#they've suffered enough loss as it is

[eremin0109]

Gosh, look at these two old men pretending that they're NOT so full of love and sadness for the people that they lost along the way.

karaoke makes me sad sometimes

[guldaastan]

i've recently noticed a pattern that i'm not sure that i like. we have hundreds of fundraisers circulating on this site. many of them go without donations for days/weeks. if any fundraiser receives donations, its because the posts stand out/ something very tragic has happened to someone in the family.

for example, the nineteen year old, Shaban Al-Dalou, who was burnt alive a few days ago had a fundraiser. the family only reached their goal after losing that poor boy. i cannot understand why couldn't we have helped him before? i dont know how the family will cope with his loss.

so ask yourself, is genocide not a simple enough reason to donate? or do you need the family to be hit with a tragedy to even consider donating? everyone, i mean EVERYONE in gaza has experienced unimaginable loss and pain and destruction. they've lost their homes, livlihood, friends and family.

humanity has existed for so long because we care. we love each other and are hurt to see others' suffering.

you don't have to wait for tragedy to strike someone to donate. they are going through starvation, forced displacement, and mass murder. please care about this.

do not decrease the meaning of the word genocide. it breaks my heart to see the suffering of the people of gaza at the hands of their colonizers.

I've just got one thing left to say, save my friend mahmoud and his family. they deserve to live just like everyone. help him secure a better future for his family.

donate here || vetted by @gazafunds

[ @mahmoudjumaa1238 ]

[phantomposting]

Ayo it's time for another half asleep sleep deprived prompt rant let's gooooo! Please excuse any typos or grammar errors I haven't slept more than 2hrs in the past 24hrs and I'm suffering from a hard-core bout of insomnia and a accidentally burned myself. But anyways let's get into the rant starting with trigger warnings!

TW: BLOOD, VOMIT, SICKNESS, FOOD INSECURITY, ABUSE

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

So I have been absolutely obsessed with blood blossoms used in angst fics since I first joined the fandom. I also see them as a great way to make a fun sickfic or a amazing tool for darker fics to use to trap or harm our favorite boyo. I read.the most amazing blood blossom poisoning fic recently tho and it absolutely gave me the brain itch again to theorize more about blood blossom aus!

So in this au Tim Drake and Danny are dating they've been doing well for the most part but when Tim asks to meet Danny's parent's he's super avoident of it. It's been making Tim feel as if Danny doesn't see this as a serious relationship that or he's hiding something and Tim needs to figure out what.

Danny of course as Vlad's godson is the heir to his company even tho he definitely doesn't want it. Atleast getting dragged into rich people shenanigans led to Danny meeting his boyfriend whom he is absolutely head over heels for.

Tim keeps asking to meet his parents but Danny doesn't want them to ruin things. They don't even know how old he is anymore for Ancients sake. They've acted like he isn't even there since Jazz went to college Danny's had to fend for himself and them essentially turning into a bit of a parent/guardian for them. Paying bills, making sure they eat, ect. But he can only do so much and between it all he doesn't get much time or enough money to eat as often as he should. It's a real mess. He definitely doesn't want Tim seeing that and worrying either so he keeps coming up with excuses to make sure the Fenton parents never meet him or his family.

Vlad is super upset with Danny for getting so close with his biggest competition. He continously demands the boy behave and to dump that leech before he swipes all of Vlad's hard work from right under his nose. Danny could absolutely care less. The boy is really getting on Vlad's final nerve being his sweet Madeline's kid means nothing if he's just going to act like another Jack. The world absolutely needs no more Jack's in it.

Finally cutting his losses with this kid Vlad devises a plan to once and for all get rid of the little brat. He will take blood blossom extract and poison the useless heir of his at the next gala.

The ingredient tho extremely rare can be common for the super wealthy. It's always been quite the nuisance for him but now there's finally a perk to that damn flower. None will be the wiser the death will be ruled as either an allergic reaction to a rare ingredient the child had never encountered enough to know of or they'll learn of Daniel's ghost side and not anyone will care thinking a ghost had taken the poor kids place.

Vlad will get pity among his peers and possibly finally gain the chance to overshadow the Wayne's and finally take them out of the game once and for all. Maddie will blame Jack for such a accident vlad will be sure to make it so. With nothing left to hold her back and a newly loveless marriage she will finally turn to him they'll create a new family with the perfect son and nothing will stop him from living his happily ever after. It was the perfect plan in Vlad's mind.

So the next Gala comes around. Danny and Tim have a big and accidentally rather public argument about Danny's parent's and this leads Danny to storm off alone to try and cool off. This ends up being the perfect time for Vlad to corner the boy.

He gives Danny an ultimatum dump Tim and join him or else. Danny refuses. " oh nieve little badger... you really should have taken me up on the offer." He shakes his head as he pins the boy to the wall by the collar of his shirt and injects him with the poison.

Soon Danny is left alone curled in a writhing ball of pain upon the floor as the blood blossoms burn at his insides ripping him apart from inside to out. A silent ball of agony as he doesn't know what to do. He can't risk anyone finding out about his ghostly side not even Tim. He can't access his powers. He can't escape. All feels hopeless and he feels doomed to fade here.

Meanwhile Tim begins to get worried usually Danny takes a bit of time but he always comes back pretty quickly then both apologize for the argument and move on. Tim's definitely feeling pretty guilty for this one pushing him so hard. He just wants this relationship to be as normal as it can be. For once in his life he's having a pretty average civilian life and weirdly enough he's thriving with it. He understands tho that some people aren't on good terms with their parents but Danny always only ever really says nice things about his parents and its starting to make Tim feel like he's just not good enough to meet them.

But either way Tim begins to worry he drove Danny off so he goes to look for him to apologize for pushing him so hard. He wasn't really expecting to find Danny in a secluded room all alone curled up against a wall looking smaller than he's ever looked before. Almost looking as if he were hiding tears. It honestly broke Tim's heart to see him like this. Tim definitely wasn't expecting that when he started to apologize that Danny would look up at him with way too much blood to be okay dripping from his nose.

Danny was bleeding quite a bit. His eyes were unfocused and Lazarus green and absolutely filled with fear. Tears dripped down his far too pale cheeks as he tried to focus on Tim. His breathing was harsh and heavy and clearly pained. He looked as if he were in agony.

This immediately sends Tim into panic mode. Wtf happened while he was gone? How did he get into contact with Lazarus water?? Is his boyfriend dying??? Tim starts going into hero mode trying to figure out how to help Danny. They make a quick stealthy escape of the gala and Danny refuses a hospital trip. Tim won't push too hard cause clearly Lazarus water is somewhere in the mix.

So they go to the only person Tim can think of. Doctor Leslie! There's a lot of panic from everyone and delirious rambling from Danny until eventually they finally figure out he's been poisoned. Somehow miraculously they manage to cure said poison and save Tim's boyfriend.

Or so they think turns out they only really slow/pause the blood blossoms effects. Danny has extensive physical damage from the blood blossoms eating away at everything and Tim thinks Danny was poisoned with Lazarus water. He makes Danny stay with him in his apartment for awhile to monitor him and his condition and keep his eye out for the one that poisoned him and keep him safe.

Vlad makes a huge stink about Danny going missing leading to some big search for the missing heir. Its all a huge mess!

Slowly over time this sickfic with tons of sweet fluff moments and stuff would reveal why Danny isn't keen on introducing his parents to Tim. Tim would learn Danny's parent's are super neglectful and possibly downright evil judging by all the scars his poor boyfriend is left with. Not to mention he's far too thin! Thinner than Tim expected cause with his clothes on sure he looks rather slim but you would never guess the poor guynwas just skin and bone. Its deeply worrying.

There would be lots of moments where Danny is avoident on details and it only makes Tim's detective brain itch more for answers. Slowly but surely they learn aswell that Danny's body is never going to fully work the same either. Over time they even realize it's very Slowly worsening making them discover the blood blossom isn't fully cured.

Then comes the big search for a cure and Tim going full mama bird for his bf! We also get a slow ghost reveal, giw reveal, and reveal that Vlad's evil and Tim is absolutely going to rip that man apart for doing this to his poor boyfriend.

There's absolutely tons th8s fic could cover and it's absolutely dealer's choice on what and how they would want to cover it! I would absolutely go feral to see this prompt used :D you could even get into some league of assassin's chaos or giw chaos with everything else going on! The possibilities are endless :D

[alltimefail]

Okay so I have more thoughts on Dead Boy Detectives but this is less about scene analysis and more about my own personal interpretation of Charles as I truly believe Charles' inability to fully "reciprocate" Edwin's feelings is less about accepting his sexuality/lack of awareness about his sexuality and more about feeling unworthy of being on the receiving end of Edwin's love (and about bad timing - them being in an afterlife or eternal suffering situation on the literal stairs of hell, but I digress lol). This would explain, pretty seamlessly, why he seems to seek out fleeting or "fun" romances and flirtations. It would also explain why, immediately following the confession, there are micro-changes, blink-and-you'll-miss-it differences in Charles' behaviors and expressions. It's clear that our boy is reflecting, and he meant it when he said he intended to "figure out what the rest means..." even if it takes him forever (and I doubt it will, but again... I digress). This is why calling his reassurances to Edwin on the staircase a "rejection" and putting Charles in a box as default-straight is a complete disservice to his character, to the writers, to the queer brilliance that rings beautifully in every facet of this show, and to Jayden Revri who is an exceptional actor with a palpable, deep love and reverence for the character he's portraying.

As a repressed PTSD bisexual™️ myself, I can't help but connect Charles' history with abuse alongside his poor perception of self, people-pleasing tendencies, and his quickness to stifle and repress his own feelings and desires to his fear of being a "bad person." It would not surprise me if Charles would fear the possibility that he is capable of taking something fragile, beautiful, raw, and vulnerable (Edwin's love) and destroy it in the way his father did.

Charles has always loved fully and without caution; I would even say he loves recklessly at times, throwing himself in front of danger, even to his own detriment. But has anyone fully loved him back in the way he loves? Charles has always loved Edwin, but did he ever allow himself to humor the idea that Edwin might just love him back?

It's evident that Charles had very little kindness in his life. Charles' friends were conditional at best and violent/abusive at their worst, his father was a monster, and his mother (who, in all fairness, was also a victim of abuse) was quiet and complicit in the abuse Charles received from his father. His entire afterlife is intrinsically connected to Edwin's - his entire existence, and Edwin's entire existence, are so closely entwined to one another that to "screw up" the delicate balance they've struck would be more than unfortunate - it would be earth-shattering, a loss like no other. Charles is impulsive, but he is not careless...quite the opposite, actually. I truly think whether or not he's attracted to men is not the issue; it wouldn't surprise me if, at the very least, Charles is aware he is attracted to people regardless of gender and just doesn't have the language to put a label to that sensation yet (he might have never been compelled to put a label on it, frankly). The issue is that Charles is unsure if he is deserving of someone not just loving him, but being in love with him... especially when it's coming from someone he thinks is the best person in the world, the most important person to him, the only person he would deny heavy and defy hell for.

Honestly Charles might even already know he has feelings toward Edwin specifically that are not strictly platonic, but taking that gamble even though he struggles with feelings such as being undeserving of Edwin; that he would be selfish to take a love he's undeserving of; that Edwin might come to realize, at some point, that he was mistaken in loving Charles and that being with Charles isn't actually enough/what he hoped it would be and he regrets his confession all together. Or, perhaps worst of all, what if Charles finds that the nagging fear he's buried deep down was correct all along... that he actually is like his father and capable of hurting Edwin and bastardizing the concept of love as a whole?

There are stakes when it comes to loving Edwin - if he were to screw up what they have, the consequences would be disastrous, it very well might destroy him. He cannot be careless, he cannot be impulsive, he cannot risk destroying what he and Edwin have. I'm not sure Charles has ever not loved Edwin, but he probably never humored that his Edwin: touch-reserved, buttoned-up, logical, stubborn, beautiful, kind Edwin who brought a warm light to Charles in his darkest moment, could feel that way, too... especially about him. What is he to do with that?

[mysterialistic]

I have an issue with the fact that Qiao Ling and Xiao Li are dead too. (Long ramble)

For me, this undermines Lu Guang's complexity and motivation. Why? Because they're portraying him as some kind of hero—the great "last hope."

For over a year since the Season 2 finale, we've believed the opposite about Lu Guang. We saw him as hypocritical and deceitful because he was trying to change the past and break a death node—a rule he established and even scolded Cheng Xiaoshi for disobeying. At the end of Season 2, Lu Guang says, "I want to use the last chance to go back to the beginning and save YOU." For so long, it’s been clear that he only cared about saving Cheng Xiaoshi. They've repeatedly emphasized and convinced us through songs and promotional material of this: that his sole focus was Cheng Xiaoshi, and no one else mattered to him.

The fact that Lu Guang prioritized saving Cheng Xiaoshi, despite the potential consequences for others (like the theory that avoiding Cheng Xiaoshi's tragic fate caused the deaths of Li Tianxi, Chen Bin, and Emma), is what made Lu Guang a great character. He wasn’t a typical hero—he was human. He was afraid of loss and suffering, of living without his best friend. This fear consumed him to the point where he never even allowed himself to grieve. Cheng Xiaoshi brought meaning and color to his life, and Lu Guang deemed him the only one worthy of saving because of his good intentions and kind heart.

If they now include Qiao Ling and Xiao Li among those Lu Guang wants to save, it completely changes the essence of his character. It takes away the personal, deeply human motivation that made him so complex and relatable. We could relate to him because, if we were in his position, with the power of going back in time after tragically loosing a loved one, many of us would do the same or at least consider it. And now, instead of Lu Guang being driven by personal loss and denial, he becomes a stereotypical hero trying to save everyone. It’s an absolute cliché that even goes against the main principle of the series back in season 1: "past or future let them be".

Maybe Qiao Ling being dead could make sense, since she’s close to him, but even that feels off. Lu Guang has never shown a strong desire to save her specifically. Besides, it doesn’t align with what we’ve seen: in Lu Guang’s memory, Qiao Ling didn’t see herself die like Cheng Xiaoshi did. Killing her off would also strip away an interesting aspect of her character—her determination to protect her younger brother. In Season 3, she could confront Lu Guang about his actions and actively try to help him. If she’s meant to die too, it reduces her to a damsel in distress, reinforcing the unfortunate tendency of Link Click to mishandle its female characters.

As for Xiao Li, his inclusion feels completely random. He wasn’t close enough to Lu Guang to justify being a major motivation for him. If anything, he would be at the very bottom of Lu Guang’s list of priorities.

Anyway, I’m sorry for the long ramble—I just needed to get this off my chest. I still hope this might be a red herring and that they’re not actually dead yet. Or perhaps they died in the first timeline, but Lu Guang managed to save them while still being unable to save Cheng Xiaoshi, no matter how hard he tried. I don’t know. I’ll trust Link Click and wait to see how they justify or resolve this in a way that makes sense and preserves the characters’ essence.

[howtofightwrite]

Since adrenaline makes it easier to ignore pain, I’m wondering how severe an injury can be before adrenaline isn’t enough to allow a person to keep fighting

Fatal.

The scary thing about adrenaline is that you can suffer a mortal wound and not realize it until you drop dead. If you've ever seen the, “humans are space orcs,” meme, adrenaline is a big part of that. If you don't finish someone off, they are still a potential threat until they are clinically dead.

While it may seem slightly comical, the image of someone literally checking themselves for holes after being shot at is a real practice with genuine purpose. If they had an adrenaline rush, they might not be able to tell that they've been hit, and will need to physically examine themselves to ensure they're not bleeding to death without realizing it. (And, yes, that can absolutely happen.)

As a general rule, anything that will immediately kill someone, such as decapitation or catastrophic head trauma, will stop someone through an adrenaline rush. Destruction of the skeletal structure, (which is to say, destroying joints), might not completely stop them, but it's an injury they won't be able to power through (even if they aren't immediately aware of it.)

It's a little worse than I'm making it sound, too, because you can suffer non-fatal injuries during an adrenaline rush, and then aggravate the wound to the point that it becomes life threatening (or life-altering.) An adrenaline rush can, potentially, persist for over an hour.

In most cases, the adrenaline rush will drop off within a few minutes of the threat passing, though the state of threat is assessed by your brain, so your psychological state heavily affects that. Meaning, if you feel threatened, even if the actual danger has passed, the rush could continue (though it will usually drop off after, roughly, an hour.)

The “good” news is that an adrenaline rush will not prevent you from bleeding to death. So, if someone has been shot multiple times and is bleeding out, they'll still lose consciousness. You just need to make sure that they're actually incapacitated. Not that it matters, but as a minor up-side, adrenaline is delivered via the circulatory system, meaning if you start seriously bleeding, that's your adrenaline rush going with it, so the rush is likely to drop off prematurely in the event of fatal blood loss.

I'm not completely sure what the subjective experience is there. Catastrophic blood loss during an adrenaline rush is not something I have personal experience with, and my experiences with bleeding while dealing with an adrenaline rush is more just that bleeding is an extremely annoying inconvenience, when you don't need to consider what's happening. (To be clear, that's not just a glib dismissal, being aware of bleed was actually annoying. It might sound hilarious to be pissed off at your own blood leaking down the side of your face, but that was my experience. Also, for the record, I did not feel the gash that I was bleeding from, and angrily rubbed it a few times before realizing I'd been injured.)

The short answer to your question, “how much severely do you need to injure someone through an adrenaline rush?” You need to kill them.

That said, killing them is absolutely not your only option. Less than lethal devices, such as tasers or chemical sprays, can absolutely incapacitate someone under an adrenaline rush, without severely harming them. Similarly, restraints, and other submission techniques can be used to hold them down. In the case of restraints and submission holds, there is a danger of the individual injuring themselves, while they try to work their way out of the hold, but that risk is still vastly preferable to killing them on the spot.

Adrenaline is a very potent survival tool, in your physiology, and if you try to simply overpower that tool through direct force, it will lead to catastrophic consequences. However, alternative methods (in particular, shorting out someone's nervous system with a direct electrical charge, or simply interfering with the mechanical structure of their joints, can be just as effective at stopping them with far less dire consequences.

-Starke

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[delusionalbitchinthehouse]

I am so sorry for this, I don't know what happened to me but once again, here I am writting angst instead of happily pretending everyone is alive and happy.

Alpha is a hard ghoul to scare.

He's ancient- not as old as Omega, Zephyr or Earth, but definitely older than most of the newer ghouls. He's seen things, in the pit and topside, beyond horrific, has blood on his hands, and is intimately familiar with its coppery taste.

And yet, as he holds a gasping Omega against his chest, Alpha has never been more terrified in his entire life.

Omega, sturdy, reliable Omega, unshakeable Omega, is falling appart in Alpha's arms, and there's nothing the fire ghoul can do.

Nothing but hold him tight and pray his suffering will end. In his despair, Alpha curses how human they've become, after spending so much time amongst them. Human enough to feel much more than a ghoul should. Human enough to get attatched, to fall in love. Oh, how Alpha curses love.

Omega is sobbing, gut-wreching cries that echo in his bedroom, clinging to Alpha like letting go would kill them both. It takes a while for the fire ghoul to realize the litany of broken noises escaping Omega's mouth are actually words.

I can't, I can't, I can't.

Alpha doesn't need to ask what Omega means. Omega cannot fanthom a world without Terzo. Cannot imagine his life without the one bright star that so thoroughly changed it. Cannot bear the agony of loss and grief. And Alpha is torn between terror and rage. Because he cannot help.

He grieves, too, of course he does. Terzo is- was his friend, Primo his first Papa and a man he highly respected, and Secondo...Alpha would rather not think about the man's rare raspy laugh right now. Something about the taste of missed opportunities isn't very appealing at the moment.

Alpha grieves, too, but he doesn't know what having someone who had weaved their way into his very soul torn away from him feels like. So he tightens his helpless arms around Omega, and prays that there will be something left of the quint's shattered heart.

So yes, Alpha, tough, I've-seen-much-worse Alpha, is trembling in terror as he witnesses the strongest ghoul he ever knew getting torn from the inside out by love's ugly twin, grief.

[lovelyyandereaddictionpoint]

TWST boys with a Diana! Reader?

The reader's a really and I mean REALLY popular and a captivating woman from Siodonna, many rumours were spreading of a beauty from Siodonna yet the TWST boys decided to ignore the rumours, taking them as only bluffs until they met the reader performing in the streets for the poor children. The boys quickly fell head over heels for they're kind nature, and alluring looks. The way those crystal like (Colour) eyes gaze into theirs sending their hearts pounding again their chest. Being lucky enough to marry the woman of their dreams was a big accomplishment but they're happiness was short lived when they found out the risk of the reader dying during childbirth, the TWST boys being selfish asked her to choose them over the child yet the reader didn't have the heart to do so and decided to give her life for the child, only doing as much as witnessing how they're child grew as a wandering spirit and visiting them in their dreams to interact with they're child. How would the guys react when their child(or children) mentioning they're mother's name when they've actually never met or heard of her?? <3

- M. Draconia ; V. Schoenheit ; R. Rosehearts ; L. Kingscholar ; I. Shroud ; L. Vanrouge

"I'm sorry for not choosing you, but I couldn't bare giving it up ( sacrificing an innocent life) either..."

- (Name)

SORRY IT'S BAD, I'M RUSHING THIS 😭😭

Mentioning Your Name | Yandere Twisted Wonderland

Its an average day your child casually mentions some advice you gave. It takes them off guard and the problem with lovers as in love as they are suffering from your loss–this can be received very differently:

Malleus Draconia 

“What did you say?”

“I said (Y/n) told me I should try harder to talk to you because your socially immature.”

“....when…when did they say this?”

“In my dream last night, I asked how I was supposed to get you to smile at me and they told me to be ins-st-i-dent?”

He remembers what you said to comfort him before the birth

And honestly if it hadn’t been for that and this child having your smile

He would’ve smited him long ago

But to hear that you’re still here in some capacity

He smiles more 

Speaking into the quiet of the room 

Practically serenading your lingering spirit

“Thats…just like them…”

Vil Schoenheit 

“Wearing those two patterns is a travesty, we won’t be doing plaid with polka-dots–”

“Noooo! B-but I said I would!”

“...To who?”

“To (Y/n) of course I was telling them all about how I’d wear them-”

“Wait wait what did you say?”

He doesn’t believe that you’re meeting in their dreams

Its more than likely one of his close friends slipped up while babysitting

And now they’ve taken the name of their mother for some imaginary friend

Needless to say he’ll get to the bottom of this

Even if it takes a forceful kind of truth serum

“(Y/n)...my half is dead…so whoever they’re speaking to is something else.”

Riddle Rosehearts

“My RULE IS ABSOLUTE TO YOUR ROOM!” 

“(Y/n) would hate you so much!?”

“H-how do y-you–!”

“They said I should be free! That I should be allowed to play with others!”

“Where?! Where did you hear that?!”

He thought that he wouldn’t need to be hurt again

But here you were showing up in your child’s dreams 

But since you’ve left him…what do you words mean now

“You’re not appearing to me and you aren’t here to parent…therefore you’re words barely scrape the height of a suggestion.”

Leona Kingscholar 

“(Y/n) doesn’t think I’m weak!”

“WHAT?!”

“THEY said I’m plenty strong and that you don’t know everything!”

He’ll continue to lock the child away 

Scratching at his post some interloper as he thinks about what his child has said 

“Even across the grave you’re fighting me…can’t do much from where I’m at now can I?”

Idia Shroud 

“Papa I made my own drone…”

“Mmmm.”

“Uhm and uh (Y/n) says that you should maybe look at me when I show you mystuff so…”

“...”

Is floored

Since your departure he’s been torn with hating this child and eliminating anyone who interacts with them

So consumed with grief he shuts himself in his workshop and watches his child relentlessly

He knows them well in fact he’s sure he loves them 

but he can’t stand to speak to them without wanting to cry

So this is all the more painful to him and in his desire to reach out he might end up inventing something meant to capture your wandering spirit

“Just you wait (Y/n), I’ll have you soon.”

Lilia Vanrouge

“Just trust Papa on this you stay inside, my little bat.”

“(Y/n) says you should let me outside more.”

“Oh yeah they really–said…that?”

“Yeah! And that you need to properly comb out my hair you can’t leave it a tangled mess.”

“Hahaha yeah.”

He believes in ghosts, well he knows they exist

So he believes thats what that is about 

And if thats the case than maybe if he suggests somethings for your kid to recite

Maybe he can still reach out to you

“Hey! Hey! Maybe the next time you see them can you tell her how much Daddy loves her?”

[rei-ismyname]

Let's talk R-LDS

R-LDS or Resurrection-Linked Degenerative Sickness was alluded to in X-Men #4 and the Infinity Comics before being named in X-Men #7. We're told that Magneto has it and it's directly caused by Krakoan resurrection/The Five, kinda.

Here's Beast doing some alluding.

In the panels above, we learn that Hank McCoy is the only one working on the problem - the problem being Magneto's loss of his powers and his body breaking down rapidly - his very chromosomes unraveling. He seems quite sure that it could happen to 'any of us' though the lack of quarantine suggests it's not contagious.

The next bit of information we receive is from Magneto and Scott in conversation, reflecting on The Iron Night. They took down a wild sentinel that was attacking the town and Mags lost control over his powers immediately after, requiring Scott to knock him out for safety's sake. Scott is no scientist, and while Magneto is a genius polymath autodidact (with plenty of experience in genetics) it's not a character trait that's seen focus lately. Thus, I'm assuming they're discussing it as amateurs and as patient zero in Magneto's case.

Magneto confidently names the condition for the first time as well as using an acronym for it, suggesting it's confirmed to exist, he's had a positive diagnosis, and they're using the term enough to require shorthand. He even spells out the subtext for us - it was a hidden flaw in Krakoan resurrection. I'll come back to that notion. Scott says 'we don't know that for sure,' implying that R-LDS is just a theory or speculation, which Mags doesn't directly refute. Instead he lays out the worst case scenario. They can't both be right here, so what's the deal? Magneto's symptoms are obviously confirmed, but how did they get from there to here?

If Magneto is the first and only person affected by his condition, why are he and Beast so sure about its providence and everyone being in danger? How could they possibly link it to Krakoan resurrection? I'm no scientist but I do know that there's only so much you can conclude from a single data point. Magneto was indeed only resurrected by the Five once, but he died again after that on Arakko (X-Men Red #7). The body he's in came out of a portal from Overspace in Adam Brashear's underwater base (Resurrection of Magneto #3.) His body suffering a condition borne of something that happened to a different body doesn't make sense. Considering he's the only person to return to life that way AND the only one allegedly with R-LDS, that would be the place to start for Beast's sciencing.

There he is, good as new.

Word of God

In a recent AIPT interview, Tom Brevoort removed any ambiguity and just straight up confirmed it. With the caveat that his recent X-history knowledge seems pretty poor, he is the de jure ultimate authority on the matter. I don't agree with that, and not just because I don't respect him as a creator. This habit of on-panel ambiguity and editorialising in interviews is vexing.

It's especially vexing when he contradicts himself. He counterpoints his own information with some of what I just pointed out, but the fact that they've made a list of who was and wasn't resurrected suggests R-LDS is a plot point they're committed to. I have to wonder why he bothered giving a detailed answer to this question if it's 'yes,' then 'maybe', then 'it will definitely be a thing you'll see as we progress.' Saying all of that and then ending with 'we know very little so far' really makes me wonder what he's thinking. Tom Brevoort could have given his usual cagey answer about not wanting to spoil anything, but he didn't here. I'm saving most of my Brevoort-specific criticism for a separate piece, but this glib and irreverent tone is typical of his commentary - even managing a light jab at Jordan D White.

Frankly, I think it's a graceless and cynical development. There are so many character beats, mistakes, and conflicts to use from the First Krakoan Age that choosing to create R-LDS feels like a shot at the core of hopefulness and creativity that blew our socks off in 2019.

HoxPoX

House of X/Powers of X was hopeful and magical. After a decade plus of endless misery and genocides, dull stories and bizarre characterisation, for once mutants got a W. The ability to use mutants working together to right the horrendous wrongs they'd suffered was central to that - the power of community and cooperation. What they built wasn't perfect but The Five was something they got right.

What would possess someone to take the cornerstone of the greatest X-Men story of all time (don't @ me) and try to tear it down? Remember, when the dust settled we ended up in Moira X life 10E. In 10A, the original Krakoan experiment, the mutants won! They thrived and protected what was theirs against Dominions. It took a literal apex AI God existing outside of space and time directly opposing them to fail. Enigma, on the back foot, sent Omega Sentinel through time to start ORCHIS years early and ensure Krakoa's collapse. Am I to believe 'no, sorry. That was a dead end?'

Haven't we been here before?

We've had mutants suffer from the Legacy Virus and M-Pox already, and I might even be missing other examples of nebulous diseases that threatened to wipe out all mutants. Obviously it's the prerogative of the X-Office to use whatever plot points they want, but do we really have to do this again? There are plenty of ways to sideline Magneto as a combatant that don't require repackaging old storylines. We've even had Hank McCoy decades behind the curve desperately trying to catch up before - in All-New All-Different X-Men.

Small World

Defenders-era Hank McCoy might be the worst possible 616 scientist to tackle this problem. He's literally decades behind the science curve and doesn't have the experience in dealing with anything like this. He's not the same guy that worked on M-Pox or the Legacy Virus. He never set foot on Krakoa and has never met any of the Five. We don't know how much data was recorded or kept from The Five but Beast may not have access to it.

Why isn't he talking to Cecilia Reyes, Forge, Jean Grey, Reed Richards, Doctor Strange, Adam Brashear, Healer, Doctor Nemesis? Even doctor dickhead that extorted Storm has the ability to instantly diagnose anyone. It makes the world feel tiny, and when you're following an era of interconnectedness that's just so disappointing. Portraying him as supremely concerned about 'all of us being ticking time bombs' rings hollow if he's working on it solo. Hank McCoy has always had a sense of arrogance where his scientific ability is concerned but not to this degree. Look at the guy! He's hating the stress he's under.

Sins of Sinister and the White Hot Room

I have to wonder if the implications of linking Magneto's illness to The Five's resurrection have been fully considered. The Sins of Sinister timeline ran for a millennium with the Five resurrecting on an industrial scale. Rasputin IV would have noticed, or the Quiet Council. The mutants left behind in the White Hot Room in RotPox spent 15 years bringing back ALL the dead mutants. That's 16 million, minimum. 15 years is less than a thousand but it's still longer than the First Krakoan Age, several times over. Nobody noticed anything? Elixir, member of the Five and Omega biokinetic, with his unlimited mastery of DNA didn't notice anything? Destiny didn't see mutants falling apart? Sounds dubious as hell to me.

Towards the end of the era many humans were resurrected too. 5% of the Five's work was set aside for bringing back poor children etc through the Phoenix Foundation. Steve Rogers was resurrected into his current body on Judgement Day. I am extremely skeptical that this has been considered, and in Steve's case whether the X-Office can even use him.

Conclusion

Magneto's physical degradation has been swift. Here he is in Uncanny X-Men #700, implied to be at most 6 months before X-Men #1. I think I've demonstrated that the concept is nonsensical and to reiterate, I think it's a terrible narrative choice. If I'm being generous, it'll be interesting to see if they can explain R-LDS in a way that makes sense - if they can do something new and interesting with a tired concept. There's only been one issue since it was introduced, so perhaps I'm jumping the gun on breaking it down. Let's check back in 6 months.

What do you think of R-LDS? Do you think my reasoning is sound? As always, I'd love to hear what other fans think.

[relicsongmel]

I've already explained my thoughts on how Dahlia fears Iris' love because it's the only thing contradicting her worldview that she is inherently unlovable, and how her inability to handle that reality affects the way she returns that love (i.e. in an incredibly backwards and convoluted manner). But recently I've also been quite captivated by the idea that maybe a similar principle holds true for Iris herself.

That being, that Iris is deeply afraid of her own capacity for love.

Iris, who feels Dahlia's pain so deeply as if it were her own (and it often is due to their shared upbringing). So hurt by the idea of her beloved sister hurting that it drives her mad. So much so that'd she'd do anything to help her feel whole again. So she loses herself, gives everything that she is and has to make sure her sister knows she's not alone. To some, it would be a lofty sacrifice, but to Iris, there's not much loss in throwing your life away when your life never had much meaning to begin with. And it's worth it, if it's for Dahlia.

At least, that's what she'd like to think.

In truth, Iris is utterly terrified of the person she turns into when Dahlia asks for her help. How all she can focus on is protecting her sister from harm or blame, to the point that everything and everyone else either fades into the shadows...or becomes warped into a simple cog in the machine of whatever crime they were unfortunate enough to become tangled in. Murder weapons become tools for freedom. People become mere vessels for whatever role they've been assigned. Any collateral damage—lives lost, scapegoats blamed, and the suffering of all parties hurt as a result—becomes an afterthought.

Only when it's all over does Iris snap back to reality and realize the weight of what she's done, and the guilt is enough to crush her. But all too soon, before she can finally swear off letting herself give in to overbearing compassion to the detriment of herself and others, Dahlia needs another "favor" and the cycle repeats itself again. And again...and again.

Eventually, somehow, Iris decides enough is enough, and narrowly manages to convince her sister not to kill the man who unknowingly accepted incriminating evidence from her latest plot to eliminate anyone standing in her way. She agrees to take on the burden of retrieving said evidence, and at first, she treats this task as she would any other cover-up job: not quite as dangerously tunnel-visioned as in crimes past due to there being less at stake, but with a certain air of detachment nonetheless. She doesn't want the man to be hurt, sure, but it's less about him specifically and more about Dahlia, who's dug herself so deep into a ditch of seeking revenge that she can no longer climb out unless Iris throws a rope down to save her. However, not long into her mission...something unexpected happens.

The man she's taken it upon herself to save from Dahlia's wrath is a deceptively tough nut to crack. For all Phoenix Wright seems easygoing and happy-go-lucky on the surface, there's a certain stubbornness lurking underneath—and despite asking numerous times, Iris can't seem to convince him to return Dahlia's deadly poison-bearing necklace. She's going to have to keep up the "girlfriend" charade for longer than she thought, but...for some reason, that reality doesn't bother her as much as she would have expected. In fact...it almost seems to invigorate her.

The version of herself when she's with him, despite literally bearing a different name than her own, feels more authentic and natural than any other role she's been born into, forced into, or crafted for herself out of desperation. And when one rainy October day she's lifted up and spun around in Phoenix's arms after she came to Ivy University's art building to deliver an assignment he had forgotten at home, Iris finally figures out the reason why.

When she locks eyes with him as he gently sets her down...

Iris realizes she's falling in love.

And Iris, knowing exactly the lengths she's willing to go to for love, feels nothing but despair at that realization, despite her face being flushed as red as her dyed hair and her heart feeling like it could burst forth from her chest at any moment.

How many more people could be hurt because of her feelings for a man she was never supposed to meet, let alone fall in love with? How long will Dahlia let her maintain this illusion until she gets impatient and takes matters into her own hands? If it came down to it, which one of the people she loves most in the world would Iris choose to protect? Which one of them would she have to sacrifice? Is her love forever fated to result in tragedy, or can she save both of them somehow?

In the end, Iris is powerless to help either of them—Dahlia is found guilty of murder and sentenced to execution, and Phoenix is nearly poisoned by Dahlia, initially framed for the murder she committed and leaves the ordeal deeply scarred by her betrayal. And Iris, having done so much for their sakes and yet still failing them, decides that she should at least do what she can to protect the one that still has a life ahead of him: Phoenix. And given that her involvement with him led to nothing but devastation—her love led to nothing but devastation, she decides to permanently isolate herself from him in the hopes that he can eventually move on and heal without her. The idea of leaving him behind (while he's experiencing such profound grief, no less) makes her heart ache, but to her the feeling is nothing if not deserved, and at least she can rest easy knowing that Dahlia is no longer a threat to him. And by sequestering herself on Eagle Mountain, she can protect him and others from the frequently gruesome outcomes of her undying devotion.

Iris spends five whole years surrounding her life around a practice she hates, to "atone" for her sin of letting her love corrupt her. Too fearful of it to face the truth of the hurt she's caused. And Phoenix spends five whole years suffering because of it.

Iris' love is pure, all-encompassing, and selfless. But the ironic reality she struggles against is that such love can also make her terribly, terribly cruel.

A cruelty not unlike that of her sister.

[kotton-kandy953]

━ 𝙳𝙴𝙰𝚁𝙻𝚈 𝙱𝙴𝙻𝙾𝚅𝙴𝙳

➛ various!yandere!male oneshots x fem!reader

title page┆word count: 2k┆warnings: cursing, description of a dead body, HEAVY blood/gore depictions, implied torture, manipulation, murder

FRIGID ━ boyfriend ! shoto todoroki x fem ! reader

⤷ 𝕿𝕳𝕰

bloodied teenager cut his pretty, Heterochromic eyes at the red mess he had made below himself. He lifted his hand, wiping the blood off his bottom lip with his thumb.

His hands were clad in black gloves.

To not leave fingerprint evidence, maybe?

His chest rose and fell rapidly. Deep, heavy breaths escaping his lungs, the only thing keeping his tired figure going is pure adrenaline.

And the thought of his beautiful girlfriend.

Even so, the boy still felt burning hatred for the pathetic being by his feet.

With a sigh, he pulled back his hood and wiped the sweat off his forehead. His short, half white and half red hair being revealed.

He ran a hand through it, getting the two-toned locks out of his face only for them to fall back in place.

The half-and-half boy thought it was all over until the body below him began to squirm and writhe in agony.

His gaze quickly jolted to their direction, clenching his teeth in frustration.

"P- please! Spare me!!..." The person lying at the teen's feet called. The teen only stared dead at them, his eyes void with all human feelings and emotion.

He wasn't thinking straight, all he could think of was how much this person made his girlfriend happy. How they made her smile.

How they managed to comfort her when she was sad or angry.

How he wished he was the only one allowed to do that.

The more those thoughts rushed back and forth in his head, the more he lost control.

It was sending him straight over the edge.

He subconsciously clenched his left fist, smoke emanating from it.

He could care less about their pathetic pleads for mercy. About their cries as he makes their blood paint the ground red.

"...please... j- just let me go!" They shouted, choking and gargling on their own blood in their mouth. Tears streamed down their bruised face, along with blood rolling down their nose.

The boy rolled his eyes at his pleading victim. He could've sworn he had already tortured and beaten them enough for them to be bleeding out on the ground, dead — or dying, at the least.

They should've died of blood loss minutes ago, he thought with his stoic expression still present.

His face was unfazed and uninterested in their desperate weeping and begging for mercy.

Their face was bruised and broken, as if they were beaten up over and over again.

Not saying that's not what has been happening for the past few hours.

Their body was weak and it even hurt for them to breathe, but the boy could care less.

Sighing his eyes, the teenage boy finally spoke, "Shut up."

He lifted his right foot and kicked the person's stomach. They jerked in pain and coughed up more blood, knowing that they couldn't fight back against him.

The boy had the power to kill them right then and there. He could have even killed them from the start.

But he didn't.

He's going as slow as possible on purpose.

He wanted them to suffer.

To suffer for all the moments they've spent with Y/n.

To suffer for all the moments they made Shoto resent them even more.

"You've lost too much blood and you're probably in indescribable pain," The boy reached down beside their body, grabbing a large golf club he had set down not too long ago.

"You're not going to live much longer."

The boy activated his quirk on his left side, slowly heating up the metal golf club, making it flush a soft shade of red.

He lifted it up above his head with a death grip, his eyes locked on the person below him.

"So I might as well put an end to your suffering already."

• • •

You placed your phone back down onto your bed after it went back to voicemail.

What the hell, Shoto!?

It has been two, no, almost three hours since you last heard from your boyfriend Shoto Todoroki.

He had promised to arrive at your home by 2pm but now it's almost five.

"What the fuck could he possibly be doing!?" You sat down on your bed while scrolling through your contacts list until you found his.

"And why couldn't he just text me sooner to let me know that he'd be late!?"

You angrily read at the texts you spammed him only a few minutes ago. He had left you on delivered for hours which isn't very common for him.

Calm down, clam down... You took a deep breath, he probably just misplaced his phone!

Your attempts at calming yourself down worked for a little, before you started thinking of the worst possible scenarios.

But there have been many disappearances lately... you placed your phone in your jacket pocket, and everyone that's been going missing has had some sort of relation to me...

You felt your heart pounding against your chest, But that doesn't mean Shoto was kidnapped!

You slowly stood up and walked towards your bedroom door.

He would never let himself get kidnapped...

...Right?

You swung your bedroom door open and ran to your front door. You called out to your parents that you were leaving, but you left before they could even uttered a response.

I have to get to Shoto's house as fast as I can!

• • •

Shoto grunts as he swings the red, hot, golf club down onto their already bloodied  and broken body. More blood splatters on his face and black hoodie as he repeats this heinous action in cold blood a few more times.

Finally, he lifts the club and rests it on his shoulder.

"Shit..." He muttered quietly to himself, "...I must've lost track of time."

He kept his cold expression as he licked the splattered blood off his lips.

The persons face, or what was left of said person, was mangled and beaten far beyond recognition. It was just a disgusting , gory, mess.

He dropped the heated golf club onto the ground, causing it to clang loudly against the cement floor of the basement. The large club fell right beside the mutilated corpse beside his feet.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself down, Shoto used his ice power to regulate the temperature of his body.

After doing so, he kneeled down beside the body and grabbed their wrist. He was checking for a pulse or any other signs of life.

nothing.

Finding out that they were gone, a very soft smile, crazy, appears on the boys face.

He dropped their broken wrist and stood up, his slight smile growing wider.

Once standing upright, the heterochromic eyed boy coldly stared down at the crimson mess he had made beneath his shoes.

His eyes were dark, full of resentment and zero remorse for the heinous act he had just committed.

More blood than one could ever imagine coming from another human oozed around the corpse. Shoto slowly took a few steps back to avoid staining his shoes further.

Shoto's smile softly faded as he wiped the blood off his face, only smearing it further. He slowly took his gloves off and threw them on top of the bludgeoned dead body.

He walked over to a stack of boxes and grabbed his phone, examining each and every text and call notification he received from you.

Y/n is still waiting for me at her house... he thought as he read the texts you sent.

"She's probably worried sick..." he mutters to himself, "...This took way longer than anticipated."

The heterochromic eyed male turned around and placed his phone is his pocket, preparing to leave the basement.

He glanced up at the stairs, and what he saw made him freeze in surprise.

"Sh- Shoto..." said a trembling and crying female voice. He took a step back, almost tumbling on his own two feet.

"Y/n..."

You were about to run up to your boyfriend and hug him, but what you had saw shook you to your core.

Blood.

It was everywhere.

Crimson blood was all on the floors and your boyfriend's pretty face.

And on the dead body lying only a few feet away from him.

You placed your hands on your mouth, the strong, disgusting, stench of blood made you feel dizzy.

Shoto put on his normal, neutral expression but you could tell there was an emotion he was masking behind it.

What was that masked emotion, exactly?

You didn't know.

But what you did know was that your seemingly loving boyfriend has turned into a cold-blooded monster.

You ran to the bottom of the stairs, keeping a distance between you and your bloodied boyfriend.

Tears streaked down your (s/c) face, you couldn't ever believe that he would do such things as this.

You choked back sobs as he reached his hand out to you.

"Y/n..." He begged, "Y/n, listen to me..."

Shoto started to slowly take a few steps towards you. Before he got any closer you backed away out of pure fear.

Your hands fell limp at your sides. "Wh- Why the hell should I listen to you!?" You shouted at him with clenched fists.

He relaxed his expression once more and shoved his hands back in his pockets.

He tilts his head and asks, "What are you—"

You stomped your foot to the ground, "-You know exactly what I'm talking about, dammit!!"

You paused, biting your lip as tears of frustration rolled down your cheeks.

"You went on hiatus for three goddamn hours and when I finally find you... yo- you're..." you trailed off.

"Just let me explain..." He took a step closer and you took a step back once more. You both repeated this until your back hit the wall behind yourself.

You mentally cursed yourself for not retreating up the stairs and calling for help

He reached his hand out to caress your face, you flinched at the feeling of his red-stained hand against your soft skin. He stared deep into your (e/c) eyes, his filled with pure love and adoration for you.

The way he touched and looked at you made you feel sick to your stomach. How could someone brutally murdered another human being and still manage to act as if nothing happened.

How psychotic could a person be to do that!?

"I wouldn't kill somebody without a proper reason, Y/n." He said quietly, almost a whisper.

You brought up your trembling hand and took his off your face. The more he touched you the more disgusted you felt.

"Then... then why?" You muttered, "Then why did you do it...?"

Shoto Todoroki takes note of your expression and body language.

You were deathly afraid of the boy— no, the monster standing in front of you.

He didn't want to make it worse by telling the truth. That he killed an innocent person out of pure jealousy and love for her.

That would make him sound crazy.

So he lied.

He lied to you about everything.

He sighs quietly, "The many unexplained disappearances... the one who mangles their face beyond recognition... was them."

He silently gestures to the mutilated corpse behind him.

You look beyond Shoto's shoulder, your petrified eyes rested on the brutal murder scene. You tried your hardest to resist the urge to throw up right there.

You fixed your gaze in his mismatched irises. "B- but you still murdered them without proof of them being behind this!"

He reassuringly placed a hand on your shoulder, "I do have proof, Y/n."

He glanced behind himself, "They even tried kidnapping me, Y/n."

His eyes locked with yours, "You have to believe me."

You looked him in the eyes, they were sincere and full of love. And there was no visible sign of him being dishonest.

I should trust him.

Shoto would never lie to me...

...Right?

Back to Title Page?

[muchtodoonterror]

I do not understand and am slightly offended by the fanon I come across depicting Solomon Tozer as dumb or stupid. He just isn't.

There are different kinds of intelligence. Just because he hasn't studied like a midshipmen or officer, that only makes him uneducated at worst. He clearly has interpersonal and emotional intelligence which are not to be sniffed at when you have that many men trapped together in harrowing circumstances.

As he is tending to Heather, he very specifically is describing one of the ongoing scientific experiments. That indicates not just that he's paying attention but that he finds it interesting and noteworthy. He could very easily have been talking about anything, about shipboard gossip or relating old adventures, but he's relating what he‘s picked up of the ship's science.

I'm sure one of the reasons he's depicted thusly is his poor choice in joining up with Hickey and subsequent doubling down on that choice. That is a topic for another essay but my point here is: grief empirically affects one's ability to process and make decisions. Tozer is arguably one of the most grief stricken men on board. They've all suffered losses, but being widowed (if we're taking the real Tozer's biography into account), with witnessing the deaths of Bryant and Sir John, with Heather, with Fairholme's party, with Morfin - he is not just grieving these losses but often feeling a direct responsibility for them. One of these alone is enough to impact his ability to make rational decisions, and as they pile up? And that's not even factoring in the effects of scurvy.

In conclusion, leave my boy alone; he's not dumb, he's just grief-stricken and doing his best.

[oldguardleatherdog]

[HOWL]

I'm getting antsy about "Day One" and what the new regime is actively preparing to unleash the minute he's sworn in.

I've been looking for actions being planned by the usual orgs (MoveOn, Indivisible, et al.) or any signs of meaningful physical/judicial/public-involved obstruction or demonstration or coordinated pushback against the flurry of anticipated executive orders, resistance to Insurrection Act activation, and the marquee event of "shock and awe" deportations that they've been flaunting openly for months - and I have seen nothing.

There are news reports of governors and mayors and attorneys general making plans and pacts of non-cooperation with those efforts, but it's very murky and clandestine and behind-the-scenes puttering around, and here we are 7 weeks out with zero public demonstrations or gatherings or, God forbid, marches where the public can at least express our opposition and make a statement that we're not knuckling under, this is not acceptable, and they're not going to implement this insane agenda without a fight.

There's a sense that good people of good will have already given up, acquiesced, ceded the whip hand to the new (old) regime, that since all our marches and protests didn't prevent his reelection public expression of opposition is useless, that "there's nothing we can do but lie back and take it" and "we don't want to be bothered we just want to retreat and lie in a dark room with a cold cloth over our eyes and pretend we can retreat into our books and gardens and knitting until the firestorm passes."

This doesn't augur well for the road ahead. As individuals, no one is going to be the lone flag-bearer facing down a MAGA crowd, so we have to look to existing leadership for organizing Day One events at scale - but I'm hearing and seeing nothing, nada, zip, zilch. All I'm seeing is "here's how to take your mind off what's coming" self-care feelgood guides to giving up and pretending our new overlords aren't there, and not a peep from the folks who draw six-figure salaries at the nonprofit orgs that are supposed to be leading the charge when it's hard, when people are demoralized and exhausted, not just when the sun is shining. In 39 years of raising hell, making trouble, pounding the pavement and rousing the rabble, I've *never* seen the side of good so limp and lame and toothless and... lost.

As the saying goes, "What is to be done?"

I'm not ready to hear "nothing, it's too late, we have to wait until everyone wakes up or until people start getting hurt." (Insert .gif of my head exploding.) We know what's coming because they have TOLD us, in detail, chapter and verse.

We know that if we do nothing, people will suffer. In what universe is it acceptable to wait until enough harm is done to innocents for good people to take action?

I'm at a loss. I'm angry at the deliberate inaction of those who have the power to get something going. I'm fighting the urge to turn my own back - not out of despair, but out of disgust.

Long-term plans are wonderful things; my own performance art gig is my primary outlet, but I can't mount a significant effort with meaningful reach for at least a year - and even then, I'm just one guy.

Right now, I don't see any signs of any significant national- or even local-level response targeting Day One operations or any day after that, to be honest. Am I missing anything? Am I not looking where I should be looking? I need to recharge and refuel. I'm open to ideas. Thanks for listening.

[/HOWL]

[messrsrarchives]

What started your love of MCD? A certain book or movie?

a relentless, unwavering, ever-increasing desire to kill mys- ahem. GRIEFFFFFFF ‼️‼️‼️ grief grief grief.

GRIEF!!! our purest emotion. maybe not in terms of positivity, absolutely not (although, in some cases,,, yes) but in the sense that you're most you when you're grieving. when you've suffered a loss - whether a person, an opportunity, a part of yourself etc - you are the most You you'll ever be. you don't try to hide anything, you don't put on a mask or a costume, at least not to yourself. you're just an open wound and everything and anything prods at it.

when it comes to stories? mcd is just. mwah. chef's kiss. does the character know they're going to die? if they do, what's their response? who will they miss the most and does that even matter when they'll miss everyone and everything anyway? what is their biggest motivation to keep going, or, to not keep going? what are they msot proud of in life and what do they wish they had done differently? are they going to greet death with their head held high or are they going to have to be dragged across the divide?

are they happy to have lived the life that they have??

AND then! the grief of the characters left behind. all those same questions and more. how do they move on? do they even move on? how different does their life look now? did their goals, plans, desires, etc change? do they make the most out of their life now or do they count down? did they appreciate them enough? when you lose them, you overthink everything. you have so much to explore, both positive and negative.

fuck yeah. that's cool. kill a character and see the repercussions? into it. slowly kill them and try to make sense of what's in their mind right now? into it even more.

i just think grief is so so so important. and the moments right before they die is when everything fits together for them, but crumbles to pieces for everyone else so there's that sick satisfaction of "finally, i know why i was here" mixed with "can i stay here without them?"

LOVE LOVE LOVE !!!! love mcd. love complex emotions. love the grief that is fuelled by love and turns into anger. love the grief that is fulled by regret and turns into helplessness. love the grief that is fuelled by love again and turns into hope and perserverance and a desire for something greater. love grief that is fulled by religion and turns into begging. begging, hoping, confusion. love grief that is fuelled by their humanity and leaves them literally a shell of a person, or half of one.

love it.

love it especially if they've been grieving their entire life, and then the MCD is a release. mhm yah.

[girlactionfigure]

Nakba, nakhsa, на хуй

The Arabs consider only two wars against Israel as defeats: The Nakba in 1948 and the Nakhsa in 1967. The reason for this is that they measure defeat only in terms of land loss. I'm not talking about the movement of political borders, but about regions that are no longer inhabited by Arabs. Lost homes, lost fields, lost groves. Places where they had once lived but can never visit again. Keys without doors.

This is why, despite a crushing battlefield defeat in 1973, the Arabs don't feel they've lost the war. While Israel came to control a huge swath of Arab territory after destroying the Syrian and Egyptian armies, no Arab communities were displaced. There were no columns of refugees and no people with useless keys hanging from their necks. 

The Middle Eastern equation is very simple. 

No mass displacement = no victory. 

Anyone telling you otherwise is fantasizing. Any loss except land loss is immaterial. The enemy is willing to suffer greatly to restore his lost honor. Where did he give up and admit defeat? In medieval Spain. Why? Because he were truly defeated there. Not because Christians armies defeated Muslim armies, but because the Muslims were displaced from Spain. 

Total displacement = total victory.

As most wars have shown, despite being a very tough people, the enemy is not immovable. Hundreds of thousands fled their homes in '48 and '67 (even though no organized effort was made to displace them) and almost three millions fled their homes in Gaza and Lebanon now. 

In Lebanon, a single tweet from Avichay Adraee is enough to send thousands packing. They don’t even need to see Jews with guns. Just an alert is enough. Millions more have fled Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon during intra-Arab wars. 

Turns out that the “true owners of the land” can leave it after all.

This brings me to my main point: only displacement can bring security to Israel and peace to the region. Israel isn't an empire. The IDF was created to defeat armies in quick wars, not to be a giant police force. 

Israel has neither the mindset nor the resources to rule over millions of hostile people. Nor does it or those people gain anything from such rule. It’s an exercise in sadomasochism. Nevertheless, for almost 60 years, this is exactly how Israel has been behaving, in total contradiction to common sense or reality. 

Each time Israel conquered a new territory as a result of a defensive war, it found itself ruling over a hostile population that resisted Israeli rule through guerilla warfare. As we’ve already established, death and destruction don't deter the enemy. They’re capable of sacrifice and steadfastness that we find hard to imagine. 

The former head of Hezbollah had once said: “Kill us wherever you may find us. On every front and on the door of every mosque. But know that we are Shia Muslims and we love death. For us, life starts when we become martyrs.”

I see no reason not to believe him. 

And so, each battlefield victory became a greater burden for Israel. Each time Israel was handed lemonade it found a way to make lemons out of it.

This was the mistake made in Judea and Samaria, in Gaza, and in South Lebanon. It was avoided by sheer chance in the Golan Heights. 

Instead of displacing the hostile population, the IDF mixed with it, creating an environment in which the enemy had an advantage. Arabs are not good regular soldiers, but they’re excellent ambushers and raiders. 

I'm afraid that Israel is headed towards making the same mistake again: getting bogged down in Gaza amidst a hostile population and making some kind of a deal with Lebanon that will "retreat" Hezbollah X kilometers to the north. 

Such a deal means nothing as long as there are hostile villages on the Israeli border. 

Hezbollah fighters are local Shia. They will simply remove their uniform, hide their weapons, and remain where they are. What else can they do? These are their homes. 

Such a deal cannot be enforced. Furthermore, the enemy will rightly view it as a victory and will be emboldened to launch more attacks. A single truck can carry enough weapons to launch another invasion of the magnitude of October 7. If you don’t believe me, clearly you haven’t played Tetris enough when you were little.

As long as Lebanese border communities exist, Israelis will never be safe from a sudden invasion. As long as Israel will be managing affairs in Gaza, Israeli soldiers will be open to attacks, even if it’s just a teenager with a kitchen knife. Once again, Israel will be shoehorned into the role of an occupier of people it doesn’t wish to occupy instead of defending its territory from outside threats. And we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves.

For this reason, the only route to security is the creation of buffer zones in which the enemy doesn't have communities from which to lunch attacks. These zones can't be just de-millitarized. They have to be depopulated and deforested. They have to be reduced to deserts that will remind the enemy of the cost of attacking the Jewish state. 

Only then will Arabs view the war of aggression they’ve launched against Israel on October 7 as a defeat. Only then will Israel be able to defend its borders from external threats. Only then will it become possible to talk about peace. Only then will the IDF stop being a bloated police force and become a military again.

Anything else will just set the stage for the next bloody war.

URI KURLIANCHIK

NOV 22

[daydreamingsommie]

Ivy and Hortensia: The importance of nurture

Biologically, Ivy and Hortensia are sisters. However, I personally like to describe their relationship as more maternal in nature. With the loss of their father, and their complex history with their respective mothers, Ivy is Hortensia's most present role model in her life

It's important to explore Ivy's horrible relationship with her mother. By her own statement, she was conniving, cruel, and was involved in every scheme in Elusia. Clearly being forced to witness every single one of her crimes and be silent is the cause of a lot of Ivy's trust issues and refusal to show her vulnerabilities

Hortensia's mother was the complete opposite. According to Ivy, she was nothing less than the kindest woman she'd ever met. Despite being hated by the queen, she walked through the Elusian court every day with dignity and charm. Her kindness was so strong, that everyone, even the queen, were won over by her smile

Ivy was tragically denied motherly affection from the beginning while Hortensia initially had it, but lost her mother at the young of 7 so her memories are limited. A lot of the sisters' current relationship can be described as making up for the motherly affection they missed

When Hortensia asks about her mother, Ivy speaks of her in an almost wistful tone. She mentions how seeing her take care of Hortensia was the moment she realized how far a parent would go for the sake of their child. The way she mentions how Hortensia is becoming more like her by the day sounds really sells how much she affected both of them directly and indirectly and the sting of her loss

While their relationship can be seen as an act of respect for Hortensia's mom, it's also an act of rebellion against Ivy's. For someone who's never felt parental affection, it's common to be scared of repeating the cycle. By having such a sweet and nurturing relationship towards her sister, Ivy has proven to herself that she's nothing like her mother and is even better than her

In many ways, Ivy had to step up for Hortensia's sake and did well enough that she has a stronger influence on her sister compared to the other heirs and their younger siblings. I think that's represented by their unique classes. They're the only pair of siblings to share a unit type and both weapon options, with the only difference being that Ivy is a tome specialist and Hortensia uses staves. This gives the impression that Hortensia actively tries to be more like Ivy but is still her own person and has her own unique strengths

Ivy and Hortensia have this gentle reassurance between them. Despite the losses they've suffered together and separately, there's a quiet understanding that the tragedies end with them. The sisters have already survived the worst and made peace with the past, and they will foster a happier future as long as they stay together