#the expedition needs an union

[fuckitpossumorb]

Episode 18 of CoS. Clayton Azran what the fuck is wrong with you.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

I started reading Dungeon Meshi last week, became instantly charmed and captivated, and blitzed through the entire manga in 4 days (and changed my profile picture about it). With that in mind, I would just like to say...

I love your dungeon meshi art so so much

CHILCHUCK!!!!!!!!

Thank you kindly! I love Dungeon Meshi a lot, so I'm happy to see so many people get into it for the first time.

CHILCHUCK!!!

[teojira]

[Marriage ceremony headcanons w/ Noa!] [commission!]

A/N: Thank you for commissioning me Fox ! Your support to me means everything and I hope this is good!

Summary: What marrying Noa would be like and how you both go about it.

Warnings: Noa x reader romance, very self indulgent and may be a lil ooc

Marrying an Ape is not easy, and you're sure you're the first human to have ever put those words together in a sentence and thought of them to begin with.

The ceremony is a big deal, it's you and the Eagle clan leader after all.

Human marriages have been lost to time, so there won't be any pretty dresses or suits, but you're still adorned with gifts and whatnot.

A lot of your accessories come from Noa himself, things he has crafted you in the courting process. Arm guards, necklaces, bracelets, all lovingly crafted by himself when he was ever away from you on scouting expeditions.

His mother and Soona help you too, get ready for their own customs that you may not be privy too.

It's apart of their culture that betrothed each give one another a feather from their eagle, to wear it almost as if it's a wedding ring, so they let you know to make sure to keep one handy for it.

Noa has a good bunch to choose from, subtly freaking out and thinking none of them are good enough for you, to which Eagle sun peeks at his master. It doesn't help, Noa just side eyes him all the more with a glare, smacking his lips.

Anaya is there to help him get ready as well, despite not ever going through the ceremony himself. Though he's mostly there just to lend an ear to whatever Noa needs to let off his chest.

I like to think Noa would ask you about your human customs, while yes, you're his mate, and this is firstly his home. He would never any to alienate you. He's more than willing to add in whatever you see fit. You're his mate, his equal. It's only right.

The ceremony takes place a little ways off from the colony, next to a waterfall. There's really no officator, nor is there a really big crowd. It consists of you both, Dar, Soona and Anaya, and a few other of the elders, who, while not fully accepting of the union at first, comes to their senses when Noa is adamant.

You've told Noa about vows about the speeches people usually make, and it scares the ape so badly to say it outloud just how much he cares for you. So you leave it for when you two are alone in the nest, it's more special that way you figure.

You and Noa exchange feathers, gently wrapping it around each other's arms. Your hands are trembling as you finally, and I mean, finally secure the knot.

Noa grabs your hands within his, intertwining your fingers together to the best of his ability due to the sheer size difference and pulls them to his chest, sighing deeply when you immediately move to brush across his scar, a smile on his lips.

He tugs you in, then pressing his forehead against yours as he cups your face, brushing the strands of hair away from it.

The leader is quiet as he soaks you in, your warmth, your scent, the feeling of you finally being officially his, in both of your worlds.

"Will you marry me?" You mumble, eyes opening ever so slightly to look up at Noa, and your heart is pounding so damn hard in your chest you fear you're gonna pass out.

"Yes." Noa answers without a moment of hesitation.

Now here comes the tricky part, kissing you in front of his family, the way humans do.

Lord help him, he's found echo fairy tales and he did enough reading to get the gist of how a marriage kiss should be.

It's a little bit awkward to situate you in his arms so suddenly, but the giggle you let out when he finally kisses you is all he needs in return.

Yes, both of you ignore the hooting in the distance.

[fierymiasma]

Coming Soon: A Little Game // Sebastian x f!MC x Ominis - Silver Trio

Summary: Ever since the start of their 7th year, Ominis and Sebastian had been acting rather strange around her recently. She's going to get down to the bottom of this, no matter what.

Requested by holotapes

Sebastian smirked.  He had always taken great pleasure in her annoyance.  "Times are changing, no longer do we need our parents to arrange our union together.  We can have a little fun while we're at it.  A proper lady like you deserves to be courted."

She blinked.  That all seemed grand, but she would must rather be kissing the both of them silly.  Preferably right now.  "Maybe we can expedite the whole courting process, and move onto the good part."  She tried to suggest as casually as possibly. 

Ominis's smile was dangerous.  "Sebastian here proposed a contest.  Of course, we'll all be together eventually in the end, but while we are wooing you, why not try a fun game?"

She gulped.  "A game?"

"A contest: whoever charms you more, gets your first kiss." 

The Spare: Sebastian and f!MC court Ominis

Between: Ominis and f!MC court Sebastian

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

Art belongs to @J_Kaluzhnaya

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The alcohol retail sector in Ontario has been completely topsy-turvy since Premier Doug Ford moved to expedite getting beer, wine, cider and ready-to-drink cocktails into corner (and other) stores, and LCBO workers' subsequent strike action which kicked off on July 5. Ford and his team revealed in May that citizens could expect to see the aforementioned beverage types on the shelves of convenience stores as soon as September and also that RTD cans would be available at select grocery stores even sooner, on August 1. But, with consumers already experiencing issues accessing their favourite boozy drinks after some 10,000 unionized employees walked off the job and shut down LCBO stores provincewide, Ford has now moved the latter date up to this week. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[acheronist]

sending u good vibes on your edible & also just. a deep commiserating sigh of understanding <3 also if you want to answer:

what is your most favourite fact about That Dead Guy, and/or if you could magically bring him back to life for a hot minute. what modern thing (invention, food item, tv show, meme, etc. anything goes, so long as it didn’t exist during his lifetime) would you need to show henry peglar first?

favorite fact..... is that even though he stopped going to school when he was 12, that he still taught himself how to write backwards in a secret code for privacy aboard a ship...... and then he spent pages and pages of this coded diary just talking about the crazy parties he attended when he was 23 instead of explaining about what was happening to the franklin expedition......

i would love to show him a lot of things but namely i really think he would get a kick out of the little pad of paper in art stores where you can test out the pen ink and it becomes an anonymous graffiti trap. i think showing him how the wallet in the RMG looks now dr.who van gogh episode style would be fun and emotionally devastating for the both of us. i think he would love the concept of a climbing gym. and multivitamins. and modern brewery pub appetizer snacks. and edibles. and the spiral jetty landscape art piece in utah. and lamy fountain pens... carhartt jackets... fun desk lamps... spirography toy sets.... union laws..... rainbow colored carabiners.... i want to show him how to play the megamillions..... youtube livestreams of turtle aquariums.... the poetry section of a public library...... and also i want to show him how many fucking emails it took to get the HQ version of one page from the rmg. oh my god and crossword puzzles. i really think this dude would have loved to do a crossword puzzle.

[dailyanarchistposts]

Legal Support: Prepare infrastructure to provide support during and after the action

Everyone involved in the action should be aware of and prepared for the risks they are taking and the potential criminal charges associated with them. It’s important not to take things farther than you feel ready to go: if you get hurt or arrested while engaging in a level of risk for which you are not emotionally prepared, the effects can be debilitating. Far better that you get started slowly, building a sustainable involvement with direct action projects that can continue over a lifetime, than rush into an action, have a bad experience, and swear off all such activity.

If your action may result in arrests, prepare a legal support structure for those who participate. This could include a legal aid number for arrestees to call, legal observers to monitor and document the actions of police, money for bail, lawyers to provide immediate support to arrestees and to represent them in court, and a circle of people prepared to offer emotional, financial, and logistical support throughout court cases.

The legal aid number should be open to receive incoming calls at all times throughout the action; bear in mind that in some cases, you cannot call a cell phone from jail. The legal aid number should not incriminate the arrestees or the people who receive the calls—if part of your alibi is that you don’t know each other, don’t all call the same number from jail. If you fear you will forget the number, write it on a concealed part of your body in permanent marker. The person operating the legal aid number should know the full names of those who may be arrested, so as to check on their status.

To bail someone out of jail, you can either give the entire amount of the bail to the court system, in which case you should receive it back after the legal process is finally concluded, or you can go to a bail bondsman and pay about 10% of that; in the latter case, the bondsman’s fees may cost you a significant amount of money. If no one can pay bail, an arrestee may sit in jail until the court date, although in the case of minor infractions it can happen that police release people on their own recognizance so as not to have to deal with them.

If you are risking arrest, decide whether you want to have your identification on you to expedite processing, or to be without it, so they cannot identify you immediately. A large group of arrestees who refuse to give their information can tie up the legal process and sometimes gain bargaining power. If you need medication, consider hiding it on your person, or carry a note from a doctor explaining what you need.

Find a sympathetic and trustworthy lawyer—or perhaps a few of them, since a lawyer cannot represent more than one defendant on the same charges. You can research which lawyers have taken on similar cases in the past, or approach the American Civil Liberties Union or National Lawyers Guild. If you don’t give away anything sensitive, you can ask sympathetic lawyers about the charges associated with hypothetical acts, or specify the dates and times you may require their services—but don’t let them know anything that could implicate them.In order to do their job, they need to be able to prove that they are not connected to anything illegal.

Any community whose members may suffer arrest would do well to establish a bail fund in advance; this can save a lot of running around in the middle of emergencies. Throw benefit shows, sell t-shirts, solicit donations from wealthy sympathizers, have your friends at the university book you speaking dates at their school in return for student funds. Make sure the bail fund stays with someone who is even-handed, trustworthy, and always easy to reach.

Likewise, consider what your media strategy will be—whether it will be wise to direct public attention and support to arrestees.

[biblioflyer]

X-Men: Trust is Cheap When You Have a Trust Fund

Personal experiences can bestow a fundamentally sunny disposition about Mutant assimilation in Human society. They can also inspire the bleakest despair and a level of skepticism about unilateral disarmament.

Previously I discussed why X-Men as a setting is fundamentally pessimistic as a necessity according to the creative choices made. It is an essay in 5 parts:

1,2,3,4,5

This is a new series analyzing how experience and social status influences Mutant outlooks on the assimilation vs separatism/supremacy question.

It should not surprise us at all that the Morlocks and Magneto have very different opinions from Xavier about who should regulate their behavior and how. Once he’s confronted with how little protection his wealth affords him, even Sunspot becomes a convert to Magneto’s way of thinking.

When you’ve had a bad experience with someone claiming to be on your side and then contradicting literally every value you thought you shared, it makes a person calloused against appeals to a shared set of values or the innate goodness of humanity. 

For a real life example, George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” is a repudiation of the Soviet Union under Stalin, even though Orwell was no fan of extreme inequality and the violence used by elites to protect that inequality in market driven societies. Orwell was motivated to revisit the idea of whether the USSR was a true reflection of his values due to his personal sense of betrayal when the Soviet Union declined to intervene in the Spanish civil war against the Nazi allied regime.

We ought not to be surprised when impoverished visible Mutants find it difficult to imagine having a seat at the table when they can’t even get a seat at the table masquerading as Sapiens. 

Xavier’s access to power is always depicted as somewhat tenuous and his relationships with Presidents are transactional. Regardless of their personal feelings and long term visions, the leaders Charles interacts with are primarily focused on day to day crisis management. These leaders are ultimately accountable to the overwhelming majority of the population that does not have special abilities and those who are fearful of Mutants and those who are supportive of Mutants vote and contribute to political campaigns.

Xavier isn’t even visibly mutated. The tendency for Humans to perceive Morlocks as hideously disfigured denies them any comfort in mainstream society. Their very appearance reminds Humans that something has gone amiss in the gene pool and that something may not bode well for baselines in the long run.

Magneto’s experiences as a Sapien minority on the wrong side of the boot has made him deeply skeptical of power beyond his own. A Holocaust survivor, Magneto doesn’t need to imagine what the worst case scenario is for Human - Mutant relations.

Like Orwell, he is not easily swayed by appeals to common values or shared interest. For Magneto, trust is earned and the tests to earn it are not easy. As a consequence of his experiences, Magneto has adopted an attitude that only the people that are imminently facing the same type of threats can truly understand each other and be relied upon. 

To the extent that this is a fair and accurate sentiment, taken to an extreme it can be very isolating and leave one with few allies and even fewer people whose insights might be trusted when they contradict Magneto’s own instincts. This becomes a serious problem when Cortez worms his way into Magneto’s inner circle or Magneto rationalizes the fate of Mutants trapped on an Earth incapable of using modern technology as expediting evolution.

Yet, cynic that he is, life as an island is hard and even Magneto is not immune to the occasional savvy operator figuring out how to earn and abuse his trust, like Cortez.

Next up: Power level as privilege. What happens when a cranky Omega isn’t trapped in here with you, you are trapped with them….

[catesartworks]

Here are Isekai Maid Asks #5! There's more below the cut!

CW: Discussions of sexual assault and abuse

In the alternate world where Seasalt (Marinus's AU counterpart) and Marina grew up together, he would get very angry about her being bullied.

After she left due to being bullied, Seasalt snuck into the school, posed as a student and dumped a bucket of sewer water on Nightwolffe and the prince while they were walking to class. He wasn't able to get to the third boy who bullied Marina. He spent a few days in jail for that.

Fawn was killed due to the reincarnator, Julietta, her lady, misjudging how succession worked in this new world she came to.

Fawn, Julietta's maid, was taken advantage of by the lady's brother, Benedicto, and he was convinced she was pregnant with his child. Fawn was horrified by the prospect of becoming pregnant, as it would result in her being expelled from the household and losing her job. He was also obsessed with her, but Julietta played his behavior off for laughs.

As revenge for what he did to her and in hopes she could stop him from further taking advantage of her, Fawn allowed an assassin to make an attempt on his life. It didn't succeed, and Julietta found out about this.

Because Julietta often read stories where illegitimate children would be able to inherit or be acknowledged as long as the child was male or favored, she allowed Fawn to consume poison for her, but it killed Fawn.

The reincarnator only later realized that illegitimate children were prohibited in Teffrah from being acknowledged, and were granted no rights of inheritance regardless if they were male. Making Fawn's death pointless in terms of succession.

Benedicto lost his mind as a result of Fawn's death. While he went quiet for a while, the reincarnator assumed he would get over Fawn's death since she was a traitor and find a proper noblewoman to marry. She went on to marry a rich duke, and was expecting a child by her "happy ending."

However, after the ending, Benedicto began sending assassins after his in laws and and killed the Julietta's child. This began a bloody sequence of events that resulted in each side of the family sending people to kill each other as revenge. Julietta went to the crown for assistance, because her husband was related to the king.

But because of her unsettling knowledge of the royal family secrets (as a means of blackmailing them into helping her), she was accused of making a deal with a demon to usurp the crown and the entire household was stripped of their noble rank and hunted down. The reincarnator was killed along with Benedicto.

Libraries for public access do exist, but they are scattered across the country and they aren't as accessible as they should be. Most are also privately funded, or funded by the mage's union.

Thank you so much! ( ^ w ^ )

You should go ahead with the your idea, we need more western Otome Isekai. Even if it's not "typical" in style, there are people who are waiting to read it and it might become someone's favorite thing!

The more I read "I am the Real One", the more Cosette's destroying the Empire felt like it had more grounding and was the logical conclusion to an outdated method of defense, given how deeply unfair the society is. It was a timebomb waiting to happen.

All the systems in place that kept Keira from getting a fair trial and expediting her execution ( and it wasn't because of brainwashing like the story wants us to think, the system was simply working the way it was meant to since Keira no longer had an absurd amount of money and status, kinda like...MINA, who she had whipped nearly to death in both lifetimes).

I have to agree that the story really didn't need romance, and I think the love triangle really bogs it down. It was so vague to the point that I just couldn't keep reading.

Not a dumb question at all! Limpette technically does have a military, but they are mostly protected by the kingdom of Kolt for military aid, since they are sister countries.

But because Kolt is going through a revolution and in the past few decades has been in disarray due to power grabs, they can't provide resources or aid to Limpette and are vulnerable to invasion from Teffrah.

Thank you so much for reading!

I think when it comes to VADD/DITOEFTV, there is so much that can be re-contextualized with Penelope after she decides she deserves to enslave someone for her own benefit. She turned from a character who was aware of her own abuse and commented on it, to a hypocrite who is fully willing to abuse others. And the story goes out of it's way to justify her actions by handing her a happy ending.

I personally think that authors' should give characters the endings they deserve. What does it say when a slave owner who took someone's life away gets away and has a happy ending where they become the richest person in the land, surrounded by jewels and riches for the rest of their days? It tells the reader that they deserve this ending.

I'm really happy that Iseul was relatable. When I was first writing Iseul, I wanted to be sure I was breaking the cycle of just having a person to "just be an evil OG!Female Lead to our new female lead" in a sense where the villainess genre was going. I wanted to show someone who was just a person. We all have the capacity to be our worst selves, and we can get out of that mindset too if we look inward.

I'm happy to say that Nataliah and Oliver were able to escape and live happily, and I will be showing more of them in the story later. ^ _ ^

We will be seeing some of her diary entries later in the series.

Noah was devestated by her loss, but he was able to help keep her memory alive with their children by teaching them about her. He also later in life changed his surname to "Soole."

He was able to live under the radar with their children, who couldn't pass as Teffrah and took after their Haena more than him. By her request, he had her name removed from their family tree to protect his kids privacy, but their children named their female descendants variations of "Haena" by using the name "Hannah" and adopting the surname "Soole".

Thank you so much for reading! ( ; w ; )

And when it comes to Cordelia, she has a few versions where she is born from male!Nahla and had a stepfather. The other versions have Claudia as her stepmother and Montgomary Demeter as her father, with Nahla as her birth mother.

Male!Nahla as her father: Cordelia would be raised by her stepfather, Claudius, who is too embarrassed because he was cheated on by Cordelia's mother to kick Cordelia out. In this version, Cordelia's mother, Lady Samantha Demeter, took advantage of Nahla's male counterpart similar to how Eriadne, Nora's mother, took advantage of Geralt. Samantha would die from poisoning, and Claudius would frame Nahla's male counterpart and have him executed.

Nahla as her mother: Same backstory as Lord Demeter, up until she is born. Cordelia would be much more favored by her father, Montgomery Demeter. Nahla wouldn't have even been able to hold Cordelia, because Montgomery took her as soon as he found out the baby was a girl.

She would given the latest toys, the best dresses, and would be a symbol of his "superior" genetics because she came out passing as Teffrah. However, he'd also have a violent temper with her, so Cordelia would shut down. By the time she was ten, she would grow tired of her father and poison him to death when he started becoming creepy. Her stepmother is aware and lives on eggshells around Cordelia, but oddly enough Cordelia doesn't hate her stepmother. She just thinks she's a snitch. Not disliking her doesn't stop her from killing her before Stone!Demeter arrives though.

[astral-tracer]

I'm ill and not really good at words to begin with but. I think we should just hard reset the entire USA. Like burn the whole motherfucker down and start over. And here's what I would change personally

(readmore bc this is getting Lengthy)

- almost every state is its own individual country. It's too fuckin big and there's too many people for a central federal government to Work. I say almost because some of the really small states could clump together if they want idk I live in one of the bigger ones. In fact most physically large countries should probably do this

- likewise, the "union" of the state-countries should become like Europe where it regulates like. Travel and currency. And emergency wartime shit. Keep free travel open between the states like you can just cross most country borders in Europe

- if we MUST stay as a single country, COMPLETELY rework the voting system. Make it like Australia in particular that shit fucks severely. Honestly even if the states become their own countries we should do this.

- universal basic income. Like do I even need to explain this. Give everyone a basic livable wage that covers basic housing & food comfortably.

- shorter work hours. I'm not an expert but I think it's been proven that like a 5-hour 4-day work week would be just as productive or smth. Don't quote me on that one.

- ban private prisons. Like come on what the fuck.

- (ubi should cover prisoners too. Btw. And literally everyone else over 18. And ppl like 15-17 should start to get a smaller amount that goes into like a trust account that they can access when they're 18. just as a boost)

- COMPLETELY rework school funding oh my GOD what the fuck are we doing. Give grants to struggling schools and schools in poor areas. Abolish this "no child left behind" CRAP that incentivizes memorization over actual learning. MANDATE A HIGHER MINIMUM WAGE FOR TEACHERS.

- Actually tax the 1%. Also no one should be able to be a billionaire. Any income over like $10m (am open to constructive criticism on exact amount cap) should be taxed at 100%.

- universal healthcare. I will *allow* private hospitals to exist (for now) but EVERY state should have at least one easily accessible non-privatized hospital system where every individual hospital is a certain radius from each other so that p much everyone has access to it. The reason private hospitals COULD still exist is so that ppl could choose to pay a bit for expedited care if wanted. Open to constructive criticism on this one.

- decriminalize drugs. All of them. Rehab centers should be covered under universal healthcare too. People turn to drugs most often when nothing else is helping them - it's a systemic issue, not a personal failing.

- abolish student loans. Colleges should run on grants and donations. I shouldn't have to go into debt to learn, even if I just want to take a class or two a year. Also all textbooks should be available for free online, at least to students, or be available in bulk quantities in the library of any college that requires them for any course.

- decapitalize the Internet. It should be ILLEGAL for certain public websites (search engines, wikis, news, etc) to run ads. For websites like YouTube ads should be limited to like 5-10 seconds PER VIDEO.

- (also this isn't like a government level thing but they should totally bring back the branded game sites. Like the sites w barbie browser games n shit. That shit SLAPPED.)

- there should be both an increase in minimum wage and a cap on how expensive necessities can be. Things like bread, eggs, meats, locally growable produce, etc should be capped at a certain price point and not allowed to go above that point. This includes things like medications and menstrual products and also like condoms. "Luxury goods" (premade meals/snacks, coffee, alcohol, etc.) could be exempt from this. Open to constructive criticism on that.

- ban use of oil/gasoline wherever possible. Full stop. There's no fucking reason for it. Also power & water shouldn't be allowed to be privatized in any way and use of renewable energy like solar and wind should be mandatory. Also it should be free to everyone ever

- all companies and their products should be required to be under a certain carbon footprint/pollutant threshold. This includes limited or outright banned use of plastic products forever. We can find disposable alternatives that don't fuck us and the planet.

- nobody over like 60 should be able to run for office I'm fucking sorry but I'm sick to death of old ass motherfuckers running shit get outta here grampa no one likes ur policies

- medical euthanasia should be legal to perform but NOT legal to professionally recommend. Like a doctor can perform it but doctors and nurses cannot tell you that you should. It should also be regulated in some ways but I'm not about to get into that rn

- decriminalize sex work. Just. Full stop. People are gonna do it no matter what laws are in place, it's the oldest profession for a reason, decriminalize it and put in place laws protecting sex workers from abuse & exploitation.

- (obvs with above there should be SOME laws against specifically shit like performing sex work for/with a minor & other shit like that but that falls under "pedophilia is illegal" which like yeah good.)

- (on that topic though any CLEARLY DRAWN/NOT PHOTOGRAPHICAL porn REGARDLESS OF CONTENT should be fully allowed so long as it can e reasonably determined that no real life people were used as reference or could be recognized via the art. Like I'm Not Into even fictional children being in porn art but it isn't hurting anyone even if it's gross and I don't get it. Adults can to photo porn stuff as long as everyone's consenting tho)

- decensor the Internet. I don't care that there are children here. Sure you can have specific sites catered to children but they should not be allowed to have ads AT ALL (see "decapitalize the Internet") and anywhere not designated as specifically "for children" should be completely uncensored or have options to be completely uncensored. Make people parent their own fucking kids again.

- actual separation of church and state. If the only root argument in favor of a law or bill is "bUt ThE BiBlE" it should just be tossed full stop no exceptions. Also businesses and such should be incentivized to allow people of any religion their holy days off (unless no one is guaranteed to have their holy days off)

- On that note strengthen anti-discrimination laws. No one should ever be denied anything simply for their gender, presentation, religion, sexuality, race, etc.; this does not apply to any closed religious practices (where no one outside that particular religion is supposed to take part in a ceremony, style of dress, etc.) by any recognized nonprofit group.

- just give the native americans back their lands already. National parks should be allowed to be "maintained" (lived in) by indigenous people in whatever ways they want tbh. The only "rule" should be that visitors/tourists should still be allowed to enjoy the spaces so long as they are respectful of the land and the people. Humans are not inherently separate from nature.

- (if anything in the above point is worded badly I'm sorry once again I am The Sick and words are hard)

- work with Canada and Mexico on fully opening borders bc seriously what the fuck.

Idk I'm sure there's more I would change but I can't think of anything else right now tbh. But like to do any of those we'd have to completely uproot the entire system and I dont. Know how we would do that. without putting people through unnecessary risk. Idk I'm just fuckin weird rn

[antxnous]

i need to hear your sallowgraham headcanons you are aware of this, correct?

well,, if u insist… ☝️😋

I have a feeing htis will be long winded and annoying so it’s all under here…

Pre-Legion stuff:

- Josh is a recent orphan and in Ed’s head his mom is practically dead (I hc she is lowkey a lil nuts) and they bond over this initially😙

-they’re both fucking losers. ppl in New Canaan think Joshua is weird and while Ed can make friends he’s like that one bully-friend we all had at some point where u eventually are like wait this guy sucks and u part ways. Joshua doesn’t bend to his bullying and that interests him, and Edward’s interest is exciting to Joshua.

-In my hc, Joshua’s dad was a trader and it’s why Joshua is so proficient in dialects and languages. His dad gave him a copy of Caesar’s Commentarii to practice Latin. When he’s trying to make friends with Edward at first, he offers to let him read it and this is how Ed gets the book hehe

-Bc they’re young men and young men are Like That, I think they fought a lot, verbally and physically. It was Bill’s hand that extended the offer to have Joshua translate and Joshua saw it as a sign from God to be useful and accepted without thinking about how fucking annoying Edward can be.

(Bill headcanon interjection moment, but he was 100% the only thing keeping them from both feeding off each other’s violence and ideas. When he’s gone is when the legion rly explodes, but also they get along MUCH better. Mask drop time??)

-Toward the end of the expedition, before getting to the Blackfoot, Joshua totally begged Edward to at least walk back with him to New Canaan before he went back to California and Edward was like “ok (ew)”

-… so when they created the legion and Josh saw that they’d continue doing this to other tribes as they pushed into Utah, he begged Edward to leave New Canaan alone and Edward was like “ew, but ok”

-Joshua’s clothes r fucked up, sewn together and patched like nothing else. Edward gives him his clothes to wear so he doesn’t look like such a rag doll.

Legion stuff:

-The crosses and crucifixions were Edward’s idea, the razing and heads-on-spikes-warnings were Josh’s ideas.

-Cringe aside joshua totally sees their relationship as a union, Ed’s been his only partner and they share a tent wayyy late into the Legion, even when they don’t have to. I dunno if Ed sees it the same way, but I think he’s just comfortable with what he has, and is probably aware Joshua sees it that way and feels it gives him an angle over him.

-In the earlier days, they would scavenge books for each other and spend nights reading them together 💔 their dates would include bookclub, hunting, hiking, and watching arena fights💔

-While Joshy-poo is a survivalist in my head, Edward is v educated and has (had?) a good background in anatomy from his studies and a few medical stuff Bill taught him when they left California. Joshua can make tea and healing powder, but Ed’s gonna throw pills at his head either way.

-I love an albino vulpes hc. Joshua wanted that thing DESTROYED, but Edward was like 💔 it’s a thing. and nearly tried to convince Joshua he could be their diversity hire son. But that was too gay.

-Every region they went thru, Joshua reimagined a homestead there instead of camps. He’ll always want his tradwife ranch.

-THEY BOTH WORE VESTS 💔 until Ed got too big for his

Post-Legion/Hoover Dam

-Ed shaved his head before Joshua was supposed to head for the Dam. Joshua usually cut his hair so he thought it was odd.

-A week before, Ed pestered Joshua about making sure he was going to take the Dam and Joshua was ofc very sure he was, he’s never lost before. He made up his mind already that if Josh lost he’d have to kill him, and even suggested he wait and strategise further, but Joshua insisted it was fine. Ed was already drafting letters to Lanius in case.

-After the Dam loss, Ed didn’t kill Josh immediately. He acted like nothing was wrong because he was struggling to go thru with it. Ed was just going to throw him down the Grand Canyon, but wanted him GONE, and ordered the pitch last minute. and they totally slept together beforehand

-Josh tried to climb back up the canyon at first hehe half confused, half angry.

-Ed’s decision to decimate New Canaan was 100% because of the promise he made Joshua before.

-Joshua leaves taunting messages on the bodies of the Frumentarii sent to kill him <3 love letters

-Edward couldn’t stand to be around cooked meat and open flame for a few weeks after Josh’s burn. #vegetarian

-Joshua and Edward both have recurring nightmares about that night for separate reasons.

nsfw hc?? I fear I’m too shy to share those. josh was a total submissive the first few years and then eventually they both got used to the power and control of their roles and sex became a dominating hate thing between them that they enjoyed but eventually it devolved into giving each other the laziest hj and bj youve ever seen

Hiiiii byeeeee love u

[fuckitpossumorb]

At this point I’m live posting my watch through of COS, but I just came by another detail that was so stupid. Episode one when they come across the sculpture of Stradhanya Clayton tells Sheperd to pick up the orb she’s holding bc he doesn’t want to do it, then, literally like five minutes later he uses mage hand to go through a footlocker. He made him pick it up and for what.

[jaimemes]

any info on maple parents

well. i found a TREASURE TROVE worth of info for maple's parents. um. gonna put it all under the cut bc this is genuinely a lot of info.

Venus Cayleb Costa Dias and Ulex Antonio Ramos Vargas are rangers, both of which trained together on vulgrado and have been partners since they first got into ranger school. venus was later transferred to paldea on request when maple got into narauva. venus was also selected to join the experimental area zero ranger force, training and preparing for much of his time in paldea, as well as spending quite a bit of time in and out of the crater to get used to the dangerous environment until the program officially launched fulltime after briar's expedition into the depths almost a year ago. he has an umbreon and glaceon, as well as two garchomp, a corviknight, and a gogoat. venus also has a strong preferance for flabebe, and has an anonymous blog dedicated to talking about them that he posts on occasionally in his (nowadays very sparce) free time. this is likely related to him growing up with a family that owned massive florges gardens and bred the pokemon. venus has 1 sibling

ulex on the other hand is a more standard ranger. he is permitted to use a capture styler when needed, and has an espeon and leafeon. he grew up on a farm in vulgrado, and is overal quite plain. he is very much the straight man to the 3 insane people in this 4 person polycule. he also has 2 siblings

nettle is a neurosurgeon. he has no contact with any of his family, and its unclear if nettle carina maletta is actually his name. it may be a fake name and identity, as there is very little record of his existence until his 18th birthday. he has a comfey and a meganium.

Ivelyne "Ivy" Arai is the severe freak here. heir to the Union of the Hounds, she is the oldest of 3 triplets. when she turned 19, ivy disappeared and was classified as a missing person for several years until she was found at age 27. from what can be discerned, though she was living with a fake name, she had legally identified maple has her kid under her real name, allowing her family to find her through finding out about maple first. in regards to maples birth, ivy is known to have been diagnosed with severe postpartum depression and psychosis, as well as persisting mental health issues that led to her being committed to a psych ward for several months after her being found. in the years since, she has gotten much better, and has continued her practice as a therapist. she has a houndoom, runerigus, haxorus, aggron, beheeyem, and vivillon. the runerigus is referred to by maple as their uncle, and ivy is known to admit it is a dead childhood friend of hers, but has not identified whos ghost exactly.

[scotianostra]

January 26th marks Australia Day.

Scots played many key parts in the story of Australia, we were convicts, soldiers and governors; orphans, free settlers and gold hunters; bushrangers, merchants and immigrants.

Although it is sometimes said of nineteenth-century Sydney that it was an English city, in contrast with the more Scottish city of Melbourne, people of Scottish origin have played important roles in the development and life of Sydney. They have been there from the very beginning.

For hundreds of years Scots have packed up their families and their belongings and sailed to Australia to start a new life.

When Australia needed workers between 1832 and 1850 about 16,000 Scots became ‘assisted immigrants’. They boarded chartered ships, like the 50-ton ship Stirling Castle, chartered from Alan Kerr and Company, Greenock, alongside skilled stonemasons, engineers, carpenters, blacksmiths and even professors. In the same period more than 20,000 Scots travelled to Australia as unassisted immigrants.

The majority of Scottish emigrants were from the Lowlands but around 10,000 Highlanders boarded chartered ships to Australia between 1837 and 1852.

The 20th century continued to see Scots migrate to Australia. In the 1920s Scots stonemasons helped to build the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Scots miners from Lanarkshire, Fife and Ayrshire worked in coal mines in New South Wales in the '20s and '30s. In 1929 Alexander MacRae, originally from Loch Kishorn in the Highlands, first produced the famous Australian swimming ‘cossie’ - Speedos.

In 1930 MacRobertson Chocolates created Freddo Frog. Macpherson Robertson, the founder of ‘Mac Robertson Steam Confectionery Works’ that later became simply MacRobertson Chocolates, was the son of a Scottish carpenter. He spent many of his early years in Leith and became an apprentice at a confectionery company. When his family moved back to Melbourne he started making sweets in his mother’s bathroom.

Robertson became a great philanthropist as well as a hugely successful chocolate maker. He sponsored the MacRobertson Air Race from London to Melbourne, and financed a combined British, Australian and New Zealand expedition to the Antarctic. A part of the Antarctic was named ‘Mac Robertson Land’ in his honour.

Today Freddo Frog is the most popular children’s chocolate in Australia.

After the Second World War thousands of Britons set sail for Australia. Between 1947 and 1981 more than a million Britons took advantage of an assisted passage scheme introduced by the Australian Government. Around 170,000 Scots left the country of their birth to become ‘Ten Pound Poms’ and start a new life Down Under.

During the past 24 hours there have been protests in Australia as part of a campaign to move Australia day to a date more fitting to the indigenous people of the country, names they give to January 26th include Survival Day, Invasion Day, Day of Mourning.

Gammeya Dharawal man, Jacob Morris, said there isn’t one emotion that fully captures the day.

"It's a day of teaching. It's a day of celebrating as well. We're not up there celebrating the Union Jack, we're celebrating us," he says.

But the day also reminds Jacob of the treatment of First Nations people throughout history.

"Anger … that is still what is felt today and that comes from the sadness, trauma and the hurt," he said.

[reddest-flower]

In 1950, Aimé Césaire, the communist from Martinique, one of the clearest voices of the 20th century, looked back at the long history of colonialism that was coming to an end. He wanted to judge colonialism from the ashes of Nazism, an ideology that surprised the innocent in Europe but which had been fostered slowly in Europe’s colonial experience. After all, the instruments of Nazism – racial superiority as well as brutal, genocidal violence – had been cultivated in the colonial worlds of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Césaire, the effervescent poet and communist, had no problem with the encounter between cultures. The entanglements of Europe’s culture with that of Africa and Asia had forged the best of human history across the Mediterranean Sea. But colonialism was not cultural contact. It was brutality.

«Between colonization and civilization there is an infinite distance; that out of all the colonial expeditions that have been undertaken, out of all the colonial statutes that have been drawn up, out of all the memoranda that have been dispatched by all the ministries, there could not come a single human value.»

Césaire was adamant: colonialism had produced nothing that would earn it respect in the scales of history. This was in 1950, when a few nations had just emerged out of the scar of colonialism and when many societies fought pitched battles to extricate themselves from colonial power. What had come to define fascism inside Europe through the experience of the Nazis – the jackboots and the gas chambers – were familiar already in the colonies. This colonial fascism, Césaire argued in Discourse on Colonialism, needed to be emphasized. Colonialism was asserting itself in this period, pushing to revive its empires from Vietnam to Algeria, from Kenya to Malaya. It pretended to distinguish itself from fascism, then considered essentially evil, and to resurrect itself in a paternalist and benign form. Césaire would have nothing to do with that. Colonialism and fascism shared too much at the level of effects – in terms of how they appeared to their victims. It was clear to Césaire, as a Marxist, that fascism was a political form of bourgeois rule in times when democracy threatened capitalism; colonialism, on the other hand, was naked power justified by racism to seize resources from people who were not willing to hand them over. Their form was different but their manners were identical.

From the anti-colonial struggles of the Communist International and the League Against Imperialism to the anti-fascist struggle in Spain and then against the Nazi war machine, the Soviet Union acquitted itself well. The Soviets, like Césaire, saw the links between colonialism and fascism – both tied to each other inextricably by racism. It was not possible to fight fascism and collaborate with colonialism. The two emerged from the same origin, which the communist leader R.P. Dutt called capitalist decay. In his Fascism and Social Decay (1934), Dutt pointed out that the ‘revolt against science’ prepares the ground for ‘all the quackeries and charlatanries, of chauvinism, racial theories, antisemitism, Aryan grandmothers, mystic swastikas, divine missions, strong-man saviours, and all the rest of the nonsense through which alone capitalism today can try to maintain its hold a little longer’. Racism, the root of both colonialism and fascism, was not ‘insane’, Dutt wrote, but ‘completely rational and calculated’. Capitalism cannot offer a ‘rational defence’ of itself, of the manner in which it creates and sustains social inequality. It, therefore, takes refuge on ‘a wave of obscurantism, holding out fantastic symbols and painted substitutes for ideals’.

[...]

Fascism, to those in the colonized world, shared too much in its behaviour with colonialism: the racism surely but also the brutality and depravity, the oscillation between genocide and incarceration. Aimé Césaire did not see ‘fascism’ and ‘colonialism’ as separate endeavours. They were kin. But in Europe after 1945, there was a great push to see fascism as merely its European expression, an aberration of the Germans and the Italians. To suggest that fascism was merely Nazism with no linkage to colonialism allowed the Europeans and the North Americans to revive – without embarrassment – their colonial histories. The British used the full might of their armies to subdue national aspirations from Kenya to Malaya, while the French attempted to retake their old colonies from Indo-China to Algeria. The Dutch sent in their armies into Indonesia, while the Americans conducted coups and marine landings from Guatemala to the Dominican Republic and outwards to Iran.

In 1954, the US National Security Council’s staff prepared an important memorandum on US policy towards Africa. The two main interests of the United States were its ‘actual and potential US military bases in the area’ and its ‘access to, and utilization of, the strategic raw materials of the area’. To secure bases and raw materials the United States would need to ‘support’ the colonial powers’ ‘presence in the area’ – namely to support the continuation of colonialism. US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles worried that decolonization would mean the delivery of the new states to the communists and so the loss to the US of bases and raw materials. ‘Zeal’ toward decolonization, he said, ‘needs to be balanced by patience’. Here ‘patience’ simply meant the delay of decolonization. This was a return to the language and logic of imperialism from before World War II. There was no sense here that the anti-fascist struggle had any unity with the anti-colonial struggle, both part of the broader human struggle for freedom against tyranny. Fascism had been defeated, but colonialism was going to be welcomed into the post-war age.

In 1960, the US voted in the UN Political Committee against a resolution that called for Algerian independence. Later that year, the US voted – effectively – to allow no oversight into the Portuguese colonies in Africa. Finally, that year, the US abstained on a vote in the UN General Assembly for a ‘Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples’. This declaration was a significant feint by the USSR on behalf of the colonized world. During the 15th Session of the General Assembly on September 23, 1960, Nikita Khrushchev of the USSR said it was now time for ‘the complete and final liberation of peoples languishing in colonial bondage’. In keeping with the UN Charter, the 100 million people still living under colonialism must be freed. Five days later, during the discussion over the Declaration, which was sponsored by the USSR, its representative to the UN Valerian Zorin called for independence for all colonial territories within a year. ‘The process of liberation is irresistible and irreversible’, noted the Declaration, which passed by 89 votes to 0, with nine abstentions (including colonial powers such as Belgium, France, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and the apartheid state of South Africa). It was clear that the old colonial powers and the United States had little sympathy for the anti-colonial struggle, itself intertwined with the legacy of the October Revolution.

Red Star Over the Third World, Vijay Prashad, 2019

[strixludica]

A little christmas episode I wrote for my Lancer x Mass Effect fic

Farlight Blue - Spegeldal - Sparr​

In the streets of Spegeldal, the celebrations of Yuletide were in full swing: little children dressed as the Yule Lads went from door to door, threatening tricks and curses if they didn't get some eggnog; while their older siblings competed in teams to topple the others' snowman with snowballs. In every plaza scaled down statues of hunted Vast, in straw and timber, burned bright and warm against the cold gleam of the aurora. From a window in Clan Blåman's meadhall, Farlight watched their merriment with mixed yearning and exhaustion. It really did look like a lot of fun playing in the snow, but they'd needed to put on four layers of coats and socks just not to have their body go numb in the harsh sparri winter, and if it hadn't been for those weird nets called tennis rackets, their limbs would have sunk to the joints at every step. Despite the rigors of the weather, visiting Sigurd's home was a welcome relief after the tour to Cradle. Aside from everything else - and there had been a lot of else - this foray into human society had tested Farlight's proficiency in speech: they'd thought they were quite used to speaking with humans; they'd done it their whole lives. But once they'd had to do it with complete aliens for months, Farlight had truly realised how convoluted it could be, how exhausting it was to have to think in loops to figure out what conclusion someone expected you to take from their words, what assumptions they were based on, instead of simply exchanging information. Here on Sparr though, despite the many differences, Farlight almost felt as if they were witnessing again. When they'd first seen him wandering Hivehome, Farlight had thought Sigurd was especially extroverted and blunt; but it turned out that was just how his people were: they wore their feelings on their faces. The Union leaders and bureaucrats they'd spoken to had been courteous and polite, and many others even friendly; but always guardedly, afraid to cause offence and careful of what they were implying. The Blåman's excitement and warmth radiated off them like heat from a fire: it was clear without ever being said that being Sigurd's friend made Farlight everyone's friend. For hours, they and the people of the clan had exchanged stories: a saga of the harrowing march from the Yuga Pocket for one of the war against the Machine, a tale of a hunting expedition for one of recovering ancient artefacts, a recounting of the great caverns under the ice where the Vast dwelled for a canticle of doomed Hivehome and its vast undersea. Finally, however, they'd had to take a rest, and so the children were ushered out to play, their parents had taken to drinking and mingling among themselves, and Farlight had been left free to wander on their own. The hall was crowded with mementos, relics and trophies: on stones etched with Sagas, weapons sized for mech and human alike menaced and gleamed - Tallgrass and William would die of envy when Farlight returned to Mycol Fields - from the walls and ceiling were hung the heads of frightful beasts, some the size of a Warform, and one horned, three-eyed skull between whose fangs Endeavor themselves could have sat with room to spare. But just as Sigurd had declared almost three years ago, the place of honour was reserved for what the two of them had brought all the way from Hercynia: an assault hardsuit made with carapace Farlight themselves had gifted, and The Sword. Divested of the augmentations which Sigurd had installed on it so he could always take it into battle, the metre-and-a-half long scythe of gleaming, steely black bone sat upon an inscribed pillar, whose runes read:

BROOD-SIBLING'S MOLT GIFTED UNTO SIGURD FREYSON BY SUPREME COMMANDER TERROR OF HIVEHOME ON THE THIRD OF AUGUST 5014U SLAYER OF OVERLAND/KINGWATCHER AND ITS SPAWN IN THE LANGUAGE OF OF THE EGREGORIAN KIND IS ETCHED UPON ITS SIDES THE LIVING SAGA OF ITS GIFTING​

So that's what Sigurd and his Lance had been pestering Memory about the evening after they'd recovered the eggs. The sides of the sword were etched from tip to handle with osteomemetics - it was a complex memory indeed. On the left side, Farlight witnessed Sigurd's memory of [Surprise/Joy/Pride], his kneeling down in [Awe/Amazement], taking the blade with [Reverence/Love/Care]. The greatest warrior of the Egregorian people, who had so much reason to distrust him, had just entrusted him with a blade of their very flesh, an incomparable [Trophy/Relic]. There was only one way the [Memory/Legend] of his battles could go now. Sigurd would defend Terror and their kin with deeds [Worthy/Equal] of that blade, or die trying. On the right side, Farlight witnessed Terror's [Surprise/Doubt] at the sight of Sigurd swearing his loyalty unto his last breath, a moment of [Suspicion] that this was an attempt at [Flattery/Manipulation], and then the sight of that wide smile erupting across Sigurd's face, those eyes bright like a child's, and the [Realisation/Shift/Understanding] that the human in front of them meant every word he was saying. [Joy/Laugh/Relief/Hope] Maybe better times were coming. Farlight realised Sigurd had been standing next to them for some time. "Is the display adequate for the gift?", he asked, "I'd hate to think we weren't doing it justice" "It's perfect", Farlight replied. And they meant it.