#they're not prisoners after all

[beardedmrbean]

European Union members discussed on Wednesday ways to increase the voluntary return of Syrian refugees to the war-torn country, an idea that has gained traction in recent months but that remains controversial.

The talks among ambassadors were promoted by Hungary, the country currently chairing the EU Council's presidency, and were based on a document presented by the European Commission, several diplomats said.

The document stressed the role played by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in supporting the return of Syrian refugees, which the EU is looking to strengthen.

These returns would take place on a strictly voluntary basis. The bloc cannot forcibly deport Syrians because they are almost always granted asylum. Additionally, the principle of non-refoulement forbids authorities from deporting migrants to nations where they could face persecution, torture or any other form of ill-treatment.

Ambassadors also touched on the lack of diplomatic relations with the autocratic regime of Bashar al-Assad, who has publicly called on his citizens to return, and the fraught situation in the Middle East, where hostilities between Israel and Lebanon have triggered the movement of tens of thousands into Syria.

The start of the Syrian Civil War in 2011 prompted millions to flee their homes and seek international protection in nearby countries, with many crossing into Europe.

The UNCHR estimates that European countries host over one million Syrian asylum seekers and refugees, with 59% of them based in Germany alone. Sweden, Austria, Greece, the Netherlands and France also host significant populations.

Last year, about 38,300 Syrian refugees chose to go back, the agency said in an annual overview, noting the conditions inside the country "were not yet conducive for the facilitation of large-scale voluntary returns in safety and dignity."

Concerns over security, livelihoods, basic services and housing were cited as reasons for the low rate of repatriations. About 90% of people in Syria live in poverty.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has warned that "Syrians fleeing violence in Lebanon face risks of repression and persecution by the Syrian government upon return, including enforced disappearance, torture and death in detention."

A similar assessment is shared by the Commission, which has repeatedly said current circumstances in Syria cannot ensure safe and dignified repatriations.

Talks are expected to continue among member states in the coming months, with no immediate breakthrough in sight. However, the fact the discussion is happening at all signals a growing political willingness to address the controversial matter.

Earlier this month, EU leaders endorsed a hardened approach to migration management and tasked the Commission with exploring outsourcing projects and reviewing the concept of "safe third countries" to speed up deportations.

The summit in Brussels featured Syria as one of the items on the agenda. "The European Council reaffirms the need to achieve conditions for safe, voluntary and dignified returns of Syrian refugees, as defined by UNHCR," leaders said in their conclusions.

In July, Italy and Austria led a joint letter of eight member states asking for a new EU strategy on Syria that should be "more active, results-oriented, and operational."

The European External Action Service (EEAS), the bloc's diplomatic arm, has confirmed it is considering appointing a special envoy for Syria, one of Italy's key demands.

Since 2011, the EU and member states have allocated more than €30 billion in humanitarian and development aid to support Syrians in the country and the region.

[baalzebufo]

honestly the funniest gideon to me might be immediately post-show. where hes fresh out of jail on parole and trying to be a better person. my headcanon is they commuted his sentence to a mixture of therapy and community service (they uh. had no choice after the decision to both ignore weirdmageddon and also the prison got destroyed) and he accepted this in his attempt to Be Nicer

but also it means hes walking around town like this for a while

[rat-rosemary]

If any animal were to ask Dream he would say that he has no favorites.

I, however, God of this world, do, and Dream was raised by rabbit gods, so he does think and default to a rabbit on a lot of things

He calls Tommy and Wilbur weasels because of the weasel war dance and how they always seem to be able to get in close to bite him again

[lupins-hehim-pussy]

I wanna know ur Fontaine msq criticisms 👁️👁️👂I’m all ears

I'm not sure if you wanted me to talk about this secretly or publicly but! Here I go!

The TLDR: Fontaine MSQ aestheticised prison, poverty, child abuse, the justice system/court and didn't properly address any of it.

More:

Focalors/Furina has way too much of a sympathetic angle for a dictator who's lets people drown with her inaction.

Neuvillette feels Bad for sentencing some people to death/prison, but that's it. He's one of the most powerful people in Fontaine. If he felt like there are systemic injustices, I.E sending an abused Child to prison, he should be the first person to DO something about it, not just cry and be sad so the audience can be like aw, that's complex character writing isn't it? No it's not! And guilt doesn't absolve you!!!!!!! (These are stuff we deal with in OTCOJ read my fic now /j)

Meropide has children in it, both Sentenced there (Wriothesley) and BORN THERE (Lanoire), and this is just a quirk of the place. Not only that, Meropide accepts prisoners of all genders and crimes. There are abusers and abuse victims in one place. Do you know how bad that is? How much potential for crimes to happen in a place like that— oh wait, Meropide isn't under Fontaine's jurisdiction. If you are assaulted as an inmate it literally means nothing to the court.

Wriothesley had no qualifications when he took over. Depending on how long he lived on the streets, how old he was when he killed his parents, how old he was when he was first taken in by the orphanage, etc, the man might never have more than 4–5 years of formal education. Sigewinne probably had to teach him how to write reports. And do Meropide's spreadsheets. Edit because I forgot to elaborate on this one: This isn't a point brought up anywhere, which is bad, because when poverty and incarceration robs you of a proper education (and the rights to vote in many places too, too, by the way), it reduces your prospects for jobs, reduces many people's ability to get a home etc etc. Wriothesley was just, narratively, Given his position.

Meropide is an industrialized prison, and they portray this as a good thing. Prisoners are paid in coupons for their labour, and this is also portrayed as a good thing.

The One-Meal-A-Day reform was something Paimon gushed about being so great of a perk, that people might want to go to jail for food (could be interesting and reflective of systemic poverty if MHY had brains, but they don't, so I was just Pissed because essentially all Paimon wanted to say was "Prison isn't so bad, but still don't go to prison guys! Prison labour is really hard!"). By the way, in most real-world prisons they are obligated to feed you three meals a day. Because that's how much food a human needs. MHY went with one meal just so they can say "if you want to eat more, you have to work." And then the welfare meal is a goddamn gacha. So imagine you're a starving child who's too weak to work in the fucking robot assembly line, and you wander up for your first meal in 24 hours, only to luck in with a shit one. I'd kill myself.

They wrote Wriothesley, who's a victim of the system, into a guy who's say shit like "I'm the Duke I can do whatever I want" for a cool moment where he choke-slams an inmate (I know he was a bad guy. But also, in copaganda when cops are violent/disregarding protocols, they are always only portrayed to do that against bad guys, so what does our critical thinking tells us about this one?) They wrote Wriothesley, who was an inmate of a prison so bad, so notorious that it is the literal boogeyman of Fontaine, that has a legal (???) fighting pit, with an administrator who abuses his position to be unreasonable, to willingly stay in the place and become an Administrator who would choke-slam an inmate while saying a cool line about how he has the power to do whatever he wants. They wrote him, the guy who had to be fed on the streets by melusines, to think one-meal-a-day was a good enough reform (while he spends god-knows how much on his boat). This wasn't a victim-turns-into-abuser narrative either, they want all this to be seen as positive character growth.

And then, the final kicker is, they gloss over his entire abuse. You can only read about these shit in his profile, which most people don't because they don't Have Him or doesn't care to unlock it/read it online, and they jammed his entire backstory into a flaccid info-dump at the end of his character story quest. This man isn't Allowed to feel abused and neglected and show any reaction to it within the narrative of Fontaine itself, because if they actually Gave Weight to what happened to him, they'd have to confront THE FUCKING JUSTICE SYSTEM they had NO PLANS on criticising. I don't think they ever explicitly said the fucking Crime-Theatre nonsense was Bad either.

I could go on, but this is already so long. But yeah, I hope this gave you an idea.

[spitedriven]

i've been a touch hesitant to make this post buuuut--

i think most shipping with lucanis is best done post-veilguard. truth be told, he's not in the right headspace during the game to really entertain the idea of a romantic partner. it's not that he doesn't want romance, nor that he wouldn't grow romantically fond of someone, but he is literally fresh out of a year in prison, has a spirit inside him that wants to break free and do maker knows what in the world, and his grandmother essentially dies as soon as he gets back. not to mention y'know. the fucking main plot of the game.

the man is, rightfully, fully preoccupied.

on top of that, he's demi. he wants to take a romance slow. he wants to build trust and familiarity. he wants to know his partner deeply. additionally, he's not exactly living a peaceful life, nor will he ever leave the crows. best case, he's going back to the crows as first talon and maybe a peaceful transition. worst, it's going to be struggle and infighting and everyone jumping on top of each other in power grabs while others are weak. especially on house dellamorte. and the first talon's new lover will absolutely be a target. he needs to know that his lover can protect themselves when he's not there.

and, truthfully, he needs his partner to understand that they will come second to leading the crows. lucanis takes responsibility very seriously. becoming first talon, becoming head of house dellamorte, those are massive responsibilities that he will not fail at. it will take nearly all his time and focus. his lover will not be his first priority (a very close second, for sure, but not everyone wants to play second fiddle to a job). he wants to take it slow to give them outs. to let them understand how things will go. he can compromise, to a degree, but being first talon comes before everything else.

and of course, spite is part of the package deal. he cannot be with someone who is uncomfortable around spite, and after veilguard, someone who is mean or insensitive to spite. lucanis has his hands full negotiating life with spite, and his lover needs to help with it, to a degree. that's not to say they need to bear the brunt of the burden, but lucanis needs help keeping spite from wandering away or understanding how much time has passed since spite took over.

he's got a lot on his plate still, after veilguard, and this isn't even touching the family aspect of it all with caterina and illario. which is all to say--lucanis might develop feelings, even strong feelings, during veilguard, but there's a lot of other things on his mind as well, and he doesn't want his potential lover to have to put up with his mess. he wants to feel like he can pull an equal weight. he doesn't want to trauma dump or have someone play therapist. he wants to put himself in order. and that takes time he doesn't have in veilguard.

the biggest change i'll say is that his romance scene, the night before the final battle, is less about sex and more about hand holding and quiet conversation and promises that if they make it through this, he wants more.

[binch-i-might-be]

I'm still thinking about the straw hat crew being canonically teenagers because acquiring that knowledge fucked me up beyond repair. before Robin and then Franky joined the crew they were literally all like 17 to 19 and that should not be allowed methinks

[esteemed-excellency]

ok i'm almost done with the new firmament chapter, i have So Many thoughts 👀

[pushing500]

It is day 26.

Twenty. Six.

Immediately after the wedding, Vasso set off on a quest to find a persona monosword named Fracturedivine (a very cool name) with our newly purchased donkey, Shamrock. He was getting antsy about not travelling because of his wanderlust trait, and I thought a persona monosword was as good a reason as any to go on an adventure.

It looks like the newlyweds will have to wait a while for their honeymoon.

As Vasso was travelling, Blackdragon and Duchess (who have known each other for a grand total of four days) decided to get engaged. Nobody on this planet knows how to take things slow.

I also imagine Socks is extremely frustrated having to share a cell with these ridiculous lovebirds.

Vasso arrived, got ambushed by a lone naked woman wielding a shiv, killed her with a headshot, and left again with Fracturedivine. I don't think I'll have anyone bond with it yet, as nobody in this colony is particularly good at melee, so perhaps we'll wait until we recruit someone more suited to such a weapon.

Also, I got this screenshot of Vasso pouting and being irate in this whimsical forest of giant flowers and thought it was funny/cute enough to share. Maybe he has hay fever, and that's why he's so grumpy. <3

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[firestorm09890]

accidentally made myself angry thinking about The Stranger just now but idk how to explain what I'm thinking about

[dnalt-d2]

Alright I have one more thing to say about this event (Though I'll admit now it's partly just me stating the obvious)

So as far as I remember, this Prison event was supposed to be four days, right?

Yet on the itinerary, it only has three days (ENDING IN PLAYER CRUCIFIXION??????)

This could mean one of two things

(One is a miscommunication/translation error, in which case, whoopsie and whatnot. I don't speak Spanish after all, which makes me rely on all the Spanish speakers for translations regarding events that Quackity announces)

But the other is that whatever happens on the third day is gonna be huge

So huge, that it will in fact carry over to the next day, and basically be a kind of fourth day for the event

And considering that Quackity keeps saying that this is about to be a new era for the QSMP, and keeps INSISTING it isn't clickbait, that seems like it's becoming more and more likely

Especially with that calendar we saw, with most of the week crossed out in Yellow

Something REALLY BIG is about to happen on the QSMP, and I can't wait to see what it is

(Okay so I just thought of this right before I hit post, but what if the Eggs are about to hatch?? Like I LITERALLY just thought about this, I was gonna put it in the tags, but what if?? It might explain why the Egfs are suddenly shifting back to the old type of tasks. It's been a REALLY long time since that was brought up. And that's JUST the thing that would cause a straight-up Era Shift that Quackity keeps implying. Maybe at the very least the Dragon shows up? Or at least gets brought up. Idk this is obviously just speculation, but wouldn't that be cool???)

[imminent-danger-came]

CAN YOU BELIEVE CALLUM AND RAYLA WEREN'T WITH EZRAN, SOREN, ZYM, AND CORVUS IN THAT CLIP

[19catsncounting]

Hey does anyone still think about the thematic differences between Supernatural and the Wayward Sisters and how self-isolating male hunters are compared to community-building female hunters and how this was shown from the Harvelles to even arguably Missouri Mosely and even Samuel Campbell who is his daughter's father almost more than a man himself (especially in Season 6) is not immune to this?

And how the Wayward Sisters could have been built not on sacrificing yourself to this singular all-consuming relationship with your brother and sacrificing yourself for the world second or in name only, but instead on what it takes to cut yourself into useful and digestible pieces for the sake of keeping your place in that community because you're almost certain that it's This Community or Solitude Forever (Alex you can never escape the life no matter how much you don't want it you've gotta pitch in do you want your family to die on this hunt Claire you know you'll never find anyone to love you unless you make yourself softer and then are they really loving you are you even worthy of love anymore Jody your husband and son would still be alive if you listened and learned you can't lose another child in every sense you can't quite let your children be defenseless children either and you know so well how sick this fear makes you and how you're dealing with it the wrong way your son got to be a child but your daughters can't be that vulnerable Even Donna you have Your Role to play here you're not good enough as a hunter but you're funny and happy and you don't take up that much space so that's exactly how much space you're given to exist in).

And yes, a lot of these things are echoes of Kripke Supernatural but instead of too-intimate and dark and quiet confessions that the Winchesters share and know that no one else could ever have the context to fully understand it's Community it's All Our Problems the humiliation and shame is all-encompassing because there is no privacy Everyone Sees You Everyone Knows You Everyone Wants To Fix Help You.

[imaginarianisms]

more asoiaf comparisons, parallels & antiparallels to the first dance of the dragons vs the second & final dance of the dragons (& possibly the sixth blackfyre rebellion): the blacks being daenerys i targaryen's supporters, the golds being aegon vi targaryen's supporters, tommen baratheon being a close equivalent to gaemon palehair & his mother essie & sylvenna sand which may be interpreted as a parallel with queen cersei lannister & taena merryweather of myr, trystane truefyre being a close equivalent to aegon/young griff & perkin being jon connington & the shepherd being the new high septon the high sparrow, dalton greyjoy being euron i greyjoy's ancestor & the latter surpassing him, alyn waters later alyn velaryon resembling aurane waters later aurane velaryon & finishing what their ancestors started. history repeats itself.

[oh-meow-swirls]

was looking through old posts and i'm surprised to see that i seemingly didn't have any commentary on anything in 3 in chapter 7, 8 or 9, the posts related to 3's story go from "my first reaction when i saw yopple-bot was 'i love you. but also you are definitely the boss for this chapter-'" to "i have been in hell all day. hell being bada-bing tower." funny to me cuz those chapters are like, the best ones sdfkljsdfjfsdkjlfsdjkl-

[rivilu]

ok you know. the Ellu in dav crossover au is very fun but i am a little bit enchanted by the concept of him AND Rynn at once. Best of both worlds in a sense.

[umbracirrus]

Ok but, Edwyn, the lovesick idiot that he is, attempts to bring Ingja back from the dead. He hoped to return back to Chorrol, with his wife back in his arms, to give Elyse her mother back, but he fucked up. He fucked up bad. He's a brilliant conjurer, and though conjuration has ties to necromancy, he's absolutely terrible at that. He causes major damage as his attempts at spells backfire, people get hurt in the process. He spends a good few years in prison as a result. He kept trying to get in contact with Elyse, to let her know that he fucked up, but his letters never get sent - and when he asks why they haven't, the guards simply shrug him off.

When he is finally released from prison? The only thing he cares about is finding Elyse. He had been so focused on Ingja's death, he had neglected his living daughter who had been grieving just as he had been, and that is what he had quickly realised after being locked up. But when he gets back to Chorrol, there are strangers in his home. Strangers who had lived there for years. All he hears is that Elyse had to sell up, move to Skyrim. So he takes off after her.

And he is so damn confused when he realises that a lot of people in Skyrim seemed to know of Elyse. That she is in Whiterun. He could find her in a place called Dragonsreach. So he goes there.

The first person he speaks to there, of anyone, is Balgruuf. His son-in-law, though he doesn't realise it at the time. He tells him that he's looking for his daughter, and almost gets told to speak to the guards until Balgruuf gets a better look at him - a frazzled and tired and panicked-looking Breton who looked remarkably similar to his wife. And in that exact same moment - a horrified gasp and a quiet whisper of "Dad...?" comes from Elyse, who had just emerged from elsewhere in the palace.

She wasn't happy to see him. And that was like a blade in his heart. His little girl, who he had taught magic to and would listen to him read with eyes filled with curiosity and awe, looked to be in pain in his mere presence. She looked to have seen a ghost. To her, he was a ghost.

So he has no choice but to give her some space. But he lets her know that he isn't going to disappear as he had done again. Unless she wanted him to. He could live with knowing that she was alive, that she had found a place for herself in the world where she felt safe and happy.

He'd dug his metaphorical grave. And he was more than willing to lay in it.