#like HELLO? WHY ARE YOU CRYING AT CULINARY CRIMES

[lumiereandcogsworth]

unnecessary smosh character backstory tangents my beloved

[snkpolls]

SnK Chapter 127 Poll Results

The chapter 127 poll closed with 1,993 responses. This month’s poll results were compiled by /u/alooulla, Crunchwrap, Giovata, @momtaku, @shifter-lines and  /u/staraves.

Thank you, as always, for your support!

RATE THE CHAPTER 1,888 responses

It’s time to get back on the hype train, y’all! Chapter 127 was a vast improvement over last month’s reception with close to 90% of respondents viewing it favorably.  By way of comparison, with chapter 126, that number was only 55%.

Fixed everything I didn't like about 126

This chapter was top quality. Jean and Yelena were great this chapter. Loved Reiner and Annie helping each other. But please Isayama stop torturing Reiner :(

Amazing and I agree with Hange completely

Wow, such an awesome chapter! It's been a while since a chapter like this has made me put my thinking cap to analyze the scenes in more detail and come up with theories regarding what's coming next!

Are there any words sweeter than "Save the world"?

Calm before the Storm in the SNK fashion

Finally Kiyomi! And some talk between the parts. Seeing the dead SC veterans made me cry a lot. I still care about them so much

I still don't like that the SC are just up and going forces with the Warriors, who are nothing more than unforgivable monsters, BUT I can admit the execution this month was much better.

Pretty damn tasty this month, not gonna lie. Hope to see more of that Floch in next month's dish, chef Isayama is a genius.

Guess you could say Gabi haters got a "kick" out of this month

Hahaha

  WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING WAS YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT? 1,938 responses

Hello JeanMarco fandom? Are you there? This is the fandom of 2020 telling you it’s time to come back to the series if only for a month.

It’s been 84 years but Jean finally learning the dark truth of Marco’s death topped our list of favorite moments with over one-third of the fandom selecting it (35.7%). “Yelena the shit stirrer” was second with 20.6%.This Jean-focused chapter netted Jean the third and fourth favorite spot as well. “Jean and Magath’s argument” and “Jean’s idealistic daydream” tied for third with 7.9% each.

"Erwin being implied to not support the rumbling" I wanted to choose this as one of my favorite scenes along with Hange's "I don't support genocide" <3

The biggest highlight of the chapter definitely has to be Jean punching Reiner upon learning that the latter was responsible for Marco's death. Ever since the truth about Marco's death was revealed a while back, I was awaiting the scene of Jean learning the truth about Marco's death and how he would react towards Reiner regarding it

Why is nobody talking about Yelena and Pieck pleaseeeee

I didn’t think it was possible to love Jean more than I already did but this chapter proved me wrong. I was so glad he finally learned what happened to Marco and at least got that closure.

Loved Yelena messing with everyone's emotions and calling out the truths that nobody wanted to recognize

Jean punching Reiner was my favorite moment of the chapter. Finally that evil fuck is getting what he deserves for what he's done.

The only people Yelena didn’t drag were Pieck and Falco. She has good taste.

Hange acknowledging their failure to stop Eren from getting to this point is 👌👌👌

Jean's and Magath's debate gave the vibes of 'what's older, the chicken or the egg' and I'm living for it lol

I actually found Jean’s dream sequence to be a little unsettling, maybe because of Isayama’s style of not drawing certain facial features clearly, like the eyes. It was almost more foreboding to me than sweet, peaceful, or nice to see.

My favorite moment was the reaction shot where Mikasa was going to charge Annie and everyone is freaking out but the last panel is Levi just sleeping.

I seriously want to see Mikasa vs Annie XD

Jean complementing Hanjis stew is the best moment in the manga

  WHO WAS THIS CHAPTER’S MVP? 1,938 responses

With Jean receiving the bulk of the focus and development it’s not a huge surprise that Jean (66.2%) was the landslide winner for chapter MVP, with Yelena (9.9%) as a distant, and we mean distant, second. What is a surprise is that Hange’s culinary creation (9.7%) beat out Hange themself (8.9%) for the number 3 spot.

STAN JEAN KIRSTEIN

yelena best girl 😔💕

I already knew that Hange was a queen, but I'm genuinely surprised with Annie too. While the first made a big part of the fandom shut up (genocide is never justifiable) the second one admitted her crimes and understood Mikasa better than anyone.

I love the chapter. It was satisfying to see Jean find out the truth to Marcos death.

I loved how Jean got focus and how he called everyone out on their bullshit.

Mikasa being a badass again. My girl<3

Hange’s stew!!!!

I love the chapter. It was satisfying to see Jean find out the truth to Marcos death.

I loved how Jean got focus and how he called everyone out on their bullshit.

Awesome, go Hanji ! And Levi ! Though he didn't do anything.

I just want some of Hanji's stew

  DO YOU THINK THE GIRL IN JEAN’S DAYDREAM WAS MIKASA? 1,943 responses

Was it Mikasa? Was it a girl with exactly the same hairstyle and scar who just happens to look like an older version of her? Most fans seem to think it was very clearly intended to be Mikasa with solid numbers. Or at the very least, considering the eyes were hidden (a common manga trope to confuse identities), proof that Jean has a definite type.

That woman in Jean's fantasy is very clearly Mikasa, you can even see the scar in one of the panels lol

I can't believe there are people denying it was Mikasa in jean's dream. What the actual fuck?

I think it isn't exactly Mikasa, but Jean *does* have a type and Mikasa heavily influenced it by being his big crush back when all his hormones were firing at 200%.

  WHICH STATEMENT DO YOU MOST AGREE WITH REGARDING HANGE’S ANSWER TO JEAN ABOUT GENOCIDE BEING INHERENTLY WRONG? 1,939 responses

Nearly half of respondents (45.1%) agree with Hange that genocide is non-negotiably wrong. However, those that said in certain circumstances it is perhaps unavoidable if one’s enemies are intent upon it (16.6%) or it truly is the last resort (29.9%), responded in numbers too large to be dismissed. Those that claimed it was unabashedly a good thing, lag behind (8.5%). The results of this question would seem to indicate that even the fans that support Eren’s actions are doing so, for the most part, reluctantly; because that's the only way they see Paradis surviving.

Hanji’s rejection of genocide in no uncertain terms—I’ve been waiting for that! I want to frame that panel on my wall!

Finally people are arguing against Eren's crazy ideas. Expected more from Hange's and Jean's points tho, they have the capacity to be more eloquent

Jean is so close to noticing that the rumbling is best for him…

Kinda disappointing to see the group take such a simplistic take on the Rumbling.

Hange wants paradis to die on the moral high ground

Hating on Hange puzzles me, I understand people who support the rumbling, but saying she is bad for wanting to stop the killing of billions is just frustrating to me.

I'm tired of negativity flowing from fanbase. Everyone would like to see genocide; blood and rotten bodies of innocent people, but even Eren doesn't want that!

Genocide is morally and ethically wrong as hanje said which I agree with. What I don't agree with is her acceptance that once eren dies the eldians on paradis are gonna genocide within a few years. That fact that she hadn't thought of anyway to get around this is disappointing.

If it was Isayama’s Intention to make me feel bad for the rest of the world, he should have focused on it for a larger portion of the story cause honestly, they all can burn in hell for all I care. Innocent or not.

  HANGE’S CLAIM THAT NONE OF THE DEAD SURVEY CORPS MEMBERS WOULD SUPPORT A RUMBLING WAS FOCUSED ON ERWIN. WHAT DO YOU THINK? 1,938 responses

This poll team member, staring at the camera like Jim from The Office. While Hange has been proven to be a trustworthy character, one with 11/10 intelligence and someone who knew and worked with Erwin on the daily for years and years, and certainly knew him better than anyone aside from Levi, only a third of respondents (36.7%) trust Hange’s judgement on this.

Hanji is right y'all are just dumb

I love how when Isayama wants us to agree with a character he pulls out the Erwin card

I love that years later, Erwin has still not been forgotten.

Erwin would never support a full rumbling to genocide the entire world, and it saddens me that anyone would think otherwise.

We aren’t bad people for supporting Eren. Don’t let the Erwin stans throw hate at us. Erwin would have protected his home too.

  WHICH DEAD CHARACTERS DO YOU THINK WOULD SUPPORT THE RUMBLING? 1,783 responses

Kruger (58.3%), Kenny (57.4%) and Zackly (43.9%) top the list of characters we think would support the rumbling. Despite Hange’s confident declaration that no one in the Survey Corps would be so small minded, many disagreed choosing Ymir (31.3%) and Erwin (31%) as characters they think would support the Rumbling.

  WHO WON THE DEBATE BETWEEN JEAN AND MAGATH? 1,930 responses

This was definitely a Jean chapter, am I right? At 48.8 percent, Jean definitely won the debate according to most fans. In fact, poor Magath didn’t even get a result worth mentioning; ���neither’ or ‘Hange’ both got reasonable responses, but this was unarguably a slapdown for Jeanbo!

Jean slapped Magath. Bonus points for including that they were totally ignorant even after the walls were attacked.

Magath's replies to Jean are weak. I believe I can do better than him on countering Jean's points.

Idk when they'll get that it doesn't matter how much they hate each other or who started it.

Magath sucks. "Your people did shitty things to us" stops being an excuse when you do things that are just as bad if not worse than what happened before.

This chapter just showed how fake magath is man wow

The argument felt a little? biased towards the paradis folk? i wasn't too bothered by it, but hey, if jean was going to get to punch reiner then reiner deserved to punch someone for bert too.

The argument of "Who is the real bad guy" was a circular "You're the bad guys!" "No u!" "NO U!" -- but by the end of the chapter, all of the arguing characters put aside their differences as they ~left the forest~

Everyone: *kids fighting*

Hange: *bass boosted* WOULD ANYONE LIKE SOME STEW

  ANNIE QUESTIONS WHETHER OR NOT MIKASA COULD KILL EREN. DO YOU THINK MIKASA COULD EVER BRING HERSELF TO KILL EREN? 1,935 responses

Early in the chapter, Mikasa surprises Hange and Jean by stating without hesitation that she will help stop Eren, but when Annie forces her to confront how far she is willing to go, she is clearly reluctant to take extreme measures. Almost half of the respondents (49.1%) believe that this is something Mikasa will never be able to do, with a decently close remainder of respondents saying either yes, she could bring herself to do it (29.1%), or opting not to decide (21.8%).

I don't see Mikasa killing Eren but i ALSO also don't see her doing nothing about it. It's complicated

If she met Eren in her present state, she wouldn't be able to kill him. Perhaps if something else happens between now and then to really strengthen her stance, she could.

I literally have no idea but i have a feeling she will confront him either way

I think she will struggle first, but after she will gain the conviction to do it.

I think she'd be willing to kill him if he showed to be willing to kill the scouts.

Lol at Mikasa learning how to think independently of Eren

She probably won't be able to do it regardless of her conviction because of the Ackerbond, unless Eren allows her to.

Killing eren is kind of extreme isn't it?

She will join Eren!

  IF MIKASA CONFRONTS EREN, WHAT OUTCOME DO YOU EXPECT? 1,907 responses

This one was all over the place! Proof if proof were needed of how impossible this particular subject is to predict right now; Mikasa’s strong feelings for Eren haven’t faded even though she has consistently demonstrated an opposition to his goals, and the poor girl is being torn to pieces. However, those that think Mikasa will ultimately be unable to bring herself to stop him if it means killing him are in the majority here. It’s still anyone’s bet though.

I dont think they can talk him out of it, but im not sure if killing him even stops the rumbling, hence i am not sure what to expect from this.

If Annie would turn out to be right with her suspection that Mikasa could turn her back to the alliance?

Mikasa is going to k-word Eren, isn't she? All the focus on her plus the uncomfortable question. Oh dear. Please no Isayama.

I feel like if Mikasa did end up killing Eren, she'd be even more hated than Gabi for killing Sasha.

Eren will accept his death . And itll be a suicide by forcing Mikasa and armin to kill him.

Eren will die because of the immense power his titan needs, Mikasa will be there to say "Farewell, Eren"

Armin will be the one who will finally take Eren down.

Armin and Mikasa try to talk, Armin die, Mikasa have no choice but try to kill Eren. Don't know if she succeed.

Armin is going to die with Eren while they look at the sunrise over the ocean

I don't think he will need to be killed. I believe that Eren will take all his squad to the paths and then they will talk. Eren will finally tell them everything. If he is going to destroy the world, Mikasa most likely will finish him off.

Eren won't be stopped

He'll confide in her and somehow convince her that he's in the right

Her and/or Armin's death(s) would be the only thing to stop Eren

If Mikasa comes into contact with Eren, she will confess her love for him because that's what she was last seen thinking about. If she couldn't do it before, better late than never.

It will be a group effort to finish him off

Mikasa will be killed (likely accidentally by Eren) in the process of trying to talk him around. Ironically, it will be this which finally causes him to question his current course of action.

Maybe she will kill Eren but it will destroy her

She'll let someone else do it. Maybe Jean?

She's probably just gonna scream "Ereh" all over again

Mikasa and Armin will confront Eren, no one will win but no one will die

No one will kill Eren because he's killing himself

  IF ANNIE AND MIKASA WERE TO FIGHT NOW, WHO WOULD WIN? 1,932 responses

In this writer's opinion, I always bet on Annie winning their original first fight even though I was (and am) a massive Mikasa fan. Now though, I definitely agree with the majority of those who answered this question. That first fight might be debatable but this second one wouldn’t even be a contest. Mikasa has just had years more of training and growth, and we don’t even know if being in the crystal for so long has left Annie weakened in any way. 63% of respondents think this is Mikasa’s fight to win.

Hope mikasa mikasa fight annie it will be sweet

  MAGATH WAS NOT SURPRISED TO DISCOVER THAT KIYOMI WAS WORKING BEHIND MARLEY’S BACK. WHO DO YOU THINK KIYOMI IS TRULY WORKING FOR? 1,917 responses

Close to 74% of those who took the poll this month are still not convinced of Kiyomi being particularly loyal to anybody but herself. Is this a case of reading a book by its cover too soon? Or is she genuinely as snakelike as she appears to be? Just remember that people can still have the capacity to do good whilst putting their own interests first. Unfortunately the opposite is equally true.

She's double agenting everyone, like an arms dealer in a war. She sells to both sides and loses nothing in return

Her nation. She's putting her nations interests first.

She is loyal to Mikasa primarily for selfish reasons, but the rumbling threatens her home too, so she'll probably support Hange and co now.

Plot twist: the Yeagerists have been Kiyomi's pawns, in the next chapter Kiyomi will throw Floch and the Yeagerists under the bus AND pretends she is indeed a hostage.

Kiyomi is working for herself even not for Hizuru and she will double cross everyone

Kiyomi/Kruger/Willy 4D chess conspiracy ftw

I have no idea who's side she's on at this point.

Not conspiring with the Jaegerists but with Zeke and the euthenasia plan.

I have thin hopes she might be working with Eren and Historia who convinced her to join their side.

She lusts for the blue rock

  THE PLANE’S FUEL CAPACITY IS MENTIONED AS A LIMITING FACTOR IN FINDING EREN. WHERE DO YOU THINK EREN IS? 1,912 responses

Eren didn’t enable infinite fuel in the PATHS console, and now everyone else has to deal with it. 40.3% of you think Eren has already left for the continent, 36.3% think he’s still on Paradis in his Founding Titan, 16.8% think he’s hiding somewhere in human form, and that leaves 6.6% who think he’s already reached the continent. Does anyone know the MPG on iceburst stone?

I'm going to be honest, I genuinely thought the plane was an aborted arc.

I find it funny that everyone is very concerned with catching up with Eren, even though they have no idea where he is, and have completely forgotten about Zeke. How do they know he's not lying in some rubble somewhere?

I just thought the plane idea was kinda....lame? I don’t know it just felt weird to me.

I can't stop picturing all the Wall Titans holding onto Eren's ribs for dear life as he crosses the ocean because they underestimated how deep it was.

  YELENA MENTIONS THE APPEAL OF “SAVING THE WORLD” AS A MOTIVATION. DO YOU THINK SHE JOINED ZEKE PRIMARILY FOR HIS VISION OR WAS THERE ANOTHER FACTOR? 1,910 responses

Nearly a quarter of you said that Yelena served Zeke to further his cause, 20.2% of you said that she did it because she was just really thirsty for Zeke, and 13.2% of you said that it has nothing to do with Zeke, and that she was just looking for fun and fame—in other words, SASUGA, PIECK! The fairly overbearing majority of you though, at 42.1%, said that it was some combination of all of the above answers.

I think Yelena's motivations for following Zeke are partly spiritual. She mentions his titan being godlike, and follows Zeke around like a disciple.

I was quite shocked to learn that Yelena was an average Marleyan herself who just made everything up about her coming from an annexed Marleyan nation and being saved by Zeke in some way.

  YELENA BRINGS UP THE MORE RECENT CRIMES COMMITTED BY THE WARRIORS AND THE 104TH. IS THERE AN EQUIVALENCE OR IS ONE SIDE MORE AT FAULT? 1,901 responses

This question had an interesting response, because it was expectedly divided, but not in the way one might have guessed. 34.9% of you said it’s irrelevant whose crimes are greater, 34.1% said that it’s about equal, 30.2% said that the Warriors are most at fault, and only 0.8% of respondents said that the 104th were most at fault. When we see talk of blame, or right and wrong, we normally see a very even split—especially when it comes to Eren, so this is an interesting outcome!

It’s so brilliant on the way it shows war’s true face ... don’t have winners, don’t have losers, it doesn’t matter who started or who finished it, we are fighting each other and for whom? for those who died 2000 years ago? people are just sickening. this chapter showed a lot of that with Yelena’s speech

Fuck Marley, but the sc doesn't have the higher moral ground on the warriors.

They should stop choosing between evils and start forgiving, never forgetting, but forgiving so they all can live together when it all ends one way or the other.

ZOOK YOOGER APPROVES!

  JEAN THANKS YELENA FOR HELPING THEM GET ALONG. WAS THAT HER INTENTION? 1,889 responses

A clean 31% of you think that Yelena was “just taking the piss”, by bringing up everybody’s past, and I had to google what that British (Australian?) nonsense means, but hey, you learn something new every day. Following just behind that at 30.7%, you guys said that she wanted to create more conflict for an unspecified reason. 27.6% of you said that she was just venting frustrations, while only 10.7% thought she actually wanted to help Zeke, and bring everyone together to stop Eren.

Looking forward to seeing Yelena roasting everyone in season 4.

Someone should beat magath for being an ass and yelena for being so edgy

  WAS JEAN JUSTIFIED IN ATTACKING REINER LIKE THAT? 1,894 responses

Almost three quarters of people thought Jean was justified in giving Reiner a walloping, largely for killing Marco (36.7%), but also to knock sense into Reiner (21.6%). 15.6% thought it was justified but that Jean took it too far, and a fraction fewer (15.2%) thought both guys have been justified in their actions. Just 6% thought the beating wasn’t justified at all, as we readers are well aware of Reiner’s feelings of guilt already. If you expected the sufferboi saga to end any time soon, don’t hold your breath…

I wouldn't say Reiner deserved it, but Jean is definitely justified for it. I don't blame Jean since the guy who killed his "best" friend was sitting right in front of him.

Uuuh YES? Is that even a question? Imagine someone killing your best friend and then calmly talking about it like telling a story.

His feelings are justified, his actions aren't.

Nobody fucking reacts over Yelena stating "Armin stole Bert's power", and instead we're just getting wank over a plot device from 2013: I named Marco.

Yes, but Annie deserved a beating too.

It makes no difference, they both are wrong and bad guys right now

We the audience know Reiner's entire backstory but Jean does not, hence why we feel more sympathy for Reiner than Jean does to him.

No reaction to Bert being eaten by Armin and Porco's already forgotten when he literally died the day before, but more Marco angst? Alright then.

I'd say neither is truly 'justified', but it was an emotional purging they both needed. Jean for his anger over what and who Reiner's taken from him, and Reiner getting what he feels he must receive for what he's done.

He should've killed him

Leave Reiner alone already. He suffered enough. He understands his mistakes. He doesn't need to be punched anymore.

Reiner deserved it, but by now its been too long so it feels out of place.

It's understandable. Jean's hit his breaking point. Reiner I love you but please stop trying to provoke people into causing you bodily harm.

Jean should've hit him harder. And Reiner wanted to be hit cause he knows it himself that he deserves it. Give the boy what he wants 💅

Reiner needs a damn hug goddamnit.

Yes. Revenge is always justifiable

Pretty sure reiner liked it either way

Honestly, when Jean hit Reiner, I felt good. I think that Reiner and Jean will have a better friendship and I'm looking forward to that.

I really don't know.

  HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT MAGATH STOPPING HIMSELF FROM EXTENDING A HAND TO GABI? 1,886 responses

Magath is a complicated fellow isn’t he? He seems to treat Eldians better than most but has trouble getting over his own prejudices regarding them. Most of you seem to think it was character progression (56%) that he reached out to help Gabi in that moment as a man, instead of as her commanding officer. We shall have to see if Magath’s attitude continues to soften, and if so, could it potentially be a microcosm of the world’s attitude to Eldians in general?

Magath begins to have a real compassion for warriors, especially towards Gabi (already in one of the previous chapters, he had given her a hug).

Foreshadowing, he'll die for her. 100% sure.

Gabi apologized to the Devils, she asked them for help. Magath realized that Gabi is not a brainwashed fanatical degenerate anymore, even she is not on his side.

Good question. It seemed like he only know started to realize that Eldians are people with feelings, fears and hopes too, but didn't know how to interact or if he was even allowed to show that concern after all that time.

He doesn't know how to react to this because Hange's words from earlier struck him deeply.

He fill asham that she act more like an adult than him

He finally starts understanding he was being an ass. Better late than never!

He is not sure how to comfort her. The situation is a tough one.

He realises now that he needs to provide the better future for these young Eldians thus being the guy that will free the Eldians from the discrimination.

He realized that he cares about Eldians a lot and he doesn't see difference between them and other people.

He realizes that he’s one of the reasons why a kid like gabi is suffering and feels like he doesnt have the right to comfort her

He wants to help the warriors but feels guilt about all the pain he caused them

He's a bitch realizing it's kinda his fault

He's only shown to care for Gabi tbh. We've seen him humiliate all the kids over and over even when they were trying to help and give suggestions, so I don't accept it as development and much less as "caring for Eldians".

I really dont know wtf was happening in these panels

When not arguing with Jean, Magath was flabbergasted all the time about Eldians being more human instead of devils he thought them to be, so idk, this reaction kind of goes hand in hand with all that. He's kind of realising they're human as well and he's afraid of feeling compassion for them.

  HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT JEAN'S TREATMENT OF GABI AFTER THE ACCIDENTAL KICK? 1,905 responses

66.6% agreed that Jean’s softer treatment of Gabi was the cutest shit they’d ever seen, or close to it. 23.5% were neutral on the matter, and a small proportion (4.6%) didn’t really care for it. Then there’s that little bump in 1 voters (5.4%), from those who didn’t like to see any kind of positive treatment of Gabi. My goodness, would Sasha hold a grudge this long?

Bless Jean and his kindness toward Gabi

Gabi is garbage

Gabi sucks

She shouldn't be the one to endure the kick of a seething horseface and explain why the warriors did what they did. Worse even, hiding her own pain to beg her aggressors for help. When her arc is all about leaving the forest, that's disgusting.

Haven't we had enough of Gabi Sue hogging the limelight? And the way she begs the SC to side with her after what she did to Sasha? Disgusting!

It kinda annoyed me that Gabi is apologizing to the 104 when they're the ones who destroyed her home and don't seem to feel guilty about it

idk but i love gabi

Gave the kick moment a 3. +4 because Jean is amazing, but -1 because Gabi should have gotten worse.

It really shows what a great character Gabi is because she can continue for vengeance but she is being a bigger person and choosing a more moral path.  

  MUCH OF THE CONVERSATION AROUND THE CAMPFIRE WAS REMINISCENT OF WHAT WE DISCUSS IN THE FANDOM. WHICH IDEA WERE YOU MOST HAPPY TO SEE? 1,893 responses

Does Isayama read our posts? You might be forgiven for thinking so, considering the campfire discussions focused on so many different angles; the complexity of the situation was nailed, and the winner was Jean knowing Eren’s actions are best for the island but still morally wrong (35.1%), but Yelena’s little dialogue was appreciated enough to come a close second (31%). This was the moment where all of us felt like our view was taken on board however, and it was brilliantly done.

I wonder if Isayama actively collected all fandom ideas, because he NAILED it. Well, he did his part, right? In showing the complexity of the situation. He can't change the fandom's minds, but he can put his message out there.

Annie confronting Mikasa only to immediately back off, what she pointed out made sense, and yet they didn't even discuss what to do if Eren couldnt be persuaded to stop genocide.

This chapter was a beautiful reflection of the community's arguments.

The panel when they are eating around the campfire looks like 'The Last Supper' of Jesus and his 12 apostles.

+1 for Annie for calling the 104 out on their inability to kill Eren if need be, and for Hange for having some fucking common sense

I liked it more when they were all enemies tbh

  WHICH OF THE MORE LIGHT-HEARTED MOMENTS FROM THIS CHAPTER WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 1,898 responses

To me, Hange cheerfully knocking on the window to interrupt Jean’s idyllic daydream was pure comedy; what’s wrong with you people, am I the only one to find that funny? Sigh… Levi waking up to complain about the noise was alright though. I guess. And 50 percent of you seemed to like that one best. Comedy is wasted on you lot.

Sleepy Levi made me laugh out loud!

Levi was wholesome for once

Why would you think of Annie's asking if she's forgiven as a light-hearted moment?

I felt sad and grieved while reading this.

Loved Yelena with Titan Pieck, feel like she won't make it out of this alive and that's a shame since she's pretty interesting

I didn’t like the foodstuff. Isayama can’t make food jokes funny.

Isayama noticed Annie's favorable treatment so often he even slipped a joke about how nobody cares enough about the severity of her crimes to care... Haha...

Wouldanyonelikesomestewwouldanyonelikesomestewwouldanyonelikesomestewwouldanyonelikesomestew

  LEVI JOINS THE LIST OF CHARACTERS WITH GLORIOUS BEDHEAD. WHICH HAS BEEN YOUR FAVORITE SO FAR? 1,898 responses

Mikasa’s gravity-defying locks assert dominance with 53.1% of the vote. Mankind’s strongest soldier makes an impressive debut in second place with his moment of dishevelment (21.2%), and Annie’s shaggy mane from all the way back in the Female Titan arc made it to third place (15.1%). We then have Gabi (4.6%) and Eren (4.1%) closely matched, and an honorable mention for Jean’s mild fluff from the days of Uprising (1.9%). Levi’s bedhead this chapter may well be the last in the series!

Levi taking his beauty sleep and being cranky after waking up by all the noise was the cutest thing on the entire manga. And talk about that bed hair... Can I tousle it, please?

[Levi’s] hair jkjkksksks KAWAII

  DEATH FLAGS ARE ONCE AGAIN FLYING! WHO DO YOU THINK WON’T MAKE IT OUT OF THIS ARC ALIVE? 1,844 responses

Break out your bingo cards! Love him or hate him, most people agree that Floch has by far the highest chance of meeting his demise at a hardy 67.7% of responses. Just over 50% have voted that Yelena will die; perhaps she’s too much of a wildcard to stick around for the long-term. It’s not looking good for the old guard as many people think Hange and Magath have a good chance of dying, 48.7% and 45.2% respectively. A lot of people have also interpreted Jean’s development this month as an ominous sign (37.9%); it would certainly be one way to follow in his commanders’ footsteps! On the other end of the scale we have the fewest votes for Gabi (8%), Mikasa (8.2%), Falco (9.5%), and Armin (9.8%). Those expecting all four to meet their end are imagining a very grim finale indeed.

Hanji please don't die!

They're gonna kill Floch :(

Can Floch just die? Please?

I feel like hange will come up with a plan to save paradis without genociding.... and then immediately die without telling anyone the plan :)

Fuck annie. just fuck her. i want her to die so fucking badly.

If Hange dies I’ll cry

If Jean fucking die I’ll RIOT !!

Isadistyama knows only too well how much we hate Floch, which obviously means he isn't going to fkn die.

Gabi must die

Someone need to die soon.

Reiner's will to die will keep him alive to the end of the series…

I hope Levi doesn't die.

Really hoping Hange's death wasn't just foreshadowed in this chapter.

Jean will definitely die. Too much protagonism around him in this chapter.

My guess about Mikasa's life chances are now 50/50. 50% dying chances if she would protect Eren by fighting against the alliance and the other 50% having a chance to live a normal life with turning back to her old self

Just not Levi, at least not yet, c'mon we barely got him back :(

Maybe this whole manga is one man's journey trying to die in vain, until he ultimately finds the will to live... Then dies.

Hope they all die

  THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER WAS NOT RECEIVED VERY WELL. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT CHAPTER 126 NOW AFTER HAVING READ THE FOLLOW-UP? 1,891 responses

With the worst rating in recent memory, chapter 126 was a disappointment to many readers, and we even saw some people losing faith in Isayama (the heresy!). So we asked the fandom about their feelings of the previous chapter in retrospect and knowing the continuation.

Surprisingly, the majority of respondents (48.9%) said their opinion of the previous chapter had not changed, but they felt positively about it, with 23% saying their unchanged feelings were negative. A remainder of 28.1% said their opinion of the previous chapter had in fact changed, with 26.1% expressing more positive feelings and 2% feeling more negatively.

A real improvement compared to Chapter 126.

Amazing, picked up on everything I thought 126 needed.

Definitely an improvement upon the last chapter

This chapter remedied most of my issues/concerns from the previous chapter

Chapter 127 was so awesome it made 126 even worse in comparison.

I prefer personally chapter 126, but this chapter had much better pacing

Everybody complaining about 126 were too impatient and short-sighted. This was always what was going to happen and both chapters did exactly what they were supposedly to do.

It really made me feel better about 126

Way better than 126 but still kinda cringe tbh

Much better chapter that made 126 redeemable

  AFTER THIS CHAPTER, HOW HAS YOUR OPINION CHANGED ON THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERS?

Due to this chapter being dialogue-centric with character interaction galore, naturally it was bound to have an impact on the characters’ likeability. The significant focus on Jean’s inner turmoil evidently made him skyrocket in the eyes of the fans, with 80.6% of responses to him being on the favorable side, correlating with him being the fandom’s choice of MVP.

Jean's development is top tier.

I am so proud of how far and mature Jean has become! ;-;

Jean continues to show why he's the best character in the series

JEAN CHADSTEIN

JEAN JEAN JEAN JEAN

Other characters receiving a boost in favorability were Yelena, Hange and even Gabi (although in her case by only a smidge).

Yelena was my personal MVP this chapter

Mama Hange is the best

Gabi behaved like an adult and preferred to ask for forgiveness and help (she was adorable).

While many were relieved by Hange’s strong stance, it should be noted that Hange also received significant backlash this chapter, with ¼ of respondents viewing Hange less favorable.

Fuck hange

Hange is just making idiotic shitty points, and she has become one of my most hated character after this chapter. Jean's argument is one of the best, and almost everything he says this chapter made me love him even more.

People saying hange is acting based off emotion .. when literally all eren has done is act based off emotion. of course hange doesnt have a plan yet, eren is literally gonna annihilate the world

Though no characters had an overall less favorable response, Magath’s comments about the Paradis Eldians certainly almost landed him there.

Magath can suck a nut

Fuck off Magath

Magath really annoyed the hell out of me this chapter

  ONCE AGAIN ISAYAMA APPEARS TO BE PLAYING WITH OUR EXPECTATIONS OF THE FINAL PANEL. WHICH OUTCOME DO YOU BELIEVE IS MOST LIKELY? 1,824 responses

Dreamt up fantasy or not, this chapter gave us yet another plausible scenario for the long-haired man holding a baby, confirming that Isayama knew what he was doing when he released that final panel, and he will milk the speculation for all it’s worth. With over 50 custom write-in responses of people saying they have no idea, it’s clear we’re all just on Isayama’s wild ride.

The most popular option chosen was that it depicts Eren holding Historia’s child (38.9%), followed by Grisha holding Eren (29.1%), Jean holding Mikasa’s child (14.7%), and Farmer-kun holding Historia’s child (8%). We also found many trends in the write-in answers:

Eren holding his baby with Mikasa (11)

Jean holding Historia's child (9)

Grisha holding Zeke (4)

Eren holding ymir fritz (reborn) (4)

Zeke holding Eren’s child. (3)

Falco holding Gabi's child (2)

Armin holding Historia's child (2)

As well as multiple answers that it’s Isayama injecting himself into the manga. You’re all hilarious.

Eren holding Isayama

plot twist: its isayama's dad holding him. he is free of the manga now

Isayama holding baby Onsen

Some of you had some creative ideas that I enjoyed reading:

Eren holding historia’s dead baby. saying it’s free from this world’s cruelty

Eren holding the Crawling Titan's human form (the one they encountered when heading to the ocean).

The next inheritor of the Founding Titan is holding Historia’s child, Eren sees this as a future memory.

Two marleyans free of eldian rule

Zeke holding Yelena's child  

How did that last one get - actually, screw it, I’m on board. #Zelena4Life

We also had some voicing of concern regarding the lack of warning for final panel spoilers. To anyone who was spoiled by the final panel as a result of our actions, we apologise, and we will make sure any future polls that include discussion of external material will be appropriately tagged. This was Crunch’s fault, so please direct all of next month’s hatemail at him. He’s very sorry though.

  WHAT DO YOU THINK THE OUTCOME OF THIS UPCOMING BATTLE WILL BE? 1,865 responses

Before they can reach Eren, the Alliance needs to first get past the Jaegerist. Only 12% of respondents expect this to be easy. The vast majority (63.8%) are anticipating an Alliance win but at the cost of major character deaths. On the other end of the spectrum, close to 20% expect the Alliance to be defeated but think they will reach Eren another way. The tiniest percent (4.1%) think that the Jaegerists will win this battle and Eren will be successful.

I hope isayama wont nerf the alliance so hard in the upcoming battle. and pls no stupid death. make it glorious.

5 titan shifters versus a group of Jaegerist, I'm putting all my money on those well rested shifters to deal with a majority of the Jaegerist on the outside while the non-titans sneak in and rescue Kiyomi. And hopefully one of them can kill Floch while they are at it.

Super excited for next chapter! It was good exposition and a good setup for an epic fight! I also kind of hope that now that they've figured out the trick to stop fighting and finding diplomatic ways that they don't directly resort to violence but at least try to find a way to talk with the Jaegerists. If they don't try to talk and find a way around then the lessons learned won't have meant a thing. I'm super happy with the direction of the story

Even if you hate Floch you still have to give him credit for what he as done with taking over Paradis and mobilizing the Yeagerists in anticipation for the alliances next move

I swear if Armin doesn’t either turn into a titan now or in the final battle I’m gonna be saltier than the Dead Sea.

  YES, WE ARE GOING THERE... HOW BADASS DID FLOCH LOOK IN THAT FINAL PANEL? 1,888 responses

God help us all... The bird’s nest hair is gone so there is nothing left to distract us from that rockin’ bod and fierce expression.  Please know that I am physically in pain that only ¼ of the fandom selected the “Ewwwwww no” option. The rest of us are apparently weak for thicc thighs bound by tight leather straps.

My hat is off to the 9.2% who selected “How ‘bout dat Kiyomi.” You have my respect for maintaining your dignity and opting out of this question entirely.

Floch based

Floch is a CHAD

Floch is a hottie

FLOCH MARRY ME PLEASE I LOVE YOUU

Floch NEEDS to die!!!

FLOCH SHALL REIGN SUPREME!!!

FLOCH THE CHAD

I hate floch but damn is he lookin fine af

  AT THIS POINT, AROUND WHICH CHAPTER DO YOU EXPECT THE MANGA WILL CONCLUDE? 1,876 responses

After another set up chapter amidst the scenery of the apocalypse, the chances of this arc wrapping up quickly are slimmer than ever, with only 2.2% of respondents believing the series to be in its final volume and ending at chapter 130. The 138-gang has officially taken over as the majority, with 43.9% of respondents expecting the story to wrap up in ten more chapters, beating out the 37.3% who think we will only get to chapter 134, and the 16.6% who think the story will go even further, to 142 chapters or beyond (for those counting at home, that’s at least midway into 2021).

I find it hard to believe that the story is getting wrapped up so soon… There’s so much that I feel like needs to happen before the story ends

I hope [Isayama] finishes the series without any rush.

I'm unsure if the manga will be able to end in 2020

I thought we were supposed to be approaching the end but now we go on a sidequest to free princess Kiyomi from a miniboss, huh?

The end is near and I already feel sad.

Whatever happens, it's been a wild ride up to this moment. I thank Isayama for everything.

  WHAT ARE YOU MOST HOPING TO SEE NEXT CHAPTER? 1,892 responses

Eren’s POV (37.3%), a continuation of the present storyline (21.9%), and the return of Historia (19.1%) are our top hopes and dreams for the upcoming chapter. A major death (6.8%), Reiner finding the will to live (6.0%), news about our boy Zeke (5.6%) and the Rumbling (3.4%) round out the entries.

EREN POV AND HISTORIA POV ALREADY JESUS CHRIST

I'm kinda hoping we get a zeke pov I wonder how he feels abt eren betraying him.

Historia was named because she is history from the story YAMS I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU WHERE IS QUEEN BAE

HISTORIA WHENNNNNNNN???!!!!!!!!

I just miss eren and historia and zeke a lot, they're my favorite characters :(

I just want annie to see her father smh

I have faith in isayama's cruelty and I honestly hope to see someone die

Please get Eren or Historia on the screen for the love of god

Reiner's too tired to die now. Wondering at which time yam will give him a new motivation to live and fight.

I’m still hoping Mikasa and Armin will man up and realize that Eren may not be worth fighting for. Maybe next time!

Hype for that Floch death next chapter, cmon Yams

Watch it burn!

  WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 1,797 responses

The percentage of people who primarily discuss the series on Reddit is up from last month, while Tumblr and Discord’s percentage is down. People who don’t discuss the series, but participate in the poll are up 4.1% (of the whole, 73% relative to itself). The top 5 ranking order is: Reddit, I don’t, Facebook, Tumblr, and Discord. I’m surprised by the lack of Discord responses. If you voted Discord, but don’t see many people in your Discord communities aware of the poll, let them (or us!) know!

On that note, I have to give the Snapchat voters a hard time. Snapchat got 6 votes this time. Six. That’s the same as it was last month, but let me put this into perspective for you. Steam got three votes. There are twice as many people who voted Snapchat as there were people who voted Steam. Two. Times. Until I receive evidence to the contrary, I’m electing to believe that this is a Marleyan psyop, and I’m not falling for it.

Regardless of where you discuss the series though, we appreciate your contribution to the poll, and the SnK community as a whole! We literally could not do this without you guys, so thank you!

  ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE CHAPTER? 406 responses

Nice prelude before the final confrontation(s)

Fantastic chapter with great development for Jean and Reiner.

Overall, this is exactly what I wanted after last chapter's fiasco.

Where is Zeke lmao

Needs more Historia. THEY ARE ALL THERE WHY IS THERE NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THE QUEEN OF PARADIS. ISAYAMA PLZ

Kinda bummed there wasn't more Levi, but I'm always bummed when there's not a lot of Levi.

I don't like where this is going

I can't believe I'll be legit sad if Floch goes.

Erwin would have come up with another way to protect Paradis. He would have blackmailed and sweet-talked all the other diplomats lol. If Erwin was in charge he would have come up with a decisive plan and Eren wouldn't even have had to consider the rumbling, unlike Hange who is all talk but no plan and I guess that's why Erwin had to be nuked out of the story.  

F U L L  B O C C O

I live for character drama and Jean’s my favourite character so you know I loved this one.

I loved the Pieck x Yelena moment...and I Am Once Again Asking for Historia Comeback.

Mikasa. That’s it, that’s my thoughts,

Meh this arc has really a lot of problems with the characters, basically i dont care for anyone at all except eren and reiner, and that's a major flaw.

[Yelena] pointed everyones hypocrisy out that they aren't just victims who did nothing wrong. Everyone, except of Falco, has cover they hands with blood. It's not just ""muh Marley, muh Eldia or muh Yelena"". Everyone have started sins and are to blame for something. It was a really necessary wake up call, not only for the characters, but for this fandom as well. No matter if this was her intention to create more drama in the group or make them realize that they and not different from each other. GREAT MOMENT and Yelena absolutely slaying 👑

Please just make mikasa ended up with eren in the future. I dont really care bout anything

THE.CHAPTER.THAT.WE.NEEDED.

There really just aren't any good solutions, are there?

Isayama stop messin with my heart

Also I've seen people mad at Magath, but the only two charas I really hated here were Yelena and Floch. Both kinds of people are terrible in real life (usually minus the killing but eh)

Eren is gonna win and kill everyone

Can we stop the SUFFERING XD jokes with Reiner? The torture porn is seriously getting old and unnecessary. Can't believe I had to lower my opinion of him as well.

Every major character during this arc had moments of extreme fragility and desperation. mikasa, connie, armin, hanji, reiner and now jean. i love this because it would be extremely weird for a group of people who constantly put their sanity to test to remain the same (strong and capable of fighting and leading in every situation)

Bless Jean! He is such a good friend. I hope he can heal. That reveal with how Marco really died was very traumatizing. I hope all of the characters can heal.

BTW Isayama..It will be so pathetic if the Manga ended by Mikasa kill Eren..The worst and most unsuccessful end

Better than the previous one for sure. I love dialouges! Still expected Annie to interact with Armin and Levi not just sleeping through all of this like the sleeping beauty.

Annies back, back again. Annie's back, tell a friend.

Another banger

AoT is like good wine, it gets better with time.

AOT makes my life tolerable enough to live, thank you isayama

Boring chapter i wanna see eren ffs

Bitches really do be supporting genocide

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

10/10 as usual

127 was a totally piece of shit

I think jean and pieck will become a thing. if it doesnt, ill be sad lol

I'M AT SOUP

I'm confused.

I'm glad the situation of Marco's death and his importance to Jean was addressed. I just hope this won't be the last we see of it. Jean needs to heal and Reiner needs to do better.

I'm just happy that there will most likely not be a Cringevengers-like ending that seemed not too far-fetched after 126.

I want Eren to live

I want the recipe for that stew

I want to see Mikasa's POV

It feels as if Isayama has read our discussions and merged them into the story. Also I think Jean is the one who understands Eren's motivations the best at this point. Not Armin, not Mikasa.

It seems now that all the pieces are in place.  I believe from now until the end will be a constant and crazy ride

It was a great chapter, but where's Eren? Even the "Avengers Team" are wondering.

It was a great chapter, Isayama covered most of the topics that were hanging loose on the last chapter

Real Housewives of Eldia

It was a masterpiece

It was alright.

Some will die, Eren will do some bad shit, but he will fail somehow

MOAR JEANKASA

Monthly dose of Reiner suffering

More Mikasa

More Reiner

None, just AOT

Nostalgic. Especially when Jean learns of Marco's demise.

Not enough action

Not enough suffering for Reiner.

Pie

Pieck Is hekkin cute

Pretty much what I expected after the events of last chapter, in a good way.

Reiner and Gabi both should have gotten so much worse from Jean, they have too much blood on their hands to be even remotely forgivable.

So long as the Jeagerists are resolved this volume, or something wilder - no more build-up. JUST FUCK EVERYTHING UP, ISAYAMAAA  (not like GoT fuck it up, but the good kind)

Somebody, please let Reiner sleep and wake up properly

Shit gonna hit the fan so hard

Shit is happening and I'm not ready. Wonder if the anime will make the chapters flow better like in Season 3 Part 1+2?

There going to set something big up soon and everyone will be hype for it but then it will show Marley perspective of the rumbling or something

Eren will succeed! All hail Eren!

This chapter was everything I wanted, thx Yams ily

Lets just say I have new ships

This chapter was intense and I love the debates around the fire.

Too long chatting

Chapter was good but the fandom is at its absolute lowest state at the moment, between the aggressive Eren cultists, warriors and 104 fans attacking one another, and crazy shippers. Stop this clownery

Crazy chapter, looking forward to the next one.

Fuck the Jaegerists, death to all empires. Everybody needs to be a republic already, this is getting old.

Great breath of fresh air chapter. Needed that after the quickly paced 126.

Very good.  i don't like the fandom,they are just children. i have always hated them.

Was a fantastic chapter overall and I hope for more of the same next chapter

We really missed Annie

Hype's alive again

I shit you not, He actually turned himself into a pickle. A pickle! He called himself pickle Rick. Now that's the funniest shit I have ever seen.

I liked that yams showed conflict in the gathering of the warriors and the 104th and that they weren’t going to forget each other’s crimes

I loved the arguing and tension in the alliance. I like how most of the chapter was around the campfire.

I prefer this chapter to have been the other half split of the previous one. And this one advanced to slowly, with unnecessary things

I'm still waiting for a crazy plot twist

When will the Ackertalk finally come

Where did mikasa go at then end!!!

YELENA!!!

Yelene spitting facts

Annie turned to alcohol

Im fine if this ends with the alliance stopping Eren but I'll find it dumb if Paradis isnt destroyed by the world afterwards. (which I highly doubt will happen)

It was pretty dope

It was really good but we all know I cannot wait another month for the next chapter release. And yes, I am extremely upset that we won't be getting another Levi x Zeke fight.

Honestly Erwins flashback looked forced, that space could've been used to yelena revealing Eren's location, or confirming who that guy from the building was(shadis?)

Love this shit.

Loved it! It's tied with 121 as my favourite chapter from this arc.

Loved it. Not much to say about this one, since it wasn't nearly as controversial as the last one :P

Hoping the deaths I picked are going to happen and I hope 🤞 that ema talk 2 will happen

I'VE BEEN WAITING TWO YEARS OF MY LIFE FOR THIS. I DON'T EVEN CARE IF I GET CORONAVIRUS I CAN DIE HAPPY.

I’ll die of the corona if eren dies

Jeans pretty cool ngl

pointless volume incoming with pointless battle vs floch. Waste of time

Pretty much what I expected after the events of last chapter, in a good way.

I don't forgive Annie

Thank you Yelena

Jeanstans: Attaboy Jean! Reinerstans: HOW DARE HE?! Reiner: Too bad that didn't kill me.

Loved this chapter but it was mostly playing catchup with the rest of the characters, still needed. Really shows how far ahead eren is.

Genocide supporter fans are just bunch of edgy teenagers. Let's see how they support Genocide when they get massacred irl.

More useless drama for a character who is progressively getting more annoying by the minute (hi Jean)

Since the end of the second world war, japan was reconstructed almost entirely by young people, so probably this story will end showing that with some analogy. making that previous statement, i think it won’t be eren, or any of the older characters, since they lived and did the horrors they did and must somehow pay for it(and specially the PTSD most would have, so they’ll be probably incapacitated in some way), i think it will be Gabi, or maybe Falco or someone else, because they are just lost, Gabi changed her mind and personality so well(progress, developed it), so that’s why i think it would or maybe even should be her. am i expecting too much from Isayama?

I believe in the Time-Loop still. But ya, hope Final Battle is with Levi and Eren teaming up. (Also Mikasa a bit before...)

Honestly wished the first few pages were real. I would love it for Jean and Mikasa to actually get together.

Annie clearly has no big role to play, & I think she’s going to go home & find her father dying. On a more positive note, we finally got some character interaction!!

That soup tho

Why should Mikasa be the one who confronts Eren? lmao According to the final exhibition would Armin be the one who will confront Eren, but I'm sure "talk-no-jutsu" will fail as an outcome. It doesn't worked in chapter 112, why should it be different?.

The award goes to Isayama for being the first person writing a story in which I have absolutely 0 clue about what will happen next. Like I never ever was at such a loss of theories. Never.This is both awsome and frightening. At least for that, props to Isayama

Top-tier

Unfair

I love the cart titan

[mymelodyheart]

Forget Me Not Chapter 13 ~Girls Gone Bad~

Claire's footsteps echoed off the hallway that led to the hotel's kitchen, high heels clicking along the tiled floor. Running late for the staff meeting she had scheduled for the service and kitchen personnel, she didn't bother hurrying as she couldn't care less. With her hands full with catering contracts for special events and the preparation for the grand re-opening, she had been in a foul mood for the last few days. Her temper was amplified even more that morning when she dropped her contact lenses on the floor, sending her into fits of frustration when she couldn't find them, leaving her with no choice but to wear her glasses instead. Seeing her reflection earlier in the bathroom mirror, made her wince. Her black-rimmed specs reminded her of high school. Definitely not good memories to bring up considering the state of her frayed nerves.

Over the last few days, she went through varying degrees of annoyance initially stemming from two police officers paying her a visit.

"Miss Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp?"

"Umm, hello. Yes, that's me. What can I do for you, officer?"

"We would like to question you on behalf of the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau about the crowdfunding site you set up for a French national by the name of Annalise de Marillac. There has been..."

"I beg your pardon? Fraud Bureau? Did I do something illegal?"

"Miss Beauchamp, there's been a complaint against your person by an anonymous tip-off at the Cyber Crime Reporting Centre. You are being accused of false representation to commit fraud. Can we please come in?"

As it turned out, her good intention to raise money for Annalise via a crowdsourcing website had garnered a lot of attention and raised a lot of money. Unfortunately, it had also led to some prankster calling the police and reporting her scheme as fraudulent. The matter was momentarily resolved when Jamie and Willie intervened and brought down Annalise for questioning. The French girl was in tears explaining to the officers of her condition and the kindness shown by the Fraser family and Claire, and eventually, presenting them proof with her diagnosis papers.

When Annalise had been excused after she complained of tiredness and headache, the police officers, obviously still not satisfied, remained to delve further as to why someone would accuse Claire of fraud. That's when everything imploded when Willie, hesitant and nervous at first, told the officers of the death threats that were in her Facebook inbox and how he came to know about it. Oh, how mad she was and madder, even more, when she found out Jamie knew about it, the means and ways Willie had log into her Facebook to play detective as if it wasn't bad enough he had screenshot her private messages.

After the police officers left, satisfied that no fraudulent act was committed, more revelations came forth from Jamie and Willie, only because she had been seething with anger and looking at them like they were a couple of red flags to a bull. As if they were two wee lads caught with their hands in the cookie jar, they compunctiously admitted to everything. They told her of their suspicions and suspects, their plan to get the family's lawyer, Ned Gowan involved, and their initial intention to keep her in the dark for her protection. Willie even explained his plan to take Annalise to the doctor himself the following morning, and discreetly stop by Ned Gowan's office to have her medical papers and story investigated for their validity.

Not that their concern was lost on her and that she felt a bit hypocritical for not telling Jamie about the messages she had been receiving for the last few months. She had her reasons. Bloody good ones too!

She'd always loved Jamie's compassionate side, but deep down, she had a sneaking suspicion that his infatuation with her was based on his need to rescue an underdog. Wasn't that was she had been throughout her childhood? Wasn't that why he had been in a relationship with Annalise? She was totally convinced the French girl reminded him of her, a victim of the injustices of life and its unfairness. By resolving to prove she wasn't anyone's rescue mission, Claire was courting the eventuality Jamie will realise she didn't need saving anymore. The fear of him loving her under false judgement was greater than Jamie losing interest when he realised she didn't need rescuing.

In her travels, during the past six years, Claire had come into her own, pushing herself to face her fears and insecurities by tempting fate with her adrenaline laced adventures. Bungee jumping, white-water rafting, rock climbing, ziplining and  hopefully , soon sky diving. The taunts and bullying she had endured in school had given her nightmares and self-doubts. But as she grew older, she wanted to rise above all the negativity and prove to herself she was more than her vulnerabilities and flaws, hoping, if her real parents could see her, they would be proud. Her travels had liberated her in a lot of ways, and she wasn't about to fall back into the victim status or be made to feel like one, now that she was back in Lallybroch, surrounded by memories of incessant bullying from her schooldays.

Feeling humiliated and for the sake of self-preservation, she had left Lallybroch with Geillis in Brian's spare car, needing space and time to gather her thoughts. She needed to if she didn't want her self-esteem knocked down a peg or more again. Maybe Annalise's coming into their lives would be an eye-opener, and despite the jealousy that seared her guts, her anger refused to blame the whole situation on the French girl, whether she was genuinely sick or not. There's a truth in the saying, the truth will set you free, but first, it will piss you off.

On the night she left Lallybroch without Jamie, he had nevertheless followed them to her and Geillis' rented house and stayed the night and the nights after that in the spare bedroom, when she wouldn't let him into hers. Secretly she had been pleased he didn't stay in Lallybroch knowing that his bedroom would have been next to Annalise.

Unfortunately, on days like today, when a storm of cloud was riding low above her head and following her everywhere she went, missing Jamie in or out of her bed didn't improve her disposition. Ever since her first sexual encounter with him, she felt she had become needier, constantly having this ache within her that only their lovemaking can ease. Now she was walking around feeling horny, which made her even more cranky as her pride wouldn't allow her to reconcile with Jamie just yet. She needed to be in the right frame of mind, and the mounting work at the hotel wasn't helping at all. Maybe when Ned Gowan had presented them his secret investigation report, could the matter be put to rest. 

Think about it later. When you're done with work.  Claire took a deep, fortifying breath, the same one she took before a bungee jump. Clutching a stack of papers, on the one hand, she wrapped her other hand around the doorknob and let herself into the staffs' canteen where the service and kitchen personnel were waiting.

"Beauchamp! Ye're late!" Chef Murtagh roared. A dour-looking middle-aged man with dark facial hair and in a crisp kitchen uniform glowered at her as she entered the room.

She heard two metal chairs scrape against the floor, and in her periphery, saw Jamie and Willie stand, about to pounce to her defence. Giving them the laser death glance, they both sat back down. She was quite sure Murtagh gave them the same treatment but she thought hers were probably more effective. What the hell did they think? I was going to howl and cry?   

Her position as an F&B manager was not a given, and she knew Brian gave her that post because he had every confidence in her to fulfil her role. Despite the family's financial health, there had been no freebies in the Fraser household. Laziness or entitled attitudes had not been tolerated.

"Haud yer wheesht! " Claire snapped, shushing Murtagh in her best mimick of Scot's dialect, making the rest of the meeting's attendee giggle, if not quietly, a tad nervously, as she walked in purposely.  Seriously? God, that felt good, though.  "So what are you going to do about it, Murtagh? Scream me into disappearing? Thanks to you, all the paperwork in F and B office are in shambles. You probably scared the bejesus out of my predecessors with your screaming and your lousy temper." She slammed the stacks of paper on the table beside her.

It was true, Murtagh's demeanour can be quite intimidating, but she knew him well enough after having spent her teenage years helping around the hotel. And the fact that he was the Frasers' siblings' godfather helped. But Brian and Ellen couldn't entirely begrudge him for scaring a lot of their young managerial recruits, as he was the best of the best when it came to culinary art. He had brought prestige and name to Fraser Manor Inn's kitchen, including three Michelin stars, placing their wee village on the map.

Murtagh was still glowering at her, but she saw a spark of amusement flash in his eyes. Maybe she'd imagine it. "Just stating the obvious," he barked.  Definitely, his bark is worse than his bite.

"Well, state less of it," she retorted, resulting in some of the service staff to gasp. "This is my meeting in case you needed reminding." Glancing at the back of the room, she noticed Brian's and Ellen's presence, observing the whole scene with a smirk on their faces. They were obviously glad she didn't back down on Murtagh. Probably relieved too as they've had three F&B managers quit on them during the last two years. "Moving along..." 

She handed photocopied sheets of papers to the staff in the front row to pass along as she briefed them with the menu for the re-opening as well as new dishes for the a la carte. Knowing Murtagh would protest with her latest additions, Claire cut to the chase. "I've made a few changes to the a la carte menu. It's part of keeping up the with the times."

Murtagh ripped off his chef's hat from his head. "Hang on a minute. Ye cannot make changes without consulting me. People come from far and wide to taste my food."

Claire sighed but didn't retreat. "With all due respect, I am not challenging your ability to produce a culinary masterpiece, but we cannot serve the same dishes as we did for the last ten years. There are a lot of new and upcoming talented chefs in Scotland who have bolder and brighter ideas." Not wanting to disregard Murtagh's talent, she continued. "You are a great cook, Murtagh and you can bring out the best in your young team. They have ideas too, and I want to see them. Food enthusiasts have more discerning taste these days and are on the lookout for something different and exciting. I intend to maintain the vision of what you have created here, but we need to modernise if we want to be ahead of the game. We've modernised the kitchen and the restaurant, now it's time we do the same for our dishes."

Almost everyone in the room nodded in agreement except for the Head Chef, but she knew Murtagh will come around once his temper had subsided. Hopefully, soon as Claire didn't want to have to fight him on a daily basis. He may be stubborn, but she knew already he would take the changes she made as a challenge and recreate the dishes she had suggested with his own twist and magic. Without any more interruptions, the meeting concluded an hour and a half later, much to her relief. And to her surprise, her earlier annoyance seemed to have dissipated, feeling the weight lifting off her shoulders.

"Ye did well, Sassenach." She didn't notice Jamie had come up from behind as she gathered her things. "I'm so proud of ye."

She turned around to see him standing so close, the hair at her neck moved with his warm breath. "Jamie, I'm ..."

"Ssshh, I'm so sorry for everything, Claire. I missed us so much. Can we start again?" Her eyes closed involuntarily when he stroked her cheeks. "I'd like to spend some time with ye later after work. I ken we're living under the same roof, but we might as well be living apart every time ye disappear into yer bedroom every night."

Seeing the longing overwhelming his beautiful face, she felt her bones melt, and she swayed closer.  Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ, I love him so much.  She was tired of pushing him away. "I'd love that, Jamie."

Relief showing in his eyes, his thumb came up to trace the bottom of her lip. "Good," he whispered, his gaze dipping to her mouth. "I dinna ken what time I'll be finished. I'm making a few trial desserts for ye to taste tomorrow. Maybe, I'll bring it home tonight instead and feed ye. Ye can give me yer verdict then."

"I can't wait." She wanted to say so much, but his closeness was distracting her a lot, making the words she was formulating in her head become jumbled. Mouth inches apart, they were breathing into each other's space. "I-I'll, see you later then."

"Aye." He moved quickly, sucking her bottom lip into his mouth and letting it go with a pop. "Go now before I carry ye out of here." He pushed her gently away and slapped her bottom, chuckling softly.

Her face blushing profusely, she quickly left the room, before she too got carried away.  We have time tonight.

..........

Later on the evening, Jamie texted Claire he would be home later than expected. Without it being mentioned, Claire knew he would be stopping by Lallybroch after work to check on Annalise. 

Sighing, she joined Geillis who was perched on the kitchen bar stool. She had Latin jazz playing in the background, as she opened a bottle of Tequila she had brought back from a holiday in Mexico a year ago. 

Claire nodded when Geillis offered her a shot. They had been both busy that day helping the service staff at the hotel prepare the banquet hall for the grand re-opening gala dinner. Knowing Jamie won't be home for another two hours or more, she needed to get out of the house. The last few nights, when she was not at work, had been spent cooped up in her room.

Ever since she found out about the death threats, Jamie and Willie had asked her, more like prohibited, not to go to the pub or anywhere at night on her own. Even if she was to be accompanied by Geillis and it was only down the road from their residence, they insisted it wasn't wise. They begged until she agreed to do as she was told, at least until Ned Gowan came up with something concrete from his investigation or one of the brothers was there to accompany her.

Geillis had been an angel,  bless her,  and had stayed with her most nights, either watching TV or playing board games. But with the Grand Re-Opening, two nights away, Claire badly wanted to unwind and let her hair loose, but not within the confines of her four walls.

A few shots later, tipsy and giggling, they decided to get dressed and walk down the pub, after scribbling a note for Jamie. To hell with it if Jamie got mad.  She needed this, and the pub was just down the road. We live in a small village, what could possibly happen?

Feeling slightly tiddly, the low voices and the music in the pub relaxed her as soon as they walked in, making her worries and problems seem a little less serious. The alcohol thrummed in her blood, loosening muscles she didn't even realise were taut and strained. And not a moment too soon, they were joined by a new staff from the hotel working alongside Geillis in the Front Office, a French girl called Louise de la Tour.  Nice lass,  Geillis had said earlier.

" Oh mon Dieu , I want so badly to get laid. It's been a long while," the French girl muttered as she sipped her cocktail from a straw.

Claire's eyes widened. "How long?"

"Let's just say I buy batteries in bulk. I was hoping some strapping Highlander will sweep me off my feet. Romantic, non?"

Geillis patted Louise's hand. "Och, dinna fash lass, before ye know it, them lads be after ye. Ye're new around here so there will be quite a few interests."

"Sometimes, self-pleasure requires imagination." Claire sampled her whisky, Jamie's naked upper torso flashing through her mind. She frowned. "Creativity is key."

"Are ye serious? Ye have a gorgeous man at yer disposal if ye wanted some action. Christ, Claire, don't make Jamie wait too long." Geillis waved hello at the two lads from the hotel's kitchen that just walked in, Rupert and Angus.

"I don't intend to." Claire winked at her friend.

"Ah self-pleasure, now we're talking. What creative ideas do you have in mind, Claire?" Louise asked curiosity etched on her beautiful face.

Claire shrugged, attempting casual. "I call it the Facetime boogie. You know, I orgasmed while we watched each other...mmm."

Louise spat her drink across the table. " Merde!  Masturbate you m-mean on Facetime? I would rather go to my grave with my hymen intact, merci beaucoup.  For me, it's my dildo or real sex."

Geillis picked up a napkin and dried herself off. "Weel, I'd only do it on Facetime with someone I know, not with some random stranger in the internet.."

"Can we talk about something else? Two of the girls that used to pick on me from school just walked in." Claire puffed out a breath, blowing a stray curl out of her face. It was Laoghaire MacKenzie and Geneva Dunsany from her class in high school, her worst nightmare while growing up. They were standing by the bar, their gazes sweeping through the pub while at the same time hugging and kissing people they knew in greeting.  Oh God, they haven't changed.

Louise quirked an eyebrow waiting for an explanation, confusion spreading on her face.

"What Claire is trying to say is ...bitches alert." Geillis nodded her head towards the bar. From the way, the two girls were looking at Claire, gave her a fairly good idea who they were.

Louise pursed her lips. "Aaah, I understand," She gave Claire a sympathetic squeeze on a hand, before giving her a warning look." Bordel de merde, they're coming!" she announced as she saw the subjects of their conversation making their way to their table.

Geillis simply smiled while Claire mentally braced herself.

"Ooh lookie, lookie, who do we have here? Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp. The Sassenach is back. I'm surprised the Frasers took you back into their folds," the blonde hair lass called Laoghaire mocked, her perfectly over made-up face breaking into a sneer. "And here I thought, ye were gone for good."

"Hello, Laoghaire," Claire smiled before taking a swig from her whisky. "Please do me a favour and pick on someone with the same level of IQ as you. It's a shame really, you're such a pretty girl. It's bloody too bad, your personality and intelligence can't be photoshopped."

Covering their mouths, Louise and Geillis hiccupped and giggled, as they watched the verbal battle unfold.

"Ye hoor !" Laoghaire hissed, bringing her face down to the table, so none of the other customers in the bar could hear. "Ye think ye're clever, aye? So brave now that ye have yer hoor  pals with ye."

Claire was unfazed despite her tipsy state as she stared back at Laoghaire, unwilling to back down.

Her friend Geneva pulled her back. "That's enough, Laoghaire." And then she turned to her. "Hi, Claire. Congratulations. I heard you're the new F&B manager at the Manor." There was a hint of snide in her remark. "Oh, and you bagged one of the Fraser lads. I'm surprised really as you never had luck with the boys back in high school. What happened? The Frasers took pity on you?"

"Va te faire enculer!"  Louise cursed in French under her breath, bracing herself to attack Geneva, but Geillis pulled her back.

Claire inwardly winced as Geneva's words stung at her side. "No, I never had luck with the boys in high school, Geneva. I suppose it's rather a good thing that I didn't run about draping myself over them. So I guess no one can really accuse me of being promiscuous and sluttish as opposed to those who had better luck than me."

Geneva's eyes turned to daggers. 

"Listen, girls," Geillis intervened in an unusually calm voice. Turning to Laoghaire and Geneva, she resumed. "I dinna ken who ye are but if ye have a problem here, write the problem on a piece of paper, fold it, and shove it up yer shite holes, aye? I know that everyone is allowed to act stupid once in a while, but ye're really abusing that privilege."

Geneva laughed. "Hey, Ginger, this has nothing to do with you. So stay out of it." She faced Claire before walking away. "See you around, Claire and mind to give my regards to Jamie."

"See you both around," Claire replied, trying her hardest to keep a straight face. "Wishing your evening to be as pleasant as you are."

Instead of replying, Laoghaire and Geneva rewarded them with a one-finger salute as they walked away and headed to the bar.

"Christ what a couple of imbeciles. I can't believe there are still people like them. Ye would think bullies would outgrow their meanness," Geillis fumed, her eyes almost bulging out with disdain.

"Never mind girls. We're here to have fun,  oui?  Let's forget about them." Louise waved the waitress for another round of drinks. "This round is on me." She looked over Claire's shoulder toward the bar area, nearer to the front end. "And tonight might be my lucky night. There is a table full of beautiful men over there you would not believe."

Geillis waved her hand. "Christ, no men, please. Girls' night tonight!"

Mischief rolled out across Claire's face, forgetting Jamie might be looking for her. "You're both right. We're here to have fun and just us girls. Once the hotel is officially open, God knows when we'll have another evening like this."

"We need to do something crazy,  oui?"

Claire hiccupped. "Karaoke?" Behind Louise, she watched as two bar staff hooking up microphones and unrolling the projection screen. Some customers were already writing down their song choices.

"Oh no! I can't sing!" Louise complained.

"Christ, Claire! Is that the best idea ye can come up with?"

"Jesus, why is nobody enthralled with my karaoke idea? Where's the fun girls?"

Geillis gulped down her drink when Claire gave her a pleading look. "Oh, fuck! Fine! One song! I dinna think ye would include me."

Claire didn't waste time dragging Geillis at the rear end of the bar. "C'mon, let's sing that song from the Pussycat Dolls ...you know the one. "

Relieved she wasn't being hauled to the stage, Louise sat back and whistled through her fingers.  "Allez, allez, Claire et Geillis!!"  she cheered from her seat.

Teetering towards the makeshift stage, Claire and Geillis handed their request to the staff handling the sound equipment.

They were surprised when they were ushered first. "Ye're up ladies," the DJ announced with a wink, handing them both a microphone each.

Geillis face went white. "Oh, fuck!" she said out the side of her mouth. "Here goes nothing. I thought we'd have time for one more drink before we did this."

"Just shut up and sing. Oh, God, I'm so drunk."

Their song selection popped up on the screen, accompanied by whistles from the audience. With strong lights glaring in front of them, Claire couldn't make out the faces in the pub, but she could hear Laoghaire and Geneva somewhere chanting the rap song,  Who Let the Dogs Out.  Ignoring the taunts, Claire and Geillis launched into the song that started with the lines,  Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me?

..........

After work and seeing to Annalise in Lallybroch, Jamie headed to the pub. He had wanted to go to Claire immediately, but the boys from the kitchen, including Willie and Murtagh, badgered him to come for at least one drink. Since his sister's fiance, Ian Murray would be there too, he reluctantly agreed.  Alright, one drink!

Of all days to be coerced to go to for a drink, it had to be on the day he could finally spend time with Claire. The pub was quite busy for the middle of the week, teeming mostly with staffs from the hotel.

"Hey, Jamie lad, why ye so quiet?" Rupert, one of the kitchen cooks asked.

Angus, also a kitchen staff, raised his pint to his lips. "Claire's not talking to him, that's why."

Everyone on their table laughed, accompanied by a few back slaps.

Murtagh raised an eyebrow. "I thought I saw ye both snogging after the meeting?"

Jamie just nodded with a half-smile. He didn't want to talk about Claire in front of the lads, especially because she had been the topic of most conversation ever since she came back from Switzerland. Her return had piqued a lot of interest in the village, mostly from single men, and Jamie didn't like it one bit.

Looking inquisitive, Ian tipped his beer bottle in Jamie's direction. "In all the years I've known ye, these last few days is the first time I've seen ye mope so much over a girl. If she's back to talking to ye again, what are ye doing here?"

Jamie could barely hear Ian over the singing that had started at the back of the pub.  Christ, Karaoke night!  He just remembered. "Aye, I'll be off soon. Claire is waiting for me."

"I'm heading home too," Willie joined in, downing the last of his pint. "Need to get up early for the meat delivery tomorrow."

As if on cue, Jamie shot to his feet. "Right lads, sorry to make this short. Another night perhaps once the hotel is running." He dug into his pocket to retrieve some pound notes, frowning as he realised almost every man in the bar had started cheering and whistling. He had been thinking so much about Claire, it had escaped his notice that most male customers were stood on their feet, facing the rear end of the bar. "What the fuck is going on?"

Following his brother, Jamie went to see what the commotion was all about. 

Sassenach!

Claire, along with Geillis, stood on the makeshift stage under the bright spotlights singing into the microphones. She was wearing a white body-hugging turtleneck dress that went down just above her knees paired with knee-high black boots. Thanks to the spotlight, her black bra and panties were visible through the material even though it was a winter dress. And beside her, Geillis was gyrating to the song, as she sang the refrain  Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me?  with a sultry look in her eyes.

Fists clenching, Jamie pushed aside the standing customers that blocked his path and approached the stage, with Willie in tow behind him.

"Sassenach!"

[musicallisto]

hello there, love! can i request to be shipped from a male character in the sophomore, ilitw, and high school story? I'm a female with dark brown eyes (almost black) and jet black hair. I'm slightly tan. I like listening to music especially indie and bands (coldplay, imagine dragons, bastille), movies, eating at fast foods alone, can appreciate dry and self deprecating humor. i hardly open up but i like listening to others. i get attach to fictional characters, d eEP CONVERSATIONS && theories!!

we have the same music taste vkvkvkvkvk

I Ship You With…

Z I G   O R T E G A

(faceclaim: Santiago Segura)• You would introduce him to soooo much good music. Actually, it would be an exchange, because you both know some excellent artists and tracks and you’re dying to share them with someone, stan them and bingewatch their concerts and interviews. When you first meet and eventually start dating, you have very different musical tastes but as days pass and you begin to show each other your favorite songs, they evolve into a perfect mixture of the best of your favorite genres! You end up creating a collaborative Spotify playlist - you know, those kinds of playlists that you can both freely add songs to and when you’re not sleeping with each other, it’s a tradition to send the other the link to your favorite song at the moment. That way, you discover tons of new bands to stan and Zig becomes this huge Imagine Dragons and Muse fan (also he develops a slight admirative crush on Chris Martin but like who doesn’t have a crush on this man honestly, a true hero)

• Okay you like eating at fast foods alone and he’s very concerned about his diet, his well-being and his health since he must remain in perfect shape for his ballet, so it’s not that often that you eat pizza or burgers together. (actually, close to never.) so instead, you have these homecooked, delicious meals where you just invite each other, cook together and end up tasting your, ahem, culinary invention. Neither of you are gifted cookers so it usually ends up in a huge food fight in the kitchen, tainting poor, passing-through Becca’s blouse and terrified-yet-mildly-amused Aaron’s T-shirt. There’s cake preparation on every single wall and on the floor as well, strawberries dead on the countertops and eggshells laying wounded next to the bowl, so it’s safe to say that cookery speaking, it’s a disaster, but neither of you really mind after the absolutely amazing reenactment of a medieval battle you’ve just made, and when Zig leans in to “wipe from flour off your face” (it quickly turns into a heated make-out session on the worktop until a traumatized Zack walks in and yells he’ll need to “sluice his eyes with acid to forget the obsecenity he just witnessed”.

T Y L E R

(faceclaim: Harry Shum Jr.)• MOVIES AND TV SHOWS MARATHONS, ohmygod, so many of them. The funny thing is neither of you actually have a Netflix account. You’re just constantly stealing your friends’ codes, especially Becca’s and Chris’s, because they’re too busy working or… doing undefined presidential stuff to notice and also to even use their Netflix. So you’re basically the hugest moochers the world has ever known but none of you mind because what’s the point of having Netflix if you’re not gonna use it, that shit’s expensive plus they’re technically just doing a friend favor amirite? So you regularly have The Crown And The Flame marathons, you know how much Tyler loves that show and even if at first you only agreed to watch it so he would stop talking about it 25/8, you ended up adoring the story and the characters, so you watch the three seasons every once in a while and can basically recite all the script by heart. You even dressed up as Annelyse for Halloween so you would match with Tyler and Abbie! Your personal guilty pleasure, however, are Cassandra Leigh movies, that woman is just so talented and beautiful, and her acting is always on point! Tyler wasn’t a huge fan of it at first but eventually liked her movies more and more (and also, he just loves to see his best friend happy and fangirling over her movies, because it’s cute and rewarding and also it can always be useful for blackmailing so be warned)

• You are King and Queen of self-deprecating humor and dark references and memes that literally no one else understands. Sometimes you’ll just look at each other and literally say or do NOTHING and burst out laughing like a bunch of kids. You just have so many private jokes and memories with Tyler that are simply impossible to understand for someone who doesn’t have a brain and a sense of humor wired like yours. Also there’s literally no boundaries in your self-mockery, like you’ll just point at a trash can in the street and simply say “same” and the rest of the gang will ask you why you say that, telling you it’s not true, you’re beautiful and worth it etc., but Tyler will randomly laugh because he knows. And at this point it’s become a competition between you. You have yet to decide the prize but whoever comes up with the best self-deprecating punchline wins… something. Between the “you know they made a day dedicated to me? It’s garbage day!” and the “my personality in a nutshell is the loser character trait from the Sims”, it’s a concerto of mockery and the others don’t understand how you can possibly laugh at somethiing so sad?? but intellectuals (Tyler and you) know it’s the best form of humor and the tournament still goes on day by day

N O A H   M A R S H A L L

(faceclaim: Nick Robinson)• Before anyone comes @ me, I KNOW HE’S NOT A LI AND HE’S A TRAITOR BUT ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE WHEN YOU LIVE IN AN ESCAPIST FANTASY CREATED AS A SELF-DEFENCE MECHANISM TO COPE WITH THE HARDSHIPS OF LIFE so yeah I ship you with Noah. You would help him after Jane’s death, being the most comprehensive and supportive friend ever. Despite your young age, you knew what Noah wanted in those troubled times what a lot of space and quiet, and every now and then a friend to talk to, to distract himself.That’s what you became for him. When all the others children were circling around him like vultures, asking for stories, all the juicy and gruesome details about her death, about that supposed thing that thing that supposedly killed her, you were the one who scared them away, protecting your best friend and telling them how inconsiderate and heartless they were being. You easily were one of the most mature and friendly people he’d ever known, also giving him support and sometimes advice to face his mother and the abrupt departure of his father. When you grew up, you always helped him stay focused on what really mattered to him, reminding him of the diner he wanted to open, of his plans for the future. It was only a matter of years until he realized he was in love with his childhood best friend, who had been there for him through the good and the bad.

• Since you started dating Noah, a few years after the end of high school because he was not feeling ready to be involved romantically with anyone then, you realized that your attachment to fictional characters started to evolve. You could almost always see a pattern in the characters you prefered in books: it was often the lonely, tortured and sarcastic character, withdrawn because of his dark past, and you were quick to determine that it was because of how much they reminded you of Noah after all the shit happened. He was feeling a lot better now, and you could see how radiant he was in his culinary major, but you always remembered all the hardships you had to face and all the self-esteem issues you had to fight from both sides. Also, Noah understood perfectly what it was like to be completely fucked up by a book or a TV show, and to get attached to a character to the point that you can’t stop thinking about them and feel like a own member of your family died when the sadistic author decides to put an end to their suffering. (can u tell this is personal experience) He never judges you and always comforts you when your favorite character died or is having a hard time or your OTP became canon or you’re just hyperventilating/ugly crying because of fictional universes.

• After several years of fighting and struggling, and many days of hopefulness, Noah’s dream of opening his own diner finally comes true and he’s more glowing than you’ve ever seen him. He’s incredibly thankful because not only have you been morally helpful, you’ve also helped him economically and he doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to repay you. You don’t want anything of course: just saying your boyfriend truly happy is fabulously rewarding. Baby Jane’s soon becomes a known spot for Westchester locals, who more or less all know Noah from the time he lived there, and it feels weird yet great to move back to your hometown after so many years. You sometimes help him when you have a day off work, cooking with him or, more usually, you work as a waitress because he playfully kisses you while saying “Listen, I love you a lot, but I’m better slaving over a hot stove.” You don’t mind, because it’s always a pleasure to work with him and since the customers remember you from your younger days, you get the chance to chat with them and reunite with your old group of friends, who come to visit you every once in a while. It’s a calm and placid life, but after everything you’ve been through, it’s everything you want and deserve.

A N D Y   K A N G

(faceclaim: Min Jun Qian)• Your best friend would be Andy, and this since childhood, just like Noah! He would be a rock for you, always there to cheer you up and listen to you when you’re down, and you would be equally comforting to him, especially when he’s going through figuring out his life and his identity. He would’ve been so lost without you during his childhood and adolescence, after the terrifying Jane drama and everything that came after. He quickly becomes you partner in crime and, being a little more extroverted than you, he’s often the one who introduces you to his friends, invites you to parties through mutual acquaintances, and sometimes even gives you ideas for uh… some not-so-authorized stuff in the school, but you only agree if you know it’s perfectly safe and you don’t risk anything (or at least, anything too important) because you have to admit the thrills and the adrenaline are what you live for in those little moments, especially with your best friend.

• He’s also the one you can have deep conversations with during high school. You know Noah is still too emotionally bruised to talk about things that he may consider “depressing” or “too big for children to understand”, and you respect that he doesn’t want to get involved in those kinds of heavy reflections. However, you really want to discuss about them with someone, and Andy is the perfect person for that. He’s very open-minded, intelligent and ressourceful. His goofy, funny side always adds a twist to the theories you already know and debate about - “maybe you are an Illuminati, how can I be sure I can trust you?” (to which you answer “you can’t” with a malicious smile). Sometimes it’s not even that deep, it’s just talking about what you think is going to happen next in your favorite TV shows or books, or discussing a character’s psychology - it often happens that Andy and you have drastically opposed points of view on the same character and you like to confront them and understand why the other likes them, or hates them.

• Your favorite spot to talk about those theories and have those philosophical conversations about the moon, the earth, society and reality is in his garden. When you were kids, you used to have sleepovers at his house and your parents never minded because they were friends with Andy’s; now that you’re older, you basically spend most of your free nights at his place, laying on the grass and watching the navy blue sky. You built a little wooden house in the trees in his backyard when you were twelve, with the help of your friends and his parents, and it has a perfect view of the sky and the trees below. At first, going up there is very difficult, especially surrounding yourselves with trees and the singing of the forest, but the more you went up in the tree house, the easier it was to go back to the forest. It’s so calm and placid up there, with only the birds chirping to disturb you, or rather soothe you, and you’ve lost count of the nights you’ve fallen asleep there. It’s the best place to have deep conversations and also silly dares, and it’s so peaceful that you can almost forget all the bad stuff that happened in your youth.

I’m sorry but I didn’t have time to write a long headcanon like those up there for HSS! Just know that I romantically ship you with Michael Harrison, someone you’d be able to talk to about anything, from the silliest things (“do crabs think fish are flying?”) to the deepest (”what do you think Area 51 is really?”), and he’d always be up for a good laugh. And your best friend would be Morgan Jennings, being one of Michael’s best friends, she became yours as well, and you would love the same kind of music and go to concerts together and collectively lose your shit. Everyone thinks Morgan is a little selfish, but you know better than that, and you want to prove everyone that she actually has a heart of gold!

Hope you don’t mind this, I didn’t want to make you wait any longer and it was getting a lot for me to write!

Moodboard

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Playlist

Oasis - Wonderwall (yES)Coldplay - Adventure of a LifetimeArctic Monkeys - R U Mine?Halsey - Ghost

[newstwitter-blog]

New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/02/06/la-times-it-was-one-of-the-most-beautiful-cities-in-the-world-that-aleppo-is-gone-but-its-residents-remember-12/

La Times: It was 'one of the most beautiful cities in the world.' That Aleppo is gone, but its residents remember

Aleppo al Shabaa, Aleppo the White. That was the nickname its people bestowed upon it, a nod to the brightness of the marble used in the buildings of this once proud metropolis.

For at least 5,000 years, it has been a jewel in the crown of empires, a place that drew poets and polymaths, industrialists and artisans. A major terminus on the Silk Road, it was once viewed as second only to Constantinople in prominence.

But when Ziad Oubari remembers the city — the one that existed before Syria’s civil war — he doesn’t remember only the grand buildings or the proud history of one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth. He remembers the Souk al Attareen, the perfumers’ market, where he would stroll through the arched stalls whenever he felt annoyed or exasperated, inhaling the melange of scents.

“They’re always in my nostrils,” said Oubari, a pharmaceutical goods manufacturer who is still in business in Aleppo. 

And when Nour Kabbach, an aid worker from Aleppo now living in Istanbul, casts her mind back, she thinks of the city’s famed 13th century Citadel, rising majestically above the Old City, but also of Qahwet al Qalaa, a working-class coffee shop at the foot of the fortress, where she and her friends would go after a day of shopping for soup or Aleppo specialties like dibs fleifleh, a sort of pepper paste. 

“It was the best one: right at the door, so you would have a full view of the citadel. Nothing is obstructing it,” Kabbach said. It wasn’t a very fancy place, she said. Still, “Aleppans preferred to go there and not to the five-star hotel that was serving cocktails nearby.”

After five years of war between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and the fractious opposition seeking his overthrow, their Aleppo is a city that in many ways no longer exists. 

In December, the battle came to an apparent close after the rebels agreed to abandon their enclave in eastern Aleppo. The government, which had maintained control of western Aleppo, now controls the entire city.

It is a city shattered, its magnificent stone structures unable to withstand the weapons of modern warfare. Thousands of Aleppans, especially the city’s Armenian Christian minority, are scattered as refugees across the globe. 

The porticoes of the Great Mosque are singed black and pitted with sharp white tears in the rock. A shell has punched open a new skylight in an ancient structure. Wrecks of vehicles cannibalized for parts stand as sorry sentinels on tiled roads once alive with vendors and restaurants. 

Still, the ghost of the vanished Aleppo endures, along with the pride (some might say arrogance) of those who once lived and thrived as part of the city’s merchant and industrialist class. They sound a lot like the New Yorkers who say: “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.”

Just listen to Hagop Haddad, a furniture maker in the Midan district: “In the past, he who could make it in Aleppo would prove his worth across other major cities on the Silk Road. Companies would have their administrative places elsewhere, but their factories stayed in Aleppo because the workers were better.”

“It is enough for me to be an Aleppan to be special,” he said.

An undercurrent to this strong sense of belonging was an insular bent among Aleppans, almost a shunning of those who came from other parts of Syria, even Damascus, the capital.

“Our identity was Aleppo, and we were unique in Syria,” said Rashed Tabshi, a former interior designer from the Aziziyeh neighborhood now living in the southern Turkish border town of Gaziantep.

“Aleppo, its accent was special. Its food was special. Even the way we look is different. And there was always political competition between us and Damascus. It’s the political capital, but Aleppo was the economic as well as the Francophone capital of Syria.”

Kabbach, the aid worker living in Istanbul, agreed.

“In Damascus, you would hear different accents, but Aleppo wasn’t a cosmopolitan city, and when they asked us, we would say we’re from Aleppo, not from Syria. Sometimes you wouldn’t have to even ask because of the heavy accent of the ‘hello,’” she said in a phone interview.  

That’s why, even among Syrian communities in Turkey and elsewhere, Aleppans formed their own clique. “We had our own food, our own music, our own rhythm,” she said. 

And unlike in Damascus, the “powerful people in Aleppo were the industrialists.”

One such businessman and now parliamentarian for Aleppo, Fares Shehabi, remembered his time in Club d’Alep, an exclusive, members-only club opened in 1945 that hosted bridge games, among other activities. There, he said, amid cream-colored walls and elegant, decorated tiles, he spent some of the happiest moments of his childhood. 

He rattled off the names of other areas in the Old City, like the Carlton and the Zamarya hotels — all destroyed in the war. 

“In 2011, Aleppo was one of the most beautiful cities in the world and we never thought of leaving it,” he said.

Aleppo really came alive at night, residents recalled. Kabbach, for example, preferred the nightlife there to the fabled clubs of Beirut, where she went to university. In Aleppo, “Even our weddings were special. They would kick off at 12 midnight and end in the morning,” she said.

Tabshi and others now fear for the future of the ancient sites. They point to the souks in nearby Beirut, which were razed and rebuilt after being damaged in Lebanon’s 15-year civil war. Their reconstruction is considered by many to be a primer on how not to restore war-devastated areas. 

“Whenever I see pictures of the old city, I start crying. It burned my heart. If I see a picture of my deceased father I wouldn’t cry like this,” said Tabshi.

“And it won’t come back…. It’s a crime by both sides that it’s gone.”

Bulos is a special correspondent

ALSO

Meet the culinary zealot fighting to preserve Syrian cuisine despite years of war

A bittersweet Aleppo story: ‘Sir, do you know where I can find my mother?’

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La Times: It was 'one of the most beautiful cities in the world.' That Aleppo is gone, but its residents remember

Aleppo al Shabaa, Aleppo the White. That was the nickname its people bestowed upon it, a nod to the brightness of the marble used in the buildings of this once proud metropolis.

For at least 5,000 years, it has been a jewel in the crown of empires, a place that drew poets and polymaths, industrialists and artisans. A major terminus on the Silk Road, it was once viewed as second only to Constantinople in prominence.

But when Ziad Oubari remembers the city — the one that existed before Syria’s civil war — he doesn’t remember only the grand buildings or the proud history of one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth. He remembers the Souk al Attareen, the perfumers’ market, where he would stroll through the arched stalls whenever he felt annoyed or exasperated, inhaling the melange of scents.

“They’re always in my nostrils,” said Oubari, a pharmaceutical goods manufacturer who is still in business in Aleppo. 

And when Nour Kabbach, an aid worker from Aleppo now living in Istanbul, casts her mind back, she thinks of the city’s famed 13th century Citadel, rising majestically above the Old City, but also of Qahwet al Qalaa, a working-class coffee shop at the foot of the fortress, where she and her friends would go after a day of shopping for soup or Aleppo specialties like dibs fleifleh, a sort of pepper paste. 

“It was the best one: right at the door, so you would have a full view of the citadel. Nothing is obstructing it,” Kabbach said. It wasn’t a very fancy place, she said. Still, “Aleppans preferred to go there and not to the five-star hotel that was serving cocktails nearby.”

After five years of war between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and the fractious opposition seeking his overthrow, their Aleppo is a city that in many ways no longer exists. 

In December, the battle came to an apparent close after the rebels agreed to abandon their enclave in eastern Aleppo. The government, which had maintained control of western Aleppo, now controls the entire city.

It is a city shattered, its magnificent stone structures unable to withstand the weapons of modern warfare. Thousands of Aleppans, especially the city’s Armenian Christian minority, are scattered as refugees across the globe. 

The porticoes of the Great Mosque are singed black and pitted with sharp white tears in the rock. A shell has punched open a new skylight in an ancient structure. Wrecks of vehicles cannibalized for parts stand as sorry sentinels on tiled roads once alive with vendors and restaurants. 

Still, the ghost of the vanished Aleppo endures, along with the pride (some might say arrogance) of those who once lived and thrived as part of the city’s merchant and industrialist class. They sound a lot like the New Yorkers who say: “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.”

Just listen to Hagop Haddad, a furniture maker in the Midan district: “In the past, he who could make it in Aleppo would prove his worth across other major cities on the Silk Road. Companies would have their administrative places elsewhere, but their factories stayed in Aleppo because the workers were better.”

“It is enough for me to be an Aleppan to be special,” he said.

An undercurrent to this strong sense of belonging was an insular bent among Aleppans, almost a shunning of those who came from other parts of Syria, even Damascus, the capital.

“Our identity was Aleppo, and we were unique in Syria,” said Rashed Tabshi, a former interior designer from the Aziziyeh neighborhood now living in the southern Turkish border town of Gaziantep.

“Aleppo, its accent was special. Its food was special. Even the way we look is different. And there was always political competition between us and Damascus. It’s the political capital, but Aleppo was the economic as well as the Francophone capital of Syria.”

Kabbach, the aid worker living in Istanbul, agreed.

“In Damascus, you would hear different accents, but Aleppo wasn’t a cosmopolitan city, and when they asked us, we would say we’re from Aleppo, not from Syria. Sometimes you wouldn’t have to even ask because of the heavy accent of the ‘hello,’” she said in a phone interview.  

That’s why, even among Syrian communities in Turkey and elsewhere, Aleppans formed their own clique. “We had our own food, our own music, our own rhythm,” she said. 

And unlike in Damascus, the “powerful people in Aleppo were the industrialists.”

One such businessman and now parliamentarian for Aleppo, Fares Shehabi, remembered his time in Club d’Alep, an exclusive, members-only club opened in 1945 that hosted bridge games, among other activities. There, he said, amid cream-colored walls and elegant, decorated tiles, he spent some of the happiest moments of his childhood. 

He rattled off the names of other areas in the Old City, like the Carlton and the Zamarya hotels — all destroyed in the war. 

“In 2011, Aleppo was one of the most beautiful cities in the world and we never thought of leaving it,” he said.

Aleppo really came alive at night, residents recalled. Kabbach, for example, preferred the nightlife there to the fabled clubs of Beirut, where she went to university. In Aleppo, “Even our weddings were special. They would kick off at 12 midnight and end in the morning,” she said.

Tabshi and others now fear for the future of the ancient sites. They point to the souks in nearby Beirut, which were razed and rebuilt after being damaged in Lebanon’s 15-year civil war. Their reconstruction is considered by many to be a primer on how not to restore war-devastated areas. 

“Whenever I see pictures of the old city, I start crying. It burned my heart. If I see a picture of my deceased father I wouldn’t cry like this,” said Tabshi.

“And it won’t come back…. It’s a crime by both sides that it’s gone.”

Bulos is a special correspondent

ALSO

Meet the culinary zealot fighting to preserve Syrian cuisine despite years of war

A bittersweet Aleppo story: ‘Sir, do you know where I can find my mother?’

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La Times: It was 'one of the most beautiful cities in the world.' That Aleppo is gone, but its residents remember

Aleppo al Shabaa, Aleppo the White. That was the nickname its people bestowed upon it, a nod to the brightness of the marble used in the buildings of this once proud metropolis.

For at least 5,000 years, it has been a jewel in the crown of empires, a place that drew poets and polymaths, industrialists and artisans. A major terminus on the Silk Road, it was once viewed as second only to Constantinople in prominence.

But when Ziad Oubari remembers the city — the one that existed before Syria’s civil war — he doesn’t remember only the grand buildings or the proud history of one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth. He remembers the Souk al Attareen, the perfumers’ market, where he would stroll through the arched stalls whenever he felt annoyed or exasperated, inhaling the melange of scents.

“They’re always in my nostrils,” said Oubari, a pharmaceutical goods manufacturer who is still in business in Aleppo. 

And when Nour Kabbach, an aid worker from Aleppo now living in Istanbul, casts her mind back, she thinks of the city’s famed 13th century Citadel, rising majestically above the Old City, but also of Qahwet al Qalaa, a working-class coffee shop at the foot of the fortress, where she and her friends would go after a day of shopping for soup or Aleppo specialties like dibs fleifleh, a sort of pepper paste. 

“It was the best one: right at the door, so you would have a full view of the citadel. Nothing is obstructing it,” Kabbach said. It wasn’t a very fancy place, she said. Still, “Aleppans preferred to go there and not to the five-star hotel that was serving cocktails nearby.”

After five years of war between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and the fractious opposition seeking his overthrow, their Aleppo is a city that in many ways no longer exists. 

In December, the battle came to an apparent close after the rebels agreed to abandon their enclave in eastern Aleppo. The government, which had maintained control of western Aleppo, now controls the entire city.

It is a city shattered, its magnificent stone structures unable to withstand the weapons of modern warfare. Thousands of Aleppans, especially the city’s Armenian Christian minority, are scattered as refugees across the globe. 

The porticoes of the Great Mosque are singed black and pitted with sharp white tears in the rock. A shell has punched open a new skylight in an ancient structure. Wrecks of vehicles cannibalized for parts stand as sorry sentinels on tiled roads once alive with vendors and restaurants. 

Still, the ghost of the vanished Aleppo endures, along with the pride (some might say arrogance) of those who once lived and thrived as part of the city’s merchant and industrialist class. They sound a lot like the New Yorkers who say: “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.”

Just listen to Hagop Haddad, a furniture maker in the Midan district: “In the past, he who could make it in Aleppo would prove his worth across other major cities on the Silk Road. Companies would have their administrative places elsewhere, but their factories stayed in Aleppo because the workers were better.”

“It is enough for me to be an Aleppan to be special,” he said.

An undercurrent to this strong sense of belonging was an insular bent among Aleppans, almost a shunning of those who came from other parts of Syria, even Damascus, the capital.

“Our identity was Aleppo, and we were unique in Syria,” said Rashed Tabshi, a former interior designer from the Aziziyeh neighborhood now living in the southern Turkish border town of Gaziantep.

“Aleppo, its accent was special. Its food was special. Even the way we look is different. And there was always political competition between us and Damascus. It’s the political capital, but Aleppo was the economic as well as the Francophone capital of Syria.”

Kabbach, the aid worker living in Istanbul, agreed.

“In Damascus, you would hear different accents, but Aleppo wasn’t a cosmopolitan city, and when they asked us, we would say we’re from Aleppo, not from Syria. Sometimes you wouldn’t have to even ask because of the heavy accent of the ‘hello,’” she said in a phone interview.  

That’s why, even among Syrian communities in Turkey and elsewhere, Aleppans formed their own clique. “We had our own food, our own music, our own rhythm,” she said. 

And unlike in Damascus, the “powerful people in Aleppo were the industrialists.”

One such businessman and now parliamentarian for Aleppo, Fares Shehabi, remembered his time in Club d’Alep, an exclusive, members-only club opened in 1945 that hosted bridge games, among other activities. There, he said, amid cream-colored walls and elegant, decorated tiles, he spent some of the happiest moments of his childhood. 

He rattled off the names of other areas in the Old City, like the Carlton and the Zamarya hotels — all destroyed in the war. 

“In 2011, Aleppo was one of the most beautiful cities in the world and we never thought of leaving it,” he said.

Aleppo really came alive at night, residents recalled. Kabbach, for example, preferred the nightlife there to the fabled clubs of Beirut, where she went to university. In Aleppo, “Even our weddings were special. They would kick off at 12 midnight and end in the morning,” she said.

Tabshi and others now fear for the future of the ancient sites. They point to the souks in nearby Beirut, which were razed and rebuilt after being damaged in Lebanon’s 15-year civil war. Their reconstruction is considered by many to be a primer on how not to restore war-devastated areas. 

“Whenever I see pictures of the old city, I start crying. It burned my heart. If I see a picture of my deceased father I wouldn’t cry like this,” said Tabshi.

“And it won’t come back…. It’s a crime by both sides that it’s gone.”

Bulos is a special correspondent

ALSO

Meet the culinary zealot fighting to preserve Syrian cuisine despite years of war

A bittersweet Aleppo story: ‘Sir, do you know where I can find my mother?’

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New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/02/06/la-times-it-was-one-of-the-most-beautiful-cities-in-the-world-that-aleppo-is-gone-but-its-residents-remember-9/

La Times: It was 'one of the most beautiful cities in the world.' That Aleppo is gone, but its residents remember

Aleppo al Shabaa, Aleppo the White. That was the nickname its people bestowed upon it, a nod to the brightness of the marble used in the buildings of this once proud metropolis.

For at least 5,000 years, it has been a jewel in the crown of empires, a place that drew poets and polymaths, industrialists and artisans. A major terminus on the Silk Road, it was once viewed as second only to Constantinople in prominence.

But when Ziad Oubari remembers the city — the one that existed before Syria’s civil war — he doesn’t remember only the grand buildings or the proud history of one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth. He remembers the Souk al Attareen, the perfumers’ market, where he would stroll through the arched stalls whenever he felt annoyed or exasperated, inhaling the melange of scents.

“They’re always in my nostrils,” said Oubari, a pharmaceutical goods manufacturer who is still in business in Aleppo. 

And when Nour Kabbach, an aid worker from Aleppo now living in Istanbul, casts her mind back, she thinks of the city’s famed 13th century Citadel, rising majestically above the Old City, but also of Qahwet al Qalaa, a working-class coffee shop at the foot of the fortress, where she and her friends would go after a day of shopping for soup or Aleppo specialties like dibs fleifleh, a sort of pepper paste. 

“It was the best one: right at the door, so you would have a full view of the citadel. Nothing is obstructing it,” Kabbach said. It wasn’t a very fancy place, she said. Still, “Aleppans preferred to go there and not to the five-star hotel that was serving cocktails nearby.”

After five years of war between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and the fractious opposition seeking his overthrow, their Aleppo is a city that in many ways no longer exists. 

In December, the battle came to an apparent close after the rebels agreed to abandon their enclave in eastern Aleppo. The government, which had maintained control of western Aleppo, now controls the entire city.

It is a city shattered, its magnificent stone structures unable to withstand the weapons of modern warfare. Thousands of Aleppans, especially the city’s Armenian Christian minority, are scattered as refugees across the globe. 

The porticoes of the Great Mosque are singed black and pitted with sharp white tears in the rock. A shell has punched open a new skylight in an ancient structure. Wrecks of vehicles cannibalized for parts stand as sorry sentinels on tiled roads once alive with vendors and restaurants. 

Still, the ghost of the vanished Aleppo endures, along with the pride (some might say arrogance) of those who once lived and thrived as part of the city’s merchant and industrialist class. They sound a lot like the New Yorkers who say: “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.”

Just listen to Hagop Haddad, a furniture maker in the Midan district: “In the past, he who could make it in Aleppo would prove his worth across other major cities on the Silk Road. Companies would have their administrative places elsewhere, but their factories stayed in Aleppo because the workers were better.”

“It is enough for me to be an Aleppan to be special,” he said.

An undercurrent to this strong sense of belonging was an insular bent among Aleppans, almost a shunning of those who came from other parts of Syria, even Damascus, the capital.

“Our identity was Aleppo, and we were unique in Syria,” said Rashed Tabshi, a former interior designer from the Aziziyeh neighborhood now living in the southern Turkish border town of Gaziantep.

“Aleppo, its accent was special. Its food was special. Even the way we look is different. And there was always political competition between us and Damascus. It’s the political capital, but Aleppo was the economic as well as the Francophone capital of Syria.”

Kabbach, the aid worker living in Istanbul, agreed.

“In Damascus, you would hear different accents, but Aleppo wasn’t a cosmopolitan city, and when they asked us, we would say we’re from Aleppo, not from Syria. Sometimes you wouldn’t have to even ask because of the heavy accent of the ‘hello,’” she said in a phone interview.  

That’s why, even among Syrian communities in Turkey and elsewhere, Aleppans formed their own clique. “We had our own food, our own music, our own rhythm,” she said. 

And unlike in Damascus, the “powerful people in Aleppo were the industrialists.”

One such businessman and now parliamentarian for Aleppo, Fares Shehabi, remembered his time in Club d’Alep, an exclusive, members-only club opened in 1945 that hosted bridge games, among other activities. There, he said, amid cream-colored walls and elegant, decorated tiles, he spent some of the happiest moments of his childhood. 

He rattled off the names of other areas in the Old City, like the Carlton and the Zamarya hotels — all destroyed in the war. 

“In 2011, Aleppo was one of the most beautiful cities in the world and we never thought of leaving it,” he said.

Aleppo really came alive at night, residents recalled. Kabbach, for example, preferred the nightlife there to the fabled clubs of Beirut, where she went to university. In Aleppo, “Even our weddings were special. They would kick off at 12 midnight and end in the morning,” she said.

Tabshi and others now fear for the future of the ancient sites. They point to the souks in nearby Beirut, which were razed and rebuilt after being damaged in Lebanon’s 15-year civil war. Their reconstruction is considered by many to be a primer on how not to restore war-devastated areas. 

“Whenever I see pictures of the old city, I start crying. It burned my heart. If I see a picture of my deceased father I wouldn’t cry like this,” said Tabshi.

“And it won’t come back…. It’s a crime by both sides that it’s gone.”

Bulos is a special correspondent

ALSO

Meet the culinary zealot fighting to preserve Syrian cuisine despite years of war

A bittersweet Aleppo story: ‘Sir, do you know where I can find my mother?’

This post has been harvested from the source link, and News-Twitter has no responsibility on its content. Source link

[newstwitter-blog]

New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/02/06/la-times-it-was-one-of-the-most-beautiful-cities-in-the-world-that-aleppo-is-gone-but-its-residents-remember-8/

La Times: It was 'one of the most beautiful cities in the world.' That Aleppo is gone, but its residents remember

Aleppo al Shabaa, Aleppo the White. That was the nickname its people bestowed upon it, a nod to the brightness of the marble used in the buildings of this once proud metropolis.

For at least 5,000 years, it has been a jewel in the crown of empires, a place that drew poets and polymaths, industrialists and artisans. A major terminus on the Silk Road, it was once viewed as second only to Constantinople in prominence.

But when Ziad Oubari remembers the city — the one that existed before Syria’s civil war — he doesn’t remember only the grand buildings or the proud history of one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth. He remembers the Souk al Attareen, the perfumers’ market, where he would stroll through the arched stalls whenever he felt annoyed or exasperated, inhaling the melange of scents.

“They’re always in my nostrils,” said Oubari, a pharmaceutical goods manufacturer who is still in business in Aleppo. 

And when Nour Kabbach, an aid worker from Aleppo now living in Istanbul, casts her mind back, she thinks of the city’s famed 13th century Citadel, rising majestically above the Old City, but also of Qahwet al Qalaa, a working-class coffee shop at the foot of the fortress, where she and her friends would go after a day of shopping for soup or Aleppo specialties like dibs fleifleh, a sort of pepper paste. 

“It was the best one: right at the door, so you would have a full view of the citadel. Nothing is obstructing it,” Kabbach said. It wasn’t a very fancy place, she said. Still, “Aleppans preferred to go there and not to the five-star hotel that was serving cocktails nearby.”

After five years of war between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and the fractious opposition seeking his overthrow, their Aleppo is a city that in many ways no longer exists. 

In December, the battle came to an apparent close after the rebels agreed to abandon their enclave in eastern Aleppo. The government, which had maintained control of western Aleppo, now controls the entire city.

It is a city shattered, its magnificent stone structures unable to withstand the weapons of modern warfare. Thousands of Aleppans, especially the city’s Armenian Christian minority, are scattered as refugees across the globe. 

The porticoes of the Great Mosque are singed black and pitted with sharp white tears in the rock. A shell has punched open a new skylight in an ancient structure. Wrecks of vehicles cannibalized for parts stand as sorry sentinels on tiled roads once alive with vendors and restaurants. 

Still, the ghost of the vanished Aleppo endures, along with the pride (some might say arrogance) of those who once lived and thrived as part of the city’s merchant and industrialist class. They sound a lot like the New Yorkers who say: “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.”

Just listen to Hagop Haddad, a furniture maker in the Midan district: “In the past, he who could make it in Aleppo would prove his worth across other major cities on the Silk Road. Companies would have their administrative places elsewhere, but their factories stayed in Aleppo because the workers were better.”

“It is enough for me to be an Aleppan to be special,” he said.

An undercurrent to this strong sense of belonging was an insular bent among Aleppans, almost a shunning of those who came from other parts of Syria, even Damascus, the capital.

“Our identity was Aleppo, and we were unique in Syria,” said Rashed Tabshi, a former interior designer from the Aziziyeh neighborhood now living in the southern Turkish border town of Gaziantep.

“Aleppo, its accent was special. Its food was special. Even the way we look is different. And there was always political competition between us and Damascus. It’s the political capital, but Aleppo was the economic as well as the Francophone capital of Syria.”

Kabbach, the aid worker living in Istanbul, agreed.

“In Damascus, you would hear different accents, but Aleppo wasn’t a cosmopolitan city, and when they asked us, we would say we’re from Aleppo, not from Syria. Sometimes you wouldn’t have to even ask because of the heavy accent of the ‘hello,’” she said in a phone interview.  

That’s why, even among Syrian communities in Turkey and elsewhere, Aleppans formed their own clique. “We had our own food, our own music, our own rhythm,” she said. 

And unlike in Damascus, the “powerful people in Aleppo were the industrialists.”

One such businessman and now parliamentarian for Aleppo, Fares Shehabi, remembered his time in Club d’Alep, an exclusive, members-only club opened in 1945 that hosted bridge games, among other activities. There, he said, amid cream-colored walls and elegant, decorated tiles, he spent some of the happiest moments of his childhood. 

He rattled off the names of other areas in the Old City, like the Carlton and the Zamarya hotels — all destroyed in the war. 

“In 2011, Aleppo was one of the most beautiful cities in the world and we never thought of leaving it,” he said.

Aleppo really came alive at night, residents recalled. Kabbach, for example, preferred the nightlife there to the fabled clubs of Beirut, where she went to university. In Aleppo, “Even our weddings were special. They would kick off at 12 midnight and end in the morning,” she said.

Tabshi and others now fear for the future of the ancient sites. They point to the souks in nearby Beirut, which were razed and rebuilt after being damaged in Lebanon’s 15-year civil war. Their reconstruction is considered by many to be a primer on how not to restore war-devastated areas. 

“Whenever I see pictures of the old city, I start crying. It burned my heart. If I see a picture of my deceased father I wouldn’t cry like this,” said Tabshi.

“And it won’t come back…. It’s a crime by both sides that it’s gone.”

Bulos is a special correspondent

ALSO

Meet the culinary zealot fighting to preserve Syrian cuisine despite years of war

A bittersweet Aleppo story: ‘Sir, do you know where I can find my mother?’

This post has been harvested from the source link, and News-Twitter has no responsibility on its content. Source link

[newstwitter-blog]

New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/02/06/la-times-it-was-one-of-the-most-beautiful-cities-in-the-world-that-aleppo-is-gone-but-its-residents-remember-7/

La Times: It was 'one of the most beautiful cities in the world.' That Aleppo is gone, but its residents remember

Aleppo al Shabaa, Aleppo the White. That was the nickname its people bestowed upon it, a nod to the brightness of the marble used in the buildings of this once proud metropolis.

For at least 5,000 years, it has been a jewel in the crown of empires, a place that drew poets and polymaths, industrialists and artisans. A major terminus on the Silk Road, it was once viewed as second only to Constantinople in prominence.

But when Ziad Oubari remembers the city — the one that existed before Syria’s civil war — he doesn’t remember only the grand buildings or the proud history of one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth. He remembers the Souk al Attareen, the perfumers’ market, where he would stroll through the arched stalls whenever he felt annoyed or exasperated, inhaling the melange of scents.

“They’re always in my nostrils,” said Oubari, a pharmaceutical goods manufacturer who is still in business in Aleppo. 

And when Nour Kabbach, an aid worker from Aleppo now living in Istanbul, casts her mind back, she thinks of the city’s famed 13th century Citadel, rising majestically above the Old City, but also of Qahwet al Qalaa, a working-class coffee shop at the foot of the fortress, where she and her friends would go after a day of shopping for soup or Aleppo specialties like dibs fleifleh, a sort of pepper paste. 

“It was the best one: right at the door, so you would have a full view of the citadel. Nothing is obstructing it,” Kabbach said. It wasn’t a very fancy place, she said. Still, “Aleppans preferred to go there and not to the five-star hotel that was serving cocktails nearby.”

After five years of war between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and the fractious opposition seeking his overthrow, their Aleppo is a city that in many ways no longer exists. 

In December, the battle came to an apparent close after the rebels agreed to abandon their enclave in eastern Aleppo. The government, which had maintained control of western Aleppo, now controls the entire city.

It is a city shattered, its magnificent stone structures unable to withstand the weapons of modern warfare. Thousands of Aleppans, especially the city’s Armenian Christian minority, are scattered as refugees across the globe. 

The porticoes of the Great Mosque are singed black and pitted with sharp white tears in the rock. A shell has punched open a new skylight in an ancient structure. Wrecks of vehicles cannibalized for parts stand as sorry sentinels on tiled roads once alive with vendors and restaurants. 

Still, the ghost of the vanished Aleppo endures, along with the pride (some might say arrogance) of those who once lived and thrived as part of the city’s merchant and industrialist class. They sound a lot like the New Yorkers who say: “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.”

Just listen to Hagop Haddad, a furniture maker in the Midan district: “In the past, he who could make it in Aleppo would prove his worth across other major cities on the Silk Road. Companies would have their administrative places elsewhere, but their factories stayed in Aleppo because the workers were better.”

“It is enough for me to be an Aleppan to be special,” he said.

An undercurrent to this strong sense of belonging was an insular bent among Aleppans, almost a shunning of those who came from other parts of Syria, even Damascus, the capital.

“Our identity was Aleppo, and we were unique in Syria,” said Rashed Tabshi, a former interior designer from the Aziziyeh neighborhood now living in the southern Turkish border town of Gaziantep.

“Aleppo, its accent was special. Its food was special. Even the way we look is different. And there was always political competition between us and Damascus. It’s the political capital, but Aleppo was the economic as well as the Francophone capital of Syria.”

Kabbach, the aid worker living in Istanbul, agreed.

“In Damascus, you would hear different accents, but Aleppo wasn’t a cosmopolitan city, and when they asked us, we would say we’re from Aleppo, not from Syria. Sometimes you wouldn’t have to even ask because of the heavy accent of the ‘hello,’” she said in a phone interview.  

That’s why, even among Syrian communities in Turkey and elsewhere, Aleppans formed their own clique. “We had our own food, our own music, our own rhythm,” she said. 

And unlike in Damascus, the “powerful people in Aleppo were the industrialists.”

One such businessman and now parliamentarian for Aleppo, Fares Shehabi, remembered his time in Club d’Alep, an exclusive, members-only club opened in 1945 that hosted bridge games, among other activities. There, he said, amid cream-colored walls and elegant, decorated tiles, he spent some of the happiest moments of his childhood. 

He rattled off the names of other areas in the Old City, like the Carlton and the Zamarya hotels — all destroyed in the war. 

“In 2011, Aleppo was one of the most beautiful cities in the world and we never thought of leaving it,” he said.

Aleppo really came alive at night, residents recalled. Kabbach, for example, preferred the nightlife there to the fabled clubs of Beirut, where she went to university. In Aleppo, “Even our weddings were special. They would kick off at 12 midnight and end in the morning,” she said.

Tabshi and others now fear for the future of the ancient sites. They point to the souks in nearby Beirut, which were razed and rebuilt after being damaged in Lebanon’s 15-year civil war. Their reconstruction is considered by many to be a primer on how not to restore war-devastated areas. 

“Whenever I see pictures of the old city, I start crying. It burned my heart. If I see a picture of my deceased father I wouldn’t cry like this,” said Tabshi.

“And it won’t come back…. It’s a crime by both sides that it’s gone.”

Bulos is a special correspondent

ALSO

Meet the culinary zealot fighting to preserve Syrian cuisine despite years of war

A bittersweet Aleppo story: ‘Sir, do you know where I can find my mother?’

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La Times: It was 'one of the most beautiful cities in the world.' That Aleppo is gone, but its residents remember

Aleppo al Shabaa, Aleppo the White. That was the nickname its people bestowed upon it, a nod to the brightness of the marble used in the buildings of this once proud metropolis.

For at least 5,000 years, it has been a jewel in the crown of empires, a place that drew poets and polymaths, industrialists and artisans. A major terminus on the Silk Road, it was once viewed as second only to Constantinople in prominence.

But when Ziad Oubari remembers the city — the one that existed before Syria’s civil war — he doesn’t remember only the grand buildings or the proud history of one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth. He remembers the Souk al Attareen, the perfumers’ market, where he would stroll through the arched stalls whenever he felt annoyed or exasperated, inhaling the melange of scents.

“They’re always in my nostrils,” said Oubari, a pharmaceutical goods manufacturer who is still in business in Aleppo. 

And when Nour Kabbach, an aid worker from Aleppo now living in Istanbul, casts her mind back, she thinks of the city’s famed 13th century Citadel, rising majestically above the Old City, but also of Qahwet al Qalaa, a working-class coffee shop at the foot of the fortress, where she and her friends would go after a day of shopping for soup or Aleppo specialties like dibs fleifleh, a sort of pepper paste. 

“It was the best one: right at the door, so you would have a full view of the citadel. Nothing is obstructing it,” Kabbach said. It wasn’t a very fancy place, she said. Still, “Aleppans preferred to go there and not to the five-star hotel that was serving cocktails nearby.”

After five years of war between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and the fractious opposition seeking his overthrow, their Aleppo is a city that in many ways no longer exists. 

In December, the battle came to an apparent close after the rebels agreed to abandon their enclave in eastern Aleppo. The government, which had maintained control of western Aleppo, now controls the entire city.

It is a city shattered, its magnificent stone structures unable to withstand the weapons of modern warfare. Thousands of Aleppans, especially the city’s Armenian Christian minority, are scattered as refugees across the globe. 

The porticoes of the Great Mosque are singed black and pitted with sharp white tears in the rock. A shell has punched open a new skylight in an ancient structure. Wrecks of vehicles cannibalized for parts stand as sorry sentinels on tiled roads once alive with vendors and restaurants. 

Still, the ghost of the vanished Aleppo endures, along with the pride (some might say arrogance) of those who once lived and thrived as part of the city’s merchant and industrialist class. They sound a lot like the New Yorkers who say: “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.”

Just listen to Hagop Haddad, a furniture maker in the Midan district: “In the past, he who could make it in Aleppo would prove his worth across other major cities on the Silk Road. Companies would have their administrative places elsewhere, but their factories stayed in Aleppo because the workers were better.”

“It is enough for me to be an Aleppan to be special,” he said.

An undercurrent to this strong sense of belonging was an insular bent among Aleppans, almost a shunning of those who came from other parts of Syria, even Damascus, the capital.

“Our identity was Aleppo, and we were unique in Syria,” said Rashed Tabshi, a former interior designer from the Aziziyeh neighborhood now living in the southern Turkish border town of Gaziantep.

“Aleppo, its accent was special. Its food was special. Even the way we look is different. And there was always political competition between us and Damascus. It’s the political capital, but Aleppo was the economic as well as the Francophone capital of Syria.”

Kabbach, the aid worker living in Istanbul, agreed.

“In Damascus, you would hear different accents, but Aleppo wasn’t a cosmopolitan city, and when they asked us, we would say we’re from Aleppo, not from Syria. Sometimes you wouldn’t have to even ask because of the heavy accent of the ‘hello,’” she said in a phone interview.  

That’s why, even among Syrian communities in Turkey and elsewhere, Aleppans formed their own clique. “We had our own food, our own music, our own rhythm,” she said. 

And unlike in Damascus, the “powerful people in Aleppo were the industrialists.”

One such businessman and now parliamentarian for Aleppo, Fares Shehabi, remembered his time in Club d’Alep, an exclusive, members-only club opened in 1945 that hosted bridge games, among other activities. There, he said, amid cream-colored walls and elegant, decorated tiles, he spent some of the happiest moments of his childhood. 

He rattled off the names of other areas in the Old City, like the Carlton and the Zamarya hotels — all destroyed in the war. 

“In 2011, Aleppo was one of the most beautiful cities in the world and we never thought of leaving it,” he said.

Aleppo really came alive at night, residents recalled. Kabbach, for example, preferred the nightlife there to the fabled clubs of Beirut, where she went to university. In Aleppo, “Even our weddings were special. They would kick off at 12 midnight and end in the morning,” she said.

Tabshi and others now fear for the future of the ancient sites. They point to the souks in nearby Beirut, which were razed and rebuilt after being damaged in Lebanon’s 15-year civil war. Their reconstruction is considered by many to be a primer on how not to restore war-devastated areas. 

“Whenever I see pictures of the old city, I start crying. It burned my heart. If I see a picture of my deceased father I wouldn’t cry like this,” said Tabshi.

“And it won’t come back…. It’s a crime by both sides that it’s gone.”

Bulos is a special correspondent

ALSO

Meet the culinary zealot fighting to preserve Syrian cuisine despite years of war

A bittersweet Aleppo story: ‘Sir, do you know where I can find my mother?’

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La Times: It was 'one of the most beautiful cities in the world.' That Aleppo is gone, but its residents remember

Aleppo al Shabaa, Aleppo the White. That was the nickname its people bestowed upon it, a nod to the brightness of the marble used in the buildings of this once proud metropolis.

For at least 5,000 years, it has been a jewel in the crown of empires, a place that drew poets and polymaths, industrialists and artisans. A major terminus on the Silk Road, it was once viewed as second only to Constantinople in prominence.

But when Ziad Oubari remembers the city — the one that existed before Syria’s civil war — he doesn’t remember only the grand buildings or the proud history of one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth. He remembers the Souk al Attareen, the perfumers’ market, where he would stroll through the arched stalls whenever he felt annoyed or exasperated, inhaling the melange of scents.

“They’re always in my nostrils,” said Oubari, a pharmaceutical goods manufacturer who is still in business in Aleppo. 

And when Nour Kabbach, an aid worker from Aleppo now living in Istanbul, casts her mind back, she thinks of the city’s famed 13th century Citadel, rising majestically above the Old City, but also of Qahwet al Qalaa, a working-class coffee shop at the foot of the fortress, where she and her friends would go after a day of shopping for soup or Aleppo specialties like dibs fleifleh, a sort of pepper paste. 

“It was the best one: right at the door, so you would have a full view of the citadel. Nothing is obstructing it,” Kabbach said. It wasn’t a very fancy place, she said. Still, “Aleppans preferred to go there and not to the five-star hotel that was serving cocktails nearby.”

After five years of war between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and the fractious opposition seeking his overthrow, their Aleppo is a city that in many ways no longer exists. 

In December, the battle came to an apparent close after the rebels agreed to abandon their enclave in eastern Aleppo. The government, which had maintained control of western Aleppo, now controls the entire city.

It is a city shattered, its magnificent stone structures unable to withstand the weapons of modern warfare. Thousands of Aleppans, especially the city’s Armenian Christian minority, are scattered as refugees across the globe. 

The porticoes of the Great Mosque are singed black and pitted with sharp white tears in the rock. A shell has punched open a new skylight in an ancient structure. Wrecks of vehicles cannibalized for parts stand as sorry sentinels on tiled roads once alive with vendors and restaurants. 

Still, the ghost of the vanished Aleppo endures, along with the pride (some might say arrogance) of those who once lived and thrived as part of the city’s merchant and industrialist class. They sound a lot like the New Yorkers who say: “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.”

Just listen to Hagop Haddad, a furniture maker in the Midan district: “In the past, he who could make it in Aleppo would prove his worth across other major cities on the Silk Road. Companies would have their administrative places elsewhere, but their factories stayed in Aleppo because the workers were better.”

“It is enough for me to be an Aleppan to be special,” he said.

An undercurrent to this strong sense of belonging was an insular bent among Aleppans, almost a shunning of those who came from other parts of Syria, even Damascus, the capital.

“Our identity was Aleppo, and we were unique in Syria,” said Rashed Tabshi, a former interior designer from the Aziziyeh neighborhood now living in the southern Turkish border town of Gaziantep.

“Aleppo, its accent was special. Its food was special. Even the way we look is different. And there was always political competition between us and Damascus. It’s the political capital, but Aleppo was the economic as well as the Francophone capital of Syria.”

Kabbach, the aid worker living in Istanbul, agreed.

“In Damascus, you would hear different accents, but Aleppo wasn’t a cosmopolitan city, and when they asked us, we would say we’re from Aleppo, not from Syria. Sometimes you wouldn’t have to even ask because of the heavy accent of the ‘hello,’” she said in a phone interview.  

That’s why, even among Syrian communities in Turkey and elsewhere, Aleppans formed their own clique. “We had our own food, our own music, our own rhythm,” she said. 

And unlike in Damascus, the “powerful people in Aleppo were the industrialists.”

One such businessman and now parliamentarian for Aleppo, Fares Shehabi, remembered his time in Club d’Alep, an exclusive, members-only club opened in 1945 that hosted bridge games, among other activities. There, he said, amid cream-colored walls and elegant, decorated tiles, he spent some of the happiest moments of his childhood. 

He rattled off the names of other areas in the Old City, like the Carlton and the Zamarya hotels — all destroyed in the war. 

“In 2011, Aleppo was one of the most beautiful cities in the world and we never thought of leaving it,” he said.

Aleppo really came alive at night, residents recalled. Kabbach, for example, preferred the nightlife there to the fabled clubs of Beirut, where she went to university. In Aleppo, “Even our weddings were special. They would kick off at 12 midnight and end in the morning,” she said.

Tabshi and others now fear for the future of the ancient sites. They point to the souks in nearby Beirut, which were razed and rebuilt after being damaged in Lebanon’s 15-year civil war. Their reconstruction is considered by many to be a primer on how not to restore war-devastated areas. 

“Whenever I see pictures of the old city, I start crying. It burned my heart. If I see a picture of my deceased father I wouldn’t cry like this,” said Tabshi.

“And it won’t come back…. It’s a crime by both sides that it’s gone.”

Bulos is a special correspondent

ALSO

Meet the culinary zealot fighting to preserve Syrian cuisine despite years of war

A bittersweet Aleppo story: ‘Sir, do you know where I can find my mother?’

This post has been harvested from the source link, and News-Twitter has no responsibility on its content. Source link

[newstwitter-blog]

New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/02/06/la-times-it-was-one-of-the-most-beautiful-cities-in-the-world-that-aleppo-is-gone-but-its-residents-remember-4/

La Times: It was 'one of the most beautiful cities in the world.' That Aleppo is gone, but its residents remember

Aleppo al Shabaa, Aleppo the White. That was the nickname its people bestowed upon it, a nod to the brightness of the marble used in the buildings of this once proud metropolis.

For at least 5,000 years, it has been a jewel in the crown of empires, a place that drew poets and polymaths, industrialists and artisans. A major terminus on the Silk Road, it was once viewed as second only to Constantinople in prominence.

But when Ziad Oubari remembers the city — the one that existed before Syria’s civil war — he doesn’t remember only the grand buildings or the proud history of one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth. He remembers the Souk al Attareen, the perfumers’ market, where he would stroll through the arched stalls whenever he felt annoyed or exasperated, inhaling the melange of scents.

“They’re always in my nostrils,” said Oubari, a pharmaceutical goods manufacturer who is still in business in Aleppo. 

And when Nour Kabbach, an aid worker from Aleppo now living in Istanbul, casts her mind back, she thinks of the city’s famed 13th century Citadel, rising majestically above the Old City, but also of Qahwet al Qalaa, a working-class coffee shop at the foot of the fortress, where she and her friends would go after a day of shopping for soup or Aleppo specialties like dibs fleifleh, a sort of pepper paste. 

“It was the best one: right at the door, so you would have a full view of the citadel. Nothing is obstructing it,” Kabbach said. It wasn’t a very fancy place, she said. Still, “Aleppans preferred to go there and not to the five-star hotel that was serving cocktails nearby.”

After five years of war between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and the fractious opposition seeking his overthrow, their Aleppo is a city that in many ways no longer exists. 

In December, the battle came to an apparent close after the rebels agreed to abandon their enclave in eastern Aleppo. The government, which had maintained control of western Aleppo, now controls the entire city.

It is a city shattered, its magnificent stone structures unable to withstand the weapons of modern warfare. Thousands of Aleppans, especially the city’s Armenian Christian minority, are scattered as refugees across the globe. 

The porticoes of the Great Mosque are singed black and pitted with sharp white tears in the rock. A shell has punched open a new skylight in an ancient structure. Wrecks of vehicles cannibalized for parts stand as sorry sentinels on tiled roads once alive with vendors and restaurants. 

Still, the ghost of the vanished Aleppo endures, along with the pride (some might say arrogance) of those who once lived and thrived as part of the city’s merchant and industrialist class. They sound a lot like the New Yorkers who say: “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.”

Just listen to Hagop Haddad, a furniture maker in the Midan district: “In the past, he who could make it in Aleppo would prove his worth across other major cities on the Silk Road. Companies would have their administrative places elsewhere, but their factories stayed in Aleppo because the workers were better.”

“It is enough for me to be an Aleppan to be special,” he said.

An undercurrent to this strong sense of belonging was an insular bent among Aleppans, almost a shunning of those who came from other parts of Syria, even Damascus, the capital.

“Our identity was Aleppo, and we were unique in Syria,” said Rashed Tabshi, a former interior designer from the Aziziyeh neighborhood now living in the southern Turkish border town of Gaziantep.

“Aleppo, its accent was special. Its food was special. Even the way we look is different. And there was always political competition between us and Damascus. It’s the political capital, but Aleppo was the economic as well as the Francophone capital of Syria.”

Kabbach, the aid worker living in Istanbul, agreed.

“In Damascus, you would hear different accents, but Aleppo wasn’t a cosmopolitan city, and when they asked us, we would say we’re from Aleppo, not from Syria. Sometimes you wouldn’t have to even ask because of the heavy accent of the ‘hello,’” she said in a phone interview.  

That’s why, even among Syrian communities in Turkey and elsewhere, Aleppans formed their own clique. “We had our own food, our own music, our own rhythm,” she said. 

And unlike in Damascus, the “powerful people in Aleppo were the industrialists.”

One such businessman and now parliamentarian for Aleppo, Fares Shehabi, remembered his time in Club d’Alep, an exclusive, members-only club opened in 1945 that hosted bridge games, among other activities. There, he said, amid cream-colored walls and elegant, decorated tiles, he spent some of the happiest moments of his childhood. 

He rattled off the names of other areas in the Old City, like the Carlton and the Zamarya hotels — all destroyed in the war. 

“In 2011, Aleppo was one of the most beautiful cities in the world and we never thought of leaving it,” he said.

Aleppo really came alive at night, residents recalled. Kabbach, for example, preferred the nightlife there to the fabled clubs of Beirut, where she went to university. In Aleppo, “Even our weddings were special. They would kick off at 12 midnight and end in the morning,” she said.

Tabshi and others now fear for the future of the ancient sites. They point to the souks in nearby Beirut, which were razed and rebuilt after being damaged in Lebanon’s 15-year civil war. Their reconstruction is considered by many to be a primer on how not to restore war-devastated areas. 

“Whenever I see pictures of the old city, I start crying. It burned my heart. If I see a picture of my deceased father I wouldn’t cry like this,” said Tabshi.

“And it won’t come back…. It’s a crime by both sides that it’s gone.”

Bulos is a special correspondent

ALSO

Meet the culinary zealot fighting to preserve Syrian cuisine despite years of war

A bittersweet Aleppo story: ‘Sir, do you know where I can find my mother?’

This post has been harvested from the source link, and News-Twitter has no responsibility on its content. Source link

[newstwitter-blog]

New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/02/06/la-times-it-was-one-of-the-most-beautiful-cities-in-the-world-that-aleppo-is-gone-but-its-residents-remember-3/

La Times: It was 'one of the most beautiful cities in the world.' That Aleppo is gone, but its residents remember

Aleppo al Shabaa, Aleppo the White. That was the nickname its people bestowed upon it, a nod to the brightness of the marble used in the buildings of this once proud metropolis.

For at least 5,000 years, it has been a jewel in the crown of empires, a place that drew poets and polymaths, industrialists and artisans. A major terminus on the Silk Road, it was once viewed as second only to Constantinople in prominence.

But when Ziad Oubari remembers the city — the one that existed before Syria’s civil war — he doesn’t remember only the grand buildings or the proud history of one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth. He remembers the Souk al Attareen, the perfumers’ market, where he would stroll through the arched stalls whenever he felt annoyed or exasperated, inhaling the melange of scents.

“They’re always in my nostrils,” said Oubari, a pharmaceutical goods manufacturer who is still in business in Aleppo. 

And when Nour Kabbach, an aid worker from Aleppo now living in Istanbul, casts her mind back, she thinks of the city’s famed 13th century Citadel, rising majestically above the Old City, but also of Qahwet al Qalaa, a working-class coffee shop at the foot of the fortress, where she and her friends would go after a day of shopping for soup or Aleppo specialties like dibs fleifleh, a sort of pepper paste. 

“It was the best one: right at the door, so you would have a full view of the citadel. Nothing is obstructing it,” Kabbach said. It wasn’t a very fancy place, she said. Still, “Aleppans preferred to go there and not to the five-star hotel that was serving cocktails nearby.”

After five years of war between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and the fractious opposition seeking his overthrow, their Aleppo is a city that in many ways no longer exists. 

In December, the battle came to an apparent close after the rebels agreed to abandon their enclave in eastern Aleppo. The government, which had maintained control of western Aleppo, now controls the entire city.

It is a city shattered, its magnificent stone structures unable to withstand the weapons of modern warfare. Thousands of Aleppans, especially the city’s Armenian Christian minority, are scattered as refugees across the globe. 

The porticoes of the Great Mosque are singed black and pitted with sharp white tears in the rock. A shell has punched open a new skylight in an ancient structure. Wrecks of vehicles cannibalized for parts stand as sorry sentinels on tiled roads once alive with vendors and restaurants. 

Still, the ghost of the vanished Aleppo endures, along with the pride (some might say arrogance) of those who once lived and thrived as part of the city’s merchant and industrialist class. They sound a lot like the New Yorkers who say: “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.”

Just listen to Hagop Haddad, a furniture maker in the Midan district: “In the past, he who could make it in Aleppo would prove his worth across other major cities on the Silk Road. Companies would have their administrative places elsewhere, but their factories stayed in Aleppo because the workers were better.”

“It is enough for me to be an Aleppan to be special,” he said.

An undercurrent to this strong sense of belonging was an insular bent among Aleppans, almost a shunning of those who came from other parts of Syria, even Damascus, the capital.

“Our identity was Aleppo, and we were unique in Syria,” said Rashed Tabshi, a former interior designer from the Aziziyeh neighborhood now living in the southern Turkish border town of Gaziantep.

“Aleppo, its accent was special. Its food was special. Even the way we look is different. And there was always political competition between us and Damascus. It’s the political capital, but Aleppo was the economic as well as the Francophone capital of Syria.”

Kabbach, the aid worker living in Istanbul, agreed.

“In Damascus, you would hear different accents, but Aleppo wasn’t a cosmopolitan city, and when they asked us, we would say we’re from Aleppo, not from Syria. Sometimes you wouldn’t have to even ask because of the heavy accent of the ‘hello,’” she said in a phone interview.  

That’s why, even among Syrian communities in Turkey and elsewhere, Aleppans formed their own clique. “We had our own food, our own music, our own rhythm,” she said. 

And unlike in Damascus, the “powerful people in Aleppo were the industrialists.”

One such businessman and now parliamentarian for Aleppo, Fares Shehabi, remembered his time in Club d’Alep, an exclusive, members-only club opened in 1945 that hosted bridge games, among other activities. There, he said, amid cream-colored walls and elegant, decorated tiles, he spent some of the happiest moments of his childhood. 

He rattled off the names of other areas in the Old City, like the Carlton and the Zamarya hotels — all destroyed in the war. 

“In 2011, Aleppo was one of the most beautiful cities in the world and we never thought of leaving it,” he said.

Aleppo really came alive at night, residents recalled. Kabbach, for example, preferred the nightlife there to the fabled clubs of Beirut, where she went to university. In Aleppo, “Even our weddings were special. They would kick off at 12 midnight and end in the morning,” she said.

Tabshi and others now fear for the future of the ancient sites. They point to the souks in nearby Beirut, which were razed and rebuilt after being damaged in Lebanon’s 15-year civil war. Their reconstruction is considered by many to be a primer on how not to restore war-devastated areas. 

“Whenever I see pictures of the old city, I start crying. It burned my heart. If I see a picture of my deceased father I wouldn’t cry like this,” said Tabshi.

“And it won’t come back…. It’s a crime by both sides that it’s gone.”

Bulos is a special correspondent

ALSO

Meet the culinary zealot fighting to preserve Syrian cuisine despite years of war

A bittersweet Aleppo story: ‘Sir, do you know where I can find my mother?’

This post has been harvested from the source link, and News-Twitter has no responsibility on its content. Source link