars he'd think of you and how much he wants you to be more than a stranger.
♡ overall he's a wanderer with a good heart that's been stomped on and lassoed far too many times, give him some rum, apple pie, and a bath full of delicate kisses and touches please his weary soul deserves it.
train conductor ;;
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♡ traindrew fares surprisingly well in the bitter cold that his train conducting job entails, he's built up a tolerance since he's been freezing since birth.
♡ a feeling he experiences often is that realization that all of his passengers are unique people with their own places to go, he feels proud that he's helped so many people and hopes they can remember him in a positive light.
♡ he's treated surprisingly well by his passengers, weary travellers view him as a demon who's redeeming himself by reuniting people with their families and homes.
♡ of course 'surprisingly well' for andrew still has to include being dehumanized for his condition, poor guy.
♡ still, he loves his job. a speeding train is much more comfortable than a drab cemetery where evil men are laid to rest, the cheers and laughs he hears from nearby compartments remind him he's doing a good job.
♡ loves hot beverages like tea and hot cocoa, he almost always has a mug in his hands.
♡ when he sleeps he kicks his feet up on a table and tucks his hat over his eyes it's so cute.
♡ he's bitter and deals with jealousy quite a bit, he envies how easy other people live and prefers to be alone or with animals.
♡ even when the train is empty andrew still watches over it, cleaning it and making sure nobody breaks in.
♡ so if he had an s/o they would have met on the train.
♡ you were a rising singer who frequently travelled his train when touring, at first he expected you to be a sheltered snob who'd ask for a different helper but you were one of the nicest people he had ever met.
♡ during the evening you order two cups of coffee, one for you and one for andrew so he could take a break in your first class booth.
♡ andrew had a sneaking suspicion you were only being this nice so your future train tickets would be cheaper.
♡ oh yeah, andrew can be pretty pessimistic and judgemental. when people are nice to him he always has a lingering fear they're trying to gain his trust only to stab him in the back.
♡ he wholeheartedly believed that you weren't to be trusted until he overheard you practicing for your new single.
♡ it was about falling in love with a gentle train conductor who had piercing red eyes and alluring white hair, ghostly pale skin cold to the touch that still managed you warm you up when your fingers accidentally brushed together.
♡ he's used to being a stoic professional so when he realized he was catching feelings he nearly fell overboard.
♡ andrew is so hardworking and curious about the world outside his train and he was so overjoyed to entertain the idea of a singer who travelled the world possibly.... showing him everything he was missing... djfndks he couldn't handle it!!!
cheese ;;
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♡ while the other andrews are more closed off and sort of bitter with how the world treats them, cheesedrew wears his heart on his sleeve and never loses hope for other human beings. he thinks there's good in everybody !!
♡ instead of digging graves he grew up scooping ice cream, he's lived a happy life and no one can tell me otherwise 🥺
♡ still anxious and insecure though... he naturally struggles with anxiety and fitting in with others, the cruelty he faces for his condition doesn't make life any easier for him. but he is a ray of sunshine once you show that you're harmless, i promise.
♡ he gives people everything even if they don't care about him at all.
♡ still, no matter how many times he's kicked down, he gets back up and he's ready to prove everyone wrong, people can be good no matter what happens to them.
♡ cries super easily, this includes tears of joy (which happen any time someone is affectionate towards him)
♡ obviously he has a sweet tooth, he shivers so much and appears to always be hungry.
♡ give this boy a home cooked meal, he hasn't had meat or vegetables in so long.
♡ his poor diet combined with albinism leads to fits of dizziness and even fainting, if you let him lean on you he'll never forget it!!!
♡ this andrew is like a puppy, if someone is nice to him then he takes their words at face value and trusts them with his life.
♡ don't be surprised if he follows you around or stares at your hands thinking about how soft they'd feel in his larger ones, anyone can tell what he's thinking by looking at his facial expressions.
♡ he's the sweetest lover djfjsks
♡ compares you to honey, candy, sugar, everything sweet in the world, he can't get enough of you.
♡ let him show you how to bake!!!! please!!! he loves teaching people things and doing things that will make people remember him in a positive light, wanting a warm place in someone's memories is a universal andrew experience.
♡ he tries to hide his giggles because he doesn't like how they sound but they're so contagious.
♡ once you reassure andrew he doesn't have to hide himself around you and you love all his quirks he'll melt into batter when he's around you.
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