#mob is living proof that people like that CAN have friends

[raytm]

i need to sit down after my rewatch and do a huge ass post about the way serizawa relied on toichiro and how, at the time, when he was at his lowest and hadn't left his room for YEARS and was in a constant state of fight or flight someone with that much power was like a god to him. their bond was never healthy but for serizawa it was the stability he needed to drag himself out of years of isolation and he relied on it entirely. he doesn't believe the "bad" things he's doing are inherently wrong both from being in denial and perhaps even being a bit naive, he knows the man who SAVED him would never do anything that are truly evil. but it's that which really emphasises the growth he goes through being around mob and reigen because he's allowed to have a safe place to learn about the world again and reintroduce himself to society. his trust in reigen and mob is so genuine and he wholeheartedly believes that they are good people like. god.

[da-janela-lateral]

very curious as to what you mean by esper survivorship bias! there’s a couple things i’ve noticed that could be related (like how other than the obviously powerful teru, mob, ritsu the only child espers we see are the awakening lab kids whose powers are so limited that if they’re the baseline most espers would probably never find out they have powers at all) (or how other than the main 4 esper teens and the awakening lab kids and sort of takenaka the only psychics we see are adults that are part of claw) (sorry. my adhdemons)

FINALLY MORE EXCUSES TO TALK ABOUT MY HYPHOTESIS.

I first adressed it in this post, little time after I read some fics focusing on Teruki's relationship to Claw and started wondering about some stuff. After reading (part) of the World Domination Arc in the manga, I got more questions, which I'll explain here:

The Esper Survivorship Bias Theory

Contrary to the norm in works focused on the paranormal, in Mob Psycho 100 society overall doesn't care about espers. This is of course related to the main theme of "nobody is special" and the story's tendency for desconstructing shonen tropes, but it also implies that while rare, espers aren't seen as a big thing. This can be seen in the following details:

While describing Mob's powers, Inukawa treats them as only something unusual.

The Kageyama family, their friends and their acquaintances find Mob's powers ordinary.

Espers are a known phenomena (for an example, Mr. Asagiri looks for dozen of psychics on the start of the Mogami Arc).

Even when people don't believe on psychic powers, they don't insist much on this view after tiny proof (that is, powers are somehow beliavable).

Espers existing at all doesn't change how society works.

For that to happen, there must be a condition: the occurrence of psychic powers is common enough so that people acknowledge them AND usually don't mind their existence. They are like a weird, yet mundane fact.

This may contradict the canon's premise that psychic powers are extremely uncommon, but in the Seasoning City region alone we see several characters with them. Toichiro affirmed Claw has about 700 members and that he had hired international mercenaries, which in turn may mean there is a significant esper population out there. So why are there so few espers in-verse, they take years to meet people like them?

Simple. They aren't as extremely rare as people think. This is survivorship bias.

Most espers on canon are adults over 20 years old, and even a great part of these are members of Claw. The only psychic children we see are the main cast, the Awakening Lab kids and Takenaka. What a interesting coincidence that Claw too is 20 years old...

It's not that young espers are ultra uncommon nowadays, it's that as soon as they're obvious, Claw takes them.

This is not limited to powerful people, as the organization went after the Awakening Lab kids even though Claw either knew they had insignificant powers, or had no information on the level of their abilities at all. Any esper youth that enters their radar is a valid target.

Besides that, it's essential to remember Teruki is an exception to the rule. He survived being hunted down by Claw since childhood, but he also lived in dire conditions and was obsessed with being stronger than the criminals who went after him. Despite their powers, most esper children are normal. They wouldn't have an idea Claw existed. They wouldn't be prepared for a kidnapping attempt. And considering espers tend to feel socially alienated, lonely children have bigger chances to trust the Claw officials if they presented themselves as "someone who understood them".

In other words: espers aren't as rare as people believe. It's that as soon as they show their powers, Claw takes action. This is why there are so few characters under 18 who have psychic powers.

Final comments

Of course, many of the arguments I have mentioned could mean other things. MP100 has a pretty soft worldbuilding after all because psychic powers aren't the main focus, but rather a pretext for developing each character's perspective and inner turmoil, as well as the story's themes. Lot's of things are also played for humor and don't have real relevance. Furthermore, one could mention how the audience's view over MP100's world is limited to Mob's very uncommon life, and how some elements we've seen aren't the standard.

I'm just thinking a lot about the Claw targets' families. What did they know about the kidnappings? What did they do about them? How did the authorities investigate these cases? Have they found any closure? Have they connected the dots about the nature of the disappearances?

And what about the targets in question? How did their recruitments work? What they thought about what happened to them? Did they miss their loved ones? How many of them went on and kidnapped more kids? How many of them survived? Did they get to reunite with the people they loved and have a chance on a normal life?

Some food for thought.

[emotionallychargedtowel]

What's different about Hatano, part 2

(Part 1 is here; part 3 and part 4 were posted later.)

The second thing about Hatano that isn’t like other characters who’ve chased after Mob is the fact that he has a unique relationship with…well, let’s say Mob’s equally unique experience of reality. So first, a little background on that. 

Mob’s version of reality

Most people in Mob’s world don’t experience it the way he does. It’s not just that he’s one of the few who realizes they’re all living in BL World, though that’s a big part of it. (The only other person who does, as far as we know, is Mayama, the mangaka who has some degree of control over Mob’s story. Though, interestingly, he actually didn’t realize he lived in a BL manga world until Mob told him in season 1.) 

In most of his relationships, Mob is completely inauthentic. His priority is remaining a side character, and sincerely connecting with others not only doesn’t serve that goal, it has a lot of potential to undermine it. He does seem to care about his family somewhat, particularly Ayato. But that’s about it. 

Except that he has one other relationship, of a sort: his relationship with us, his audience. It’s kind of strange, when you think about it. Mob’s whole thing is being a side character. And yet, he narrates his own story to us in a way that’s unmistakably protagonist-like. Maybe he justifies it through his emphasis on advising us on how to evade story traps like him. He may not have anyone else who shares his awareness of how BL World operates, but offering advice on how it works and how to avoid L with a B implies that maybe one of these days, someone else will embrace side character status like him. Maybe someday he won’t be alone. 

For now, his voiceover comments are a big part of his personality, and they’re very distinct. Sometimes Mob goes so far as to overtly break the fourth wall, like in the first episode of season 3, both when he brags about escaping the situation with Kikuchi and boasts that he’s BL-proof (above), and later in that episode, when he asks us if we’ve guessed yet why he’s exercising (below). (And of course, every single time “Bubble Mob” appears in the corner of the screen, he does nothing but directly address the audience.)

The rest of the time, he does this in a more subtle way. His voiceover commentary isn’t like a typical voiceover in a show or movie that’s less self-aware. If we watch a something that uses voiceovers in a typical way, the person speaking doesn’t acknowledge who they’re speaking to, or even that they're speaking to anyone. In most stories, unless some kind of context is used to explain who is being addressed (e.g. a frame story), calling attention to the fact that the voiceover implies that someone is being spoken to would undermine the realism of the story. Mob never acknowledges that he’s the protagonist of his own TV series, and in fact doesn’t seem to be aware of it. (Well, except when he does things like speculate about whether there will be another season.) But he constantly acknowledges the viewer through his advice and narration. He may not know how or why, but he knows there’s someone out there listening to him. 

So Mob goes through his world with this important knowledge that practically no one else shares, pretending to have friendships and so forth but never forming any sort of authentic bond with anyone (with the possible exception of Ayato), and the closest thing he has to a real friend who he can be honest with is the audience. 

And the other characters he interacts with don’t seem to notice any of this, even when he shows outward signs of how he’s experiencing this world. Sometimes he makes his observations out loud instead of in a voiceover, but no one seems to bat an eye. He regularly says and does things in front of Ayato that strike him as strange, but when Mob shrugs them off, Ayato does too. 

Hatano’s relationship to Mob’s experience

Most of the time, Hatano seems to be like the other characters in Mob’s world. Despite his keen interest in Mob, he usually doesn’t seem to see how he’s different from other people. Except that occasionally, he does! Every so often, he sees into Mob’s reality in a way that other characters can’t. 

The first time we see this happen, he hasn’t even met Mob since the interaction they had when they were children. At the end of episode 2, Mob’s voiceover tells us, “What I didn’t know at the time was that a destined age-gap love was looming just around the corner.” Hatano stands in the foreground watching a blissfully ignorant Mob walk away in the background. Then “Bubble Mob” appears in his little green circle in the lower left corner of the screen to talk about how more will be revealed in the next episode. That’s when something weird happens. Hatano turns his head and looks right at Bubble Mob, who is seriously disconcerted by this. “Why are you looking at me?” he asks. Then he hastily wraps up the episode, as if he’s eager to do so in order to escape from Hatano. 

This is the most overt example of Hatano being able to perceive things other non-Mob characters don’t, but it isn’t the last. 

The next time happens in episode 3, when Mob is desperately trying to think of ways to put Hatano off. “In order to squash a flag that was raised in the past,” he thinks in a voiceover, “it might work if I tell him I’m a different person from this guy he remembers.” Immediately, before Mob has said a single word out loud, Hatano says, “I’ve always liked you. I could never mistake you for someone else.” It’s as if he just heard Mob’s voiceover. He clearly doesn’t hear it all the time, unless he’s incredibly good at pretending otherwise. But it almost seems like for Hatano, the boundary between Mob’s reality (the version of reality that we experience as viewers) and the reality inhabited by Hatano and the rest of the people in BL World occasionally becomes more permeable. 

The third time happens in the other direction—instead of Hatano seeing what things are like for Mob, Mob sees something through Hatano’s eyes. Specifically, he experiences a daydream of Hatano’s. 

It isn’t completely unprecedented for Mob to see something from someone else’s mind as if he’s seeing it himself—but it is unprecedented for someone with Hatano’s role in Mob’s life. The type of thing he sees through Hatano is also unique. 

The one other person whose eyes Mob sometimes sees through is Ayato. When Ayato tells a story, not only is the viewer able to see a flashback of him having the experience he’s recounting, but often, it’s clear that Mob can see it too, in a very literal sense. We see a perfect example of this when Mob asks Ayato what kind of guy Hatano is and he tells the story of what happened when a girl confessed to Hatano at school. We know that Mob actually sees this flashback because he identifies the specific type of flower that surrounds Hatano (the same way other BL main character types that he encounters have some kind of accompanying burst of flowers). Mob sees Hatano’s face ringed with gerbera daisies, which he’s able to identify despite Ayato saying nothing about them (and not seeming to perceive them at all). Mob’s face is even lit by a mysterious light as he comments on the gerberas, as if Hatano’s “sparkling aura” has been conveyed through the story into Mob’s bedroom. 

So it’s not completely unheard-of for Mob to be able to see what someone else is picturing. But in Ayato’s case, he has only seen flashbacks connected to stories Ayato tells. (I’m not counting fantasies about Ayato that are clearly just Mob’s imagination, which Ayato is completely unaware of.) That makes Hatano the first person besides Ayato whose eyes Mob sees through, for starters. More specifically, he’s the first of Mob’s suitors to have that effect on him. And it’s also noteworthy that the narrative of Hatano’s that Mob sees 1) isn’t narrated—he’s not picturing it because Hatano is telling him a story, he’s just spontaneously inside of it without warning, and 2) isn’t a memory, but a scary fantasy—a daydream about something he’s worried about. Specifically, Mob finds himself inside of a scenario from Hatano’s mind in which Mob is arrested for “deceiving a minor” due to their relationship. Hatano goes on to talk about how he heard something on TV that led him to believe that people wouldn’t accept their relationship if they dated, but the fantasy clearly swallowed Mob up independently of that. Hatano only comments about the TV thing after the fantasy has ended, and he’s just talking about social disapproval, not Mob getting arrested. Nothing he says here would lead Mob to picture the jail daydream, and anyway, the daydream happens before he even raises the topic.

The fact that Mob found himself inside of this fantasy is remarkable enough that he’s clearly thrown off by it, commenting “Hang on, was that Hatano’s daydream just now?” He doesn’t dwell on it, but he gets that it’s weird. 

There’s something else about this fantasy scene that I only noticed after seeing it a ridiculous number of times for the fansub project. I’m not certain that it’s significant, but I think it’s worth mentioning. Mob mentions in the scene that he’s a “mobu,” an anonymous side character. Specifically, he asks the guards for a trial and then, more specifically, “a trial worthy of a side character”—basically, the kind of trial that would befit a “mobu.” Now, you could justify this in a few ways. Maybe Hatano’s fantasy is just a setting that Mob is dropped into, and he says what he would say if he were actually thrust into that situation. We don’t know if Hatano is even aware of what he says. But this is Hatano’s fantasy. It seems like the things the police officers/prison guards say to Mob come from Hatano’s mind. Maybe the things Mob says do too. If so, it suggests that Hatano knows about Mob’s “mobu” status. Again, it’s hard to say how to interpret this, but it’s a possibility. 

A brief digression about characters who engage in direct address

In the next part of my post I'm going to be comparing Mob to another character who sometimes breaks the fourth wall, but first I want to situate Mob in the pantheon of characters who use direct address for a second. I'm not going to try to do an overview of this whole topic. This post is going to be long enough as it is, and plenty has been written before on this subject. But I want to stop and think for a second about what fourth wall-breakers tend to be like and why they do what they do.

Direct-addressers are almost always funny, often sardonically. This takes different forms. Sometimes you get Garfield, other times you get Deadpool, other times Clarissa Darling. Sometimes they’re douchebags, like the Woody Allen character in Annie Hall. Sometimes they’re actual sociopaths, like Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. They’re almost always at least a little bit cut off from their world, as if they have one foot in the audience’s world and one in their own and this gives them the perspective they need to make trenchant comments on the people around them. It can be as simple as the fact that the people around them are a bit absurd, or as stark as the fact that they believe themselves to exist on a different moral plane from everyone else. But it seems pretty much universal that there's some kind of difference between them the the people around them.

Mob is certainly cut off from his social world. Most of the time, this is simply a result of his trying to avoid falling in L with a B. But he can also be a creep. He constantly spies on his peers, manipulates them, and lies to them. For example, in season 3, he causes two friends to fall in love as a sort of experiment, then gloats in the distance while cackling to himself. Though that last part isn't so remarkable for him, since he’s always laughing at everyone behind their backs. 

One big subcategory of fourth wall-breakers is, well, smug buttholes. Ferris Bueller is the archetypal example. Parker Lewis was created to be the off-brand Ferris Bueller. Zack Morris is the absolute bottom of the barrel in this class. Basically, these dudes (and they are always dudes, in my experience) seem to talk to the audience because they feel so superior to everyone around them—even their supposed friends—that when they want to talk about what they really think and feel, only an unseen adoring public will do. 

Mob is hardly the opposite of this. He has a real smug streak and he can definitely be a dick. But he's more anxious and more alienated than the typical smug butthole type, and he has a kind of low-key but profound ennui just below the surface. In other words, he's a bit like a really stressed out, subtly despair-filled Ferris Bueller.

Another fourth wall-breaker who found someone who noticed

The first time I saw Hatano look at Bubble Mob, it made me think of another example of a character who habitually broke the fourth wall, then encountered another character who, on some level, noticed her doing this. I’m thinking of Fleabag and the (Hot) Priest. 

Directly addressing the audience is Fleabag's raison d'être. In the first season of Fleabag, she does it continually, sometimes at times that would shock or offend the other characters if they were aware of it (including while she's having sex). None of the people around her notice this.

Then, in the second season, something different happens. Fleabag meets the Priest, starts to bond with him, and then he starts to do something that takes her completely by surprise: he notices when she's addressing the audience.

During one of their first times hanging out alone, she addresses the audience like she normally does, and he shocks her by noticing this and asking her about it. “What was that?” he asks. “Where’d you—where’d you just go? You went somewhere.” When she tells him “nowhere,” he accepts it and backs off.

In another scene, when she does it again, he once again comments on it. “That thing you’re doing,” he says, “It’s like you disappear.”

When Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the creator, writer, and star of Fleabag, was asked about the Priest’s ability to sense when Fleabag is breaking the fourth wall at a BAFTA event, she said that the Priest can tell what Fleabag is doing because of his relationship with God. She said that Fleabag "has a relationship with the camera the whole way through and it was interesting to have somebody who has a similar thing. He's mirrored 'cause he has God. And she's witnessed by the camera the whole way through…I just felt like it would be a really good way to mirror each other's journeys."

Respectfully, I don’t buy this explanation. It may be what Waller-Bridge was thinking about when she wrote season 2, but it doesn’t resonate at all with my experience of the series. I vastly prefer the explanation given by Kathryn VanArendonk in her piece “Fleabag Breaks the Fourth Wall and Then Breaks Our Hearts,” written for Vulture. 

Fleabag’s sly, secretive, sometimes resentful tendency to break the fourth-wall of her own story is an escape hatch. She dissociates from her own life whenever things get to be too much….The Priest feels her leave him, even though he can’t quite see that she’s leaving him so she can speak to us….But when he notices Fleabag talking to us, he’s barging into our secret relationship with her, pointing at exactly the place she assumed no one could see — pointing at us, her distancing strategy, her audience who can’t ever speak back to her. That false intimacy she shared with us? Suddenly it’s real, and it’s not between Fleabag and her silent viewers. It’s between Fleabag and the one person who can still see her whenever she tries to take a step away.

This is a profound kind of engagement with Fleabag’s attachment to her “secret camera friend” (Waller-Bridge’s term for the audience Fleabag addresses), much more profound than what we, as Mob’s secret friends, ever see from Hatano. But it does tell us something about what the stakes are in this kind of situation. 

While VanArendonk analyzes Fleabag and the Priest, she ends up saying some things that could easily apply to Mob. 

It’s tempting to think of Fleabag’s compulsive habit of looking to the viewer as a form of intimacy.…But that sense of intimacy, however effective it may be for the viewer, is only ever one-sided….Her intimacy with us is also a way of distancing herself from anyone who could actually speak back to her. The scene where Fleabag sees a therapist played by Fiona Shaw underlines that idea very directly: The therapist asks Fleabag who she confides in, who her friends are, and Fleabag turns to us once again with a knowing, happy smile. We are her friends, because we are the recipients of her private disclosures. That scene is thrilling and crushing at the same time. It’s so flattering to be her confidant, and so sad. Her closest relationship is with a presence she can neither see nor hear.

But Mob isn’t Fleabag

Mob’s situation is very different from Fleabag’s in most respects. Her situation is realistic; his is fantastical. Her history is traumatic; the worst thing that has happened to Mob is the realization that he lives in a fictional universe. (Though to be fair, if you give that enough thought, it’s fairly horrifying.) He isn’t avoiding engaging with the people in his world because of psychological turmoil or alienation of the sort Fleabag deals with…well, not the psychological turmoil part, at least. 

There are two kinds of distance that Mob puts between himself and other people. Often, he simply avoids relating to others. This is mostly due to his calculated assessment of the risks involved. Sometimes he gives people a wide berth and sometimes he only avoids certain types of interactions with them, but either way, he’s not engaging because he can see that there are certain risks involved. This is very different from what separates Fleabag from those around her, both in type and in magnitude.

Except when he kind of is

At the same time, the fact that he’s realized that he lives in this contrived sort of universe and that he has to watch everyone around him allow themselves to be buffeted about by it without noticing it, much less attempting to fight it, does have an effect. I’m not trying to dig too deeply into the implications of realizing you live in a fictional world. If you were to go deep enough, it would have some pretty disturbing existential implications that might be more fitting for a Philip K. Dick novel than a BL parody. But that’s not the story being told here. Still, the emotional distance Mob maintains between himself and the people around him is clearly caused by his alienation from his world and their lack of awareness about it. How can he get close to anyone who is so far from understanding his daily experience? How could he even respect them enough to relate to them authentically at all? So Mob’s inability to authentically bond with others does have some of that existential dimension to it. And in that respect, his alienation bears some resemblance to Fleabag's.

Whatever the cause, VanArendonk’s statement above applies as thoroughly to Mob as it does to Fleabag. Like her, “[his] closest relationship is with a presence [he] can neither see nor hear.” And by the same token, if someone was able to see him clearly enough that they noticed the ways he disconnects from the world, as the Priest sees Fleabag, that would represent a kind of closeness that would mean something, that might even be enough to make relating to a person in his world more worthwhile than always prioritizing his “secret camera friend.”

Hatano isn't the Priest—but they have some things in common

As I wrote above, Hatano's ability to notice Mob's fourth wall-breaking and his tendency to act on it aren't nearly as profound as what we see the Priest doing with Fleabag. Nevertheless, that more concentrated example of the phenomenon does tell us something about what it means, even in smaller doses.

It means that a person who notices fourth wall-breaking is attuned to the fourth wall-breaker to an extent that others aren’t. Maybe they’re just more attentive or perceptive when it comes to that character. Or maybe they’re also alienated from their world in some way, and that puts them on the same wavelength as the other person. If, as Waller-Bridge says, the Priest’s relationship with God has something to do with it in his case, it’s a possibility that someone like Hatano could prove, on further investigation, to have something or someone outside of himself that he’s somehow in dialogue with.

In any case, it seems unequivocally true that such a person is poised to relate to the fourth wall-breaker in a more meaningful way than the other characters they typically encounter. After all, having some understanding of how someone sees the world is a prerequisite for really relating to them, much less having feelings for them in a way that actually means something.

Mostly, this tells us something about how Hatano's feelings for Mob are different from the feelings most of Mob's suitors have for him. But this might point to the possibility that Mob's feelings toward Hatano differ as well (though not necessarily in the way Hatano would like). Mob seems to treat people's feelings toward him with the most contempt when they're unfounded, seemingly random. After all, as he says in the opening theme, "this Boy's Love is too absurd." It's hard to respect someone whose feelings are so ridiculous, when they have so little basis in anything. Kikuchi seemed to touch his heart in part because he was quietly observant, noticing things about Mob and basing his feelings on actual information about him instead of pouncing on him on some thin pretense the way most of his pursuers do. If Hatano also shows that he sees Mob in a real way, a way that no one else has before, it has the potential to make a difference in how Mob sees him, too.

Next up, part 3, followed by part 4.

Thanks to @my-rose-tinted-glasses for helping me out with gifs and by being a sympathetic sounding board.

[bsof-maarav]

it's good this is my only social media and that i've insulated myself from the worst of this place. i'm not watching that video. i understand the value in bearing witness. but for me, it's like this. i know what's been happening to the hostages already, i don't need to be convinced. i don't want to violate them further by watching the beginning of the worst part of their lives and i don't want to be even more secondhand traumatized either. it would make me less, not more, able to do what i can do to be of use to the hostages.

but even more than i'm not watching that video, i'm not watching the absolutely psychopathic response to it by the mobs who are indulging in an orgy of probably the two oldest forms of hatred in the world--misogyny and antisemitism.

when i heard this video would be released, i had that impulse to hope that maybe now my former friends and community would finally get it. but it's not the case. we've all known this whole time. there's been no mystery about what kind of violence the go-pro wearing terrorists are perpetrating. we've already seen enough to know, even without seeking it out. journalists have described it thoroughly as well. if someone says they need to see something more explicit for "proof," they're nothing but consumers of terrorist torture porn. it's pure רַע

i'm not even going to try writing any appeals about these womens' humanity because anyone who doesn't get it, that's because they don't want to get it and they probably never will. they're getting off on this dehumanizing violence and trying to join it as part of the virtual mob. they're empty people and they are not going to change.

we are looking directly at this hate, some of us for the first time, and it's a window through time, through which we can see what many generations of Jews, and particularly Jewish women, have seen before. the violence and hatred is unchanging. only the technology of the violence has changed. the violence itself has not. the hatred has not. we know more about every previous age now, more about how our ancestors' hearts felt when they were breaking, the fear and anger, the determination to survive and make something better.

it's unbearable to know how outnumbered we are, how much of the world is morally and ethically dead when it comes to us, and how many of them accept, deny, are indifferent to, or celebrate this violence against us. it always has been unbearable, untenable, and yet we're here: the latest in a long line of generations who move forward even when it feels impossible, and do what we can to make a better world for the next ones with the conviction that no one should be hurt like this. never again.

and now i'm going back to listening to Israeli music. because i try to experience some kind of peace and calm each day, whatever i can, so i will have some strength to send. through davening, i try to send strength to the hostages to help them survive. we're one family, and all deeply connected. i have to hope that it helps in some way.

if you want to say Mi Sheberach and Tehillim for these women and don't know how, please reach out. or just daven from the heart for them, dedicate it to their merit, say each of their names out loud. light an extra Shabbat candle for them. set an extra place at your table. put something about them in a public place to make their reality present there. you'll have to protect it from attack. but do it anyway.

and if you want to know what you can do to pressure your political representatives or organizations to do something to free these captives, and all of the captives, i'll be here to talk about that as well.

[etherealvistas]

Driving in Palestine now is more dangerous than ever.

Yesterday, I drove from Ramallah to Dura, a village near Hebron to attend the funeral of Ahed, my friend’s baby sister, who had just become a mother. She was shot by an Israeli sniper. A heartbreaking loss.

If I could use Israel’s apartheid roads designated for settlers, it would be an 80-90 minute drive, but it took me 4 hours.

Why?

First, we’re forced to take segregated Palestinian only roads which make it a 2.5 hour drive because of checkpoints.

But these days, it’s even worse as Israel has imposed an even more strict strangulation policy over the West Bank, which means even some of those segregated roads are blocked and there are 10 times as many checkpoints.

Taking this drive outside our village/cities of residence is extremely dangerous for three reasons:

Settler attacks: Israeli settlers are in rampage mode, and you don’t know when you could get hit by a rock or bullet from one of their raging mobs.

Soldiers at the end of a wrong turn: There are no signs for what “roads” are currently opened or closed for us, you have to guess or stop to ask locals every few miles. If you make a wrong turn and end up face to face with soldiers, they can shoot you, and claim you attacked them.

Arrests for social media posts: If you’re stopped at a checkpoint, soldiers these days are taking folks’ phones and checking their WhatsApp’s and telegram and instagram. If you have a message standing in solidarity with Gaza, or anything the Israeli soldiers see as offensive, they’ll beat you to a pulp, and could even arrest you. My friend Diala, a human rights lawyer, was just arrested at one of these checkpoints this evening. We don’t know why, but it likely relates to her work and messages they found on her phone about it.

On my end, driving back at night was a nightmare, mainly because I had a friend in the car and was worried about him.

As we drove back, these historically busy streets were ghostly empty because nobody is taking the risk of driving at night unless necessary.

Every turn I’d take, I’d slow down to a crawl to make sure there was no trigger happy soldier or angry settler ready to pounce.

I got lucky as, although we waited at a checkpoint for an hour, the soldiers got bored and literally opened the checkpoint for all the cars to pass without any security check — proof they’re using these checkpoints arbitrarily as collective punishment.

In Dura, I saw where Ahed was shot.

The soldiers had stormed her village as part of their intimidation tactics in the West Bank to keep people anxious. Ahed ran to her roof to warn her husband to come home. An Israeli sniper shot her in the head.

As I drove home, thinking of Ahed, her heart broken family, the families of my friends in Gaza, all the souls we’ve lost, and how easy my life could be taken for simply driving across my ancestral lands to help my friend in her grief.

It shouldn’t have to be said, but our lives are precious. They’re beautiful. They’re equally worthy of joy and basic dignity.

I’m committed to one day being able to drive across my people’s ancestral land a free man, surrounded by my liberated people.

If Israel’s death machine is haunting us around every corner, we might as well live fighting for a life worth dying for.

[malwaredykes]

honestly tbh leigh's relationship with the ncr is REALLY funny because. she hates them. she has 0 allegiance to them. she doesnt help THEM she resolves matters in ways that often happen to benefit them in some way or simply prevents needless loss of life, but it never is about them and aside from that shes always stealing, sabotaging, disrespecting them, turning people against them, encouraging members to desert, putting their legitimacy into question, especially the legitimacy of them being in the mojave in the first place, and exposing their ineffectiveness. she has 0 intention of venerating The Republic that she comes from. she thinks its hilarious that anyone should take that stuff seriously.

but she ends up being a celebrity to them. because crocker likes her despite everything, and hsu likes her, and because shes from new cali but important in the mojave, and because shes done stuff like calm things down in the freeside and help at refugee camps and retake nelson. which makes her even more of a problem in a way. if she were Only a nuisance thatd be one thing, theyd just put a bounty on her. but shes a celebrity. she has a status in new vegas and in the ncr. shes kind of untouchable. and her crimes and sabotage can never quite be proven. of course to the higher ups theres having proof and theres Knowing. shit only gets worse when she and her buddies storm the legion fort and kill caesar and free a bunch of slaves because like. this strengthens her vip status AND is absolute humiliation to the ncr. like they cant take the credit and instead they have to live with the fact that what a lot of them dismissed as some upstart with a bunch of clueless locals backing her did something they never couldve achieved. "oh this was pretty much an angry mob of townies and misfits" yeah and they got caesar in his own fortress. shes out there making the ncr look like shit and pointing people to seeing the ncr as the problem and yet she never does it in a way that she could be prosecuted for. by the time the ncr realizes shes a lot of trouble they also know they would lose a TREMENDOUS amount of support if they did something to her

like shes never openly hostile. she never provokes open hostility. shes not Openly Antagonistic to the ncr but its not exactly a secret shes got something planned and would like them to leave. young ncr recruits seeing her are like Omggg ma'am its an honor!!!! ^_^. there are officers and rangers whod be REALLY appalled if you said anything bad about her because Well she sure has done a lot more for us here on site than any of you government people. and that was her goal. that is the game shes playing. folks youll eventually realize its not the ncr that has done good in the mojave despite its flaws, but yours were the hands doing the work, and all the reasons one might consider ncr good or necessary are within you, Are you, the people who joined hoping theyd make a difference. folks youll realize that the ncr has to lie and obfuscate and make bullshit orders and directives to maintain claim over that good work and whitewash its own crimes. folks, i have this ex-ncr friend here. do you know what the ncr got him? complicity in atrocities (lyrical miracle), ptsd, apocalyptic thinking, countless biases to unpack, hopelessness, enemies where he shouldve made friends. and so on. and do you know what he got from *me*? a chance to actually do good. a chance to question those false beliefs of his. a friend. new opportunities. 40 rolls of duct tape. new rifle. lots and lots of soda. TWO toy trucks. and an apple. just ask him

[myeagleexpert]

The Cycle

Author's Notes: After centuries, here I am with another chapter of Ancient Humans AU, I'll keep a better frequency going forward. Thanks to everyone who read the first part!

Disclaimer: This fic is not intended to offend anyone or be sexist, let alone make the reader uncomfortable. It contains exaggerated archetypes and stereotypes for entertainment purposes only, the scientific information is real, and the steps are based on my own or my friends' experiences. Yuu is a girl here. Some swear words at the end….

Characters: Yuu, Professor Wamuro, Jamil, Kalim mentioned, Leona, Ruggie mentioned, Mob Pomefiore, Vil mentioned, Ace and Deuce, Grim, Malleus, Lillia mentioned.

Want to know what happened in the first part?:

-Now that we have been introduced to the ancient human species, we can look into new branches of more complex content. Going into human biology, we can mention the main and most risky one: the females.- At this moment Wamuro was changing from a renowned professor and strictly serious with references, to a fan of mythology.

Females have a slightly smaller and more curvy body, with the ability to give birth to life and protect the fetus. But that's expected, isn't it? - continued the professor - It was like that with most of us, the mothers who condemned the inheritance of their children, what makes them different you may ask.

Now that we're going to start, in order to have the magnificent ability to give birth, human females undergo a hereditary curse where not only do they bleed for days without any injuries every month of their two lives in order to be in balance, but in order for the cycle of life to continue. they must transform into 4 different people during a single cycle.- students leaned forward, pens ready to take notes and ears ready to listen.

-Let's start on page 20 Mr. Viper, please read it aloud.

“The ancient elders divided and named each process according to the “inner moons”. "The maiden phase" is the first phase of the cycle after bleeding, the pre-ovulatory phase, where the human female feels a lot of energy, productivity and is prone to taking the initiative. Being more willing and physically active. At this stage, it's ideal to take projects off paper and explore new things.” Where did Jamil see this?

“It was about four weeks ago....

When he saw the hard-working prefect of Ramshackle running up and down, full of paper to deliver, she ran so fast she didn't even notice that some papers fell forgotten on the floor.

Jamil sighed, he was on his way to give Kalim a review, in the depths of his heart he felt empathy for Yuu who turned excited when he called her name.

-You seem very busy today, what are these papers?- He gathered the papers and organized them, handing them to Yuu.

-Thank you Jamil! These papers are for Crowley to sign, a new professor, a speaker is coming and we don't even have a place to stay. These are for tomorrow's dorm leaders' meeting, these are the corrected Divus proofs from today's test, this is Trey's list for a new recipe for the upcoming Unbirthday party and…oh it's here! Scarabia's new stable will arrive, for you to sign Jamil!- Yuu spoke so fast that the deputy leader wasn't sure if he had heard right because…

-The approximate date would be for the next month, why will it arrive so quickly? - Suspicious, Jamil squinted as he received the papers. -Yesterday I was reading some documents and as soon as I saw that it was yours I decided to advance, I already spoke with the investors and architects, the elephants' rations will be placed in warehouse 04 so it's better to clean it soon, the new ones will arrive very agitated so already I ordered the tranquilizers too. Oh, another thing. A gift for you Jamil.

It was a strange little box, an “elephant-sized muffler”. How specific, huh.

-I was helping Sam with new loads and he gave me this headset as a bonus, as soon as I saw it I thought of you.

-Why?

-With more elephants, bigger parties and more noise, you should rest too.

-Thank you for your consideration and… what are you wearing?- Jamil finally noticed the outfit Yuu was wearing, a gym outfit and sneakers, all hidden by the uniform's black blazer.

-As soon as I finish here I'm going to train with Jack for a marathon and then Deuce will teach me how to ride a motorcycle, did you know that I always wanted to learn? Anyway, see you later Jamil, take care!

Jamil kept his facade calm, but inside, he tried to understand what happened. Yuu must be very busy today, maybe he'll bring her some warm food later. “

-Next.

-"In the full moon phase, the mother phase, the female is more sensitive, communicative, loving and they feel more attractive and confident. It usually occurs 10 days after menstruation. It is the ideal time to be among friends and family and to intensify social ties.” - The Heartsabull student read obeying Wamuro's quick command, between one nap and another the descriptions led the leader of Savanaclaw, Leona Kingskolar to remember a strange situation from a few days ago…

"Botanical Garden……"

“This was one of those Saturdays where the dreaded Leona Kingskolar would run away from his responsibilities like a lazy kitten in the top of a tree, Ruggie held back from complaining because the money filled his pockets. But their precious nap was interrupted by a sweet melody…

-Tonight love has arrived… .- sang Yuu, in a low tone as if thinking aloud, Leona could let it go, probably she was just doing some quick work and would soon be gone, so he thought. -Yuu, good morning! You're watering my house!- a small green fairy appeared among the bushes that the prefect was watering.

-Good morning Petunia, sorry for the intrusion.

- Oh okay- the little fairy wrung her delicate flower dress to get the excess water out- She really needed a cleaning, dear-

-Good morning girls, what a beautiful day…- an even smaller fairy, and sleepy, comes out of one of the watered flowers and rests on Yuu's shoulders snuggling into his shoulders.

-Oh how cute!

-Good morning, sweetie, where's my kiss?- A talking bird rested on Yuu's shoulders too, pecking lightly at her cheek asking for attention, something that was given without delay.

This attitude sealed the peace rosy world that Yuu had lost, because in seconds….

-I also want!

-Yuu a hug please!

-Yuu a little kiss on the fairy!

The girl without magic found herself on the ground, surrounded by cute creatures and innocent giggles, a sight that disturbed the beatsman's sleep, secretly envy and jealousy made him roll his eyes. With a low roar he jumped out of the tree interrupting the hugs and kisses from the care bears, a sight to behold but Yuu just smiled warmly.

-Oh, Leona? Good morning! We didn't see you there, sorry if we woke you up.

-It's so early in the morning for this kind of problem,- in annoyance, the big cat frowned

-Sorry, it won't happen again, okay?- as she gets up from the floor to greet his “friend” the whinintg animals, sad that their attention has been stolen.

-Tsk..just dont- Yuu quickly approached the beastman and hugged him, an action that caught him off guard, she was always affectionate but her hugs always came at the right time, now, it was like a blanket on a cold day interrupting any kind of of negativity that would dare come out of his mouth

The dreaded and lazy Kingscolar was proud of his image and the care he should have for it, but for a moment, he let himself be carried away by emotions and hugged her back closing his eyes, enjoying a genuine affection from the magic less hervibore, her aura clean soothed him and for a moment, he didn't want it to end. Hey, if anyone asks he can say he was trying to teach the freshman a lesson

-Anyway, I have to go now. Bye everyone, see you later Leona.- Departing from the beastman's arms yuu picked up the watering can and went to do his chores.

-Huh, what a strange herbivore..""

-Next.

“The premenstrual phase, the wich, is marked by hormonal changes and the beginning of an imbalance, it is normal for energies to decrease so that it is focused on preparing the uterus, your personality can become more sensitive when questioning the environment around you and self-charge increases . Period prone to bubbling emotions, so understanding is necessary.”

-Attention attention, now pay close attention that we are entering a more complicated phase, the calm before the storm, or rather, the terror before the storm. Their senses will be sharper, making them easier to provoke. some mythologies indicate the use of chocolates or sweets to maintain calm and well-being, some studies indicate that abdominal pain and discomfort already begin to manifest at this stage.

There was a well-drawn slap mark on the smooth, even skin of the Pomefiore student. He was proud of his effort and results, Vil Schoenheit himself had praised him. So how did he get that slap? Hint: he deserved it.

“It was three days ago...

The day was going to be reasonably good, high score in class, perfect skin, perfect hair but one detail, dirty mouth.

-Take it back, you arrogant bastard.- -Oh, me? I only spoke the truth, little flower.

It was a secret truth in NRC that the magicless student was actually…a girl. Like the one you shouldn't name, she was you know what, something you know what it is. A beautiful girl hiding in a disguise much bigger than her body, with a disguise and androgynous in an abandoned house. That alone would be enough for the prestigious school to find itself in some ethical scandal.

But some just didn't give a shit about those implications, and some discussions led to heavier arguments and uglier fights, "its only use is sitting on the laps of the dormeladers, no wonder it's getting what it wants slut" " just wait until I tell you find alone…” Yuu, as an intelligent and peaceful-sense being normally ignored these childish threats, but today, that Yuu is not in the domains.

-Joshua- cough cough-, I think now I know why you shower yourself with perfume like that… so much shit comes out of her mouth that your ass must be jealous. She's spreading that stench around.

-How dare you little mouse?- Moving closer and closer to her, Joshua at first critical became desperate to clear his ego

-Stay away Joshua, go shower and calm down- the girl covered her nose with her hands, simulating that her scent was strong

-Get ready you bich or I will!….- with his wand raised and aggressively dictating his magic the pomefiore student was about to fire a stench spell at Yuu, but stopped for a moment, “What would Vil Schoenheit do in this situation?” That chang his mind, an elegant exit would be more appropriate. - "You know what, I'm not going to waste my precious magic on scum like you, unlike commoner students without magic, I have a wand to take care of" -Joshua tried his best but couldn't deny that he was as hard-headed as she was, his disgusted face and snobbish posture was what Yuu needed to reach his final point…

-Do me a favor Joushua, stick YOUR FUCKING WAND IN YOUR FUCKING ASS AND RUN THE FUCK OUT YOU DISGRACEFUL KID!

At the moment he knew, he fuck up.

Yuu's smaller body shook with rage as he leapt on top of the handsome student taking him to the ground, letting his fury spill out as his fists slammed and kicked the bigger one, along with some rips in his clothing. Some students arrived to break up the fight, others to watch. He didn't let himself be a victim, he took her off him and started to slap her while she kicked the body on top of hers, a kick in the chest, legs and… aaaah, that hurt. The boys felt empathetic pain.

With this strategically thought out movement, the two separate and some students separate them and lift them off the ground. Josuha was discredited and that someone so low managed to have the audacity to pick a fight with him, some curses here and there, the students managed to hold the two even with difficulty.

-Get lost punk!- Yuu lets go and a well-placed slap was deposited aggressively on his face- One day is the hunt another day the hunter.- Looking furiously at Jousha's purple eyes, Yuu spoke his final sentence and left the hall Accompanied by Deuce and Ace, a monster cat even released blue sparks when Joshua reached for it again.

An intimidating expression stayed on Yuu's face the entire day, ready to attack anyone. But when she saw a cute video of kittens, she cried without a second thought as she devoured a box of chocolates, which soothed her angry womb.""

-I'll read the next one.- Wamuro interrupted enthusiastically.

-"Menstruation"…sorry students, my book doesn't have the last page, it looks like the letters were blurred. Anyway, I'll tell you from my memory and knowledge. - the final pages were so old, but so ancient, that the humidity of the air blurred all the letters, a disappointment for the professor, the book had been one of his first studies when the topic was forbidden, oh how much nostalgia it brought him.

-And finally, the day has arrived, at the end of the cycle the final phase, the crone, the apex of the uterus has arrived. Pains as strong as a heart attack, being forced to get used to this pain, the Females continued their lives normally until bigger crises arrived. Your body's blood starts to gush from its sacred place even though you are not hurt, your body is sore and exhausted from this monthly internal transformation, and in more detail I include: The most common effects of menstruation on the body include; abdominal bloating, fluid retention, mood swings, indisposition, nausea, general malaise, headache, back pain and terrible cramps, being able to squirm for days, in addition to several other unknown and very dangerous symptoms, but all for a purpose : generate a life.

The ancient females were, of course, great warriors.- the master concluded

This lecture caught everyone's attention, so much so that it attracted Malleus and Lillia to study. The most excellent professor Wamuro had explained that these "ancient humans" no longer exist, but the heir to the thrones could not help but notice the similarities between the ancient race and his beloved Child of Man, the prefect of Ramcharkle, and now that he has learned about the blood curse he is more worried about than ever. Oh, if only he had known sooner!

“The night before...

The young Master Malleus was wandering through the ruins around the school, when, instinctively, his footsteps led him to A Ramcharkle Dorm, his favorite place. Perhaps the mayor is still awake for an exploration together.

Upon reaching the courtyard, he couldn't detect Yuu's presence at the door…nor in the kitchen…but from the living room he noticed drops of blood, on the sofa, on the stairs… and in the bathroom. pain, warm cloths that Malleus assumed would stop the blood, a hemorrhage. As he analyzed strange packaged blood pads, was it a “first aid kit?” Since he found out that Yuu was actually a girl, he was careful and kept an eye out for any danger to the magic-less student, who knows what the horrible NRC students would do with that information. His fear started to show when he didn't listen. nor his feline companion, their meows and tantrums would be disturbing him now for opening the door without knocking. With his heightened hearing, he heard grunts of pain coming from above, in Yuu's personal room.

-I'm going henchman!- grim shouted as he quickly climbed the stairs with something in his paws.

-Quick Grim, help!

Malleus quickly followed the monster towards -Yuu's room, when Grim opened the door he saw a harrowing scene. His formerly cheerful Child of Man was now writhing in pain on the bed, his room a mess, and there was blood on his sheets.

-Yuu, what's going on? - Malleus' worried voice echoed in the room as he approached the bed.-Are you going to die? Are you hurt?

-Oh, Tsunutaro…- Yuu's voice was shaky, the only times Malleus called her by name was when it was a dangerous situation, like the fire incident with Rollo. She didn't have the strength to drink tea alone, so Grim supported her. his head and made him give the first sips. As he drank, his pains were…becoming more bearable.

-What magic potion was that you gave?- Malleus tried his best to remain calm, but Yuu didn't give any answers other than his low breathing.

-Chamomile tea. Yuu, here are the warm cloths that the ghosts brought.- gathering the tea and the warm cloths, his breathing was normalizing and his pains diminishing, until he arranged his position to talk to his dear friend, in a calmer expression while Malleus was forming dark, dark clouds on the horizon.

-What was the evil that attacked you Yuu?

-Whats up, Tsunutaro. You know, that thing arrived and I wasn't prepared.

-Who is “thing”, was he the one who invaded Ramcharckle and attacked her in her vulnerable state?- With his hand on his chin, Malleus thought of all the possible enemies that Yuu could have, thinking of a punishment for each one.

-Not him, she. Menstruation came really hard this month, I'm glad I have ghosts and grim to take care of me.

The feline purred on top of Yuu's belly who caressed it, the cat's vibrations eased its cramps. The truth is that this month Yuu was very overloaded, with tasks, with Grim, with her friends, with Crowley… who, in addition to not taking care of her health and ignoring the symptoms, forgot to set the day, causing a strong flow to arrive unexpectedly while watched TV with Grim in the living room. The ignored symptoms now insisted on being noticed, so much pain and stress and increased blood making Yuus turn from side to side in bed, trying to find the right position so as not to die of pain.

The ghosts had had experiences similar to these, so they taught Grim how to make the chamomile tea that Yuu always made and warmed the hot towels. But the powerful heir to the throne of thorns didn't know anything that was happening, he had never witnessed something like that, maybe ask Lillia later about this "menstruation" that attacked Child of man. His questions were dying in his mouth, he was confused, but Yuu was fast asleep.

-Do you feel better now, Child of Man?- Malleus approached Yuu, brushing the hair from his forehead and putting it behind his ear, feeling sad to see lines of dried tears, what a terrible pain.

-Getting better… little by little.- her confidence was so much in the fairy, that she didn't hesitate to keep her eyes closed, enjoying the calming effect of the chamomile

-I hope it doesn't last more than 5 days so you don't miss Henchman classes.

-Maybe it lasts all night Grim, but I'll be better tomorrow, as long as you bring me chocolates hehe.

-Anything, invoke me and I will help you, dear Child of Man- the fairy said goodbye leaving a trail of fireflies that gave Yuu a more cozy environment for a peaceful night.

As soon as he arrived in Diasomnia, he went straight to Lillia's room, who was playing some new game, when telling what happened the war veteran could not answer all the prince's questions, proposing that they go to have a meeting with the master in humans, Professor Wamuro , who coincidentally had a class the next day…

----------------------------------------------------------

Curiosity: This idea came to me when my brother saw me researching menstruation phases and he said "So you mean you are four people in a month? Who am I talking to now", this innocent question made me have the inspiration to do this fic. Curiosity II: The archetypes are different in my language to English, but they mean the same thing.

[dukeofdelirium]

The wildest personal encounter I’ve had about MJ was when a (now ex-friend) told me she new MJ was guilty because her aunt was a victim of child sex abuse and she would “believe the victim”. I didn’t push anything at the time because I didn’t want to tread on a personal subject, but I hate the “believe the victim” mentality when there is irrefutable proof that the “victim” is a liar and a manipulator. As it so blatantly is with the MJ case for anyone who cares enough to look. That “friend” turned out to be a bitch in the end for other reasons, but that was my first red flag.

It’s so ridiculous, this notion that we should believe anyone and everyone accusing others of serious crimes off someone’s verbal testimony alone. And in such cases like Michael’s, where there is no verifiable evidence, the only thing that can be judged IS the accusers verbal testimony and the credibility of such.

We are living in a time where emotion has replaced due process. Me Too and other similar “movements” have opened the door to allow false allegations to run rampant. James Safechuck, Wade Robson, Amber Heard. Hell, Amber was their goddamn spokesperson and she is a court proven liar!

Ppl listened to her allegations of DV without asking for any evidence, only her verbal accounts. It was obviously proven in court that she lied and defamed and slandered Johnny Depp, who was the actual victim of DV the entire time!

Ppl have believed Wade and James’ accounts of their alleged molestation in that one sided “documentary” in which they provided ZERO evidence to back up their claims, against a dead man that can’t speak for himself and against a man who was already exonerated of such allegations in life!

Just because someone claims to be a victim of something, doesn’t mean they are. People falsely accuse others of crimes all the time and have done so since the dawn of civilization. Greed, jealousy, prejudice, fear, etc drive these false allegations and create lynch mobs and a mob mentality. This is extremely dangerous.

Ppl are imprisoned for things they never did all the time. Ppl are accused of things they never did all the time. And when it comes to high profile names like Michael Jackson or Johnny Depp, the accusers have immediate incentive to lie for financial gain. As such, those allegations need to be treated with the same scrutiny as any other, if not even more.

Believe proven victims. Don’t believe just anyone saying anything. You can listen to their claims, but if evidence suggests it isn’t true, then why would you or anyone believe them? Wade and James are court proven perjurers and extortionists, just like the rest of Michael’s accusers.

All evidence proves beyond doubt that Michael Jackson was innocent and was a victim of false allegations and criminal extortion. He died an innocent man dragged mercilessly by the worldwide media, bestialized and dehumanized beyond belief. And in death, they continue to defile his grave.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Preamble

We atheists and atheist allies hereby declare that from now on, March 23rd is Atheist Day. We recognize the struggle of atheists to live authentic lives in many parts of the world. The struggle to openly affirm one’s atheism. The fear of intolerant governments, mobs, and religious zealots.

This struggle often includes the risk of professional, social and familial ostracization. Sometimes, this authenticity results in paying the ultimate price — one’s life. Many of our brethren have been brutally murdered for professing the very principles that this day represents: the freedom of and from religion, the right to be free of discrimination and persecution, and the freedom to profess one’s beliefs.

Many of us happily interact with people whom we admire and trust who unbeknownst to us, are closeted atheists. The world is full of atheists who are silent about their true convictions. Why? Simply this: a fear of reprisal and discrimination based on misinformation, ranging from the subtle to the life-threatening.

People should not be persecuted for their lack of belief in a god or a religion. That’s all we’re asking.

Some people however, believe that disagreeing with deeply held beliefs is hate. But it’s not.

We wish to remind our fellow human beings that many of the most powerful ideas — ideas that changed our world — were once heretical.

Many of the most radical thinkers and reformists in past eras were blasphemers against the established order of their day.

Freedom and Self-Determination

Atheists, just like adherents of religion, deserve the freedom to openly identify, profess and promote their views. No belief system or perspective on belief should enjoy special treatment.

Rejection of Bigotry and Discrimination

While atheism is a position on only one very narrow question — the evidence for a god or gods — we the proponents of Atheist Day also share a commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

As such, to be associated with the Atheist Day campaign — whether you are a believer or not — is to necessarily reject bigotry and discrimination based on religious belief (or lack thereof), on race and on sexual orientation.

Just as you don't need to be gay to support gay rights, you don’t need to be an atheist to show your support for Atheist Day.

Awareness Campaign

A central component of Atheist Day is raising awareness of the discrimination and stigma faced by atheists around the world. Atheists are your loved ones, your friends, your doctors, your social workers, your teachers, your police officers and in short, the people in your life who are hiding in plain sight.

Our awareness campaign seeks to clear some misconceptions too. We Atheists and Atheist Allies want our fellow brothers and sisters in humanity to realize that we needn’t believe in an external force to encourage correct moral action. Isn’t true morality that which is done for its intrinsic value, and not under the threat of punishment or reward? Surely it is possible to act morally from intrinsic motivations, rather than extrinsic ones.

Many atheists would argue that our modern sensibilities, our ability for empathy, and our sense of universal human rights today often surpass the moral codes of largely subscribed-to religious scriptures of the past. Proof positive that we can live moral and ethical lives without a belief in the supernatural. This perspective also does not preclude atheists showing solidarity with religious people and their right to believe and to be inspired by their respective religious traditions.

To help atheists realize that they are not alone, we will promote a unified coming out on social media. Whether an atheist or an atheist ally, please support the campaign with the hashtag #AtheistDay.

Our Atheist Day awareness campaign is focused on removing the misconceptions, removing the stigma, and remembering the fallen. We aspire to normalize atheism so that people who are atheists no longer need live double lives.

We aspire to hold information events, public talks, marches, and embassy protests for those countries who would persecute us. Events will be organized at the city level, across the world.

Whether we march in the streets or we protest in secret, our voices will be heard. Your marching with us will encourage people in the Arab world to be steadfast. Many people in such regions of the world don't know that they have your support. Show them. Let them hear you. Stand with us.

A Coordinated Coming Out

Many who leave religion are fearful of “coming out”. For those who live in a region of the world where leaving their religion doesn’t entail a risk of physical harm, we also have a coordinated coming out campaign.

This campaign is central to Atheist Day. Even if you’ve not adopted the atheist label but have chosen to leave your religion, your conscious choice to come out is what our day represents.

We believe that people who leave a religion need not keep it to themselves for lack of solidarity. Atheist Day is your day to tell your story. To share your pride in making a conscious choice to define your own identity vis-a-vis religion.

A Celebration of Life

In addition to our awareness campaign, Atheist Day will encompass a second vital theme: a celebration of life.

This is a day for atheists especially, to meet face to face. It’s a day for atheists in hiding in many parts of the world, to connect with one another, where that can be done safely. These real world connections are vital. They help atheists overcome the feeling of isolation that need not be felt.

As this life on Earth is the one and only life that we can be certain of, we believe it wise to live this life to it’s fullest potential, and to help others who are less fortunate, also do the same.

We will host dinners, parties, concerts, and festivities across the world in a celebration of life, freedom, dignity and our common humanity. As an atheist or atheist ally, you are most welcome to join us in these celebrations.

Gratitude

We the founders and proponents of Atheist Day are grateful to our Atheist Allies. You do not need to be an atheist to be a vocal supporter of Atheist Day and an Atheist Ally.

Respect for the right to self-determination, free speech and a level playing field for ideological criticism is what we and our allies all share — even those Atheist Allies who profess a strong religious belief.

It’s not about respecting ideas; it’s about respecting people and their right to choose their own beliefs.

For our Atheist Allies across the entire belief spectrum, we are truly and deeply grateful for your support. We may not share a god-belief, but know that we see you as our brothers and sisters in humanity. Gratitude, solidarity, and love.

[dorokora]

Chapter 14 Episode 4 Part 2:

We start with narration about the Wanderers. The Wanderers is a group formed by those who have no fixed place of residence and who have gained a “fate”. We transition to Q’ursha’s backstory. A Transient who calls himself "The Stray Dog of the Arakawa Guild". In the mountains of his homeworld, he was praised as the best hunter and hound with his former partner. Its leaps were high, praised as thunder-like, and did not allow any opponent to catch him. Simple but happy days in the mountains. He thought that every day like this would last forever. However, those happy days are ruined by the entanglement of lust that is everywhere. It started when Q’ursha’s partner fell in love with a mountain spirit at first sight. From domestic love, to hatred where love is reversed, and confinement, Q’ursha and his partner were separated. In Kitezh, mountains are sacred and apex. And "a place where things that spread and rain down come". There is no way for mere hounds to resist such a huge thing. Q’ursha lost his precious master, his companion to live with. A hound that jumps higher than anyone, lost its dream. Love, he hated it. Q’ursha abandoned his homeworld. He came to Tokyo with a wound that would not heal. There is "a city where any kind of love is permitted". A city where all different races can live and love each other with various "roles". But that ideal seemed like a bad joke to Q’ursha, who hated love. It is not easy for Q’ursha, who is still haunted by the past, to make a living in this city. But he was popular. Those deeply held wounds must strongly attract someone passing by who is weary of the city. In this city, Q’ursha gives his love to someone else every day and gets a bed for one night only. And in the morning, before the landlord wakes up, he kicks out the bed and leaves alone. While sneering at how he, who hated love affairs, now lives greedily for love. Days like that, when it's still bright. A seasoned basketball court in a corner of the city. Q’ursha bursts into street basketball, bounces the ball, and makes the sound of dribbling. A new dream for Q’ursha found in this city. It's about making a living out of basketball. He want to jump higher than anyone else. That day, the continuation of the lost dream. Q’ursha will send a selfie to his friends to commemorate the victory of a match with the "app". The regular communication is proof of Q’ursha’s survival, proof of the connection with friends made in this city. This Tokyo is a utopia that accepts all kinds of love. But that love was what Q’ursha hated. Do you love or hate this Tokyo? And yet he is in this city, living strong with his friends.

We cut to fighting between the Warmongers/Invaders against the Rule Makers/Entertainer. We cut to MC who can’t do anything but helplessly watch as everyone is fighting and Tokyo is on the brink of collapsing. We cut to Q’ursha standing before a large wave of enemies but help is here as the Missionaries and Gurus (plus Takemaru and Kagutsuchi for some reason??) are here to back him up. Maria used her sacred artifact to hold back the Entertainer mobs telling them there’s need to fight and that Tokyo is the place where everyone is living and desperately trying to survive. This Tokyo is "a city where any kind of love is permitted". There was still some quarreling, and there was pain. Because if there are two people, there will be heaven and hell. "Everything goes well for everyone", such a utopia does not exist anywhere. This is our city, this is our Tokyo! The missionaries angels rally behind Maria, supporting her. Q’ursha uses his sacred artifact to dodge and jump above the Entertainers mobs attack. The rule that resides in his sacred artifact is for jumping back and forth between Heaven and Hell in the spherical universe. Its movement cannot be predicted by calculation. In other words, even Q’ursha himself who uses the Sacred Artifact can’t predict it, only the thunder decides where to go.

We cut to Loki who is wondering if everything is still going according to plan. Oscar gives a vague answer. He said even if it's the same play and the same script, it's just that different things come out depending on the day. There are things that were never supposed to meet, are attracted to each other, and are connected. But that's what makes the show interesting. That's why it's the best feeling in the world. Even if it leads to the ruin of this body, I want to be honest with that pleasure. Oscar then gives Loki a sexy wink. But Loki just tells him to stop sending him that stare. Oscar said he’ll use this literary talent to make sense of things that aren't usually planned, so please look forward to it. We cut to Barrong and Amduscias. Barrong is excited and want to jump in on the fighting as well. Amduscias is reluctant. Barrong tells him It's okay, go to where you want to go. But have you decided which stage you want to go to? Do you know what kind of story this is for you? What do you want to show to whom? Amduscias seems anger and doesn’t know how to answer Barton’s questions.

We cut to King Solomon, Christine tells him to watch the show from his favorite seat and she’ll be back later. She bows her head towards and leaves. We then see Ahura and Nobumichi. Nobumichi decided to follow Ahura now. If there’s a settlement between Rule Maker he’ll follow the rules. Nobumichi ask Ahura where are they going. Ahura says they are going to meet Oscar. We cut to Christine, Barron, and Amduscias who are about to ambush Q’ursha. But the other Wanderers showed up just in time to provide support for Q’ursha. Wanderers vs Entertainers begin!

[gunsli-01]

I think DECO*27 100% knew what he was doing with Futa and Muu, and if the point he was trying to make about the both of them was internet/moral radicalization, then hats off to him because Futa is a damn good reflection of internet mob mentality and Muu is just proof that some fans are hypocrites (even Futa calling out voters for condemning him and praising Kotoko was a good detail). Hell, maybe my thoughts on Muu make me a hypocrite too.

Also, if he's been trying to do specific pairings being a juxtaposition of each other, then 03 and 04 make a lot of sense being a specific pairing (moreso than any other).

Personally, I believe everyone is allowed to be a little bit of a hypocrite when it comes to Milgram. I mean it actively promotes voting based on one's own biases. Plus, if that's what makes this experience fun for some then I say keep at it. I'd just enjoy seeing those biases interrogated more or at least noted. I feel like that's what will keep the fandom peaceful and less argumentative.

My focus is what would be fun overall, and I feel like arguing amongst ourselves isn't good for anyone. Like the shape and future of the prison changes with our choices sure but that doesn't mean the fandom space should turn into a prison in and of itself.

In my opinion it seems Deco and the writer working on Milgram Takuya Yamanaka know what they're doing. They also both did work on the Caligula Effect games. Though Takuya was the producer on the first one and the writer of the second game. I'm quite sure he gave writing input on the first one as well though.

Deco and he seem to be discussing possible outcomes from the verdicts already locked in as well.

I'm not that good with Japanese so these will just be slightly corrected google translations.

"In other words, the future changes depending on if one is "forgiven" and "not forgiven" × 10 people. The other day, I went over the possible outcomes that can occur from the current situation with DECO*27, but even for us as the producers, I realized that the future of the prison is very exciting thanks to the choice of the guards."

Though I'm fairly sure the x 10 people means across ten people or times ten. So, the future changes with each new verdict.

As someone who enjoys writing and collaborating/discussing plot points with friends I can't help being a little jealous. This seems like an incredibly fun and lively predicament to be in!

They also said this when Futa's second trial CD went on sale.

"Futa's second trial EP is on sale! I wrote the drama "Baptism of Fire" with the intent of punching the guards who participated in Milgram with all my might, so please enjoy it💪 and keep sharing your thoughts! Look forward to the release of the MV premiere of "Backdraft" from 19:00 today🔥"

So, yeah, they're moving very strategically it seems. Possibly paying attention to how people respond to the videos, maybe even seeing the popular theories floating around. They also seem to genuinely like Futa's character. He's even been compared to a puppy on the Milgram app.

Given the ideas I've seen discussed in Caligula Effect Overdose so far... They seem to enjoy depicting realistic and flawed characters. Sometimes to extreme degrees. @apatchworkstar and I have been going through Caligula Effect Overdose and boy if you think the Milgram characters are messed up then ha, ha, ha... They're a bit tame in comparison to that cast, which is saying a lot given most of them haven't committed murder. Yet somehow some of them are still easier to dislike...

I can't talk much though my favorite character in it so far is Eiji Biwasaka. He is probably one of the most dangerous people there and may have committed some crime, but I don't have confirmation of it yet just a lot of alluding to it~ Real talk he probably did that shit I think he did. Yet, at this point I'm like you've been the realest dude here this could be true, and I would just not care.

Hell, I'd probably help him cover it up at this point. Honestly, I would I know in my heart he did that shit and I'm just like huh well this isn't Milgram and I'm not a snitch this seems like a not my lane issue. Though my bias is oh shit star sign buddy; I don't see enough Pisces in media, sweet!

Things I've seen covered in the first game so far have been fatphobia, transphobia, eating disorders, doxing, assault, peeping, and a myriad of other topics that usually are not dragged to the forefront.

So, they already have some experience with discussing heavy topics and depicting discrimination realistically in various forms.

All that to say yeah, I agree with you they one hundred percent have a grasp of what they're attempting to convey. So, aggrandizing any of the prisoners is going to end up leading to some disappointments. Because they are really good at portraying horrid people and the fact that all the Milgram characters don't seem to be terrible people is more suspicious at this point.

[thisismenow3]

TL;DR is that, just like with a functional and large middle class, the capitalist class and their attack dogs prefer the chaos of misinformed and unruly illiterate masses because it makes knowing how to bring about change harder and the resulting anti-intellectual moron cultural aspects of our society and bad outcomes for the masses stroke the ego of the wealthy who can now say “see? There’s proof we are better and deserve everything and the plebes deserve nothing.” The wealthy would rather be kings of shit piles than the highest paid servants in a functional estate.

It’s also been done on purpose by conservatives. That “it’s been a nationwide trend ten years but goes back 30 ish years in some states” is the direct effect of republicans and the conservatives groups that helped the neocons (alt right before alt right) take over defining what is true by running the playbook that Trump is a master of (in the sense that a fly is a master of eating shit) for even more decades. When you see how they vilify teaching context and fact based history and using multiple lenses to interrogate texts to find truth that is hidden or not even plain to the authors of the time because of bias and framing… it’s not just the facts and how they portray racism in our institutions past and present that they reject. They also reject people being able to understand what’s actually going on. It’s a lot easier to have 30-45% (45-60% of white people) supporting racist “as the only/best way” if their exposure to reality/ideas counter to the ones taught in the home is through tv and internet, as well other heinous shit.

This is why you see right wing movements throughout the decades attacking schools to hamstring their teaching while also trying to force companies to not put out “PC”(woke before it was called woke) shows and movies. You make people unable to understand through reading and averse to learning through anything but media so people just have baseless beliefs mixed in with views spoon fed to them from broadcast journalism of the corporate or right wing and corporate variety. Then people get older and learning takes more effort and no one has time and suddenly when you explain that while all sources have bias you can learn to sort for the truth to then form your own opinions… you lose people. So even people not in the 55% take the lazy way out and may try once or twice with a friend or loved one before they swear off trying to broach this issue on the individual level, all while ignoring it on a larger eve because of the right wing hate mob that destroys lives metaphorically and literally.

No one talks about it in America because the majority of the 45% of adults who don’t have this problem don’t want to do the hard work or benefit from the corrupt systems that are predicated upon it. And if you personally came from money and believe in a revanchist, almost monarchical view that most of humanity “must be ruled” like the majority of conservatives and wealthy… this system is the way you Astro turf “proof” of that belief. 55% of Americans can’t read more than a page and can’t read above a 5th grade level so that people like Tucker Carlson can believe that racism and classism are right while few people have the tools other than raw belief to counter the performance of informed debate the tucker carlsons of the world spout

Quick question, genuine question:

Why on earth does "more than half of US adults under 30 cannot read above an elementary school level" not strike horror into the heart of everyone who hears it?

Are the implications of it unclear????

I'm serious, people keep reacting with a sort of vague dismissal when I point this out, and I want to know why!

If adults in the US cannot read, then the only information they have access to is TV and video, the spaces with the most egregious and horrific misinformation!

If they cannot read, they cannot escape that misinformation.

This obscene lack of literacy should strike fear into every heart! US TV is notoriously horrific propaganda!

Is that???? Not??? Obvious???????

I know this sounds sarcastic, I know it does, but I'm completely serious here. I do not understand where the disconnect is.

[sugaglos]

hi

Sorry I know we don't know eachother- but how do you know scarletarosa and melias-cimitere saying the truth? They seem to be a cult, and aside from that I catched scarletarosa lying a bunch of times, she even called herself lilith in the past and a succubi under lucifer and lilith, plus melias was reported preying on underage people, I could add more but I can't remember at the moment, sorry.

Besides it sketchy how they tyring to isolate you from your friends/family etc. so you will rely on them and their belief alone..

Idk if anything I'm gonna say will be taken out of context or not since that's what the lynchmob likes to do.

"They seem to be a cult"

"Seem" is not a valid enough proof to say sth like that about someone else. Never have I been asked for money (like cults do), never have I been told to preach and then go 100% silent as if I'd be wipped off the face of the earth, they have not pampered me and then threatened me with any kind of violence, never have they sent evil spirits my way and so on. Whoever says they're a cult don't know how real cults work. They have helped people get away from real cults and have a normal life.

"I catched scarletarosa lying a bunch of times, she even called herself lilith in the past and a succubi under lucifer and lilith"

Sincerely, never have I seen sth like this so no comment.

"Plus melias was reported preying on underage people"

Again, in my most sincere experience, never have I encountered anything of the sort. I have minors in my family and nothing has ever been asked about them or said, and no attempts have ever been made.

"Besides it sketchy how they tyring to isolate you from your friends/family etc. so you will rely on them and their belief alone.."

Idk anything about this and am not speaking on their behalf, but, say, if you'd be living in an extremely toxic enviornment/family, wouldn't an advice to move out be a good thing? It might be hard, but it would be worth it. Everyone doesn't deserve forgiveness too, even if they are family members. If you have "friends" who lead you down a the path of drugs and overall self destruction then cutting ties with such people will only benifit you, no? I live on my own and have toxic family members that should be avoided(and Melias knows this) and he hasn't told me to cut ties completely bc it's my choice to do so or not, and I have to think with my own head what to do with my life. I've been told many times to not rely on them, but to find out truths/stuff myself bc they don't want to be "right all the time", MEANING you have to find out things, see things for yourself, talk to the deities yourself(and not search shit up on wikipedia and take it as the ultimate truth), to make an opinion of your own on how the physical and astral world works. They can show you the door to better yourself, know things, but that's all, what you do is up to you and they fully support this. If someone is a fucking snowflake when someone is a bit stern towards them sometimes(bc people tend to do stupid shit and sometime a stern voice is necessary to knock some common snese in the head, not lovey-dovey flower-suggarcoating things) then maybe the lhp aint for them, js. The lhp is not a "uwu" path ffs.

I'm in no way deffending anyone, I'm just using my fucking brain. Every response, every comment I've seen basically states either "someone said" or "my friend said that someone else-" which are invalid statements. Also, have you seen any real evidence like exchanged text messages(screenshots) and such for these accusations to be verified as true? I haven't and the hate mob who have made disgusting posts hasn't provided any real evidence and neither have these "I heard someone say-" people. If you accuse someone of sth so serious this type of evidence is extremely necessary, especially in interrigations. A dumbass mobster( not gonna call out people just yet) once said they believe the anon messages just bc "assault" is mentioned completely ignoring the absence of evidence. Make it make sense.

So my point is, basically, if there's no evidence then all this is nothing more than a rumor which too many people who cannot think for themselves fall for and spread misinformation and serious false accusations which is an extremly disgusting behaviour. It's been more than a half a year(?) and nothing has been provided.

I have never gone through anything like this and Melias has never used anything against me. And I do not believe I'm more special or less special to be used or preyed upon or whatever the fuck. Both have helped me in the past with things so I can live normally now.

Let me just say one thing - if you're friends with sick fucks who'd go and accuse someone of vile things with 0 evidence, death curse them and do worse just bc their opinions differ from one another..you need better friends, bc the moment you'll start thinking for yourself, they'll do the same thing to you too. These horrid people(the accusers) aint your friends, but wolves in sheep clothing. They'll get what's in store for them, eventually and I noticed some one of them faced a little bit of consequences for these actions, but they're retarded enough to not notice lol Their moms sure would be "proud" of their kids knowing they're being close to being murderers.

Edit: Let me just add that the people you're being fed this hate from are extreme racists and people who practice/worship what they don't really believe actually exists irl. Let that sink in a bit. I've cought them lackin' many times, but their culty people don't seem to have neither eyes or a non-smoothbrain to see it.

[poltergeist-coffee]

Plate Anon 🤝 Poltergeist-coffe

Screaming at each other

(also, this remember me something, like, what you like to be called? Just your username or something else, I was curious for a while but kept forgetting to ask)

But yeah, qpac and qetoiles need therapy (like everyone else in this island) THEY ARE IMPORTANT BUT IT LOOKS LIKE THEY CAN'T SEE IT

This make that time qetoiles lost to the codes more painful, because think about what could'vecrossed his mind after it, he failed on his duty, he failed everyone who was counting on him, who trusted him. Sometimes I think qetoiles don't see himself as more than the weapon he holds, that he can't fail, but he's more than that, he is a friend, heis a father, he is a person(or would it be a cucumber?) he's not made of metal, he can get hurt

And qpac just thinks that if someone had to go, that would be him, because would the best choice, right? Cellbit is the main investigator, and now there's Bagi who is also great, Mike has a good knowledge on create and Forever, well, he's the president, he has charisma and dedicated, the n.i.n.h.o is a proof of this, and well, Felps is Felps(to this day I can't explain this man, he simply is), they would left an hole if they left(and worse, they did) it would be notified, people would feel it, and from that point of view, qpac thinks he would be less of a loss if he was gone. But that's the thing, they are all important, their family works in this way, every piece matter, pac felt every loss, again and again, and they felt when he was gone, when he hurt himself to save qforever

(This what I love in the favela 6, if you looked at their past a everyone you might as "how can this be a functional family?", but they are regardless of all the odds)

(☝️ plate Anon aways finding a way to talk about favela 6)

Honestly,this what makes both of them interesting characters, qetoiles had a big responsibility on his shoulders he couldn't fail(I still find funny how apparently he was supposed to die way before than he did in his last fight with the codes, that's the french beast to you) and qpac doesn't see his own worth, like, y'know the day Kameto came back? He was calmly fighting the mobs and even stopped to fix his hair(also if you find the stream you mentioned please tell me Wich one is)

And if I remember well etoiles was the first to mention pac was a good fighter, right? Sadly they don't interact as much as before but they have a such interesting dynamic

Also I remember that I heard that etoiles wanted to have a villain arc back in the elections arc, but I think he gave up because he didn't exactly have a reason, Pomme had two lives and he's literally the strongest person there lol

(Also THAT part of the fandom is a *insert some insult here because I can't find any word on English that isn't a swear* and he could receive a lot of hate, thats why I don't use Twitter)

But he would be a terrifying villain

And I've been waiting for a TazerCraft villain arc since they got arrested, like, I think Pac deserves to go a bit wild

(Talking about villains, while the happy pills arc wasn't exactly a qforever villain arc, I'm surprised how people embraced it, especially the first day the eggs disappeared, the chat was saying to explode everything and kill. Forever even called Pac to calm him down(Wich he did but he also was like "explode everything" too, Pac has potential to be part of the voices in the head that almost everyone has lol)

-God of the 🍽️ Anon

You call me my username, any shortened version of my username or Kasper! I don't mind whichever you pick lol

plate anon im shaking you by the shoulders youre so based your analysis is immaculate im eating your words now they're mine you cant have them back NJKASDNVAKJS

YOU'RE SO RIGHT THO AAAAARGH!!! i 100% agree i think q!etoiles struggles with seeing himself as more then anything but a protector or like what weapon he has. like he was so lost right after he died from the code and it took the code stuff back. he sort of like gave up/lost all motivation and it didnt help that the eggs are gone!! like he couldnt protect his daughter or the other eggs and now he's failed all the islanders because he couldn't beat the code?? what is he suppose to do now??

sometimes a family is 6 dysfunctional people with complicated pasts and one (1) egg and that makes them an amazing family <33 EVEN IF THEY'RE AT ODDS WITH ONE ANOTHER THEY WILL SUPPORT EACH OTHER/HELP EACH OTHER GAAH!! THEY'RE ALL IMPORTANT TO THE ISLAND AND TO EACH OTHER!!

crying and screaming i want them to interact and talk agina TT maybe they will tomorrow... because there's an event and ik etoiles will log on but idk if pac will......... it's okay... i'lll make my own content of them while i wait... sobs....

the twitter qsmp fandom is so TT it can be good but also sometimes its so bad TT like aah there is a lot of hate that comes from there at times,,,, if qetoiles decided to become a villian or to genuinely oppose the other islanders he would be unstoppable like hes so strong kajsdnvkas they're lucky he isn't right now...

I THINK QPAC SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO GO CRAZY!! IF HE WANTS TO KILL I SAY LET HIM!! HE DESERVES IT HE'S BEEN THROUGH SO MUCH ALREADY!! GO CRAZY GO STUPID I SUPPORT HIM!!

i loved seeing forever's chat the first day when we found out the eggs were gone like kjasndvjkas his chat was like "FUCK THE ISLAND GET RID OF IT ALL!!!!" i was also apart of it... i also sort of wanted him to blow it all up.... sorry my bad... i think qforever deserves to do a little crime.... all the stress of being president was too much let him blow up shit i say... (QPac is such an enabler at times akjnvkajs i love him for that)

[blocks-with-lore]

I KNOW WHAT TECHNOBLADE IS.

Alright so I was saving this for a video but I am gonna publish it later and first Ill do this.

There has been a debate in this fandom about if techno is a piglin, half-piglin, anthropomorphic pig or something else. It's been a debate for a while.

But I have finally found the most logical and definitive answer.

Exhibit 1: Techno and Piglin

So, first of all, Piglin and Techno.

Techno has called Piglin in a familiar way (for the joy of the piglin headcanon fans), however this falls apart quite easily from a visual point of view. Techno's attributes look more like a Pig than a piglin.

This would lean more towards Techno just being a shapeshifter or an antropomorphic pig.

Or does it? You see, after some investigation, there is more than what appears.

You see there are 2 forms you can find a piglin as. You can find a normal piglin... and a zombie piglin.

Why are zombie piglin so important here? Well, because they are the origin of the piglin idea. But here comes more:

Exhibit B: The visual Update.

Zombie piglin used to look differently. No tusks, no big snout and more importantly a more humanoid typical square body.

However the most important part here... is the face. It seems familiar, doesn't it?

Well, turns out this mob also had a different name. It's a zombie pigman. This implied the existence of...

Exhibit 3: The Pigmen.

Pigmen were an official minecraft mob that were never implemented.

These guys were supposed to inhabit the towns of the overworld before villagers were placed instead.

However, you could find their files just existing.

.

A long, lost race of creatures that existed and were erased eras ago, predecessors to the piglin race today.

...

And one that looks exactly like Technoblade.

The points that this theory cover:

1. His familiarity with piglins

Despite piglins not being his own race, being the future generations of Pigmen would make piglins akin to Techno in familiarity and Genes.

2. Long time immortal.

There is a huge debate on Technoblades age, but for now considering the "he's really old" idea, this theory works like a glove. Technoblade could be a hundreds of year old remain of an extinct species which used to dominate the planet.

3. - 6. He has a different religion than everyone, he lost track of time, he hybernates and knows Phil as an old friend, he comes from a land where "people don't have multiple lives".

7. His skin:

As you can see Techno looks exactly as a Pigmen. There is therefore no more problem in deciding if he has or not a half or entire relationship with the piglin race. His entire attire could talk about his own lineage, or the way he placed himself at the top of the pig races because he is part of the original pigmen.

It was questionable that Technoblade was half piglin. It was reasonable that Technoblade was an antropomorphic pig, but it's absolute how he looks like a Pigman.

.

There is so much room to fit history, lore, background, age and more things in this, and the proof is actually incredibly solid.

Maybe he wears monarch clothing because he comes from the last line of surviving Pigmen. Maybe when Phil found him he was the last one alive. Maybe he's always been around. Maybe he hid in Hypixel and when he came back there was nothing left. Did the Pigmen escape to the Nether? Did he grow up there? They they build the fortresses and eventually evolve to piglin? Is he the only one that remains?

Technoblade is a Pigman.

[brightert0mb]

Syndicate Gang with Glare/Allay/Copper Golem!Reader Part 2

Part 1

Part 1.5 - Glare

Part 2.5 - Allay

Part 2.5 - Copper Golem

A reminder that all the mobs are in the game but the Glare and Iron Golem are rare, so hybrids are even more rare. Which is why everyone is so curious about you.

Also this will have spoilers for all event related to the Syndicate Gang including the more recent stuff. It’s been a while but still, if you want to watch the clips before anything, go do that.

Also also, these are going to be very long since we are covering everything from around the time of Tommy’s Death to current day.

Triple also, all relationship are written to be platonic but can be interpreted as romantic as you wish to read. Just bear in mind peoples boundaries.

Glare!Reader

So you’re still living in the Arctic with the group. You made your own house cause Techno and Phil were getting tired of getting woken up by your nightly glaring.

You spend most of your time sleeping during the day but at night you can’t stop.

Whether it’s taking care of the mobs on the commune (before Phil mob proofs it), building up your own resources, or doing one of the lists of things that the others might leave out for you.

Techno will usually ask for you to feed his dogs and other animals, Phil asks to water the crops, Ranboo will ask you to keep an eye on a house in Snowchester (though you haven’t been made aware why), and Niki will ask for help getting resources for the city.

Occasionally you wake up before sunset or stay up after sunrise for a while, that’s when you usually hang out with them.

You mainly base your opinions off of what they tell you since you don’t meet many others at night and you spend what time you can with them.

Needless to say you don’t like Tommy.

The only one you meet out side the commune is Sam. You had wandered close to the prison, curious about it and Sam was just finishing his shift. He asks you about what you know about the prison and Dream to which you reply nothing.

You asked the group about it next chance you got and that only left you more confused due to the wide range of answers and descriptions.

You start to talk to Sam more when he’s off at night since you don’t have much normally and just like to wander.

When Wilbur is revived, you notice. It’s like a zombie is there, but also not. More than once Will has woken up in the middle of the night to you glaring at him which led to a very colorful awakening for Phil.

You try to avoid each other. He feels wrong to you and you’re just weird to him.

Techno’s birthday is probably the only time you are awake during the whole day but you are happy for nonetheless.

It’s then you’re invited to join the Syndicate finally and given the name Nyx.

When Techno goes missing, no one tells you anything. Phil is nervous and keeps looking at a book, Ranboo is MIA (Phil says something about an Enderwalk), and Niki actively avoids you.

Sam is acts very strange when you tell him about all of this, having not known you were Techno’s friend. He tells you to stop visiting him and the prison and when you decline, he gets mad.

After an intense argument where he tries to skirt the issue, it comes out that Techno is in the prison.

You are pissed, to say the least. The group had told you that everyone on the server could be and/or is a nightmare. You had hoped Sam would be different. You had told him how isolated you felt due to needing to sleep during the day just as he told you about him feeling trapped by the prison and his job there.

You don’t visit with Sam anymore and whenever you travel to the prison, it’s only to stare at the walls, waiting for your friend.

When Techno is out, you’re overjoyed. You don’t fail to notice the new scars and the chip in his tusk, you hatred for Sam only grows.

Then you hear about Ranboo getting imprisoned and you’re livid. That night you go to the prison and demand Sam let Ranboo out. This leads to yet another argument and you end up attacking Sam.

He doesn’t want to fight you, but he does defend himself. And as the more experienced fighter, he wins. He tells you Ranboo is in the prison until he decides to let him out and that the next time you attack him, he WILL take a canon life.

The group doesn't plan on you being part of the prison break but after your fight, you straight up demand to be let in on it.

Since you aren't a strong fighter, you are with Niki, spawning withers and being a distraction. No one knows you or knows you have any connections to Techno, so they don't make the connection.

Everything is going well. Until Sam takes Ranboo hostage. You blow your cover when you see this running and begging Sam to stop. He does hesitate for a minute but he still demands that Dream come back.

Then Ranboo is dead. You scream, charging at Sam while Techno tries to stop you.

And Sam keeps his promise, taking a canon life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Allay!Reader

Ok, so you aren't living with the Arctic group but you aren't really in the SMP either. You have a house in the flower field Niki found you in. The cold hurt your wings which are incredibly sensitive.

Phil makes you a special coat so you can visit them, which you adore and would wear all the time if not for needing to fly.

As said before you mainly do fetch quests for everyone, doing it makes you the happiest any of them see you so it's hard for them not to give you things to do.

However, you are what Phil describes as an organized airhead. You flit about doing whatever whims you have, chatting up nearly every available person on the server till you're the everyfriend of the server.

And yet you will still complete every task you're given with perfect results. No one understands it but no one questions it.

People like to come to you a lot to ask you to get things for them. Some pay you like Foolish and Niki do. Others don't. And it starts to grate on you a bit.

You are still part human after all. And this is when you meet Bad. Having not been informed much about the Eggpire and the Egg, you don't think anything of it or him for that matter.

He listens to your growing woes and assures you that it isn't selfish to want some sort of credit for running around even if doing that makes you happy.

That's the moment when he starts telling you about the Egg. Until Puffy shows up and scares off Bad, who tells you you'll both talk again soon. He even calls you friend.

Puffy attempts to warn you about Bad being nothing but bad news. And as she's someone who pays you back on the rare occasions that she requests something of you, you're inclined to believe her.

But he seemed so genuine. He listened to your troubles. He reassured you and tried to tell you about something that would help you. Techno was talking about going on a trip, Ranboo had been acting odd, Niki was taking more time for her city, and Phil had been more focused on Ghostbur as of late.

You didn't have many friends outside of the group. Due to you flitting about and just talking to any and everyone, no one was close enough to call you a friend. But Bad did. He called you friend. He was there when everyone was pulling away, he was there when everyone was using you.

So for the first time, you lied. You lied, telling Puffy you would stay away from Bad and all things related to this Egg.

Later that evening, you found Bad talking to Antfrost and Ponk. And you asked him to tell you about the Egg.

Niki visited your house that night, wanting to apologize for being so busy and ask for a tea party tomorrow. But you weren't there. You weren't there the next night either. Or several nights after that.

Everyone was worried. You had vanished. Had someone given you a job that required you to travel to a village? Upon investigation, it turned up fruitless.

Then they started to think. Where was one place they wouldn't check but you could be while not being able to leave.

Eggpire.

Niki, Puffy, Techno, Phil, Ranboo, and an assist from Sam, stormed the Egg vault. And low and behold, there you were, helping set up chairs and fetching bowls for Ponk. Your once light blue-tinted skin and shiny blue wings were now pink and deep red.

They moved in and everyone greeted the group amicably. Techno demanded they let you go or he’d make the egg an omelet right here and now.

You all were surprised, but Bad complied oddly enough, saying you were free to go. You thanked hum but said you'd stay. Puffy growled, saying the Egg was controlling you, to which you denied.

You had gone to the Egg yourself. Bad concurred, you didn't even need to be put in the cage. You just sat in the room, listening and talking to the Egg.

The Eggpire gave you not only friends. It gave you a family. Something they all gave up when they left you and when everyone started using you.

You told them to leave and leave you alone. You found people who valued you and respected you, cared for you despite everyone else. You weren't leaving. Not unless they dragged you out. And even then you'd come right back.

The lead-up to the Red Banquet was a difficult time. You had joined Bad and Ant in delivering the invites. Everyone was shocked to see you the way you were now. Once bubbly and a bit of an airhead but still kind, now confident, but catty and sarcastic with those you feel had wronged you.

At the banquet, you seemed to glow, though that could have just been you being an Allay.

You had given a speech about finding your strength and keeping close to those who would support you.

And when the lava dropped, you were there with the others of the Eggpire. Holding an ax and a cold look in your eyes.

Niki tried calling out to you, only to be chewed out. She left you. Too focused on her obsession with Wilbur and her city to cope with it. She could have been there, helping you, defending you from people using you, telling you how “evil” the Eggpire was. But she wasn't. Neither was Techno and Phil and Ranboo.

You found your strength and you had found people who would support you instead of just taking. And now she would finally be rid of the headaches that wouldn't leave her alone.

When Quackity, Techno, and Purpled burst in after you had called Niki up to be next after Foolish, it was both shocking and hurtful. Techno wasn't there for you, but he would come for everyone else.

He denied that outright, he'd come to bring you home just as much as he'd come to take down the Egg. You were his friend. And he wasn't going to let that Egg twist your perception anymore.

When Antfrost died to Puffy, you screamed. You cried and had to be pulled from the room by Bad for the escape. When everyone agreed to split, you tried to say no but Bad promised that he'd find you again.

You all ran. To where you weren't sure but you did, and you disappeared

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Copper Golem!Reader

You're probably the most distant, but it's where you're comfortable.

You moved back to your old compound, fixing it up and making more golems to help manage the place. None are as sentient or smart as you but that's to be expected from a hybrid. At least that's what Phil says.

Due to being more readily available, you get frequent visits from Phil, asking questions for research about copper golems and you.

You're pretty good with Redstone surprisingly and people will come to you for repairs of smaller things. Occasionally, you'll include little things you make in your free time. Wind up toys and blink gadgets that don't do much. The younger visitors enjoy them the most.

You get along with the youngsters. Ranboo is the most frequent, but he commonly brings Tubbo, who in turn leads Tommy. Purpled is the one you see the least but he seems to enjoy you the most, says it's nice to talk to someone who doesn't judge him for his choice of alliance or interests.

When vines start growing on and in the compound, you're quick to set golems to get rid of them, but they always seem to break down. So, you handle them yourself.

They mess with your systems and being around those of the Eggpire feels wrong in a way you can't describe. But when an invite to the banquet is brought to you, it's hard not to give them a chance.

You're glitching the entire time and you almost go back to the compound, but you make it to dinner at least. Unfortunately, the betrayal has everything on its head.

After Foolish dies, you straight up shut down, dropping limply on the floor. Everyone is confused or panicked till Quackity, Techno, and Purpled, who is thoroughly pissed that you appear hurt.

Purpled and Quackity take you home, which is easier said than done when you are made mostly of metal, but they manage.

Your systems reboot as soon as you leave the egg chamber and you're walking by the time you're all halfway to the Compound.

Quackity is oddly quiet, staying to the back as you and Purpled chat about what's been happening, how you both have been, recent adventures or creations. You almost forget he's there.

You tell Phil and Techno about your sensitivity to the vines when they visit the next day. Phil asks to do a more physical analysis to see if he could find anything and you agree to a few blood samples and some general questions.

Then out of nowhere, Purpled came running saying Quackity blew up his UFO and is telling him to join Las Nevadas. And that gets you out of the compound.

You march across the SMP and right into the duck hybrids' stupid needle. And due to your strength, you grab him by the front of his shirt, lift him, begin a verbal smackdown no one expected.

You tell him to stay away from Purpled or you'd make sure he'd regret setting foot on the SMP. And the sucker has the balls to try and twist you into joining Las Nevadas. You call him crazy and leave.

When Purpled comes to tell you he's joining Las Nevadas, you near beg him to reconsider, offering him a place at the compound and saying you could rebuild the UFO, but he refuses.

So to make sure that nothing happens, you take Quackity up on his offer with Purpled.

You generally stick with Purpled during your time there, but you grow a friendship with Foolish, as well as Slime, you chat with Sam about Redstone and your gadgets, and actively avoid Quackity, only glaring when you are required to share space with him.

You mainly are in charge of security and peacekeeping in Las Nevadas due to your strength displayed to Quackity.

He tried having you work with Iron Golems since “Copper is weak and the golems are too small” according to Quackity. But that soon is a problem when the Iron Golems get too aggressive and you keep getting into fights with them.

You eventually just modify the traditional Copper Golem design with Sam and start making those instead. They work well enough and you make sure to rub it in Quackity’s face every chance you get.

Phil eventually stops by with the results from the blood experiments. Whatever your other half is, it's not entirely human.

You take a while off to try and figure this out with Phil, telling Purpled to be safe and behave.

Once, you're done with Phil, you stop by the compound for general maintenance and to check on your home. However, unbeknownst to you, Purpled and Quackity had a fight, a fight that nearly cost Charlie, and Quackity was going to send Purpled a message.

You couldn't even react until it was too late, and an ax had imbedded itself into you.

Purpled and Phil bumped into each other on the way to see you, taking about how you had been radio silent the past few days.

They found you torn apart in the main room of the compound, not dead, but certainly broken beyond normal repair.

Written on the wall was a message.

“Eye for an Eye. Friend for a Friend.”