#unlikely salvation alt

[just-horrible-things]

'Verse: Resistance , co-author @whump-sprite Alt: Ari forced to whip Alex Timeline: picks up almost directly from the piece marked Prev, skipping back from the last thing I posted to fill in the gap

Needs and Wants [First | Prev | Next]

Pizza should taste good after weeks of starvation rations. All it tastes of is grease. Ari picks her way through a single slice slowly, forcing herself to take the time to chew.

“I’m sorry I snapped at you, earlier,” Taryn says. “S’fine.” “It’s not. You were doing exactly what I asked, and I shouldn’t have snapped at you.” “S’okay, I get it.” “And… I’m sorry I left you in the kitchen so long. I knew you weren’t okay, and I should have checked on you sooner.”

Ari blinks in slow bafflement. Her eyes ache from crying, and she still feels half asleep, unable to process what Taryn’s trying to tell her.

“I … went to sleep,” she ventures. “S’fine, I wasn’t…” She wasn’t waiting. But maybe she should have been? She shakes her head. “You don’t have to sleep on the floor, you know. Sleep here on the couch. I’ll make up a bed with blankets and a pillow.” “Thank you,” Ari mumbles. She didn’t really mean to go to sleep on the floor. There doesn’t seem much point arguing.

The pizza crust is cold by the time she gets to it, but it doesn’t make a difference. Alex loves pizza. He won’t be ready for solid food yet. He’s really, actually starving, unlike Ari. Because she couldn’t get him to eat.

“Could you eat another?” Taryn nudges the open box towards her. Ari shakes her head. “Didn’t eat a lot in there.” Taryn nods. “Try to have some more in a few hours.” “I will,” Ari promises. She doesn’t want Taryn to have to worry about taking care of her too. “Do you need anything else?” She starts to shake her head, but catches Taryn’s eye and pauses to try and actually think about it.

Her thoughts are slow as crawling through sludge. Her body doesn’t feel like anything. Maybe faintly queasy from the pizza she just ate.

“Don’t think so,” she mumbles eventually, defeated. “How about a shower?” Taryn prompts. “Oh. Oh, I’m sorry, I should… yeah.”

She must stink. She’s not sure when she stopped noticing how filthy she is. She’s not sure she noticed at any point. It wasn’t important. But now she’s ashamed. Not just for being gross so much as for not even realising. How out of it is she?

She’s so fucking useless. She’s not even hurt. Taryn shouldn’t be having to waste attention on her.

“I’ll set out clean clothes for you,” Taryn is saying. “I can find something,” Ari shakes her head. “S’okay.”

But she still ends up sitting uselessly while Taryn finds her a towel. She doesn’t even get off the couch until she’s prompted, and guided to the bathroom. She’s so useless. She just wants to crawl into a hole and die, at least then she’d stop being another drain on Taryn’s attention.

Her clothes are practically stiff when she peels them off her body. Her sweat and grease and Alex’s blood have set deep into the fabric. The smell has been in her nose too long to still perceive it, but she probably reeks of rotting blood by now.

Her skin is a mess too, mottled with zits and reddened patches where the skin is flaking from mistreatment. She’s lost more weight than she thought. She can see her ribs without stretching. The observations feel distant, detached, like it’s a patient’s body she’s inspecting, not the one she has to live in. There are sores round her wrists and ankles where she couldn’t leave the cuffs alone.

The hot water burns, but she doesn’t care. She thinks of Alex, and how he always likes the water hot enough to leave his skin red. She wonders if he’ll survive long enough to take another shower.

Washing her hair is difficult. Her fingers won’t pull through the tangles. Frustrated, she ends up yanking out enough hairs that her scalp bleeds. Dandruff has built up enough to come away in thick clumps under her fingernails as she tries to scrape her scalp clean. No matter how much she scrubs, she can’t seem to get to a point where there aren’t white flakes coming off every time she rinses. She only stops when she realises from the streaks of red in the water that she’s doing herself damage.

She dispenses more soap into her hands, and scrubs it into her hair as thoroughly as she can, just hoping it penetrates the depths of the knots. Getting them actually untangled is more than she can face right now.

Still, despite everything, she does feel a little more human once she’s more or less clean. She dries the length of her hair with the towel, squeezing out the water like wringing out a cloth, but she doesn’t dry her head. She doesn’t want Taryn to see blood on the towel. She already feels enough of an idiot for making herself bleed.

Taryn has laid clothes out for her as promised. Underwear, sweatpants, t-shirt, sweater. The kind of basics safehouses are stocked with. Ari feels guilty, but it’s a relief not to have to search for them and make choices. 

Taryn’s made the couch up as a bed too, but she’s nowhere to be seen now so she must be with Alex. Good.

Ari gathers up her filthy clothes and dumps them into the trash in the kitchen. Now that she’s clean she can smell them, and she was absolutely right. They need to go. Taryn could probably clean them with magic, but even magic won’t scrub the memories out.

Not that getting rid of the clothes will help. She can’t scrub the memories out of her skin, either, or the guilt. If she could peel her skin off and throw it away she would.

She should sleep probably, but she isn’t brave enough. She washes up the used mugs instead, trying to find some shred of absolution in being useful. It’s probably a waste of effort. Taryn could do it with a thought. The faucet is caked with limescale – it looks like it drips – and she gets distracted for a while by trying to chisel some of it off with the back end of a spoon before she realises this is an entirely pointless thing to be doing right now.

It’s more important to get some rest, so that she can be less of a burden on Taryn. She can’t hide from it forever. So she slinks back to the couch to lie down. 

The open pizza box turns her stomach. She rolls away from it, facing the back of the couch instead. She tries to sleep.

Taryn finds her crying into her knees again.

Ari sits up in a hurry at the soft sound of the door. Trying to scrub the tears from her face is a futile pretense. Her voice comes out thick and teary when she tries to ask, “How is he?” The narrow press of Taryn’s lips tells her everything she needs to know. “No change.”

While Taryn heads to the kitchen, Ari makes an attempt to get the tears under control and wipe her face properly. Taryn returns with two glasses of water. Ari takes hers and drinks obediently. She hadn’t realised she was thirsty.

“Had anything more to eat yet?” “Not yet…” “Do you think you’re ready?” “I guess.”

Reluctantly she picks up another slice of pizza. It’s even less appetizing cold and congealed.

“Here, let me?” Taryn’s holding out a hand. Ari has no idea what she wants. The pizza? She holds it out uncertainly. Taryn waves her fingers over it with a brief flicker of light, and it grows hot in Ari’s hand. “Oh. Thank you, Taryn.” “You’re welcome. Can I sit with you?” “‘Course.”

She sits close beside Ari, but not quite touching. She picks up another slice for herself, and Ari catches the subtle glow as she heats that one too. Ari picks at her cheese, trying to convince herself that it tastes good.

She feels so intensely wretched with Taryn right there. She shouldn’t be here. She doesn’t deserve help, or protection. She doesn’t deserve to be in a room with Taryn. 

At least she doesn’t reek anymore.

“Can… I ask something, Taryn?” “Sure.” “Not for me, it’s, uh, I just…” She flounders, struggling to find words. “I, there’s, a healer…?” “I’m going to go look for one in the morning,” Taryn says. “No, I mean, in 17…”

She has Taryn’s attention. It’s suffocating. Her head feels utterly empty of words, like she’s shaking her skull and trying to dislodge something.

“He, they…” Breath. “Every couple of days they brought a healer in, to… keep A-Alex alive.” His name feels wrong in her mouth now, like she’s lost the right to say it. “Just – a kid, a teenager, and – it was killing him, he was, dying a bit more every time I saw him and he still – he hated what they, what I…” She can’t say it. More deep breaths. Taryn is listening to her. “He gave… as much as could, every time, before they stopped him. Even though it was killing him, he cared…”

“You want to get him out,” Taryn says, soft and gentle like Ari is a spooked animal. She supposes she is. “I don’t know,” she confesses miserably, “I don’t – I know it’s – dangerous – it costs –” “I’ll do it,” Taryn cuts her off. “Or I’ll make sure it happens. We’ll get him.” Ari can’t breathe. She can’t believe it’s that simple. Of course it’s not that simple but – just to convince Taryn, she wasn’t sure it was even slightly a reasonable thing to ask for…

Taryn sees the look on her face, and puts her arms around her. Startled, Ari drops her pizza into her lap.

“If he helped Alex, we’ll get him out.” Taryn sounds utterly certain. “I’ll talk to Daniel.” “Thank you,” Ari tries to say, and it comes out as a whimper. Taryn squeezes once, then lets her go.

[Next]

[bladekindeyewear]

HS^2 bloggin’ mainline 2024-08-24

(Previous post - current page 666)

Section 3 of page 666 is now upd8'd, let's check it out! And as you can expect very much from the topic it's almost certainly covering, they've warned us via the twitter "Content warning for references to themes of physical and mental abuse, flashing imagery, and mild gore". By the way, when Force Refresh didn't reload the game data enough to show the new chapter in Google Chrome for me, I had to go in settings to "Delete Browsing Data" > "Cookies and other site data" for the Time Range "Last hour", because just deleting "Cached images and files" or "Hosted app data" didn't help.

(EDIT: THEY WERE NOT KIDDING AROUND ABOUT THE CONTENT WARNINGS, IF YOU HAVE ANY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH ANY SORT OF ABUSE PLEASE BE CAREFUL WITH THIS ONE.)

Although, before we get into it (AND WAY BEFORE I SCROLLED BACK UP TO EDIT THAT EXTRA WARNING UP THERE), I wanted to cover something that'd been on my mind since my last post, predictionways: How IS Vriska going to escape the Plot Point?

There seem a number of obvious answers that we'll get some combination of, but the last one might not be obvious to everyone, so I wanted to cover it and flesh out / examine the possibilities so we all can feel really smart if it pans out at all the way I'm thinking it could pan out:

(1) Vriska realizes the true power and relevance she'd attained as a Thief of Light never left her heart all along, and this singularity is Nothing, a realm Void of relevance where only she exists. (Very like the Neverending Story after everything was destroyed, maybe?) If she allows herself to divest herself of some of her relevance she's been so desperately clutching onto, she can 8r8k the Plot Point.

Callie hinted that this singularity-center might need to be destroyed, and the fifth section is an 8-ball, a type of container Vriska is famously known to break. It may make a degree of sense that realizing her own power, her ultimate freedom, might be enough to do just that and free her.

(1a) Vriska becomes her Ultimate Self, and is too full of Light for the singularity to contain. This could break it or otherwise get her out of it...

...but I'm not sure it's either possible or a good thing for her to consolidate ALL of herself from the rest of Paradox Space into herself while she's trapped in here? Those versions of her perhaps deserve to keep existing rather than falling into a sea of herself that would need to hold powerfully to the self-actualization and psychological progress she's made as THIS version of her instead of the versions of her that didn't. We're not certain of all the mechanics of being an Ultimate Self, so it's hard to say whether or not it's possible... or could even see her backslide from this Therapy Session, which I really wouldn't want to see because this has been so good, and would definitely make some sense of alt!Callie / AL's warning that what was inside the Plot Point was hungry, because an Ultimate Vriska certainly could be. This doesn't seem the right choice unless in combination with one of the other options:

(2) Vriska finds the collapsed core of the Green Sun's power here and steals it for herself, a hidden treasure that could be intensely empowering, whether via Light or even giving her fancy barrier-busting Black Hole powers similar to alt!Calliope's dead!Jade body. I... feel this option is unlikely. It'd certainly count as something "greedy" inside the Plot Point that "isn't salvation" and could hasten the fragmentation of the Candy storyline because there isn't a singularity vacuuming its power all together, which could apply to breaking the Plot Point too, frankly... eh, I just still think other options seem more likely and better foreshadowed. Especially this last one:

(3) Vriska uses the same communication-across-barriers ability she used to contact (Meat)!Terezi in order to message JOHN and ask the HEIR OF BREATH to free her from the singularity as I once long ago wrongly predicted. If John is the only one who can reach in and pull her out, it would require Vriska to overcome herself enough to realize she needs -- and has the power -- to MAKE a divestment of relevance (as (1) suggested) to John from herself, and let John be the hero in her place for at least a moment. The arms he once reached everywhere with using his ultimate power suddenly become an arm reaching for another hand to pull someone to freedom.

Now on top of everything I mentioned in the old Breath, Blood, and the Flow of Reality post about John being one of the only people possibly capable of freeing someone from a singularity that "not even Light can escape", there's a bunch of EXTREMELY RECENT evidence for this, too. In addition to telling us how surprising and unlikely they would have found it to learn that Vriska messaged Terezi past the barrier sealing Candy's timeline away from the rest of Paradox Space, Callie ALSO just got done asking John to break Vriska out of jail, reinforcing it with an open statement that Breath was the aspect of Freedom, and John embodied the concept. And more importantly, John HADN'T BEEN NECESSARY to break Vriska out at all, and ended up only tagging along for conversation and fun, not even needing to tell Serket where to go! Which makes the entire relevance and narrative choice of Callie asking him to break her out better suited as foreshadowing for this exact necessity while she's trapped in the Plot Point, and all Vriska would need to do to make it happen is pull a trick (communicating across the Breach) we've already seen her pull before in the Epilogues. To have the courage and stability of mind to realize she can't do this on her own, and know who to ask for help. (Roxy, as a Rogue of Void, might even be able to lend her power to the effort too.)

Apologies for the pre-update writeup, I just really wanted to make that last John call for y'all if you hadn't realized the possibility, y'know, before we potentially see it happen a few upd8s from now. :D

Alright, on to all the trauma that Doc Scratch helped inflict on Vriska, manipulating her into actions that only injured her psyche further and her friends moreso, and all the guilt and anger she feels over it. I suspect she'll have to finally at least PARTIALLY realize the trick that's being hinted at regarding "ultimate freedom" -- ie, the answer to the Ultimate Riddle -- and just how much Doc Scratch's talk of inevitability not only gaslit her into thinking her worst instincts were unavoidable, but that even as he was TELLING her that he was manipulating her, he was admitting that he HAD to manipulate her to make this happen, meaning the power had been in HER hands all along, not his. Without Vriska provoked into being the one to inflict the injuries in the entire Team Charge vs Team Scourge cascade, without the fact that this was all FRIENDS hurting FRIENDS, none of them would have experienced enough of the severe psychological trauma required for Doc Scratch's half-Gamzee chucklevoodoos to control them into unknowingly writing his DNA code, and leaving those like Aradia in an inverted, highly manipulatable state for guiding their session into creating the Tumor that would birth the Green Sun. Let's click the White Cueball and start watching Vriska painfully confronting some serious emotional abuse and trauma from her past at the hands of a very-Dirk-Strider-like pseudo-parental figure...

*CLICKING THAT DAMNED CUEBALL NOW*

Okay, NO TIMESKIP notice this time, she looks the same in her room-- it would make sense that Doc Scratch is next on the chopping block this time and I'd WANT to see her live first reaction to it. What's with this poppy hoppy fun music? We're definitely getting something more sinister for Scratch. (Also I have to say, the music so far this entire Vriska Therapy Session flash has been... okay? But not up to the usual Homestuck banger standards the original comic's run spoiled us with constantly, in my personal view.)

VRISKA: Whew. VRISKA: Long day.

Oh gosh I hope she doesn't go into the next one IMMEDIATELY and rests first--

Oh GCATAVROSPRITE is the music this time, I get it! And he's acting more catlike than ever w/ those paws lifted!

GCATAVROSPRITE: mAYBE, yOU SHOULD TAKE A BREAK, fROM ALL THE TOTALLY AWESOME PERSONAL BREAKTHROUGHS YOU ARE HAVING, GCATAVROSPRITE: aND KICK IT WITH ME AND ERISOL FOR A WHILE, ERISOLSPRITE: yeah, you kiinda look liike 2hiit.

THANK you, get her to relax at least a BIT before tackling something harder than her freakin' abusive mother(s). Also,

--just, Erisol looking unexpectedly fly as fuck, and more Dave-like than ever. Like, I'm just surprised he looks so cool. Good damn art.

VRISKA: Says Scarfshades McLopsided.

Hey!!!

ERISOLSPRITE: 2ay2 the bu2ted a22 biitch wwearin the 2ame raggedy jacket 2he2 wworn 2ince wwe wwere liike fiivve.

FUCKIN' OWNED, GOOD SNAPBACK.

VRISKA: Says the guy who literally can't change his clothes.

That's low AND not helping your case, fuck you! You're being incredibly disrespectful AND proving him right!

ERISOLSPRITE: ii cant be held accountable for my dii2cordant cla22-2wwag diichotomy, but here you are a 2weep and a half deep iin a per2onally raiilored realm of 2elf-reflectiion and you 2tiill choo2e twwo look liike thii2.

EXACTLY, that's what we're saying!!! --Not that it can be helped TOO much, from an emotional standpoint she sorta has to take forms similar to her past to face her past to an extent, so...

Also, let me do the math on that... (6/13)*4 ≈ 1.85, so if we're still in "YEAR 4" then 1.85 solar sweeps have passed for her since she entered the Plot Point. If anything, Erisol's being generous as fuck here by rounding down instead of saying "nearly two sweeps". (And this confirms we haven't timeskipped again-- or if we have, must not have skipped MUCH.)

VRISKA: Heh.

What, can't mess with perfection?

ERISOLSPRITE: heh.

Oh shit, they're actually getting on, look at his damned animated grin. This is just some black-vibey friendly jabbing!

ERISOLSPRITE: anyway, come chiill.

Please, please do Vriska for your own damn sake.

Oh no, Tavros, don't suggest cat things.

Yeah, get some R and R. (And pointless playtime.) So you don't burn out. Good advice Tav.

FUCK IS HE STILL ALLERGIC? :C

.....okay GCATavrosprite you make a good goddamned point, you're doing pretty well against the allergies all things considered.

Oh no, she thinks she needs to keep going. :( This is gonna be even less fun for her than she thinks.

VRISKA: I'm kind of on a roll here. Gotta strike while the iron is hot!

Intense trauma-release therapy does not work that way!!! Heavy revelations have to be PROCESSED and mulled over before you subject yourself to more psychological pounding!

GCATAVROSPRITE: [...] aND IT KIND OF FEELS LIKE THE FIRE IS ABOUT TO GET REALLY REALLY HOT,

Ooh, a serious warning from Tav and Erisol that this shit is about to be some fuckin' BUSINESS. Listen to them! (Exactly as you put it Tav, that iron is gonna MELT too long in too hot a fire. I hope this doesn't knock her back at first and then we get ANOTHER TIMESKIP so soon mid-section... D: )

VRISKA: Whaaaaaaaat?

Oh she doesn't fucking see it coming, does she. She thought she just conquered the worst of her abuse with her mother(s) just now. She is NOT ready.

VRISKA: Oh 8lah 8lah 8lah, don't be such a pussy. GCATAVROSPRITE: i LITERALLY CAN'T NOT BE A CAT,

PFFF

VRISKA: How 8ad could it even 8e?

How genre savvy could you POSSIBLY have lost track of being to make such a statement?

...Welp, she's gonna try it. Let's hope it doesn't make her backslide into being too afraid to touch it for another year or two. :C :C :C

ERISOLSPRITE: ok wwell fuck u2 for tryiin ii gue22, havve fun gettiing traumatiized.

PFFFFDHF okay that was pretty funny

VRISKA: I'm not gonna get traumatized!

Lemme guess, smash cut to a dozen and change clicks from now: "...I got fucking traumatized."? X'D

Oh here we go:

{ENTER SCRATCH'S PARLOR}

OH HERE WE GO WITH SOME PROPERLY OMINOUS MUSIC. AND I LOVE THE TYPEWRITER SOUNDS AS HIS TEXT TYPES OUT AGAINST THE PURE BACKGROUND. THIS IS DONE SO GODDAMN WELL

(Even if I still think this music still doesn't measure up to original Homestuck tunes, it's still FITTING AND WORKS GREAT for the scene, and the style and art choices are top notch, especially the pure backgroundless white font.)

Yep Vriska, a "perfectly predictable inevitability", you should have seen this coming. Did you know you'd show up here, or did you not and he's rubbing it in your face? Cause I'd bet it's the latter.

It certainly has been a while, Vriska. You seem to have blossomed nicely.

CREEPY ABUSIVE UNCLE VIBES ALREADY REACHING CRITICAL LEVELS THREE CLICKS IN

Care for a piece of candy?

GOD DAMNIT

VRISKA: Oh fuck your stupid candy, you glo8e-headed little freak.

Congratulations Vriska, you've successfully lost 99% of your chill five seconds in, have fun getting traumatized

Doc hinting at the inevitability theme by saying he'd know for a fact she'd enjoy the candy.

Although it was less the wary hunch of a scared little girl than the delightful certainty that you'd come crawling back to me, sooner or later.

FUCK THIS IS JUST RAW ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP WE ARE FULL NON-WATERED-DOWN EVERCLEAR HERE

Holy SHIT are they pulling out all the stops with his awful phrasing here, no wonder they put so big an emotional abuse trigger warning on this update on the twitter page. And it's only going to get worse.

Of course I know. I'm always watching you.

Fuck, this is just. Exposing levels of vulnerability and awful fear that Vriska had to contend with in her youth that we hadn't even PUT TOGETHER back then. Every veil of silliness has been ripped straight off to show the gory mess of how this would have psychologically affected her while she was younger, here. I used to hate the epilogues and early HS^2 a little for doing this so liberally, for making clear how RETROACTIVELY FUCKED things were in ways that made my heart ache without any balm or healing... but unlike those earlier glimpses into their past attitudes, THIS time we are fucking going to goddamn RESOLVE the psychological issues and get some clear closure on them. That's part of why the entire p666 Vriska Therapy Session / Hyperbolic Therapy Chamber is already quite nearly my favorite part of all Homestuck so far, and I DO mean ALL of Homestuck so far.

VRISKA: You know what? VRISKA: I've 8een pretty damn good. VRISKA: 8een losing track of the sweeps I've spent in here fixing pretty much everything other than the thing I actually came in here to fix, 8ut it's paying off! There's a convenient timer for the express purpose of tracking that.

Oh god don't show her. Don't make her worry about how much time she's losing in here or how much it might be reflecting out there.

VRISKA: Yeah, and I never look at it 8ecause it pisses me off!

Phew. At least she's had TIME to come to terms with worrying about it.

VRISKA: 8ut it's fine. VRISKA: It just means I've had a lot of time to think stuff over. VRISKA: Stuff that was holding me 8ack, throwing me off-course.

I get the feeling he's about to do a pretty good job trying to convince you that you can't escape this so easily. To throw the wrong sort of doubt at you about what exactly you're barreling towards. About who the real "YOU" is-- he's going to try and convince you you're the one who hurts people.

I like to think that I'm far and away the most prolific contributor to your baggage.

Fuck. This won't be good.

VRISKA: Man, I figured may8e this place was working up to something really intense, 8ut instead all I get is Glo8ehead the Gru8toucher playing puppetmaster again.

Eueuuugh that nickname D:

...Is Vriska shaking or laughing? I think she's shaking. D:

VRISKA: You fucked with a 8unch of little kids and 8lew up, then you LOST.

Lord English might have lost, but I don't feel quite like Doc Scratch really did. He pretty much gave his master the Paradox-Space-spanning story he wanted, from beginning to end.

VRISKA: You could 8arely handle me when I was six, I'm supposed to 8e scared of you NOW?

It doesn't matter that you're not six sweeps anymore, that's-- you're visibly shaking. This is a big fucking deal. This is digging into the creepiest and most disgusting parts of what was done to you.

Well, you're shaking.

There we have it.

...Vriska is pulling out the whole-ass PDF File word. I... I hope she's just trying to taunt him for manipulating children, here, and playing the uncle angle. He's not-- I mean nothing actually happened, right? Please tell me nothing physical actually fucking happened besides the cueball-explosion physical-abuse-ways, I don't want sexual abuse retconned into existence here...

Exquisite. I missed that fumbling braggadocio. It's heartening to know that this place hasn't cured you of it yet. It makes you so much fun to play with.

Yeah... the parts of Doc Scratch that Vriska is going to remember most clearly are the times where he was condescending in ways that denigrated her and confirmed her worst fears about herself, intentionally. :C

WHOA DID HE JUST SPACE SHRINK HER??? IS HE GONNA PUT HER ON THE TOY BATTLEFIELD?!

{o} ==>

Matching the scale and visuals of the situation to how she always felt. :C :C

And SICK that the music is breaking down, I'll freely give it credit for shifting to action mode.

Now then, why don't we have ourselves a little game?

Just like Dirk and Caliborn, and their union in Doc Scratch, always love to do to people.

FUCK he glitched away the "WHAT WILL YOU DO?" prompt. This is DEFINITELY about the Ultimate Riddle and Doc Scratch's ultimate lie that Vriska never had any autonomy, a lie he poisoned her with from an early age to make her even easier to manipulate both then and down the line.

DAMMIT, changing her clothes by force?! D: D: D: D:

FUCK FUCK FUCK NO THAT'S EVEN WORSE HE CHANGED HER INTO KID FORM HUGGING HERSELF FROM WHEN SHE WAS ABOUT TO BE INJURED THAT'S CREEPIER AND MORE AWFUL THAN I EVER EXPECTED NO WONDER THEY CONTENT WARNING'D THE FUCK OUT OF THIS, I'm going up there and putting some EXTRAS on there.

I don't have personal experience with this sort of abuse but I do have experience with some who HAVE and some who WORK therapeutically with those who have so this is playing out like a critical hit to triggers I can only empathize from a distance with and it's STILL getting almost too much already. Wow wow wow wow wow they didn't pull any punches.

Ah, and there she is. My favorite piece.

AAAAAA

Thief to E4; Thief takes Page.

That loud BLAM just then and the brown blood knocking her back along with her injuries, so pithy yet so HEAVY and with the meaty SFX to go with it, just, brutal, auughh.... Vriska's NOT getting out of this one lightly. She's not going to want to come back here. She's going to be too traumatized for a good while isn't she.

Thief to F5; Thief takes Maid.

Oh god I don't want to screenshot each of these...

Another meaty THUNK and some rust blood splashing her. God.

Thief to Z8; Thief takes Seer.

Even after all Terezi taunted her and so clearly loved being blind, she STILL hates herself for what she did to Terezi?? :'C

Her blood too D:

Z8 ISN'T EVEN A F8CKING P8SITION, YOU HACK!!!!!!!

She didn't even get the number of exclamation points right...

All the world's my board.

No Escape.

Thief to ∫40; Thief takes pawn.

Wait what, who?

Is that Gamzee's blood or Eridan's? She only killed Gamzee just recently in Candy... (Checks with digital color meter--) That's #680768 blood, which is closest to... Eridan's, huh, weird. Maybe Erisol will be able to help her with this later after she's run away. IF AND WHEN she can finally run away. It looks like he wants to reinforce the impression that he can make her kill ANY AND ALL of the people friends she knows, COULD have made her do it. That's horrible for her to think of herself.

Now Equius's blood. She's swearing but can't make it stop.

He even calls Kanaya (and her blood splash) nothing but her killing a pawn of his choosing.

Thief to Ω413; Thief takes pawn. Check.

This is one of the first reappearances I can remember of the arc number 413 since we started HS^2, I don't even recall it in the epilogues. What's in Check here, the kids' whole universe, the one the trolls created? Is he getting her to blame herself for that, too?

KARKAT'S BLOOD AUGH that's always tough to see whenever I have to see it, it just makes you want to protect him when you know you can't.

Vriska calling him a cheap fucking karma ghost, this a stupid fucking charade... won't stop the fact that this is real emotional pain she's feeling and real pain that was already inside her for nearly her whole life up until this vision brought it out into the open.

VRISKA: AND I'M NEVER GOING TO 8E CAUGHT UP IN YOUR FUCKING G8MES EVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!

Then why are you so afraid you will be?

Of course you will. You think you're better than me? Better than fate? Vriska, I am going to put you in situations where you have the potential to do terrible things. I am going to make things ugly. I am going to corner you. I am going to pressure you. And no matter how much "better" you claim to be, all I have to do is catch you at the wrong moment. You're one bad turn from burning all your quaint little progress to the ground. One lapse away from being mine again.

Yeah, these are ALL just more and more of her deepest fears about herself. That she can be made to kill again, so easily, no matter how far she thinks she's moved past it all. Until she internalizes the answer to the Ultimate Riddle and realizes she has the power to make the better choice-- to ALWAYS make the better choice, and he was just fooling her into thinking she never did-- how could she possibly escape this sort of trap? She can't, not yet. And that abusive cueball asshole INTENTIONALLY made sure she felt that way, because that's what kept her easy to control. Learned helplesness.

VRISKA: Get me out of here.

Fuck, she's so defeated... so helpless. Please, PLEASE let this work. Please make it so she CAN escape this memory RIGHT THE FUCK NOW and confront it later. Because I'm very afraid it won't.

VRISKA: I want a do-over. Oh, please. You of all people should know that you don't *get* do-overs. The rest of these frivolous little vision quests may feel like sparing you the effort of getting things right the first time around, but the real world doesn't work that way.

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK THAT'S EVEN WORSE THAN I EXPECTED

No, you'll just have to endure it. This won't take long.

LET HER OUT YOU FUCK

You had a good run out there, flying solo and swashbuckling around as if Light itself were yours to command. It'd be wise to remember that it's a borrowed blessing. You flourish at its whim. Continue to spit in its face and take it for granted, and it will abandon you once again, perhaps for good.

Back to the ultimate riddle shit again. Doc Scratch conning her into thinking "everything you've achieved, I made for you, or you stole from others".

Being a true Thief of Light doesn't mean being at the whim of Light, at the mercy of what she can borrow. Kanaya tried to teach her back when she wanted her to clean her room that anybody can make their own luck.

Instead Doc Scratch is playing the role of Demiurge, standing in place of the Sun and claiming all Light radiates from him, when there was plenty inside her all along.

Do you remember who you were, before it chose you? The choices you made when luck wasn't on your side? You were such a delectable little victim.

Bluh!!!!!!

Poor Vriska, with her voracious lusus. With her demanding legacy and her uncooperative, fickle little friends. So much was out of your hands, then; how could you help but mbe my lovely assistant?

Doc Scratch inherited every last ounce of Equius's nonconsensual creep factor from Arquiusprite.

And this is going into the relationship between Light and Agency again, Void and the Lack of agency-- when Vriska felt trapped, felt she didn't have a choice, that was Void hemming her in, her "bad luck streak". Agency is your ability to choose what you do next, and so is Light. That's the privilege sometimes but not exclusively known as Luck.

Vriska: You didn't fucking own me.

Still so helpless-looking, but at least a bit of defiance in her expression. Which I expect handily crushed, unfortunately...

Exactly.

Fuck! And yeah, that's his point-- he's trying to say she CHOSE to do the wrong thing when the chips were down, which is what she's most afraid she'll do again.

But she needs to internalize the fact that it was a choice... that it HAD to be a choice... is an important flaw in the way he gaslit and conned her.

But what matters is that I might as well have. You let yourself believe you had no option other than to take me up on my hard bargains, again and again. For all your talk of independence, all your combative posturing and insistence on your own freedom, you barely bothered to put up any actual resistance to my suggestions. You took the easy way out, swearing all teh while it was your move. What a phenomenal waste of your considerable talents.

Her psyche is playing against her with the cards face up here... she just has to read them correctly. This is what she's afraid of, but it's also the flaw in his logic, the source of his power over her. The idea that she never possessed Ultimate Freedom, even though he's practically telling her that she DID, just to convince her she's an awful person.

It was an insult, and a warning. You're a trump card, Vriska, but your potency is a double-edged sword. One you've gotten far too comfortable swinging around, in the past. What do you intend to fix, when you leave this place? What, I wonder, will you break? I'd encourage you to be mindful of both. Of course, you could always cast aside those pesky trivialities and go with the flow, smashing through circumstances with nary a thought for the consequences. It'd be easier. We could dance together again, just like old times. You choose.

This isn't the real Doc Scratch-- this version of him IS, in its sick perverse way, still helping her. Still giving her the hints to realize that true balance between embracing your role and yielding agency to others is CRUCIAL to make sure you're doing your best to do the right thing. Which is especially difficult when your role, your best methodology, is that of an Agency Thief. A dangerous role which must be careful with its moves so as not to gluttonously trample over the wills of others who deserve a say.

But in order to choose, to take up the mantle of Ultimate Freedom, Vriska has to TRUST herself enough TO choose.

Trusting yourself enough to entrust yourself with CHOICE is one of the hardest decisions you can possibly make. Few ever truly make that decision.

What'll it be, Vriska? Player, or piece?

Well?

Thief to ∞108.

Whoa, what now? What the fuck is this going to be?

I look forward to finding out. Good luck.

Oh, so it's sending her back to the Plot Point. ∞108, or 8108. Is this the elusive arc number of one of our timelines, of Candy? One of infinite... or 1 and 0, creation and destruction, sandwiched between two 8s, two Vriskas with perpendicular orientations, Vriska and Vrissy? Hmm...

Oh thank fucking god we're back...

HAH

thanks so much I needed that mood lifter XD

{Level Complete!}

Thanks for ENDING it too, holy shit. I don't think I could have taken much longer of something THAT heavy tonight. Wow, that was masterfully done... not dragged out, just enough to get to the true point. To a setup for her decision, for her personal answer to the Ultimate Riddle.

Which makes plenty of sense why the NEXT section seems like it's likely a weird colorless version of one of Davepetasprite^2's feathers. They're the perfect person to talk to about her Soul/Heart, the greater self and the meaning of Ultimate Freedom, just as they hinted at during their last big talk in Homestuck.

--Yeah, she didn't get as much help from that as she would have wanted... and now the candle is ABSOLUTELY burning down.

The glimpse of the next unclaimed tiers, here... are these hinting at the start of the next section? We have her inhibitions bound, then a reference to a child development psychologist, then a somatic spark-- physical contact?! Then Deja Vu, a flash of the past (or possibly even meeting her GHOST self from the ghost rain, the more vulnerable (Vriska) inverted to Page of Void mode that she BERATED TO TEARS back toward the end of Homestuck to prove how much more (Vriska) had grown than Vriska before leaving her crying and for Ghost Terezi from the pre-retcon timeline to meet)... Heuristic Grace, getting her luck back possibly... burning, getting hotter, and then a transcendental gleam? No, no that's got to just be a candle and it burning out the rest of the singularity... I still don't think Ultimate Vriska is the solution to all this, could it be?

Oh shit, I forgot about how the BLACK CANDLE is burning down due to VRISKA'S blue flame.

Recall my proposals at the beginning of this post? I completely forgot about yet one more opportunity for her escape:

(4) That Vriska's Light has been burning away at the singularity of the Plot Point this entire time, and will naturally destroy it no matter what, especially if she embraces her Agency and her inner Light. The Green Sun was not just a symbol of Light but an ultimate manifestation of Space power... and collapsed into a singularity, it could indeed also have been not just a Void but an ultimate manifestation of Time power. The years, sweeps, that Vriska is spending inside of it could be wearing it away all on its own, rapidly exhausting a reservoir of Time that alt!Calliope preserved at the center of the singularity just to give the noncanon timeline more time to exist than it otherwise would have had?!! Instead, Vriska is burning it up, and the sprites and ghosts who fell into the Black Hole during the Ghost Rain and concentrated themselves in this singularity are helping her use that naturally limited Time to arm herself and become the best version of herself she can be, so when the Plot Point collapses and shit really starts hitting the fan for the Candy timeline, they can execute a NEW plan to breach into the Canon/Meat timeline and do something so incredibly important that it reseats the timelines outside Paradox Space in new relevance stolen out from Canon. Something incredibly important, like unexpectedly facilitating Sburb's creation in what Dirk and Rosebot are trying to do, or sendificating the kids the final frog they used to create this Universe, or something, which came from somewhere we've still never resolved...

So many interesting possibilities here. And only two or three more updates until we'll know for sure what and how!

I'll probably continue to be too busy the next week or two to be in the mood to chew through bonus material or commentary. Talk to you next upd8 instead, most likely! :D

[randomclam24]

Let me lay down some rap honkey white boy. In non Japan, if you invoke either of the major titles by Teriyaki Tomato, they will fully invoke the more Japanese-oriented Siren games on *you* absolutely all the way if you invoke them on leftists seriously in a way that even conceptually exists - and look at that wording - out of that uncanny valley of address came the title which makes the impression like it *could* be French but that could be gay, "Alliance Alive", translated meaning I'm a big fat idiot, can't you see (This was the most popular game in Japan when it came out on 3DS) This is why we say these are just people who want to be ruled

The underlying production of the title was as followed, conceptually exist (thus founding the premise for the theory of Elon Musk virtual existence) - the powers over America are coming from consensus overseas and saying, we need ourselves to live with PRIDE

3/17 The Alex Kister drama - I learned about it by not actually watching any of them but downloading them all so I would have the feng shui of the titles which predefines the conclusion of the viewers

The last video Kister made was basically fashioned in conclusion after the wad Unloved, where in the second-floor room map link, the introduction starts by showing an abyss into a hallway. That's all there is to this. By doing these explanations, I've been rationalizing the way for people whose existence is limited by the scope of doing your homework(, as it is a means by which, following the legends and conscriptions of people past, you can emulate human salvation without actually having to do the human salvation). People like Nick Fuentes are just mad they can't even do this. They're all idiots.

Anyway once you get the red key by spamming resurrect a whole bunch of times since I know no one in this drama is trying, since the author of this wad is jewish, uniquely, I figure that's what this new level is about once you get either the red or yellow key. This is what you associatedly inherently turn *into* when you're alt-righter. It's a bad word.

3/17 In the heat of being unable to meaningfully outlet their urges for five thousand generations, Trump supporters became The Ultimate Torment and Torture, especially by the open area of Beyond the Dark Portal, which is basically every Hollywood movie climax of all time definitively like go sit there and be its bitch for like five years

3/19 The Internet has been out on my main computer about since the time of the last posting.

Trying to actually beat the normal ending of this thing without extra lives - by the way I'm using a PS3 controller for this to deliberately work through possible inconvenience in order to preserve the sense of challenge that has left since I have gotten experienced at modern mouse and keyboard: the master sensitivity had to be set to .3 with the actual aiming controller stick set to 1.7 - specifically This gameplay has reminded me, back when I learned the Doom editing programs, one of my higher goals was to recreate Link to the Past in Doom - I had already done so with the entire overworld of the original game So what's that? That's a high I couldn't sustain

Update Unloved 2, only on Hurt Me Plenty, not Ultra-Violence I haven't felt the effects of gangstalking personally because like Mario 64 was actually at this level from childhood, unlike most other people, I've limited the amount of people that can get into me personally by a selectivity process. But back from childhood, whenever I was with the cousins playing, eventually they would dogpile me and after a certain point, I would stop fighting because it would get too rough and let them walk all over me If it came down to a procedure, I would let it go wherever it wants

3/22 I finished the beta with the last outburst of Faded City left unaffected You really don't - it still holds total precedence Hence the rest of the game is not made I have 'liminally' just not enough stars to get to fabled sacred Wario Apparition sector >Suddenly at the verge of not attention span, le reversed stair Everything would be cold(and misty) - unloved2beta1 is still our bottom-line backdrop, with no defense.

3/23 night By now it's become clear this playthrough's purpose has been to be true to proving what has already been known that I didn't want to think about, and ignoring any stars that would give the usual runaround sense of carefreeness what-so-ever. By this point, it's become conscious that the people in question would want people like myself dead in the streets because they'd cause too much trouble: so what 'meaning' you want to interpret out of the ripples in the Wario Apparition sector, it's completely out there you see, this is what deeper interpretable meaning they never went any further into

3/23 I installed Func Map Jam 2 and Arcane Dimensions in the new release of Quake - It worked easily enough In Arcane Dimensions, I activated active spawns mode and entered The Realm of Enceladus Right from the bat, aside from feeling weird from the Eastern religious symbolism in the start area, right outside, there being just one floating enemy It's not the thing itself, but the fact of the atmosphere Even if you had this kind of atmosphere in games, people would not appreciate it They're obviously preoccupied

3/24 Introducing myself to that level reminded me of the spirit of Spongebob and Patrick making a snow fort in their yard just to have Squidward not appreciate it The entire world is looking at us |Trump supporters| like the meme about ||Republicans||:- "I'm a Republican, and I'm just gonna wall everything off and have muh guns because I'm made of--**beef jerkey**"

5/11

After the memes of kids' shows from 2009, you can't just tell people the not Taylor Swift song but that other girl isn't just what every black thinks driving you by with le bass boost

5/12 Essentially forming the origin for the mandatory introductions "I'm a this, I'm a that", (9) from Touhou means at this point you have to emulate a jew like "have to hand it to them". That's not not mandatory, our ability, like the thing in the eye of TNT 2, to justify beside, is by leaning

Edit - it's not an edit. What comes when? We don't have a culture we're *barren*

5/18 Alright as coroporate executives, we have to do something Within the public graces of what salvation constitutes, it can only be within the bounds of eraudica, um probably Senran Kagura Burst Renewal, and I don't know Kangaroo Jack or someshit(*get* to it

5/19 crack of midnight- I will not accept a Freddy Frekker remix without audio distortion like the battery-dead Homer Simpson bottle opener etc. But back in the day I looked at one actually like that and just said fuck that

[newmusickarl]

Top 101 Songs of 2022

2022 has been an exceptional year for new music and as always, I thought I would share with you my favourite songs of the last 12 months. Unlike my albums list, this one is unranked as this isn’t necessarily what I think are the best songs of the year, but more the songs that have ultimately come to soundtrack my 2022. Also, I find it impossible to favour songs over one another half the time – these are simply different tunes for different moods.

In this year’s playlist are plenty of lesser-known gems from some of my favourite new discoveries, the year’s best album cuts, my favourite collaborations, guilty pleasures and, of course, some of 2022’s biggest singles and club bangers. As always for the sake of diversity, I’ve kept it to strictly one song per artist (excluding a couple who are also included on other tracks as features).

Now I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is yes – as the official Sound of the Summer for 2022 here in the UK, Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush is included, despite the fact it was originally released in 1985. Also, the playlist is 101 songs this year rather than the standard 100, as a certain Miss Simz came along very late in the day and needed to be included. So this year you get a bonus track!

Listen to the Playlist:

Listen on Spotify here

Listen on Apple Music here

Listen on Let’s Loop here

My Top 101 songs of 2022 in alphabetical order by artist:

1. Philadelphia by alt-J

2. Northern Star by The Amazons

3. Body Paint by Arctic Monkeys

4. One More Night by bexx

5. BREAK MY SOUL by Beyoncé

6. Bread Song by Black Country, New Road

7. If We Get Caught by Bloc Party

8. SUCKER by Blood Red Shoes

9. Visions by Blossoms

10. Wicked & Bad by Bob Vylan

11. Rosewood by Bonobo

12. MAN ON THE MOON by BROCKHAMPTON

13. Used To Know Me by Charli XCX

14. FLAG (Feel Like A Girl) by Coach Party

15. Holiday by Confidence Man

16. Aquamarine by Danger Mouse & Black Thought (featuring Michael Kiwanuka)

17. See You When The End’s Near by Day Wave (featuring KennyHoopla)

18. Set You Free by DC Gore

19. Kids by Deaf Havana

20. Rain by Deco

21. Far From Over by Deserta

22. I Don’t Need To Hide by DMA’s

23. Strawberry Lemonade by Editors

24. Additions Attachments by Elder Island

25. B.O.T.A (Baddest of them All) by Eliza Rose & Interplanetary Criminal

26. I Want A Love Like This by Everything Everything

27. Forget The Name by Express Office Portico

28. Forever In Sunset by Ezra Furman

29. Not Okay by Fickle Friends

30. 2am by Foals

31. Jackie Down The Line by Fontaines D.C.

32. the angel of 8th ave. by Gang of Youths

33. Cold by George FitzGerald

34. Biggest Mood Ever by HAAi & Alexis Taylor

35. As It Was by Harry Styles

36. Giving The World Away by Hatchie

37. Gone by The Haunted Youth

38. Polygod by Hayden Thorpe

39. Can You Afford To Lose Me? By Holly Humberstone

40. Not Alone by Hot Chip

41. If I Die Tomorrow by Jack White

42. The Old Style Raiders by Jamie T

43. The Drum by Josef Salvat

44. Mirrors by Just Mustard

45. More Pressure by Kae Tempest (featuring Kevin Abstract)

46. Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) by Kate Bush

47. Renegade by Kavinsky (featuring Cautious Clay)

48. Sailor by KAWALA

49. N95 by Kendrick Lamar

50. Bittersweet, TN by Kevin Morby (featuring Erin Rae)

51. Willing To Trust by Kid Cudi & Ty Dolla $ign

52. Neverland by Kyla La Grange

53. What Have You Done To Me? By Lane 8 (featuring Arctic Lake)

54. Happy New Year by Let’s Eat Grandma

55. Camera Chimera by LIES

56. X by Little Simz

57. Forever Is Too Long by Low Island

58. Hate by Loyle Carner

59. Set My Mind Free by Matt Guy

60. Doomscroller by Metric

61. Brooklyn. Friday. Love. By The Midnight

62. Goosebumps by MØ

63. The Foundations of Decay by My Chemical Romance

64. Still Call You Home by The Mysterines

65. Weird Goodbyes by The National (featuring Bon Iver)

66. Looking Back by The Native

67. Self Care by Nile Marr

68. anotherlife by Nilüfer Yanya

69. You Better Mean It by Nimmo

70. I Love You, Baby by Opus Kink

71. Call Me When You Leave by Oscar and the Wolf

72. Radio by Paolo Nutini

73. This Is Why by Paramore

74. words by piri & tommy

75. Happy Birthday In The Sky by Placebo

76. Lose Our Minds by Porij

77. The Rip by Porridge Radio

78. Reputation by Post Malone

79. Diet Coke by Pusha T

80. Black Summer by Red Hot Chili Peppers

81. The Void or Nothing by Sad Boys Club

82. Wild Grey Ocean by Sam Fender

83. Headspace by Sharon Van Etten

84. On the Run by The Sherlocks

85. We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings by The Smile

86. Funny Way Of Showing It by Spector

87. That Boy on the Stage by Suede

88. Little Blue by Swim Deep

89. Never Good Enough by Tom A. Smith

90. Remind Me by Tom Grennan

91. MAGIC by Vince Staples & Mustard

92. Champion by Warpaint

93. Operator Error by We Are Scientists

94. How Do I Make You Love Me? By The Weeknd

95. If You Ever Leave I’m Coming With You by The Wombats

96. Widow by Working Men’s Club

97. Leader of the Pack by Wunderhorse

98. Pour Another by Yard Act

99. Burning by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

100. Haunt by Yumi Zouma

101. Happiness by The 1975

Hope you enjoy and keep an eye out later today for the first of my Top 10 Albums of the Year!

[ithilwen-lionheart]

Thranduil Imagines : Imagine #3:

Imagine Thranduil discovering you on a snowy winter day, half frozen and lost, trying to decide if he can trust you enough to bring you to shelter

Alt.

Of Angels and Snowflakes

Pre-work text notes: Graphic depiction of violence and dark themes may not be suitable for very young and/or queasy audiences, please proceed at your own risk and with due caution.

Companion Song: A Team - Ed Sheeran

Work Text:

"

Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray to the Valars, my soul to keep.

Angels watch me through the night,

And wake me up with the morning light...

"

The Valars did as the prayers had told and as her father had taught her they would. The Valars had kept her soul and watched her through the night.

It was all they ever did. Watched her.

As fire and metal laid waste of the bricks and wood of their home, as the orcs pillaged their village and massacred every single soul that wasn't as black as theirs.

As the pristine white blanket that laid upon the earth was tainted in rubies and obsidian.

They watched.

They watched the orcs assert undue dominance over countless of helpless villagers. Unseen ears seemingly deaf to the haunting shrieks for salvation that never came, cries that were so abruptly cut off by the shot of an arrow or the swing of a jagged rusted blade until it dissipated into sickening wet gurgles before disappearing into nothingness.

It was a sound she can ascertain would forever haunt her for the rest of her life. Much like a lurking phantom in the dark, a nightmare in the midst of the morning sun- always waiting for a single chink in her reverie to maraud her fractured spirit once more.

They watched her with her hands clasped in front of her chest, inside a wooden closet as she prayed to them over and over again in hushed sobs. Sleep all gone from her system and replaced by cold sweat and fear that shook her to the very core.

As those filth barged through their door, slashed through her father, then through her mother and freed her older brother's head from his stalwart shoulders. They watched.

They watched her (E/C) eyes wide in horror and stripped of its innocence, too overcome with shock to even provide an outlet for the brewing warm deluge behind her eyelids.

As she was bathed in the sick crimson gore that became of her kin and as she ran away with what little strength she had left on her weakened and shaking knees, they watched.

As she ran through splintering burning wood, shards of glass and unrelenting snow with bare feet bloody, bruised and purple. (Y/N) could feel naught the Valar's compassion or their hearts.

All there was were their unseen eyes trained on her with what felt too strongly not unlike cruel entertainment whilst she ran for what little left of life she still saw worth living.

Her lungs burned as she struggled to breathe in air tainted by smoke, iron and burning flesh and it took all of her feeble strength to keep last night's supper down.

Last night's supper. My coming of age. Not once had she even dared spare the thought of it being her last with her family.

It was simply too much to bear.

The merry-making, the smiles on their familiar faces as they presented her with the necklace that now hung heavy on her neck.

The thoughts coaxed upon her eyes tears of terrifying intensity A deluge that rendered her sight completely useless as she continued to run, unaware of the foreboding woods her treacherous feet are leading her into.

Trip and fall she went through thick roots that crawled, spiraled and dominated the forest floors. Going deeper and deeper till the entangled canopy of roots above her head grew heavier and darker, until she knew no longer what sight there was to behold- if there was ever even any.

Till she knew not where she was or if there even be any chances of escape from the labyrinth she had walked willingly into.

It is only with this that she found an odd sense of comfort. For she knew that it is a curse that would betide her pursuers as much as it would do her.

Her father taught her how to pray to the Valars for guidance as much as he had taught herself and her brother the dangers of Mirkwood.

Wretched fate befalls those who dare walk the Elvenking's domain unaided and uninvited, her father had said. It is one that ills the mind and fosters madness if not death.

For as magical as the woods may seem to be, within it lurks a danger that protects the woods from trespassers, not one born from an enchantment to guard but out of one brought forth by pure darkness.

An evil only the Elvenking himself has the means to fight off against.

Twigs stuck against wild and bloodied (H/C) locks if not on battered (S/C) skin. Having hit her head numerous of times, (Y/N) had long lost the ability to process pain much less the dangers brought upon by the darkness her father had spoken of.

She laid herself down on the cold ground, propping herself against one of the many great trees that guarded the expanse of the Elvenking's woods.

Her brittle bones creaked as her muscles tore at what little movement she did, chest heaving painfully against her broken ribcage with every breath she took that tasted heavily of acid and iron.

She need not look directly at her limbs to witness the damage her feet had sustained for the abundance of blood leading to the spot from where she lay had spoken for itself more than her cracked blue lips could ever dream do at this point.

As her dimming eyes started fluttering close, she regaled herself with thoughts of a strange sense of calm overtaking her tired form like an uncanny blanket.

Warm and comforting,

like home.

However so, it was a comfort that cannot compare to the solace brought upon her wavering spirit by the whisper of a silvery voice, foreign and deep and seemingly one with the woods,

"It is too cold outside for any fae to fly."

It came from a figure most bright, unlike any human or elf her humble eyes had seen for the entirety of her short life. Standing tall and imposing like the trees that surrounded them, it loomed in contrast upon her fragile broken form before going down elegantly on one knee in front of her.

His hair is the finest of pale silken threads, as if bearing the very lights of the moon that hung above their heads. Features like marble sculpted by the Valars themselves composed his face: a perfect nose, enticing thin lips, smooth yet angular contours void of any earthly imperfections, and eyes the most ethereal glaciers of the lightest blue- confusion and apprehension dancing upon its calm surface creating naught but the tiniest of ripples.

His entire visage holds the grace of a king, an Elvenking- wise and beautiful as he is a stout warrior wearing the wariness brought forth by the scars of battle.

"Who are you? What foolery brings you into my forest?" his deep voice calls out, demanding an answer.

Taking a bloodied cheek in the firm yet gentle grasp of his slender hand, his piercing gaze searches her weakening ones underneath furrowed thick brows, guarded yet aware of her fatal injuries, "Do you not know the peril you so willingly placed yourself in and with your injuries nonetheless?"

Her eyes grew heavier, as did her body. The palm covering her cheek radiated a warmth that thawed her freezing blood and sparked within her the desire to lay to rest.

"Are you li-" his voice started growing distant and despite of it seemingly starting to bark orders to his elves, it was a sound that lulled (Y/N) as the shadows finally overtook her.

----------

"Men, mount your steads and scour the forest for whatever it may had been that had lead this elleth into our woods." Thranduil ordered his guards, struggling to maintain his calm as he scooped the frail body in his arms. Too starkly did he feel every creak of broken bones and every pull on torn sinews, so much so that it doused him in apprehension.

Whatever it may had been that hurt this elleth so badly may still be out there and until it is dealt with, it continues to pose as a threat to her, himself and his people all the same.

He hastily strode to his elk with no impediment. She was lighter than he expected, a shattered feather in his arms. He knows not where she had come from but was certain death had laid its hands upon her- the haunted look in her eyes was not unknown to him.

Glacier blue eyes softened as he stared down at her, that look was one of loss. This elleth had lost what he had too all those moons back - his father, to war - however, unlike him she appears to not have the means to fight.

Unlike him, she looked barely older than he had been.

His thoughts were cut off by his son who called out to him, "Ada, allow me to help," came the prince's measured voice as he momentarily took hold of the injured elleth, "What evil can you fathom is behind such monstrous deed, ada?"

The Elvenking allowed himself a sigh and a slight shake of the head as he mounted his steed, "Those orc filths are the only ones I know who would be both bold and foolish enough to execute such savagery. No men or dwarf would dare lay their hands on my people, not in the way this elleth had gone through."

"Renegades?" Legolas implored, aiding his father in settling the weightless body back in his arms. He feels an anger boiling within him as he pieced together the amount of torture the poor nameless elleth must have sustained for her to think that venturing off into their woods would grant her safety.

"That is the lot of those disdainful scum." his father spat upon gritted teeth, "However, our concern lies on which of those filth dare cross our lands and threaten the tranquility of our people." his eyes burned light blue flames into the night in respect to his rage, one that kindled in unmatched intensity for this is his realm that they speak of, his elves that were jeopardized.

Remembering the elleth in his arms, he gave his son an approving nod of the head as a gesture of his gratitude. Tugging on the reigns of his elk, the Elvenking directed it back to the path leading to his kingdom,

"Legolas, take half of your men and gather the others. Search the woods and meet me at the gates of the palace."

The Prince nods and turns his steed on the opposite direction of his father, "And if our quest proves fruitful?"

"You are to send Farhen back to report to me and proceed with caution. I shall come to regroup with you shortly."

It is with this that Legolas places his knuckle against his chest and extends it towards his father with a slight bow of his head, "Understood, my king."

Thranduil returns the gesture with equal sobriety before sending his son off with his blessing.

-----------

Movement woke her up from her pain induced slumber, one that can only be brought upon by the hooves of a tall horse as it traversed dense terrain.

Curious, I had not once heard of the involvement of horses with one's passing into the afterlife...

"-Neither had I heard of any ellon or elleth so willingly entering the borders of Mirkwood so blindly and without arms." a sonorous echo resounds in her head. One that she could swear she heard somewhere not too long ago.

From an angel.

Are you an angel?

A delicate shift, "And what, pray tell, my lady, is an angel?" the angel humors her delusion with a curious inquiry. How odd that this one knows not of his own kind.

An angel is a servant of the Valars. Celestial beings made from sunlight itself, winged and mighty- an embodiment of all in Arda that is kind and beautiful.

"You see me as kind?"

Yes.

She feels a slight thrumming against the side of her arm and underneath her palms. Warm. It was followed shortly by a gentle chuckle.

"I assure you, even for myself, that is too bold of a declaration to make."

A hum. If she were to cross the gates of Valinor to the sound of this voice and this warmth then she could not think of any other way she would rather go.

Alleviated by her troubles and engulfed in the safety of her angel's embrace. The angel that would watch over her as she walked through the darkness of death, the very one that would guide her towards the light of the afterlife.

And maybe there she could see his regal face once more. The very one that had kept her dreadful memories at bay.

Perhaps the Valars had heard my prayers afterall...

----------

The nonsensical utterances had stopped just when the Elvenking had but a gaze of his gates from a distance. The body in his arms growing heavier with each breath that got weaker.

Within his grasp he held the fragile hand that extended into the air not too long ago as he watched her youthful face turn as white as the first snowflake that had kissed the tip of her nose.

It was then that Thranduil had been reminded of how close the elleth is to death.

Muttering a sharp curse in Sindar, he urged his elk forwards as fast as it could go.

----------

The world burned around her in bright carmine red and hot embers. Depicting scenes of absolute terror so vividly as if painted upon the same canvass by layers upon layers of the strongest paint until it becomes a reality no sane man would be able to withstand. It stuck on her like cold sweat that increases the intensity of the freezing bites attacking her already numbing body.

In front of her lay a hellish montage of the night she was certain she had died. However, from all the cacophony before her none had hit her quite as hard as the recurring memories of her family's demise.

Never again would her reverie be of her mother's sweet lips muttering to her lullabies of old, for now, cursing (Y/N) in its stead is her death rattle as a knife plunged through her throat;

Never again would her reverie be of her father's whose strong arms wrapped around her frail form to reassure her that she's safe, but of those limbs going limp as a sword was driven through his loving chest;

And never again would her reverie be of the playful face of her brother's turning towards her with love but of his severed head lolling against their bloodied wooden floors until it faced her with glassy eyes halfway in to rolling back into their sockets, mouth agape in absolute terror.

Never again would she see the light of dawn radiating with the smiles on their faces...

Never again would she feel the warmth in a home where she truly belonged...

Woe betide the chasm the elleth's heart had vacated. From its depths played the echoes of a struggling thing so desperately yearning for death underneath layers of broken bone, muscle, and spirit. A sense of finality, a conclusion to the nightmare her life had been reduced to.

She reaches out into the darkness, beckoning it -anyone, anything- who might see her in such a pitiful state to take her- heart and soul, into a deep slumber, a permanent one so that she may not wake up in a world where her family was no more.

(Y/N) reaches out and feels the air the all consuming darkness had offered, a brush of crisp coldness against her battered fingertips, cool against her feverish skin.

So this is how the afterlife truly is- an eternal winter dressed in velvet black. A vast nothingness void of every bit of ourselves that ever was. A slate in unforgiving obsidian too dark for anything to be rewritten, too hard for any mark to be made.

She vaguely remembers an angel dressed in pure starlight and for a moment her heart flutters as she recalls how he had been her guide. He would have to have been a gorgeous ellon, that much she can be certain. From the way he spoke and the sound of his voice, the depth of his chuckle and the warmth of his chest.

Her mother told her stories of angels, how they used to be creatures not at all different from them. Humans, dwarves, and elves, sentient beings only ever set apart by the Valars for the remarkable lives they led in the name of virtue and valor. How upon death they are gifted a pair of angelic wings reminiscent of their righteousness, a massive collection of white purity that pulses until their very being is reverberating in its incandescence.

That guide of hers is as her mother had depicted them in their stories. (Y/N) could still feel the silky blond sheen of his hair that slid effortlessly through her fingertips, the fine sculpted nose and strong jaw in unforgiving marmoreal grace, the thickness of his brows and the length of his lashes, the perfect shape of his thin lips appearing to have shot both daggers and roses-

And his eyes, oh, what would she have given for a mere glimpse at them if the Valars would be so kind as to bestow upon her parting such a wonted gift as her angel's earthly visage.

It was as if the afterlife is a recollection of all the sensations that had lulled her into her eternal slumber- except for her sight. Just an ensemble of temperatures, textures, movements and sound. A handsome voice continuously humoring her increasingly senseless babbling about angels.

Now if only fate would allow her to put a face to that voice then perhaps she can go in peace. Finally be with her departed family once again with a sated curiosity that would no longer bother her in the afterlife.

-----

From all the bliss the seemingly endless blackness has had to offer, (Y/N) had started feeling discomfort. First a weight settling into her bones, then soreness of the muscles, a feverish warmth upon her skin, and finally- pain.

Excruciating pain that ran both deep and on the surface. Pins and needles and axes stuck on chests, of seared and torn flesh and blackened purple bruises- as if her entire body was on fire and she was burning inside and out.

Her (E/C) hues shot open and her lips shuddered in a helpless sound that would have somewhat resembled a pained moan had her throat not been incredibly dry and her ribs not broken.

Tears obscured her vision entirely but after one, two, three tortured blinks she was able to make out her surroundings. It all started with the high wooden ceilings made visible by the intricate yet modest scones in every corner that kept the room glowing a yellowish white as if they were a group of little full moons, every inch of the room she found herself in looked to be carved from a very big and ornate tree- the bed posts, the trunk at the foot of the bed, and the armchair pulled close beside her no different.

Everything was in a shade of rich woodland green and russet, a strong semblance of the lively dance of late spring before it tumbles so elegantly upon the last of its legs and ultimately succumbs to the calls of the earth from where it once belonged as autumn reawakens. The silken sheets underneath her body in harmony with the chill that flits into the room from the floor-to-ceiling window a few paces from her left in a cold and delicate touch not unlike the early breaths of winter as it graces all creatures with its unforgiving lips that forever sought warmth, a warmth that only the sun at its highest peak on midday summer can ever dream attain-

At least before (Y/N) was once more made aware of how mercilessly hot her broken body is and the concept almost seemed pale in comparison. It was an uncomfortable warmth, one that hailed with it an entire world of ailment and absolute fragility- one that burns like dragon fire.

That was before he spoke- her angel. 

And this time he had a visage, a physique, and clothes and he moves in ways that she was familiar with- like an ellon of regal blood. His hair was as she had imagined it to be, twin waterfalls of the palest blond that spilled over his broad shoulders as he leaned over her. The entire shape of him emanated a strength that is resolute and graceful underneath the expensive fabrics of his shifting cloak and tunic, one that can carry the burdens that came with the circlet that rested on his forehead and the weight of a sword in strong yet cautious hands as if they were made to protect rather than harm. The figure looked to be tall as his knees would occasionally inelegantly bump against the side table right across from him, in which times his beautiful thin lips would form utterances the elleth is still yet to hear (albeit, she can somehow be certain that the words are everything but holy, judging by the look of complete and utter disdain plastered on her angel's undoubtedly handsome face as he glared daggers at the offending furniture) before looking back at her with nothing but worry and concern in his glacier blue eyes.

Such an exquisite color that is a novelty even among the race of elves. (Y/N) would know. She'd prided herself with being a connoisseur of colors and words to that of which had caused a dent in the heart and soul- and what may be of more relevance to that respect than a creature's eyes?

She'd seen eyes in every shades of azure, hazels, pines, and obsidian. There was the occasional lilacs and browns that were so light they were almost gold, however, this particular shade of the most ethereal blue had only ever been known to belong to one ellon-

And the realization dawned upon her. The one who had found her in the woods, the ellon dressed in moonlight.

The only Elvenking, Thranduil Oropherion. King of the Woodland Elves, the feared monarch governing the woods by the east of Rhovanion. Her father had warned her about overstepping into his lands as he is known to be quite protective of his decaying realm, most of his words made the king seem stubborn and ruthless. An Elvenking that ruled with a stone heart, iron fists, and deafened ears. A king that was as cold and unforgiving as his eyes were.

Only now, (Y/N) knew how wrong her father had been with a great many of things. She knew he meant well but he himself failed to see how his overprotectiveness made him blind to certain things as well. How these exact traits molded him into what his very perception of the Elvenking had been.

For it was never an angel that had saved her from her apparent doom, not an abstract being that flew on wings made of spun virtues and gold and summoned by prayers- but someone real. 

Someone who hadn't needed be summoned by reverence and pleas, a king who'd been known to ride an elk so skillfully in battle at immense speeds had taken her in his arms to get her to safety. Someone who isn't as righteous as the Valars' servants are but cared nevertheless, cared enough to take her in. 

Cared enough to take a dying stranger into his kingdom. 

She was never going to die- not as she had thought she would because Elvenking Thranduil Oropherion was never as cold-hearted as the tales had made him seem to be, that much she knew when he saw the grief in his eyes. As if he knew something he thought she didn't already know.

Loss.

The next that his lips had formed words, (Y/N) could finally hear his sonorous voice crooning alongside a moving, breathing body. One that she could see with absolute clarity and certainty, one that she could feel. 

His cold hand on her cheek was as cool as his words and his breath were but his smile was gentle and warm, knowing,  when he says-

"It is too cold outside for angels to fly tonight, *pin gil . For now, you sleep."

And it was then that she knew she was finally safe.

For the Valars had listened to her prayers, however, she needed not any angel to watch over her as she slept for she had beside her the Elvenking of Mirkwood and a promise of yet another morning-

And that was more than she could ever ask for.

Amidst the pain on her chest, a weight had seemingly been lifted off the necklace she wore.

-----FIN (?)

*pin gil - lit. little bright spark/star.

[rockislandadultreads]

Diverse Fantasy: Epic Adventures, Historical Quests, & Memorable Characters

Song of Blood & Stone by L. Penelope

The kingdoms of Elsira and Lagrimar have been separated for centuries by the Mantle, a magical veil that has enforced a tremulous peace between the two lands. But now, the Mantle is cracking and the True Father, ruler of Lagrimar and the most powerful Earthsinger in the world, finally sees a way into Elsira to seize power. All Jasminda ever wanted was to live quietly on her farm, away from the prying eyes of those in the nearby town. Branded an outcast by the color of her skin and her gift of Earthsong, she’s been shunned all her life and has learned to steer clear from the townsfolk…until a group of Lagrimari soldiers wander into her valley with an Elsiran spy, believing they are still in Lagrimar. Through Jack, the spy, Jasminda learns that the Mantle is weakening, allowing people to slip through without notice. And even more troubling: Lagrimar is mobilizing, and if no one finds a way to restore the Mantle, it might be too late for Elsira. Their only hope lies in uncovering the secrets of the Queen Who Sleeps and Jasminda’s Earthsong is the key to unravel them. Thrust into a hostile society and a world she doesn’t know, Jasminda and Jack race to unveil an ancient mystery that might offer salvation.

Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone

A god has died, and it’s up to Tara, first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring Him back to life before His city falls apart. Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without Him, the metropolis’s steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot. Tara’s job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in. Her only help: Abelard, a chain-smoking priest of the dead god, who’s having an understandable crisis of faith. When Tara and Abelard discover that Kos was murdered, they have to make a case in Alt Coulumb’s courts—and their quest for the truth endangers their partnership, their lives, and Alt Coulumb’s slim hope of survival. Set in a phenomenally built world in which justice is a collective force bestowed on a few, craftsmen fly on lightning bolts, and gargoyles can rule cities, Three Parts Dead introduces readers to an ethical landscape in which the line between right and wrong blurs.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

After her mother's mysterious death, a young woman is summoned to the floating city of Sky in order to claim a royal inheritance she never knew existed in the first book in this award-winning fantasy trilogy from the NYT bestselling author of The Fifth Season.

Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, she is summoned to the majestic city of Sky. There, to her shock, Yeine is named an heiress to the king. But the throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is not easily won, and Yeine is thrust into a vicious power struggle with cousins she never knew she had. As she fights for her life, she draws ever closer to the secrets of her mother's death and her family's bloody history.

With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, Yeine will learn how perilous it can be when love and hate -- and gods and mortals -- are bound inseparably together.

Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay

It begins simply. Shen Tai, son of an illustrious general serving the Emperor of Kitai, has spent two years honoring the memory of his late father by burying the bones of the dead from both armies at the site of one of his father's last great battles. In recognition of his labors and his filial piety, an unlikely source has sent him a dangerous gift: 250 Sardian horses. You give a man one of the famed Sardian horses to reward him greatly. You give him four or five to exalt him above his fellows, propel him towards rank, and earn him jealousy, possibly mortal jealousy. Two hundred and fifty is an unthinkable gift, a gift to overwhelm an emperor. Wisely, the gift comes with the stipulation that Tai must claim the horses in person. Otherwise he would probably be dead already...

[fresh-prince-of-denmark]

The Star — Literary References Analysis Part 6: Name One Hero Who Was Happy

Welcome to the (probably?) final part of analyzing the literary references found scattered in each of the endings of Cyberpunk 2077. If you haven’t read the other parts, you should do so through the masterpost here! The Devil was rough — straight up an indirect roast toward V for being an idiot. But I’m thankful to report that The Star has a far for optimistic tale.

I found two references, and believe me, I looked everywhere. If I missed something, let me know! Otherwise this part is fairly short. I may move on later to analyze the meanings behind all of Misty’s readings during the credits, but for now let’s dig into the two references I found: Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy, and a portion of The Illiad (Book 9). 

The first reference is really subtle, and real easy to miss (I did the first time I played). If you speak to Cassidy before leaving, he’ll say to you:

“See the child. He is pale and thin, he wears a thin and ragged linen shirt.”

He’ll then basically follow this by saying you look like shit, but the family will never turn it’s back on you. This quote is the first line of Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West. If that makes your bowels ache and quake like it did mine, then you may be entitled to financial compensation for pain and suffering as a result of being forced to read The Road as a teenager. I don’t know what absolute fuckshit McCarthy was on, but I want none of it. Cormac McCarthy actually ties into Johnny’s story in a really weird way. Not only does McCarthy also have a novel called No Country for Old Men (ring a bell?), but the story of Blood Meridian has striking similarities to Johnny’s past in the wars. Both characters leave whatever childhood they had, for whatever reason, to join an American militia/military situation in their early teens. Both of these wars take place in souther/California Mexico, and our protagonist sees unimaginable horrors. Both barely escape with their lives.

Less related, but you want to know another weird coincidence? The book opens with three epigraphs. The first is by French poet  Paul Valéry. Valéry. As in “just-V-only-people-who-really-know-me-can-call-me-Valerie”. Hmm…

There’s a lot more we could do with McCarthy’s novel: Ask ourselves who the Judge in Johnny’s story is (Smasher? Alt? Johnny?), and what it says about the nature of man, violence, immortality, blah blah blah. If that’s something you’re into, have at it. But why does Cassidy say this to you? Why choose the book that haunts AP English students dreams just to tell you that you look like shit? Why mention the idea of a found family having your back in the same breath as a quote from a book that asserts that family absolutely in no way has your back, and that you either die before they do or they’ll let you down in some way (either by dying and leaving you or stabbing you in the back)? Cassidy, a certified literary hoe, would know that Blood Meridian doesn’t exactly have a rosy outlook on family, found or blood. 

I think the answer is simple: at the end of the book, we don’t know jack squat.

Just like we don’t know exactly where V’s going, or what Panem’s contacts will be able to pull, we don’t really know what happens to the protagonist at the end of Blood Meridian. Is V truly marked for death? Is Johnny truly gone forever, or is there a chance that his body is out there somewhere, and he could be restored? Is Mikoshi supposed to symbolize hell’s fire or heaven’s grace? (Or something completely different, if we listen to my boi Blake).

It’s such a weird quote to pick, such a weird story to pick. I wish I could derive more meaning from it, but  McCarthy isn’t exactly my area of expertise. If anyone more familiar with his work has more to add, please do!

The next piece we find I believe provides more answers to our ending. It is a section of the Illiad, Book 9, found in a shard before you leave with Panem. For those of you unfamiliar with the Illiad, it is about the end of the Trojan War. If you recall, we get another piece of this story in The Devil ending via a section of The Odyssey, which tells the story of Odysseus trying to return home after said war. In this section, Agamemnon has just made a generous offer to Achilles if he aids in helping end the Trojan War, which he has previously refused over a matter of honor. According to Fate, Achilles is slated to die once Hector is slain, which is exactly why Agamemnon needs Achilles to fight since Hector is on some X-games shit. The shard contains Achilles response to the offer of riches, wealth, and the safe return of his favorite slave (who Agamemnon has taken from him):

For my mother the goddess, silver-footed Thetis, telleth me that twofold fates are bearing me toward the doom of death: if I abide here and war about the city of the Trojans, then lost is my home-return, but my renown shall be imperishable; but if I return home to my dear native land, lost then is my glorious renown, yet shall my life long endure, neither shall the doom of death come soon upon me. Aye, and I would counsel you others also to sail back to your homes; seeing there is no more hope that ye shall win the goal of steep Ilios...

Achilles is grappling here with a tough choice; if he stays and fights, he will die a legend. But if he goes home, he will live a long but quiet life.

Sound familiar? What is it going to be, V? Quiet life, or blaze of glory?

The Sun ending seems to be that blaze of glory, much like the ending Achilles’ eventually is forced into. But The Star seems to be the choice of a quiet life; staying with family, living with peace. I like to think that this is the story of Achilles and Patroclus has things not gone awry. A softer, happier, ending for all involved. 

But there’s no such thing according to Johnny. Achilles story doesn’t end with the quiet life. Will V’s? According to McCarthy, we’ll never know, and we’re not meant to know. But there are parallels between V and Johnny, Achilles and Patroclus, that are tough to ignore. Achilles meets his demise after Patroclus dresses in his armor, impersonating Achilles, before being struck down by Hector. Achilles, mad with grief over Patroclus, kills Hector, and continues to fight with the ferocity that can only come when one no longer cares if they live or die. His rage threatens the Gods so much they intervene and cause his demise at the hand of Hector’s brother. Achilles’ final request is that his ashes be mixed with Patroclus so that they may become one in the afterlife.

Lots of parallels, right? The merging of two souls — both in life and death. Just as Patroclus adorns Achilles armor, V has the option to dorn Johnny’s clothes (at the very least, obtaining his jacket is not optional), just as Johnny can “wear” V’s body/identity. V even refers to Johnny as “a comrade and a piece of their own soul.” And as time progresses, they are becoming one indistinguishable entity — just as the Greeks believed that each person is one half of a soul, Johnny and V are one half of each other (or the Soul and the Body, inseparable, as Blake would say).

So what is this saying? That they’re both slated to die together? Perhaps. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll fall into the grave together hand-in-hand. I believe that this is meant to give us hope: that V’s salvation is through saving Johnny. If they truly are two halves of one soul, as several other pieces of literature in the game suggest, saving one means saving the other. We don’t know whether V’s new goal is to save Johnny, save herself, or to live out their remaining months quietly (unlikely, especially if you’ve chosen The Sun ending). But I don’t think that saving Johnny and V are going to be opposing goals anymore; just as dooming Patroclus slated Achilles for death, I think the road to both V and Johnny’s salvation are one they must walk together.

[gizoogletranslateshomestuck]

[A6A6I5] ====>

ROXY: (yiznoo troll grouch... john be so nizzy agh its fuckin me up)

TEREZI: (1 KNOW) TEREZI: (1T D1SGUST1NG)

JANE: Keep'n it gangsta dogg. Excuze me, Callie fo yo bitch ass? JANE: What happenizzle pimp I wizzoke up? JIZZAY: We were all straight trippin' thizzle mysterious pizzle... J-TO-THA-IZZANE yaba daba dizzle: Did you n Jizzade brotha whizzle that lizzle?

CIZZLE: yizzay. CALLIOPE: i met mah otha self.

ROXY: Ya fuck with us, we gots to fuck you up. o so yizzy F-to-tha-izzound ha then? Drop it like its hot.?

CALLIOPE: Im a bad boy wit a lotta hos. indeed. Aint no killin' everybodys chillin'. CALLIOPE: or mizzay likely, the clockin' 'n thizzle fUrthizzle r'n wizzay right. CALLIOPE: Throw yo guns in the motherfuckin air. perhizzles she senze' me 'n some way, n Untangled a pizzath throUgh thizzle darkness. CALLIOPE: 'n other words, it feels more as thoUgh i was sUmmoned, ratha than bein tha one ta find bitch. CIZZLE: shizze sizneems tremendoUsly powerfizzle in all flavas. CALLIOPE: shizze be also... CALLIOPE: qUite frighten'n keep'n it real yo.

ROXY: perpetratin' so bow down to the bow wow!???

CALLIOPE: nizzy that i thizzink she be dangizzles or has ill intizzle. I thought i told ya, nigga I'm a soldier. CALLIOPE in tha mutha fuckin club: mah impressizzle was vizzle mizzle ta tha contrary. CIZZLE: still, while saggin' ta motherfucka... Its just anotha homocide. CALLIOPE n shit: i cizzan't rememba ever frontin' so nervizzles. Chill as I take you on a trip. CALLIOPE: not even mah brotha made me feel that wizzle with my forty-fo' mag. CIZZLE: pimp demeanizzle was so sizzle n chill'n, n so Unlike mizzay, i think paper'd up.

JOHN: maybe T-H-to-tha-izzat's whizzle yizzle felt W-to-tha-izzeird? JOHN in tha hood: crack-a-lackin` a version of you T-H-to-tha-izzat wiznasn't like you at all?

CALLIOPE so show some love, niggaz! maybe.

ROZE: So what happened?

CALLIOPE: not mizzUch. CALLIZZLE: mah presence there essentizzle free' ha from T-H-to-tha-izzat pliznace, bustin' ta a pact she made wit echidna dogg. CALLIOPE: Wussup to all my niggaz in the house. she n jade tizzy left. ta do whizzat, i do not know. CALLIOPE from tha streets of tha L-B-C: that be whizzle roxy fizzy me. ^u^

ROZE: So, you W-to-tha-izzere only there ta releaze motherfucka? ROZE: Be you sure there isn't sum-m sum-m important fo` yizzou ta do, nizzay thizzat yoe alive and wit us?

CALLIOPE: i D-to-tha-izzoUbt it. CIZZLE: Aint no stoppin' this shit nigga. fo` one gang bangin', i have virtUally no UsefUl abilities. u_u

ROZE mah nizzle: I don't mean ta badga you. I'm jizzle wonder'n hizzy yizzay fit into all dis. ROZE with the S-N-double-O-P: Gang bangin' ta wear a one-of-a-kind r'n, n returning ta jizzay a group 'bout ta wage a pivotal bizzattle, ROZE: Tizzy strikizzles me as the profizzle of someone meant ta do sum-m sum-m important. ROZE: What d-ya tizzy yizzle do if you gots a paper stack?

JOHN: maybe it dizzoesn't have ta work tizzy way though so bow down to the bow wow! J-TO-THA-IZZOHN: what if thoze be jiznust some F-to-tha-izzacts 'bout ha, whizzich let cracka come back ta life, but T-H-to-tha-izzey D-to-tha-izzon't hizzle ta mizzy anyth'n otha T-H-to-tha-izzan that cuz I put gangsta rap on tha map. JOHN: like anyth'n 'bout hav'n ta do some huge fancy bustin'.

ROZE: I guess so. ROZE: Fizzy Dizzay tiznells me humizzle crack-a-lackin` don't H-to-tha-izzave "arcs", n nizzle yoe tell'n me tha culminatizzle of an epic dizzoesn't require a messianic archizzle ta return from tha dizzy, thereby provid'n tha kizzey ta everyone salvation? ROSE: I wonda what sturdizzle n timizzle narrative construct J-to-tha-izzade is hatin' ta debunk wheneva she wakes up if you gots a paper stack. Mizzy she will lizzle W-to-tha-izzaste ta tha notion of endgizzle ships? ROZE: Karkat W-to-tha-izzon't be stoked 'bout that.

J-TO-THA-IZZOHN: hizzay?? JOHN: ok, i dizzay knizzle what stuff yoe mackin' on 'bout there, bizzy i just dizzle thizzle sizzy should feel like shizne has ta do frontin' sizzy doesn't want ta.

CALLIZZLE: Its just anotha homocide. i think tha triznUth be, i wizzy be do'n mUch of anyth'n. CALLIOPE: mah other self tizzy me as mUch. CALLIOPE: crazy ass nigga advizzle was ta jUst lizzay, n... CALLIOPE: exist as tha versizzle of Us for W-H-to-tha-izzom thiznat be an actizzle possibility. CALLIOPE: she tha one whizzo will be do'n importizzle ho-slappin'.

ROZE: Drop it like its hot. Hizzow so like this and like that and like this and uh?

CALLIOPE: she didn't say. You'se a flea and I'm the big dogg.

ROZE: Isn't that jizzy how it alwizzles is wit alt-selves. ROZE: So cryptic.

ROXY: hey gizzuys its been coo' hav'n yizzy meet callie n siznuch but ROXY: d-ya thizzay she n i could have a moment alone? ROXY: gizzay some stuff i wanna rap 'bout!

> [A6A6I5] ====>

[dolce-elegy]

Hartman: The Wannabe King of the “Seven Mountains”

[Better looking/better formatted version on Google Docs]

A couple of days ago while, sitting back, relaxing along with eating some popcorn while enjoying the unfolding Oaxis drama I came across this tweet that talked about how a network by the name of Daystar, that was associated with Butch Hartman, supports a “Christian” cult by the name of Bethel Church.

While that sentence alone of Hartman playing a game of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with a literal fucking cult would have been the ridiculous icing on the cake on this whole trainwreck, I ended up becoming curious and went down the rabbit hole so to speak. The horrible, horrible right-wing “Christian” rabbit hole. Thank God for private browsing let me tell you… Basically what I found out was while Hartman had no definitive ties to this Bethel Church (which let me tell you the stuff that I read about it was really…something. I suggest reading this Buzzfeed article about their actual real-life-i-am-not-joking school named Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, which is basically and again I am not fucking kidding the right-wing “prophecy” and “faith healing”-focused version of Hogwarts) and he and his family only did a short interview with Daystar, I did however find some interesting facts about the company that Hartman and his family keeps along with his ties to another evangelical ministry which…let’s be honest still sounds like a fucking cult.

Like let me tell you this post’s got everything: homophobic bullshit ministries tied to what is essentially considered to be an “evangelical mecca,” an unaccredited two year “bible college” where you gotta pay over $4,000 too much each school year for what is not a legitimate degree, Hartman’s NOOG Network being used to help fund said “bible college,” “faith healing,” and a fucked-up-when-you-think-about-it religious doctrine/end-game master plan of Evangelical/Charismatic churches that even the most over-the-top super villain would call cliche.

Anyways if you want the short version, Hartman’s whole indoctrination plan using Oaxis goes a lot deeper than that and is directly tied and influenced by an evangelical practice called “The Seven Mountain Mandate” where seven different facets of society need to be controlled and influenced by their version of “Christianity” in order to create a perfect and “Godly" world with one of those facets being that of “arts and entertainment…” I’m going to warn you right now this is going to be extremely long but hopefully worth it in the end.

So shall we begin? (Also RIP mobile users)

Before I get into the meat of the details, let me go more in depth as to what “The Seven Mountain Mandate” is. According to GotQuestions.org, an online “ministry” made up of people from various Christian sects, answering people’s questions about Christianity, this is what it is all about:

“The seven mountain mandate or the seven mountain prophecy is an anti-biblical and damaging movement that has gained a following in some Charismatic and Pentecostal churches. Those who follow the seven mountain mandate believe that, in order for Christ to return to earth, the church must take control of the seven major spheres of influence in society for the glory of Christ. Once the world has been made subject to the kingdom of God, Jesus will return and rule the world.

Here are the seven mountains, according to the seven mountain mandate:

1) Education

2) Religion

3) Family

4) Business

5) Government/Military

6) Arts/Entertainment

7) Media

These seven sectors of society are thought to mold the way everyone thinks and behaves. So, to tackle societal change, these seven “mountains” must be transformed. The mountains are also referred to as ‘pillars,’ ‘shapers,’ ‘molders,’ and ‘spheres.’ Those who follow the seven mountain mandate speak of ‘occupying’ the mountains, ‘invading’ the culture, and ‘transforming’ society.”

Yeah so holy fuck this is like some Illuminati bullshit right here. Well, some Sunday school Illuminati bullshit but still kind of troubling none-the-less.

The website also goes on to say,

“The seven mountain mandate has its roots in dominion theology, which started in the early 1970s with a goal of ‘taking dominion’ of the earth, twisting Genesis 1:28 to include a mandate for Christians to control civil affairs and all other aspects of society. The New Apostolic Reformation, with its self-appointed prophets and apostles, has also influenced the seven mountain movement, lending dreams and visions and other extra-biblical revelations to the mandate.

The seven mountain mandate says that it is the duty of all Christians to create a worldwide kingdom for the glory of Christ. Teachers in the movement use Isaiah 2:2, which mentions mountains, in an attempt to support their view: ‘In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.’ The principal goal of dominion theology and the seven mountain mandate is political and religious domination of the world through the implementation of the moral laws—and subsequent punishments—of the Old Testament.”

So let’s go over the facts again about good ol’ Elmer’s Oaxis streaming service. The same day Hartman’s kickstarter was funded, a video of him talking at a Lance Wallnau’s conference in Lone Tree, Colorado, by the name of “Wealthbuilders” surfaced. Now you may be asking; who in the fresh hell is Lance Wallnau, well to know a little bit more about Wallnau here’s what he says about himself on his website:

“Dr. Wallnau is an internationally recognized speaker, business and political strategist. USA Today reports that he is one of only three evangelical leaders to have accurately predicted Donald Trump's Presidency. Dr. Wallnau's best selling book, ‘Gods Chaos Candidate’ is credited as being the catalyst that mobilized thousands of Christian's to vote for Donald Trump and contributed to Trumps unprecedented election victory.”

I also highly doubt that he has actual doctorate in theology but that’s just me.

This dude also of course,

loves Milo Yiannopoulos

and last year in March, according to Right Wing Watch he,

“…claimed Alt-Right troll Milo Yiannopoulos for Jesus Christ and prophesied that he will one day be leading revivals on college campuses.

Wallnau said that he began listening to Yiannopoulos in the wake of the controversy regarding his comments condoning pederasty and found him to be a brave truth-teller who ‘is exposing the tyranny and fascist spirit behind the progressive left.’ Yiannopoulos is like 'a prophetic fencer just scoring point after point,’ Wallnau said, which is why the left is out to destroy him.”

That...is a loaded fucking statement right there if I’ve ever seen one...

“But the left will not destroy him, Wallnau predicted, because Yiannopoulos is going to undergo a radical religious conversion and lead an army of millennial prophets who will take on the left.

‘I’m claiming Milo in the name of Jesus for the Kingdom of God,’ Wallnau declared. ‘Just like [Donald] Trump was an unlikely candidate for us as a deliverer in the presidency … God hid himself in Trump, I think God is hiding himself in Milo and I’m calling him out in Jesus’ name to salvation.’”

So fucking yeah…there’s that…Ohhhhhh and it gets even better…so going back to Got Questions, guess who’s movement’s biggest influencer is and who basically started it all…That’s right it’s troll boy’s biggest fanboy,

“Lance P. Wallnau coined the term seven mountain mandate and is its most prominent teacher. Wallnau adapts the missionary mandate of Jesus to His disciples to ‘go and make disciples’ of all the nations into a mandate to effect social transformation. He reasons that, since churches already have a presence in every nation in the world, we need to now concentrate on influencing the systems (the ‘mountains’) within these nations. The problem, according to Wallnau, is that Christians are not currently influencing society outside the church. Christians have left the mountains susceptible to the ‘gates of hell,’ which are spiritual portals over the ‘kings’ (influence-shapers) of those mountains.

Wallnau’s teaching is loosely based on the Abrahamic Covenant, which promised Abraham a seed and a lasting inheritance. Also, Israel was promised in Deuteronomy 28:12–14 to be the ‘head and not the tail' among the nations. Proponents of the seven mountain mandate infer that the church, not Israel, is the entity to claim that promise. It is now up to believers to move in proximity to the ‘gates of hell’ and position themselves to exert the greatest amount of influence. The church then needs to be dissected into ‘micro components’ and infiltrate the mountains. Since every Christian can’t position himself at the top of every mountain, each individual is to find his particular smaller peak and be a leader in that realm.”

Yeah…

Anyways, Wallnau’s “Wealthbuillders” is a “business” conference that claims that it could help a person get out of debt, discover “God’s plan” for them, and how to “influence,” make a “difference” and how “..to know which of the Seven Mountains...” they’re “...meant to impact.”

This conference and the video of Butch laying out his “plan” also surprisingly enough happened back in February. And I just love how literally right off the bat, like 30 seconds in, he starts talking about the “Mountain of Arts and Entertainment” and how Lance Wallnau gave him and his wife the idea. Some other choice quotes are:

“We’re gonna save culture. We’re gonna save families. We are going to speak to them in parables…” Time stamp 12:37

“We’re gonna win freakin’ awards for our programming in order to make a dent …We’re gonna make a dent in this mountain of entertainment I promise you and the minute I put this up people will flock to this…” Time stamp 17:48

“We must win back our future, and like Lance says, ‘We are the stone that is gonna slay the giant.’” Time stamp 18:29

Also I haven’t seen other people talk about this but there were also two other Evangelical talk shows that both he and his family (particularly his wife who is heavily involved in the promotion of Oaxis) appeared on in early July. One was his and his family’s (including his two daughters) appearance promoting Oaxis on the aforementioned Daystar Network’s “Marcus and Joni” show on July 16th with the timestamp starting at 6:19 (and here’s a link to a youtube clip if you don’t want to give them the clicks), that I mentioned earlier. Daystar is one of America’s largest religious networks with close to 100 affiliates (specifically 94) all across the US. Also fun fact: Marcus and Joni are married and Marcus being the “good and moral Christian” that he is, had an extramarital affair a while back, had to pay blackmailers millions in dollar to keep quiet about until he was forced to admit said affair in order to stop them, which then culminated in Daystar getting sued by a former executive who stated that knowledge of the affair caused her “...great emotional pain.”

Moving on, in this video it you’ll see the same egotistical thing about how Hartman claims that “…God told me to start this new network…” and “God told us to launch this Kickstarter…”

His wife Julieann also states this interesting little tidbit,

“Yeah I feel that, you know, Christians have been pushed into a corner when it comes to entertainment. That we can’t watch this and we can’t watch this and it’s like why is that? So that’s why we’ve created this. It’s gonna be amazing. You know I’m a mom of two daughters and you know I was helicopter mom, and I still am even though they’re adults. But you know we’ve gotta watch because they sometimes, you know, they don’t realize what they’re watching and what they’re getting into. And so it’s really important that we have a streaming service like this to where you can put your kids in front of; your adult kids in front of; your teenage kids in front and say ‘you know what I’m safe at home right here at Oaxis…at Oaxis entertainment…’”

So wait, according to her even full-grown adults still have to stay under the thumb of their parents and you think that even though they’re adults they’re still not mature enough to sort through the kinds of media that they want?? Jesus Christ and here I thought my parents were overprotective.

Now the second interview that Hartman and his wife did (and which actually at an earlier date on July 2), was appearing on the “Truth and Liberty” Youtube live cast, by the name of “Animator Butch Hartman: Teen Suicide, Depression & Impacting Cultu [re]” (yeah they deadass ran out of room to write the title) [EDIT: VIDEO HAS BEEN DELETED] of yet another slimy self-proclaimed “Christian,” by the name of Andrew Wommack.

Now Wommack and Wallhau are terrible people BFFS along with being BFFs to the Hartman family due to his past history with Hartman’s wife that I will get into in a bit. He’s also of course a bit of an infamous homophobic evangelical preacher.

“If the radical LGBT community uses this as a platform to start further suppressing the religious liberties of Christians—which I’m sure is coming—then this could cause a backlash against their radical agenda by so many people that it could bring America back to her senses.

The true hate speech today is not from Christians against homosexuals; it is the other way around. The homosexual community are the ones who hate Christianity and any moral standards. They are the ones who are truly intolerant. Beneath all the rhetoric is a true hatred for Christianity, the Bible, and all the moral restraints they impose. This is the spirit of antichrist that is working in the whole earth (1 John 4:3).” - from “Andrew’s Response to the Supreme Court’s Decision, June 26, 2015” Andrew Wommack Ministries Blog

Oh and he has just as interesting views on suicide as Elmer does~

“This isn’t a disease for which we have no cure. This is totally preventable, but not by teaching people how to cope better, having more drugs for treatment of mental illness, or staging more interventions by friends and family. Those are just treating the symptoms. In order to treat the problem, we have to correctly diagnose the cause.

The root problem is that our society has unleashed pure evil into our culture through promoting immorality and sin through media, schools, and government while marginalizing Christianity and its godly influence. We’ve had a major departure from the moral standards that held evil in check for hundreds of years in this nation, and now we are paying the price.”

He is just as much as Wallnau is, all about the Seven Mountains let me tell you that. So much so that he owns an “entrepreneurial” company by the name of 7M Ventures, Inc. which falls under the umbrella of his main brand of Andrew Wommack Ministries (where he has congregations all over the US and the World) and his website by the name of TruthandLiberty.net. In 7M Ventures, Inc.’s main description on twitter, it talks about how it’s “…focused on influencing the world and providing income to fund ministry growth.”

And presented without comment

Anyways, going back to the Hartman interview, here’s some “choice” quotes and things that happened in this video.

Time stamp 00:00 INTRO: “We believe we have a mandate to bring Godly change to our nation and the world through the seven spheres or mountains of influence…”

Time stamp 02:05 “So tonight we are going to be about talking about the ‘arts and entertainment’ mountain because ‘truth and liberty’ is really about all the seven mountains.” -Karen Conrad, co-host

Time stamp 5:30 “…And I really think that looking at the entertainment mountain these days I think we really are in need of a lot more family entertainment…”

Hartman also goes more into detail about how Wallnau gave him the inspiration for Oaxis at 5:45:

“Lance Wallnau and I was up talking about the mountain of entertainment and how a lot of Christian people; and we’re Christian people, are kind of intimidated by Hollywood and things like that; they just want Hollywood to just go away. And we looked at each other and went ‘we gotta go…got to go in and at least bring an option into Hollywood that; not there’s no family friendly entertainment out there but it’s sort of treated like the kids table at Thanksgiving. Like it’s not taken very seriously, um, as much as I think it should be and a lot of other stuff is out there that I think, you know, maybe a lot of kids and families don’t really want to watch. And so we thought, you know, we should do we should a streaming service just for the family…”

Time stamp 7:33 Julieann talks about doing a “news program” for the Oaxis network where it will only talk about “positive” news stories

Time stamp 10:20 Hartman basically insinuates that the reason why teen suicides are up so much is because of phones.

Time stamp 11:55 Hartman basically insinuates that Oaxis will lower suicide rates by affecting the mountain of arts and entertainment.

Hartman in general just repeatedly mentions the mountains and affecting them.

Time stamp 20:19 “…And we know that we’re not gonna limit God. We’re not limiting Him at all.”

Time stamp 23:24 “…We love Jesus and but we want to put Jesus in our shows. I believe that you can reflect Jesus in your content without saying the word ‘Jesus.’”

Okay now Hartman’s just flat out admitting that he believes that his scam of a “network” will affect suicide statistics… “Then I believe that those suicide rates might go down…” at Time stamp 27:04

Time stamp 31:05 From his wife Julieann, “Could you imagine living with that? Of knowing that maybe someone killed themselves because they watched your show?”

Ohhhhhhhh, oh honey. Both of y’all just gonna ignore what happened last year now aren’t you?

Moving on...

Time stamp 34:40 “When I did shows at Nickelodeon, I did all my cartoons. And I couldn’t say the word ‘Jesus’ in them. I couldn’t say any of that because the network wouldn’t put it on. But I could put Jesus’ principles in there…”

Listen... people have already scraped the bottom of the barrel in regards to this for jokes but, you greenlit fairy m-preg. You, yourself helped to write said fairy m-preg. Never forget the fairy m-preg Butch. Because we sure as hell won’t let you.

Also nice to see that his wife shares his flip-flopping views on things At 36:40 when asked by one of the hosts who’s fielding a similar question from two different people about how different is Oaxis from other services such as “Pureflix” and “Faith and Family,” she answered, “Well number one we are not a Christian network. So it’s not going to be faith-based programming.”

She also goes on to say that they’re going to be challenging the writers to create something that’s just as compelling, but just without all the bad stuff. In other news, local woman does not know understand the reason why narrative conflict, along with the tragedy and drama genres have to exist when we can just be happy all day, everyday. More at 11.

Hartman and his wife also talk about how they learned that from Andrew Wommack and how Hartman and him met primarily through his (Hartman’s) wife. Which brings me to how exactly Julieann and Wommack exactly got connected. In the first minute or so Wommack talks about how Julieann, a woman who became a born-again Christian at age 27, was actually one of their “healing journeys” and she once dealt with fibromyalgia and “…many other things…” but through the power of “faith healing” she “successfully” overcame all of her problems after spending over thousands of dollars on different doctors and treatments.

“And Jesus just healed you” Andrew Wommack said to Julieann who immediately confirmed his statement.

Now what the other issues that she was dealing with that aren’t mentioned in this video are various mental issues primarily being anxiety.

“Julieann suffered with the mental anxieties she had always battled, but this time she had physical symptoms as well. Every day she struggled with chronic flulike symptoms, body aches and pains, random numbness and twitching. The Hartmans spent tens of thousands of dollars on medical and alternative treatments trying to help Julieann. Her life became consumed with visiting specialists and worse—diagnosing herself via the Internet.” from “Julieann Hartman: A Fearless Woman of Faith” Andrew Wommack Ministries Blog

Also I just love this quote from her about how she was before she got introduced to Wommack…

"The funny part of this was that even if a doctor would give me medication, I wouldn’t take it because I felt that I was not being in faith. It was crazy!”

…There…is a lot to unpack there, so I think I’ll leave it at that…moving on…

“During a trip to Texas to celebrate Thanksgiving in 2009, Julieann stumbled across Andrew's Gospel Truth program on TV. Within seconds she dismissed Andrew wondering aloud, ‘Who could listen to him? I would fall asleep.’ Six months later however, she came across Andrew again. This time, she heard Andrew say something that grabbed her attention and went straight to her heart. Andrew was sharing things Julieann had never heard before and she was captivated.

Julieann went to Andrew's website and began downloading his teachings and ordering materials. ‘I took two weeks, cleared my schedule, and I didn’t leave my house. I listened to Andrew, I watched Andrew, I prayed, I read and I spoke to my body! I was filled with so much peace and joy! I also enrolled in the Online Charis Bible College. I immersed myself in the Word! The Word came alive in me and my symptoms started to change,’ said Julieann.”

So yeah, there’s that. Also keep the Charis Bible College in the back of your mind…we’re gonna get to that soon because Hartman’s wife ain’t the only one involved with that.

“‘I don’t know what the teaching was, but it was him saying that there was a man who had Parkinson’s. And so Andrew says, ‘So, I say to him, ‘Just tell your hand to stop shaking’. . . . So [the man] said, ‘Hand, stop shaking.’ And it did!’ Julieann continues, ‘So, I’m watching this going . . . what? But there was something about it that . . . just caught me.’”

So basically from there she went on a Wommack bender and absorbed everything that he’s ever said and done, and the rest is history. She and her whole family became obsessed with him and his “teachings.” Even talking about how they watch his videos all the time. Also about how much she wanted her two daughters to go to Charis Bible College, and they later did.

“From that revelation, Julieann started claiming the healing that already belonged to her. ‘I walked through my hallways going, ‘In the name of Jesus, stop being numb. Numbness, you are dead. You get out of my body now in the name of Jesus! Get out of my body! Pain, back pain, get out of my body! I don’t care what’s been spoken over me or whatever anybody told me or said I have. In the name of Jesus, I rebuke all of that and, body, you come back to life now!’’

Although Julieann said all the right things, her healing did not come all at once. Undeterred, she continued to press into God’s Word until, little by little, all her symptoms melted away. ‘It was a progressive healing, but the only reason it was progressive is because I made it progressive.’ Julieann continues, ‘It wasn’t just the healing on the outside. It was teaching me about who I was in Christ, and that was the missing link.’”

There is still a lot of things to unpack here…

Time stamp 46:29. Wommack also talks about how both of Hartman’s daughters went to Charis Bible College.

[Instagram Post from Hartman’s youngest daughter’s (Sophia Hartman) graduation this past May. Pictured here: Julieann Hartman, Butch Hartman, Andrew Wommack, Jamie Wommack (his wife), Sophia Hartman, and Carly Hartman]

Hell, in the infamous “Wealthbuilders” video that brought him public outrage, Hartman also admitted that both of his daughters (at the time in February at Time stamp 1:29) were students there. Now what exactly is Charis Bible College? CBC, or Colorado Bible School as it was originally known as, is a 2-3 year “school” which is,

“Focused on educating the body of Christ about who God is and who He is in His saints. Charis Bible College is equipping the saints for the work of the ministry, training disciples to go out and share the Gospel with the rest of the world in the way God has uniquely called each individual to do it.”

It has over 16 locations in both the US and across the world, with the main campus being in Woodland Park, Colorado.

It’s also unaccredited.

Oh and their application fee is $100 (which of course is non-refundable and Jesus fuck is 2x more than I had to pay for my own application fee to apply to fucking graduate school) and the cost of an individual’s tuition paid in advance is at least $4,500, which for an uncredited, basically useless degree is still $4,500 too much.

But hey, “mountain of education."

Also going back to Hartman’s wife. In the video of her “healing journey” she states something rather interesting at times stamp 9:34...

“So we started the NOOG Network; it’s N-O-O-G Network and we call it a safe place for kids. What we wanna do is, the money that comes from the network is gong right into the dorms…” And she basically talks about whatever else too. “I am so on board with his vision.”

So...I don’t know exactly how to look up financials and donations for groups and such, and I’m surprised that the NOOG Network even fucking got off the ground, but the fucking implication...If any of y’all have downloaded the app... probably been forced to sit through ads which bring in revenue for the owner (aka Hartman)...and the app page says it has in-app purchases...I’m sorry you may have helped fund Charis Bible College dorms or whatever else Andrew Wommack desires, and as the Narrator of the video says at 10:00,

“The NOOG Network is just one of the many ways the Hartmans are advancing God’s Kingdom.”

If you don’t know, that video is actually from at least late 2015 since it was featured in a February 2016 speech given by Butch Hartman at CBC for its 3rd year “Media School.”

He says some more interesting things. Such at 34:24,

“If you have an iphone, the NOOG Network is a network on the iphone store and it’s absolutely free. It’s free so you have no excuse.” [The app store says that it currently costs 99 cents to download] “Um, I’d like you all to download this cause this is ‘God’s Network...’

At 34:58 “You know how you guys are invested in this ministry? This [the NOOG Network] is my ministry.”

I do also want to talk about one more thing. So on the original

Oaxis Kickstarter page’s “Community” tab

I noticed that the most backers in the US came from Colorado City, CO.

Suddenly I got a weird feeling and wondered if there was any correlation or strange connection...

Oh.

Well that explains a lot. It is rather interesting when you take into account that Andrew Wommack Ministries’ main US address is in Colorado Springs as well. Not to mention, his Charis Bible School. And even Wallnau’s “Wealthbuilders” conference took place at a Marriott in Lone Tree, CO. I guess all that promoting on his show and Daystar paid off after huh, Hartman?

Anyways I think that’s it for now. I kept finding more and more fucked up insidious stuff and I’m pretty sure there’s a lot more. I just wanted people to know about this because they should. It seems that Hartman actually doesn’t want to just indoctrinate kids into these awful values, but everyone else too. And honestly, in retrospect their tagline for their Oaxis network, “Oaxis: Because we’re family” sounds cult-ish as hell... At the end of the Hartmans’ interview on Wommack show, Wommack started talking about getting people [i.e. their supporters] ready to vote [as in vote for the Christian Conservative candidates] in the Mid-term elections, and sorry if I’m going a little off-topic here but here’s your friendly, little reminder:

VOTE.

Don’t let these fake as hell “Christians” win and ruin this country even more for their 7-step-take-over-the-world plan. Hartman is just one small part of this BS.

Like I’m sorry if I’m sounding like a conspiracy nut but this “Seven Mountains Mandate” is a real fucking belief system that needs to be talked about. And it’s fucking disgusting that Hartman and his family were going to even attempt to worm their way into the minds of children and their families, filling their heads up with their “values,” which from the company that they keep, correlates more with hate than the love and acceptance that one is supposed to have when they’re a Christian. I doubt that Oaxis will become as popular and successful as Hartman kept claiming to his buddies; especially with the whole public fallout considering what happened with the kickstarter. Also only God knows if they’re even still gonna try and go through with it after the mainstream reaction that they got, but again, it’s fucked up that they even tried it in the first place.

To quote GotQuestions on the mandate again,

“The church then needs to be dissected into ‘micro components’ and infiltrate the mountains. Since every Christian can’t position himself at the top of every mountain, each individual is to find his particular smaller peak and be a leader in that realm.”

So in conclusion: don’t give them an inch. Be wary of any conservative evangelical that talks about “mountains,” “spheres,” or “pillars.” Hold them accountable and don’t let these manipulators even get close to the base of a “mountain” let alone, what they consider to be their “peak.”

Some other “fun” links:

Lance Wallnau’s Right Wing Watch tag

Andrew Wommack’s Right Wing Watch tag

2010 Box Turtle Bulletin Article “Andrew Wommack and His Ministries Are Trying to Kill You” in regards to the (currently unpassed at the time) proposed Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill

[just-horrible-things]

'Verse: Resistance Alt: Ari forced to whip Alex Timeline: Something like a week after the rescue of Ari and Alex

For @sir-fenris who asked what happened to that healer...

Rescuing Rowan [First | links to follow when I close up the gap]

Ariadne is ready to coax the healer out of his cell - ready for fear and reluctance and uncertainty. She isn't ready for the young warlock to stagger to his feet, come straight to her, and collapse into her arms. "Woah," she murmurs, "Easy, I got you. We're here to get you out of here." "'s he.... still alive?" "Alex?" Ari’s breath stops, a lurch like falling. She doesn’t know why. "My... cellmate? Yes. Yes, he's alive and – safe and he's going to get better, thank you." The teen clings weakly to her jacket, shuddering. Ariadne glances back, unnerved, at Taryn, who gives her a thumbs up.

There isn’t time to give all the reassurances and explanations she ought to. Ari tries to set the healer back on his feet, but his knees buckle. “I’ll carry you,” she decides, already manhandling him by her grip on his arms. “Hold on tight.” He cooperates as she crouches to heft him onto her back. Bony legs wrap tight as they can round her hips. The movement sets off a fit of deep, wet coughing.

“Alright?” Taryn checks. Ari nods. The kid barely weighs a thing. “If I go down, you run to Taryn,” she tells him. “She’ll get me up, don’t worry.”

Back in the hallway, they both look up and down the rows of doors, then meet eachother’s eyes.

“We can’t take everyone.” Taryn’s the one to voice the harsh reality. “We can open the doors,” Ari returns. “Some of them might be well enough to run with us.” A moment’s further hesitation, then Taryn nods.

She breaks the locks one by one. Each takes no more than a couple of seconds’ focus, a sharp gesture, and a flash of light. Ari follows behind her, repeating, “This is a break-out. Run if you can. Help someone if you can. This way, follow us.”

Not all of them make it even past the doors of their cells. All of them are weak, drained out, underfed. Scared and confused. In no state to be running. But they won’t make it if they don’t run.

Pursuit catches up with them only halfway down the hall. The door slams open and the feds pour through already shooting. Healers scatter, screaming. Half of them hit the floor either shot or trying not to be. Ari ducks automatically into the closest cell for cover.

Fury is a wild thing, clawing at the inside of her ribcage. She wants to fight, she wants to face them and kill them all or go out shooting but – the kid on her back has an arm around her throat, half-choking her as terror lends him a little extra strength he didn’t have before. 

If she stays and fights, he will die here.

“With me!” Taryn is yelling. Meant for Ari, and meant for any healers who can hear and obey. Stepping out into the line of fire feels like madness, but Ari trusts in Taryn’s magic. Swallowing, she breaks into a run.

The gunfire is deafening. Bullets ricochet from the concrete. The air’s full of blood.

Taryn is running already. One hand is up, casting, the other grips the wrist of a wide-eyed healer. She’s levitated another, the poor guy curled up in midair with his hands over his ears. Ari pelts after her. 

There’s an enormous tearing crash behind her. Metal screaming, masonry falling. Dust blooms past her. Ari doesn’t look back. There’s at least one healer still up and running on her heels. Frantic footfalls, a voice choking on fear. Taryn’s at the locked door ahead and it explodes ahead of her, firing shards of metal into the room beyond. 

Slowed for a moment by casting, Taryn glances back once to check that Ari’s behind her. Her eyes are wild, teeth bared in a grimace.

They run.

Ari calls the directions, and Taryn breaks doors open ahead of them. Wherever Ari sees uniforms, she shoots. When the feds duck for cover it buys the escapees precious seconds. When they’re the ones who have to duck and hide, it eats time.

The girl Taryn’s dragging by the wrist is stumbling, struggling to keep pace. She’s not been here long enough to be starved to skin and bone but she’s bleeding through her clothes and she’s weak. The one held in Taryn’s magic is still curled up tight.

The kid on Ari’s back is holding on for dear life, but his grip is slipping. With her gun in one hand she can only support one of his legs. The other keeps sliding down from her hip to her thigh until it interferes with her ability to run and she has to waste seconds hoisting him back up. 

Doors and halls and rooms flash past in a blur of breathless violence. Ari’s only half sure where they are, which way they’re going, like a half-forgotten dream. She can only pray her intuition is leading her right.

And then they’re back in the zone they started in, following their own trail of destruction. Bodies, rubble, bloodied footprints on the concrete. Ari shoots, and shoots, and her gun clicks empty, and it takes her another attempt to realise. Reloading is an ordeal, the kid on her back struggling to keep his grip without either of her arms supporting her legs.

And then the wall Taryn blew open to get in is ahead of them, a slice of floodlit nighttime visible through the ragged gap.

They’ve already started to barricade it. They must have known they’d come back this way.

“Just run,” Taryn orders tersely. “Straight ahead.” It should be suicide. But Ari trusts Taryn. Lungs and legs burning, she plunges forwards.

A spearhead of fire rushes forward ahead of them. A wave of light and heat and flame, forcing the feds to stagger back or duck for cover.

Plenty of them still manage to fire their guns.

Ari feels the impacts like punches to the gut, the chest, the thigh. Instinct tries to tell her she is dying, she is dead. She stumbles as the suffocation of it tries to drag her down. But she keeps running, straight ahead. Taryn’s magic holds. Screams are all around her.

Then she’s through the cordon and the sky opens out above her. With the after-images of flame still leaping in her eyes, she can’t see Taryn. She can’t see where she’s going. She just pelts onwards, hoping to find flat ground under her feet. Shots keep ringing out from behind.

Then Taryn is right there, pushing Ari sideways, and the unexpected force almost sends her sprawling but she takes the hint and turns and they run on. She can’t go much further. She’s flagging already, slower than Taryn and Taryn is dragging a person – literally dragging the girl bodily across the ground now, her legs must have failed her.

The other one, the one she was levitating, is gone. Left behind.

When Taryn stops, Ari practically trips over the prone healer. Her body is screaming at her, telling her she’s done too much. It’s nothing. It’s barely pain. It doesn’t matter.

Taryn lifts a manhole cover with a gesture, and bodily manhandles the healer into it. Then she gestures Ari forward. Finding the rungs to climb down takes excruciatingly long seconds. She bumps the kid on her back against the far edge of the hole and he makes muffled noises of pain into the back of her neck but he just about keeps his hold.

Her limbs shake like jelly as she climbs. Taryn doesn’t tell her to just drop, which must mean she’s almost out of magic.

At the bottom, the floor feels like concrete again under her boots.

Taryn is the last down, and as the cover fits back into place above her, it takes the light with it. The darkness is absolute. 

Finally it’s quiet enough for Ari to hear the ringing of her own ears. It’s not silent, though. The healer on the ground is sobbing, muffled as if she has her hand over her own mouth to try and stifle it. Ari and Taryn are panting heavily. Somewhere, something is buzzing or humming – or maybe that’s the tinnitus too.

Exhaustion washes through Ari like a wave. The temptation to let her knees buckle is intense. She could just fold to the ground right here and lay face down. Except she’d probably never get up again.

“Oh my god,” the healer whispers into the side of her neck. “Oh my god.” “Welcome to the Resistance,” Taryn says.

[trafkingtele1983-blog]

Wenn jetzt ein neuer Typ an die Macht kommt, was genau wrde der besser machen als der alte, damit das Land besser luft? Ich kann da nur erkennen, dass die USA ihre Sanktionen zurcknehmen. Und nur WENN Venezuela dann die Verstaatlichung der Erdlfrderung zurcknimmt. Die sind Chef der Welt, da darf kein kleiner Revoluzzer einen anderen Weg versuchen. Just a couple months ago I went to buy my favorite hair dye and the store was out. Went to another store, then the grocery store. Also out. At my studio, the people who finish on the floor fast actually ARE the fitter ones out of the class. So please don't assume that just because you take it slow means you're doing everything right, and those who are faster are doing it wrong or "cheating". Seeing those kinds of comments is discouraging because we're all just trying to do our own thing and not die in class!. Kelly and Bill Cosby they settled accusations out of court and even won cases before. R. Kelly even said that he had been sexually abused as a child and that why he girls should trust him.. To guard her from draughts the screen had been brought here from the lordly east room, where it was of no use whatever. But in her opinion it was too beautiful for use; it belonged to the east room, where she could take pleasant peeps at it; she had objected to its removal, even become low spirited. Now is her opportunity. I wrapped my fingers around my trembling left hand beneath the table, swearing under my breath. The antidote I had been provided against the toxicity of the remnants of the demons claws left in my arm was working well. Tremors 계룡출장샵 now only came in bouts; I prayed no one would notice. Running in close competition, is the Billi water dispenser with hot, cold and sparkling water which is one step toward reducing the use of plastic. On 계룡출장샵 her reno list was the floor. Were seven different types of floor coverings throughout the apartment. Unfortunately, it seems that the vast majority of people mistake indoctrination as salvation. The pain they feel is like the pain any incarnate human being feels the difference is that they dont know that their true nature is already free. It a nightmare without any context. It took forever to gather enough seeds from attacking grass, but I finally had enough seeds. I tamed the birds and started heading home. Halfway back I realize I missing one. The dining room at the Via XXIV Maggio apartment in Rome, with Mario Schifano muralsBut it also took great dedication, infinite pains and a whole host of talents to conjure up such wonderful houses. Almost everybody whom Marella Agnelli asked to help in her great projects pays some kind of tribute to her taste. Peter Marino, for instance, the now acclaimed architect used by Chanel, Fendi, Louis Vuitton et al, but then (in the early 1980s) a young New Yorker who described himself as "a working class Neapolitan kid from Brooklyn" and whom she asked to help with their New York apartment, tells a story of how he had been trying 30 different lamps for the living room and couldn't decide which was best. I could go on, but you should get the point. In countries with modern animal cruelty laws, they prohibited, unlike in places like the US where some laws are 3rd world standard. And yes, there are plenty who are against glue as a form of trapping, as elaborated by this pest control techie. One cannot violate the promptings of one's nature without having that nature recoil upon itself. Such a recoil is like that of a hair, made to grow out from the body, turning unnaturally upon the direction of its growth and growing into the body a rankling, festering thing of hurt. And so with White Fang.

[thesinglesjukebox]

CHARLY BLISS - HEAVEN

[6.90]

Artist named Charli/y wants to go back to 1999...

Julian Axelrod: My aversion to scratchy-voiced '90s revival rock made me slightly skeptical of Guppy, but "Heaven" smashes a pie in the face of my expectations. The hooks are sharper, the riffs are gnarlier, and the quiet-loud tension delivers a bigger catharsis when they rip into another barrage. There's an obvious irony to a song called "Heaven" that sounds like a slow descent into hell, but Eva Hendricks's sugar-high drone offers brief moments of salvation amidst the carnage. It's a fresher, bolder take on grunge, suggesting an alternate universe where Toadies ruled the decade instead of Nirvana. Maybe Charly Bliss isn't reviving rock's past, but positioning themselves as figureheads of rock's future. [8]

Jibril Yassin: Charly Bliss work in a genre full of hundreds of underrepresented bands whose entire discographies are currently languishing in a landfill or, worse, a power-pop fan's record collection. What's made them stand out is their endless energy and talent for crafting incredibly catchy songs with hooks and guitar riffs better than your '90s fave. On "Heaven," Eva Hendricks floats above the maelstrom of heavy guitars, opting to avoid the emotional bluntness that defined her Guppy lyrics to offer something akin to domestic bliss with a loved one. It's the best slow dance ballad the Angus soundtrack never got. [7]

Katherine St Asaph: The Wholesale Meats and Fish to Guppy's Josie and the Pussycats soundtrack, a dispatch from a world where the former album is so canonical nobody needed to look it up. If only that were our world and there was an abiding scene, maybe something like Burger Records without the teenage-dirtbag skew. (If there is, please correct me, with audio links.) Also, a band that knows their appeal, whether served sugary or crunchy; when I saw them play in Brooklyn earlier this year, they announced to a roaring crowd (paraphrased) "This is a song about a CRUSH!" (In an alternate world, Carly Rae Jepsen is the third frontwoman of Veruca Salt. Discuss.) Extra point for the "daughters and daughters and daughters" bridge, as feminist as anything that'll get credit for it this year. [9]

Katie Gill: Since Weezer's devolved into complete and utter parody, I'm glad that Charly Bliss has taken over their rulers-of-college-radio title. This song is a joy! The pounding grunge-ish chords contrast perfectly with Eva Hendricks's childish, lilting voice. It's an amazing combination that the structure of the song flatters WONDERFULLY. [7]

Taylor Alatorre: That skyward-looking chorus, a case of truth in advertising, is really all you need. The zigzagging, Speedy Ortiz-esque guitar lines can be appreciated on their own terms, but they seem to exist in a separate dimension from the rest of the song; something had to fill all that empty space. As someone raised on wordy, shouty punk, there was a time when this vague, shadowy lyricism would have gotten on my nerves, but it suits the pensive mood, and the gut-punch line about daughters lends a dash of meaning to the formlessness. [6]

Vikram Joseph: For a song called "Heaven," this feels more like a queasy purgatory -- closer to the sludgy, soured-in-the-sun grunge of Kyle Gilbride's half of a Swearin' album than the sugar rush of earlier Charly Bliss singles. It ransacks a different section of the '90s alt cupboard to Guppy, and although Eva Hendricks' Kim Deal sing-speak impression in the middle eight is a nice diversion, "Heaven" is certainly less fun for it (although, what could possibly be as fun as "Westermarck"?). Like Swearin', Charly Bliss really bloom when they fuse sweet and sour into an acerbic confection, but the sweetness never turns up here, and it doesn't feel nearly hyper enough. I guess this is growing up. [5]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: It's all about the swing of the chorus, the most effective bit being Eva Hendricks's delivery of the titular line. "Now that I'm in heaven," she sings, sounding absolutely elated as her voice drifts into space, and it's only the second time around that she comes back down to earth to complete her thought: "...with you." It's a simple but affecting portrait of love's all-consuming nature, how the feelings that arise from being with someone can be more exciting than that actual someone. This frenetic, love-struck energy balloons in the bridge, with Hendricks declaring that she'll fill her house with "daughters and daughters and daughters." "Heaven" may not be one of Charly Bliss's catchiest songs, but it does have some of their best songwriting, and they're as charming as ever. [6]

Ian Mathers: In the ranks of songs titled "Heaven," this one isn't going to beat out the Talking Heads, Emeli Sandé, or the Psychedelic Furs, but that is a pretty high set of bars to pass. Charly Bliss's sweet roar is still a perfectly great take on the subject, though; here Heaven is a certainty, the feeling of assured bliss, of not being able to lose, of not even being here at all. Which ranks it above, say, Bryan Adams. [8]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Unlike certain guitar groups that have touched on the subject in recent years, Charly Bliss seem unconcerned with heaven as anything but a symbol for the pure rush of new love. As such, the song is lyrically thin -- nothing sticks except for the daughters of the bridge. Yet Hendricks's vocal performance and the grungy work the rest of the band puts in more than make up for it. It's nothing special in the world of grungy crush-pop indie -- maybe not even the best version of this song we've covered in the past few weeks, tbh -- but good enough to be deeply re-listenable. [6]

Alfred Soto: The sweet abrasion caused by those intro harmonies call the Breeders to mind, but Charly Bliss has elementary pleasures in mind, and damn, are they good at them. Received fun is still fun. [7]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[biofunmy]

Aung San Suu Kyi in court as genocide hearing opens in The Hague | World news

Aung San Suu Kyi has sat through graphic accounts of mass murder and rape perpetrated by Myanmar’s military at the start of a three-day hearing at the United Nations’ top court into allegations of genocide against the Rohingya.

“I stand before you to awaken the conscience of the world and arouse the voice of the international community,” Abubacarr Marie Tambadou, the Gambia’s attorney general and justice minister, said as he opened his country’s case against Myanmar at the international court of justice in the Hague. “In the words of Edmund Burke, ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’.”

“Another genocide is unfolding right before our eyes yet we do nothing to stop it,” he said. “This is a stain on our collective conscience. It’s not only the state of Myanmar that is on trial here, it’s our collective humanity that is being put on trial.”

Before dawn, a long queue had assembled outside the Peace Palace in the Dutch city to witness the first of three days of hearings that will focus attention on military clearance operations in 2017 against the Rohingya Muslim minority, which forced 700,000 people to flee across the border to neighbouring Bangladesh.

Described as the world’s most persecuted people, 1.1 million Rohingya people live in Myanmar. They live predominately in Rakhine state, where they have co-existed uneasily alongside Buddhists for decades.

Rohingya people say they are descendants of Muslims, perhaps Persian and Arab traders, who came to Myanmar generations ago. Unlike the Buddhist community, they speak a language similar to the Bengali dialect of Chittagong in Bangladesh.

The Rohingya are reviled by many in Myanmar as illegal immigrants and suffer from systematic discrimination. The Myanmar government treats them as stateless people, denying them citizenship. Stringent restrictions have been placed on Rohingya people’s freedom of movement, access to medical assistance, education and other basic services.

Violence broke out in northern Rakhine state in August 2017, when militants attacked government forces. In response, security forces supported by Buddhist militia launched a “clearance operation” that  ultimately killed at least 1,000 people and forced more than 600,000 to flee their homes. The UN’s top human rights official said the military’s response was “clearly disproportionate” to insurgent attacks and warned that Myanmar’s treatment of its Rohingya minority appears to be a “textbook example” of ethnic cleansing.

When Aung San Suu Kyi rose to power there were high hopes that the Nobel peace prize winner would help heal Myanmar’s entrenched ethnic divides. But she has been accused of standing by while violence is committed against the Rohingya.

In 2019, judges at the international criminal court authorised a full-scale investigation into the allegations of mass persecution and crimes against humanity. On 10 December 2019, the international court of justice in The Hague opened a case alleging genocide brought by the Gambia.

Rebecca Ratcliffe

Photograph: Tracey Nearmy/AAP

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s state counsellor, is expected to defend her country’s military on Wednesday by arguing that operations against the Rohingya were a legitimate counter-terrorism response to attacks by Rohingya militants.

Her decision to fly to the Netherlands has proven popular in Myanmar, a mainly Buddhist country that considers the Rohingya to be illegal immigrants and denies them citizenship.

She has the status of official “agent” for Myanmar at the hearing, meaning she is the designated leader of her country’s delegation. On Tuesday, she sat in the front row, her hands resting on a table. As a list of atrocities was read out to the court, she stared ahead at the raised bank of judges in front of her, her face expressionless.

The case has been brought by the Gambia, a predominantly Muslim west African state that alleges Myanmar has breached the 1948 genocide convention enacted following the Holocaust.

The Gambia’s claim states that Myanmar has perpetrated “manifest” contraventions of the convention through the acts of its military, and continues to do so.

Those acts, the court was told, have included “extrajudicial killings, rape or other forms of sexual violence, burning of homes and destruction of livestock … calculated to bring about a destruction of the Rohingya group in whole or in part.”

Aung San Suu Kyi’s alleged personal responsibility for the military’s clearance operations was raised by Paul Reichler, a US lawyer speaking on behalf of Gambia. He showed the court a photograph of billboards that appeared across the country in which she appeared in front of three of Myanmar’s leading generals above the caption: “We stand with you.”

Reichler added: “This shows – it can only have been intended to show – that they are all in it together and that Myanmar has absolutely no intention of holding its emboldened military leadership to account.”

Professor Philippe Sands QC, the last lawyer to make submissions for Gambia, told the court that the ICJ is “the ultimate guardian of the [1948] Genocide Convention; it’s on you the eyes of the world are turned.”

Sands quoted from the UN fact-finding mission which said that Aung San Suu Kyi had not used her “de facto power or moral authority to stem or prevent the unfolding events or to protect the civilian population”.

Among those in court were several Rohingya survivors who had flown in from Kutupalong refugee camp, the largest outside Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.

Hamida Khatun, Yousuf Ali and Hasina Begum were supported by the human rights organisation Legal Action Worldwide, which was founded by a former UN investigator of the violence, Antonia Mulvey.

Rohingya survivors Hamida Khatun (far left), Yousuf Ali (second left) and Hasina Begun (far right), with Antonia Mulvey. Photograph: Supplied

“This is a momentous occasion. They have travelled a long way to be here,” Mulvey said outside the court. “They are seeking justice and this is the first and most important step.

“Aung San Suu Kyi did nothing to stop the killing. She could have asked for help from the international community at the time. And now, as the final insult, she’s defending the army’s behaviour in court.”

Khatun, 50, is a leader of the Shanti Mohila, a group of 400 Rohingya women in the Kutupalong camp. Her family and friends were murdered in the 2017 security operations.

Begum, 22, was attacked by Myanmar soldiers. Ali, 46, was beaten and sexually tortured by Myanmar police in detention because he was accused of supporting the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which the Myanmar army describes as a terrorist organisation.

Once internationally feted as a human rights champion, Aung San Suu Kyi has suffered a rapid fall of grace over what the UN has called her “complicity” in the military clearances. The contrast has been repeatedly drawn between her 1991 peace Nobel peace prize win and 15 years spent under house arrest, and her present position.

“There is a mountain of evidence that the Myanmar military has committed crimes under international law and grave human rights violations against the Rohingya population,” Nicholas Bequelin of Amnesty International said. “Yet the government of Myanmar – including Aung San Suu Kyi – has continued to dismiss, downplay or otherwise deny these accusations.”

Sahred From Source link World News

from WordPress http://bit.ly/3492KjH via IFTTT

[downthetubes]

Titan Books completes its "Modesty Blaise" collections with "The Killing Game"

Titan Books completes its “Modesty Blaise” collections with “The Killing Game”

We’ve been remiss in not noting – and celebrating – the completion of Titan Books collections of the Modesty Blaise newspaper strips with the release of The Killing Game last month. Spanning 28 collections in this series, Titan have now published every Modesty Blaise newspaper strip, complemented by background articles and information on the comic strip character first created by Peter…

[eternal-echoes]

The neoreactionary of the Alt-Right is probably the political group I agree the most. I agree with them in: 

-Preservation of traditional customs: it’s easier to build a distributist state that way. It’s a way to keep away from being at the mercy of big corporations and being dependent on big government welfare. But caution should be taken when incorporating non-Christian customs with Christianity. They should be stripped off of its heathen elements. 

-Limited selective immigration: keeping the native population to be the majority and being selective in a kind of foreigners who can come here ensures that the culture is preserved. I love cultures, and I love seeing different cultures giving praise to Christianity, especially in western civilization where it flourished. God is a polyglot, I’m sure He wants to be worshiped in different languages and cultures man has invented. 

-Recognizing the natural differences of men and women: their differences are essential and complementary. Their differences allow them to see the world differently and their harmonious co-operations enhances the world. 

But what bothers me about them is their lack of emphasis on religion. While they do recognize man’s spiritual nature, they don’t seem to care if the religion is true or not. And even if they sympathize with Christianity, they see it as a means to a homogeneous society. It’s a slap in the face of the people who were persecuted and died for the Faith. I feel the same way as an American Patriot seeing the American flag being burned.They want Christianity to serve them, not for their people to serve Christianity. I say that the goal of preserving culture is to help people be better Christians. 

Our ancestors didn’t go through the routines of traditions mindlessly. They wondered about God and afterlife. What I find lacking among neoreactionary circles is a sense of truth and meaning. While I support their nationalist stances, I feel that it is incomplete. In the Middle Ages, Christians didn’t just fight the Muslim invaders in the battlefield, they fought them intellectually, too, because they saw Islam as a threat to their salvation. 

Mass immigration from third-world countries and birth rates being below replacement levels among native Europeans are definitely issues to worry about. But I think those people who pledge to defend the western civilization would be better off reviving the Catholic spirituality that once dominated in Europe. While it’s true that Muslim immigrants would mostly likely destroy the classical buildings that stood for centuries, but what’s the possibility of agnostic/atheist Europeans keeping the the beautiful Cathedrals running? And Christians tend to have more children because they see children as the greatest gifts from God rather than as hindrance to an affluent and materialistic lifestyle. With the majority of population being devout Christians, the bloated welfare state that attracts low-skilled immigrants would be slashed off and be replaced by Church-run charities. Christianity is the antidote against the widespread liberalism, transgender ideology, gay marriage, and promiscuity. Because Christianity is the Truth to stand for, unlike nationalism, which by itself lacks conviction, is an empty husk of traditional aesthetics. 

[hermanwatts]

Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 18 July, 2020

This week’s newest releases feature an engineer on a quest to complete an impossible radio transmitter, a time-stranded master scout, and a tribe’s race against to clock to pay a debt–or lose their lands.

The Earth a Machine to Speak (Yankee Republic #5) – Fenton Wood

A young radio engineer travels across an alt-history America, encountering primeval gods, mythical beasts, and tall tales come to life, in a quest to build a radio transmitter that can reach the stars.

It all started in the mountain town of Porterville. Twelve-year-old Philo started a pirate radio station with his friends, and learned that the world is a stranger place than he ever imagined. The Ancient Marauder, the Bright and Terrible Birds, the Mishipeshu, and other creatures of myth and legend populate this enchanting mixture of science and fantasy.

Now, in The Earth a Machine to Speak, the long-awaited conclusion of the Yankee Republic series, Philo Hergenschmidt travels to the land of his ancestors to build an impossible radio transmitter, and learns that even the strangest myths can have a basis in scientific fact!

Executor Rising (The Circuit Saga #1) – Rhett C. Bruno

A new threat rises. Pick a side, or die…

When ships belonging to the powerful New Earth Tribunal are mysteriously stolen, they dispatch one of their best agents to find the culprits.

Sage Volus. Tribunal Executor. Spy.

She quickly infiltrates the ranks of suave Ceresian mercenary Talon Rayne, chasing her only lead on the attacks. But the longer she’s undercover with Talon and his squad, the more she finds her faith in the Tribune tested.

While her quest for answers only unearths more questions, a new enemy is on the rise. And he plans to bring down the Tribune, once and for all.

Join an unlikely band of would-be saviors as they are drawn into a conspiracy destined to change the solar-system forever in this wild ride of mercenaries, war, espionage, and betrayal.

Fractured Earth (Ascension Wars Book 3) – Jasper T. Scott

Clayton Cross has been reunited with his family, and he’s joined forces with the remnants of Phoenix, a human resistance group from the Wastes outside of New Houston. But following a traitorous double-cross by their Chrona ally, Specter, most of the world’s remaining population has turned into the failed human-alien hybrids known as Dregs. The world is no longer divided into safe, civilized cities run by the Kyra, and even they have abandoned Earth, declaring it a quarantine zone to contain a deadly new version of their virus, engineered by the Chrona.

Few human survivors remain, and now monstrous hordes of Dregs stalk the cities and Wastes alike, making life on Earth more treacherous than ever.

People must find refuge before they are hunted to death, but they are competing with rival groups for vital resources and shelter—and some of them are better equipped than others.

Clayton and the rest of Phoenix are faced with hard choices in this Fractured Earth as new and old enemies pursue them. When the choice is kill or be killed, death is the only way out.

Hart for Adventure – Henry Vogel

Thrown into the past by ancient, alien technology, Master Scout Gavin Hart becomes a lost human colony’s only hope for survival. But a power-hungry warlord and his army stand between Hart and the colony’s salvation.

Hart discovers allies among the warlord’s prisoners—royal guardsmen to a captive princess. But they’re intent on rescuing their princess from the warlord’s clutches, not stopping the invisible doom from Hart’s warning. To save their world, Hart must save their princess first.

Every hero has his own heroes. For Scout legend David Rice, that hero was Gavin Hart. Join Hart on his greatest adventure and discover why David idolized him.

Rockslide (Street Rats of Aramoor #3) – Michael Wisehart

A debt is owed . . . and time is running out!

Ayrion’s tribe has until the Harvest Moon to meet the Guild’s price. If the payment isn’t made, Hurricane’s territory will be seized, and its members left to starve.

The stakes have never been higher.

Once again, Ayrion finds himself in the precarious position of taking on the role of savior. Only this time, it’s not just his life that hangs in the balance, but the lives of all the children he protects.

Desperation can lead people to attempt the impossible, but Ayrion has truly tipped the scales on this one.

Tribute at the Gates (Catalyst #1) – C. J. Aaron

Cursed from birth. Forced into slavery. It’s time to fight back.

The blood of the Ancients is the most coveted ingredient in all of Damaris. The fabled elixir made from it grants those who drink it life that extends far beyond natural means.

There is no higher honor in the kingdom then being granted the privilege of bidding for it. And the people found with the cursed blood? By law, they are the rightful property of the kingdom.

They are tributes.

As a boy, Ryl was sold by his family when he was discovered to have the coveted blood flowing through his veins. Broken, scared, and confused, he’s confined to an area known as the Stocks until he is ready for harvesting.

Ryl stumbles through a doomed life until the appearance of a mysterious stranger who exposes a buried version of the past that changes everything. That his blood may not be a curse, but a blessing.

The fates of all the tributes hang in the balance.

Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases: 18 July, 2020 published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/