#not all of them will be this long!

[psalacanthea]

In the Den of the Beast

here as promised on this fine Fanfic Friday, is 4.2k of fic between my Durge and Gortash! She's featured before in this Durge x Abdirak bit of knifeplay smut, but this is from before then, at their first meeting face to face.

Happy Friday! The next poll for next week's Fanfic Friday will be up soon. Thanks for reading, commenting, reblogging, and all that. Let me know if you're having trouble reading it here, and I'll throw it on AO3 as well.

cw: torture, murder, light descriptions of gore, etc. Durge warning (but mild in this bit of fic)

...

Blood coated every inch of skin, coated her throat as she breathed in, the coppery tang thick and heavy in the air.

Passion cooled with the chill to her bare skin, the brief reprieve from numbness fading away once more.  She was left blank and empty.  Following the wordless command of a small, sharp click of her tongue, Iris scurried over, carefully pulling her robe over her arms as she extended them to her sides.  Letting her eyes drop down on the wall, she stared in silence at her erstwhile sister, the crudely made beast that she was.  Orin was seething, lips pulled back to bare a twisted scowl, cloudy eyes wide with anger.

She hadn’t been expecting to be watched, but she should have been.

“I hope that you have sufficiently reflected on your mistakes,” she told Orin, dropping her arms as her voiceless servant finished tying the robe.  “If you ever ignore my instructions again to play your pointless and capricious games, I will make you wish you never slithered out of your mother’s polluted, violated womb.  You are no whimsical artist, you are a disappointment.  Idiot child.”

Picking up Orin’s knife from the table by the door, she examined the bloodstained, pink bit of flesh that flopped about on its tip as she turned it over.  “You may have your tongue back.”  She threw the knife at Orin’s knees, walking past her seething sister as she crossed the large, echoing stone brick chamber.  Behind her, the corpses of Orin’s latest targets, used as an object lesson once more on how a killing should be performed.

It should be quick, brutal, and thorough, not…artistic.

How dare Father ever bless this crude and misled child, when she sacrificed so much for Hi–

No.  Such thoughts were to be buried, cast aside.  Sacrifices must be made willingly, or they were not sacrifices at all.  It rankled, however, to have her struggles so dismissed, her fight for lucidity all but mocked.

She paused, glancing over her shoulder.  “If you embarrass me again, I will peel away the veneer of civility from my flesh and do what I was made for.  As your elder sister, it is natural for me to want the best for you.  And of you.  The next time I hear your voice, it will be saying ‘I am sorry, Sister.  Thank you, Sister.’.  I love you.”

Inarticulate, burbling, some vile curse came from the figure behind her, marred by the damage her rude mouth had taken.  Mannerless to the end.  Truly, family was a burden unlike any other.

Her eyes drifted until they locked, finding that which did not belong.

An interloper.

The figure standing by the door with its disgustingly lax posture straightened up as she approached, but she ignored the vaguely familiar, dark-haired man.  Her attention shifted instead to the woman standing to the other side of the door.  An expected person.  She, much like Iris, was veiled and dressed in burgundy, with her mouth daintily stitched closed.  

Weary-eyed man and servant both turned and followed her as she walked past them, gesturing sharply.

Perhaps the man wasn’t as bumbling as she’d presumed from his portrait.

He knew enough not to speak inside a place of worship.

They paced out into a high, narrow hallway, stone-brick walls uneven, lit with flickering torchlight.  They were designed to demand a single file, but the man crowded close, almost as if he expected to walk shoulder to shoulder with her.  It made her walk more quickly.

“Violet, tell go fetch the prisoner in the left cell, give him the keys to Orin’s restraints, and tell him he may leave if he frees her,” she instructed quietly.  If Orin didn’t kill the man, she was even more incompetent than Belladonna thought.  Near-unfathomable.

It was important to give a child something productive to do after you punished them.

Violet turned and walked away immediately at the first claustrophobic intersection, movements as silent as her sealed lips.

“It wasn’t my intent to intrude on a family matter, forgive me,”  the man said, husky voice oozing what she supposed he thought was charm.

They walked for a time, his steps coming to pace with hers, until she was forced to acknowledge his presence.  It was true that he was following her without knowing why.  She paused, turning to face him, voice and words solemn.  

“Punishments sink in much better with the added pressure of humiliation.”  Belladonna paused, glancing sidelong at him, lifting her chin.  “And she was the only one who had something to be ashamed of in that room.  Don’t you agree, vulture of Bane?”

“I only wish our rituals seemed as…”  At the slight narrowing of her eyes, he smiled, tipping his head.  “Fulfilling.”

Hmph.

“Pity for you.  Have you considered conversion?”

The Banite laughed, throwing his head back, with an unsettling earnestness.  A strong emotion.  It made her uncomfortable– he was uncomfortable to be around.  Serenity-intruding.

Best to get rid of him quickly before she gave in to her discomfort and disemboweled him.  She needed this conniving man.  Unlike Orin, she knew that acting without thought meant your plans were doomed to fail.  

Pray the little idiot never learned the art of forethought.

She was still far, far too impulsive and extravagant, no matter how many times corrected.

“Usually I prefer that people wait until I send them an invitation before they answer it.”

Gortash spread his hands helplessly, fingers gnarled from a lifetime of work.  Not a soft man, then.  “It’s been on your desk for over a week.  I kept anticipating its arrival, only to be disappointed.  I thought a nudge might help keep things moving.”

“You need a better spy, it has been over two weeks,” she replied, trying to calculate just how he would have gotten the interloper into her ranks.  A waste of her time.  If he wanted her to be happy, he would tell her.  “Well, now I know you’ve been trying to infiltrate since we’ve been in contact, no doubt, since it could not have been done easily.  Tell me how you accomplished it.  That is an order, not a request.”

“Yes, it was quite the difficult task.  I’d be happy to share my dark secrets, if it soothes your ire,” he said affably, lifting one hand to his partially bared chest.  

“You will.  In detail,” she agreed, nodding instantly.  If he wanted something from her, he would be honest.  If he was planning to attack her from within by making himself seem helpful, well, she would kill him.  Always a silver lining.

Banites were untrustworthy, it was simply in their nature, but they could work together perfectly well.

Until he inevitably made her angry enough to murder him.

“Perhaps in another venue?  Your hall is…”  His eyes scanned the stained, faintly-damp stone brick of the walls.  “Echoing.”

She had no desire to speak to him in a private space, but it was inevitable and so she merely nodded.  Unwelcome as his intrusion was, she must use it.  Why the fool had ignored the fact that she obviously did not want to respond to his ardent requests for an invitation, she didn’t know, but even if she found him irritating she could not waste this opportunity.  Right now she felt lucid, clear-headed.  Sated.

For now she could face this man and his machinations.

“If you stray from me, steal from me, or touch anything you should not…then you will not be.”

“Concise and convincing! Delighted,” he said, smile too wide and sly for her taste.

"That was a threat, you realize," she said, vaguely baffled by his demeanor.  Pausing, she turned to face him, insisting,  "killing you would be as great a victory to me as alliance."

He lifted a hand, tilting his head.  "If there is one thing my people are good at, it’s keeping records.  I am well aware you have killed…several among our number.  After reaching out to them to ally, too, as you did me.”

So he did know.

They turned a corner, her eyes flicking aside at him once again.  He seemed sincere.  And yet still arrogant enough to face her in such an audacious manner.  What a curious man this Enver Gortash was.  Perhaps clever enough to succeed where others had failed, she hoped?

Why come here, to the very heart of her power...alone?

Was he a madman?

“You aren’t stupid enough to arrive with that in mind unless you are very assured of your plan or your power.  What makes you so confident?” She paused at a four-way junction, gesturing him to the left.  

“You are so delightfully blunt!” he laughed, lowering his voice when she shot him an irritable look.  Turning away, he headed towards the open door nearby,   “I’m not about to let a golden opportunity escape me.  I’d imagine you’re very tired of inferior fools.  I will make for an excellent contrast.”

“So it is stupidity after all,” she said flatly.  Pointing to the door, she stifled her disappointment in him.  “Enter.”

Pausing in the doorway, he laughed, low and amused.  The echoes, though faint, annoyed her.  He must have sensed her wince, as his gaze shifted over to her.  The laughter stopped.  Rather than give him the satisfaction of seeing her discomfort, she gestured to the door again silently.

Gortash cleared his throat, adjusted his coat, and walked into the room.

After a quick glance around the featureless hall, she turned to follow.  Off in the distance there was a scream of rage that came to her ears, distorted by echoes, but she ignored it.  Temper tantrums.  Father should be grateful she got anything done at all, with family to manage on top of it.

The room off of the hall was small.  This font of worship was not particularly large, considering it belonged only to her.  The butler despised this place, urged her to return to the Temple, but she required the distance.  By now she had learned that the prattling minikin who tended to her was to be ignored as much as the festering urges in her own blood and heart.  

Her task required such sacrifices of her.

The room held nothing more than a desk, a dozen mismatched bookcases, and a rusted metal bier she used to sleep on.  Her spare furnishings were not what held the Banite’s attention.  Instead, his dark eyes were locked upon the mangled heads being held outstretched in the hands of two of her silent maidens, mouths agape, eyes gouged out to bare bloody blackened sockets.  Well, two of the three heads had eyes removed.  

Rose’s work.

The Banite’s men.

“Would you like to take them home for burial?”

“No, do as you like with them!” His lack of concern for his lurking spies made her eyes narrow, but he only smiled.  “I did order them to stay without.  If my orders were broken…”

The taller of the two handmaidens gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head.

“There is very little difference to me between knowing where my temple is, and actually breaching the doors.  Do you understand?”

“Surely you couldn’t expect me to visit without–”

She gave him a cold look to silence him, dismissing the handmaidens with a flicker of her hand.  “Orchid, Frostrose.  Go meditate upon if you believe yourselves to have followed my expectations by killing without orders.  If you decide you have not, submit to punishment.  Have the heads left at the exit so that the Banite may take them if he leaves this place alive.”

There was no reason to let him get comfortable.

Walking past them without further commentary, and no pointless bowing and scraping, the maidens left, taking the heads with them.  If they failed to punish themselves, she would do so.  Not because she disagreed with the killing, of course, but because they had not informed her beforehand.  Order was the difference between success and failure.

Order and self-control.

The door closed heavily, the sound hollow as a tomb, leaving them in the pristine, but claustrophobic room.  She silently walked between the bookshelves, heading for her desk.  There was no chair.  It was unnecessary.  Walking behind the large slab of salvaged, ancient wood, she reached for a pile of carefully-written correspondence.  Leafing through it, she found the letter she’d not decided to send to him, and silently held it into the candle flame.  The parchment quickly caught.

Lifting her eyes from the fire, she stared at Gortash as the letter burned.

“The skull as a candle-holder is very atmospheric.”

“It was on hand,” she said casually, the ruddy edge of the blackening paper stinging against her fingertips. She dropped the unburnt corner, which burst into flame and then ash, drifting down to the desk.

“No chairs.”  He sat on the corner of her desk, folding his hands together on his thigh.  The smug man ignored her glare.  He seemed to enjoy not reacting to her– almost as if it made him victorious.  “Bhaal is…against seating?”

She was not impressed.

“I do not find a chair necessary.  Why would I fetch one and drag it through the sewers and caves just to have something to sit on?  I can write standing up.”

“I thought this was your home…that’s all.  My information must not have been as accurate as I was expecting.”  His lips twisted into a grimace, before he shrugged dismissively.  “Well!  You’ve killed the people who failed me, regardless.”

“This is my home,” she corrected, keeping her voice monotone.  Why did he prattle so ceaselessly?  “I asked if you understood why your men died.”

“Yes, perfectly well.  Another threat.  I do notice them, you don’t have to keep pointing them out to me.”

He sounded sincere, which was suspicious.  The longer this went on, the more uneasy it made her.   “I do not idly threaten, and I do not subtly threaten.  They are warnings.  I suggest you treat them as you would the snarl of any beast, because despite my current calm and amiable nature, they are quite serious.”

"I've irritated you."

"Your unwarranted calm irritates me."

His eyes were irritating, so expressive and yet so impenetrable.  “You did ask about my confidence. You thought it came from knowing I had men nearby, and now you see that isn’t true.  Then let me reassure you, so that I don’t end up with my entrails wrapped around your hands– as enjoyable as that was to watch.”

She nodded silently, resting both hands on the edge of the desk.  He still hadn’t stood up.  It bothered her, but she didn’t know why, so she said nothing at all.

“As I said, we keep extensive records.  I am the fourth.  Why would you reach out to four separate Banites in the hopes of finding one capable of allying with you if you did not need one?  I am best suited to your needs, as you are to mine.”

That was all?

“Gloating arrogance,” she dismissed scornfully.

“If that is what you would like to call it.  You haven’t ripped my head off yet,” he pointed out with a smile.  “I think if I told you why you need me, you might, however.  So why not tell me yourself?”

That was what made her uncomfortable about him.  He did not react.  Apart from that brief discomfort when he’d seen the heads, there had been nothing.  As if he’d already known enough about her not to be surprised.  And that…that made her viscerally uneasy.

“Whatever assumptions you have made about me–”

The damnable affability of his voice was irritating in its effortlessness.  “I am discarding them as we speak.  Please; share with me so that I may learn more.”

She stared at him in silence for a good three seconds, and luckily for his sake he wasn’t smiling.  Just gazing at her expectantly.  Whatever convoluted thoughts twisted through his Bane-addled brain, she did not know, but she did know one thing.

“I need you,” she admitted, lips tightening.  “I have been given a sacred duty and nothing but impediments to its completion. I will bring my Father’s desires to fruition.”

“But you can’t alone,” he said knowingly, but not condescendingly. Good, for his sake.  “All of your victims thought your cooperation was going quite well.  They didn’t listen to the warnings, did they.”

“No,” she agreed simply.

“The empty halls, the silent servants, the way you speak and act and move…I take it you don’t enjoy company or people.  Find it unpleasant, even.”

“People and noise irritate me,” she agreed, clipped.

“And when you’re irritated, people die,” he surmised, and smiled faintly at her brusque nod.  “Forgive me.  I watched you kill.  It seems more natural to you than…this.”

She closed her eyes, letting out a faint breath through her nose.  “It is the gift of my Father and I am grateful for it.”

“But it keeps you from following His greater Will.”

“I can.  I am strong enough to control it.  I will make the sacrifices necessary to enact His desires.  I am the blood and flesh of Bhaal; I will succeed.  With or without the aid of grasping Bane’s disciples.”  There she grimaced, remembering that it was aid she was seeking, and clarified grudgingly.  “With would be faster.  But it is beginning to feel that allying with the servants of Bane will only find me condescension, conniving, and crude attempts at backstabbing.”

“My methods are far from cr–”  He cut off as her eyes narrowed slowly.  “Oh come now.  No sense of humor at all?”

She would begin by cutting off his tongue.  Her eyes bored into his; she stared unblinking until he smiled in apology.  “No,” she finally clarified.

“I wouldn’t have come here if I wasn’t close to certain we could work together.  Now, having met you?  I’m absolutely certain.  I have exactly what you need, right here.”  Gortash tapped his temple with a single finger.

“If your brain was all I needed, I would remove it from your–”  She cut off contemplatively, staring at the wall.  The brain.  That thread she’d been forced to cut, that wasted research–

It did still suit her plans, if someone else could help her find a way forward.

“Are you still here with me…”  Gortash folded his arms and tilted his head as her chin jerked up, eyes widening as she stared at him.  “You’ve never signed your letters.  What was your name?”

“I have none,” she replied, turning away from the desk to pace among the bookshelves.

“Is there something I can call you?”

“If you wish to risk it, try,” she agreed, tipping books to the side as she went through an upright stack of them.  Eventually she found the one she sought, a blood-stained, battered journal she’d taken on a journey to the Underdark.  Retrieving it, she picked up the next two, equally disheveled volumes on the shelf. 

It pained her to hand them to someone else, even temporarily.  Every page written in a shaking hand, every revelation a struggle to uncover.  She had suffered for this knowledge.  It was the culmination of her lifelong studies, but she could not use it.

It was the ultimate betrayal of her pathetic mortal limitations.

“I spent years studying a fledgling Mind Flayer colony.”  Stepping out of the shelves, she was unnerved to find the Baneite still sitting on her desk with his hands folded, but turned towards her this time.  He was indeed too calm.  “Watching them breed.  Taking them apart.  I kidnapped and killed hundreds of them, in every state of transformation.”  

She dropped the journals on the desk next to him.

“There are some who think the Invisible Arts have power greater than the Weave itself.  I have studied many serpentfolk as well, in the hopes of unlocking their mysteries.  It is innate.  I cannot learn it through mere desire and effort.”  She had to admit it grudgingly– the greatest failure in all of her work.  “I know how mind flayers are created– in depth.  Have created them myself.  I have dropped a wriggling parasite into an orifice and watched it take root in an exposed brain.  A nascent mindflayer gestating within a host, flowering into life like mushrooms sprouting from a rotting corpse.”

“You have?  Fascinating,” Gortash picked up the journals with nary a flinch for their state.  “May I ask why?”

“The Mind Flayer is an efficient and unique killer.  The Invisible Arts–”

“When you say ‘invisible arts’, you mean refer to mind magic?”  At her cold stare for his interruption, Gortash smiled.  Again.  “I’ve outed myself as being uneducated.  Luckily, I’m a very quick learner.”

“Higher purpose eventually called.  But still…Father has called me to build an army.  So my mind has been ruminating on this research.  If there were some way to alter the parasite…but with no Invisible Arts, the mind flayers could not be controlled.  It is a dead end, but still…”

Gortash went still, smile fading from the edges, expression going blank.  Slowly she saw the corners of his eyes, his lips tense, crinkle.  Deep in thought.  “No army would willingly march under the banner of Bhaal.  It’s the only reason the world yet lives.”

The reminder was unwelcome, but the profound and overwhelming relief at someone listening to her had overtaken her annoyance.  For now.  She had become so accustomed to struggling alone…which meant that her relief was likely a weakness.  Something to be considered later.

Before the Banite exploited it.

Gortash had a contemplative look on his face, nodding very slightly.  “He has gifted you with a near-impossible task.  To build an army that kills until the time comes to kill itself.  Mind control on a scale that large would be...well, as you said.  You have no ‘invisible arts’.  I myself, of course, have an equally near-impossible task, a task which requires me to study and rectify the mistakes of my predecessors.”  His gaze shifted to her, finally reaching down to pick up the stack of journals.  “One of those mistakes I have been studying was angering you.”

“And?”

“And I would like to succeed where they have failed.  How should we accomplish that?”

His insistence on focusing not on what she was speaking of, but on their alleged ‘partnership’ was irritating.  She felt manipulated.  But…perhaps it was manipulation for the right purpose.  If he was useful, she did not want him to die.  “One died because they plotted against me too obviously.  One died because he touched me without permission.  The other two were condescending.”

“Too obviously?  Not ‘at all’?”

“You serve Bane.  I am not stupid.  Heed my warnings and you will keep your life.  It will save us both some trouble.”

“Done, and done!” He said, stacking the journals together neatly.  “May I borrow these?  Not my area of expertise, but it sounds interesting, and it may give me some insight into you.”  At her blank stare, he smiled.  “I’ve decided to on try honesty for a change!  What do you think?  Does it suit me?”

“No,” she said flatly.

“True.  Does it suit you, however?  That is what actually matters.”

“Past experiences have made me wary,” she said, seeing no reason to hide it.  Again, this problem was simple.  If he crossed her, she’d kill him and move on.  As she had done four times before.  “Provided you never play such tricks again as you have tonight, infiltrating my home.”

“I thought that being caught off-guard might keep you intrigued.  I paid the price for it, but I’m still alive at le–”  At her confused look, he chuckled.  “The men you had killed?”

“They paid the price, not you.”

“Well, yes, but they were usefu–” Gortash sighed at her continued blank stare.  “Please don’t murder my people in the future?  I need them.”

“You can buy or kidnap more people.”

“Not much for delegation, are you?”  He shook his head, rising from her desk.

She took a step back from him, feeling oddly uncomfortable as he rose, almost as if in breaking his stillness he was intruding on her all over again.  He had been in her space for too long, she felt stifled by his presence and his company.  Peace had been broken for too long.

Her time was up.

“Peony will be waiting in the hall, she will see you out.”

Gortash looked quite nonplussed, deeply tired eyes penetrating as she avoided them.  “We have a great deal to discuss, are– of course.  I should heed your warnings.  Do you prefer open invitations or scheduled ones?”

“Scheduled,” she said shortly, feeling his voice beginning to grate on her nerves like it had at the beginning.

“Do you eat…food?  Or are you–” As she jerked her head up and stared at him, Gortash took a wary but not frightened step back.  “No invitation to dinner, then.  I hope you’ll come to speak with me…on your terms, this time.  I will simply tender an invitation when I’ve had time to think.  I promise to actually send it.”

“You are the eager one,” she said, feeling the edges of a headache beginning to threaten. 

“All the more so now,” he said, in a voice that was likely meant to be ingratiating.  Her eyes had already dropped from him, however, and when she didn’t look at him again, he cleared his throat.  “Good day, my dear Bhaalspawn.  It was wonderful to meet you."

“Go,” she said simply, every word grating what remained of her perpetually frayed nerves.

She didn’t look up again, staring at the candle flame to try and quell her irritation.  It was mere seconds before the door opened and closed, the Banite making a hasty retreat.  Luckily for him.  Well.

Maybe he would be the one to survive, after all.

It was about damned time something went right.

[victormcdicktor]

While you're here, Hanan and her family need your help!

Hanan and her husband have 3 young children, Lana (10), Abdul Karim (7), and Adam (2); since last year they've been displaced and without income.

Their house in Khan Younis was destroyed with them inside, as well as the clothing store which supported their family. Now, they live in a weak tent which fails to protect them from even the weather, surrounded by scarcity and disease on the coast of Ghazzah.

To help them evacuate and rebuild their lives, they are trying to raise $100,000 USD. So far, they've only raised $9,695; not even 1/10th of their goal.

Please help them however you can, whether it be by donating or sharing their campaign. Every contribution matters.

Vetted by @/gazavetters (#140 )

TAG LIST (DM me for removal)

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(sorry for the randomness of the tags, I just used what popped up. If anyone has advice on how to make a good taglist please tell me)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The math just adds up!

[halorvic]

[kensatou]

"we know how to move our bodies, but i didn't know how to manage my heart, so you need help for this"

hi we need to talk more about judo gold medallist christa deguchi.

[basshole-astard]

PSA: i keep seeing posts about staying cool in extreme heat that include advice like "gatorade is bad actually!" and "don't drink fruit juice it'll just dehydrate you!" and neither of these are true!

regarding fruit juice: there's apparently a misconception that Any Sugar At All will dehydrate you, and that's simply not true. yes, sugar will make you pee more when consumed in large amounts, but 1) the natural sugar in fruits won't do this to you 2) great news! a lot of fruit juices exist without any added sugar in them! 3) honestly even having a glass of the fruit juice with added sugar won't completely dehydrate you as long as you're also drinking water throughout the day. if its hot you deserve a cold treat of a drink!!! can't go wrong with fruit juice!!!

regarding gatorade: maybe this isn't an every day drink, but guess what: if it's 110F/40C or hotter outside, and you don't have AC, or you're moving around a lot outside of the AC, and you're sweating buckets: that's when you drink a gatorade.

gatorade exists to replenish all the electrolytes (salt) and glucose (sugar) that you sweat out. YES it is meant for athletes to drink during intensive work outs and not necessarily for people who aren't doing that kind of exercise. BUT GUESS WHAT! when you're sweating buckets because you had to walk to the bus in extreme heat, that's intensive exercise. please feel free to drink a gatorade after that! that's its intended use case!!!!

no: neither of these drinks should be a total replacement for water. but drinking a lot of water and then treating yourself to a fruit juice with lunch is a good idea!!! drinking a gatorade becuase you just had to walk for 20 minutes in the heat is a good idea!!!

Please Stop Spreading Misinformation About Drinks!!! It's fine if you drink things that aren't water!!!! Yes you should probably always be drinking water but drinking something else As Well isn't going to hurt you!!!! okay!!!! its fine!!!!!!

honestly so long as you are consistently getting Any (non-alcoholic) fluids in you, you're doing great!!!!!! okay!!!! i love you stay safe <3

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

Of the 19 hijackers who carried out the Sept 11 attacks:

15 were from Saudi Arabia (a powerful/oil-rich country the U.S. works hard to maintain diplomatic relations with)

2 were from the United Arab Emirates (also a powerful/oil-rich country the U.S. works hard to maintain diplomatic relations with)

1 was from Egypt, 1 from Lebanon.

None of the hijackers were from Iraq.

None of the Sept 11 hijackers were Iraqi.

None of the 9/11 hijackers were from Iraq.

[eydilily]

would you bite the hand that feeds you?

[hinamie]

I'll rip in hands and teeth and take a bite

[bastardlybonkers]

i feel like not enough ppl are factoring in the cultural clash between laios and shuro and the many micro agressions shuro faced while being in their group. literally the name 'shuro' in itself is one

his name is toshiro 😭 lets also not forget that he has his own communication issues, in the opposite way that laios does- thats literally a factor in their argument, that his envy for laios's ability to express himself sincerely manifested as part of his distaste for him.

ig all this to say like, was their fight heart wrenching, especially when reading laios as autistic? absolutely. anybody whos ever been in laios's position knows how much it hurts to realize someone you thought was your friend doesnt actually like having you around, especially when they didnt tell you and you had no way of knowing due to not understanding their cues. but im begging yall to step back and see the nuance of this situation cause im gonna be real a lot of you are kinda just brushing over it acting like everything is toshiros fault and that hes a terrible person when in reality hes an average guy who really, really clashed with laios and it led to a very long misunderstanding due to their supremely opposite methods of communication. even laios and toshiro, after letting everything out in their fight, were able to come to an understanding and start a foundation for an actual friendship built on better communication

ok yknow what Edit: i shouldve made it even more explicit at the end of this post, i hadnt thought i would need to since i started the post with this, but i think a few too many people are missing my point so i just wanna clarify. i shouldnt have said 'really clashed' and left it at that because yeah they did, but it wasnt just their opposite methods of communication, it is also very much that toshiro was experiencing microaggressions via laios. it may have been unintentional on laios's part, but it still happened and wore him down, made it harder for him to communicate on top of both the more subtle social cues that he was raised with and his own communication difficulties. i also want to say that the fandom reaction to toshiro and the complete ignorance of this point is also racist tbh or at the very least ignorant. i understand that the anime did not cover this panel, and neither did the manga, as this was an omake, but im gonna be real with you guys. there are enough context clues within the story to clue you into this. if you didnt pick up on it thats ok, but i think this is a good lesson in picking up subtext in the stories that youre watching and/or reading. kui shouldnt have to explicitly say 'by the way laios was racist to toshiro' for this point to be understood, and at the very least, when the author portrays a character in a sympathetic light (as kui clearly does) it should make you question Why they are doing so and what makes them sympathetic, rather than youre immediate and only reaction to be 'well i hated what this guy did/said so i hate them and they suck'. idk exactly how to finish this, just. idk. question your biases and gut reactions to things you see in media and stories, and think about whether or not theres subtext that youre missing.

[beaulesbian]

Emmrich & Lucanis banter about/with Spite because it's a very fun angle of conversation between them

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[chloesimaginationthings]

Happy one year anniversary to this FNAF post,,

[calista-222]

Season 5 hurt me so much I will never recover

[heartnosekid]

weirdolini on ig

[octarineblues]

supporting communities & people impacted by the Southport attack and the far-right riots in the UK

here is a list of community fundraisers I found, starting with those aiming to support the Southport community after the appalling attack at a children dance party, to the fundraisers helping those affected by the subsequent racist and Islamophobic far-right/nazi riots

Edited on 5 August to include Middlesbrough fundraisers. Edited on 6 August to correct the link on the Books for Spellow Lane fundraiser, to adjust the name change for the Belfast fundraiser, and to adjust the wording in the second last paragraph.

Southport:

Southport Strong Together Appeal - organised by the community foundation for Merseyside, for those affected by the Southport knife attack

United for Southport families - the funds will be distributed among the nine families of the children who were at the party

Swifties for Southport - a fundraiser for the Alder Hey Children's charity, which supports the victims and the affected families, as well as first responders and clinicians. Extra funds will also support the wider Southport community

Fundraiser for the Southport Mosque - a fundraiser to aid rebuilding or possibly re-locating the Southport Mosque after the damages it suffered during the riots

Rebuilding Windsor Mini Mart - fundraiser to rebuild the locally-owned grocery store that was targeted during the attacks, broken into, and looted

Liverpool:

Fundraiser for the Spellow Hub - the Spellow Hub was broken into, looted and set on fire at night during the riots. The Spellow Hub is a newly created one-of-a-kind (in the UK) institution, which consists of a library as well as a community centre with a mission to help people get education and pathways to work

Books for Spellow Lane - another fundraiser for the library in the Spellow Hub, to replace the books and rebuild the library there edit: included the correct link

Hartlepool:

Fundraiser for the Nasir Mosque - the Nasir Mosque was attacked following Southport riots; this fundraiser is organised by Hartlepool citizens to help the mosque deal with the damages as well as to show appreciation for the role of the mosque in the community. edit: the funds will be also distributed to the local community!

Rebuilding the Farm Shop - the shop was targeted during the riots, and when the owner and his son tried to protect it, they were also violently attacked. The fundraiser is to help fix the damages to the store.

Sunderland:

help rebuild Citizens Advice Sunderland offices after arson - two of the Citizens Advice Sunderland offices were set on fire during the riots, and one of them is completely destroyed.

Hull:

Hull Help for Refugees - a local fundraiser to support the Hull Help for Refugees charity, the donated money will be re-distributed to community members affected by the riots

Fundraiser for Hull Help for Refugees and Welcome House in Hull - collected money will be donated to the two charities

Belfast:

help fix racially motivated damages - originally the fundraiser for the Sahara Shisha Cafe which was targeted by the far right in Belfast during the riots, now a fundraiser for all affected businesses in the area. edited to reflect the change of the name of the fundraiser to avoid any confusion

Middlesbrough:

Supporting residents after the riots - Middlesbrough has suffered so much during the riots, lots of businesses as well as just regular family homes were vandalised, had their windows smashed or even were broken into. This fundraiser wants to distribute the funds between affected people to help them fix the damages, and to generally support the local community. the newest fundraiser, imo potentially the most urgent one

Fundraiser for a Care worker's car which was set on fire - a car belonging to an employee of a care agency was set on fire during the riots while he was on shift at a care home.

If you want to donate locally but there is no fundraiser to support where you live, consider donating to your local charities oriented towards Muslim or PoC communities, or towards anti-racist and refugee organizations! And go support your local Muslim/Arab/Black/Asian/Refugee owned businesses!

If you have any information about other local fundraisers, feel free to add to the post or don't hesitate to let me know and I will add them here! We have seen so much hate in the past few days, we have to stay strong and keep supporting each other!

Stay safe everyone 💛

[britishmuffin]

Would love to see your take on kataang in their late teens or early twenties just being adorable!

Here's a speedy doodle of them all a little older with some mild kataang, if that suits you, anon c:

The gaang is teaching Zuko how to have friends!!!