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thecreaturecodex · 2 months

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Skull Peeler

Image © Paizo Publishing, accessed at Archives of Nethys here

[The skull peeler from PF2e's Bestiary 3 is a monster I wanted to like, but enough stuff bugged me about it that the version published isn't my favorite. For one thing, it supposedly is a specialist on sauropod dinosaurs, but as a CR 6 versus a CR 10 (at least) seems a little steep. It's described as being explicitly a "naturally evolved creature", but a mammal with insect wings doesn't strike me as something that can be claimed to be naturalistic, even for fantasy world evolution. Lastly, the slow speed and the excellent camouflage make me think it was originally intended to be a sloth monster, and got changed to a monkey monster at some point in development. I have made a number of tweaks to the mechanics and flavor text alike in order to bring it to my admittedly persnickety standards.]

Skull Peeler CR 6 N Magical Beast This creature looks like a monkey except for its translucent butterfly wings. Its forelimbs have oversized claws, and it has a long tongue studded with razor blades.

Skull peelers look cute, but their behavior is anything but. Skull peelers are predators of the canopy, feeding on birds, monkeys, lizards and browsing megafauna. A skull peeler will attack a giraffe, elephant or even sauropod dinosaur from ambush, tearing into its face and neck with razor sharp claws and a bladed tongue. Even if the prey survives the initial assault, it often bleeds to death from the creature’s supernaturally anticoagulant saliva. The skull peeler then lives up to its name, tearing off its victim’s head to eat the fleshy cheeks and the fatty brain. Skull peelers can go a long time between meals, and rarely descend to the forest floor to feed on the rest of the corpse. Scavengers and kleptoparasites tend to feed well in areas inhabited by a skull peeler.

Skull peelers are native to the First World, but have escaped onto the Material Plane through portals and the intervention of mortals and fey alike. Fey creatures and gnomes can often coax a skull peeler to remain in a particular area, but otherwise they are undomesticable, being semi-sapient in their own right. The combination of adorable appearance and vicious temper makes them popular as trophies and guardians by crime lords or rulers of a crueler bent. Skull peelers are notorious escape artists, however, and are adept at escaping into the wild and taking up residence in unexpected habitats.

Skull Peeler CR 6 XP 2,400 N Small magical beast (extraplanar) Init +8; Senses low-light vision, Perception +8

Defense AC 19, touch 15, flat-footed 15 (+1 size, +4 Dex, +4 natural) hp 66 (7d10+32) Fort +9, Ref +10, Will +5

Offense Speed 20 ft., climb 15 ft., fly 15 ft. (average) Melee 2 claws +13 (1d4+5), tongue +13 (2d4+5 plus bleed) Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (10 ft. with tongue) Special Attacks anticoagulant, bleed (1d4), giantslayer, sneak attack +1d6

Statistics Str 20, Dex 19, Con 16, Int 5, Wis 16, Cha 13 Base Atk +7; CMB +11; CMD 25 (29 vs. trip) Feats Acrobatic, Improved Initiative, Stealthy, Toughness Skills Acrobatics +10 (+6 jumping), Climb +17, Escape Artist +7, Fly +12, Perception +8, Stealth +13 (+17 in vegetation); Racial Modifiers +4 Stealth in vegetation Languages Sylvan (cannot speak) SQ fragrant, freeze (vegetation)

Ecology Environment warm and temperate forests (First World) Organization solitary or pair Treasure incidental

Special Abilities Anticoagulant (Su) Bleed dealt by a skull peeler requires a DC 21 Heal check to stop with mundane methods. Anyone using a healing spell to stop the bleed must succeed a DC 16 caster level check or the bleed persists. Fragrant (Ex) A skull peeler smells like vegetation as well as looking like vegetation. Creatures with the scent special ability must succeed a Perception check against the skull peeler’s Stealth check -10 to recognize the presence of a creature within their scent radius. Giantslayer (Ex) A skull peeler deals an extra +1d6 points of damage with its sneak attack for every size category larger the creature is than the skull peeler. Tongue (Ex) The tongue of a skull peeler is treated as a primary natural weapon that deals slashing damage.

#pathfinder 1e #pathfinder rpg #pathfinder 2e #skull peeler #magical beast

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loidbriarforger · 10 months

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A Twiyor AU where Twilight and Thorn Princess are both sent to a luxury beach resort by their respective organization to take out international crime boss, Leonardo Hapoon, who’s staying at the resort. Thorn Princess, going by her actual name, Yor Briar, and Twilight, going by Loid Forger in this mission, idly wait at the resort for a meeting with their respective handlers for further information.

Incidentally, Loid and Yor meet at the hotel bar. Unbeknownst to one another of the other’s identity, they share a conversation over a few drinks and quickly hit it off. Their conversation later turns to them flirting and ultimately results in Yor bringing Loid back to her room. The two spend the night in lustful passion and wake up together the next morning. The pair split up to prepare for their work, but tell each other that they hope to meet again before the end of their trip.

Loid meets up with Handler at a private cabana on the beach. She briefs him on his mission pertaining to Hapoon, but tells him about the catch.

“Twilight, you’ll have a partner for this mission, but one that’s outside of our organization.” Handler tells him.

Twilight stare at her in confusion.

“You’ll be working with an agent of Garden, our newest ally.”

Sylvia turns her attention to something behind Twilight.

“How lovely of you to join us.” Handler greets.

Twilight’s eyes widen at who now stands in front of him. Thorn Princess returns the look as she enters Handler’s cabana.

“L-Loid?” Yor asks, befuddled.

“Seems you two have already met. Twilight, meet your partner, Thorn Princess.”

#twiyor #twiyor au #loid x yor #loidyor #spy x family #spy x family anime #spy x family manga #loid forger #yor forger #sxf #agent twilight #thorn princess

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howtofightwrite · 2 years

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Why do some armies, militias, or rebel groups commit war crimes at much higher rates than others? If you're trying to go beyond designating good guys and bad guys by authorial fiat, what are some of the fail-safes you'd want a fictional armed faction to have to minimize their My Lais as much as possible?

So, an important warning on this, I'm mostly writing this off-the-cuff, and I'm not doing a lit review at all. So, if you're looking at this as a scholarly work, please consider this a rough draft at best. Also, somewhat obviously, the subject matter here will get pretty dark.

Unsurprisingly, TW for war crimes, and terrorism. Though, I'll try to keep this clinical.

The short answer is multiple factors with no individual one ever being universally true. I'm going to break down war crimes and atrocities into two general categories: Planned and Unplanned. This is because these spring from distinct factors.

There is another possible dichotomy, distinguishing between war crimes of action, and technically illegal behavior, such as the use of munitions or weapons that are legally prohibited, but are not directly associated with any atrocities. Examples of the latter could include deployment of chemical weapons against valid military targets, or even military buildups in violation of previous armistice treaties. For example: the Bismarckand Tirpitz were floating war crimes, simply by existing, and violating existing treaties (I'm not 100% sure which treaties off hand, and the legal status of these battleships is a little more complicated than I'm suggesting.) In general, I don't think this is what you're looking at, but it's worth remembering that war crimes cover a much wider range of topics that just atrocities committed against civilians.

Planned atrocities are intentionally executed by the faction, these are often deliberate strategies employed by those organizations. This can include things like terrorist attacks, or deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure to demoralize enemy forces or the civilian population itself, these can also be employed to erode public support for ongoing military actions. Of course, in some cases, the deaths are the primary goal, and any effect on morale is incidental.

Unplanned war crimes and atrocities occur incidentally, often as a result of failures in the chain of command.

This isn't a strict dichotomy, a group may have policies or strategies that can lead to war crimes through insufficient discrimination (in this context, discrimination refers to the concept as it exists in Just War theory/doctrine, which is to say, discriminating between civilian and military targets.) For example, a faction who intentionally bombards military targets in a civilian population center (read, a town or city) would probably fall more on the unplanned side of the spectrum, in contrast to a faction who simply firebombs the entire city.

When it comes to planned atrocities, ideology is probably the biggest factor to consider. Particularly how their ideology regards the people they're killing. This can take a few really horrific turns, but if you have a group with no regard for human life, and no concern for international law, then you're likely to start seeing war crimes coming fast and heavy.

It's easy to simply designate these groups as, “the bad guys,” but that really undersells how subversive some of these thought processes can be. Unfortunately, the line between terrorist and freedom fighter is a question of perspective, and even groups you'd normally be sympathetic to may be responsible for some horrifying acts, which they justify to themselves by othering their victims. (Usually this othering is based on religious, ethnic, or political affiliation. Though, it can be any combination of the three.) A group of rebels may not have any qualms about “collaborators” getting caught in their attack, even if those people are considered guilty by simple proximity.

A classic examination of this is Battle of Algiers (1966), it's an excellent film, and absolutely worth the watch if you've never seen it.

Unplanned atrocities and war crimes can often lead back to two compounding factors: discipline and morale.

Discipline comes with a massive, “citation needed,” sticker, because it's not completely predictive. Nominally, well disciplined armies can engage in unplanned war crimes. Some of this ties into the second factor, morale, but some of it is independent of that.

Some of the difficulty with discipline is opportunistic crimes (such as looting), which can then spiral out into worse atrocities. In these cases, you're looking at the individual discipline and morale of each soldier combined with a lot of contextual factors, but that doesn't translate smoothly into a generalized model.

The simple model would be that low discipline forces are more likely to engage in opportunistic crimes. They're more likely to evaluate their current situation in relation to how it can potentially benefit them, and when you combine that with the chaos of war, it is a recipe for unplanned atrocities.

Morale is a little more complicated than discipline. In theory, troops who are suffering from low morale are more likely to engage in unplanned atrocities. (While it's a gross oversimplification of the background factors, this is an apt description for the Mỹ Lai Massacre. Nominally disciplined soldiers, suffering from flagging morale, who incorrectly identified the villages' civilian population as collaborators, and started murdering people.)

However, in practice, morale can be a double edged sword, low morale creates a real risk of soldiers ignoring orders for personal gain, or engaging in illegal behavior out of desperation, however, a sharp increase in morale can also result in lapses leading to criminal activities. The primary example of this would be victory looting (which is a war crime, in case that was unclear.)

In theory, morale and discipline should slot together fairly cleanly to create a single spectrum, but the reality is a lot messier.

In the case of many irregular groups (such as militias, resistance groups, and rebels), the actual forces will be a coalition of different groups that may not see eye to eye on things. In this environment, it's basically impossible to effectively police the different factions within the group. And, unfortunately, history shown that these kinds of coalitions tend to purge their less radical members as they consolidate their power. (The only case I can think of where the radical and terrorist elements were shed by the more mainstream factions would be the IRA. In almost every other case, victory filters for the most ruthless.)

Importantly, coalitions like this tend to be regarded as a single entity by non-members, with the actions of each individual group reflecting on the coalition as a whole. The major exception here is with advanced analysis, where someone who is very well versed in the political or strategic details may be able to explain the different groups and how they fit together. But, for general public opinion, the coalition may as well be a single faction.

Coalitions like this are almost certain to have members who have no qualms about civilian casualties, either due to indifference to collateral deaths, or by identifying civilians as acceptable targets. This can cause problems for these groups as they alienate less radical members of the population. In extreme cases this can even result in recruiting difficulties, and the terroristic elements can cause problems for any peaceful negotiations with outside powers.

These terroristic elements, and atrocities in general, can bolster support against a faction. In some cases, these radical elements can become more of a detriment to the coalition as a whole than its real foe.

If you're hoping for a way to prevent this, there really isn't one. These kinds of coalitions are, “opt-in.” Worse, some radical elements are likely to spin up from existing members. In theory, these internal radicals can be a discipline issue, but in some kind of rebel group, they really won't have the resources to fight a war on multiple fights, especially not against themselves while their, “real,” foe is hunting them.

Radicalized organizations (whether they're part of a coalition or not) are also dangerous to their, “allies.” This is because they can provoke an escalated response from their foes. In many cases, if a group has proven that they're willing to deliberately target civilians, it will provoke a more severe response from their foes. That can come in the form of simple retaliation strikes, or could result in enhanced security and greater scrutiny. Finally, these organizations can provoke the emergence of radicalized organizations among their foes. For example, an renegade rebel cell with no qualms about civilian casualties could become the justification for an authoritarian regime's military to create death squads and deploy them in territory that the rebels operate in, taking a scorched earth approach.

While it's not frequently discussed in fiction, cultural differences can also result in, unintentional hostilities, which can also provoke escalation. At the very least, this can provoke resentment against foreign forces, which ensures that any rebel group would have a continual supply or recruits.

So, the original question you asked was, “how do I avoid this?” And, unfortunately, the answer is, “you don't.” Wars are horrific and messy, and unfortunately, the only way to avoid these kinds of horrors is if everyone agrees to, “play by the same rules.” In an asymmetrical war (such as with a rebellion or resistance), that's not possible. The, “legitimate,” government wouldn't view the rebels as a legitimate military force, and if the rebels operated openly they'd be arrested and executed. From there, the fuse is set.

-Starke

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#how to fight write #Starke answers #tw war crimes #tw terrorism #writing advice #writing reference #writing tips

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vintagegeekculture · 2 years

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How 60s Zines and Fandom Led to a Novel Series

One of the biggest parts of organized fandom in the 1940s-1970s were fanzines centered on adventure and scifi writer Edgar Rice Burroughs. Xeroxed and passed around in manilla envelopes in the mail, the organized fandom included fan art, articles, fan fiction, and essays passed from person to person. The big fanzines were the Gridley Wave, ERB Dom, the Oparian, and Burroughsania (fantasy writer A. Merritt and the Weird Tales writers had fanzines even at this late date as well, like Amra).

I heard a great description of Edgar Rice Burroughs fans and the fandom around him: they’re like the rest of us, except even more so. This could apply to the extremely right-brained, detective novel approach they took to the source material. All fandoms have people in them that do this, of course, I would never say otherwise...but I’m telling you, nobody did it quite like they did. As an example, ERB fandom in the 50s very precisely calculated where Tarzan grew up, based on the flimsy clues of the text, that his family’s steamer was out several weeks from Libreville. Based on calculating the average 1889 steamer’s range in two weeks, along with overlaying existing maps of the Central African Republic (today’s Gabon), they were able to figure out where he grew up very precisely. This was typical of the kinds of things they did. It reminds me less of the usual activities of fandom, and more like Heinrich Schliemann using a copy of the Iliad to discover the supposed site of the city of Troy.

It’s incredible how ahead of its time that all was, because the culture has only now caught up to what they were doing in the fifties in ERB fanzines. Today, the appeal of a lot of conspiracy theories floating around is that they are participatory, almost like some kind of ARG, like Ong’s Hat and the John Titorverse. Which pop music videos have clues put in them by the Illuminati? Can you guess which of the Hollywood Sickos was secretly replaced by a clone after being executed in a secret trial? It’s fun because you can play along at home! A lot of true crime podcasts and the communities around them also have this “figure out the mystery yourself” appeal, which is why the families of unsolved murder victims absolutely dread being covered by a popular mystery podcast. The future is in the back and forth model carried out by Edgar Rice Burroughs fans in the 50s.

It’s no surprise Edgar Rice Burroughs has fans like this. He had an absolute domination over the pop culture of the early to mid 20th Century. He, not Fitzgerald, not Hemingway, was the best selling novelist of the 1920s. ERB was, in particular, a favorite of two audiences that no longer are reliable customers of the book and publishing world: working class men and young boys. This makes sense, since his works were adventure Walter Mitty daydreams, the male equivalent of romance novels. The fact that young boys are no longer reading is, incidentally, one of the most disastrous and under-researched social phenomena of the present time. I am who I am today because I dreamed and imagined.

The biggest of the Fanzine writers had to be Philip Jose Farmer, who later became a professional writer, a name you’ve probably heard if you’ve been following this blog. Farmer, when he was a full on writer, wrote biographies of Tarzan and Doc Savage that treated them as living people. For example, Farmer’s Tarzan biography was so intensively researched that he calculated that one incident in Jungle Tales of Tarzan could not have happened, as there were no lunar eclipses visible over the Central African Republic between 1908-1909.

What I think is forgotten, however, is that Farmer’s incredible borderline fanwork was merely standing on the shoulders of giants when it came to the right-brained ERB fandom of the 1940s-1970s in Burroughs Bulletin and Gridley Wave. Many of the ideas in Farmer’s biography of Tarzan were long-standing theories in the fandom, so often repeated they gain a strange secondary canonicity, for example, the theory that Tarzan had two different sons, and the John Clayton Jr. captured as a baby in Beasts of Tarzan was different from the one who became Korak the Killer in Son of Tarzan. None of this was new to Farmer, he was a latecomer.

In particular, Farmer wrote an entire novel series was written based on an essay written in 1966 in the fanzines. This essay was “Heritage of the Flaming God: An Essay on the History of Opar and Its Relationship to Other Ancient Cultures” by Frank J. Brueckel and Michael Winger, and used to be referred to as “fanwank” but today would be called “Meta.”

The essay was about one of the most awe inspiring locations in the Tarzan series, one no film version as yet has done justice to: the Lost City of Opar. No film version has yet got across the grandiosity of this incredible ruin in the heart of the African jungle, a colony of Ancient Atlantis abandoned in Central Africa, a city of colossal masonry that almost seemed made by gods. It was a city of peacocks, and apes, gold and diamonds....but also the degenerated inhabitants, the women of which were beautiful, the men were feral, bestial Neanderthals. In an ancient ruin made by their ancestors, the Oparians run like children playing murderous games in a haunted house.

The queen of the city was La, a high priestess of the flaming god, a beautiful, seductive, uncanny sorceress who might be the only true rival to Jane in Tarzan’s affections (and who some fans prefer), who’s icy queenly exterior hid vulnerability and isolation. She was sympathetic and lonely one moment, cold, pitiless, and murderous the next. She was far more than just the evil seductress, but possibly the most complex character of the series, and she got a huge fan response. After all, It isn’t just women who like sexy sympathetic villains, you know.

Edgar Rice Burroughs always preferred Tarzan to get with La of Opar (a sentiment I’ve found to be almost universal among ERB dom), and even had the Germans kill Jane off in Tarzan the Terrible to make it possible. Reader outcry was so harsh at Jane’s death, however, he had to bring her back the very next novel. Tarzan found out her “death” at the hands of the German Army was faked and she was merely a prisoner of the Kaiser’s high command in East Africa. It is easy to see why La would have this towering, monumental stature in the Tarzan novels that she returned three times and almost literally replaced Jane as Tarzan’s wife. In an adventure series that flirted at the borderline edge of fantasy, La was the most “out there” element, a sorceress who was implied to be immortal and ageless, with the blood of Ancient Atlantis in her veins, and to disobey her was to die.

Brueckel and Winger’s 1966 essay on Opar’s origins argued that the mother culture of Opar, Atlantis, was actually an island inside an interior continental African sea, an extension of Lake Tchad, and they used ancient flood data to support their idea about the continental interior. They further argued that Opar’s genders have such different appearances because of the introduction of Neanderthal DNA on the Y chromesome alone. Further, in their lengthy fan speculations, they connected the ancient interior African Atlantean civilization to the other great lost cities encountered by Tarzan, including Athne and Cathne, Tuen-Baka, Kuvuru, and Xuja, all of which had similar traits: cyclopean abandoned cities of great antiquity, worship of a flaming god, human sacrifice, absence of the bow and arrow, and matriarchal rule. Atlantis was the source of the Flaming God religion. They further argued, fannishly interconnecting everything, that the Kuvuru immortality elixir was in the possession of that mother culture, and was the explanation for the beautiful La’s immortality. They also argued that the reason all these cultures did not have the bow and arrow was a religious taboo.

All of this was very impressive stuff, especially for 1966, even for fanwank, though I confess a lot of the geological proofs went over my head.

This essay about the origins of Opar and the Flaming God was so well remembered that fan turned real deal writer, Philip Jose Farmer, wrote a series based on their speculations. Set in the ancient prehistory of Africa, he wrote of Opar at its height, when it was a minor mining colony of a forgotten African civilization on an internal sea in 10,000 BC, just like in Bruekel and Winger’s description. His novel series was Hadon of Ancient Opar, published in 1975, and PJF acknowledged Brueckel and Winger’s fan essay as the primary source of inspiration, which he turned into a book series.

If you need convincing this meta was an inspiration for PJF’s book series, take a look at his map used in the series for their ancient civilization, which was a matriarchy with a sun worship religion with still surviving Neanderthals as a lower class. He even had a woman named La there, who may have been the ancestor of the La of Opar...or perhaps, the actual immortal La herself (the book leaves this open to interpretation). Always keen to have series cross over, PJF also mentioned the lost African cities of H. Rider Haggard and connected them with Burrough’s, which is a surprisingly good fit, since Haggard’s lost races also were matriarchies with a religion of sun worship.

When I heard the connection between this fan essay and PJF’s book series, I had to track down a copy of Brueckel and Harwood’s essay for myself. I was able to find one for sale by the Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest on the outskirts of Chicago, Illinois. They have a lot of pride in Edgar Rice Burroughs, who was born there, and they have many rare and old things for sale related to ancient fandom of the 60s. To my surprise, when my order arrived, I got a copy of the Historical Society of Oak Park, IL newsletter, and a personal addressed letter from the historical society librarian. I was so surprised by this that I actually called the Oak Park Society up to thank them, and had a pleasant chat with the kindly librarian about their collections of ERB memorabilia and fandom. All in all, a pleasant ending of an investigation into one of the oldest fandoms, one that, like Opar and the beautiful, immortal La herself, still lives in a hidden corner of the world.

#edgar rice burroughs #tarzan #fanzine #fandom history #fandom

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mariacallous · 10 months

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The brutality of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre shocked even seasoned terrorism-watchers. In one day, Hamas terrorists massacred more than 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians. It has indiscriminately fired thousands of rockets at Israeli cities and towns. More than 200 hostages, including many children, remain captive in what must be nightmarish conditions beneath Gaza. Hamas has vowed to murder them if Israel continues its military response.

The initial shock of the atrocities elicited strong statements of support for Israel from President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the White House press secretary, the leaders of Germany and France, and other world leaders.

Yet media coverage of Israel’s war against Hamas has already shifted from the brutality of Hamas’s onslaught to the proportionality of Israel’s response. The number of unintended civilian casualties has risen steadily as a ground offensive, supported by airstrikes, has advanced. Major outlets have featured chyrons juxtaposing the number of deaths on each side. As Israel enters Gaza in force, comparisons will inevitably show higher counts on the Palestinian side.

Does this mean that Israel’s response is excessive or disproportionate? That Hamas’s brutality has already been repaid like-for-like and, thus, that Israel must stop?

Every innocent victim is a tragedy. But not every civilian death in war is evidence of illegal conduct by one of the parties. The law of war operates in an environment that is inherently brutal and tragic. Law cannot banish that brutality altogether. It aims, more modestly, to mitigate war’s cruelty by balancing military necessity with humanitarian aims.

International humanitarian law’s most powerful instrument for protecting innocents is separating combatants from civilians. Armed forces cannot target civilians. And they must separate their own military assets from the civilian population.

It is Hamas’s defiance of both of those rules that has made each successive phase of this war a humanitarian catastrophe.

Crimes Versus Tragedies: Unpacking Casualty Counts

On one level, casualty comparisons are intuitive: All lives have inherent worth. All innocent suffering merits sympathy.

Yet casualty counts are a poor way to understand a conflict like this one. That is because they commingle deaths that are viewed very differently by the laws and ethics of warfare. Most of the Israeli toll thus far consists of civilians intentionally targeted by Hamas—a stark violation of the law of armed conflict.

The growing civilian toll on the Palestinian side is tragic, and all should hope that Hamas is defeated with the least possible innocent suffering. But incidental civilian casualties in strikes on lawful Hamas targets can be consistent with the laws of war. And Hamas itself is responsible for many of those civilian deaths because it cynically keeps or places civilians near military targets and uses civilian objects for military purposes.

Unintended civilian deaths and intentional murders are alike only in the very narrow sense that, in both cases, people have died from the actions of an armed force. Yet common intuition tells us that if we wish to form legal and moral judgments, then context, intentions, and legal duties matter.

Hamas’s Actions

The “cardinal,” “intransgressible” principle of the law of armed conflict is that armed forces must distinguish between combatants and civilians.

In its application to offensive operations, the principle of “distinction” holds that civilians can never be targeted, no matter how much military advantage would be gained by doing so. Hamas has ignored this principle throughout the Israel-Hamas conflict. As it always has. Not for nothing has Hamas been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and other governments for decades.

Most of the Israelis killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 rampage were unarmed civilians killed in cold blood in Israeli towns and kibbutzim and at the temporary rave encampment. These killings and other atrocities against civilians are unequivocally illegal. They are not legitimate acts of war.

Since Oct. 7, a smaller number of Israelis have been killed by rockets fired by Hamas. For legal purposes, the key question here is: fired at what?

Hamas, like Russia, indiscriminately bombards civilian areas, which are not valid targets. Indeed, Hamas does not even claim to be aiming for military objectives. Like the massacres of civilians on Oct. 7, deaths from those indiscriminate bombardments also result from Hamas’s violations of the laws of war.

Military personnel are generally valid targets. It bears noting, however, that Hamas does not follow basic legal rules even when attacking military targets. For example, videos and photos of Oct. 7 show that its combatants rarely distinguish themselves from civilians by wearing a distinctive uniform or insignia—in legal argot, a “fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance.”

The requirement that combatants (including insurgent groups and militias) wear a distinguishing uniform or mark protects civilians from being fired upon in confusion by the other side. As elaborated below, Hamas’s ignoring that rule puts Palestinian civilians in further danger.

Hamas has also committed grave breaches of the law of armed conflict by seizing Israeli civilians as hostages. Under the law of armed conflict, combatants can be taken prisoner and held for the duration of hostilities, and enemy civilians can be interned in rare instances. In both cases, however, their humane treatment is strictly required by international law and the rationale for their detention must be purely preventive.

By contrast, hostage-taking to “compel a third party to do or to abstain from doing any act”—as Hamas continues to do—is a war crime.

Deaths of Palestinian Civilians in Israel’s Response

The first thing to be said here is that every death of a Palestinian civilian is a human tragedy. Palestinians trapped in Gaza, in the grip of a brutal terrorist group that brooks no opposition to its unpopular misrule, had no say in whether to launch this war. Yet it is civilians who suffer most for Hamas’s choice. Indeed, Hamas cynically increases and then broadcasts civilian suffering to erode international support for Israel’s military response.

The question here is how observers should categorize those deaths, and whether it makes sense legally and morally to juxtapose them with the Israeli civilians intentionally murdered and bombarded by Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces and Distinction

Israeli forces operating in Gaza may attack only military objectives. Military objectives include enemy combatants, civilians directly participating in hostilities (a complex category best left aside for now), and “military objects.”

Importantly, military objects include not just overt military installations but also “objects which by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction, capture or neutralization … offers a definite military advantage” (emphasis added).

That means that a nominally civilian building (or even a medical vehicle) can become a military object if Hamas uses it for military purposes. And Hamas regularly uses civilian areas to store weapons, to house command centers, and for other military aims.

Intentionally targeting a civilian object not being used for military purposes would, of course, violate the principle of distinction. (We’ll come to two additional legal requirements, precautions and proportionality, below.) Establishing that, however, requires granular knowledge of both the factual context—was Hamas, for example, using that building to store weapons?—and the commander’s state of mind.

Hamas and Distinction

The principle of distinction also imposes duties on the defender. Parties to a conflict must take “all feasible precautions to protect the civilian population and civilian objects under their control against the effects of attacks.”

In this conflict, Hamas has an affirmative legal duty to protect Palestinian civilians by “remov[ing] them,” to the extent feasible, “from the vicinity of military objectives.”

Hamas will not do that, of course.

Not because it is infeasible. Hamas, which has governed the Gaza Strip for years, could have designated certain places in the strip as military enclaves and concentrated its fortifications, bunkers, weapons stores, fuel depots, rocket bases, and command centers there. It could have encouraged civilians to evacuate areas around those bases, rather than forcing them to stay put. Indeed, when the Israel Defense Forces tried to encourage civilians to move away from military targets, Hamas discouraged and blocked them from doing so, according to senior White House officials.

Hamas will not separate civilians from its military activities because following the law would be disadvantageous for Hamas. Hamas uses civilian areas to hide its military assets and complicate the choices facing Israeli targeters: Israeli forces can either forgo the strike, leaving Hamas with the military asset, or Israel can launch it, whereupon Hamas publicizes the resulting civilian suffering.

Hamas is evil, but its leaders are no fools: These tactics work. A NATO report examining Hamas’s activities from 2008 to 2014 explains how Hamas’s use of human shields in Gaza has long created a dilemma for Israel:

If the IDF uses lethal force and causes an increase in civilian casualties, Hamas can utilise that as a lawfare tool: it can accuse Israel of committing war crimes, which could result in the imposition of a wide array of sanctions. Alternatively, if the IDF limits its use of military force in Gaza to avoid collateral damage, Hamas will be less susceptible to Israeli attacks[.]

International reactions make this kind of “lawfare” effective. Hamas knows that credulous observers will attribute these casualties to Israel—even though it was Hamas’s illegal decision to hide military assets in civilian areas that exposed the victims to harm.

Failing to place blame where it belongs—to unequivocally insist that Hamas move its military assets away from civilians, and to hold it responsible if it does not—encourages Hamas to put even more civilians in harm’s way.

These cynical incentives for Hamas pervert the law’s humanitarian aims and put Palestinian civilians in greater danger.

How the Law of War Accounts for Unintended Civilian Casualties

Even when striking a legitimate military target, Israel must consider the potential harm to civilians. But “zero harm to civilians” is not the rule: Strikes on military targets can result in unintended civilian casualties without necessarily violating the law of armed conflict. Tragically, because Hamas intentionally commingles civilians and military assets, there have been many such deaths in this war.

The key rule here is proportionality, which requires armed forces to refrain from attacks that would inflict incidental civilian harm “excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated to be gained.”

Attacking forces must also take “feasible” precautions in attack to reduce the risk to civilians. This can include verifying the military nature of the target, assessing risk to civilians before the strike, providing advance warning to civilians, adjusting the timing of an attack, choosing more precise weapons, and so forth.

Proportionality and precautions are intensely fact-bound. Civilian harm, military advantage, and feasibility are difficult to quantify. Their application often depends on the circumstances on the ground, at a fleeting moment, during the chaos of war.

Reasonableness, not perfect hindsight, is the standard. After-the-fact assessments of proportionality must account for “variation in how reasonable persons would apply the principle of proportionality in a given circumstance” and “the information available to that person at the time.”

The precautions required also vary with the context. Feasibility considers “all circumstances ruling at the time, including humanitarian and military considerations.” Those military considerations include risks to one’s own troops and to the mission’s success: “[A] commander,” the U.S. Law of War Manual explains, “may determine that a precaution would not be feasible because it would result in increased operational risk (i.e., a risk of failing to accomplish the mission) or an increased risk of harm to his or her forces.”

Photographs of shattered buildings and injured or dead civilians tell us that a tragedy has taken place. But without further information—without specific evidence of Israeli misconduct in assessing proportionality and taking feasible precautions—it is impossible to declare that any given tragedy was also a violation of the laws of war.

The sad reality is that many civilian deaths will result when a technologically sophisticated force confronts a terrorist group that chooses to fight from densely populated civilian areas and compels civilians to stay in anticipated battle zones. That is true even if the organized military uses precision weapons and cares deeply about the law.

Hamas knows that, of course. It stores weapons in schools and launches rockets from civilian neighborhoods fully aware that Israeli strikes on those military assets will harm civilians. Why? Because it knows that international observers will blame Israel, eroding support for Israeli military action. Here again, Hamas perversely exploits proportionality’s humanitarian aims, intentionally putting Palestinian civilians in harm’s way to generate legal pressure on Israel.

The Meta Question: Are the Laws of War the Right Rules?

This analysis rests on the premise that the laws of armed conflict are the right standard to apply to both parties’ conduct.

But are they?

Perhaps, as some observers contend, different rules should apply to each side. For instance, a group of academics at Columbia University has suggested that “one could regard” the atrocities of Oct. 7 as “an occupied people exercising a right to resist violent and illegal occupation.” (The letter goes on to say that “armed resistance by an occupied people must conform to the laws of war,” including the rule against internationally targeting civilians. But it studiously avoids acknowledging what follows from that concession: By that standard, one cannot in fact “regard” Hamas’s massacres as legitimate resistance.)

Should Hamas be allowed to place its missiles in schoolyards and its command centers under hospitals, if it thinks that will help it prevail?

Should different rules apply to the weak and the strong?

Advocates of that idea should consider what it would do to the centuries-long humanitarian quest to humanize warfare. To the struggle for what Texas Law Dean Bobby Chesney has called the “civilizationally relevant” idea that “it’s not right to intentionally try to kill innocents to advance your political or social goals.”

Without reciprocity, that project founders. The modern law of war rests on reciprocal agreements among states aimed at reducing unnecessary suffering on both sides—among combatants themselves, but also among civilians, prisoners of war, the injured and shipwrecked, and others outside the fight

Those fundamental humanitarian prohibitions thus apply without regard to the justness of each side’s cause. In legal jargon: The jus in bello, which regulates the conduct of war, applies independently of the jus ad bellum, which governs the commencement of war. Even the controversial (in this respect) first Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions, which elevates in certain respects anti-colonial struggles, does not purport to grant “resistance” fighters the right to murder innocents or otherwise wage war without limits.

If modern law’s fundamental humanitarian guarantees are to endure, they must apply equally to all parties, with no exemption for “especially worthy” causes.

Which belligerent has ever admitted that its cause is unjust? Which people fighting for survival would accept that the law constrains them, but not their enemies?

No-holds barred for one side only is not a principle that can hold for long.

Indeed, there is a perverse irony in supporters of the weaker party disputing that the laws of war should apply equally to all.

It is the weak, not the strong, who benefit most from universal restraint. In a world where anything goes, why would the strong forbear from using their power to the utmost? The alternative to universal rules is not asymmetric justice in favor of the weak. It is a ruthless world in which “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”

***

Acknowledging that the law of armed conflict is the right normative framework for both sides in this fight would benefit Palestinian civilians most of all.

If Hamas would keep civilians away from military emplacements and stop operating from within their midst, as the law requires, Hamas and the IDF could have it out with far fewer civilian casualties. In the Columbia professors’ words, Hamas could “resist” with less danger to the people on whose behalf it claims to fight.

Any “right to resist” beyond the law’s constraints, then, is nothing more than a right to murder Israeli civilians and to use Palestinian innocents as human camouflage.

The suffering civilians of the Middle East deserve better friends than these.

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sublimation-machina · 7 months

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Just supporting a militant organization does not make a civilian into a combatant. If it did, then most of the zionist entity's civilians would also be rendered combatants. In fact, most civilians in any conflict would be rendered combatants. This way of thinking makes talking about war crime impossible. Which is, perhaps not incidentally, a favorable state of affairs for the zionist.

#palestine #toki mi

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redbean-nom · 4 days

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grogu sequel au notes

the trilogy team is grogu, ragnar, and mirta crammed in the Falcon (they stole it) (han and chewie are very much alive and chasing them) with ig-11 (memory circuit installed in ig-88's body) and r5-d4

the only way grogu managed to get an all-mandalorian trilogy team together was shared vengeance for the night of a thousand tears. they bond eventually though

Countess Sabine is the wise older mentor, as the previous generation's sort-of-jedi mandalorian and rebellion leader

Ragnar is his Ten Years Older Friend

at age 75 (equivalent to human 18ish) grogu goes back to luke to finish his training, dagobah-style

two days after he passes his knighthood trial, Padawan Ben Solo goes on a rampage

random detail: grogu calls him Benny in the force specifically to annoy him (his real name is bail or something idk. ben is a nickname derived from 'Young Ben' that leia uses when he is being particularly insufferable)

the new temple burning triggers grogu's o66 trauma

Grogu also has a noted tendency to respond with Force Choking The Threat when he is in danger

this results in him fighting kylo, force choking him and slamming him into a wall old republic battlemaster style

luke is now guilty because one of his students went sith and another one had to kill the sith (because his reaction was freeze/shock while grogu's was Fight Everything In Range)

luke runs away as canon

grogu then goes home to consult Dad (not great advice for jedi stuff, but tries), Uncle Boba (worse advice), and Auntie Bo (even worse advice somehow)

boba hears that Padawan Benny, who tried to kill grogu, is han solo's kid

Krayts Claw promptly puts a massive bounty on han (were you not watching your child??)

grogu decides he is responsible for dealing with the sith this time around and assembles his Trilogy Team.

(they eventually steal the falcon) (han chases them) (half the galaxys bounty hunters chase han) (much chaos ensues)

he then drops by boba's tattooine crimelord armory to stock up on grenades and picks up a new buddy Mirta Gev (who in this au has resolved her issues a bit earlier due to boba having a known base of power)

kylo is dead. all rise for Lady Ren, later Darth Ren, aka Rey Kenobi-Kryze (she's the granddaughter of obi wan's brother and satine's second sister) who was found by the Knights of Ren

the Knights of Ren are the remnant of the Revanites

grogu au Knights actually live up to their legendary reputation

they're also a bit better trained in a combo of light & dark side techniques, though they are decidedly dark jedi/darksiders

they've largely diverged from the original Revanchist philosophy, and follow something more akin to what was scraped out of holocrons of Revan's later teachings

instead of anakin's lightsaber, Revanite Rey inherits revan's mask, which she dons as Darth Ren in her quest (independent of the First Order) to put an end to a weak New Republic that leaves its citizens vulnerable while the politicians squabble, maintaining neither freedom nor security while syndicates and imperial holdouts conquer the outer rim and ignoring the advice of the actual rebels

its widely debated whether 'ren' is a corruption of revan, or if ren is an alternate/original name for revan

krayts claw is a bounty hunter syndicate/union basically acting as an alternative to the bounty guild, with an incidental side of local government and a dash of organized crime

they primarily work for the local hutts

boba has single handedly fixed both the issues of Declining Mandalorian Population and Sad Desert Orphan Children by sending the apparently-abundant tatooine future main characters to din's friends on mandalore

the hutts/krayts claw waging war on the pykes ended up eventually eliminating them

the razzi syndicate filled the power vacuum in the spice trade

black sun amassed a concerning amount of political power in the NR

red key eventually was driven off tatooine (and most of the outer rim) after having tried to ransom borgo the huttlet (grogu au rottas cousin/jabbas nibling)

rotta ended up working with the twins and borgo

he is still stinky

the rancor is an adult and absolutely massive (they expanded the rancor pit to fit it properly)

boba is fully retired from hunting (because he's like 70)

fennec is also retired for the same reasons

krrsantan is not retired

bossk is stubborn (he refuses to either stop hunting or get cybernetic augments despite being the trandoshan equivalent of a 90 yr old. the rest of the crew spends a great deal of time bailing him out of ill advised hunts)

embo is happily retired on felucia and the only one no longer involved with crime of any kind (he took his full pardon in great stride)

latts is retired from hunting

highsinger is still actively hunting (perks of being an already-ancient droid) and works mostly exclusively for the claw

still nobody knows what language highsinger speaks

aurra is very dead

dengar is heavily cybernetic and still refusing to retire

han spends most of the trilogy being chased by claw affiliated hunters

bobas palace has a full complement of bacta tanks because claw leadership consists of a whole lot of very old beat up hunters

tatooine has emerged a prime contender in the development of outer rim cybernetic surgery

this is partially due to the mod subculture and partially due to the claw's presence meaning a lot of partially-to-mostly-cybernetic hunters hang around mos espa

they also now have proper surgeons

the guavian death gang is a splinter group of the maul-era crimson dawn, led by The Jedi Killer

(boba takes offense because that's his dad's title)

The Jedi Killer is an ex-inquisitor who ended up working for maul

grogu uses the force to hold his lightsabers because he is very small

between three to four (if they bring sabine) fully armored mandos and two droids rattling around in the cockpit, the slightest hint of turbulence produces a veritable tin-can cacophony

the Helmet Rule for grogu and ragnar combined with the falcon's living areas means everyone eats with a bag over their heads

ragnar has a tendency to get eaten/attempted to be eaten by large creatures

at the beginning of their journey they took a detour and picked up the three dino-birds

they all ride a now-fully-grown dino bird

the falcon was not meant to transport three full sized dino birds

while attempting to find somewhere to put the dino birds they discovered some other large creature (perhaps a young gundark or two?) that somehow got in

they may have blown up parts of the falcon while getting rid of the things

they also may have picked up a gizka infestation

grogu eats gizkas so it's just free food at that point

han and chewie are going to be furious

however han is currently busy getting chased by highsinger

also what did he do to have tasu leech personally hunting him???

a week or so into their journey the falcon is now home to three mandos, two droids, three full sized dino birds, zero gundarks, and approximately a hundred vent gizkas

while they wander around looking for sith they hear about the Resistance

they take a detour to check on them

while detouring, han catches up

while detouring, highsinger also catches up

ig was also left to guard the ship

han nearly explodes when he sees them open the door and at least twelve gizka spill out

the maintenance crew is now attempting to catch all the gizka

grogu wanders in and force projects to leia to try to figure out what's going on

nobody is particularly inclined to give the resistance secrets to the strange small mando who stole the falcon (he didn't know it was *the* falcon!)

someone almost gets shot

highsinger really wants to do his spin attack

grogu has to explain that hes lukes only surviving non-sith student and is attempting to help with the situation

leia explains that luke is missing and theyre looking for the star map, but the guy who was supposed to retrieve it hasn't returned

grogu asks if anyones tried meditating in luke's direction

nobody has

han and leia have their dramatic reunion while getting shot at by highsinger

grogu sits down (and force shields himself) and promptly does his LUKE PLEASE HELP ME force-call

he has located luke

tasu shows up to catch han

a few hunters hired by the razzi syndicate are also there

some of hondos pirates also arrive

and then the guavians show up

guavians are revealed as sith/first order-affiliated when they try to kill grogu in the ensuing standoff

everyone then turns on the guavians

the pirates try to grab han in the meantime and get killed

everyone left then has a very tense discussion on the nature of The Jedi Killer

grogu escapes to go find luke

the new republic never demilitarized for obvious reasons, but their fleet was decimated by the recent war with thrawn (peridean war? dathomirian war? idk)

the first order conquest capitalized on the lack of NR presence in the outer rim post-thrawn

the resistance is a collection of rebellion veterans and ex separatists stuck in the middle of first order space

there's a lot of internal conflict between the resistance and the NR over the NR politicians being generally useless (like hera's whole rogue two arc in ahsoka)

the NR refuses to back the resistance after they went rogue under the leadership of ex-chancellor mothma and senator organa

instead the resistance is funded by senators from serenno, raxus, and onderon, plus baron calrissian of bespin and countess wren of krownest

a lot of ex-separatist planets feel that the NR's handling of the ex imperials and the NR politicians' uselessness led to the NR embodying only the worst traits of the republic

the resistance skews pretty heavily separatist bc the more moderate/post-Alliance republic systems tend to side w the NR

the resistance fleet is a hodgepodge of really old rebellion era fighters (x wings, a wings, and a couple b wings), separatist ships, and mon calamari ships (mostly the big capital ships)

the first order is a reunited collection of imperial remnant fragments

the NR is busy holding the Core from the hutt inheritance crises, the fallout of the black sun civil war, and the outer rim separatist resurgence

the first order is widely considered a minor issue that'll resolve itself through infighting over time, and therefore less of a priority than the black sun/falleen civil war and the hutt civil war

however there are rumors that the first order's Shadow Council has recently been united under an old sith leader

the NR's arrest of black sun underlord Princess Savan further destabilized black sun leadership

coupled with the destruction of house sizhran on falleen this led to a massive warring states-esque civil war among both legitimate government and black sun

this in turn led to a weaknesses in the outer rim that the first order managed to exploit

the hutt not-empire is also experiencing a succession crisis or four after vader killed the entire ruling council

now rotta is trying to take over and avenge his father

also kanjiklub under tasu leech is busy liberating nearby hutt colonial systems

both the black sun and the hutts are at all out civil war

grogu sees r2 in the corner and remembers r2 driving him to tatooine

grogu decides to take r2 with him to find luke

c3po reluctantly (actually he refused to leave r2 behind) joins

han and chewie agree to let grogu borrow the ship if they come along

they are quite appalled at the amount of amphibious/reptilian pests that get kept around for target practice (ig) and snacks (grogu)

at least ragnar and mirta kept the machinery and sleeping areas strictly gizka-free

they find luke very quickly

on the way there r2 boots up again when he realizes theyre on the falcon

ahch to is Sith Cave Island, featuring cortosis, elephant birds, and porgs

luke is there bc he found a hidden/secret jedi archive in one of the mountains

han, chewie, r2, c3po, and luke have an emotional reunion

grogu also gets an emotional reunion w his teacher

everyone else is just standing around awkwardly

luke then tells them that hes been studying a concerning disturbance in the force

luke is worried the sith are trying to return but he cant figure out who it is

han brings up the mysterious Jedi Killer behind the guavians

eventually han convinces luke to come back with them because he and leia (and everyone else) has forgiven him for the kylo disaster

it's not widely known that grogu was the one that killed him, just that kylo turned sith but didn't make it out of the temple due to a brave unidentified student

also they very much need luke

and leia wants to talk to him but she can't abandon the resistance

they bring luke back. the ship is very crowded now

also luke brought a bunch of holocrons and old jedi books with him

luke and leia have an emotional reunion

ragnar, grogu, and mirta set off to figure out what's going on with the unusual coordination of the imperial remnant recently

ahsoka, sabine, and ezra go to investigate the Jedi Killer

eventually they all discover a disturbance in some remote sith planets

ezra: hey kids if you find a red holocron do not open it :/

they also discover that the death of the baneite sith led to the proliferation of more fringe dark side orders like the Knights and the guavians

meanwhile the NR is focusing on protecting Core planets

leia and mothma are working on introducing NR reforms and officially monitoring the rogue-sith situation as well as the black sun and hutt wars

grogu discovers that the first order is based off a concerning number of sith planets

palpatine's consciousness is alive in the same way bane has his sith ghost. palpatine's body is very much not

palps needs more power (via a sith ritual maybe?) to possess any of the clones, because turns out they all have individual personalities

therefore he has Darth Ren as his fourth apprentice to revive him for promises of re establishing a strong Empire once again

Darth Ren agrees bc she just wants to eliminate the weakness of the NR - the replacement matters less as long as it's able to effectively govern (tyrannically or not)

to do that she ends up allying w the first order

palpatine is also busy influencing disgruntled NR politicians to exacerbate the internal conflict and cripple their ability to respond to external threats

the NR is slowly imploding on itself

turns out the Jedi Killer is working with the first order off ilum

in fact there is more than one ex-inquisitor who took the role of The Jedi Killer

grogu and co track the empire to starkiller and promptly realize this

starkiller base isn't a superweapon but rather a kyber mining facility

grogu can feel the disruption in the balance of the force from the razing of ilum

they break into the base to find/kill the Jedi Killer

it's an inquisitor

during the battle, one of the chattier minor inquisitors mentions that the sith eternal will return and that mandalore (as a neutral/non-NR affiliated system) should join them

theyre all like !!!

ragnar says something about how gideon's remnant failed and that mandalore will slay the sith

the new grand inquisitor is really good and they only escape because grogu managed to anger-induced force choke the inquisitor for long enough to get away

grogu then has a silent crisis that he cant let anger take over bc luke told him all the stories abt how vader happened

mirta decides they should probably take this info back to sundari + boba as well as resistance hq

they call din and ask him to relay the message that 'oops, there's another sith cult that's associated with the imperial remnant and they want mandalore to either join or die'

they call sabine to tell phoenix squadron 'so we found the jedi killer. theyre an inquisitor and they're working with the empire. also there are sith kids in this place?? and a kyber mining facility? please send help'

they escape just as the resistance arrives

mothma is busy calling the NR to inform them that actually they have a way bigger problem than the black sun war or the hutt war

Battle of Ilum happens

theres a massive realization that the rebellion/NR defeated the imperial leaders but never eliminated the ideology that led to the rise of the empire in the first place

poe is still doing his pilot stuff. he escapes with finn as canon

later, finn has a whole emotional speech to phasma/the other troopers in his unit and inspires a small scale stormtrooper rebellion

some of the ones that didnt leave w him right away spread the news to other troopers

possibly one of palps' clones escapes/goes rogue and joins the resistance?

meanwhile darth ren rediscovers the infinite engine/starforge fragments and brings it to exegol

also one quarter of maul is back (nightsister necromancy via the great mothers & thrawn's plot)(he really wants to kill palpatine)

palpatine never returns in anything more than a sith ghost. on the other hand, someone gets to say 'somehow maul returned'.

#star wars #grogu au #grogu sequel au #grogu #adult grogu #sw sequels #to be continued #redbean talks #ragnar vizsla #mirta gev #<- theyre not really doing anything rn in the notes but assume every decision made by grogu and co involves a lengthy argument #rey #maul hijacked the shadow council to try to stop palpatine btw #some details may change as i figure stuff out

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weiying-lanzhan-fics · 9 months

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🐍 don't want none unless you got 🐇 by Lisa_Telramor

Awwww so cute! Loved the relationship build-up ❤️ Also JC, NH and WN perfect supporting characters!

Quotes:

“It’d be nice if people remembered that the world doesn’t end with Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, right?” Wei Ying said.

“Mm.” Lan Zhan’s scowl softened slightly. For a second he almost looked like he tolerated Wei Ying’s presence. And then the moment passed and he was back to frowning in Wei Ying’s direction.

Lovely.

“Choose one of the composers by Friday,” Lan Zhan said. “Then we can meet here on Saturday to decide on a piece of music and perhaps start learning it.”

“That works I guess.” He still wasn’t happy with the whole setup, but since Lan Zhan didn’t look like he’d back down and let Wei Ying chip in more, Wei Ying could at least try to hold up his end of things. Maybe if he did a good job, Lan Zhan would stop looking at him like he committed some kind of crime in front of him. “What time, or maybe give me your cell phone number?”

“Nine,” Lan Zhan said.

Okay. No number. “Nine at night?”

“Nine in the morning.”

“On a Saturday?” Wei Ying asked, aghast.

“Is that a problem?” Lan Zhan asked coldly, like if it was a problem, he’d make a worse one.

————

And speaking of group projects, he was fairly certain the current one was punishment by the unfeeling universe for some incidental sleight. His partner was brash, loud, sloppy, and apparently a hater of rabbits. That last item made him an enemy by default.

Unfortunately, Wei Ying didn’t seem to be picking up on Lan Zhan’s animosity, because he greeted Lan Zhan with a grin and a wave when they met up to continue their work on the project.

“Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying said too loudly, a bounce in his step. “Hey, how’s your week going? Did you do well on the quiz? I’m surprised I didn’t miss any questions since I kind of had to skim the reading…”

Another strike. If Wei Ying couldn’t bother to do required readings, Lan Zhan didn’t hold much hope in him being actually useful for the report. Well, Lan Zhan was intending to do the bulk of the work regardless. So long as Wei Ying could speak on their topic for the presentation and play whichever piece of music he chose, Lan Zhan would be satisfied.

T, 19k

Summary:

Wei Ying wanted to make a great first impression on the Hot Library Guy when they got assigned a project together. Unfortunately, Lan Zhan missed the innuendo of Wei Ying's shirt entirely.

#wangxian #wei wuxian #wei ying #lan wangji #lan zhan #the untamed fic #wangxian fic rec #the untamed fanfiction #untamed fic #mdzs fic #multiple povs

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bratzs12345 · 2 months

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Short scene from a WIP

I swear, I've been working on this fic for over a year. And, god dammit, I swear I'm finishing it up before the start of the semester. /:(

Suddenly, Armin spoke up once more. “You know, Levi. I think I owe you an apology.”

Levi raised an eyebrow, hesitant to ask but still playing along. “What for?”

“I guess there had been a few rumors going around school that you and Eren had…involed, so to say,” He said, choosing his words carefully. As he continued talking, he kept on eye on both boy’s and their expressions. “But, it was wrong of me to assume. I mean, we’re a team now. So, if i had any suspicions about what you two were doing, I should have just come to you.”

Levi could sense where this was going. From the corner of his eye, he surveyed Eren’s face and could see the younger man a red blush creep up his neck. His lips were tightly pursed as he waited for the next words to come out of the blonde’s mouth.

“The best way to go about this is just to be direct, yeah. So, just to be sure, is there anything going on between you and Eren?”

Though he didnt show it on his face, Levi was slightly stunned by the blonde’s boldness. This entire conversation made him realize that he had greatly undermined the sammer man’s guts. Before tonight, he never would have thought Eren’s sidepiece could be so confrontational. Then again, I guess it takes some guts to step up and run as big of a crime organization as the Scouts.

Finally, It was Eren’s turn to break the silence.

“Well, that would be weird, considering he used to date my brother,” Eren said, trying to make his voice was smooth and nonchalant.

Levi guessed this wasn’t the first time he had to lie under pressure. But, he had known him for so long that he could tell. He could hear the slight crack in his voice; see the sweat beads that were accumulating on his neck. To the trained eye, Eren was terrible under pressure.

Armin looked back at him in surprise. “Is that true?”

Its no surprise Armin hadn’t known about his and Zeke’s previous affair. Levi had threatened more than a few Scouts for bringing up it up around him. All the more reason for Eren’s incidental confession to make a nre loe. Levi’s eye twitched as he felt two pair of eyes stare back at him. Armin’s with confusion and intrigue, and Eren’s with fear and desperation. Levi couldn’t help but feel annoyed that the latter would throw him under the bus like that, especially when he knew what a toll the breakup took on him.

“I don’t know if I would say date,” Levi responded slowly, trying to keep his anger out of his voice. “That’s a pretty strong word after all. Some would say it was his brother that had a huge crush on me. And, we fucked several times.”

“Oh?” Armin said, nodding but still pretty lost on where this conversation was heading.

He knew it was petty and childish, but his past relationship was still a pretty sore spot. He couldn’t help but to become even more spiteful in response.

He turned to the younger Yeager with venom in his eyes, “But, I mean, Eren, there’s no need to be modest. I’m not the only one dating family around here.”

Armin looked back at Eren confused. Inwardly, Levi smirked triumphently. If Eren could play dirty, then do could he.

“Oh, right,” He said, feigning nonchalance. “He probably didn’t tell you, but he definitely dated my cousin at one point as well,”

Eren chucked, as more beads of sweat continued to drip down “Like Levi said, ‘date’ is a strong word. I mean, it was just middle school,”

“How long were you two…seeing each other?” Armin asked hesitantly.

Another nervous chuckle escaped from the nervous man. He wisely decided to pass up on answering his lover’s question. “I mean, can you even call it “dating” at that point? Middle school relationships hardly ever count,”

“I mean, she liked you enough to deal with all of your bullshit,” Levi muttered.

“Bullshit?” Eren exclaimed, for a moment, indignance overridden his embarrassment. “Mikasa was the one broke up with me. And over nothing at that.”

“Oh please.You lied to her almost every day,” Levi couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “What else do you call that?”

“Maybe I only did that because I had no other choice. Because, the actual person I had feelings for kept ignoring and rejecting me for years,”

“So, you admit to using my cousin in your petty quest for revenge, huh?” He said with a blank stare. “Well, it’s about time Yeager.”

Armin couldn’t keep up with the as his eyes flickered between the two, watching them bicker. At this point, even he didn’t know what to say. He could tell there was still a few issues between the two men that they still have yet to address. And, he could tell that the two have a lot of shared history. Though he didn’t know if that was supposed to make him more reassured of his status his and Eren’s status or less.

Meanwhile, Eren could feel himself getting more and more worked up as the argument went on. It was the same old argument they always had, but he still couldn’t help but be annoyed as they rehashed the same issue they had been arguing over for years. For some reason, he had hoped that after this mission and their agreement, they would be able to put the past behind them. And, maybe Levi would even come to understand why he did some of the thing he did. But, that hope was quickly squashed in a matter of minutes.

This issue refused to leave either of their minds. Levi still saw him the same way he did ten years ago: an immature kid who didn’t think or care about anyone. At this point, his perception was probably even worse.

Eren groaned in frustration. With anger seeping into his tone, he responded, “You know, that’s just like you, Levi. Always in one ear out the other. You’ve always been the same,”

“I know you’re not making this about me,” He responded, appalled that the other Scout would even take it there. “This is not my problem. I am not the issue here. You are.”

“Everyone, calm down!” Mikasa yelled breaking up the bickering.

#eren x levi #ereri fanfic #ereri #aot fanfiction #armin x eren #eremin #eremin fanfiction

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yourgamemasterthewhiterabbit · 5 months

Text

Idk who needs to hear this but uh... Criminals and organized crime aren't special back-woods exceptions of people out there who magically do not go online or have internet. I don't mean this in a "be wary" kind of way either. I intend it as general cultural and situational awareness.

Everyone currently getting away with massive fraud, running and making drugs, actual human trafficking, actual grave robbing and various high profile thefts, crimes against children, profiteering etc... are ALSO just some guy on the internet who's probably scrolling social media and seeing largely the same posts as you.

Same with many celebrities and rich people, btw...

I am starting to get the impression that the average internet user assumes these people exist in a fully separate world, so if I or anyone refers to these groups of people in a post in language that directly addresses them, it is assumed we are simply likening another group to them to be dramatic and make a strawman of them, instead of taking what we are saying the way it is meant, literally and at face value.

For example, if I go on a post by an Egyptologist, and agree with them about Egyptian curses, and then -for example- go on to say that anyone removing things from tombs disrespectfully or in a way that isn't meant to conserve culture [names and identities etc], ie; actual grave robbers, are the ones who have to worry about curses and should "put it back"... I do not know why the base assumption being made is that I am calling Egyptologists grave robbers, instead of say, addressing people actually taking artifacts from sites without proper clearance and cooperation from the relevant government and cultures. You know, actual grave robbers, who actually exist, are committing an actual crime, and do in fact use the internet and see posts because I don't think most criminals operating in international markets can afford to not be internet literate. You utter fucking tumbleweeds [and to such a degree I had to block about 100 people to get the anon bullshit out of my inbox].

The only reason I can come up with for this kind of misunderstanding happening on various topics, is to think the base assumption being made is that the groups I am actually referring to or turning to address directly for a moment, are being assumed to not actually exist or be present in order to be addressed... And that the person getting sensitive is also insecure about being lumped in with that group for some reason [possibly legitimate or not depending on the circumstances], to the point that their reading comprehension starts to fail.

I think it would help reading comprehension and social media literacy in general if more people were to understand that a certain percentage of a post or reply is phrased in a way that is also meant to be seen by the general public, and EVERYONE that public contains, including fringe individuals.

Similarly, even when you are replying to a friend over a topic, you are ALSO generally phrasing it as something that will be seen by a general audience, and specifically by other people who generally hold similar political views as them. Otherwise you'd just be DMing each other.

So taking every side note and incidental phrasing as if it is intended as a deeply personal accusation, attack or criticism, instead of something said to be really clear to a wider audience with a lot of potential viewpoints and sticking points... Is a little fucking weird.

When I am replying to someone in public, I am replying to them, but also generally for the benefit of the audience, unless it's very personal joking around, casual back and forth or said in notes and sometimes tags [before they became the accepted way to comment at all].

If I get into explaining weird caveats, it isn't because I assume THEY or OP needs me to, it is because SOMEONE in the audience, including said fringe or exceptional individuals, might benefit from the added information, or might be someone I am just taking the opening to address because a subject came up in a public place.

Every time I get into an argument online, it really seems like the other person is mad because they are taking absolutely everything I am saying as if it is personally directed at only them for only their benefit and just *happens* to be taking place in front of strangers.

And it is deeply weird to me that they view the interaction that way to begin with, when to me -dare I say to most- that is antithetical to sites like tumblr being a public forum instead of a network of DMs.

So I just wanted to check in, and make sure, that everyone actually realizes that EVERYONE in the general public, some representation of pretty much every group you can imagine, has access to the internet and uses it regularly as some random user. The internet is truly the MOST public and varied space you can imagine. You need to understand that a lot of people make and reply to posts as if their audience is potentially that general, because they ARE generally aware of this.

There are organ traffickers on your posts right now, there are government officials, there are people who have illegally bought or sold ivory or human bones, there are doctors, republicans, lawyers, people who just woke up and are on their 20th day of consecutive brain fog, mycology enthusiasts, sex workers, steel workers, school teachers and their worst nightmares, there might even be a cop or two, there are murders, house wives, and violent rapists, there are literal children and people ranging up to the human limits of age. There are geologists, people you went to school with and people from every other country in the world. There are people who buy and sell human fingernails. You probably shouldn't continue being this online if you cannot internalize that.

The internet can feel like a series of closed safe corners, but the thing is that the doors are perpetually open to everyone you can imagine. We are all of us tossed in together and arguing over pokemon types and whether or not some groups of humans are okay to dehumanize. When you address the room, you are addressing all of them. When you are addressing op or another user, you are also doing it at all of them. All of these people each get that post up on their dash and read it as intimately and often as personally as you do as if it was served up to them, because it was, it came up on their dash just like it came up on yours.

Hope that helps <3

#psa

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