#victim soldier survivor sacrifice

[metamorphesque]

ASALA: Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (part 1)

In 1915, ottoman turkey committed the Genocide of Armenians: more than 1.5 million Armenians were massacred.

Women were assaulted, raped, sexually mutilated and tortured. Many were killed by bayoneting or died from prolonged sexual abuse. The “lucky ones” managed to kill themselves, while others were sold as slaves, forced to work as prostitutes or into marriage by their perpetrators. An eyewitness testified, "It was a very common thing for them to rape our girls in our presence. Very often they violated eight or ten year old girls, and as a consequence many would be unable to walk, and were shot."

The men were usually separated from the rest of “the deportees” during the first few days and executed, but, of course, not before being tortured and mutilated. Some were crucified, beheaded, others were often drowned by being tied together back-to-back before being thrown in the water. So many bodies floated down the Tigris and Euphrates that they sometimes blocked the rivers and needed to be cleared with explosives. Other rotting corpses became stuck to the riverbanks, and still others traveled as far as the Persian Gulf.

In 1918, the young turk regime took the war into the Caucasus, where approximately 1,800,000 Armenians lived under Russian dominion. Ottoman forces advancing through East Armenia and Azerbaijan here too engaged in systematic massacres. The expulsions and massacres carried by the nationalist turks between 1920 and 1922 added tens of thousands of more victims. By 1923 the entire landmass of Asia Minor and historic West Armenia had been expunged of its Armenian population. The destruction of the Armenian communities in this part of the world was total.

And yet, despite all of this—the unimaginable horrors that plagued the Armenian nation in the early 20th century—what do you think the world did in response? After this descent into hell, after the suffering, the bloodshed, the total annihilation—what followed? Silence. Deafening, shameful silence, as always.

Silence—until it was shattered 58 years later, when, at the age of 78, having exhausted every peaceful avenue to draw the world’s attention to the Armenian Question and faced with nothing but ignorance, Gourgen Yanikyan fired 13 bullets at the Turkish consul and vice-consul. This singular act of defiance wiped 58 years of dust from the forgotten pages of Armenian history, forcing the world to confront the cause once again.By sacrificing his freedom, Yanikyan ignited a movement. His act became the catalyst for a wave of Armenian activism, inspiring the creation of ASALA, who would go on to fight for the recognition of the genocide.

In 1975, a group of Lebanese-Armenians led by Iraqi-Armenian Hakob Hakobyan, all of whose parents and/or grandparents were survivors of the genocide, inspired by Yanikyan’s self-sacrifice, decided to found an underground organization, which through armed actions will again bring the Armenian Question into the international political and legal dimension, present the recognition of the Armenian Genocide carried out by the turks in 1914-1923 by the international community, and create prerequisites for the liberation of Western Armenia. The organization was called ASALA - Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia.

The military operations of the ASALA were mainly aimed at turkish embassies, consulates, diplomats, government officials, military and police institutions, the turkish business environment, especially the offices of "turkish airlines corporation", as well as the state and public structures of other countries, which showed financial or military support to the turkish state.

Now, why am I telling you about this today? Well, today - on September 24th marks the 43rd anniversary of the Van Operation (24/09/1981), carried out by 4 Armenian ASALA soldiers - Vazgen Sislyan, Hakob Julfayan, Gevorg Gyuzelyan and Aram Basmajyan. On this day in 1981, four Armenian youths, aged 20-24, armed with pistols, automatic rifles and explosives, seized the turkish consulate in Paris, holding it under their control for 15 hours.

4 Soldiers of The Van Operation taking off their masks

The trial of “VAN” turned into a trial of the turkish government. The “VAN” operation and the political trial that followed it played a major role in bringing the Armenian issue to the international political arena, globalizing the territorial claim and the violated rights of the Armenian people, creating a new wave of condemnation of the reality of the Armenian genocide, strengthening the pride and spirit of struggle among Armenians.

When all the hope has slipped away, It’s the mad who find a way.

Though violence is condemned, it is the cruel truth that it is the only language to which the world listens.

More about the Van Operation in the second part.

[homosexuhauls]

By Vidya Krishnan

GOA, India — My niece was just 4 years old when she turned to my sister-in-law in a packed movie theater in Mumbai and asked about gang rape for the first time.

We were watching the latest Bollywood blockbuster about vigilante justice, nationalistic fervor and, of course, gang rape. Four male characters seized the hero’s sister and dragged her away. “Where are they taking Didi?” my niece asked, using the Hindi word for “elder sister.” It was dark, but I could still make out her tiny forehead, furrowed with concern.

Didi’s gang rape took place offscreen, but it didn’t need to be shown. As instinctively as a newborn fawn senses the mortal danger posed by a fox, little girls in India sense what men are capable of.

You may wonder, “Why take a 4-year-old to such a movie?” But there is no escaping India’s rape culture; sexual terrorism is treated as the norm. Society and government institutions often excuse and protect men from the consequences of their sexual violence. Women are blamed for being assaulted and are expected to sacrifice freedom and opportunity in exchange for personal safety. This culture contaminates public life — in movies and television; in bedrooms, where female sexual consent is unknown; in the locker room talk from which young boys learn the language of rape. India’s favorite profanities are about having sex with women without their consent.

It is the specific horror of gang rape that weighs most heavily on Indian women that I know. You may have heard of the many gruesome cases of women being gang-raped, disemboweled and left for dead. When an incident rises to national attention, the kettle of outrage boils over, and women sometimes stage protests, but it passes quickly. All Indian women are victims, each one traumatized, angry, betrayed, exhausted. Many of us think about gang rape more than we care to admit.

In 2011 a woman was raped every 20 minutes in India, according to government data. The pace quickened to about every 16 minutes by 2021, when more than 31,000 rapes were reported, a 20 percent increase from the previous year. In 2021, 2,200 gang rapes were reported to authorities.

But those grotesque numbers tell only part of the story: 77 percent of Indian women who have experienced physical or sexual violence never tell anyone, according to one study. Prosecutions are rare.

Indian men may face persecution because they are Muslims, Dalits (untouchables) or ethnic minorities or for daring to challenge the corrupt powers that be. Indian women suffer because they are women. Soldiers need to believe that war won’t kill them, that only bad luck will; Indian women need to believe the same about rape, to trust that we will come back to the barracks safe each night, to be able to function at all.

Reports of violence against women in India have risen steadily over the decades, with some researchers citing a growing willingness by victims to come forward. Each rape desensitizes and prepares society to accept the next one, the evil becoming banal.

Gang rape is used as a weapon, particularly against lower castes and Muslims. The first instance that women my age remember was in 1980, when Phoolan Devi, a lower-caste teenager who had fallen in with a criminal gang, said she was abducted and repeatedly raped by a group of upper-caste attackers. She later came back with members of her gang and they killed 22 mostly upper-caste men. It was a rare instance of a brutalized woman extracting revenge. Her rape might never have made headlines without that bloody retribution.

Ms. Devi threw a spotlight on caste apartheid. The suffering of Bilkis Bano — the defining gang rape survivor of my generation — highlighted the boiling hatred that Indian institutions under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist, have for Muslim women.

In 2002 brutal violence between Hindus and Muslims swept through Gujarat State. Ms. Bano, then 19 and pregnant, was gang raped by an angry Hindu mob, which also killed 14 of her relatives, including her 3-year-old daughter. Critics accuse Mr. Modi — Gujarat’s top official at the time — of turning a blind eye to the riots. He has not lost an election since.

Ms. Bano’s life took a different trajectory. She repeatedly moved houses after the assault, for her family’s safety. Last August, 11 men who were sentenced to life in prison for raping her were released — on the recommendation of a review committee stacked with members of Mr. Modi’s ruling party. After they were freed, they were greeted with flower garlands by Hindu right-wingers.

The timing was suspicious: Gujarat was to hold important elections a few months later, and Mr. Modi’s party needed votes. A member of his party explained that the accused, as upper-caste Brahmins, had “good” values and did not belong in prison. Men know these rules. They wrote the rule book. What’s most terrifying is that releasing rapists could very well be a vote-getter.

After Ms. Bano, there was the young physiotherapy student who in 2012 was beaten and raped on a moving bus and penetrated with a metal rod that perforated her colon before her naked body was dumped on a busy road in New Delhi. She died of her injuries. Women protested for days, and even men took part, facing water cannons and tear gas. New anti-rape laws were framed. This time was different, we naïvely believed.

It wasn’t. In 2018 an 8-year-old Muslim girl was drugged and gang raped in a Hindu temple for days and then murdered. In 2020 a 19-year-old Dalit girl was gang-raped and later died of her injuries, her spinal cord broken.

The fear, particularly of gang rape, never fully leaves us. We go out in groups, cover ourselves, carry pepper spray and GPS tracking devices, avoid public spaces after sunset and remind ourselves to yell “fire,” not “help” if attacked. But we know that no amount of precaution will guarantee our safety.

I don’t understand gang rape. Is it some medieval desire to dominate and humiliate? Do these men, with little power over others, feeling inadequate and ordinary, need a rush of power for a few minutes?

What I do know is that other men share the blame, the countless brothers, fathers, sons, friends, neighbors and colleagues who have collectively created and sustain a system that exploits women. If women are afraid, it is because of these men. It is a protection racket of epic proportions.

I’m not asking merely for equality. I want retribution. Recompense. I want young girls to be taught about Ms. Bano and Ms. Devi. I want monuments built for them. But men just want us to forget. The release of Ms. Bano’s rapists was about male refusal to commemorate our trauma.

So we build monuments with words and our memories. We talk to one another about gang rape, keeping it at the center of our lives. We try to explain to our youngest, to start protecting them.

This is how the history of the defeated is recorded. That’s what it all boils down to: a fight between forgetting and remembering.

[onglai]

The Protokol Gegas episode is kinda important not gonna lie

S1E7 Protokol Gegas is arguably one of the best Ejen Ali episodes where the first major turn in the series takes place. But now I wonder, what if Alicia hadn't been so lucky. What if Ali had just been a bit more of a coward or wasn't fast enough to grab her in time.

What if... Alicia died?

You ever wondered what would have happened? Well, me too. And it's messy.

So, the base assumption is Ali failed to save Alicia for one reason or another.

The immediate consequence is obvious, in that Alicia dies and Ali gets ptsd and survivor's guilt.

The not so immediate consequence however is also obvious... but at the same time may cause unseen butterfly effects.

The major, major one is the Protokol Gegas itself, which nobody has initiated before ever since the Pillar Leaders left Djin/Uno to die five years ago.

Now, the big questions:

Who gave the order: Rizwan

Why: To stop a potential threat to Cyberaya

How: By retrieving Azureum

Victim: Alicia

Now, assuming they did get the Azureum back, assuming they did succeed the mission, Alicia dying has big consequences because of two simple facts:

She wasn't an official agent (plus she was also a kid, but eh, child soldiers and all that)

This was the first time Protokol Gegas was initiated after five years

You think they're just gonna have a funeral and move on? No no no, not a chance. The likelier thing to happen is Rizwan will be put on trial. You don't simply invoke the forbidden words and expect get away scot-free you know. Rizwan ordered Ali to initiate to Protokol Gegas, and since Alicia died in this scenario, he will have to prove why it was necessary for him to sacrifice a team member like that.

Ali and Bakar (and maybe Dos if they detained her) will have to testify as witnesses as they were there during the incident. The judges will be the Pillar leaders themselves while Rizwan will have to be his own lawyer. Perhaps some other agents will defend his case but unless they can give satisfactory answers as to why leaving a teammate was necessary, Rizwan may be put on probation, or worse, be stripped of his agent status.

After that... honestly it's just up to imagination after this point. And I haven't imagined enough to say what can happen.

But that's just my interpretation. What do you think would have happened if the episode didn't go as it did in canon?

[aotopmha]

Looking at all of the FF16 posts I've made, I think I've touched on pretty much everything I've wanted in regards of the story.

I've talked about the characters, the pacing, the spectacle and the ending with all of the positives and negatives that come with them.

From the frustrations of an ambigious ending to the compelling elements. From fantastic character writing to too little time given to fantastic characters.

And I think only the key themes of the story are left to discuss, which requires me to go much more in-depth on Clive.

I think I'll start with the issues.

And #1 on this list is that Joshua survived.

Clive's character arc about owning up to what he did despite it not entirely being by his choice is undermined by the fact that he met Joshua again and that Joshua is alive again to begin with.

This is an extremely old trope many stories fall victim to, often undermining many otherwise fantastic character stories.

In fact, most of the implied deaths from that night don't happen. Torgal, Ambrosia and Wade are alive.

(And I am actually happy the animal abuse is lighter than first lead on, but the humans should be dead for Clive's character arc to fully hold water.)

And yeah, Murdoch still died by Ifrit and Pheonix and so did many other soldiers. Bringing in Hanna is a fantastic narrative choice to make Clive face his past.

Clive also suffered much as a slave, so he still has a bunch issues and hurt to work through, but Joshua is the key target of his survivor's guilt and self-blame.

As much as I love what results from them meeting again, I think the new Phoenix should've been a new character that Clive met early on (after his self-battle) and slowly ended up building a strong friendship with, which would've given Clive even further opportunity to reflect and move on from what he "did".

Much more cynical people would probably say this detail entirely ruins the story because it literally takes away the primary reason for Clive's guilt, but I think because some of the death stuck and Clive put in the work before he met Joshua, it gives the foundation a shake, rather than plain destroying it.

Jill actually has Clive's arc, but without any of these issues because it is kept mostly on general armies – we see her kill many as Shiva without setting a very specific character as a target for her guilt, but I think it is still just as effective.

Thematic issue #2 is Clive's hero complex of taking everything upon himself.

It's great that Jill brings this up many times, but depending on how you read the ending, it still feeds into him continuing to sacrifice himself.

This is a much less egrigious potential misstep, which actually can be explained by Clive once again being forced into an awful choice, but I think one worth bringing up regardless.

I think the stronger aspect here are the themes and allegory surrounding the mothercrystals.

I'd even argue the message of energy abuse and conflation of Ultima with the world's elite and how this is connected to dismantling broken power systems is one of the better ones I've seen because it tends to be so, so extremely heavy-handed in 90% of stories that explore it.

What stories also often don't do is connect the resource hoarding with the suffering of the poor.

The elite hoarding resources for themselves and then wanting to kill the "lesser" for not "being perfect" and to "clean the world of them because they ruined my paradise" isn't more subtle, but it is more layered than just "mining bad" or "nuclear weapons bad".

And for a system to change, it had to be destroyed from the very foundation, in this case, destroying the hurtful system of Mothercrystals, Bearers, Dominants and Eikons.

I've seen people read the destruction of the source of all magic as an insult to Final Fantasy because magic is what makes the fantasy, but I think that's not the allegory this story is going for.

The crystals represent an oppressive system in this narrative.

And oppressive systems don't usually fall without heavy sacrifices.

Looked at from this perspective, the interpretation that Clive died at the end also makes sense.

You generally can't destroy a long-standing system without spilling any blood. It often takes the lives of many brave and great people especially for any change to take place.

And this struggle also entails a journey to self-actualisation and awareness for the oppressed.

(In this game this entails the people gaining freedom from the elite of the various countries and in turn freedom from Ultima.)

If the systems stand for a long time, the people under them become complacent and comfortable – "used to it" and hostile to anyone who would break the status quo because what awaits them might be worse than what they have now.

I really like how the narrative addresses this through Cid and later Clive and how they are looked down upon by the Bearers they rescue.

And I really like how Barnabas is a culmination of this defeatism in face of the system.

Accepting the system and relinquishing free will is the easier option because the alternative brings too much pain.

These themes are the reason why I don't dismiss Barnabas and Ultima outright as characters.

They are one-dimensional concepts, but they are relevant concepts that are interesting on an idea level if you dig a little bit.

And Annabella is fantastic because that kind of obsession with eugenics and pure blood is exactly what leads to the end she got. Self-destruction.

I think in general the story is super strong thematically. Clive is my biggest issue because of Joshua, but I think the ideas stand. Ultima and Barnabas just needed better prose.

I've seen complaints about thematic inconsistency, but how it starts on a smaller scale and moves to a cosmic one while sticking to the same themes is one of the strongest aspects of the story for me.

[firefly-fez]

yes yes it’s all “for the mission” but. like. unironically. loid closed himself off to family only when he lost it, and the job he took to bury what was lost is the very place he found it again. he told himself being a spy fighting for peace demands the sacrifice of never again having a family, until he reaches the day where being a spy fighting for peace is the very reason he is ordered to find a family. his life as one devoted to peace doesn’t call him to lay down his dreams, it calls him to lay down his burdens. every member of the family he does find is carrying a secret of their own, four victims of violence from opposite sides of the war all finding shelter with each other, and the only mastermind behind all of it is a little girl who wants a home. he loves and cares for them and claims that it’s “for the mission” and ha ha denial denial except that it is the mission. two soldiers, two survivors on opposite sides of the war still fighting, end the stalemate every time they come together to care for the innocent. the fate of the world depends on the love of this family. the only way to stop the war is to cherish your wife and comfort your daughter. gentleness is the only true path to peace.

[treasurechestrpmemes]

Character Tropes: Muse Name A few of tropes from tvtropes. They are (hopefully) linked correctly if you want to read up on them. Feel free to add more!    Tagged By: Tagging:

Asskicking Equals Authority / Deadpan Snarker / Bifauxnen /  Glass Cannon  /  Loveable Rogue / The Gunslinger  /   The Cynic  /  Ace Pilot  /   The Sneaky Guy  /  Mama Bear / Respected by the Respected / Cut a Slice, Take the Rest /  Rebellious Spirit  / Half-Human Hybrid / Achilles’ Heel / Nigh-Invulnerability /  Thou Shalt Not Kill /  Seen It All /Soul Jar / Kryptonite Factor / Involuntary Shapeshifter / Voluntary Shapeshifting / Living Lie Detector / Kaleidoscope /   Villainous Friendship  / Meaningful Name  /  Good is not soft / The Gadfly / With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility /  Eyes / Asshole Victim / Anti-Hero /  They're Called "Personal Issues" for a Reason  / Dark Secret / Sour Supporter / Ideal Hero / Kill All Humans /  Break the Cutie  /  Familiar / Stronger than they look  /  The Exile  / Organic Technology /   Older Than Dirt  / Ridiculously Human Robots /  Self-Made Man / The Medic  / Sticky Fingers / Become a Real Boy  / The Beastmaster  / Zen survivor / Cynical Mentor / Albinos Are Freaks / Ambiguous Robots /  Even Evil Has Loved Ones  / Weakened by the Light / Magical Eye(s) / Tall, Dark, and Snarky / Magic Music / Lady of War /  The Mole  / Expressive Hair / Walking Wasteland / The Heart / Spoiled Sweet / The Stoic / Bad Powers, Good People /  Archnemesis Dad / Battle Ballgown /  Villain Protagonist  / Shonen Hair / Cute Bruiser / Cheerful Child / Rapunzel Hair / Green Thumb / Caring Gardener / White and Red and Eerie All Over / Dark Action Girl / Mind Virus / Theme Music Power-Up / Training from Hell / Epiphany Therapy / Self-Made Orphan / Rich Bitch / Aloof Big Brother / Stalker with a Crush / Power Tattoo / Driven by Envy / Always Second Best / I Lied /  Medicate the Medium  / Big Brother Instinct / Fake Memories / Shell-Shocked Veteran / Survivor Guilt / Jerk with a Heart of Gold / Noble Demon / Alcohol-Induced Idiocy / The Power of Love / The Love Slap of Epiphany / Fantastic Racism / Fertile Feet /  the Quiet Big Guy  / The Power of Friendship / Good Thing You Can Heal / I Just Want To Be Normal / The Power of Hate /  The Paladin /  Mind over Matter / All powerful Bystander / Remember That You Trust Me / Dark Is Not Evil / Lovable Alpha Bitch / Split Personality Takeover / Dying Alone / Cursed / Heroic Sacrifice / Loners Are Freaks /  Badass Bookworm  /  Go Mad from the Isolation / NEET / Do Not Taunt Cthulhu / Curb-Stomp Battle /  There Are No Therapists / Cry for the Devil / Cradle of Loneliness /  Psychic Powers  /   Animal-Themed Superbeing  / Affectionate Nickname  /  Been There, Shaped History  /  Desperately Craves Affection /  Expressive Ears  / Hates Being Touched / Because You Were Nice to Me / No Sense of Personal Space / Et Tu, Brute? / Go Out with a Smile / Artificial Limbs / Super Senses /  Badass Adorable  /   Magic from Technology  /   Character Tics  / Blessed with Suck / Apocalypse Maiden / Enemy Within / Badass /   Old Soldier  / Warrior Monk / Freakiness Shame / Abusive Parents / Defied Trope / Fluffy Tamer / Born Unlucky / Nightmare Fetishist /   Too Kinky to Torture   / Bad Dreams / Talking in Your Sleep / Death Seeker /  Even Evil Has Standards  /   Lost Technology  / The Dreaded / All of the Other Reindeer / Heroes Prefer Swords / One-Man Army / Lightning Bruiser / Sanity Slippage / Roaring Rampage of Revenge / White Hair, Black Heart / Light Is Not Good / Unstoppable Rage / Too Clever by Half / Younger Than They Look / Older Than They Look / Well-Intentioned Extremist / Smug Super / When She Smiles / Bad Powers, Good People / Big Brother (Sister) Worship / The Virus / Emotionless Girl / 100% Adoration Rating / 0% Approval Rating / Magical Girl / Laughing Mad / My God, What Have I Done? / Sickeningly Sweethearts / Ill Girl /  Contralto of Danger / Bandage Babe / Too Good for This Sinful Earth / Brilliant, but Lazy / Motor Mouth / Beauty Mark / Psychopathic Manchild / Voice of the Legion / Mad Scientist / Our Zombies Are Different / Glowing Eyelights of Undeath / You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry / Nature Lover / A-Cup Angst / The Hedonist / Big Breast Pride / Absolute Cleavage / Genius Bruiser  / Blue Blood / The Tease / Cold-Blooded Torture / Cosmic Plaything / Jerkass Woobie / Anime Hair / Good Scars, Evil Scars / Unscrupulous Hero / The Snark Knight / Pragmatic Hero / Token Evil Teammate / Evil is Deathly Cold / Freak Lab Accident  /  The Necromancer / Magic Knight / Create Your Own Villain  / The Kingslayer / Badass Longcoat / Casting a Shadow / Troubled, But Cute / Used to be a Sweet Kid / From Nobody to Nightmare / Consummate Liar /  Secret Identity  /  Control Freak  / Badass Bookworm  / Affably Evil / Bastard Angst / Functional Addict / Jack-of-All-Trades / Combat Pragmatist /

[brightblessed]

MAIN VERSES

SAVIOR OF EORZEA.

he started as an adventurer, trying to SURVIVE in an unforgiving world. long having abandoned any hope for his homeland & his future, he lives for the right now. He longs to gain power as so he takes up the most destructive form of magic he can. eventually, he is recruited to the SCIONS because of his gift, the echo. An ability that allows him to see past events and defy the mind control of false gods summoned through faith and ritual. 

UNBELIEVER

oh mighty warrior of light. How the MIGHTY fall indeed. Used in a political scheme and framed for the murder of royalty, the Scions are no more. Most likely dead, save for three of them. Again, he SURVIVES. Again, he was POWERLESS to save those he cared about. Fleeing to the nation of Ishgard as a Ward of House Fortemps thanks to a friend, he and the few survivors are caught up in a war they have no stake in. Once a powerful mage, black magic becomes IMPOSSIBLE to control because of his hate. He feels himself being torn apart. Alas, a voice in the abyss. An unlikely mentor. The way of the Dark Knight calls to him. Power to protect, power to serve justice. The DARKNESS claws at his soul, but he still walks in the LIGHT. 

LIBERTY OR DEATH

Sacrifice & more sacrifice. The Scions are reunited and TORN apart. Too much loss tears at him. But now he stands at the doorway to his PAST. ALA MHIGO, his homeland. The schemes of a madman have brought them to war with the Garlean Empire, the very people that stole his family. As he promised himself he would never return, that those that fought for freedom were a lost cause… He now stands ready to face his past. As a Scion, a Warrior of Light, and a victim of the Empire. This time, he will have the POWER. He will liberate his country, and himself from his past. 

BECOME WHAT YOU MUST

One by one, the Scions fell. Into a sleep that no one could wake them from. A mysterious hooded man beckoned, and across worlds, he went. To a place on the verge of DEATH. A premonition foretold his own demise, and he must join the Scions in an unfamiliar world. A world he must RESCUE, for those he has lost. for those he can yet save. The fate of two worlds hangs in the balance, and his title of LIGHT must be cast away. He must become the bringer of NIGHT, the warrior of darkness. 

TALES OF LOSS AND FIRE AND FAITH

Finally at peace. And a MADMAN decides to steal away everything he held dear. To tear about the world and people he had come to LOVE. Unwilling to lose anything again, he will fight until the END. Until the very end, and further still. Truths and pain that can crush the soul. BUT YOU ARE NOT ALONE. 

ALTERNATE VERSES

LIGHTLESS

Non-Warrior of Light verse. When Roi and Niall attempted to escape into Eorzea, Niall was killed. This led to Roi being captured by the Garleans. Being a physically capable 13-year-old, they sent him to a work camp of prisoners where he was subjected to hard labor and intense abuse. For ten years, he managed to survive against the odds. After the WoL defeats Gauis and his research on the Echo reaches the soldiers in charge of the prison, they discover that Roi’s bursts of unconsciousness he often gets line up with the research. After questioning him and confirming he has the Echo, he is shipped away to a lab as a test subject. From this point, it breaks into three sub-verses. 

I. I SURVIVED BUT I HAVE NOT BEEN SPARED. This takes place if Roi hasn’t been taken to the lab yet and is somehow freed from his prison or your character meets him. It can also take place if he is freed from the lab before they eventually kill him by draining his aether or pushing his body/mind too far.  II. THE BOY WITH THE BROKEN HALO  In which he finally breaks and starts openly complying with the research in the hopes it will free him from returning to prison. In this verse, Roi either remains at the lab or is eventually able to leave as a soldier after they find out as much as they can about his echo. In this, he would open be helping the empire despite what they did to him and his family out of an intense fear of returning to his life before. That being said, his body is in far worse shape than in the main verse and the experiments made it more difficult for him to control his aether properly. I would say his combat style would be more similar to a gunbreaker, often attempting to use the echo to collect information from the Empire. He can still use magic, but it physically drains him to do so. I would say the intense damage to his body would bar him from having an open combat role, he would likely be more of an information agent. Now I cannot stress enough that he would still, basically, be a mage. But it would do his body harm to use too much magic and thus he would rely mostly on a sword. I would also wager they did research into how to use the Echo for combat, like with Fordola, and fighting with him would be incredibly difficult because of that. So tl;dr, he wouldn’t be in open combat too often. But when he is, he’d still be quite a foe. But his primary use for the military would be his echo. He’d still basically be a slave. He wouldn’t be allowed to act freely without supervision. I’m still working out exactly what he could do with the Echo because I don’t want it to be exactly like with Fordola. III. RABID ANIMAL In this verse, he taps into his natural magical abilities and the basic things Niall taught him. He loses control of his abilities thanks to the experiments and kills/severely wounds everyone around him. He is also horribly injured but manages to survive. Maybe he was rescued by a random beast tribe or small group of people or maybe luck was (finally) on his side. He stays by himself, doing whatever he has to in order to survive and killing every garlean soldier he sees. Again, physical combat is nearly impossible (even more so than the other verses because of the intense damage caused by his own spells) but he can use magic despite it messing him up. Whether or not he gets to Eorzea depends on my partner and I plotting. Either way, Roi is far more messed up in this verse. 

LET ME DRINK YOUR LIGHT

Instead of being scouted by the Scions, Roi remained a normal adventurer. He continued his quest for POWER, doing his best to kill his heart with every hardship. He may have began as a helpful adventurer that seemed a friend to the common man. But as time went on, his quest for power led him to the forsaken art of black magic. As he grew more powerful, he was exposed to more and more darkness. Isolation and distrust started him down a bad path. He is now a ruthless criminal, taking whatever he wants and seeking more power. As one of the strongest mages in the realm, there is very little people can do to stop him. His effort to expel all weakness has led him into doing awful things, just as desperation had before that. Roi longs to cast off human weaknesses.   Survival and power are the only things he seeks. Known as a man that could have been a hero, Roi is an ally to those that want people killed. To those that would pay to hurt others. His thirst for power has led him to be one of the most feared men in the underground. 

I’M THE ONE THAT MAKES MY FINAL CALL.

Roi’s family was from Rosaria. There, he lived the early years of his life in peace. In a tiny village, his mother and uncle raised him. His father had fallen in battle against the Ironbloods. Roi never met him. Despite everything, Roi awakened as a Bearer after the empire was already in control of the country. His family tried to hide him, but it didn’t last. In an attempt to stop someone from harming an aging and nearly gone to the curse bearer, Roi used magic to protect. This led to the deaths of his mother and uncle when they tried to rescue him. Roi, rather than being killed, was branded and forced into the army due to his natural prowess. The fight was snuffed out of him quickly, being only 13 when he was taken. It wasn’t until years later when he was the only survivor of his unit and was lost among Fallen ruins that he unearthed something. A crystal like one he had never seen before. Upon touching it, he felt himself fall unconscious. Only to be faced with a man he thought had been slain by the imperial forces. The man, despite them being on different sides, offered to help Roi grow strong and escape his bonds. Thus did he flee with Fray. Roi has survived on the fringes of society. Stronger than most and forced to stay away from civilization almost entirely, Roi is very isolated. He wanders from place to place, killing those that use their power to dominate others and enacting his own justice. Because he is Branded, he sees most that approach him as enemies by default. He has heard of Cid the Outlaw and does not know how to think about him. Before the first time skip, Roi is still in the army. He only escapes during the 5 years. He also still has something similar to the echo and his dark knight powers, though I am willing to negotiate the echo if people do not want to have it exist in threads.

ANCIENT

[ image tba]

Ancient Verse. Default is Amyntas being Azem and the 14th member of the convocation.

[image tba]

SO DARKNESS I BECAME

UNSUNDERED. VERSE. Amyntas was Azem and failed to stop the final days. He was not sundered and took his title back and resolved to aide the other unsundered. Almost all of who he was has died in the eons. 

[greenjacketwhitehatdocmui]

Star Wars: The Collector

I present to you, one of the silliest things I've written for a Star Wars/Discworld crossover. I hope that it makes people giggle a little.

     The collector chuckled as he opened the door.  In this chamber were some of the darkest, foulest things that any sentient could encounter.  A lesser person would have felt disgust at the artifacts that he’d collected.

     Years ago, he had been one of the masses.  He watched as the Clone Wars ravaged the galaxy.  The Jedi were presented as shining, sterling heroes.

     Then, Palpatine had torn down their altruistic façade.  No, the Jedi had become foul and corrupt, much like the Republic.  The only hope was to expunge both the Jedi and the Republic, so that the healing could begin.

     He locked the door behind him.  In the dim room, a crimson pyramid pulsed with scarlet light.  It was the prize of his collection:  A Sith holocron.  To be more specific, it was one of Palpatine’s personal holocrons.

     In the wake of Palpatine’s death, there had been chaos.  There were rumors of cloning chambers filled with attempts to cheat death.  Caches of dark knowledge had been ripped open and exposed to the light.  Jedi Master Sam Vimes, along with others of the restructured Jedi Order, had rooted out most of Palpatine’s secrets.

     The collector reverently took the holocron from its resting place.  Above the pyramid, Palpatine’s image scowled at him.  That scowl then became a satisfied smirk.

     “Ah, you have made the sacrifice,” Palpatine said.  “Was it difficult?  Does it linger within your conscience?”

     “No,” the collector said.  “They were weak.  They believed in hope, freedom and justice.”  He snorted.  “They had it coming to them.  I won’t lose any sleep over it.”

     The image of Palptine nodded.  “Good.  Good!”  The image leaned close.  “Now, you are ready for your first real lesson in the Dark Side, my apprentice?”

     “I am, my lord.”  The collector bowed his head.  “Show me the way to power.”

     “The first thing you should know is this:  Never—”

     The image of Palpatine flickered for a moment.  Then the image came back, but with new additions:  Darth Vader and some stormtroopers were lined up in the background while Palpatine suddenly had a microphone.

     “Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down,” Palpatine sang in his raspy voice.  The expression on the Sith Lord’s face was one of obvious bafflement and confusion.  That same expression as on the would-be apprentice’s face.

     In the background, Darth Vader and the stormtroopers kicked in time to the peppy tune.  The would-be apprentice recognized it as a popular Rik Astli song.

     Then the holographic Palpatine screamed.  The holocron flared crimson, then white, and the would-be apprentice knew nothing more.

********

     Jedi Master Sam Vimes sighed.  It had been one of Those Days where he wished he could stay home with his wife.  Unfortunately, this situation called for his unique talents as a copper and a Jedi Master.

     (He had no idea how Vetinari—sorry, Chancellor Vetinari—had found so many survivors of Order 66.  He hadn’t come with death squads or inquisitors.  No, the Sith Lord had offered a general amnesty to the survivors.  The new order was like a soldier being patched up, then set to work as their condition permitted.  Most annoying was that Vetinari had been stern, dangerous, and utterly reasonable to work with.)

     “It’s like all the others, Master,” Jedi Carrot Ironfoundersson reported.  He gestured to the vaguely humanoid shadow in the wall.  “People report a wideband scream across multiple frequencies, then an explosion.  Littlebottom believes that the power source was overloaded.”  He pointed to the crystalline scraps that might have been a holocron.

     Vimes scowled.  He wanted to light a cigar right now, but that would contaminate the crime scene.  Besides, the victim had hardly been innocent.  Tomes of dark secrets filled the small room, though scorched by recent events.  All the victims had been collectors of Sith artifacts.  People had described the victims as being generally quiet and harmless.

     Yes, Officer, Vimes thought darkly.  He was such a quiet man before he committed atrocities that boggled the mind.  It came out of nowhere.

     He wondered what Vetinari would think about this whole mess.  It was likely that he already knew who was behind it.

********

     Chancellor Vetinari noted Vimes’s report.  He arched his eyebrow a fraction of an inch, nodded, then moved on.

     Sith holocrons were known to have security measures to prevent the “unworthy” from accessing certain files.  The late Palpatine had been especially paranoid.  It took the confirmation of an atrocity to open the inner secrets.  Of course, he also modified the holocron to self-destruct, should the situation call for it.

     It was somewhat tricky to introduce a virus in all of Palpatine’s holocrons.  The incongruous image of Palpatine singing Rik Astli would have been enough to shock anyone, especially one eager for power.  It was essentially suicide by greed.

     Vetinari had no illusions that this measure would eliminate the would-be Sith.  Word would eventually spread, and hopefully, the holocrons would lay dormant or be destroyed.  This would help keep Palpatine dead—not only physically, but in the minds of people who remembered the Clone Wars.

     Another Sith Lord would have relished the last moments of his victims.  Vetinari did no such thing; it was a means to an end, a Republic that actually worked.

     A note from Drumknott informed him that Darth Vader’s—no, Anakin Skywalker’s—rehabilitation was slow, but steady.  Per Obi-Wan’s request, Anakin would not be introduced to his children until he was mentally fit to handle the revelation.  It was a web of details that he navigated every day.

     The office was quiet except for the occasional beep of the terminal.  It was just another day of running the galaxy so that it would hopefully work.

Comments? Questions?

--Doc

(Edit: It's Chancellor Vetinari, not Palpatine. Whoops.)

[irrfahrer]

Character Tropes: Ziv Odiz’Zee

Just a few of tropes from tvtropes. They are (hopefully) linked correctly if you want to read up on them. Feel free to add more!

Tagged By: The Force     Tagging: @sithisms  @mando-of-esverr @lighthouseborn @peacefaithed @strongfuck  @starfaithed  @talesgolden  @retrocognizantrecreant @cnlyluck @onehell-of-apilot  @space-hecate @asycuwish @skyler-bane @apexulansis @survivorsofthegalaxy @bewitchingbaker @hopexncarnate   @beskar-himbo   @ofthestcrs @honorhunt  @lady-proudmoore  @savior-of-humanity   @stillfocvsed   @gildedcommander @fallesto @outcaststar @jedilovcd @poewingsdameron @cardinal-carvings    @smertzimy @visceratorn @infernusfuror @inkedstone @kyberllcore  @cfmartyrs  @general-kalani  @luminousxbeings  @thaneirstaer @fleetadmrl   @gwiazdowe @lvkexskywvlker   @ariadne-inthesky   @archaeotech @sxbaist @lightfaithed @trueheartofarebel  @protectxthem    @hunters-house   @envychosen @masterofthelivingforce   @startrailed @bladelancer     @wartornpilot @hosnianleft   @sithdestined     @safrona-shadowsun  @stubborn-amphibian   @ncxile  @skywlkrr  @jedixamidala @chromium-siren @aetcrnus   @bountyborn  @memcriaes @2sabers @thrawnur @creaticn @thestupidmeanone @fatewills…and everyone else who blinked today!            

Asskicking Equals Authority / Deadpan Snarker / Bifauxnen /  Glass Cannon /  Loveable Rogue / The Gunslinger /   The Cynic /  Ace Pilot /   The Sneaky Guy /  Mama Bear / Respected by the Respected / Cut a Slice, Take the Rest /  Rebellious Spirit /  Half-Human Hybrid / Achilles’ Heel / Nigh-Invulnerability / Seen It All /Soul Jar / Kryptonite Factor / Involuntary Shapeshifter / Voluntary Shapeshifting / Living Lie Detector / Kaleidoscope /  Villainous Friendship / Meaningful Name /  Good is not soft / The Gadfly / Eyes / Asshole Victim / Anti-Hero / They're Called "Personal Issues" for a Reason / Dark Secret / Sour Supporter / Ideal Hero / Kill All Humans /  Break the Cutie  /  Familiar / Stronger than they look  / The Exile / Organic Technology / Older Than Dirt / Ridiculously Human Robots / Self-Made Man / The Medic / Become a Real Boy / The Beastmaster / Zen survivor / Cynical Mentor / Albinos Are Freaks / Ambiguous Robots / Even Evil Has Loved Ones / Weakened by the Light / Magical Eye(s) / Tall, Dark, and Snarky / Magic Music / Lady of War / The Mole / Expressive Hair / Walking Wasteland / The Heart / Spoiled Sweet / The Stoic / Bad Powers, Good People /  Archnemesis Dad / Battle Ballgown / Villain Protagonist / Shonen Hair / Cute Bruiser / Cheerful Child / Rapunzel Hair / Green Thumb / Caring Gardener / White and Red and Eerie All Over / Dark Action Girl / Mind Virus / Theme Music Power-Up / Training from Hell / Epiphany Therapy / Self-Made Orphan / Rich Bitch / Aloof Big Brother / Stalker with a Crush / Power Tattoo / Driven by Envy / Always Second Best / I Lied /  Medicate the Medium /  Big Brother Instinct / Fake Memories* / Shell-Shocked Veteran / Survivor Guilt / Jerk with a Heart of Gold / Noble Demon / Alcohol-Induced Idiocy / The Power of Love / The Love Slap of Epiphany / Fantastic Racism / Fertile Feet / the Quiet Big Guy / The Power of Friendship / Good Thing You Can Heal / I Just Want To Be Normal / The Power of Hate /  The Paladin /  Mind over Matter / All powerful Bystander / Remember That You Trust Me / Dark Is Not Evil / Lovable Alpha Bitch / Split Personality Takeover / Dying Alone / Cursed / Heroic Sacrifice / Loners Are Freaks / Go Mad from the Isolation / NEET / Do Not Taunt Cthulhu / Curb-Stomp Battle /  There Are No Therapists / Cry for the Devil / Cradle of Loneliness / Psychic Powers / Desperately Craves Affection / Expressive Ears  / Hates Being Touched / Because You Were Nice to Me / No Sense of Personal Space / Et Tu, Brute? / Go Out with a Smile / Artificial Limbs / Super Senses / Badass Adorable / Apocalypse Maiden / Enemy Within / Badass / Old Soldier / Warrior Monk / Freakiness Shame / Abusive Parents / Defied Trope / Fluffy Tamer / Born Unlucky / Nightmare Fetishist / Too Kinky to Torture / Bad Dreams / Talking in Your Sleep / Death Seeker /  Even Evil Has Standards /  The Dreaded / All of the Other Reindeer / Heroes Prefer Swords / One-Man Army / Lightning Bruiser / Sanity Slippage / Roaring Rampage of Revenge / White Hair, Black Heart / Light Is Not Good / Unstoppable Rage / Too Clever by Half / Younger Than They Look / Older Than They Look / Well-Intentioned Extremist / Smug Super / When She Smiles / Bad Powers, Good People / Big Brother (Sister) Worship / The Virus / Emotionless Girl / 100% Adoration Rating / 0% Approval Rating / Magical Girl / Laughing Mad / My God, What Have I Done? / Sickeningly Sweethearts / Ill Girl /  Contralto of Danger / Bandage Babe / Too Good for This Sinful Earth / Brilliant, but Lazy / Motor Mouth / Beauty Mark / Psychopathic Manchild / Voice of the Legion / Mad Scientist / Our Zombies Are Different / Glowing Eyelights of Undeath / You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry / Nature Lover / A-Cup Angst / The Hedonist / Big Breast Pride / Absolute Cleavage / Blue Blood / The Tease / Cold-Blooded Torture / Cosmic Plaything / Jerkass Woobie / Anime Hair / Good Scars, Evil Scars / Unscrupulous Hero / The Snark Knight / Pragmatic Hero / Token Evil Teammate / Evil is Deathly Cold / The Necromancer / Magic Knight / The Kingslayer / Badass Longcoat / Casting a Shadow / Troubled, But Cute / Used to be a Sweet Kid / From Nobody to Nightmare / Consummate Liar / Control Freak / Badass Bookworm / Affably Evil / Bastard Angst / Functional Addict / Jack-of-All-Trades / Combat Pragmatist /

*Fake Memories: Not a especially big part of Zivs character, but the highly forcesensetive Murakami Orchids are telepathically connected and so are their memories. The Sickness and its follow up The Blackwing Virus are nothing but the corrupted councious of one of the Murakami Orchids and sucked up the memories of everyone infected (and slowly lets their infected have more and more skills of what had ben collected in thismemory pool). As Darth Drear and Darth Scabrous were both infected by The SIckness, it had soaked up their memories too and this memories were shared telepathically with other Murakami Orchids, including eventually Zivs Murakami 4000 years later. As the Murakami roams through Zivs memories and the pool of memories of other Orchids to learn, Ziv will find herself going through memories of the two Darths in her dreams. It does not help her in anything but having very horrible dreams, beside beeing able to read Darth Scabrous handwriting and having a rough plan of the Academy on Odacer Faustin in her mind. Ziv is obviously not epsecially happy about this. She does not like the idea that her Life is influenced by people who had died fourthausand years before her birth.

[letterman-blog]

Seven Remarkable Dogs Who Became Heroes in History

1__ Hachiko: The Legendary Dog of Loyalty

Hachiko is a Akita dog that became famous in Japan for his remarkable loyalty to his owner. Every day, Hachiko would walk his owner to the train station and return to the station to pick him up after work. However, one day his owner passed away at work and never returned to the train station. Hachiko continued to wait for his owner at the train station every day for nine years until his death. Today, there is a statue of Hachiko at Shibuya Station in Tokyo to commemorate his loyalty.

2__ Balto: Chú chó kéo xe anh hùng của Alaska

Balto was a Siberian Husky who led a team of sled dogs during the 1925 serum run to Nome, Alaska. The serum run was a life-saving mission to deliver diphtheria antitoxin to the town of Nome, which was experiencing an outbreak of the disease. Balto led the final leg of the mission and delivered the serum to Nome, saving countless lives. Today, a statue of Balto stands in New York City's Central Park in honor of his bravery.

3__ Laika: The Trailblazing Space Dog

Laika was a stray dog from Moscow who was selected by the Soviet space program to become the first animal to orbit the Earth. In 1957, Laika was launched into space aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft. Although the mission was successful in demonstrating that a living organism could survive in orbit, Laika did not survive the flight. She became the first animal to die in space, but her sacrifice paved the way for future human space exploration.

4__ Trakr: The Hero German Shepherd of 9/11

Trakr was a German Shepherd who was involved in the search and rescue efforts following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. Trakr helped locate the last survivor found in the rubble, a police officer who was trapped beneath the debris. For his bravery, Trakr was named "Dog World Magazine's" "World's Most Heroic Dog" and was awarded a prize by Pedigree dog food company. Trakr also went on display at the U.S. National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. In 2015, Trakr passed away at the age of 16.

5__ Chips: The Courageous War Dog of WWII

Chips was a German Shepherd who was trained to serve in World War II and participated in many campaigns across Europe. Chips captured several German soldiers and was injured during battle, but recovered afterwards. After the war, Chips was awarded many honors and was inducted into the "Dog Hero" category of the U.S. Army's military museum.

6__ Appollo: The Bravery of a 9/11 First Responder

Appollo was a German Shepherd who was trained to serve in the New York Police Department and participated in the response to the 9/11 attacks. Appollo helped locate and rescue many victims from the rubble of the North Tower and was named "Dog Fancy" magazine's "Hero Dog of the Year" in 2002.

7__ Cairo: The Loyal and Fearless Navy SEAL Dog

Cairo was a Belgian Malinois who was trained to serve in the U.S. Navy SEALs and participated in the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan in 2011. Cairo worked alongside the SEAL team on many dangerous missions and became a symbol of courage and loyalty in the U.S. military. After retiring, Cairo was awarded the American Red Cross and American Humane Association's "Hero Dog" awards.

[wcvensouls]

shen ‘ lanzhou ’ zechuan : injuries & trauma . tw ; mentions of violence and torture

shen zechuan was still barely fifteen when he first experienced the horrors of the war. having been left in a sinkhole that was packed with the corpses of the soldiers he fought alongside with for hours on end, with no visible way out, he thought that would be the end of him ��—   however, that was only the beginning of a series of events that would permanently affect his health in more ways than one. as he laid in the pool of blood that came from under and above him, covered in thick freezing snow, he caught a cold  —  a cold that could probably still be remedied had it been tended to properly, but that wasn't his luck. 

after being fished out of that mass open graveyard as the sole survivor of their defeat, he was immediately sent to the imperial prison, where he was then tortured for many days in an attempt to earn a confession that was never his to make. his legs suffered severe injuries from the beating, to the point where they grew numb and weak, later littered with scars that grew fainter over the years, but never disappeared. albeit the reason was unknown to him back then, he was also the victim of a murder attempt, with a heavy sack of dirt placed on his chest as he slept, leaving him prone to running out of air easier than before, along with the trauma that came from the despairing feeling of suffocation that he felt. 

and if that wasn't enough, not even a full day after, he was sentenced to death by flogging, seeming as if everyone in that city wanted his death. to quote it directly, "emperor xiande’s decree today was death by flogging [...] that meant there was no way an about-turn would happen; he was a man who had to die. so these imperial bodyguards brought out their special skills; within fifty strokes, shen zechuan must die."  he was already almost done for when a special intervention saved his life for another day, taking him back to the prison.

while there were clear instructions to keep him alive, that didn’t stop him from receiving yet another injury, in the form of a kick to his already frail and debilitated frame that most people would not survive from. it sent him flying back, nearly choking on his own blood. however, he still persevered, determined to live on after the sacrifice that was made by the one he considered an older brother in order to keep him safe. 

despite the fact that he survived against all odds, though, all of these events left quite the trauma on shen zechuan, both body and mind. now, he is more easily prone to sickness of all sorts, and even colds can put him on bedrest if left uncared for in the early stages. his body is permanently cold, as if he can’t quite shake the snow from that day. fevers are not uncommon, but he tends to ignore them to continue on with his business. more importantly, however, are the effects that it left on his mental health, as he is riddled with nightmares about the war that started all of this nearly every single night, more often than not catching only a handful of hours of rest or outright refusing to sleep at all. while he has pushed through many difficult times in such a short time, there is still much left to be done when it comes to healing even years  later  —   but in his plot of revenge, such things always seem to come last.

if he has to die for his objectives, then so be it. he should have died long ago.

[werspinna]

Character Tropes: Wolfgund Waidmanns Just a few of tropes from tvtropes. They are (hopefully) linked correctly if you want to read up on them. Feel free to add more!   

Tagged By: Walter von der Vogelweide ! Tagging: @novaragno @spinxeret @iobartach @goblinfire @the-rogue-dragon  @hyenashub !

Asskicking Equals Authority / Deadpan Snarker / Bifauxnen /  Glass Cannon  /  Loveable Rogue / The Gunslinger  /   The Cynic  /  Ace Pilot  /   The Sneaky Guy  /  Mama Bear / Respected by the Respected / Cut a Slice, Take the Rest /  Rebellious Spirit  / Half-Human Hybrid / Achilles’ Heel / Nigh-Invulnerability /  Thou Shalt Not Kill* /   Seen It All /Soul Jar / Kryptonite Factor / Involuntary Shapeshifter / Voluntary Shapeshifting / Living Lie Detector / Kaleidoscope /   Villainous Friendship  / Meaningful Name  /  Good is not soft / The Gadfly / With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility /  Eyes / Asshole Victim / Anti-Hero /  They're Called "Personal Issues" for a Reason  / Dark Secret / Sour Supporter / Ideal Hero / Kill All Humans /  Break the Cutie  /  Familiar / Stronger than they look  /  The Exile  / Organic Technology /   Older Than Dirt  / Ridiculously Human Robots /  Self-Made Man / The Medic  / Sticky Fingers / Become a Real Boy  / The Beastmaster  / Zen survivor / Cynical Mentor / Albinos Are Freaks / Ambiguous Robots /  Even Evil Has Loved Ones  / Weakened by the Light / Magical Eye(s) / Tall, Dark, and Snarky / Magic Music / Lady of War /  The Mole  / Expressive Hair / Walking Wasteland / The Heart / Spoiled Sweet / The Stoic / Bad Powers, Good People /  Archnemesis Dad / Battle Ballgown /  Villain Protagonist  / Shonen Hair / Cute Bruiser / Cheerful Child / Rapunzel Hair / Green Thumb / Caring Gardener / White and Red and Eerie All Over / Dark Action Girl / Mind Virus / Theme Music Power-Up / Training from Hell / Epiphany Therapy / Self-Made Orphan / Rich Bitch / Aloof Big Brother / Stalker with a Crush / Power Tattoo / Driven by Envy / Always Second Best / I Lied /  Medicate the Medium  / Big Brother Instinct / Fake Memories / Shell-Shocked Veteran / Survivor Guilt / Jerk with a Heart of Gold / Noble Demon / Alcohol-Induced Idiocy / The Power of Love / The Love Slap of Epiphany / Fantastic Racism / Fertile Feet /  the Quiet Big Guy  / The Power of Friendship / Good Thing You Can Heal / I Just Want To Be Normal / The Power of Hate /  The Paladin /  Mind over Matter / All powerful Bystander / Remember That You Trust Me / Dark Is Not Evil / Lovable Alpha Bitch / Split Personality Takeover / Dying Alone / Cursed / Heroic Sacrifice / Loners Are Freaks /  Badass Bookworm /  Go Mad from the Isolation / NEET / Do Not Taunt Cthulhu / Curb-Stomp Battle /  There Are No Therapists / Cry for the Devil / Cradle of Loneliness /  Psychic Powers  /  Animal-Themed Superbeing / Affectionate Nickname /  Been There, Shaped History /  Desperately Craves Affection /  Expressive Ears  / Hates Being Touched / Because You Were Nice to Me / No Sense of Personal Space / Et Tu, Brute? / Go Out with a Smile / Artificial Limbs / Super Senses /  Badass Adorable  / Magic from Technology / Character Tics / Blessed with Suck / Apocalypse Maiden / Enemy Within / Badass /   Old Soldier  / Warrior Monk / Freakiness Shame / Abusive Parents / Defied Trope / Fluffy Tamer / Born Unlucky / Nightmare Fetishist /   Too Kinky to Torture   / Bad Dreams / Talking in Your Sleep / Death Seeker /  Even Evil Has Standards  / Lost Technology / The Dreaded / All of the Other Reindeer / Heroes Prefer Swords / One-Man Army / Lightning Bruiser / Sanity Slippage / Roaring Rampage of Revenge / White Hair, Black Heart / Light Is Not Good / Unstoppable Rage / Too Clever by Half / Younger Than They Look / Older Than They Look / Well-Intentioned Extremist / Smug Super / When She Smiles / Bad Powers, Good People / Big Brother (Sister) Worship / The Virus / Emotionless Girl / 100% Adoration Rating / 0% Approval Rating / Magical Girl / Laughing Mad / My God, What Have I Done? / Sickeningly Sweethearts / Ill Girl /  Contralto of Danger / Bandage Babe / Too Good for This Sinful Earth / Brilliant, but Lazy / Motor Mouth / Beauty Mark / Psychopathic Manchild / Voice of the Legion / Mad Scientist / Our Zombies Are Different / Glowing Eyelights of Undeath / You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry / Nature Lover / A-Cup Angst / The Hedonist / Big Breast Pride / Absolute Cleavage / Genius Bruiser / Blue Blood / The Tease / Cold-Blooded Torture / Cosmic Plaything / Jerkass Woobie / Anime Hair / Good Scars, Evil Scars / Unscrupulous Hero / The Snark Knight / Pragmatic Hero / Token Evil Teammate / Evil is Deathly Cold / Freak Lab Accident /  The Necromancer / Magic Knight / Create Your Own Villain / The Kingslayer / Badass Longcoat / Casting a Shadow / Troubled, But Cute / Used to be a Sweet Kid / From Nobody to Nightmare / Consummate Liar / Secret Identity /  Control Freak  / Badass Bookworm  / Affably Evil / Bastard Angst / Functional Addict / Jack-of-All-Trades / Combat Pragmatist /

Magic from Technology+ Lost Technology : Wolf lives in medieval times. However she is still living in one of the Marvel Universe Dimension on a earth where people like the Asgardians and other beeings occaisonally stopped by for a holiday, so- for example- finding a in the earth buried spaceship or superweapon would be not the weirdest thing that would happen to her in a week. That she is working with and working against a Guild of Alchemists that want to find, research and use specifically those things is part of her workday. 

Thou Shalt Not Kill: A moral line Wolf would never cross. Her younger self how ever, beeing a starving 14 year old part of the Peregrinatio Puerorum , did crossed that line when she robbed other people for food and got rid of any followers (Which is her Dark Secret) . In that manner her older self has better morals than her younger self. While WOlf has now a Greater Good orientated moral compass, her younger self- especially her time as a thief and robber- occaisonally rears its head- and while she might be charming about it, she has no problems overstepping laws or personal property. Which puts her in the loveable Rogue category. And with occaisonally it means: standing near Wolf end 99, 99% of the time with your wallet in her hands, her flipping through your wallet pictures and handing it back without the poor victim noticing. Considering she mostly stands beside other Spidermen with no bags, this might be a hilarious image.

Character Tics : Wolf has the habit of scratching the poxscars on her cheeks or suck on the scarred corner of her mouth, when she is uncomfortable, bored or in thoughts.

Magical Eye(s) + living lie detector+ Blessed with SUCK: After her body mutates, Wolf has eight eyes, which obviously enhanced her sense of sight immensely. She even has a heatvision which allowes her to figure that people are lying to her due to their bodytemperature mildy rising. Obviously she also has eight eyes, has to constantly hide them, is prone to migraines due to the change in her skulls form,  is constantly overstimulated and barely finds ways to fall asleep.

[gmanwhore]

Okay so it goes like this:

CHAPTER 1

Victim: Hifumi Yamada-SHSL Moral Compass

Punished: Celestia Ludenberg SHSL Fashionista

Blackened: Junko Enoshima SHLS Idol

Chapter 2

Victim: Aoi Asahina SHSL Gambler

Blackened: Kiyotaka Ishimaru SHSL Soldier

Chapter 3

Victim: Byakuya Togami SHSL Biker Gang Leader/Toko Fukawa SHSLSwimmer

Blackened: Mukuro Ikusaba SHSL Baseball Star

Chapter 4

Sacrifice: Makoto Naegi SHSL Doujin Author

Chapter 5

"Victim": Kyoko Kirigiri SHSL Programmer

Framed: Chihiro Fujisaki SHSL ???/Sayaka Maizono SHSL Luck

Chapter 6

Mastermind: Kyoko Kirigiri SHSL Despair

Survivors

Sayaka Maizono SHSL Hope

Chihiro Fujisaki SHSL Detective

Leon Kuwata SHSL Heir

Sakura Ogami SHSL Clarvoyant

Mondo Owada SHSL Martial Artist

Yasuhiro Hagakure SHSL Writter

daaaaaamn

[welcometomybraincomics]

Look at heeeem!

He's so cute!

His entire background character is a trigger warning!

Let's see we've got suicide, survivor's guilt, victim blaming, self-sacrifice, self-hatred, depression, hopelessness, world ending, more responsibility than should reasonably put on child's shoulders, grief, child soldiers, human experimentation

Like, most of it's cute and fluffy, but, like, that's because he doesn't remember/know jack shit about anything, so he's got baby-child innocence.

[dwellordream]

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi. In a post-apocalyptic North America ravaged by climate change and corporate warfare, Nailer, a resourceful and brave young scavenger, discovers a shipwrecked yacht filled with riches. But rather than plunder the wreck, Nailer reluctantly agrees to help the stranded sole survivor, a cunning heiress hunted by her power hungry uncle’s mercenaries. The two embark on a perilous mission, accompanied by a mutant super-soldier with an agenda of his own.

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia. For years, misanthropic outcast Eliza Mirk has written and drawn the award-winning, worldwide sensation Monstrous Sea, a fantasy webcomic with millions of fans. Online, Eliza is LadyConstellation - confident, creative, and beloved. Offline, she is deeply depressed and estranged from her oblivious family. But when Eliza stumbles into a real life friendship- and soon, relationship- with a superfan of her comic, she struggles to balance her two personas, and in the process nearly loses herself.

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. The last unicorn lived in a lilac wood… until one day, she wanted something more. Determined to find what remains of her people, the Unicorn sets out on a heartbreaking, mesmerizing adventure, accompanied by a hapless magician, a courageous bandit, and an orphaned prince.

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo. Pregnant at fourteen and now raising a toddler while juggling her senior year of high school, Emoni prides herself on defying expectations and making the hard, practical choices for her young daughter and grandmother. But when given the chance to train as a professional chef, Emoni struggles to accept that following her passion might be just as valuable as the sacrifices she’s made.

Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner. Sisters Jo and Bethie Kaufman couldn’t be more different. Defiant Jo is a tomboy who never lets an injustice go unanswered, even if it means clashing with her mother, teachers, and friends. Sweet, artistic Bethie only wants to make people happy, and dreams of life as a housewife and mother. But as the Kaufman sisters age from girlhood in 1950s Detroit to the upheavals of the 60s, 70s, and beyond, their roles switch- Jo marries and becomes a doting wife and mother, though she still thinks of the woman she loved (and lost), while Bethie, reeling from a traumatic adolescence, becomes a nomadic bohemian, intent on challenging traditions.

The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon. To the outside world, Aidan Thomas is a hardworking, charming widower, doing his best to raise his teenage daughter Cecilia and give back to his small town. But the woman held prisoner inside his shed knows the truth. When Aidan is forced to move, he brings the woman- who he’s renamed Rachel- along with him, forcing her to pretend she is an old friend renting a room in their new house. As Aidan sizes up his potential next victim, the Woman is forced to make a choice- keep her head down and survive, or risk it all to escape with Cecilia.

Elevation by Stephen King. Newly divorced Scott Carey has a problem. Though the scale says his weight is plummeting, his body shows no signs of change- and objects he touches are becoming weightless as well. In the midst of this strange dilemma, Scott connects with his new neighbors- married lesbians ostracized by the rest of their small Maine town. Determined to help the women’s restaurant succeed, Scott decides to do whatever it takes to help his friends- and sets off a wave of upheaval in the process.

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Best friends Montserrat and Tristan are united by their love of classic Mexican cinema- and their floundering careers. Montserrat is bullied and harassed by the majority-male sound editing community, and Tristan’s acting career has never recovered from a tragic scandal a decade earlier. When given the opportunity to help finish a strange horror movie said to contain mythical properties, the pair jump at the chance. They’ll come to regret that decision- if they live to tell the tale.

Standalone Book Recommendations

the following books do not have *direct* sequels and are not part of long-standing series. ie. they can be read on their own without having to commit to reading multiple sequels or prequels.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. In 1860s London, orphan Sue Trinder, daughter of a murderess, is raised by the tough but kindly Mrs. Sucksby and her adoptive family of thieves. When a con man known as the Gentleman offers Sue the chance of a lifetime to change her fortune forever, she takes it, even if it means posing as a lady’s maid and tricking an innocent young heiress, Maud, into a life of imprisonment in an asylum. However, Maud, her eccentric bibliophile uncle, and their lonely estate of Briar are not quite what they seem, and Sue quickly finds herself in over her head, battling between her pragmatism and her growing feelings for her target. 

Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates. Dreamy and romantic young Norma Jeane Baker dreams of true love and a life on the silver screen, much like her erratic mother Gladys. After Gladys is institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital, Norma Jeane is shuffled from orphanage to foster home and quickly taught that life is not a fairy tale, and even beautiful and kind princesses rarely get their just rewards. After marrying at age 16 to avoid returning to the orphanage, Norma Jeane begins work as a model while her husband serves overseas in World War II, and resolves to make a star of herself. The path she takes will catapult her from one doomed romance to another, nearly crush her soul, and make her a worldwide sensation- not as herself, but as bottle blonde flirt Marilyn Monroe.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Clever young socialite Noemi wants nothing more than to pursue a university education and break a few hearts while she’s at it. When her father asks her to pay a visit to her cousin, who has married into a reclusive family of Englishmen and begun to send mysterious, alarming letters begging for help, Noemi reluctantly agrees. At High Place she finds that her cousin’s in-laws are more than just high-class snobs; their very house itself seems to be imparting sinister messages in her dreams, and her cousin is unrecognizable. Determined to get to the bottom of this mystery, Noemi resolves to discover the secrets of High Place, but learns that High Place is just as interested in dissecting her as she is it. 

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. Raised by his scarred and often violent mother and his mentally ill grandmother, Little Dog begins to recount his childhood in Connecticut and unpack the trauma inflicted on his family by the war in Vietnam and their subsequent flight to America. As he ages into a young man, Little Dog begins a romance with his best friend Trevor, and begins to understand the snare of addiction, sexuality, and masculinity that has both of them in its grips. 

Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson. A surreal tale of magical realism in 17th century London, Sexing the Cherry contains many stories within the frame story, which is that of a massive woman accompanied by dogs, and her adoptive son Jordan, taken from the river as an infant. Dog Woman and Jordan journey through many fairy tales, including that of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, who wish to rewrite their myth.

The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer. Faced with the prospect of a loveless marriage, Sir Richard Wyndham goes out for one last night of drunken revelry. Along the way he meets Penelope Creed, who is also fleeing an arranged match of her own. The two conspire to get Penelope back to her countryside village, where she plans to elope with her childhood sweetheart. Penelope poses as Richard’s young cousin, but their plot is complicated by thieves, murder, and an overturned stagecoach. 

Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve. Gwyna is nothing and no one- a serf, a slave, an orphan. By sheer chance she is brought into the service of the bard Myrddin, who travels alongside the young warlord  Arthur, who hopes to unite Britain under his reign. From Myrddin, Gwyn learns they can be whatever they choose to be- even if that means shedding identities the way a snake sheds its skin. Along the way, he forges his own destiny- as a wizard’s apprentice, a page boy, a queen’s handmaiden, and finally, the one who will make Arthur the man into Arthur the legend. 

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Richard Mayhew is new to London, but already worn out by his shallow life in finance. One fateful night, he breaks dinner plans to come to the aid of an injured homeless girl. For this act of kindness, he is consigned to Neverwhere, an alternate reality where dangers lurk down every darkened alley, and myths and goddesses walk the streets of a city trapped in every time and place at once. Richard must decide whether he wishes to return to his normal existence, or make an uncertain home for himself among the exiles and misfits of Neverwhere- if he can survive that long. 

[goyurim]

the reason i can’t bring myself to equate beyond evil to the devil judge no matter how many parallels they might share is because of the fundamental message each of the shows are trying to give; the former about hope whereas the latter about despair

though both shows attempt to reflect the very nature of corrupt societies, the core message of the devil judge was always the elimination of hope. the idea that the system is flawed and no matter how many attempts one might make to fix it, it’s a lost cause and therefore believing in the system, or yourself for that matter if you’re righteous, is nothing but naivety. so the solution to a deceitful society that’s so far gone can only be more deception from a brave soldier who’s willing to sacrifice himself and his morality for the greater good. even then, however, the solution is temporary because it won’t take too long for humanity to return to it’s duplicitous, self-serving ways.

beyond evil on the other hand, though points out how hopeless a corrupt society may seem initially, always keeps the focus on the individuals that make up the society, the victims, the forgotten, the survivors. it removes the spotlight from the large, faceless evil corporations and instead shines it on those who feel like they cannot make a difference and in that way empowers them to do so. the psa at the end even speaks directly to the audience, calling us out not for our mistakes but in an attempt to encourage us to keep trying to do better bc every single one of us is significant and has the power to do good despite how powerless we might deem ourselves and our actions. that's why for the first time i appreciate the english title bc it's so appropriate; it's not about what's evil but what's beyond it

yo han’s dynamic with ga on is just as intense as dong sik’s with ju won, but while yo han’s trying to open up ga on’s eyes to the cruelty of their society, dong sik’s trying to open up ju won’s eyes to the humanity of manyang. while yo han tries to make ga on think more with his head than his heart, dong sik pushes ju won to put his emotions before his logic. that’s why the end of the devil judge leads to ga on trapped in yet another power game, whereas beyond evil gives ju won freedom, a family who cares for him, and the desire to live. i may be stereotyping here but it’s obvious which show was written by a man and which by a woman, and why women need to write thrillers more often.