#migrant fathers and sons

[citruscloudsandmoon]

2023 seems like an year of death for Pakistanis.

[whatevergreen]

Two migrant teens, Alan Magalles Bello and Yeremi Colino were confronted by 3 people in Lower Manhattan and stabbed. Colino has died.

As for CNN, they and other news outlets also had the full Luigi Mangione manifesto (more of a note) for days but wouldn't release it, and instead made intentionally false statements about the contents.

This is what he actually wrote and doesn't come across as "unhinged" (despite the cringe opening):

As for Luigi Mangione:

It's no good judging him on his background or his social media alone. His twitter wasn't updated for months, and such as Goodreads shows a somewhat different side, more relevant to recent events - though there are hints of it on twitter. And something has clearly changed radically recently. Conservatives or alt-right people (or whatever label some have been trying to fix on him) do not normally refer to corporate executives as "parasites" who "simply had it coming" and then go out and kill one of them.

It seems like he has been trying to find his way... and it's led him to target a key figure among the many responsible for the suffering, and too often deaths, of millions of people over many decades through insurance and other healthcare profiteering. He didn't take out his personal problems and his ideologicial issues on random strangers or random employees like many have in the past. He took out one of those most responsible. Indeed it's just been revealed that he considered using a bomb to kill Brian Thompson but decided against it because he did not want to harm anyone else.

As for his being born into a wealthy Republican family, so what?

Countless socialists, communists, anarchists and others more difficult to label - famous, infamous or little known - have come from a privileged background. For a start Karl Marx was the son of a wealthy lawyer and married a member of the aristocracy. He lived in poverty for most of his life however. Engels was the son of a wealthy industrialist. Mao's father was a wealthy farmer and landowner. I'm not comparing Luigi with them too deeply of course but this needs to be considered.

Don't throw him or anybody like him under the bus when they do a neccessary thing for the right reasons, and are possibly rising above some of their older ideas, just because of those said ideas or beliefs. We don't know what his current state of mind is on any issue beyond the healthcare one.

It has been suggested that there may be some connection with possibly using psilocybin (magic mushrooms). Some people have been making that point to discredit his actions when actually such may have made him more empathetic and hence more enraged by the suffering of others. And his interest in such drugs was because of his chronic pain problems.

As a side note, apparently 2/3rds of Penn students support his actions. It's not really that surprising considering that the so-called health care system can be a nightmare for anyone but the very richest.

[sylvies-chen]

I need to explain why forgetting carl had such a deep impact on rick because there’s this whole other level to it ok bear with me here:

there’s this term used in many different academic fields— anthropology, psychology, history, migration and decolonization, ethics— called memory work. it’s basically the process of remembering the experience of history and the studying of social memory. it’s largely used in relation to migrants who don’t have homes, steady routines, or consistent grounding details to help their memory, so the one space they don’t have to flee from or that hasn’t become “colonized” is their minds. memory is a way of preserving not just personal memory, but social and cultural history.

so the fact that rick can’t remember carl is HUGE. when the dreams stop, that is a big deal. because so much of what they went through as father and son happened when they were effectively displaced from their home by the circumstances of the world. their constant process of migration in the original show probably affected social memory and people’s capacity to remember in really massive ways. plus, rick’s love for carl especially is thematically embedded with ideas of legacy, memory, and the intergenerational transmission of knowledge as motivation for creating a better world. he wanted to make a new world for his son! their relationship was symbolic of the construction of a new civilization and cultural identity. that’s part of why rick grimes was so revered and admired, because his memory work helped forge a new identity and home that everyone could ground themselves in.

but then rick gets to the CRM, where there is a consistent routine, confinement to a specific place, a value on sameness and cohesion from obedience, and an isolation from these sort of “cultural” objects or artefacts that might help jog his memory of carl (familiar places like ASZ, carl’s handprints on the porch, judith’s drawings of their family, carl’s letter to rick, etc.). this means that the CRM effectively tried to destroy rick’s capacity for memory for 8 years.

he performed memory work to resist, by getting the faces of his loved ones drawn onto phone screens, writing letters to michonne and judith, keeping any possessions from ASZ that he could. but the chaotic outside world he travelled through under extreme, stressful circumstances becomes harder to carry with him when he’s being presented with an environment so sturdy and consistent that denies him contact with anything to preserve his memory of history.

so effectively, the CRM and the way their city is set up uses tactics one would see in brainwashing and the formation of cults or colonial projects. the CRM relies on separation of families and the destruction of memory to succeed.

this isn’t just rick being worn down and losing his spine. it’s deeper than that. it is the erasure of his social and cultural memory of the apocalypse and of alexandria. and carl grimes was the first price that had to be paid.

[whencyclopedia]

Herakleia Lynkestis

Herakleia Lynkestis (Heraclea Lyncestis; Ἡράκλεια Λυγκηστίς) was a city in the ancient kingdom of Macedon not far from modern Bitola, founded c. 358 BCE by Philip II of Macedon (r. 359-336 BCE) as a governing centre for his new expansions around the older capital, Aigai, east of his current capital, Pella, to secure his western border from further Illyrian invasions.

Although Philip chose the location for strategic reasons, his decision may have been influenced by his mother, Queen Eurydice I of Macedon (c. 410-369 BCE), being originally from the family ruling the Lynkestian tribe. Philip named the new city after the legendary hero Herakles (Hercules), not least because his family of Macedonian rulers, the Argeads, claimed this son of Zeus was their founding father. Herakleia Lynkestis was first built as a defensive citadel. Later developments may not have added much to its expansion but they turned the city into a significant centre of trade and administration.

After the Roman conquest of the Greek world in 146 BCE, Herakleia Lynkestis became a centre for local magistrates, perhaps reflecting the legacy of its most notable figure, Queen Eurydice (whose name means "sound judgment"), and the public reverence for Nemesis, the goddess associated with exacting justice. Thanks to its advantageous location along the so-called Roman highway of the Balkans, Via Egnatia, the city became a popular hub hosting visitors, traders, travelers, and scholars, who were drawn to its vibrant forum, temples (later basilicas), palaces, and theatre.

Via Egnatia, 146 BCE to c. 1200 CE

Nathalie Choubineh (CC BY-NC-SA)

Lynkestis

Lynkestis, meaning "the place of lynx(es)", was a region east of Lake Prespa in Upper Macedonia, covered with wooded mountains and fertile plains. It was probably named after the earliest tribe attested in written history that inhabited there, the Lynkestai (the Lynkestians). However, it is also possible that the migrant community that finally settled in the region began to call their location by the name of its most common beast, and they were later known by this name.

Archaeology, on the other hand, reveals that the Lynkestis region might have been inhabited long before what ancient writers could tell. The earliest evidence indicating the presence of certain local tribes dates back to the end of the Mycenaean era in the Late Bronze Age, namely c. 1200-1100 BCE. Archaeological finds include pieces of typical Macedonian matt-painted vessels with concentric circles alongside foreign artifacts from distant regions such as Cyprus. This, coupled with Macedonian-style ware found in Boetia, suggests extensive and dynamic trade networks and cultural interactions within the region.

Historical records about the Lynkestians are sparse, and the existing pieces suggest that their community proper, under a verifiable basileus (monarch), began to form no earlier than the mid-7th century BCE. According to the 1st-century BCE Greek geographer Strabo, the local tribes of Upper Macedonia were often ruled by foreigners, who, in the case of the Lynkestians, were descendants of a Corinthian clan, the Bacchiads (7.7.8). They took their name from Bacchis (r. 926-891 BCE), a later successor of Aletes, who was the last Dorian king of Corinth (overthrown in 1074 BCE). The Bacchiads continued to rule Corinth until 784 BCE, when their final king, Telestes, was assassinated by two members of a different Bacchiad faction, Arieus and Perantas (Herodotus 5.92; Pausanias 2.4). Following this regicide, Corinth adopted an oligarchic system of government led by the prytaneis (executive authorities), a polemarchos (commander-in-chief), and a council of elders.

Bronze Figurine of Infant Hercules Killing Serpents

Nathalie Choubineh (CC BY-NC-SA)

Politically, the rule of a minority group rarely receives positive commentary in ancient texts, and the oligarchy of the Bacchiads is no exception. Herodotus (5.92B) describes the Bacchiads as harsh and autocratic, for example, restricted to marrying within their own clan. However, one of their women, Labda, was born with crooked legs and could not find a husband among the Bacchiads. She was eventually given to an outsider from Petra, although this was likely a different city from the famous one in modern-day Jordan. When Labda gave birth to a son, the Oracle at Delphi prophesied that he would become a great leader. Fearing this, the Bacchiads sought to kill the child. Nevertheless, he survived when his mother hid him in her private chest, from which he got his name, Cypselus, meaning the "chest" or "box". In 655 BCE, Cypselus successfully overthrew the Bacchiad oligarchy and expelled them from Corinth. The exiled Bacchiads moved to Corcyra (modern-day Corfu), and some chose to travel further, eventually becoming rulers of the Lynkestian tribe in Upper Macedonia.

Continue reading...

[lovely-p-issues]

I have this fanfiction idea for times when my English will become acceptable: (it was in my drafts for months and tbh if I didn't post it today like this, with mistakes and stupid parts, I wouldn't have posted it at all, so, sorry ig)

Book 1: The war

How it all started

Let's make Azulon not madly-evil, but just regular-size-evil: he didn't plan to kill Zuko, because it's a stupid idea to get rid of your possible heir, he just wanted to take a son from Ozai - so he decided to make Zuko Iroh's heir, de facto making him Iroh's son (let's not focus on formality, just assume that you can switch your fathers if you are highborn enough)

(Zuko's life isn't in danger, so Ursa doesn't kill Azulon and he'll be ruling at least to the end of that book)

It may seem a great idea (especially in comparison with killing Zuko) but we can't forget that Iroh just lost a son and is still in grief, absolutely not ready to take care of another kid. He still needs to learn how to find a new path and calm his spirit and now he needs to do it with Zuko around him.

Iroh decides to take Zuko with him for his journey - Azulon approves this, seeing his son (and heir) needs to learn how to live after losing Lu Ten and thinking that Iroh may finally teach Zuko some actual fire bending

"I do not want to want to leave, Azula. I'm sorry, little sister."

"Whatever, Zuzu. At least you won't be distracting me from my lessons. Finally, something good comes from this whole fuss around you."

(In fact, she's not happy. Not at all)

______

At this point, Iroh is not yet the nice old man you know from ATLA. He's a broken man, trying to find a purpose in his life, triggered by Zuko's alikeness to Lu Ten and tired of being imposed on things like taking care of a teenager.

He's not Ozai, he's not cruel or even just bad, he just can't force himself to care.

They don't really talk, only sometimes to establish a plan for their further journey. The worst moments are when Iroh calls Zuko Lu Ten's name and then suddenly stops, looking at him in shock. After that kind of incidents, they stay silent for days.

Zuko starts to blame himself for being, well, alive, when his much better cousin is dead. He convinces himself it would be better if he died and Lu Ten lived.

Zuko spends most of his time alone. He hates making Iroh sad and upset so he chooses to stay away. He doesn't know what this all thing with White Lotus, he just likes the idea of his uncle/formal-dad having friends.

Yet, they travel all around the world and for the first time in his life Zuko sees what sharing progress and civilization by Fire Nation looks like. And he doesn't like that.

He's still loyal to his family, so he doesn't believe that his grandfather knows what is happening.

He decides that he needs to make a proper report (soul of writer, ya know).

He makes notes and talks with people, even if he hates how awkward it is. He believes that it's necessary to help them.

I think it's a wonderful idea to see Zuko interviewing - I mean, investigating-

Zuko's raport list - random traders complaining about the difficulty of staying afloat, - migrants who are fleeing war or have lost their homes to fighting, prisoners of war (this doesn't go down too well, thank goodness Zuko is still a kid and his passion seems adorable so no one kills him), - strange ladies in nice outfits who are paid by horrible men for no one knows what, - malnourished scarred soldiers of the Fire Nation, - children of the Earth Kingdom who teach him their stupid game (once he understood the rules, it wasn't THAT stupid, but still), - crazy old ladies, who won't stop pinching his cheeks, - a young girl with a scar on her face who didn't want to tell him much, but Zuko knew what accidental burns looked like and this wasn't one of them, - a group of artists whose theatre burned down after they refused to perform plays approved by the Fire Nation authorities, - a mother who asks him if he knows what happened to her son who was an earth bender and one day. .. just didn't come home

But we all know that Zuko always prefered to act than think. Pretty often Sometimes he disappears for a night. With him disappears an old, theatre mask.

Son came home and left with his mom. Someone left some gold for the soldiers to buy food. Someone bought the most useless things from traders. Someone left burn ointment made by someone who must have grown up surrounded by fire, on the doorstep of the poor girl. And many other, strange things happened.

Of course no one suspects anything or anyone. Trust me. Not a single soul.

______

Zuko is still training but can't even be angry enough to make a big fire. He's just frustrated and that makes him choke with smoke more than anything.

But with every other day, he feels worse. He gets letters from Azula who started to receive more attention from their mother since Zuko was away. When Ozai's influence is limited, she becomes a little more normal. She's still sharp as a knife and dangerous, but feeling loved by both her parents (even if Oazi is more focused on trying to control her and transform her into a weapon) decreases her psychopathic behaviour.

"Mom asked me to take care of your stupid turtle ducks, dum dum"

She thinks he will be happy hearing that she spends time with their mom, and Zuko, honestly, is happy. It's just-

"Am I even still her son since I'm Uncle Iroh's heir?"

-where is his place now?

For the first time in days, he feels an actual rage. And just like this, his fire bending becomes hundreds of times better, even unhinged and dangerous.

Iroh sees this while coming back from meditation (or whatever) and in a second feels that something is wrong.

He reaches out to Zuko, offering him some advice and lessons, but Zuko, a 13-year-old, harmfully lonely and practically neglected at this point prince, can't hold back anymore:

"YOU WANT TO TEACH ME AFTER MONTHS OF IGNORING ME? YOU'RE JUST LIKE FATHER, HE LOOKS AT US ONLY WHEN WE ARE ABOVE EVERYONE ELSE! WHY DIDN'T YOU HELP ME WHEN I COULD NOT HOLD A LITTLE FLAME IN MY HANDS? I DON'T NEED YOUR STUPID ADVICE NOW! YOU WEREN'T THAT WISE WHEN YOU LOST BA SING SE AND GOT LU TEN KILLED"

Iroh sters at him calmly for a few seconds.

"You are right. I wasn't. I'm trying to do better. If you change your mind about training, you know where to find me."

Zuko comes to his Uncle by night.

They don't really train. They drink tea instead.

And it becomes a habit.

After a few days, they start to actually train.

They need to breathe a lot. It's too much for Zuko, but Iroh is rather stubborn about this one.

After a few weeks, for the first time in his life, Zuko feels that fire bending is soothing and just pleasant. It feels like home.

It can't last forever. Of course.

______

They stayed for a long time in the Earth Kingdom. One day Zuko sees Ba Sing Se and vast fields of previous battles, trampled, dry land and piles of burnt bodies.

It's not the work of some mad general or bunch of scared soldiers fighting for their lives. It's his chubby nice tea-loving uncle's work. This is not an accident, an accidental casualty of war. They are the pride of the Fire Nation. This is their honour. This is their civilisation and progress.

That's what his family is doing to the world. Purposely.

Something is breaking inside him. Thoughts of mourning for Lu Ten. No one has ever mentioned all those bodies, the people who died here too. His uncle, his good uncle, his father, the pride of his Nation, only cried over his son. He never even hesitated to burn to a crisp anyone who defended his home. Against them.

Zuko isn't very smart, as we know. He screams a lot at Iroh. And then he leaves.

He thinks to himself, that Lu Ten, who actually fought in those battles would understand that it was wrong. But Lu Ten would also know what to do about it.

He wanders for days, trying to avoid people, untill

He crushes into something.

"Why are you running, flame-boy? Your pants are on fire?" *wild laugh*

And this is how Prince Zuko met Lady Toph Beifong.

[apenitentialprayer]

Pope Francis’s January 2025 Prayer Intention: For the Right to an Education

Good Father, You want all of us to contribute to building a better world, creating bridges instead of walls.

Today, we especially pray for migrants, refugees, and those affected by wars, whose rights to education have been threatened, that they may be respected and protected.

Following the example of the Sacred Heart of Your Son, Jesus, help us to cultivate welcoming societies, promoting and integrating those who had to leave their support networks out of necessity.

Give us Your Spirit of boldness, so that our words and actions responsibly strengthen the safety of those we are called to embrace because of their inherent dignity. Amen.

La leçon de catéchisme, Une Petite Histoire, by Louis Emile Adan

[mariacallous]

HANAU, Germany—On a fall day in 2022, Serpil Temiz Unvar was sitting in her kitchen when, through the window, she saw an older man and a German shepherd standing outside. Assuming the man was a neighbor, Unvar opened her window to greet him. She was bewildered when he began asking her increasingly strange and aggressive questions: Are you Kurdish? Why did you leave your homeland? How do you have enough money to live here and to go on so many vacations back in Turkey?

The experience left Unvar, 51, deeply unsettled. After the man left, she called several friends who confirmed what she already suspected: The man with the German shepherd wasn’t just a neighbor. He was also the father of her son’s killer.

Unvar’s son Ferhat, then 23, was one of nine people shot and killed in a violent rampage targeting immigrants on Feb. 19, 2020. The shooter, Tobias R., opened fire at a bar in Hanau’s center before driving across town, where he shot a man who had followed him from the first bar by car. Then, Tobias R.—identified by his first name and last initial in keeping with German privacy laws—walked into the Arena Bar & Cafe, showering patrons in a spray of bullets, Ferhat among them. The shooter then drove to his mother’s house, killed her, and turned the gun on himself.

The shootings shook Hanau, a city of just over 100,000 people 15 miles east of Frankfurt. The city is among Germany’s most diverse: Nearly 30 percent of Hanau’s population does not hold a German passport, according to recent city statistics, around twice the national average. German media reported that Tobias R. had posted a manifesto on his website shortly before the attack, which authorities described as demonstrating a “deeply racist attitude.”

The Hanau attack became a symbol of Germany’s struggle to extinguish far-right violence and anti-immigrant ideology. Then-Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the attack, warning, “Racism is a poison. Hate is a poison.” But soon, news crews departed. Politicians who had offered solemn condolences moved on to other matters, and the country went into lockdown as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold.

Unvar felt a growing sense of rage at the government’s lack of response to the Hanau attack, she told me when I sat down with her in March. Later that year, she became an activist: She founded an educational initiative aimed at fighting racism in schools; testified on the Hanau killings in the state parliament of Hesse, where Hanau is located; and worked with the family members of other victims to pressure the government to take action to prevent future racist attacks.

But honoring Ferhat’s memory has made Unvar a target herself. The man’s 2022 visit to her home wasn’t an isolated event; Hans-Gerd R. came back that night and the next day. After Unvar filed a restraining order against him, he started sending her letters. “If you as a migrant hate the land of the German people, then please leave it, and quickly, and please go back to where you came from,” he wrote in one missive. The harassment and stalking are still going on, she told me.

Unvar’s fight against racist ideas about who belongs in Germany has laid bare how deeply ingrained this ideology remains in parts of the country—particularly as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party continues to creep up in the polls. “We want to trust this country, but this country also needs to protect us,” she said. “But how? I don’t know.”

The Hanau murders came on the heels of a string of other deadly racist attacks in Germany. Less than six months earlier, in October 2019, another right-wing extremist showed up at a synagogue in the eastern city of Halle on Yom Kippur intent on murdering Jewish worshippers; he ultimately killed two people outside the synagogue. Earlier that year, a local politician in the Hessian town of Kassel, Walter Lübcke, was shot and killed by a right-wing extremist who was unhappy over the politician’s welcoming policy toward refugees.

Hanau commanded particular attention because it was a targeted assault on people with “immigration backgrounds,” the official term Germany’s Federal Statistical Office uses to describe those who were born to at least one parent who was not a German citizen. German authorities also faced intense scrutiny for their handling of the incident.

The killer had been allowed to purchase a gun despite past indications that he had a mental illness, which authorities did not adequately investigate before issuing him a weapons permit. The Hanau police were slow to respond to emergency calls about the shootings because they were chronically understaffed. An investigation by regional authorities also revealed that 13 of the officers who responded to the attack were part of a police unit that was later disbanded due to a scandal over membership in right-wing chat groups.

In the Arena Bar, where Ferhat was killed, an emergency door had been locked to keep patrons from fleeing during regular police raids on the venue to look for illegal drugs. A damning investigation by the U.K.-based group Forensic Architecture featured in an exhibition in Frankfurt two years ago found that all five of those killed in the bar could have survived had the door been unlocked.

Late last year, after years of testimony and hearings, a Hessian parliamentary committee investigating the authorities’ response to the attack issued its final report. In 642 pages, it details the various security failures that contributed to the loss of life that day. But without concrete consequences for those responsible for the security failures in Hanau, victims’ family members say it’s hard to believe anything will meaningfully change in how Germany handles right-wing and racist terrorism.

None of the officers or authorities involved in Hanau’s security failures were disciplined or removed from their posts explicitly due to their handling of the situation. Although the Hessian parliamentary committee’s report outlined areas where German law enforcement had fallen short, those who lost family members that day felt its recommendations—for more stringent checks before issuing weapons permits, to develop anti-racism programs in schools, and to better communicate with families of victims—offered little more than lip service.

Armin Kurtovic, whose son Hamza was killed in the attacks, described the report as a “slap in the face” to the victims’ families. “I was convinced something like this wasn’t possible in this country,” he told German broadcaster Hessenschau late last year. “But the more I get involved and the more I read, the more I see: This is continuity.”

Police officers’ handling of the investigation was infuriating to Serpil Temiz Unvar, but it was hardly surprising to her and others who have tracked the history of far-right attacks in Germany. The authorities’ seeming blind spot for this kind of violence—and a lack of concrete action to prevent it—extends back far beyond Hanau.

The most famous case of recent far-right violence in Germany was that of the National Socialist Underground (NSU), a neo-Nazi terrorist cell that killed 10 people, mostly immigrants, across Germany over the course of 13 years, evading police notice. In their investigations of each murder, the police fell back on racist stereotypes of immigrants, assuming that those slain had been involved in the drug trade or victims of immigrant-on-immigrant crime; the German media dubbed them “kebab murders.”

“A nation that liked to think it had atoned for its racist past [was] forced to admit that violent prejudice was a thing of the present,” American journalist Jacob Kushner wrote in his recently published book on the NSU murders, Look Away, adding that “in an age of unparalleled mass migration, the targets of white terrorism are increasingly immigrants.”

When I arrived at the offices of Unvar’s organization, the Ferhat Unvar Educational Initiative, in March, the first thing I saw was a black-and-white mural of Ferhat. Wearing a cap and looking forward, his face appears next to the words “We are only dead when we are forgotten.” Ferhat had posted the phrase on social media before his death. It has now become his mother’s guiding principle as she builds an organization to honor his memory.

Unvar grew up in a Kurdish city in southern Turkey, near the border with Syria. Her father moved to Paris, and she eventually joined him. She moved to Hanau when she married a Kurdish man there, with whom she had four children, including Ferhat, before later separating.

In the months after her son’s killing, Unvar said she agonized over what she could have done to make his life better while he was still alive. She thought about the discrimination he faced in school as a student with an immigration background and found herself wracked with guilt that she hadn’t fought harder for him: pushing school officials harder to allow him on a more ambitious track of study, for example, or urging them to stop the discrimination he faced from teachers and other students.

Ferhat was gone, but many other children with similar backgrounds faced those same tough odds at school—and there was still a way to help them, Unvar remembered thinking. Nearly nine months after the attack, on Ferhat’s birthday in November 2020, Unvar officially founded her organization, which seeks to combat racism and discrimination in the German education system, giving talks and holding trainings and workshops to empower young people struggling against systemic racism and to educate teachers about the challenges that students from immigrant communities face.

Her first donation was from a group of Ferhat’s friends, who handed her an envelope with 125 euros they had raised together. She was touched and buoyed by the gesture. “I said, OK, I couldn’t help Ferhat, but I can help them through Ferhat,” she said.

The organization has since scaled up significantly. Donations and grants helped Unvar hire staff and spread the word about their anti-discrimination workshops. Some are for school-age children and youth, giving them a safe space to talk about their experiences of discrimination or racism; others are for teachers and educators, training them to root out racism in their classrooms; yet more are for adults in other professions, including airport staff at Frankfurt Airport. Along with Initiative 19 February Hanau, an organization run by the family members of several of the Hanau victims, Unvar’s initiative won the Aachen Peace Prize in 2021.

“I never had it in my head to do something like this,” said Unvar, reflecting on how her life changed after the attack. Sitting on a black couch in one corner of the organization’s big event space, with posters depicting the organization’s logo and events on the walls and brochures for her training programs on tables across the room, Unvar was animated as she described how she and others have built the initiative into what it is today. At the same time, she said, so “many people instrumentalize [the attack], not just politicians but also others. That hurt me deeply.”

Unvar told me that she hopes to create a cross-border support network for families of victims of terrorism. In Greece, she met Magda Fyssa, the mother of Pavlos Fyssas, a young anti-fascist musician murdered by members of the neo-Nazi organization Golden Dawn. She has also traveled to Norway, Spain, and France to meet with other families of terrorist victims and with organizations that combat terrorism. Unvar spoke with local activists and experts about ways to collaborate in their fight against violent extremism and learn from one another’s experiences.

“Regardless of which country I was in, I never felt alone,” she said. “I saw how many other people are also fighting in this direction against terror, for humanity, for human rights—that gave me strength.”

But Unvar admitted that it can be difficult to press forward with her activism while feeling that no matter how hard she works, or how hard others work, her efforts are unlikely to change a country unwilling to address its shortcomings when it comes to welcoming and safeguarding immigrant communities.

In January, the German investigative news outfit Correctiv released a report about a secret meeting between right-wing extremist leaders near Berlin, including members of the far-right AfD. Those present discussed a “remigration” plan to deport millions of people with immigrant backgrounds, including those with German passports.

Unvar said the national outrage over the Correctiv report—and the millions of people who turned out to protest across the country in the weeks that followed—gave her hope that the German population at large finally understood the scale of its problem with right-wing extremism. “It’s good that [the story] came out because then people like us can see how big and important a problem it is,” she said. “The racists—they’re not letting up. We’ve seen the danger is there. … We need to really hold together against the right wing and against terror.”

Still, the AfD continues to gain ground. Riding a wave of support for far-right parties across Europe, the party gained 5 percentage points in June’s European Parliament elections, coming in second—ahead of all three of Germany’s governing parties—with 16 percent of the vote. The AfD then won its first state-level victory in the eastern German state of Thuringia on Sept. 1, taking 32.8 percent of the vote; in neighboring Saxony, it came in a close second to the center-right Christian Democrats, with 30.6 percent of the vote. A third eastern state, Brandenburg, votes on Sept. 22; the AfD is leading the polls there.

The far-right party is also a growing threat in Unvar’s home state: In the years since the attack, Hesse’s political landscape has shifted to the right. The AfD won 18.4 percent to become the second-largest party in last fall’s state elections, an increase of 5.3 percentage points from the previous election in 2018.

In February, around the anniversary of the Hanau attack, Hans-Gerd R. sent Unvar another letter. Another one followed this spring.

Hans-Gerd R. has been cited dozens of times for harassing Unvar and other victims’ family members and for repeatedly violating a restraining order against Unvar. He was taken into custody when he defied the restraining order and showed up outside her house again in 2023. He was also briefly sent to jail that year for failing to pay his fines for the various citations he had received related to that harassment.

But despite the restraining order, the police told Unvar that they can’t do anything about the letters that keep arriving at her house: There are no laws in Germany against sending missives to someone via the postal system, regardless of the intolerance they contain.

Hanau Mayor Claus Kaminsky described Hans-Gerd. R’s harassment of Unvar and other victims’ family members as “subtle, almost diabolical” terrorism in a 2023 interview with the German broadcaster ARD, saying he wished the man would leave Hanau. But he reiterated that there is little the authorities can do beyond the penalties they have already put into place. “Of course, it would be best if the father left the city, if he changed his place of residence,” Kaminsky said. “That might even be better for him. But there is no legal way to force this.”

Toward the end of our time together, I asked Unvar whether she was afraid that Hans-Gerd R. would escalate from letters and leering outside her kitchen window to something worse. Unvar’s youngest son, Mirza, who is 11, had just come into the office and sat down next to her on the black leather sofa. She wrapped her arms around him as he looked up shyly.

“I’m not afraid, no. I really have zero fear—what should I be afraid of? What can happen? I’ve already lost my dearest son,” she said.

Ultimately, as she told me repeatedly throughout the course of our conversation, her fight isn’t about her. The educational initiative, the connections abroad, the advocacy, the long hours of volunteer work—it’s about children like Ferhat who struggle to get ahead in school because of the color of their skin; it’s about Mirza, sitting on the couch next to her, being able to grow up feeling safe.

“The killer’s father is still a danger to my family,” she said. “I don’t fear for myself, but I have children.”

[xvince-heliotropex]

Mordecai and Viktor, their debit to Atlas.

Mordecai got himself in a mess for reasons I think most people would understand. His involvement with his last employer didn't end so well. This ultimately put Mordecai right to Atlas.

I have a theory about the day Atlas and Mordecai met.

Atlas was supposed to kill Mordecai.

Atlas spared Mordecai that day because he was useful. You mean some kid with oversized rags for clothing robbed him! Mordecai was more useful alive than dead. Atlas grew a liking to Mordecai like a father and son over time...

Mordecai learned fast and was pretty damn good at near anything Atlas assigned him to do.

But what about Viktor??

Bobby goes on to explain to Ivy how Atlas bailed Viktor out of jail after the labor worker riots. Atlas got him a good damn lawyer and bought Viktor out of jail. The condition Viktor had to work off his debit to Atlas...

Just how much debit was there?

Did Viktor even know how much debit he owed Atlas.

With the years of back breaking labor and helping Atlas build his underground empire, he woren Viktor to the bone. With the war, riots, and now this. Viktor was back at it again with the blood shed. Something he was forced to comply with to pay back his debits.

Why wasn't Mordecai in debit.

It was a different kind of debit, the one where Mordecai could math his way out if he made Atlas more money, and I believe he did. Bonus, he was a sharp shooter. Making both Viktor and Mordecai the perfect side kicks in his growing empire of crime.

I do believe over the years with Viktor and Mordecai as partners in crime. Mordecai learned from Viktor, and maybe a part of him felt bad for Viktor. He had to leave his wife and child behind and was treated badly for being a working migrant who fought in the great war.

Mordecai, being a migrant himself, grew up dirt poor and had to leave his own family behind.

I believe those two bonded over their shared pain. The difference is that Mordecai was given golden boy treatment with Atlas. Viktor was treated very differently....

Mordecai felt for Viktor.

When Mordecai is having his past bought up to by serafine, he remarks on her with this.

She wouldn't understand anything.

His deep feelings twords Viktor was something most people even Atlas could never understand.

Atlas death affected everyone.

Mordecai having the urge to seek who killed him is his own choice. However, Viktors debit to Atlas had ended, his debit to the lackadaisy had ended.

Viktor had lost everything.

Retirement wasn't on his mind because where could he go? But he may still have felt he still owed Atlas.

Mordecai tried reasoning with Viktor to retire, but I could see this becoming an aggressive argument between them. Kneecapping Viktor was the only thing. Mordecai did so to save Viktor, to keep Ivy and Elsa from harm. He had people who could care for him.

Viktor's debit had been paid.

(Throwing this out there)

I wanna believe Mordecai planned to keep Viktor financially well. Like he did with his own family.

Viktor could retire and live a comfortable life. Something Mordecai would have wanted him to do as his debit was already paid off many years ago. Mordecai, having his friend live in comfort with no worries, never having to work another day would have been his goal. Mordecai would send him money and check on him from time to time. (At least I think that was Mordecai's plan he hoped Viktor would agree to... but it didn't end as he hoped)

[yuri-is-online]

I really love Sebek and Epel and Deuce

Sebek's Yutu would be a tad hilarious but also kinda sad because his dad MAY OR MAY NOT BE ALIVE because man

Malleus :(

Epel's Yutu tho......

I saw a fic where Epel can use a gun (mentioned in passing) so I'm imagining that while Epel's Yutu is a great farmer just like his dad

He's also got a rifle :)

You have given me a vision... the one thing Epel! Yutu wants... is to be a cowboy. Can you picture a baby who looks a lot like Epel with a little cowboy hat and boots, he'd be so cute. Also, I was having brain rot and decided to introduce one of the friends lovely @archetypal-archivist helped create for Yutu! Please check out their Azul! Yutu posting it's very good and I love it sososo much. Unfortunately this post does not feature Epel riding on a horse, I'll have to fix that sometime. And get back to Sebek later.

notes: they/them used for Yuu, context on the fyuuture kid au can be found here and here. For more fyuutre kid au, please check out the series section of my masterlist.

Yutu's earliest memory is of apples.

His parent had him in a sling as they worked, picking and packing the fruit as they softly hummed a lullaby to soothe his grumpy mood. He never was able to get over how big an orchard could be, even when he was old enough to walk under the trees and play with the other workers children something about that sea of greenery just felt magical. Like if he really focused the outside world would cease to be and he could wake up in a land of nothing but him, Yuu, and the acceptance you can only ever find in nature.

But that's not how things ever went. When he opened his eyes Yuu would pack him up and they would move to follow the harvest until the winters shut things down and it was back to that god awful place Yuu had been born in. He was glad to move away when Yuu found them a permanent place to stay when he turned 10, gladder still for it to be a farm even if it didn't have the orchards he loved so much. The old couple that hired Yuu on were impressed with how deeply the single parent cared for their son, and how eager the son was to to help his parent. It was the perfect set up for an ideal, if difficult, childhood that would nurture Yutu in to a strong young man.

But this isn't the happy family future, it's the bad one. And things were always going to go wrong sooner rather than later.

Mixing things up from the other posts, Yuu feels particularly drawn to farms and farm work when thinking about Yutu's father and ends up crisscrossing their country as a migrant farm worker until they're offered a full time position as a farm hand they happily accept in the hopes of stabilizing Yutu's education. Yutu genuinely loved his childhood and grew up having a deep respect for manual labor and agriculture. He assumes Yuu must have met his father while traveling and had a brief relationship that produced him, but accepts that whatever accident caused Yuu's memory loss will keep him from ever really knowing if that was the case. Yuu impresses on him that his dad was a hard worker with a bit of a temper who never backed down from a challenge. They tease him that he gets his "cute" side from his Pappa, which Yutu likes about as much as Epel probably would.

He's doing his time in the short king mines, Yutu won't hit his growth spurt until around 17 and how tall he gets is from that is up to you, but if he stays short just know he is not happy about it at all. Unless someone brings up the fact he could probably have a career as a professional jockey and then he will maybe think about it as being a blessing. Maybe. Yutu learned to ride pretty early on in life and he loves doing it, but he doesn't really want to race horses. He'd much rather be a cowboy with his own little farm and a family of his own with a big orchard to tend to. He's got big dreams of one day being able to introduce his partner to Yuu and give them a nice place to retire to.

Plays outside by himself a lot. There are some kids at school he befriends, but a lot of their parents are wary about letting their kids hang out with him at his house. Yuu is seen as a bit weird, even if the old couple they work for is well liked most people in town know their kids who really dislike Yuu and Yutu for reasons that escape Yutu but his parent seems to understand. "They think they're protecting their parents." As Yutu grows he thinks it has to be more about money, he and Yuu love working the farm but their kids all have different jobs they got college degrees for so they probably want to sell the land when their parents die. He's right about that last bit of course, and willing to let Yuu give them some charity but he doesn't think they care about their parents near as much as he cares about his. Otherwise they'd at least be nice to someone their parents considered part of the family and not ship their mom off to a nursing home before their dad was even in the ground. Or evict the outcasts they considered part of the family too.

You have no idea what to do as you pack up your few belongings, Yutu can tell that you are stressed and it makes him mad. He tries to focus on helping, taping things up and dragging them out to the beat up car as you listlessly stare at the kitchen sink. After he moves the second box he notices you're not packing anymore and goes to check what's wrong and his instincts begin screaming something's wrong. Your eyes are unfocused, staring down at a framed picture he remembers well.

"Do you ever think about how all of this is my fault?" You sound a world a way and Yutu guesses that you are, the photo of a younger you with a toddler him in a sling under the apple orchards stares back at you both questioning just where is it you plan to go from here. It can't be back on the open road, school is about to start and the entire point of staying here was to make things better for him. Yutu is about to ask you the same thing when he hears the wind pick up, and is that a carriage he hears? "If I hadn't forgotten you, then maybe I could have found a way back..."

"What in the goddamn-" Yutu is cut off by the glass being blown out and he dives on instinct to cover you as the world spins around him.

"I'm real sorry Epel, you don't have to forgive me but... even after all this time. I still love you... I still love you and how sad is that..."

Good news, Yutu doesn't have to sleep and a shitty motel tonight. Bad news, he's in the middle of some fancy private school shit and his parent is flat lining on their floor. He starts screaming bloody murder until Crewel comes and scoops him up and ushers him off to the hospital wing where they have a very tense conversation. Yes, he does belong here actually he was supposed to have been born in this world with it's magic, monsters, and annoying private school uniforms he finds himself shoved into and marched back out to that fuck ass mirror to hear what dormitory he belongs in. The fuck is a Pom-e-fee-or and why does that girl with the 2000s throwback hairstyle look like she wants to kill him for asking that?

That girl is the Vice Warden of his new house and she absolutely hates him on sight. Like, she's heard about Epel before, duh who hasn't? He performed in the VDC with the Vil Schoenheit and he had like a fun Magicam account where he promoted his family's apple farm. Didn't Yuu tell him anything about that? Ugh guess she'll have to do it and hey why is hE RUNNING AWAY DOES ELEGANCE MEAN NOTHING TO YOU?!?!?! WHERE IS YOUR POMEFIORE DIGNITY YUTU DON'T THINK SHE CAN'T CATCH YOU BECAUSE SHE'S GOT HEELS ON BITCH!!!

It's exactly where Epel's Pome Pride was when he first joined to dorm, down a drain someplace because Yutu thinks his dorm is the pits. Growing up like he did made him starkly aware of just how different people with money see people like him and instilled a deep hatred of people who make their personality their skincare routine. He thinks the way rich people spend their money is boring and hates that his dorm mates are spending their precious time in a literal apocalypse doing their make up and hair. His Vice Warden is irritated with him and asks what he does then when he can't control the circumstances around him and Yutu goes to snap back at her but finds he doesn't really have an answer.

"Have you even tried taking care of yourself before?" Peyton is looking over his hair in genuine disgust, it's different than the resting bitch face she usually has. Yutu has seen enough of both to be able to tell the difference now.

"I mean I don't not take care of it." Because Yuu had tried to get him to do things like a skincare routine before, and come to think of it they had phrased the reasoning much like Peyton is now. Take good care of yourself. His Vice Warden rolls her eyes and turns towards her vanity, the amount of homemade products and their labels immediately tells him they aren't all for her hair type.

"Yeah but you don't do it well. Look I'm not crazy about bougie stuff either but like, you just feel so much better when you put the effort into yourself and not what other people say about you." She hesitates before meeting his eyes in the mirror and adding. "Trust me, I'd know." And Yutu believes her.

It has got to be hard being a vocaloid stan in a dorm with a literal ballroom.

Yutu really does belong in Pomefiore. He's great with alchemy and magical plants, just like his dad Crewel is all to happy to tell him. They talk a bit about his dad and the situation in the Shaftlands, how no one has heard from Epel since the blot took over and it's insanely difficult to get anywhere near there since the Phantom Hunter makes your life a living hell if you try. Most people think he's dead, but Crewel isn't so sure. He thinks that the various communities across Mt. Moln could easily sustain themselves if they barricaded against the blot monsters, but they also don't have a lot of mages so actually defending themselves could be difficult. Then again this does mean that the stronger phantoms would be less interested, so who knows. In the climate of the day though it is probably best to brace for the worst.

The sports clubs still exist in a less intense manner than before to give people different ways to relax and things to do. Since Yutu loves horses he tried the equestrian club out before deciding it was way too "fussy" and settling in to the board game club since he never really had enough friends to actually play them with before. It's a lot of fun to compare all the ways these games are similar to ones he knows about from Yuu's world and yet completely different. It helps nurse his sadness over losing Yuu since they were the only one who ever played these sorts of games with him and he has fond memories of how they totally never let him win.

He takes a great deal of comfort in knowing his dad had similar struggles with his dorm placement and is overjoyed to learn about the family farm! He wishes he was there right now and drives Peyton absolutely bonkers telling her all about the tests he's run on the soil around campus, how he thinks blot might effect plant growth, and the ways he can think of to combat it. She's crying please just go talk to the Ignyhide kids they totally care about that stuff probably! His lectures end up being useful when they're finally unable to avoid going out on missions any longer as understanding the signs of heavy pollution makes the stronger phantoms easier to track.

It's a realization Epel has also had, secluded in his little village as he is. Harveston has heavily fortified it's position and bulked up it's population with the survivors of other surrounding communities. They have been gifted the ability to endure, but Epel doesn't know if their community will survive long term unless the phantoms are dealt with. The surviving members of his family from the Queendom told awful stories when they retreated here, if that's what's going on in the rest of the world he imagines S.T.Y.X. is probably involved so he tries to keep his eyes peeled for anything like their tech. He manages to find a busted drone in the snow one day and brings it home to work on it whenever he gets a spare moment. It helps him ignore his grief over losing Yuu, his child, and contact with all of his friends. When he's focused on not breaking the drone further, he can convince himself he's either worked through that already or that once he fixes it he will have everyone he lost back at home with him where they belong.

Unit 7954 cackles back to life with a stream of what sounds like a stream of curse words, but Idia has certainly never heard any of them before. He knows that joyful cackle though and he thinks he must have stayed up too long again because he as to be hallucinating. There is no way he's actually looking at Epel, but the whooping before he shyly calms himself down reassures him he is. The two frantically talk about the situation in the Shaftlands and the number of survivors before Idia smacks himself and remembers to mention Yutu's existence. Epel falls off his chair in surprise at the news and Idia is worried he's killed the man before he hears his sobbing. Breaking through the front lines of the Fairest Queen might be impossible, but a video call now that Epel has fixed the drone isn't and Ortho is nice enough to set one up.

"Sevens yer big." Yutu feels like he's 10 feet tall when he hears the drawl of his father's voice. "Bigger than I was at yer age I reckon." The man is certainly taller than him, with lavender waves he's tied neatly back to let him see better under his thick winter clothing. His smile is so warm and friendly Yutu wishes he could dive through the screen and be there with him right this instant. "'s ok if ya don't know where to start with the questions, I bet you got a bunch."

"Why'd you marry Yuu?" It's not what he expected to ask first. He wanted to talk about school, or ask something practical like tips about finding his unique magic or fighting monsters. But that was what he really wanted to know wasn't it? Why Yuu was so important, if he was important to this man and his different accent even after all these years. And the happy smile that relaxes his father screams that he is, it's as if he's shed years of stress and suffering just thinking about his parent.

"Be easier to list the reasons I didn't like them since there aren't any." Epel closes his eyes and thinks about that first moment he realized how much he liked you, tucked away studying in the library and bickering about how to do an assignment as he wondered why you were even there and if you thought he was cool at all. "Since Yuu was from another world a lot of us felt like they deserved a good home here, but that just meant I wanted to invite them over for the summer and stuff like that. Didn't mean I wanted to spend the rest of my life with them, that's what I thought at first anyway. But well, you know Yuu pretty well. They always somehow know where the good lies in even the worst of people. Or at least they knew where it was in me and made sure to believe in it right up until the last day I saw them." They both quiet at the thought of that, Yutu wondering if he should push further before Epel quietly adds. "I hope you know they'd be stupid proud of you for everything. Pomefiore isn't an easy dorm to be a part of but if you put in the work you'll really thrive there, and the both of us really believe you've got what it takes to do that yeah? If you'll let me speak on their behalf anyway."

"Of course you can." Yutu does his best not to cry, but Epel can tell it isn't going to work. "You- you miss them too after all." And isn't that the truth.

The plan to go back in time is decided on before the blockade around Harveston can be breached. Epel gives Yutu as much information as he can about the past and what to expect before he goes, making him promise to hug the younger him at least once in the hopes the memory will somehow flow across time and he'll get a taste of what it's like to hold his son before he sends him off with a "good luck" and "kick their ass!" Even though neither of them fully know who is responsible just yet.

Epel! Yutu has an easier time adjusting to the past than a lot of the other Yutu's thanks to Epel's descriptions of people like- well mostly just his description of Rook. He still comes off as weird but in an endearing way as opposed to an "I need to run for my existence literally" type of way. Unfortunately his dad might have buried the memory of just how in his feelings and jealous he got about Yuu pre relationship. He's rolling his eyes and ignoring everything Yutu says because he wants to monopolize your attention and Yutu is honestly kind of living for it. He thinks it's super cool that his dad is willing to fight for Yuu's affections even though he could be considered to have no chance. He's short, more "cute" than he is "hot," and poor by a lot of people's standards. Sure, Yutu loves the farm life and Yuu must have to raise him in it but if that isn't how you grew up he's super surprised you chose Epel. Surprised and grateful because Yutu really loves his dad.

That love gets through to Epel somewhat, he's super confused as to why the new guy thinks he's so cool AND why he wants to complain about it. Isn't that what he wants? To be seen as cool, strong, and reliable? Well sure but he wants you to see him that way more than anything, it'd make him so happy if he had your approval. He's happy to have your friendship but- well it would just be nice to have you around forever. He's going to miss you when you go back to your world.

Yutu considers re joining the board games club to get close to Idia, but sees Azul and moonwalks his way out of there in a move that definitely doesn't put him on either of their radars and announces to Yuu that he will be starting a book club instead. He does this so he has a reasonable excuse to spend a bunch of time in the library and request access to various archives but Sebek joins since it meets once a week on Saturdays and railroads it into being like. An actual book club. They have other members too and Yutu hates it because he isn't super fond of wasting his time reading things unrelated to his mission but some of the stuff Sebek recommends is good he guesses.

Yutu thinks he's doing a good job of flying under the radar of suspicion, and to be fair Epel and Yuu are a bit too caught up in each other to notice the stranger things about Yutu but Sebek is not and convinces them to surveil where he goes after the book club meetings. Grim is on board just because he's tired of watching Epel and Yuu make heart eyes at each other and he thinks he can get tuna out of it so they make a day of it. It turns out Yutu goes to Craneport every weekend without fail to meet up with... someone. He goes to an apartment building and it would be a bit too obvious if they followed him in there without more evidence (Yuu has to be the one to point this out because you know Sebek and Epel are ready to charge.) So they keep this up for a couple of weeks until one day Yutu cancels the book club meeting and leaves campus early. This time he heads towards the mines Yuu explored with Ace and Deuce for the mage stone that second night they were at NRC. There are several people there, and Yutu does something he's never done, not even around Yuu who he has described as a friend. He lets down his hood.

The shock of lavender that tumbles out from the hood has all three of you tripping over yourselves to cover your mouths. His facial expressions, mannerisms, and even the way he goes the pull his hair screams that he has to be related to Epel. He's admitted to being from your world, and the way he speaks, the shape and color of his eyes and the way he laughs have to come from you. Sebek isn't able to keep it in any more as he starts crying, then loudly denying he's crying, congratulating you on your marriage since you are a friend of the young master before yelling at Yutu for acting in a manner that could have brought dishonor to his parents.

All of this scares the phantom Yutu's friends were hunting out of hiding and forces everyone to fight it. Yutu is extremely flustered from Sebek's scolding but he is nowhere near as embarrassed as Epel who immediately starts taking it out on the phantom and cussing up a storm. It's one of the quicker fights Yutu has had with a blot monster, and he isn't really complaining when Epel drags him and Yuu into the Dwarf's Cottage for a chat.

"So I'm yer Pa, Yuu's m' spouse and ya didn't think to spit that out 'fer you went fighting shit fucks BECAUSE?" Epel is steaming mad, he's almost as red as Riddle which Yutu would be impressed by if he wasn't so embarrassed.

"Um. Cause I didn't think you would-"

"YER GODSDAMNED RIGHT I WOULDN'TA BELIEVED YA! At first anyway." Normal, or would it be fake? Neither Yutu supposes, calm Epel is back as he crosses his arms and really looks at him. "You look like me, and you sound like them. I bet there's things you can tell me about myself you'd have no way of knowing otherwise so why bother hiding yourself? Don't you want my help?"

"Our help." You speak up immediately and Epel nods, affirming what you said slightly embarrassed he let his insecurities forget that you were here too for a moment. Yutu doesn't answer immediately, instead he looks very firmly at the ground as if he would rather be anywhere else than admit what he's about to.

"... not if it means you both die. I- I don't think I can watch that happen again." And oh seven does that change the tone of the conversation, because what does he mean by again?

Yutu refuses to answer until he gets to hug Epel. He expects it to be awkward, but it isn't at all. His dad squeezes him so tightly Yutu is sure his future self has got to feel it as he slowly lays out his story about the bad future and how he thinks it got to be there. About growing up in Yuu's world and the pain of watching you die. Epel is mad as hell to hear about it and swears it won't happen and is halfway out the door before he even has time to process it. Everyone brings Sebek up to speed, who insists on informing the young master immediately; something everyone agrees is a good course of action given how Briar Valley was the first place they know of being effected.

Malleus is delighted that everyone agreed to invite him on their secret mission, but also deeply disturbed by what hears. As Briar Valley's King, it is his responsibility to make sure nothing like Yutu is describing happens for no other reason than it would harm his subjects, but he can't help but be personally insulted that whoever did this would rob his human friend of their happiness too. The only re-payment he requests is that when (not if) he saves the future that Epel and Yuu invite him to the wedding, baby shower, christening, and any other important milestone they have in their lives. It's an easy enough thing to agree to Epel thinks. He has the approval of Ace and Deuce already, so to have Malleus announce he accepts him as your man too? That's all of the family you've collected in this world so... it's not too much trouble to ask you to join his, right? He won't be tricked this time, promise. You will walk this life hand in hand until the eternal sleep takes you both, and that won't happen until Yutu is practically an old man himself. And you of all people should know what Epel can do when he sets his mind to it; he got you to fall in love with him after all, didn't he?

[ernycek]

new ocs, yayayy (I really cannot have enough of them, can't I?)

BLUE:

Lucian Millward-Sternberg

21 years old, cis male, aceflux biromantic

he is August's half-brother. he grew up aware of the fact that one of the richest people in the city is his father, which caused him to become greatly jealous of August, not knowing that their father is actually the cause of August's suffering. eventually Lucian started to make himself resemble August, as well as got himself involved in whatever charities and events he could, so that he could get his father's attention. it did not work. when he was 17, his mother married a man named William Sternberg, who went on to become the mayor of Moonrise Summit (during the current arc). Lucian got to meet August for the first time as the mayor expressed his support for the MGA after a few of its members (including August) were released from jail after unfair imprisonment. However, August found Lucian to be too obsessive and felt uncomfortable around him. around this time Lucian befriended a woman named Vera Faulkner, and when he briefly mentioned her in a conversation with August, the latter connected the dots, realizing that she may be the criminal the MGA was looking for. shortly after Vera sent Mercury to attack the half-brothers in fear of getting caught, but August's friends Horatio and Jules intervened in time, although Lucian was sent to hospital due to the sustained wounds. from that point on August attempted to fix their relationship, offering ways Lucian could get over his obsession, although this time August came off as too insistent and they failed to communicate again. eventually August decided to actually introduce Lucian to his father as a last resort. it proved August's suspicion that Mr Desrosiers would not have accepted Lucian as his son no matter how hard he tried.

GREEN:

Ophelia Nguy

26 years old, trans woman, bisexual

I don't actually have much lore for her yet. she is British-Vietnamese and a part of a British crime-fighting organization called The Visionaries, in which she is a medic. although she doesn't have a clear backstory, I imagine that she would have a stalker which would be part of some kind of gang, and she would eventually take advantage of her medical knowledge to kill him. but I'm not 100% sure that this is what I want to do with her character. she will however be an important part of her teammate Naina's character development as Naina is afraid of doctors because she was experimented on as a child, so she would slowly learn to trust and open up to Ophelia.

lastly,

Solène Durand

24 years old, cishet

she is Seychellois but moved to Paris for college, where she studied linguistics. she ended up joining an international organization that helped migrants, where she worked as an interpreter due to her knowledge of many languages. at the current point of my story, the organization was having a mission in Korea, however they ended up getting caught and most of them, with the exception of Solène and one other person were arrested. while the two were figuring out a way to flee the country, they encountered Hector Wycliffe (formerly Alan Finley, formerly formerly Victor Armstrong), who set off on a journey around the world (in order to help out other crime-fighting organizations, further educate himself end eventually prove that he is no longer the criminal he used to be) but struggled with the language barrier. Hector asked the two for help as they were the only English speakers he could find, and after some consideration Solène agreed to travel with Hector while the other person returned to Europe and notified the organization of the situation.

[beardedmrbean]

Audio obtained by USA TODAY from a 2020 court hearing in Maryland shows Jennifer Vasquez Sura pleading with a judge for temporary protection from her husband, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the wrongfully deported Salvadoran migrant at the center of a deportation storm.

Abrego Garcia “grabbed me from my hair, and then he slapped me,” Vasquez Sura said in her 2020 testimony to a judge.

For weeks, the White House and Homeland Security officials have defended deporting the 29-year-old Maryland father to a Salvadoran prison, after acknowledging in court that it was done in error and against an immigration judge's court order.

The Trump administration insists he is a member of the MS-13 gang, but a federal judge has questioned the strength of the government's evidence. Abrego Garcia denies being a gang member and has no criminal convictions.

Officials have recently turned to releasing information about his alleged domestic abuse. The audio file is from one of those court hearings.

"Recently an audio clip of a civil court hearing related to the protection order I filed became public. I previously acknowledged the protection order and will again address a personal and painful part of mine and Kilmar’s life. Neither of us were in a good place at that time," Vasquez Sura told USA TODAY in a May 1 statement.

She added: "My husband was traumatized from the time he spent in ICE detention and we were in the throes of COVID. Like many couples, we were caring for our children with barely enough to get by. All of those factors contributed to the actions which caused me to seek the protective order."

Judicial testimony describes alleged abuse

On April 16, DHS officials distributed a restraining order petition from 2021. On April 30, a 2020 petition to a Maryland court was released by DHS depicting more allegations of violence against Abrego Garcia.

In the August 2020 recording before Judge Ada Clark-Edwards, Vasquez Sura describes in detail how Abrego Garcia was detained and in ICE custody through her 2019 pregnancy but returned home a changed person.

“Once he came out, maybe like a month after he was out, he changed a lot with me and my kids,” Vasquez Sura told the judge. “He would yell at them, yell at me for anything, and any little thing.””

In 2021, Vasquez Sura filed for a protection order a second time, citing instances of violence in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Abrego Garcia “punched and scratched” Vasquez Sura, ripped off her shirt and grabbed and bruised her, she said in 2021.

Police never charged Abrego Garcia with domestic violence.

Supreme Court battle

Abrego Garcia, a Maryland sheet metal worker, was pulled over by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents while driving with his 5-year-old son on March 12. Three days later, he was deported to a prison for terrorists in his native El Salvador.

In 2019, an immigration judge ruled Abrego Garcia could not be deported to El Salvador because he had a “well-grounded fear of future persecution.”

A U.S. district judge ordered the Trump administration to return him. The U.S. Supreme Court pared down that order, ordering the administration to "facilitate" Abrego Garcia's release.

Abrego Garcia: A popular cause

Abrego Garcia's wrongful deportation and the administration's refusal to return him to the U.S. have made him a focal point for opposition to the Trump administration's program of mass deportations.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., visited Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, and several Democratic members of the House of Representatives also went to El Salvador to push for his release.

On May 1, Sens. Van Hollen, Tim Kaine, D-Va., Alex Padilla, D-Ca., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced they would file a resolution to require the State Department to issue a report on El Salvador’s human rights record.

At a press conference announcing the move, Van Hollen said his support for Abrego Garcia is about due process and the Supreme Court’s order to facilitate his return.

“We’re not vouching for Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” Van Hollen said. “We’re vouching for his constitutional rights because if you trample over his constitutional rights, you threaten them for every American and everyone who resides in America.”

DHS: 'Violent illegal alien'

DHS officials used the newly surfaced allegations as more reason to bolster their deportation claims.

“The facts are clear: Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a violent illegal alien who abuses women and children. He had no business being in our country and we are proud to have deported this violent thug,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

“We have now found two petitions for protection against him, in addition to the fact that he entered the country illegally and is a confirmed member of MS-13," McLaughlin said. "Our country is safer with him gone.”

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland has refuted evidence submitted by the government that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang.

“No one is perfect, and no marriage is perfect," Vasquz Sura said in her statement. "I never imagined the lowest moment in our relationship would be weaponized to demonize my husband’s character, or used as a justification to violate his legal rights or defy the courts."

"Kilmar is a loving partner and father, and I will continue to stand by him, fight for justice, and demand his return to the family that loves him," she said.  

[instruth]

Hi, (Edited, Reposted 28/03/25)

I am pleased to repost, and share my Third & Final Trilogy of Poems on Loss & Grief (first published on 04 September, 2018) - inspired by The Irish Potato Famine (aka The Great Hunger), in Northern Ireland (1845 - 1851) … that led to an exodus of Irish emigrants, mostly to America.

After I first visited Ireland in 2018, I have posted numerous poems of the same genre on the universal devastative impact of sufferings & deaths, through deprivation, poverty, starvation and oppression … that is still happening in some parts of the world TODAY.

I wish all my readers … … … Humble prayers,

Healing and Blessings 😊🙋🏼‍♂️🙏🙏🙏

©Johnny J P Lee

28 March 2025

Photos Credit, J. P. Lee

____________________________________

THE NEW LAND (Third & Final Trilogy)

Is this what we are told, a new found joy?

Not splendor but a treacherous decoy?

Groups cramped in pigeon holes on a stand

Large families packed in a home without a land

Hoisted home, up to the sky, swiftly built

No warm blankets, just share a family quilt

Good Heaven! Greater sorrow newly imposed

Work! Native walks are as yet to be proposed

O Fair Land, why hast thou caused us to leave

To this distant land unknown, more aggrieved?

Do thou, sweet Mother, weep in vain

Thine fair tribes now add on to thy pain?

Thine children knock at doors for bread

Chilling bones in hunger desperation led

Good neighbors forced to sell their daughters

Not through any faults that they should falter

Bless me - why, had we brothers any sister

Our decision would not have been better

Painful to watch sweet little girls in tears

Pretty innocents in their helpless years

I weep as I watch them in their charms,

Shaking wildly in their fathers' arms

Grieving mothers kiss their mindless babes

Strike their breasts to the sky, sadly in gapes

I see the fairies and nymphs degraded

In my dreams I see my heaven has faded

These are the hard truth in times of shame

Best to forget, nothing to share, no one to blame.

In the city the statesmen talk as ales go round

Toasts, cheers with haughty looks profound

Such luxury poor migrants can ill afford

Even simple pleasures dismiss in accord

Wealthy men arrive from world around

Suits and hats stunning ladies surround

A wanton wealth designed in tempting display

Painful truth in my mind I mindlessly survey

For I am sickened by this man-made pleasure

Toiling in the distrusting hearts of false leisure

Accumulated wealth stored in pride

Buy a lass to play as an obedient bride

Repossess the cuddly space of the poor

For their horses, hounds and more

Lawful acquisition to rob the timid folks

Stealing their meals of oats and yolks

Dressing up their females well adorned

To reign secured while simple folks mourn

Statesmen to sons divide the wealth acquired

Siblings, wives, married relatives, as required.

Beating my chest in bitter anguish I recall

In senses with unfailing truth reveal it all

Oh, past the plain the surging joy prevails

That which I have endeared can never fail

That broken teacups I have taken with me

Stir my will daily, sipping my humble tea

No tales no news from barbers or farmers

It's fine - all return at meals as we gather

No theatre, no ballad, no talent time

Everything comes handy in sublime

Make our own feathered balls and stuff

Marbles rolling, guessing games and bluff

Obscure, it sinks deep in our souls and hearts

Simple treasures, everlastingly, do not part

My vacant mind frolicking in the pond

Caresses my soul in spirit neatly bond

Contented on my stool writing my poetry

Pass my time with unimagined peasantry

Raise my native strength for greater gain

Instead of indulging in pitiful afflicted pain

Plant my seeds, pull out the weeds annoy

With compliments from God, my daily joy.

© Johnny J P Lee

First Published 04 September 2018

[cursedreverie1945]

Reinhard Heydrich, Heinrich Himmler, Hans Michael Frank, Werner Best and Kurt Daluege in the Police Law Committee.

So basically a bunch of hateful, murderous, asshats being hateful, murderous, asshats.

Although, the Moose Sized nazi looks like he is photobombing in the pic.

Let's talk about Hans Michael Frank. He seems to be another one that isn't talked about often.

After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Frank was appointed Governor-General of the occupied Polish territories. During his tenure, he instituted a reign of terror against the civilian population and became directly involved in the mass murder of Jews. He engaged in the use of forced labour and oversaw four of the extermination camps. Frank remained head of the General Government until its collapse in early 1945. During that time, over 4 million people were murdered under his jurisdiction.

Frank was captured by American troops on 4 May 1945, at Tegernsee in southern Bavaria. He attempted suicide twice. He was indicted for war crimes and tried before the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg from 20 November 1945 to 1 October 1946. During the trial he converted, guided by Fr Sixtus O'Connor OFM, to Roman Catholicism, and claimed to have had a series of religious experiences.

Frank voluntarily surrendered 43 volumes of his personal diaries to the Allies, believing his struggles against other Nazi officials would be enough to secure his defence. Oops?

Which were then used against him as evidence of his guilt. Frank confessed to some of the charges, and testified in response to questions from his defence attorney:

"after having heard the testimony of the witness Rudolf Höss, my conscience does not allow me to throw the responsibility solely on these minor people. I myself have never installed an extermination camp for Jews, or promoted the existence of such camps; but if Adolf Hitler personally has laid that dreadful responsibility on his people, then it is mine too, for we have fought against Jewry for years; and we have indulged in the most horrible utterances."

During his captivity, he penned a series of letters in which he also left his last thoughts. To his son Norman, he wrote that he preferred to die and join the "brave soldiers, who were (...) killed in this war" than "be dealt in revenge from [migrants], traitors", from those such as Willy Brandt.

During their trials, he and Albert Speer were the only defendants to show any degree of remorse for their crimes. Though, according to his son Niklas, he portrayed himself as a "man of the law", and was not personally acknowledging guilt, rather shifting it to the "German people" as a whole.

At the same time, he accused the Allies, especially the Soviets, of their own wartime atrocities. Frank was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity on 1 October 1946 and was sentenced to death by hanging.

The death sentence was carried out at Nuremberg Prison on 16 October by US Army Master Sergeant John C. Woods.

Niklas Frank has done many interviews about the horrific deeds of his father. Including, talks at Auschwitz. I highly recommend looking for him on YouTube or other video sites.

[ananke-xiii]

NRPI: There is No-John Winchester.

In order to describe John Winchester as a character I’ve used 5 precise adjectives: absent, missing, lacking, pathetic and quixotic. I want to leave the first three aside for now and focus on the last two.

John is pathetic in the full sense of the word: he causes feelings of sadness and sympathy but he’s also so inadequate that it’s very difficult to respect him. Of course, the first meaning pertains to him being a widower and the second to him being a father. Widower and father being the only two features of John Winchester that the story deems are necessary enough for us to understand him as a character. This interests me for various reasons, the primary one being that John is, according to Supernatural, not real. He's not "just a man". When he’s a father he’s exclusively a father and when he��s a widower he’s exclusively a widower. Which means 1. that he’s been conceived more like an archetype rather than a “real” character and, more importantly, 2. that he must stay as such. There's simply no space for John as a "real" character in Supernatural, despite the fact that John is arguably one of the two most important characters in Supernatural, excluding Sam and Dean (the other one being Mary).

John is quixotic in the literary sense of the word, meaning that he’s like Don Quixote. Much like our Don, John goes mad and becomes a knight errant. His Dulcinea is Mary, his wife, whose death has spurred both his madness and his action. He starts travelling around the USA in his car (Rocinante) with his two sons (Sancho Panza) and established their “family business” while looking for the demon responsible for Mary’s death. Unlike our Don, the adventures John finds himself in are very real, as a matter of fact his descent into madness was instigated by the burning (I’ve got a very dark sense of humor, pardon me) discovery that monsters are, in fact, not characters for bedtime stories but very much real, that there is a world beneath our world where “the lore” is not fiction but reality, that there are, indeed, “things that go bump in the night”. John’s windmills are ferocious and real giants.

Now you can see that there’s something that’s not adding up here: John is a character in a story who’s not “real”, but who only represents a certain idea of fatherhood, while the core of his own story is the discovery that demons are not “ideas” of evil but are real, living entities that aren’t confined to bedtime stories but that are up and about in the world. One could almost say that much like Don Quixote imagined the world as he would’ve liked it to be, the world in Supernatural imagines John as the story needs him to be (and to stay like that).

In other words, John, as far as Supernatural is concerned, is a case of NRPI: a non-real person involved.

Little, aside: I wasn’t there for the “superwholock” era but I wish I could’ve lived a “supersucceverance” era where we could’ve explored the themes of family, tradition, continuation vs separation, bodily autonomy, self-determination, business culture (and more) in three different shows: one where the fictional is real, the second where the real is fictional and the third where there’s a mix of the two. I know this is wishful thinking but let’s all close our eyes and imagine it “for 9 seconds” (quote).

In case you haven’t watched “Succession” an NRPI is a case “in which the victims were sex workers or migrant workers at foreign ports, which the company (Waystar Royco) used to clear itself of any legal liability”. More broadly, it’s the way the Roys divide the world into: real people (them and people like them who may be respected/engaged with) and not-real people (people who are not like them and who can, therefore, be used by them).

To me, this is how Supernatural thinks of John as a character: he’s not a real person, therefore he can be used by the narrative as it pleases it. Now, I’ve said elsewhere that this is part of what I think is the show biggest strength/flaw, aka its obsessive focus on Sam and Dean and Dean and Sam only, that this happens to other characters as well and that this is Sam and Dean’s story and in their story John is pretty much just a (very awful) father. However, there are tiny bits in the show when John is allowed to be more than that and what I personally find in these bits is very yummy. Hence my current hyperfixation and why I’m dipping my toe in characterization.

Ngl, if Supernatural were a novel (and it actually is, in a meta way, lol), I’d be tempted to see John Winchester as the “real” embodiment of its being a genre fiction, while his sons, the main characters, embody the “serious” side of the novel, why it can be considered literary fiction.

To be frank with you: John is a romance character, while Sam and Dean are novel characters. John’s the beach read, while (Sam and) Dean are Tolstoy. You get what I’m saying?

To quote Northrop Frye:

The essential difference between novel and romance lies in the conception of characterization. The romancer does not attempt to create “real people” so much as stylized figures which expand into psychological archetypes. It is in the romance that we find Jung’s libido, anima, and shadow reflected in the hero, heroine, and villain respectively. That is why romance so often radiates a glow of subjective intensity that the novel lacks, and why a suggestion of allegory is constantly creeping in around its fringes. Certain elements of character are released in the romance which make it naturally a more revolutionary form than the novel. The novelist deals with personality, with characters wearing their personae or social masks. He needs the framework of a stable society, and many of our best novelists have been conventional to the verge of fussiness. The romancer deals with individuality, with characters in vacuo idealized by reverie, and, however conservative he may be, something nihilistic and untamable is likely to keep breaking out of his pages.

I’ve written that John is a character written in absentia, but I think that I also like “in vacuo” because… who, apart from a father and a widower, is John Winchester? There is an emptiness around him as a character that attracts me and, like I said, “I want to go to there” (quote). I want to take romance seriously.

Let’s see what I’ll find!

[countesspetofi]

Today in the Department of Before They Were Star Trek Stars, DeForest Kelley guest stars in "The Unvanquished," episode 23 of the fourth season of Laramie (original air date March 12, 1963).

Kelley plays one of a trio of brothers who have been committing thefts and blaming them on the Arapaho who are moving through the area on the way to a new reservation. When one of the brothers is accidentally killed by one of the migrants, whose father turns himself in to spare his son, the surviving brothers try to stir the town up into a lynch mob in the hopes that their own crimes will go undiscovered.

Other Trek connections: Joyce Perry, who co-wrote this episode, also wrote "The Time Trap," the twelfth episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series.