#organized by the Ministry of Education

[dronacharyacollege]

Teams qualifying in the Grand Finale of Smart India Hackathon 2023,

A resounding applause to the Faculty mentor (Dr. Ashima Mehta & Prof. Renu Narwal) for clinching an impressive teams qualifying in the Grand Finale of Smart India Hackathon 2023, organized by the Ministry of Education, Government of India. Each team's journey to the grand finale is a testament to their unwavering dedication and groundbreaking innovation. 🚀

#SIH2023 #smartindiahackathon #InnovationSeAtmanirbharBharat #PM_ModiAtSIH #JaiAnusandhan #innovation #hackathon #gurugramuniversity #g20 #aicte #mhrd #iic #engineeringcollege #smartindiahackathon2023 #solutions #cbseboard #delhincr #aicte #topprivateengineeringcollegeingurugram #DronacharyaCollegeOfEngineering #BestEngineeringCollege #BestEngineeringCollegeinDelhiNCR #multipleplacement #Gurgaon

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[sayruq]

Berlin announced on 23 April that it will resume cooperation with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza. Germany’s move came after an independent investigation headed by former French diplomat Catherine Colonna that found “neutrality-related issues” in implementing UNRWA’s procedures to “ensure compliance with the humanitarian principles of neutrality.” Colonna’s report made note that Israel provided no proof of whether UNRWA staff were involved with the Palestinian resistance’s Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October. “The German government has dealt intensively with the allegations made by Israel against UNRWA and has been in close contact with the Israeli government, the United Nations, and other international donors,” a joint statement by the German Foreign Office and the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development read. The former French diplomat’s investigation proposed reforms to UNRWA to increase the neutrality of staff and behavior, education, and governance, including methods to achieve these goals through engagement with donors. Germany pushed UNRWA to implement these recommendations, strengthen its internal audit functions, and improve the external surveillance of project management. “In support of these reforms, the German government will soon continue its cooperation with UNRWA in Gaza, as Australia, Canada, Sweden, and Japan, among others, have already done so,” the joint statement continued. Germany gave the UN agency over $200 million in 2023 and is the organization’s second-largest donor after the US. In an interview with Al-Jazeera, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said the attacks on the agency “have nothing to do with neutrality issues but in reality, they are motivated by the objective to strip the Palestinians from the refugee status.”

[mimisaysyou6]

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[siambre]

hello all. as you might have heard, right now Turkey is on the brink of slipping into autocracy. as a Turk, i feel it’s my obligation to raise awareness of what we are and have been going through for the past 23 years. i’m not asking for any donations — i only want our voices to be heard.

the details are below the cut.

last Wednesday, the President of Turkey detained his most powerful rival and the Mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu, along with more than 100 others including mayors of prominent Istanbul districts (who are all members of opposition parties). İmamoğlu was detained on the basis of corruption and aiding terrorist organizations; however, his interrogation questions reveal that the charges are entirely based on hearsay. nevertheless, he was arrested yesterday based on the corruption charges, and sent to the same prison where another opposition leader and many opposing journalists are also being held. to add insult to injury, just the day before his detainment, İmamoğlu’s university diploma was unlawfully revoked. a university degree is required to become president here, so this was clearly done to bar him from running for president. ironically, our current president famously didn’t go to university (although he claims that he did).

İmamoğlu and the other mayors’ arrests are the culmination of 23 years of our president’s regime. he rules with fear and violence. if you speak against him in any way, you lose your job and, in many cases, go to prison. that’s how he has silenced our nation for more than 2 decades. he has built himself an empire off the back of our people and continues to milk us for everything we have. he owns all branches of the government, all the ministries, the military, the police. EVERYTHING. his policies have destroyed our education system, there’s no justice anymore (unless it’s against the opposition), at least one woman gets murdered every single day, people aren’t safe even inside their homes, you can’t find a job unless you know the right people, there are almost no governmental checks on important industries due to corruption (ie. food regulation, construction, etc.), and last but certainly not least, the sky-high inflation has lead to millions of people living below the starvation threshold. i mean, just look at how much our currency has been devalued over the years.

people are suffering. they’re committing suicide because they can’t afford to live or provide for their families. and it’s only going to get worse. İmamoğlu’s arrest alone has devalued our currency by 10% in a single day.

as if all these weren’t enough, two consecutive earthquakes in 2023 caused the death of an estimated 100-200 THOUSAND people and injured thousands more. we have been paying the government a special tax specifically for disaster situations like this since 2002 — and yet, when the time came, the government STILL failed to rescue, help, or protect the survivors. they literally sold blood and tents to the survivors... AND instead of delivering the goods that millions of citizens gathered to send to the survivors, some municipalities of the ruling party stored them for themselves and gave them out as “gifts” to potential voters when the elections came around.

moreover, last month 79 people burned to death in a luxury ski resort, and all the government did was blame the firefighters and detain the mayor of the city (a popular opposition party member).

not a single government official resigned after either of these disasters.

there are so many other examples of the president and his cronies’ depravity, but if i were to list them all, we’d be here all year. i hope you can understand why we, the people, are frustrated with them. we have been crushed under his thumb for decades.

we are fed up. we are angry.

so it was no surprise that the public reacted against İmamoğlu’s detainment. what no one expected, however, was how MASSIVE the backlash would be. the last mass protest we had was 12 years ago, and the protesters involved with it are STILL being prosecuted. now, it’s said that over a million people are out on the streets every day, and the numbers keep rising. yesterday, all while İmamoğlu was being arrested, the main opposition party held a vote to officially pick him as their presidential candidate, and they invited the public to vote symbolically to show support. over 15 million people showed up to cast their votes for him (around 61 million people in total can vote in a real election, and remember, many people didn’t/couldn’t vote due to fear of repercussions). this arrest has brought every opposition party and organization together and had them rally against the government. and i do mean EVERY opposition party. right, left, religious, secular… ALL of them. university students who were murdering each other 40 years ago due to their right-left clashes are now running to each other’s rescue and holding hands. that should give you an idea of how huge of a deal this is.

this is the president’s worst nightmare — us coming together and no longer fearing him. because he knows that if we remember our strength as the people and keep up the fight, he doesn’t stand a chance against us.

here are a few photos from the protests:

peaceful protests are our constitutional right, but before we even heard of İmamoğlu’s detainment or had the chance to protest, the president released his army of riot police on us with their batons, tear gas, rubber bullets, and armored cars. he declared that all large gatherings were prohibited for 4 days (which he later extended to 8), slowed down the internet so we couldn’t use Twitter or Instagram or Whatsapp to communicate, censored news channels and threatened to end any channel that broadcasted live footage of the police brutality against the protesters, called the protesters “street terrorists” and “vandals”, detained more than 1100 protesters (some of whom i personally know), and continues to detain protesters from their homes using facial recognition. the detained protesters are kept from speaking to their lawyers for as long as possible (thus extending their detention), and many more are being injured out on the streets (some permanently). it’s only a matter of time until someone gets killed.

the average citizen doesn’t own guns here. the only people that do are the armed forces and gang members. and yet, we’re still fighting back against the police who fire rubber bullets, tear gas, and freezing pressurized water at us, and beat us up. we’ve already caused some minor changes with these protests, but they’re not nearly enough. tonight, the opposition leader has called for a nationwide boycott targeting every company close to the government (he even gave specific brand names, another first in Turkish political history).

as a nation, we’ll have to endure a lot of physical, mental, and economic hardship to get rid of our dictator. but it’ll be worth it in the end. it has to. we’re at the end of the road here. one more step forward, and we’ll turn into Russia. we can’t let that happen. this is a fight for life or death now, and we have almost nothing left to lose.

if you’re looking for ways to help us, the most effective thing you can do is to stop buying anything imported from Turkey and, if you can, cancel any upcoming trips here until the president steps down. domestic and international economic pressure is our greatest weapon against the government.

this fight will seriously hurt the country as a whole, but us Turks are used to adversity. we will fight until the last man if we must. democracy will prevail.

HAK! HUKUK! ADALET!

[blueiscoool]

Army Museum Worker Discovers Early Medieval Sword in Poland

The collection of the Army Museum in Białystok, Poland has been enriched after renovation with a unique relic of great historical value – an early medieval sword of the Viking type, dating from the 9th or 10th centuries. It was found by an employee of this institution while diving in the Supraśl River over two years ago.

This rare artifact, which was found by museum employee Szczepan Skibicki in 2022 while diving in the Supraśl River, is among only a handful of similar swords discovered in the country.

Skibicki stumbled upon the sword in a river bend where erosion had exposed a sand deposit. “At about 120cm [four feet] deep,” Skibicki recalled, as translated from Polish to English through Facebook, “I spotted an interesting object which turned out to be a sword! Then for the first and last time, I screamed for joy under the water!… Thanks to my education and work I knew how to secure it and which services to notify.”

He likened the discovery to winning the lottery, reflecting on the extraordinary luck involved in unearthing such a treasure.

The sword, which may have been linked by Baltic or Viking cultures, was forged in the late ninth or early tenth century, according to experts. Despite Poland’s lack of Viking activity, archeological evidence demonstrates that the Vikings were present at important administrative and commercial hubs during this time. The unique hilt of the weapon denotes its design, which is in keeping with Viking craftsmanship while also suggest potential Baltic community influences.

Dr. Ryszard Kazimierczak of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń highlighted the sword’s rarity and cultural significance: “The sword is unique due to its form, shape, and the degree of preservation of organic material visible on the hilt. This is incredibly rare for artifacts of this age.”

“We think there is a high probability that there was a fight by the river, a battle and the sword was in the water with its owner,” Kaźmierczak said, per the museum’s Facebook post.

The blade itself tells a story of conflict, bearing micro-cracks, scratches, and splinters likely resulting from combat. “The middle part shows how time and use have acted upon it,” explained Robert Sadowski, director of the Army Museum. “When these swords were used in battle, the middle part absorbed the most blows, leading to the wear and tear visible today.”

The Ministry of Science and Higher Education noted in its press release that before the sword could be transferred to the Army Museum it had to go through legal protocol overseen by the Provincial Conservator of Monument. Once it became the property of the Army Museum, the sword went into conservation involving specialists from the Institute of Archaeology of the Nicolaus Copernicus University.

By Leman Altuntaş.

[reasonsforhope]

"Malaria once cast a long shadow over Lao PDR [Laos]. In 1997, an estimated 462,000 people were infected with significant economic and social impacts. 

Education and employment were disrupted, and countless lives were lost. The disease's grip extended far beyond the initial illness, with long-term health consequences a heavy burden on communities.

However, a dramatic shift has occurred. Thanks to accelerated strategies implemented by the National Malaria Control and Elimination Program, Ministry of Health and its partners, including the World Health Organization and United States Agency for International Development (USAID), malaria cases have dropped by over 90 percent over the past decade, with just 809 cases in 2023. The nation is now on the brink of eliminating Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest malaria parasite, by the end of 2025. 

While many unsung heroes play crucial roles behind the scenes, including at the community level, a key group is laboratory technicians (microscopists). These dedicated individuals are the eyes on the ground, detecting, tracking, and monitoring malaria cases in high-risk areas...

While rapid tests are valuable tools, Somphan emphasizes the importance of microscopic examination – considered by WHO to be the “gold standard” for malaria diagnosis, and an important skill for every country’s health workforce to maintain for malaria elimination, and broader health security efforts.

Positively - her efforts, and the efforts of healthcare workers and health educators, are paying off. 

"People are now more aware of malaria and its dangers," Somphan says. "They have come to understand the seriousness of malaria and the importance of early diagnosis and proper treatment. They now recognize that avoiding hospitalization could lead to prolonged illness and greater disruption to their lives…they are more likely to seek medical attention, even for mild symptoms." 

The increasing number of patients coming for testing – sometimes up to 40 per day – is a testament to increased capacity and awareness in the community. But, she notes – they more increasingly have quiet days – a reflection of progress towards eliminating the disease."

-via USAID, August 20, 2024

[vioredynamite]

hi! I want to rb a version of the post not from that source, do you have another article that talks about it instead?

Hey, I assume you're talking about the fires in Patagonia. The only sources I trust are alternative media in Argentina so I'm going to share the translated excerpts here.

---

Agencia Tierra Viva

"Within this movement are the volunteer brigadists who join the firefighting. This Wednesday (February 5), when the fire was about to be active for a week, Governor Alberto Weretilneck informed about the arrest of three brigadistas in Mallín Ahogado. The arrests were made against Nicolás Heredia, Tomás Anarella and Fabián Pasos, as part of the case being investigated by prosecutor Francisco Arrien on the causes of the fires. Aranella and Pasos were released this Thursday (February 6) at the 36th Police Station of Dina Huapi, while raids were being carried out and a fourth arrest was announced. (Update: all the detainees, who numbered up to 6, have been released.)

The organizations and assemblies denounced that the detainees, accused of starting the fires, are in fact brigadistas who were fighting the fire together with their neighbors. For this reason, the arrests generated an immediate reaction from the population and a protest at the door of the 12th Police Station of El Bolsón. But when the people mobilized to demand their release, a group of people on horseback chased the neighbors with "rebencazos" ("rebenques" are short whips) and beatings, under the watchful eye and inaction of the local police.

One of the aggressors, who beat people telling them "I am not afraid of you", was Víctor Hugo Araneda, a man linked to the mayor Bruno Pogliano and who is remembered in the town for participating in violent actions in the protests for the murder of Elías Garay, the young Mapuche from Lof Quemquemtreu; and against the participants of the march that, every year, mobilizes to Lago Escondido, owned by Joe Lewis (British tycoon and businessman with land in Patagonia)."

[...]

"The slogan "Mallín is rural" has been sustained in the face of the ever-renewed attempts of subdivision in Pampa de Ludden. There, in the area of Mount Perito Moreno, where the ski center of El Bolsón is located, the company Laderas - closely connected to the British businessman Joe Lewis and with municipal endorsement - has been trying to build a gated community for ten years. But there are also many other forced urbanization projects, such as land use change ordinances, tax revaluations, and street layout. Even the attempts to modify the educational project of the schools with changes in the school calendar, reduction of positions in subjects related to production or total absence of school transportation for long periods. The tension between tourism and rural production seems to have reached a point of no return with this catastrophe."

[...]

"Governor Alberto Weretilneck appears in the regional media thanking the Ministry of Defense, which sent some Army authorities to help with the situation. The pro-government media thank the helicopter of Joe Lewis' company without asking about the appearance of Lago Escondido in the name of the burned protected natural area. In order to divert the focus, the case against the brigaders appears.

In parallel, Patricia Bullrich, head of the recently renamed Ministry of National Security, which has under its orbit the National Fire Management Service (SNMF), is conspicuous by her absence. There are other active fires in the Patagonian Andes. And the Minister's response is only through the networks, bringing back the figure of the Mapuche Ancestral Resistance (RAM) and Facundo Jones Huala; whom she claims to denounce criminally for the appearance of a video in which he vindicates the fires. In the creation of the internal enemy, she is followed by the governor Ignacio Torres and the presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni, all on the same day."

---

Canal Abierto

"According to the National Fire Management Service, 95% of fires are caused by human action. Few fires originate naturally; the vast majority are generated by recklessness or intentional land-use changes in favor of agrobusiness, real estate, mining, and other sectors.

Added to this is the insufficient enforcement of environmental regulations, the lack of land use planning and effective territorial control. "In this context, fires cannot be treated as isolated or solely reactive events. A comprehensive approach is needed that encompasses prevention, vegetation fuel management, climate risk mitigation and adaptive territorial planning. Without these actions, fires will become increasingly intense, causing irreversible damage to ecosystems, communities and the biodiversity they sustain," states a report by the "Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales".

The current government, a denier of climate change and its consequences, defunds and under-executes the funds of the National Fire Management System which, on the other hand, was changed jurisdiction and is now under the orbit of Patricia Bullrich. In 2024, only 22% of its budget was executed, equivalent to $7,739 million. In 2025, the budget execution to date is 0%."

---

I also recommend following other media such as Revista Cítrica and ANRed, which cover this topic with some regularity.

[dronacharyacollege]

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[stillness-in-green]

do you have thoughts about the way MHA431 went?

Sure, I'll bite. Let's have a

Chapter Thoughts - Chapter 431: More

Some of this will be a rephrase/expansion on stuff I said in Part 3 of the fascism essay, particularly the section about how Heroes view the prospect of long-term peace, but it’s all worth saying here as well.

Hit the jump for some roughly ordered thoughts primarily about Ochaco’s counseling program, the romance stuff and how it’s facilitated, some stray character observations, and some Stillness-typical complaining about the handling of Villains.

O It was nice to see Ochaco’s program in more detail than the jaw-droppingly bad handwave it got in 430, but I still think it didn’t go anywhere near far enough.  To wit, what we see is a nice introduction to a program that could well be effective at finding some people with behavioral, familial, or quirk-based problems, but the depiction is badly lacking an illustration as to what will be done regarding people with problems that can’t be helped by a tiny bit of encouragement and support.  As it’s with Toga in mind that Ochaco undertook this whole project, it seems fair to ask: How would Toga have fared in it?

If it had been young Toga Himiko in the scene instead of Shy Mining Helmet Boy, Ochaco offering her a little anti-gravity boost would have gone exactly nowhere because no amount of manuevering would have changed Himiko’s basic inability to participate in the activity.  It would have clued Ochaco into Himiko having an issue, though, and perhaps that discovery could have led, with further interaction, to uncovering her feelings of repression and, critically, her problems at home.  Great!  That stuff absolutely needed to be uncovered!

But—then what?  When Ochaco’s program turns up Himiko, a girl with a problem so severe that no amount of welcoming class play is going to resolve it, what’s the next step?  Recommend counseling for her parents, too?  What if they’re resistant, resentful, or they outright refuse?  Do you then remove Himiko from the home?  Let’s switch the lens over to a different kid for a second: Shimura Kotarou.  As evinced by his massive unaddressed abandonment issues, the alternative child care system clearly did him no favors!  And he didn’t have a taboo quirk[1] to add on top of the perception of his being an “unwanted child”!

So if you haven’t improved the state of Japan’s alternative child care system—and there’s no specific evidence that anyone has[2]—have you done much but kicked the consequences down the road a few years or slightly changed the color of the problem at hand?  Would Himiko really fare so much better in a group home or orphanage?  Would the views of the people in charge be significantly different than those of Himiko’s previous counselor?  Or would they just be, as Tomura described his family doing to him, rejecting her kindly instead of cruelly?

1: And “taboo” is honestly putting it lightly.  Shinto beliefs about the spiritual pollution of spilled blood being what they are, Toga’s quirk would actually be profane to a devout adherent—if the reader is familiar with X-Men, think about the kind of nastiness that periodically gets thrown at Nightcrawler by particularly militant Christians.   There’s no indication that Toga’s parents are more devout than the average Japanese person, of course, but values embedded in the culture are going to be embedded in the culture all the same.

2: All we have in that direction is Uraraka enthusing that the program has a lot of support and does very thorough work, and noting that Hawks does negotiations with the Ministry of Education and other (non-specific) organizations, which we see him framing as “investing in young people.”  While this could be indicative of efforts being made somewhere, by someone, to improve the situation for children in alternative care, that read is undercut by Uraraka following up with the note that all this work has done a lot to improve “the quirk education environment.”  This falls far short of specific evidence for improvements to any given other aspect of child welfare.

While I’m sure we’re intended to read Ochaco’s program as one that will be meaningfully helpful to children like Toga—and I don’t even think that it categorically couldn’t be!—what we see directly on the page simply does not prove that case.  Encouraging a baseline kid with an emitter quirk and age-typical shyness does not prove that The Problem of Toga has been addressed.  So what was even the point of showing it to us?

What Himiko really needs—if you’ll pardon my MLA Stan coming out here for a bit—is a complete reevaluation of what quirks are and how people can use them.  She needs a world that’s willing to throw out its old ways of thinking, to update its “notion of normal” to something that will allow the Toga Himikos of the world to live without suppression.  For all the good I'm sure it will do, I don’t see Ochaco’s program doing that.

O It’s so hilariously telling that we got that whole shpiel about updating the Billboard Charts such that non-professional Heroes can be recognized for their efforts, only for the last chapter to give us jack shit on any non-Pro Heroes charting at all.  And like, I’m willing to be generous here: I always assumed that Hawks wasn’t talking about adding non-Pros to the charts verbatim, but rather creating a brand-new chart for the recognition of Civilian Heroes.  But we don’t get anything like that at all—and Deku being a teacher and public speaker gives us a perfect opportunity to indicate such a chart’s existence!  But then, maybe he can’t count because he does Hero work on the weekends, which leads me to my next point.

O Ochaco and Deku should both have just retired, and Shouto should be on sabbatical.  Seriously, if Horikoshi really had the courage of the convictions he was putting to paper, and if it were really true that the Villain emergence rate was down and Heroes were beginning to have more free time, then Ochaco and Deku should both have decided to prioritize the work they believe is more meaningful and helpful than Professional Heroics, and Shouto should feel free to take some time completely off for his self-exploration.  That none of this happens suggests that Horikoshi either didn’t believe or didn’t trust his audience to accept his idea that there are meaningful ways for these characters to be heroic without them also having to be Heroes.

O Ochaco musing about Toga still existing somewhere inside her, and especially all the junk about the dead bisexual teenager being used to encourage the exhaustingly hetero endgame, really just makes me want to read the actual ghost story where Toga is literally haunting Ochaco.  Toga still loves Ochaco-chan, of course, but her encouragement for Ochaco-chan and Deku to hook up is aimed solely at getting the two of them alone in a quiet, private room.  Once that happens, Ochaco’s eyes will go gold and slitted, the walls will start dripping blood, and Deku will find out quite quickly that not everyone is so willing to move on from him murdering Shigaraki Tomura of the League of Villains.

O I miss the Bakugou who was on-course for a big personal growth arc about learning to work in a team.  I feel like that Bakugou, alongside having had a way less tiresome endgame battle, might actually have been able to keep some sidekicks without being chiefly concerned about the level of their personal ambitions.  I don’t give a shit about his (or anyone else save one guy’s) chart position, but it’s exhausting that he had great development into being a proud but capable team player all the way up through the 1-A versus Deku fight, and then all of that gets flushed down the toilet to revert to him getting a badass solo fight against All For One and an epilogue that allows him no work partner options whatsoever outside of the main character.

O The comedy visuals of Deku’s dumb face being subsumed by Bakugou’s plush backseat make me want to die.  Someone please throw this main character away.

O I’m glad Mina reclaimed at least some aspect of her original Alien Queen aspirations with the “Ridley Hero” thing.  Good for her.

O On a worldbuilding note, my attention is caught by Shinsou being described as “not contending” for a chart position, though the kanji can also mean things like “out of contention” or “beyond the sphere of.”  I assume it’s just indicating that Shinsou is an underground Hero like his mentor Aizawa, but a) I feel like that runs a bit counter to his goal of proving that he can be a Hero even with a quirk like Brainwash, and b) isn’t it a bit sketchy if underground Heroes can just choose to exempt themselves from the most visible, public-facing form of Pro Hero evaluation?  Maybe the HPSC charts them for its own records and then removes them from public visibility, of course, or maybe the charts only go down to 200 or so and stop after that, with Shinsou, not seeking for attention, comfortable to be below that cut-off.  Not sure, but there are some interesting possibilities there, as well as some concerning ones.

O HOLY GOD, Monoma’s new look.  I like it very much.  He is also the only person I want to see on the charts at all.  Two hundred ranked entries of Monoma's daily work antics. I support him wholly and with only the most loving of faceitiousness.

O Extremely funny to me that all the people I saw on Twitter talking about this chapter confirming KamiJirou had to first ignore Jirou explicitly denying that there’s anything going on and second be very disingenuous indeed with the panel crop they used to wave around crowing about their ship. I don’t have a strong distaste for KamiJirou relative to my distaste for Kaminari himself, but my tolerance for him pretty much starts and ends with KamiJirouMomo as a poly arrangement, so I was pleased to see that left open here.

O If I dislike Toga’s image being used to encourage Ochaco to hook up with Deku (and I dislike it very much, particularly given the loathsome last words Deku spoke to Toga when she was alive, but at least I can see the sense it makes from a thematic and characterization perspective), I have only profanity for how much I hate Shigaraki’s image being used to encourage Deku in confessing to Ochaco.  Just take my entire folder full of negative reaction memes.  Jesus Christ.

I have said before, and will have more to say in the future, about Deku’s assorted failures as a protagonist and hero, but him deciding that the kind of adult he wants to be is a Hero high school teacher really is the ultimate indicator of just how little he cared about who Shigaraki was and what he wanted.  Ochaco is making a good faith effort to help the Toga Himikos of the future.  Deku, meanwhile, is shallowly paddling around in his Hero Worship wading pool, ignoring both the Shimura Tenkos and the Shigaraki Tomuras of the world—the people Hero Society outcasts, villainizes, and sweeps under the rug.

Shigaraki’s last behest—that Deku ensure the things Shigaraki fought to destroy remain destroyed—was wasted on Deku, who, once he got Spinner and Overhaul off his conscience, clearly could not give less of a shit about helping the people Shigaraki fought for.  To see that last behest come back in the context of Deku using it to bolster his goddamn love life is a fucking travesty, and I hope Ochaco dumps him inside of a year if Toga Himiko’s vengeful ghost doesn’t get him first.

O DON’T WORRY, GUYS; I’M SURE THE HEROES TOTALLY TRY TO BE MORE COMPASSIONATE AND UNDERSTANDING TOWARDS RANDOM, DOWN-ON-THEIR-LUCK VILLAINS NOW.  THINGS ARE SURE TO BE TOTALLY DIFFER—

Oh.  Oh, it’s not different at all, is it?

(Have I mentioned enough times yet how much I really, really dislike the street crime scenes where Our Heroes stand around and chitchat in the middle of a crime scene, having successfully dealt with the big bad villain whose actions they did not even attempt to de-escalate and whom they have immediately forgotten all about?)

O Wow, thanks for letting us know you don’t think impulse criminals aren’t wicked to the core, Iida.  That makes me feel real reassured about how you guys are handling Villains who premeditate! (It does not.)

O I’ve already said I disliked how Toga’s “image” is used here, but let me not shortchange the fact that it also sucks because it puts the last nail in the coffin of Uraraka having any agency over sharing her own feelings.  She has a lengthy arc about how she is—like Toga in the past—repressing her feelings for the one she loves; she gets through to Toga by frankly admitting to those feelings, as well as all the other things she was sitting on about Toga herself.  And then in the aftermath, she goes right back to repressing her feelings, now ones of paralyzing grief over Toga’s death. Deku witnesses those feelings not because she chooses to share them with him, but because he tracks her down mid-cry.  And now we find out for sure what Chapter 430 left unclear: that in eight years, Ochaco hasn’t said a word about her once-again repressed feelings for him.  Instead, just as she did when she was a teenager, she’s doubled down on putting those feelings away in the name of what she “should” be doing.

And here?  Does she finally take control of her own life, her own feelings, her own expression?  No.  At least, not until after Deku has been the one to confess first and Vision!Toga psychically shoves her forward to close the gap.  The only thing left for Ochaco to do, the only assertiveness asked of her, is to accept or rebuff Deku’s overture.  Good god, you’d think she was Eri, a helpless waif wrestling with indoctrination about how much she’s not allowed to want anything for her own sake, whose turning point in the narrative is finding the strength to reach back for the hand being extended towards her.

Coming from a long-term abuse victim, that’s a perfectly worthy character arc, even a deeply moving show of strength, but it’s wildly pathetic for BNHA’s most prominent female hero, the gal whose character arc was founded entirely on balancing her desire to help others with pursuing her own happiness.  Good lord, did Shonen Jump tell Horikoshi that boys don’t like it when girls are too forward or what?

[codenamesazanka]

the leaks:

skimming through the entire chapter 431 with my rough translation skills.

Uraraka's Quirk Counseling expansion seems to be her (and Tsuyu) trying to single-handedly screen for problems and child abuse by spending one month at every single (elementary) school/school district? They're helped by volunteer heroes.

She's also helped by Hawks, who negotiating with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and other organizations to provide support to change quirk education.

She is the best hero. 😭😭😭

My worries about quirk counseling have been slightly mollified by this. Slightly. It's geared towards very young children, and we don't see the actual counseling, just Heroes spending time with kids to make sure they're not showing signs of distress, but it's nice to see this tiny glimpse.

Uraraka has dreams about Toga, and wonders if Toga left her blood/quirk/will inside of Uraraka similar to how OFA functioned. Uraraka can't remember the content of the dreams, though, and wonders if Toga is trying to send her a message.

Deku says he's developed a policy to help students develop their quirks. He also goes around to elementary schools and facilities and give lectures, sharing his experiences with young girls and boys.

Shouto has taken up pottery-making classes, after thinking a lot about fate and inevitability and his path

The entire class mobilizes to capture a car thief who may or may not have used his quirk - alert said that if he does just his quirk, it might cause a big accident? idk about this part.

When Deku asks Uraraka out, Uraraka finally remembers her Toga dream, which is Toga telling her that just like how Toga lived as she liked, Uraraka should live as she likes. So Uraraka says yes to going out with Deku.

.☠️☠️☠️.

Laughing so hard because 'go live as you please!' is so Toga! It's Toga's ideal and guiding principle. She clung to being her quirk-influenced, bisexual-love, creepy-smile self, fighting to love and die as herself. She would be happy for Ochako following her heart! But did it have to be the most conventional hetero cutesy romcom shit.

The OFA-esque accumulation of will and power of Toga's quirk and love and ideals............... to encourage Ochako to date Deku.

I don't believe the League is mentioned at all by name except for Toga via Uraraka's dream, and one line from Shouto saying he was praying at Touya's altar (thus confirming that Touya is dead).

AFO is mentioned but in context of young heroes deriving their impressions of heroism from the AFO battle? idk about this part.

Two flashbacks to Shigaraki, from Deku.

First is Deku flashbacking to him inside Tenko's heart, holding Tenko's hands, as he talks about how even if he had OFA, he would still come to want to be a teacher.

(Feel like this is interesting because AFO has always been 'Sensei'/teacher to Shigaraki. In a way it feels like Deku is trying to be a Good Teacher to AFO's Bad Teacher, I guess?)

Second is Deku ruminating on Shouto's talk about 'inevitability' and how he's doing everything he wanted, and he's blessed. He flashes back to Shigaraki's "Really, do your best," which is when he also notices Uraraka laughing and get heart eyes.

So i'm laughing again that even without a dream ghost, Shigaraki's words about destruction also gets used and recontexted to fuel Deku/Ochako.

Did that extra panel of Shigaraki's almost-smile in Chapter 423 come about just to give us this ~*~parallel~*~???

It's pure gold. Villainous creeds (Destroy everything / Live as I please) ultimately used to not even prop up the Heroes doing heroic stuff related to the society that the Villains were rebelling against... but rather to get Deku and Uraraka on a date.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Haim Rivlin, Shomrim

Billions in undisclosed funding

“In a short time, we identified over $3 billion in donations to Yale and other universities that were not properly reported as required by law,” Small said. In 2019, he presented his findings to senior officials in Washington, prompting a federal investigation that exposed extensive undisclosed foreign funding.

Three years ago, Small teamed up with retired Brig. Gen. Sima Vaknin-Gil, Israel’s former chief military censor and director-general of the Strategic Affairs Ministry. Along with a team of 10 researchers and an Israeli forensic accounting firm specializing in global financial investigations, they deepened their inquiry. Their research led to a series of reports detailing the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatari funding on academic content, the promotion of anti-democratic and anti-Israel agendas, and even antisemitic rhetoric in higher education.

Their latest report, released recently, highlights a previously overlooked dimension: Qatari involvement in U.S. elementary and secondary education (K-12).

Soft power in early education

Small, who now serves as CEO of the New York-based Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), describes Qatar’s strategy as one of “soft power,” using vast financial resources to shape narratives and policies through investments in infrastructure, lobbying firms, academia, research, and media.

“The fact that Qatar—a country with fewer than 350,000 citizens—donates more money to American universities, civil society organizations, and cultural institutions than any other nation in the world is deeply troubling,” he said.

According to ISGAP, Qatari funding has also reached K-12 education in the United States. One key example is a program called Choices, run under the auspices of Brown University, a prestigious Ivy League institution. Choices provides schools with curricula, books, and teacher training on history, international relations, and human rights.

ISGAP’s findings reveal that Choices collaborated with the Qatar Foundation International (QFI), an entity operating under the Qatar Foundation (QF), founded by Sheikha Moza, the mother of Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

Documents uncovered by ISGAP show that QFI sponsored teacher training sessions that included Middle East history courses, covering travel and registration expenses for educators. At another event during the COVID-19 pandemic, QFI funded curriculum development for American middle and high school teachers, offering free Middle East studies lesson plans. Though a link to QFI’s website was initially embedded in Choices’ digital materials, it was later removed. ISGAP retained an archived version of the original reference.

Shaping narratives in schools

Vaknin-Gil, now vice president for strategy at ISGAP, called the findings “astonishing.” She said QFI, registered as a nonprofit in the U.S., ultimately influences lesson plans that reach about 8,000 schools and millions of children.

According to ISGAP’s research, over time, the Choices curriculum shifted from presenting a balanced history of the Middle East to incorporating an overtly anti-Israel narrative, including questioning Israel’s legitimacy. “This ranged from omitting historical details like the Balfour Declaration and the Abraham Accords to distorting Jewish ties to Israel and even erasing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital,” Vaknin-Gil said.

[durnesque-esque]

So look y'all, I'm a big fan of put your money where your mouth is. Top photo is me at the Women's March in DTLA in the morning, Saturday March 8th. Bottom photo is me (now in a safety vest) helping organize the Refuse Fascism for Women & Queer Rights march in WEHO that afternoon.

I also spoke at the later march. No footage has surfaced, but I wanted to share what I said there as folks present said it really resonated with and impacted them. It's not exact, as I adlibbed a bit on the day, but the full planned speech is here below:

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

Before I moved out here, I was the co-founder, director, and a performer in an all femme singing, sword-fighting, and comedy show that performed nationally at Renaissance Festivals, which I half-joking, half-seriously called my “roving feminist ministry.” The joke was born out of the fact that I am a theologian and former chaplain with a Bachelors of Christianity and a Masters of Divinity. Though I am no longer religious, that religious training radicalized me and is the reason why, though I have shifted to the arts full time, I work to provide entertainment with a purpose; that engages minds as well as hearts and creates community. And that training not only prepared me for, but crystalized an internal mandate to be an activist for women’s rights, queer rights, anti-racism in all forms, anti-semitism, and pro-liberation of all people. 

A large part of my education for both degrees was focused on study of the Holocaust or Shoah and is why I say with absolute confidence that we are staring down the barrel of full-blown fascism in this country. It is a present and active threat and without mobilization of the masses, it will destroy us. 

When we talk about the Holocaust, we talk about 4 categories of people: victims, perpetrators, rescuers / resisters, and BYSTANDERS. 

When we think about the Holocaust in present day or the Civil Rights movement, we often mythologize ourselves and place ourselves automatically into the hero position: rescuers and resisters. But in reality the bystander effect is SO strong. Just by being here today, you are taking a step past being a bystander. I applaud you so much for that! 

But I need you to leave here, not just patting yourself on the back for being here, but considering next steps for active resistance. If protesting is your thing, get connected to folks here today, follow Refuse Fascism and keep up to date on future protests, seek out other protest networks here in LA and be present as often as possible - because the fight is on many fronts and they are ALL connected: queer rights, women's rights, health care, climate change, immigrant rights, financial inequality, workers rights, free Palestine / Congo / Sudan, stop AAPI hate, Black Lives Matter, anti-Semitism, the list is endless. We cannot individually be present for all of them, but you are needed in all of them. Pick your cause and get active in every way you can. 

But also, prioritize. Right now, we can see the first targets of this administration are Immigrants and the Transgender community. Women shortly following. But following. We must bolster and protect those first dominoes or we will all fall. 

Another point I wanted to make today was to remind, or possibly inform everyone. While the Holocaust is usually our go-to reference point for fascism, it was not born out of nothing. In fact, Hitler and his cronies took notes from America - from our Jim Crow laws and extreme racial segregation. Our current free fall is not following someone else’s pattern, it is a return to our roots. We are not following someone else’s model, we are the mold. 

My fellow white women - I want to remind us in particular that we have, historically, been the shield of white supremacy. We are the oft-cited reason for oppression and racial hatred. White men argue that we must be protected from hated minorities. It is our safety they cry for as they ban transgender people from the simple human right of bathroom access. And it is our tears that have sent hundreds - if not thousands - to the gallows and strange-fruit bearing trees. Our legacy is a river of lynched blood. Therefore, it is our duty and obligation to put our supposedly precious bodies on the front lines as needed. Find and follow leaders of color, first and foremost, but when needed, be the true shield covering those who are under attack. To use a colloquium, we must use our Karen powers for good. 

What I want to leave you with is a reminder that resistance is as old as the evil we face. And I want to speak to the legacy of resisters who came before us in the hopes that we will follow their model and break the mold. 

This is by no means an exhaustive list, as I said before, the fight is on many fronts, but we have in this country seen resisters in all of them: 

Revolutionaries - who fought for the democracy we must now protect Abolitionists - who fought for the end to slavery. Sufferists - who fought for voting rights for people of all genders and all races.  Civil Rights Activists - who fought for and continue to fight for equality for people of all races, rights, creeds, abilities, genders, and sexualities.  Feminists and Womanists - Here I want to remember Alice Walker who coined the term “Womanism” and said: “Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.” Feminism too often perpetuates white supremacy by focusing on white womens rights and agency. Womanism reminds us to recenter the conversation through the experience of Black women and women of color. We must reject racial blindness and remember to note all the intersections of identity in the struggle. 

Remember also Marsha P. Johnson - a self-proclaimed “gay, a transvestite, and a queen.” She is an icon of Stonewall and the gay rights movement of the 60s. Of Pride, she said: “As Long as gay people don’t have their rights all across America, there’s no reason for celebration.” 

And also Sylvia Rivera who cofounded with Marsha STAR: Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. Her advocacy extended beyond queer struggles to the intersections of poverty and racial discrimination. She spoke to the necessity of allies in the Stonewall riots saying: “We also have to remember one thing: that it was just not the gay community and the street queens that really escalated this riot — it was also the help of the many radical straight men and women that lived in the Village at that time, that knew the struggle of the gay community and the trans community. So the crowds did swell.” Our crowds must swell. 

When we stand together, when we make good trouble in these streets, when we shout and cry and riot for our rights, we will break the mold and win the world we deserve. In the name of humanity, we refuse to accept a fascist America! 

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

Y'all, the timeline is shortening EVERY DAY. If you're an American, distressed by the news, I need you to get active in helping stop it - HOWEVER you are able. Phone calls to your reps, attending town halls and council meetings, protesting, info sharing, simply donating to folks doing the more active work... any of it, all of it is helpful and needed.

[portaltothevoid]

Console the Griever - copia x gn!reader

Grief is a fickle thing. It hits everyone differently, some more-so than others. We all have to learn how to deal with it and sometimes, no matter how long it's been, we just need comfort and a safe space to feel. Reader is dealing with it being the first anniversary of the loss of a loved one and Copia steps up to be the one they can lean on.

warnings: grief, loss of loved ones mentioned (no descriptions), everything is kept as vague and broad as possible to fit many situations, emotional hurt/comfort

word count: 2.8k

ao3 link

You could feel your insides shaking, your leg constantly bouncing. The work day was almost over. Freedom was so close, even if the only thing you did with that freedom was stay secluded in your room drowning yourself in memories of things, of people, you could never get back. 

A notification popped up on your phone. One of your friends sent you a meme, most likely. That seemed to be the way you communicated lately, solely through memes. The energy to have a full conversation was nowhere to be found and you couldn’t be bothered to look for it. Your eyes fell on the date. 

Knots twisted in your stomach. All day you’ve tried to ignore it, but it was bound to catch up to you eventually. Scrunching your eyes shut, you focused on your breathing. This could wait until you got back to your safe haven – it had to. You took a stuttering deep breath as you organized papers on your desk. Biting your lip, you hoped these tasks could wait until Monday. Staying on track wasn’t an option today, no matter how much you wanted to. 

“Topolina, before you go, could you just email these idiote (idiots) and tell them we have a petting zoo for i bambini of the Ministry for educational purposes and not for ritual sacrifices.” Copia pinched the bridge of his nose as he returned to his desk after setting down the information you needed.

“Of course, Cardinal,” you said quietly, after a brief and quiet laugh left you.

“It’s Papa now, cara,” he solemnly corrected you. 

Great. Another slip up. Your shoulders slumped at your mistake. Couldn’t you just get it together? “Sorry, Papa, I keep forgetting…”

“Ah shit. So do I,” he chuckled as he wiggled his fingers at you, now covered in his white face paint. He wiped it on his black, designer tattered pants absentmindedly before he frowned, having spread the white paint elsewhere. A nostalgic sigh was pushed from his lungs. “I miss my white suit,” he muttered.

“Me too,” you mumbled.

“What was that, cara?”

“Uh, I said, I know you do,” you quickly spoke, covering your small slip up. Your only further response to him was a tightlipped smile. It was just pleasant enough and all you could manage. An angry email. That was your mission right now. Then freedom. You could write a brief angry email.

As you went on with your task, you missed how Copia’s brows furrowed in concern. He knew you’d been acting differently lately. He wanted to chalk it up to just an off day; everyone has them once in a while. Then you started to smile less, his stupid jokes and quips that would always make you giggle barely made you give him more than a “ha.” Something was going on, and even though you were his assistant, a close bond had formed between you both. He hated seeing you turn into a shell of your former self.

Once the email was sent, you felt the crushing weight of the shadows in your mind fighting their way to the surface. You needed to get back to your room. Your breathing started to quicken and your hands were shaking. “Email’s sent. I think that’s it for today, unless you need something else…” you trailed off, praying to Lucifer himself that he would allow you to go home for the day.

“No, no, that was it.”

“Okay, I’ll see you on Monday,” you responded quickly, gathering your things.

“You’re not going to be at dinner?” he asked.

You shook your head. “Um, no, I don’t think so… well, uh, maybe, I don’t know,” you rambled.

“Is everything alright, dolcezza?” You froze at this question. Dolcezza was a rare term of endearment. It carried more weight than the others. This wasn’t Papa asking you, it was Copia.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” Your pitch rose, betraying you just enough to earn a raised eyebrow from him. You tried to make your voice sound happier, more even. “Everything’s okay. Just a long week. Case of the winter blues, you know how it goes…” When he didn’t respond right away, you finished making your way to the door. “Have a good weekend, Co– Papa.”

Keeping your head down, you rushed back to your room. With a pounding heart and a heaving chest, you breathed out a shaky sigh as your hand lingered on the now closed door. You threw your bag down at the foot of your bed before you fell backwards onto it, staring up at the ceiling. Dragging your eyes to the window, you noted the weather. Exactly the same as last year. 

The memories sucker-punched you the instant your mind made the connection. Tears rolled down your temples, and before long you were choking back sobs, not wanting the sound to carry to the nearby rooms. Bringing your hands to cover your face, you curled into the fetal position, where you let the wave of emotion, of pain ride its course. 

How had a year gone by already? How had several gone by? You were no stranger to loss, but it never gets easier. All you wanted was to just stop everything in the sense of responsibilities and duties and expectations. It was getting more and more tiring to hold it together in front of everyone. You were seconds away from breaking down today in front of your boss. Even before his… promotion… the two of you could have almost been considered friends, he had just experienced a multitude of losses himself and you couldn’t dump all of this onto him. He had enough to deal with and you certainly weren’t about to add anything to his already full plate. That being said, there were also the formalities that had to be respected. 

You had no idea how much time had passed since your sobs had quieted. A ding from your phone pulled you back into the present moment. Curiosity got the best of you to at least see what the notification was, despite planning to ignore it. A grimace pulled at your features as you saw it was from Copia. Ideas of what the text could contain raced through your mind; you forgot to do something important, he needed you to come in for a bit tomorrow, another email had to be sent, you really fucked who-knows-what up and you’d be reprimanded… Biting your lip in apprehension, you slide the notification open.

Papa Emeritus IV:  Are you sure you're alright dolcezza?? You really haven’t been yourself lately… I hope this isn’t too forward. I just worry about you topolina mia. I am free tonight if you need or want to talk about anything. –C

Well, that was certainly unexpected. You threw your phone on your pillows like it was a hot potato. A blush reddened your cheeks as your heartbeat sped up, finally not because of anxiety. 

He was just being nice. There was no need to read into this. With how much time you spent with him in his office, albeit in a work environment, of course he would know some of your mannerisms. He was incredibly smart. He didn’t get to where he was by being stupid. That being said… perhaps he would be the one to really be able to understand what you were going through. 

Over and over you read that text, your mind racing. Should you respond? What would you even say? Do you want to talk to him? Why is he being so insistent? 

Darkness fell over your room, so you got up to turn on a light, but that just turned into you pacing as you tried to decide what to do.

Again, you lost track of time ruminating in your own world. Your eyes widened when a soft knock at your door stopped you in your tracks. Taking a deep breath, you cautiously went to open the door.

Copia was waiting outside, chewing his lip nervously, as he held two plates of food. “I’m sorry I–” you both said at the same exact time. 

“Go ahead, Papa,” you nodded, encouraging him to go first. It still felt so strange to refer to him by his title.

“I, eh, I noticed you didn’t really have lunch and… you weren’t at dinner, so… I just wanted to bring you this. I promise I won’t bother you again. Well, until Monday. I guess it’s your job to be bothered by me, no?” he laughed nervously as he rambled.

He was here because he cared. So, you listened to the little voice in the back of your mind that was whispering to you how you were more than just an assistant to him.

“Th-thank you…” was all you could manage to say, in shock by the kind gesture.

“Have you been crying, carissima?” he whispered softly. Okay, and then with his use of carissima… That was a new term of endearment, which made your heart skip a beat.

“Is it that obvious?” you laughed humorlessly, but it died in your throat when you saw him regarding you with such concern. You stepped back, giving him room to enter. “I guess I could use some company if you want to have your dinner here… if you’re still free?”

“Certo, certo. For you? Always,” he said as he stepped inside. “I was, eh, hoping you’d say yes.” The shy smile he gave you melted your heart and you swore you saw the slight blush under some spots of his fading papal paint from the long day.

Although your apartment was on the smaller side, it was still large enough to have a kitchenette and a small seating area. One of the perks of having worked alongside senior clergy members for years. As you got some utensils and drinks from the fridge, Copia set the plates on your coffee table while settling down on the loveseat in the corner.

He smiled at you as you set down a couple juice boxes for him and some for yourself. “Before you say anything, I haven’t felt like going into town so I had to dip into the stash I save for you when I need to restock the minifridge in your office,” you chuckled. 

He just shook his head. “Everyone’s always hating on the juice boxes,” he playfully grumbled.

It didn’t hit you how hungry you were til you saw the plate of food in front of you and then when you realized he brought you your favorite. “Wait… how did… This wasn’t on the menu for tonight’s dinner, was it?”

“No, it wasn’t, but sometimes it’s worth it to take advantage of the perks of being Papa.”

He had literally gone out of his way to do this for you. Blinking back tears, you murmured a quiet thank you when you knew you weren’t going to start crying again from his kindness. “How has it been, now that you’re officially Papa?” you wondered in an attempt to keep the conversation light so you could actually enjoy your dinner.

“Eh, it’s pretty much the same as it’s been for the last couple of years. Well, as far as duties and things go, for me at least. They treat me with… a little more respect than before,” he shrugged. 

“I’m still not used to calling you Papa,” you admitted.

“Please, don’t,” he responded quickly. “When it’s just us, call me Copia. I don’t like… I don’t think there has to be such formality between us. We’ve, um, worked side by side long enough…”

“It’s nice to have a sense of normalcy?”

“Sì. Sometimes it just reminds of… what they did to get me here and…” he cleared his throat. “And I’d just prefer you use my name.”

You nodded, knowing he was referring to his own series of losses. Not wanting to encroach on heavy topics yet, you steered the conversation to movies you’ve seen recently, a book you thought he might like, et cetera.

Once you both had finished eating, Copia insisted that you stay put while he cleaned up. When he sat next to you again he turned and wondered, “Did that help you feel a little bit better, dolcezza? I really can’t stand to see you so… hurt.”

You nodded. “It did. It really helped get my mind off everything for just… a little bit. I can’t thank you enough, Copia. You… you have no idea how much this means.” Anxiously, you stared at your hands in your lap as you fidgeted. 

“This week… it’s the first anniversary of her passing, isn’t it?” he spoke with sincerity and a cautiousness as if you might break.

Biting your lip, you nodded again. “You remembered,” you stated.

“Of course, cara.” He took one of your hands in both of his. “If you want to talk about it, I’m here. I’m here for you, if you need me. You’re safe with me, always know that.”

The tears started to well up again. You couldn’t tell if the pressure in your chest was from the surmounting grief you tried to stuff down or from the gratitude of Copia trying to break through to you. “I can’t do that to you,” you shook your head, avoiding his mismatched eyes. “You have your own stuff to deal with. I can’t pile my shit on top of it…”

The hand on top of yours moved to cup your face as he turned your head so you could look at him. “If I couldn’t handle it, I wouldn’t be so insistent. I’m okay. Sure, some days are worse than others. That’s grief. It… it never goes away, but what changes is our ability to handle it and have space for it, to navigate it.”

As you looked into his eyes, you felt the dam break. Tears spilled over and for the first time in a long time, you let yourself be fully vulnerable in front of someone else. Without hesitation, he pulled you to him, cradling your head against his chest as his other arm wrapped around you, holding you close to him. This time, you weren’t solely sobbing from the crushing grief and memories of the past, but because finally you felt like you were able and that you wanted to share with someone everything that you had been keeping under lock and key. 

When you had calmed down enough to talk, you told him your story. You started with how you had lost one of your parents when you were young, how much it still bothered you, how you recently lost another close family member and the anniversaries were so close together. You shared with him how this week you just tried to keep your head above water. You were so afraid of disappointing him, but were too overwhelmed. He just listened. He took it all in stride as he soothingly rubbed your back to keep you calm and grounded. 

“So much of that I’ve… I’ve never told anyone,” you confessed.

“Do you feel better, lighter now?”

“I do. I didn’t realize how much I needed that. I… Just… Thank you, Copia. Thank you for listening, for insisting, for just… being here.”

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be, carissima.” You couldn’t help but give him a quizzical look as you tilted your head to the side. “What’s that look for, hm? Do you honestly think I’ve thought of you as only my assistant? All this time?” His hand cupped the side of your face again with his thumb gently caressing your cheek.

“All this time?”

“Sì. You mean more to me than you know. I couldn’t stand to see you in so much…pain. I couldn’t… I didn’t want to keep my feelings to myself any more. I just hope–”

All inhibitions left you and you couldn’t stop yourself as your hand finally reached up for him to pull him close, stopping his words as your lips met his. The kiss was gentle, but the affection you both had, and could finally admit to both yourselves and one another, was unmistakable. When you parted, Copia couldn’t help but quietly laugh. “You feel the same, I take it?”

“I do. I mean, I have for quite some time now. It’s not just because of this moment…” you trailed off trying to find the right words. 

“We take things slow, then, sì? Even if just for tonight,” he smirked playfully. 

You couldn’t help the giggle that escaped as you nuzzled your head into his chest while wrapping your arms around him, squeezing him tightly. The ache was still there, but it had dulled considerably thanks to Copia. The smile wouldn’t leave your face as your space for your grief having grown two sizes. You didn’t have to go through this alone. Not anymore. Neither did he for that matter, because when the time would come, you knew you could be just as strong and supportive for him as he was for you. And there was no one else you’d rather have by your side.

🖤🌹🖤