#39; to see Target go

[thethief1996]

I can't stop thinking about the news out of Palestine. Israel is sieging al Shifa hospital. Videos of people's limbs being severed off are haunting (graphic video tw). The hospital has ran out of fuel and 39 babies in incubators are fending for their lives by themselves, because Israel has stationed snipers around the hospital and is shooting all medical crew that walks into their sight.

First, the narrative was Israel would never bomb hospitals. Now, the hospitals are Hamas bases. Then, we respect journalists. Now, we have a fucking kill list of journalists because they are Hamas collaborators. First, we are not letting fuel in until the hostages are released. Now, we are not accepting the hostages back because that would stop our ground invasion and let Hamas win. And I could go on about every single lie they're making up. If you look up "Hamas rape" on google, the first link leads to Times of Israel saying Israel has found no forensic evidence of sexual violence, and only one eyewitness testimony out of 3.5k people attending the rave. If you Google "Hamas beheaded babies" the top links say they have no evidence for the claim besides word of mouth from extremist soldiers. Israeli extremists think about the ugliest goriest scene they can make out in their sick heads, tell that to a international journalist and they run away with it like it's gospel.

And children are being killed in the name of these lies. Thousands are being displaced in images that remind me of the pictures of Tantura 75 years ago, with their hands up so the tanks don't shoot them. Amputees are leaving the hospitals in wheelchairs hours after their surgeries because they are being shot at. Elders who survived the Nakba on 48 are having to walk towards Southern Gaza on foot (imagine walking from one end of your city to the other on foot), displaced again. People are cheering for the haunting images of white phosphorus bombs being dropped over Gaza. Gazan workers who were arrested in the West Bank are being thrust back into the bombings wearing numbered labels.

This is not normal. We are seeing the early stages of the settler colonial genocide of an indigenous population. Native leaders who have visited Gaza say its refugee camps look eerily like reservations. We can stop this. For the first time we are able to see wide scale accounts from the hands of the people suffering the genocide, and Israel is so scared of it they have cut all communications in Gaza.

This is our litmus test. I think we have never seen more clearly, with Palestine, Armenia, Congo and Sudan how colonialism has made our world a rotten place to live in.

The South African apartheid collapsed due to boycotts. We have to do everything in our power to stop Israel's hegemony. Even talking to a group of friends about Palestine changes the status quo. There's no world where we can live peacefully if Israel accomplishes their goals.

Keep yourself updated and share Palestinian voices. Muna El-Kurd said every tweet is like a treasure to them, because their voices are repressed on social media and even on this very app. Make it your action item to share something about the Palestinian plight everyday. Here are some resources:

Al Jazeera, Anadolu Agency, Mondoweiss

Boycott Divest Sanction Movement

Palestinian Youth Movement is organizing protests and direct action against weapons factories across the US

Mohammed El-Kurd (twitter / instagram)

Muhammad Shehada (twitter)

Motaz Azaiza (instagram) - reporting directly from Gaza.

Hind Khudary - reporting directly from Gaza. Her husband and daughter moved South to run from the tanks but she stayed behind to record the genocide. The least we can do is not let her calls fall on deaf ears.

You can participate in boycotts wherever you are in the world, through BDS guidelines. Don't be overwhelmed by gigantic boycott lists. BDS explicitly targets only a few brands which have bigger impact. You can stop consuming from as many brands as you want, though, and by all means feel free to give a 1 star review to McDonalds, Papa John, Pizza Hut, Burger King and Starbucks. Right now, they are focusing on boycotting the following:

Carrefour, HP, Puma, Sabra, Sodastream, Ahava cosmetics, Israeli fruits and vegetables

Push for a cultural boycott - pressure your favorite artist to speak out on Palestine and cancel any upcoming performances on occupied territory (Lorde cancelled her gig in Israel because of this. It works.)

If you can, participate in direct action or donate.

Palestine Action works to shut down Israeli weapons factories in the UK and USA, and have successfully shut down one of their firms in London.Some of the activists are going on trial and are calling for mobilizing on court.

Palestinian Youth Movement is organizing direct actions to stop the shipping of wars to Israel. Follow them.

Educate yourself. Read into Palestinian history and the occupation. You can't common sense people out of decades of propaganda. If your arguments crumble when a zionist brings up the "disengagement of Gaza", you have to learn more.

Read Decolonize Palestine. They have 15 minute reads that concisely explain the occupation (and its colonial roots) and debunk popular myths, including pinkwashing.

Read on Palestine. Here's an amazing masterpost.

Verso Book Club is giving out free books on Palestine (I personally downloaded Ten Myths about Israel by Ilan Pappe. If you still believe in the two states solution, this book by an Israeli professor debunks it).

Call your representatives. The Labour Party in the UK had an emergency meeting after several councilors threatened to resign if they didn't condemn Israeli war crimes. Calling to show your complaints works, even more if you live in a country that funds genocide.

FOR PEOPLE IN THE USA: USCPR has developed this toolkit for calls, here's a document that autosends emails to your representatives and here's a toolkit by Ceasefire in Gaza NOW!

FOR PEOPLE IN EUROPE: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace targeting the European Parliament and one specific for almost all countries in Europe, including Germany, Ireland, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Greece, Norway, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Finland, Austria, Belgium Romania and Ukraine

FOR PEOPLE IN THE UK: Friends of Al-Aqsa UK and Palestine Solidarity UK have made toolkits for calls and emails

FOR PEOPLE IN AUSTRALIA: Here's a toolkit by Stand With Palestine

FOR PEOPLE IN CANADA: Here's a toolkit by Indepent Jewish Voices for Canada

Join a protest. Here's a constantly updating list of protests:

Global calendar

Another global calendar (go to the instragram of the organizers to confirm your protest)

USA calendar

Australia calendar

Feel free to add more.

#free palestine #free gaza #save gaza #gaza under attack

[resplendent-ragamuffin]

Six Months Since

By Shoshana bat-Yehonatan

A poem for the six (Hebrew) month anniversary of the Simchat Torah Massacre. With thanks to the JPS, Koren, Metsudah, and other translations on Sefaria.org. Footnotes link to sources of quotes. Footnotes connect to sources which will be in reblog, because otherwise it's too long to post.

TW: RAPE

Six months has it been

Since the fields turned red without flowers

Now calaniot bloom where once my darlings danced

But still, my precious ones are gone.

I have no prophets to comfort me

No visions from God [1]

My king remains in exile [2]

How can I sing a song of God on alien soil [3]

In an alien tongue?

Yet I have been too long a stranger in a land not mine[4]—

Two thousand years, to a paltry hundred and twenty—

And I forgotten even how to speak the Holy Tongue

Let alone write in it.

I have neither wit nor words to sing my grief.

And so I turn to those before me

As they turned to those before them

And say,

“God, open my lips, and let my mouth declare my grief.” [5]

Oholiva cries [6]

And Ohola wails [7]

This year was pregnant[8] with a second month of joy

Instead she wails in travails unending

“When will my children return?” [9]

Oh wall of Fair Zion [10]

Shed tears like a river [11]

Cry out in the night and pour your heart out like water [12]

Rachel’s eyes are red as her sister’s [13]

As she weeps over the fate of her children [14]

Six months it has been

Since they ravaged women in Zion [15]

Maidens in the towns of Judea [16]

Since their hands tore my princes apart

No deference shown to elders [17]

On this day six months ago

My infants were taken captive before the enemy [18]

The joy of our hearts was seized

And our dancing turned to mourning [19]

For the youths are gone from their music [20].

Now my eyes shed rivers of water [21]

Over the ruin of my people’s daughter [22]

Bitterly I weep in the night [23]

My cheeks wet with tears [24]

There is none to comfort me: my friends have betrayed me [25]

I cry:

Behold my agony! [26]

My priests and my elders have perished in the city [27]

The elders strewn like dust on the ground [28]

Those whom I dandled and reared my foe has consumed [29]

“This is the day we hoped for! We have found it, we have seen it!” [30]

My maidens and youths have gone into captivity! [31]

“It is your doing.” [32]

Blood on her legs, her nakedness seen, [33]

Zion reaches out for comfort [34]--

“Away! Unclean!” [35]

She can only shrink back and sigh [36]

“May it never befall you.” [37]

The nations have resolved “They shall stay here no longer” [38]

We wander and wander [39]

But where are we to go?

How can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred? [40]

“My life as my wish, my people as my request,” [41]

I begged my Husband [42]

“For we have been targeted, my people and I, to be destroyed, massacred, and exterminated.” [43]

But the King turned His face from me.

My dear ones were purer than snow [44]

Ruddier than rubies or coral [45]

Their bodies lovely as sapphire [46]

Now their faces are darkened with ash [47]

Unrecognizable amid the ruin of the streets [48]

See, God, and behold to whom You have done this! [49]

Look at me, answer me, Oh God! [50]

How long will You hide Your face from me? [51]

I have no prophets now to comfort me

And must take my comfort from those before:

You promised “God will restore your captives.” [52]

Return them, God, and let them come back [53]

Renew our days as of old. [54]

#october 7 #bring them home now #israel #am yisrael chai #jumblr #tw: rape #I'm so tired #poetry #jewish

[arshipweek]

AR Ship Week - Scorpia Backstory in the Book and the TV Show

This is the last weekly post in the lead up to Alex Rider Ship Week. Only one week left!

This week we have a guest post by @icebluecyanide​ about the differences between Scorpia in the book and TV canons.

Scorpia Backstory in the Book and the TV Show

After two seasons of ominous statements and mystery, series three of the TV show finally dove deeper into the criminal organisation known as Scorpia, and the way their history intertwines with Alex’s. But what is their backstory, and how does it differ from what we see in the books? 

In this meta, I will be diving into some of the changes in how Scorpia is presented in the book (Scorpia) and the TV show. Since this is a rather broad topic, and could potentially lead to me listing every single difference from the book, I will focus specifically on the Scorpia backstory and on the structure of Scorpia as an organisation.

I’ve used book quotes throughout this meta, including page numbers. The page numbers refer to the 2014 Walker Books (UK) edition.

Scorpia 

Let’s start this off by taking a look at how Scorpia is described in both the book and the show. I’ll first give an overview of Scorpia in the book, then move on to the TV show and do a comparison.

Scorpia in the book

Scorpia was all over the world. It had brought down two governments and arranged for a third to be unfairly elected. It had destroyed dozens of businesses, corrupted politicians and civil servants, engineered several major ecological disasters, and killed anyone who got in its way. It was now responsible for a tenth of the world’s terrorism, which it undertook on a contract basis. Scorpia liked to think of itself as the IBM of crime - but in fact, compared to Scorpia, IBM was strictly small-time. (Scorpia, p. 39)

In the book, Scorpia is a criminal organisation that has its roots in the early 1980s, during the last decade of the Cold War. As we learn in Scorpia (2004), it was founded by people who were involved in the Cold War as spies or assassins or secret police for various governments, and who realised that as the Cold War came to an end, they would be able to make more money going into business for themselves.

It was a fanciful name, they all knew it, invented by someone who had probably read too much James Bond. (Scorpia, p. 38)

The name of Scorpia is taken from their four fields of operation: Sabotage, Corruption, Intelligence and Asassination. They will take on any client that is willing to pay them, and don’t care about who gets caught in the crossfire. They’re a powerful organisation, and as Julia Rothman mentions, sometimes even the intelligence agencies make use of their services for jobs that cannot be traced back to them. They operate very much as a business, and they don’t make things personal, but they also are ruthless in getting even and don’t make hollow threats. Scorpia don’t forgive and they don’t forget.

Scorpia is led by an executive board consisting of the original founders. Of the original twelve, only nine remain at the time of the book, including Julia Rothman (the only woman on the board) and Max Grendel (the oldest executive). The executives on the board are equal partners, but for each project one of them is assigned as the leader, in alphabetical order. (It’s unclear how this works for The Australian, who in some editions doesn’t have a name.)

At the time of the book, the project that Scorpia is focused on is Invisible Sword, and the executive in command is Julia Rothman. There is a client, who is offering a great deal of money for Scorpia to break the special relationship between the UK and the US, and most of the Scorpia board seem unconcerned about the principal target of the weapon being children. The only exception to this is Max Grendel, who is old and has grandchildren of the same age, who has enjoyed getting rich working for Scorpia over the years, but who now wants to retire and not be a part of the new project. Sadly, his retirement gift is a suitcase full of deadly scorpions, so his retirement is rather brief.

Scorpia are an international company, with offices and people all over the world. However, Alex first runs into them in Venice, where Mrs Rothman has a large mansion on the grand canal that is referred to as the Widow’s Palace. On the island of Malagosto, near Venice, Scorpia also has a school where they have a training and testing facility for their assassins. This is where John Rider and Yassen Gregorovich were tested and trained, and it’s where Alex also takes part in lessons. 

Scorpia in the show

Blunt: At that time, we already knew that SCORPIA were the single most dangerous emergent threat since the Cold War. (3x07)

At first glance, the Scorpia we meet in the TV show appears to be from a canon divergent AU where the organisation was all but destroyed around the time when Alex was just a baby. This is a fascinating change, and also makes intuitive sense, as of course the third series of the show came out twenty years after Scorpia (2004) did. From the start, we get hints that Scorpia in the show is different from the one in the books. 

We first learn of the name Scorpia at the end of s1, as Mrs Jones and the rest of the Department realise that Yassen Gregorovich was behind Ian’s death, and that he is still alive. Going by the descriptions we are given, Scorpia was as powerful in the past as they were when Alex met them in the book:

Smithers: I know the file, of course. At one point, they were responsible for a tenth of the world’s terrorism. 

Crawley: And political assassinations, personal vendettas. All available to the highest bidder, without remorse or compunction. (1x08)

In 2006, Scorpia was taken down by the Department, in a well-coordinated operation based on the info John Rider was able to gather. Alan Blunt was in command as all over the world, the bases and known locations of Scorpia were raided. In the chaos, some members of Scorpia went missing and managed to escape, such as Julia Rothman and Yassen Gregorovich, but when they failed to resurface in the five years that followed, their files were closed and they were assumed to be dead.

After this, Scorpia seem to have retreated to the shadows, and operated almost entirely in secret. While they no longer have the same presence in the world, they still have both funds and technology to continue their work. They have no problem spending several millions to fake the payment for the assassination of the US president in season 2 at Yassen’s request, and they have a system set in place with a phone line that can be reached only with a specifically assigned code, or else the number will be disconnected, as we see when the Department pretend to call as Martin Wilby to determine who he got his orders from. In the first two seasons, Scorpia took jobs such as helping with Dr Greif’s plan at Point Blanc, and Damian Cray’s Eagle Strike plan, and they still appear as ruthless as in the book, not caring about the deaths those plans would cause.

At first, we mostly encounter Scorpia in the scenes with the Department, where Scorpia (through Yassen) have turned Martin Wilby to pass on information about the Department and got him to lure Ian Rider to his death at Yassen’s hand. Interestingly, Ian appears to be the only person still looking for Scorpia:

Crawley: I don’t think they ever went away. I think they just got better at hiding. And we were so confident we’d finished them. Only Ian was still looking, of course. (1x08)

Ian seems to have been aware of Yassen’s survival, and presumably who he works for (“Oh Martin, you have no idea who you’re working for.” - 1x01), but none of the rest of the Department have any idea until Alex mentions having seen Yassen at Point Blanc:

Blunt: Scorpia.Mrs Jones: It explains everything. The sophistication, the global reach, and Wilby. Given our history, of course they would target us.Crawley: But we finished them.Blunt: Well, clearly not. (1x08)

In season three, we see Alex (together with Tom and Kyra) actively looking for Scorpia by visiting old locations mentioned in the files on Smither’s phone (that Kyra stole). These include Berlin and Venice, where presumably Julia Rothman had her Palace like in the book. They end up finding Julia in Malta, where she is from. This is a change from the books, where she is Welsh. We meet Nile, her apparent second-in-command, and Max Grendel, who apparently also survived the takedown.

As Alex is pulled into Scorpia, we also learn that they are planning an operation called Invisible Sword. Unlike in the book, this is not a job they took on for a client, but something Julia Rothman came up with personally. As the season goes on, we discover that while she explained it as a way to demonstrate Scorpia’s power and boost their reputation, the real objective was to take revenge against the Department for the blow they dealt Scorpia seventeen years ago.

Scorpia Leadership

Let’s narrow in further for a moment on the question of who is in charge in Scorpia. There do appear to be some changes in the leadership of Scorpia in the TV show, and part of these can be explained by the canon divergence, while others suggest that perhaps this has always been a different Scorpia. Firstly, it’s good to note that instead of talking about an executive board, the leadership are referred to as council members:

Nile: I wondered if perhaps one of the other council members decided to push their luck. (3x01) 

In general, the show appears to have less of a ‘business’ vibe compared to the book. It may be that this is a change that only came with the new Scorpia, but this may also always have been different in this universe. Similarly, we hear that Julia Rothman was elected as leader, which suggests that also the way of picking a leader isn’t the rotated schedule from the books. It appears that Julia Rothman has been elected after the failed jobs with Dr Greif and Damian Cray, in an attempt to bring Scorpia back to prominence.

Razim: We elected you because you promised to restore our influence globally. And so far, we have seen nothing. (3x01)

Speaking of Razim, we get another change from the book. The name Razim is a reference to one of the new board members brought on in Scorpia Rising in the books, and he wasn’t present in the original Scorpia book. It makes sense that with most of the organisation taken down years ago, they will have filled their ranks with new members. However, there is some suggestion that perhaps Razim was actually part of Scorpia leadership before Julia:

Julia: Razim’s always resented me. He thinks when Nicolai died, inherited my place at the table. (3x01)

Julia Rothman

Max: And besides, we both know you earned your place. (3x01)

It appears that unlike in the books, Julia Rothman was not a founding member of Scorpia in the show. This also matches up with what we learn about her from the Department file on her, where it states she ‘possesses broad knowledge of Scorpia Operational Structure and is being groomed for command’. She was most likely part of the inner circle through her husband Nicolai, given the comment about inheriting her place.

Nicolai Rothman/Mrs Rothman’s husband definitely appears to have been alive and married to her for longer in the TV show than in the book, although in both she is eventually known as the Widow.:

Mrs Rothman’s multimillionaire husband had fallen to his death from a seventeenth-storey window. It had happened just two days after their marriage. (Scorpia, p. 45)

Also an amusing detail is that in the book Nicolai Rothman is a multimillionaire, while in the TV show he’s referred to as a billionaire. Julia Rothman is canonically richer in the TV show!

Malagosto

Let’s take a moment also to look at the differences in how Malagosto is portrayed in the two canons. In both the show and the book, Malagosto is a training facility for Scorpia operatives, but that appears to be where the similarities end. The location is different in the two canons, with it being on an island near Venice in the book, and on Malta in the show. Specifically, we discover that there is a Scorpia base located underground in an old Cold War listening post on Malta. It might be that the original location had to be abandoned after Scorpia was raided, but the fact that The Department show no recognition to the name later suggests that they have never heard of it before. Definitely, the base in Malta was not known before. 

This raises some questions about whether John Rider actually trained at Malagosto in the show as he did in the book. We do have the following quote from Julia Rothman, which if taken literally suggests that he was on Malta with Alex:

Julia: Twenty years ago, your father stood where you are now. Ready to join Scorpia. (3x04)

However, if John trained at Malagosto, it is strange that this location wasn’t known to the Department or raided in the operation to take down Scorpia. So perhaps the quote should be taken metaphorically, with Alex being about to join Scorpia as his dad was, and perhaps John never trained with Scorpia. After all, in the book, he was likely only tested rather than trained, so he may have been tested elsewhere and simply put to work.

THE STUDENTS

Another difference related to Malagosto concerns the students or recruits who are present when Alex is there. In the book, d’Arc (the principal or headmaster of the school) mentions that there are usually around ten to fifteen students. Most of them appear to be people who were either part of the intelligence world or soldiers who have defected:

Alex knew all of them by now. There was Klaus, a German mercenary who had trained with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Walker, who had spent five years with the CIA in Washington before deciding he could earn more working for the other side. (Scorpia, p. 174)

They are people similar to John Rider, who already have had training of some sort that makes them suitable for Scorpia. In this sense, the school is firstly a testing facility, where Scorpia checks if people have the right skills to become part of Scorpia. Alex himself is an exception due to his age, but as d’Arc and Mrs Rothman discuss, he already has experience from both his missions and his uncle’s and MI6’s training. The other students are all older, but treat Alex surprisingly well and are friendly to him.

In the show, the recruits are all orphans and likely closer in age to Alex himself. There is no indication that Alex himself is an outlier in terms of his age. The other recruits also don’t appear to have had prior training if we take Alyona and Oleg as examples. They seem to have been children without families, either taken from orphanages or similar. Some, like Oleg, may have shown a propensity for violence which drew Scorpia’s interest, but they were not the trained soldiers or intelligence agents we see in the books.

This change could perhaps have been a result of Scorpia needing to operate from the shadows. While in the books they could recruit rather blatantly and without worrying about being noticed, they have tried to keep a low profile in the show. Perhaps they have shifted to training teenagers into operatives instead, as they have ‘No baggage, no background. It helps.’ (3x04).

It’s also noteworthy that there are only four other students aside from Alex present at Malagosto. Again, this is easily explained by Scorpia having shrunk in size and operating in more secrecy, and no doubt it made it easier for them to make the commitment of training teenagers. Sadly for Alex, they are not as nice as in the book, and he gets beaten up for being seen as weak on his first day there.

THE BUILDINGS

Another change seems to be in the buildings themselves. As mentioned, Malagosto in the show is located in an old listening post dating back to the Cold War, and that’s reflected in the lack of natural light and the bare, metallic and industrial vibes of the interior. The listening post also appears to be on a remote part of the island, but all that’s visible on the surface is a few abandoned buildings, and Scorpia seem to keep their presence low-key. 

In the book, we see the same outside appearance of abandoned buildings, as Scorpia has retrofitted an old monastery for their needs. The appearance is deceptive, however, as the insides have been modernised and Alex’s own room is much more luxurious than the one he gets in the show:

They left the main building and walked over to the nearest apartment block that Alex had seen from the boat. Again, the building looked dilapidated from the outside but it was elegant and modern inside. Jet showed Alex to an air-conditioned room on the second floor. It was on two levels, with a king-sized bed overlooking a large living space with sofas and a desk. There were french windows with a balcony and a sea view. (Scorpia, p. 164)

Alex was left alone. He sat down on one of the sofas, noticing that the room had a fridge, a television and even a PlayStation 2 - presumably put in for his benefit. (Scorpia, p. 165)

The other buildings are similarly updated, and students can train outside as the island is sheltered by trees and away from the mainland. It makes sense that in the show this is less of an option, because Scorpia are much more motivated to keep their presence hidden from the authorities. In the book, they have a legal reason to be there, as they bought the island on a lease from the Italian government, but in a world where Scorpia is assumed to be destroyed, they would need to be more careful. This explains why we only see the students go outside once for training, and that was during a night incursion exercise.

THE TEACHERS

Malagosto is a training facility, and a training facility needs instructors. This plays a larger role in the book, where we are introduced to several of the teachers at Malagosto in Alex’s time there. There is Gordon Ross, the technical specialist who teaches about weapons and explosives, Professor Yermalov, who teaches martial arts and practical skills, and Ejijit “Jet” Binnag, who teaches Botany (focused on poisonous plants). There are classrooms and textbooks and lessons as if it were a real school, but also more practical lessons such as diving and gun practice.

In the show, it’s a bit unclear who normally teaches at Malagosto. We only see two people acting as instructor – Nile and Yassen – and Yassen appears to have been assigned to Alex as a tutor rather than having general teaching duties. Nile appears to take on the role of instructor, but we also see him running around taking care of things for Julia Rothman outside, so he can’t be a full-time teacher. Perhaps we simply don’t see other instructors (much like how we don’t see the catering at Malagosto), or the training is handled more informally, with students working on their skill individually as we saw Syl doing in her first appearance.

One other thing related to the teaching at Malagosto is that in the book, John Rider is mentioned to have been an instructor there. During this time, he was also in charge of Yassen’s training for a while. This isn’t mentioned in the show, and while we get Alex asking if John trained with Yassen, we never get an answer. As Malagosto wasn’t known to the Department, as mentioned before, John was probably not a teacher in this universe.

Since we already touched on him briefly, let now take a look at John Rider and his mission to dive deeper into some of the changes.

John’s mission

Blunt: The intelligence John gathered during that time enabled us to strike at the very heart of Scorpia. Within months, we’d dismantled their entire operation. (3x07)

Based on what we are told, John’s mission is largely the same in both the book and the series. We learn that John was a decorated soldier who was in the Parachute Regiment and had seen combat before (in Afghanistan and Iraq in the show, Northern Ireland, Gambia, and the Falklands in the book). But everything seemed to go wrong for him when he killed a man in a bar fight, and was sentenced for manslaughter. 

He goes to jail for two years in the show, while in the book Mrs Rothman claims he was there for less than one, and there is some ambiguity about whether he went to jail at all:

“Everything Julia Rothman thought she knew about your father was a lie.” Mrs Jones sighed. “It’s true that he had been in the army, that he had a distinguished career with the Parachute Regiment and that he was decorated for his part in the Falklands War. But the rest of it — the fight with the taxi driver, the prison sentence and all that — we made up. It’s called deep cover, Alex. We wanted John Rider to be recruited by Scorpia. He was the bait and they took him.” (Scorpia, p. 347)

Scorpia took the bait, and John was recruited by Scorpia. In the show, we learn that John spent three years embedded in Scorpia, learning names and details about the organisation, including their long term goals and ambitions. In the book, the timeline is fuzzier, but we know he spent several months in the field as an assassin before working as an instructor at Malagosto. We are simply told that he ‘had told [MI6] as much as [they] needed to know about Scorpia’ (Scorpia, p. 348).

The reasons for breaking off the mission were similar then in both the show and the book. The risks were increasing, John had discovered most of what he set out to discover, and Helen was pregnant with Alex and John wanted to be with his family. In the book, we also specifically learn that there was a risk due to Julia Rothman, who had fallen in love with him. 

This is a point where the canons seem to deviate slightly, because the show is more explicit about John being asked to get close to Julia Rothman. The file on the Widow (Julia Rothman’s codename) mentions that a Department operative Hunter (John Rider) was assigned to develop a relationship. Julia Rothman herself told Alex that his dad was a ‘very close friend’ of hers, and showed him what are clearly love letters describing John’s feelings for her (3x03). 

Now, some of this is also in the book. Julia Rothman tells Alex she was very attracted to his father, and that he was a handsome man. And one of the letters from the show is taken straight from the book: 

My dearest Julia, A dreary time without you. Can’t wait to be at the Widow’s Palace with you again. John R. (Scorpia, p. 151)

Interestingly, we do see that Julia apparently went by her code name despite the fact that she and John became close enough over the years that she passed him information about Scorpia. John himself was known as Hunter to the Department rather than this being his Scorpia code name like in the book (although the code name isn’t mentioned in Scorpia itself). He signs the letter with his initials JR in the show, and she clearly knew him as John Rider.

It’s well possible given the way Julia Rothman doesn’t mention Alex’s mother in her initial story to Alex about John, that she was not aware at the time that he was married or that John was already with Helen. In the book, she specifically mentions that while she was attracted to him, he was married to Alex’s mother, suggesting that they never acted on the attraction.

The story of John’s capture is roughly the same, there is a trap set for him (on Malta in the book), and he is captured. A few weeks later, Scorpia kidnap a senior British civil servant (or his son, in the book) and MI6/The Department make them an offer to return John Rider to them in an exchange. This takes place on Albert Bridge in the book, while in the show it’s on another bridge somewhere. John’s death is faked, and the idea is that he will be given a new identity along with Helen and Alex so they can live quietly and without Scorpia knowing he was actually a spy.

This is the point where we get the biggest divergence in the backstory, as in the show the information gathered by John’s mission is enough to take down most of Scorpia. The operation is largely orchestrated by Alan Blunt, which is part of why Julia Rothman’s plot in the show is also aimed at him:

Mrs Jones: I’ve been looking at how we brought down SCORPIA 17 years ago. Really was an astonishing operation. Dozens of agents. Coordinates across three continents. Forty-seven key figures, dead or arrested. The entire SCORPIA hierarchy decimated overnight. You waged a private war against Scorpia, made it your mission. (3x06)

It’s not specified whether the take down of Scorpia happened before or after John and Helen’s plane was blown up by a bomb. Blunt tells Alex that ‘within months’ they were able to dismantle Scorpia’s entire operation, while Julia Rothman took six months to track John down. It seems more likely that Scorpia was taken down first, as this would give the Department an extra reason not to suspect Julia Rothman as being behind the bomb on the plane. Blunt’s reaction to Alex’s suggestion that it was Julia Rothman suggests that they didn’t have a clear suspect for all those years, which makes sense if Scorpia were believed to be defeated and not heard from again (aside from the bombing of the plane itself). WIth Scorpia gone, it also makes sense that perhaps someone became too careless in hiding the fact that John Rider is alive, as there would have been less reason to worry. 

In the book, we are first told merely that there was a bomb on the plane, which exploded and killed John and Helen and the pilots instantly. Mrs Jones and Alan Blunt seem to have no doubt about it being Julia Rothman, who had discovered the truth, although they are not clear on how she learned about it. MI6 learned valuable information about Scorpia through John’s time as an undercover spy, but they either don’t know enough to take Scorpia down for good or they don’t act on their information. 

In a way, the book takes a more cynical approach to the relationship between Scorpia and MI6. Scorpia are too large to take down completely, and any half-hearted effort to destroy them will lead Scorpia to seek revenge. And if you can’t beat them… As Julia Rothman herself points out, the secret services may nominally oppose Scorpia, but they are not above making use of their services:

The secret services can’t do anything about us. We’re too big and they’ve left it too late. Anyway, occasionally some of them make use of us. They pay us to do their dirty work for them. We’ve learnt to live side by side! (Scorpia, p. 132) 

Wrapping it all up

So what does it all add up to? As we’ve seen, the show’s portrayal of Scorpia shows an organisation that was nearly brought down seventeen years ago, and that has been operating in secrecy ever since. This single divergence explains most of the differences that we see in the present day structure of Scorpia, from younger recruits to the new leadership. However, we also saw that some aspects have always been different in this universe. The code names for both Julia Rothman and John, as well as the fact that John never mentioned Malagosto show that the backstory in the show was different even before Scorpia was taken down.

In the end, Scorpia is a different organisation in the book and the show, but in many ways it is also still the same. They are a group of people who are ruthless in their pursuit of power and money, who have no compunction about killing and even enjoy it. Scorpia may have been brought to the brink of destruction in the show, but even while hidden from the world, they have been able to keep up their activity for seventeen years. 

Until they encountered Alex Rider, that is… :) 

#Alex Rider #arshipweek #meta #mod posts #julia rothman #scorpia

[homosexuhauls]

I haven't seen anyone mention it on here, most likely because English language news sources are reporting them as friends, but a man murdered a lesbian couple in Hong Kong last week.

(Twitter thread includes more sources and proof of the two victims being in a relationship. However, video of the attack exists online and some of the photos in Chinese news articles are graphic/disturbing. Please proceed with caution.)

Fang Xiaotong (26 years old) and Liu Jixi (22 years old) were stabbed to death by a 39 year old man in a targeted attack in a shopping mall. Allegedly, he purchased the knife only after seeing the visibly gay couple, then attacked Fang Xiaotong, who was a Tom, which has a similar meaning to a butch or stud or masc lesbian. Liu Jixi attempted to intervene to save her girlfriend, but the perpetrator stabbed her also. Bystanders and mall security did not intervene, although eventually chefs who worked at the mall heard screams and armed themselves with stools before attempting to stop the attacker. The perpetrator then waited calmly for the police, and both women were pronounced dead at the hospital. While Western sources are painting this as a result of mental illness, the video and local news stories make it clear that this was likely a hate crime.

(Nb. I've also seen their names given as Fong Hiu-tung and Lau Kai-hei, and also that they may have used the nicknames "Daniel" and "Amber". I can't know which names they would have preferred to be used, hence why I'm including all of them here but using Fang Xiaotong and Liu Jixi throughout the post for consistency and clarity.)

From Naomi Wu, whose twitter thread I've linked above, an explanation of the sometimes deadly hostilities Toms and other lesbians face in China and Hong Kong:

When men attack Toms (butches), they think a lot of things- sometimes in Chinese we say "one lesbian steals two men's wives"- herself and her partner. And for bitter middle-aged, unmarried men like this attacker, they've been told their whole life they are owed a wife to wait on them hand and foot- and they feel robbed and wronged by a young handsome Tom taking what's "theirs". They are angry, entitled, jealous- they want to teach her a lesson. They want to punish her for having what is rightfully theirs when they don't. Then it's "Oh, if you want to act like a man, I'll treat you like one". Most need to justify it to themselves to get started. Of course, the femme/Dee/P is always next, because we will fight to save our Tom, and once we do, they can justify turning their violence on us next. In their twisted head, they decide their unprovoked attack was "fighting 1-on-1" and it's our fault for getting involved. All Toms know the deal, they cannot win, all Toms tell their girls again and again "if something happens, just run, I can take it". When the time comes, all Toms try to buy their girl time to get away- even as they go down under fists and boots...or knives They want to buy us time, but no femmes can bear to leave them, so it never works. But they always go for our Toms first, then us. Every time.

Fang Xiaotong was a waiter in a high-end restaurant. She loved small animals and children and had lived with her mother and step-sister prior to moving in with Liu Jixi one to two months before the attack. Liu Jixi was a hair stylist and also worked part-time at a bar, which is apparently where she and Fang Xiaotong met. On the day of the attack, both women were planning to meet up with Fang Xiaotong's family to celebrate her grandfather's birthday.

Rest in peace 🫶 your courage will not be forgotten.

#lesbophobia #homophobia #lgbt #lesbian feminism #radfem safe #radical feminism #idek how to tag this i just want people to see it #it's so unfair to see them being erased before our eyes

[gretchensinister]

Babylon 5 rewatch, S1 E8: And the Sky Full of Stars

IDK if it's how I'm watching it or what, but the lighting on B5 seems dimmer than I would expect in public spaces

Okay okay plot: guy needs money for shady reasons, other guys have Sinclair as a target for who knows what

Oh, it's not notable shady reasons, it's just a gambling problem

The guy with the longish gray hair that's going to do Something to Sinclair has a very 90s energy, I can't define it but it's so notable

I like Dr. Franklin and Delenn's scene here with the practicality of getting information about other species brought up.

Yeah Delenn what DID you do during the war?

The design of that weird chair is good, I definitely believe that they built it out of smuggled in pieces and that it's going to be used for nefarious purposes

Ignoring the plot to wonder about Sinclair's kitchen area not appearing to have a sink or any appliances (I know it's just a set but I think about trying to redesign my tiny apartment kitchen a lot)

Sinclair is in the Torment Nexus

At least it's hard for the commander of an entire space station to disappear without notice

Of course it's a simulation that's what happens to guys in charge of space stations/starships, other weird guys show up to fuck with your head. Notable employment hazard.

Sinclair's Mysterious Day! Yesss let's find out about it (shame the exposition has to come through the Torment Nexus)

Sinclair is 39...I guess that makes sense. (Maybe I just know so many people in that age group with so much less responsibility.)

The angelfish-looking Minbari ships <3

If you believe in yourself you can punch your way out of the mind prison (I mean...it didn't work yet, but it might)

I think B5 as a show does well with naming things. I mean, maybe it's just familiarity at his point, but the Battle of the Line is simple, evocative, and IMO gives you an idea of what it was about

Goodbye Benson we hardly knew ye

Yeah where exactly are these "Knights" from?

I think the guy playing the interrogator would be great to see on stage.

Another human supremacist conspiracy theorist, boooo

"Maybe the universe blinked" I do like that line

"There is a hole in your mind" that was from the pilot movie we missed on the rewatch schedule, wasn't it?

:D :D :D (my reaction to the triluminary [did I remember that correctly?] appearing)

I know who that waaaaaaaas

YES you CAN punch your way out of the mind prison if you love your station enough

Delenn we (the audience) still want MANY more answers about what you were doing during the war

I have a feeling this guy is going to be interrogated by psycops as soon as he gets back to Earth

Secrettsssssss I love this dynamic though

It's an interesting 90s thing that Sinclair is comfortable making a electronic/digital recording of this EXTREMELY sensitive information, these days my perspective is if you want it to be secret it's on paper hidden in your mattress or something

#babylon 5 #b5-rewatch #b5 rewatch

[reds-skull]

BLOOD||HUNGER

[PREV PART] [AO3]

Haha... it's been far too long. What can I say, technology hates me.

This chapter turned out really long, and I was not planning it like that at all. I like what it became though :)

This chapter is called "The Downfall of Kinsmen".

Page 39 of the “Blooede Starvatfōre-dēde”, parable 13:

How could a man such as you, keep in his heart a Beast? Blind eyes turn heavenwards, crescented and kind, How could a flower, small and fine, Love the fiery sun, the killer and divine, How could the tide, heedless and rough, Love the gentle moon, a teacher for those misguides, How could the star, far and bright, Love our darkest nights, brighten our eyes, How could I  Not admire you?

Simon Riley was a hero.

Ghost has more confirmed KIAs than any merc walking on this accursed earth.

Simon Riley was a hero.

Ghost came here to work with the Hunter, whose soldiers are ending innocent lives by the hundreds, every second taking down another soul.

Simon Riley was a hero.

Ghost is thrusting a knife into his palm, bearing his neck out. Scarred and mangled, veins discolored by the poison eating away at his blood. Gloved hands resting on Soap’s thighs, a soft touch so out of place on this barren dirt.

Simon Riley is Ghost.

Ghost is asking him to slit his throat. Telling Soap it is the only way to end this, to kill the Hunter, to win. Closing his eyes, leaving fate in the hands of a broken, once soldier.

He’s right, Soap knows. Killing Ghost would end everything. He could free this city from the Hunter’s clutches with a swing of a knife.

Soap lifts the blade, the setting sun’s light reflecting over Ghost’s mask, an emotionless skull painted to resemble death. It shines through its eye sockets, casting light over Ghost’s pale lashes. His cheeks lift somewhat, and it dawns on Soap that he’s smiling.

The knife shakes in his hands.

Open your eyes, Soap wants to scream. Fight me, claw at mine. Why do you accept death so easily, when it’s in my hands?

Tell me, why did you become this?

Simon Riley wants Soap to kill him. 

John swings the knife down, teeth bared, feelings swirling in his gut. The blade strikes down.

Buried in the dirt besides Simon’s head.

John watches his brown eyes flutter open, confused. Watches them turn to see the knife, and back to his, questioning.

He heaves a breath, the eye contact burning, yet he doesn’t dare to sever it.

“You were a hero.” John almost growls, hands still trembling on the weapon, “why… why did ye become Ghost?”

Simon tilts his head minutely, his hands caress John’s legs, lost in memories.

“They left me to die.” the man under him murmurs, “was captured, no one came to rescue us.” John feels Simon’s chest stutter, “I escaped. I tried to stay away, tried to live.”

Dark eyes look up at him, “couldn’t. Like you.”

“So ye became a monster?” John spits harshly.

Simon’s eyes soften, “I was always a monster. They only called me a hero because I died-”

“No.” John lets go of the knife, bracketing Simon’s head instead, “ye were a legend, ye saved thousands, ye were-”

Ye were everything I wanted to be.

Simon’s hands are warm, as they pass over his clothes, as if he’s trying to soothe a phantom wound, “you are a hero, Johnny. Why are you not killing me?” he asks, confusion and an edge of fear bleeding into his words.

It angers John. He knows, if he were to try and be a hero, his next step would be to kill the Ghost. Throw his head in front of the Hunter, banish him from this land, save the civilians. His mission is clear-cut, and Ghost is just an obstacle. Another hostile, another target, another objective. That was what he always strived for, from the moment he set foot in bootcamp to the day he was discharged.

All of his previous COs’ words rush forth, voices mingling to a single sentence-

Stop trying to be the hero, MacTavish.

John roughly slides Ghost’s mask off, revealing a face twisted by confusion. Dirty blond hair, curled and pressed flat by the ever-present mask. Scars, creating valleys and hills over pale skin. Bisected lips that fall open in surprise. Brown eyes, so deep, they can’t help but reflect the darkening skies.

Simon Riley is just a man.

He takes the knife out of the ground, only to stab it through the now hollow eyes of the skull. John leans closer, whispering in Simon’s ears.

“Ghost is dead. What will ye become now?”

Simon’s eyes widen, the last of the day’s light radiant in them. “I… I have nothing left to be.” he fearfully answers.

“No.” John raises up, “there’s more to us than heroes and monsters, Simon.” the man startles at the name, “what do ye want to do now? Ye want to kill me, kill yerself, keep on the path that destroyed us both…”

John offers a hand.

“Or ye want to find out what else we could become?”

Simon breathes in deep, like a newborn’s first taste of air, like a dying man’s last prayer. Gloved hands, that know to both give and receive unfathomable violence, take his.

“I do.” the words flow through scarred lips, and John can almost taste the want in them. For salvation. For redemption. “But how?”

John yanks the blade out of the mask, and gives it to Simon. The man that wears it will not be the Ghost that sunk first to the ground, nor the man that has risen from the grave.

“With what we always had.” John turns back to the truck, “with pain and will. With bloodshed.”

He glances at Simon, mask still in hand, “we lead ourselves now.”

When he joins him in the vehicle, Simon wears the mask. But he could never hide how his eyes look at John, how the emotions flow through them. How he trusted him with his death.

How he’ll trust Soap with his life.

He takes them back to the city center. All paths lead down here, it seems. Soap feels the weight of Ghost’s stare on him for the whole drive, and not for the first time he wishes he could take a look inside his skull.

Soap is surprised to find himself without regrets. He’s not without anger at Ghost, hell, not without hate, but alongside those feelings something else stirs awake.

He thinks it might be kinship.

His surprise only grows when Ghost chimes up, “you still want to kill the Hunter, right?”

Soap glances at him, “‘course.”

“We still need to get intel-” Ghost unexpectedly jumps at the steering wheel, pulling it left.

“What the-!” Soap veers the truck back to the road, “are ye tryin’ teh kill us?!”

Ghost’s head pokes out of the side window, looking back, “there’s someone on the road, Johnny.”

“What?” Soap kills the engine, jumping out of the vehicle. Ghost instantly follows him, rifle ready for a gunfight.

They approach the still body on the road cautiously, “are ye friendly?!” Soap shouts.

The form doesn’t move a muscle. “They’re dead.” Ghost mutters. Soap observed the pooling blood around the body, sensing the tension leaving Ghost’s motions.

Stepping closer, Soap recognizes the insignia of the Hunter’s soldiers, a red skull. The body is littered with gunshot wounds, from their legs to their head. Whoever was fighting them, they were frantic. Desperate.

There is only one other group fighting the Hunter in this city. The 141. And if they were in a state bad enough to shoot like an untrained rookie…

Ghost crouched down to pat the dead man’s pockets. He collects a couple extra mags, and the comms. As he switches between channels, Soap scans the surrounding streets. Signs of a struggle litter the walls, cracks drawing a picture of a hopeless fight for survival. More bodies are hidden under shadows, and Soap walks to check their identity.

Civilians, mingled right among the Hunter’s soldiers. This doesn’t feel like Price and Gaz’s work…

Soap’s lingering thoughts snap back to the radio in Ghost’s hand, when the constant white noise is replaced with alarmed commands. “-armed civvies, group of 20! They’re around the main plaza. Took down about 5 of ours-” Ghost meets his eyes, expression serious. “-told you to take ‘em out!” “yessir”. The comms click off.

“They’re fighting back…” Soap thinks out loud, voice trailing off. 

Ghost raises to his feet, shoving the radio down one of his pockets, “they won’t last long. The Hunter’s soldiers are highly trained.”

Burning rage spreads through Soap. He can’t let them die, can’t let the Hunter squash down the few that found the courage to strike back. He glares at Ghost with a challenging stare, “I’m going to help them.”

Ghost studies him silently. “We are going to help them.” he starts walking back to the truck, leaving a bewildered Soap to catch up, “I know where the plaza is, was in the debrief the Hunter gave me. There’s a sniper rifle on the rooftop opposite of it, we can back up the civvies from there.”

Soap slams the door behind him, rushing to start the engine, “if there’s a sniper rifle there, wouldn’t the Hunter have a soldier on it?”

Ghost halts his movements for a moment, “they did. It was me.”

“What- who did ye shoot?”

Ghost seems to curl into himself a little, “...I don’t know. They were just… a target.”

A warning light flashes, signaling the fuel tank is almost empty. Soap sighs, worries and curses overlapping each other on his tongue, ”can ye direct me to the plaza?”

Ghost looks up, “...affirm. Turn right at this intersection…”

Flashes of gunshots light the plaza, a huge building with a court in its middle, acting as a battleground for the civilians and the Hunter’s soldiers. Their fuel lasted them just enough to reach it.

Ghost leads him to the back, where a ladder lines the side of the wall. When Soap doesn’t follow him, Ghost stops, “what’s on your mind, Soap?”

Soap grasps the rifle in his hands tightly, “There’s only one sniper rifle up there, right? Ah’ll be of more use down ‘ere.”

Ghost lets go of the ladder completely, “you’re not planning on joining the civilians, are you?”

“You know Ah won’t be able to do shit up there with ye.”

“You’ll get yourself killed, that will certainly help-”

“Why would ye even care?!” Soap snarls, taking two steps closer to Ghost and staring him down.

He watches his gloved hands clench, “I can’t-”

“What is it?! Ye think Ah’m feckin’ useless-”

“I CAN’T WATCH YOU DIE!” Ghost shouts.

Soap’s brow shoot up, his anger dissipating into nothing. He’s left speechless, as Ghost continues, “you’re fucking reckless, and uncontrollable, and- I thought we’ll-!”

“Ghost.”

“I’ll die without you, you know that? The poison-”

“Ye didn’t care about that when ye gave me the knife.” Soap grabs the front of his mask to pull Ghost down, shoving him against the wall, he ignores his grunt as he forces those dark eyes on him. “Why do ye care?” he asks calmly.

Simon breathes heavily, so much that Soap can feel it through the mask, and he sees how the emotions try to peek through the bleached skull. “I… I don’t… “ Simon sighs, “I can’t let you die.”

“Why?”

Simon hand wraps around Soap’s wrist, not pushing away, just holding. “You… trust me. I can’t break it, not again-”

Soap lets go of the mask, “I won’t die, Simon.” He looks down at the hand holding his, and it retreats, “and ye didn’t fully earn my trust just yet.”

Simon nods slowly, and Soap steps back, “ye better stay alive so ye can.”

Simon stares at him, eyes somewhat soft, muscles relaxing, “I will, Johnny.” the name sends a pang of hurt through his heart. Despite everything, Soap still hasn’t stopped Ghost from calling him that. He thinks he’s just afraid of regretting it, missing the way it sounds.

Wanting that little connection, to keep them tied through this endless sea.

Soap shakes his head. He finds himself in a similar boat to Ghost.

He doesn’t think he can watch him die either.

Chaos is the only rule on these grounds. Furniture is stacked precariously to build cover, bullets shoot in every direction. Soap can’t tell whose blood covers the once white floor.

He climbed up to the second floor, trying to find a vantage point over the battle. The civilians have retreated farther back into the shops, soldiers overwhelming them by numbers and skill. Soap takes aim, a deep inhale.

The shots echo through the empty walkway, deafeningly loud in his ears, but he pays it no mind. Soap keeps tabs on the soldiers trying to push forward on the civilians, watching them scramble to cover once they realize someone is attacking them from above. He tries to kill as many as he can before they’re out of his sights.

Every few seconds, a soldier he’s aiming at drops abruptly, the shell of a bullet splicing through the night air. Ghost is a frighteningly excellent sniper. Soap can see why he struck fear in the hearts of so many.

The civilians have noticed something’s amiss, their willpower strengthening. Soap’s heart swells-

They’re fighting back tenfold, now that they believe they could win.

The Hunter’s soldiers retreat, enough that Soap has to descend back to the ground floor. As he rushes down, he spots the fearful eyes of children peek through the dark shops.

The civilians are protecting them.

He vaults over the edge when he’s low enough for it, and finds himself in front of a man, who seemingly left the fight, searching for him. Soap’s eyes widen with recognition.

“...Mihail?” Soap mutters.

“Soap!” The man smiles, “I have thought it was you!” 

They both start running back to the front, “I thought ye left!”

Mihail shakes his head, “I left. I came back.”

“...Why?” he frowns.

The man halts for a moment, staring at Soap with a determined gaze, “I couldn’t. Leave others, children, friends.” his untrained arms shake around his stolen gun, “you fight, so why couldn’t I too?”

Soap heart beats a war chant in his chest. Mihail pushes them both to run again, all the while his mind forms a storm.

He chose to fight… because of Soap? 

“Here!” Mihail shouts over his shoulder, “we need help. This is Alma.” he points to a woman tending to one of the shot men, hidden behind a stack of sofas, “she knows English good. Tell her what we do, she will tell us.”

“Aye!”

The woman, Alma, lifts her head when he comes closer. Her arms are covered in blood up to her elbows. Her brows crease as she assesses Soap, “are you the one that helped Maria and Victor?”

“I am.”

Her expression relaxes, “thank you.” She nods to the fighters, “we’ve been fighting for hours, they cornered us here. I think they’re trying to kill us all at once.” her teeth bare, “they will, if we don’t do something differently.”

Soap quickly scans their numbers. About 40 people, most equipped with rifles like his own. The Hunter’s soldiers are still cowering under cover. Ghost’s shots are making sure to down any that attempt to push forward, but he can already see them going around, using Ghost’s blind spots to try and flank their group.

He turns back to Alma, “We need to split up, take both the left and the right. Leave the worst fighters here, so they think ye haven’t moved, take ten of the best left, five more right.”

Alma nods, “where will you be?”

Soap motions right, “Ah’ll go ahead, clear the path fer the five on the right.”

Alma wipes the blood on her dirtied clothes, shouting to the fighters. The shooting calms a tad as they listen to her orders. Soap watches them get ready to split up, and only a few moments pass before fifteen men and women step back. Alma continues to talk, pointing at both hallways. Ten leave, and Soap leads the remaining five to their side.

It has been over a year since Soap ordered anyone on field, and a certain nervosity spreads through him, before he shuts it down.

This is no different from any other mission he’s been on, he has to tell himself. The footfalls behind him are of soldiers, not civilians. Their guns are their own, not stolen from corpses.

He is Sergeant MacTavish, not John.

Soap motions them to stop, and he walks ahead to clear the corner. He swiftly ducks behind a low wall, scanning the dark hallways ahead. Ghost seems to recognize the forming plan, since he started providing cover fire for the split groups.

Even with no comms, they work flawlessly.

Soap hears the nearing steps of hostiles, and so he points his group to find cover, and aim forward. He himself sneaks ahead, moving from pillar to pillar. 

Once the first soldier rounds the corner, Soap pounces. He burrows his knife into his side, dragging the man in front of him.

A copy of Ghost’s tactics, he uses the dead man as a shield, and shoots down several soldiers. Soap finds a moment to back up, opening the hallway for his fighters to shoot the rest. Their aim is expectedly shite, but they managed to hit the hostiles by sheer number.

He smiles back, baffled. Soap wishes he could encourage them. But the fight isn’t over, and soon enough the Hunter’s soldiers find a weak point in their defence.

Soap is blindsided by a mass tackling him. They both fall to the ground, Soap scrambling for his knife, blocking the frenzied hits of the soldier. Large arms manage to wrap around his throat, lifting him to a chokehold. 

Soap snarls, eyes rotating wildly in his sockets, breath squeezed out of his lungs. He slams at the hands, clawing at them, leaving rivulets of blood behind.

It is not enough. His vision begins to darken, spidery tendrils encompassing his sight. He can distantly hear the civilians shout for him. They wouldn’t be able to save him now. 

As his vision fades completely, John waits for his life to flash by. This death would be far than the worst he could have had.

Yet, instead of memories, dark eyes flood his mind. A man, once dead, with a plea.

I can’t watch you die.

Soap grips harder at the arm, shoving his face to it.

And bites down as strongly as he can.

Crimson bursts on his tongue, a scream goes off behind him, the arm loosening. Oxygen fills Soap’s lungs once more, and he arches forward, flipping his attacker and slamming him to the floor tiles.

For a split second, he sees the fear in the soldier’s eyes, the dark red covering him. Soap finds his blade.

It sinks down the soldier’s throat not a second later.

Soap rises on shaky legs, adjusting his rifle. The civilians behind him look horrified at his appearance. He can’t find a place within himself to care. He only spares them a nod, and he’s off.

If he can’t be these people’s hero, he’ll have to suffice with being their enemies worst monster.

#call of duty modern warfare 2 #cod mw2 #cod soap #cod ghost #john soap mactavish #simon ghost riley #BLOOD||HUNGER #ghostsoap #soapghost #ghoap #call of duty fic #call of duty fanfic #call of duty modern warfare #cod fic #cod fanfic #this is about the halfway point of the story btw! #i did say it will be shorter than rev au... but it looks like it wont be by much #this scene along with the scene where ghost and soap meet was one of the firsts i thought of #so i wanted to make it justice... #also cant wait to write ghosts pov of this chapter... boy oh boy are his thoughts gonna be fucked

[writtenbyafan]

Calculated Move

⟢ Pilot!reader; Call sign - Diablo ⟢ AN: not sure how i feel about this. just wanted the TGM squad reacting to Y/N flying the practice course instead of Maverick.

Penny: “I heard about what happened today. I'm sorry."

Maverick: "Who told you?"

Penny: "Y/N Kazansky called me earlier this afternoon.”

Maverick: "Diablo called you? How is she? I haven't heard from her since her father's funeral."

Penny: "I'm not sure. We didn't talk long, she just gave me the heads up. What are you going to do?"

Maverick: "Ice is gone. What choice do I have?"

Penny: "You'll have to find a way back on your own. If you lost your wingman up there, you'd keep fighting. You wouldn't just give up. Those are your pilot's. Rooster. Diablo. All of them, if something were happen, you'll never forgive yourself."

Maverick: "I don't know what to do."

~ The Next Day ~

Cyclone: "Captain Mitchell is no longer your instructor."

[Cyclone pauses when he notices Maverick quietly entering the room to stand along the back wall. Clinching his jaw, Cyclone sends the man a warning glare before continuing to explain the new mission plan.]

Cyclone: "And as of today, there are new mission Parameters. Time to target is now 4 minutes You'll be entering the valley level at reduced Speed. Not to exceed 420 knots."

Bob: "Sir, won't we be giving their planes time to intercept?"

Cyclone: "Well, Lieutenant, you have a fighting chance against enemy aircraft. You'll be attacking the target from a higher altitude, level with the north wall. Gonna be a little harder to keep your cage on target, but you will avoid the high-G climb out."

Fanboy: *mumbles* "We'll be sitting ducks for enemy missiles."

[Suddenly the monitor behind Cyclone starts beeping, drawing all eyes to it.]

[Cyclone watches as a F-18 single aircraft appears on screen approaching the training course.]

Cyclone: "Who the hell is that?"

Cyclone: *glares at Maverick* "Who the hell is that?!"

[As if they heard Cyclone's question, the pilot's voice plays over the speakers of the meeting room.]

Diablo: "Diablo to Range Control. Entering Point Alpha, confirm green range."

Range Control: "Diablo, Range Control. Green range is confirmed. I don't see an event scheduled for you, Lieutenant."

Diablo: "Really? That's weird. Well, since I'm already here, I'll run the course anyway. "

[Maverick couldn't help but chuckle at Diablo's words. Though, he made sure to keep it quiet lest Cyclone heard him.]

Cyclone: “What is she doing? Get her back to base now!”

Warlock: “Sir, we have no way of contacting her from here.”

Cyclone: “Has she ever successfully completed this course?”

Maverick: “She’s been close but hasn’t been successful yet.”

Diablo: "Setting time to target to two minutes 15 seconds."

Fanboy: "What is she playing at? 2:15? That's impossible."

Maverick: "You don't know, Y/N. She's got this."

Diablo: "Final attack point. Diablo's inbound."

[Everyone settled in as they watched the F-18 enter the go zone and the timer started counting down.]

[Diablo's F-18 was moving, weaving along the curves of the valley with expert skill. At one minute 30 seconds the F-18 had already passed the half way mark of the valley. Diablo was making excellent time.]

[From the back or the room, Maverick felt sick. It felt like his heart was trying to climb out of his throat as he watched Diablo's plane rip through the map.]

[As the timer counted down to 39 seconds, the F-18 cleared the valley and was heading straight towards the mountain for the first high-G climb.]

[Every member of the Dagger Team were at the edge of their seats. Trying to watch both the time and Diablo's progress.]

Diablo: *strained* "Popping in three, two, one."

[Effortlessly the F-18 began to ascend along the steep incline of the mountain. When the aircraft reached to top of the first climb, it flipped at the top and then descended approaching the target point.]

[It seemed like everyone in the briefing room collectively held their breath as they watched the F-18 approach the target. They all waited to see if Diablo could succeed at hitting the mark.]

[As soon as the targeting system beeped to confirm lock, Diablo dropped missiles.]

Diablo: "Bombs away."

[Diablo's F-18 began the second high-G climb as soon as the missiles were fired. Only 6 seconds remaining on the timer.]

[As her aircraft hit 9.0 G, Diablo fought with sheer will to stay conscious while she focused on keeping the targeting system locked. Through burry vision, Diablo watched as the missiles made contact.]

[At .16 milliseconds the timer stopped and all members of Dagger Team jumped out of their seats, cheering on their comrade.]

Bob: "Bulls-eye! Holy shit!"

Hangman: "I'll be damned. Baby Kazansky has skills."

[From beside him, Maverick noticed Hondo nodding his head, eyes locked on the recorded 10.0G Diablo had reached. Maverick grins in disbelief as the F-18 disappears off screen.]

Maverick, whispering: "Great job, Diablo.”

[Maverick watch with renewed hope as the Top Gun pilots got their confidence back. Diablo, one of their own, had shown them that this mission was not impossible. There was hope that together they could succeed and make it back alive.]

#top gun maverick #top gun fanfiction #top gun maverick imagine #top gun x reader #pete maverick mitchell #Maverick

[luvmmarner]

FLUFF PROMPTS

1. “noo! Kiss me!”

2. “Cuddle me already damit!”

3. “You got something on your face silly”

4. “Speak to me in (language)”

5. “Can we watch a movie and cuddle.”

6. “Then I’ll sleep on the couch with you!”

7. “Wait for me!”

8. “Give me a piggyback ride!”

9. “I love you more!”

10. “Look at the North Star sailors used to look at that. It helped guide them home. That’s what I see when I look at you. You're my home.”

11. “You mean everything to me”

12. “I’m really craving fast food. Can you please get me some.”

13. “Your so cute do you know that?”

14. “You didn’t have to get me this!”

15. “Oh god… did I say that out loud”

16. “I want you everyday, when I wake up and when I fall asleep.”

17. “Your embarrassing me!”

18. “Tuck me in”

19. “I’m sad”

20. “Just hold me please.”

21. “I’m pregnant…”

22. “You have so many freckles! It’s adorable”

23. “Are you mad?”

24. “Let’s match clothes!”

25. “Wait… you mean it! We are actually going to (location)!”

26. “I don’t know how to skate.”

27. “Your such an idiot, but you’re my idiot so I guess it’s okay!”

28. “WHAT!? I want to go to target!”

29. “Don’t tease me.”

30. “Ok I was sick and then you mentioned shopping so now I’m feeling so much better”

31. “Could you do the dishes I have a bad stomach ache”

32. “Aww babe! You didn’t have to do that”

33. “You don’t need to take care of me, I feel bad.”

34. “I care about you more than I care about myself.”

35. “Can I put makeup on you!”

36. “You look handsome.”

37. “But… I like laying on your chest.”

38. “Hah! You can’t catch me!”

39. “Don’t cry angel!”

40. “It’s thundering outside. I’m scared. Can I sleep with you tonight!”

41. “I made you lunch.”

42. “Of course I’ll be there. I’m always your number 1 fan”

43. “You know I love you right?”

44. “You can’t just send inappropriate pictures! When I’m at work like that!”

45. “S..stop! I’m not ticklis- ok ok I am!”

46. “I’m baking not cooking! It’s two different meanings!”

47. “Can you get me tampons/pads?”

48. “Ugh! I admit it. I like you.”

49. “I don’t like surprises! Just tell meee!”

50. “I love going to the movie theatre!”

#prompt fluff #fluff #fluff prompts #fun prompts #prompts #my prompts #writing prompts #writing #prompt list #pure fluff #cute prompts #writing prompt

[strawbs-screaming]

What about the boxers seeing their SO match, and their opponent is going berserk and attacking them with more brutality than necessary, basically losing control.

how would the boxers react?

niceee!! i love how the boxer s/o thing is being continuous now

Glass joe - lets out the most horrified gasp ever before snitching on them to hr

Von Kaiser - will go crazy once the match is over, he'll have to be held back

Disco Kid - will become meaner than usual to whoever did it

King Hippo - will chase after whoever did it unless you say otherwise

Piston Hondo - Literally becomes the spawn of satan once he finds out who did it

Bear Hugger - will send his army of animals to whoever went berserk

Great Tiger - will do everything in his power to make sure whoever hurt his s/o suffers since he tends to be attached to his loved ones a lot, will set traps and maybe put a curse on them heehoo

Don Flamenco - ever seen someone chuck a perfume bottle at 90 kilometers per second? No? Youre about to see it now

Aran Ryan - whoever did it will become the target of his "pranks" (death traps) for a solid month

Soda Popinski - can and will make mean comments about whoever did it when he gets the chance

Bald Bull - Literally foaming at the mouth, will absolutely decimate whoever did it

Super Macho Man - his 39 lawyers will take it from here absolutely going insane, will do anything he can to make his s/o's opponent suffer (buying and selling their favorite coffee place, wrecking their locker)

Mr Sandman - will scare off & intimidate whoever did it

#punch out #headcanon #punch out headcanons #punch out wii #aran ryan #bald bull #don flamenco #glass joe #piston hondo #great tiger

[ipsen]

Eto Character Analysis

Big long post coming. Couldn’t help myself.

Admittedly, I’m mostly stealing from this post from the old ages (it’s crazy good and turned Eto into my favorite character), so you can read that and honestly get the same information. But I figured I’d take a swing at the behemoth myself.

Also wanna preface the analysis with the fact that I’m using the official translations as my source, as I can’t access the original scans and also couldn’t read them even if I did (cursed by monolingual tendencies).

Under the cut!

Eto is, unfortunately, a character that is built mainly on subtext crammed into very few chapters. Figuring her out is very difficult and a lot of her more nuanced traits can go over most people’s heads (it’s easy to call her insane, for example, and while she does have a few issues up in the old cranium, i’d hardly call her that).

The most important thing about Eto to keep in mind when discussing her is that she has been failed, and as a result of that, she also believes that she has failed those around her.

Her father left her in what is basically a literal shithole, especially for a baby. Her mother, though she died without really knowing Eto, did leave a journal behind, and Eto’s singular insight to the work regarding herself is that she is just a “byproduct,” and her foster parent got killed (presumably) protecting her from V, punting her to an orphanage where she’d have to steal money to survive (see: re 62), and presumably pretty often at that.

She got insanely lucky with the writer gig and shiono, who-- side note-- means a lot to her. Finally, a positive adult figure in her life! Unfortunately, he is a) only human, and b) her editor/coworker, so his positive influence, while welcome, is limited. still, she picks up his cute little hand gestures and I, personally, appreciate that (see: re 62 and compare it to TG 114).

Just the greatest.

Where was I... Ah, Eto being failed by those around her. And where does that leave her? Look no further than TG 98:

“A replacement is merely a replacement.” Eto doesn’t believe in found family, because she never actually found one.

And within the context of this chapter, we learn another thing about Eto. Whenever she interacts with someone and “breaks” them (the Yasuhisas, Kanae), she heavily projects onto them (because she recognizes their situation; notice how she only ever targets people who are both relatable to her and weaker than her) and breaks apart the “lie” the target tells themself, even if it isn’t entirely accurate:

(re 43) This is a false statement; Kanae does wish for Shuu to recover, he’s just upset it’s happening like this. Because who wouldn’t be, in his situation? Despite everything that he and the others did for Shuu, the only thing able to bring him out of his depression is the very thing that caused it. But I digress.

Back on track, there’s also Haise’s analysis of her work, the most personal thing she has, to consider when discussing her in re 39:

Once again, the void rears its ugly head.

Hopelessness. Emptiness. Filling it with anger and bitterness, and it’s never enough, but it’s all she has. Because the void can only be filled by the things she can never have.

So she throws herself at the CCG, banging her head against its walls with small raids alongside some fellow ghouls and then taking on the special investigators by herself. She’s 14, she’s a kakuja, and she’s mad. Mad at the world that failed her, mad at V for making it the way it is, and mad that things haven’t changed for a very long time. She has Ukina’s journal; she knows how stale the “narrative” is.

Of course, her raids don’t work very well, but she’s basically just a kid. She is as old as Hinami during TG.

Then, she’s finally thrown a bone, and is worse off for it:

Something I’ve noticed when factoring Arima’s influence into Eto’s character is that there is an assumption that the power dynamic between them is equal. It isn’t. I cannot stress this enough; there is a hierarchy at play here, and Eto isn’t the one on top. How do we know this?

(TG 139)

(re 52)

Kaneki was the new toy to replace Eto, the old one.

The ultimate plan is “the One-Eyed King will destroy the egg of V’s world and make something new.” By the time Kaneki does take the throne, this plan has been going on for 13 years. Kaneki was chosen as a candidate at the ten-year mark; he had to have been a non-factor before then. So who is left to become the king instead?

Eto.

The age difference between her and Arima is roughly 4-5 years. Remind you of another relationship?

(TG 14)

Uh-oh.

To reiterate, Eto is a 14-year old kid who has been abandoned by everyone who could possibly love her the way she wants. She desires parental love, protective love, the kind of love that makes her feel safe, when she has only ever fought to defend herself.

Enter someone who is far stronger than she could ever be, someone who could actually offer her the protection she so desperately wants. Unfortunately, Kishou Arima is the endgame mindset of Black Reaper Kaneki, to put it simply: someone who is impossibly distant, wants to die, and craves the approval of everyone.

Let’s expand on Arima for a brief moment. “Craves the approval of everyone,” specifically. He is both the One-Eyed King and the greatest ghoul investigator that ever lived. He doesn’t pick one or the other, and when he dies, he doesn’t have to pick. He is mourned by the CCG, and Kaneki, ever a puppet in someone else’s game, carries on his legacy and “wish“ for coexistence.

Eto is no exception to his godly levels of charisma. She is one of Hinami’s foils, and we know how quickly and easily she latched onto Kaneki. It’s safe to assume that something similar happened with Eto and Arima.

And Eto failed him. She doesn’t become king; someone else does. Someone very similar. And yet, when faced with this new person:

(re 56)

Well, then.

Eto also does everything in her power to give Kaneki the information he needs to break the eggshell. She freely gives away information about V, the Washuu’s involvement with them, the connection to the CCG, everything. Or as much as she can give him while under Cochlea’s surveillance.

So what’s the game here? Why does she support Kaneki, the one who basically stole Arima's approval, something everyone around him wants, from under her nose? Better yet, why is she aiding the search for her “replacement” in the first place? Because remember, even before Kaneki registered on her radar for a candidate for the OEK, she and Aogiri were searching for Kanou, the one-eyed ghoul maker specialist man. Aogiri wanted to use Kanou to make as many possible candidates beyond just Kaneki. So even without Kaneki in the picture, Eto wants a replacement. She wants this. Why?

Well, here’s what I think she actually wants:

(re 53)

There’s no other explanation that I can think of for why she would willingly get herself arrested and leave Aogiri to be fully exterminated on Rushima (the One-Eyed Owl totally could have turned the tables of that battle). She’s only lived as long as she has because she doesn’t want to leave anything unsaid. This is also the reason why she reveals herself as a ghoul as Takatsuki; she’s effectively destroying her own career while simultaneously giving V a huge middle finger.

This desire to close off everything she’s built up until now and pass the torch to Kaneki is also represented in her haircut; she’s literally shedding her burdens to give to someone else. Someone similar to her, but kinder than her. Better than her.

(re 52)

--

I’ve said what I’ve come to say. Thanks for reading!

#tokyo ghoul #eto yoshimura #sen takatsuki #tg meta #tokyo ghoul meta

[tragic-shadows]

Can I get a fic using 7. " She had a way of making you see things differently" and 39. "You tell me how it’s your fault and I’ll tell you how you’re wrong"

Title: Mourning Period

Word Count: 1471

Warnings: Thoughts of suicide/drinking (!!! also major spoilers for anyone who hasn't watched judgement day part 1/2 !!!)

Pairings: GibbsxReader, (past GibbsxJenny)

A/N: for purposes of causing the most pain possible, let's just pretend diane and macy were dead before all of this.

He didn't know what to do, his brain was spinning in circles as he stepped around the room. He didn't dare touch anything, didn't dare breathe too hard for fear of his own scent overpowering hers. Her jacket was still draped over the bak of her chair, the fabric was soft between his fingers as he ran his hands over them. It had been a week. 7 days. 168 hours. 10,080 minutes. 604,800 seconds. Vance was moving in his stuff tomorrow. He hadn't let him sit in the chair, or at the desk, just at the conference table. 

He also couldn't sit. At least not on the furniture. He found a corner beside the liquor cabinet that seemed suitable enough. Liquor and guns never mixed, and yet at the moment he had both. One in one hand and one in the other. Both of them were targeted for his head. He chose the drink first, keeping the gun close, just in case the alcohol didn't work. He drowned himself in the memories and the feelings and the touches. All the stolen glances and conversations that went on longer than they should have. All the knowing smiles and unknowing ones too. He never really loved any of his wives after Shannon. But he loved Jenny Shepard. He had always loved her, and he always would.

-

-

-

"Gibbs, breathe." You handed him a glass of water. You had come back to the office late to drop off a small box of Jenny's things that she had left at your apartment. Her house had had to be fumigated about a year ago and she had never gotten around to picking them up. The funeral was today and you figured it was time. While you were in the office, you spotted your boss sitting in the corner on the floor, a bottle and a half of scotch completely gone. "It's ok, it's gonna be ok." Now you were sitting next to him, the alcohol far out of reach, instead a glass of water and two aspirin took its place. You had also noticed his service weapon tucked in his lap, unloaded, the magazine sitting on the table in front of you. You didn't want to think about why he had it, so instead you focused your attention on him.

"I miss 'er," he slurred, head against the wall. "Loved 'er." 

"Do you want to talk about it?" 

"Mhm. She was erey' thing. Franks told me she still had feelin's. Shoulda been there. Shoulda saved 'er. Not Tony or Ziver's fault. My fault." 

You sighed, reaching over to take his hand to stop him shaking. "You tell me how it's your fault and I'll tell you how you're wrong." 

"My fault cause I shoulda told 'er I felt the same. Never stopped lovin' Jenny."

"I know. She was my best friend, I know." 

"She ever talk 'bout me? Did ya' know?"

You gulped. She had, quite a lot actually, but you weren't sure if that was going to help the situation or make it worse. You tapped your glass a few times, thinking, before you answered. "She did. Sometimes she complained about how you never listened, but then she would tell some story and you were always the part she smiled at."

"Shoulda' told her."

"She knew."

"Then why the hell didn't she do somethin' 'bout it?"

"Probably the same reason you didn't." 

You watched the way he stared at her desk. You had seen that look often, when he stared at Ziva's desk. Even though she was a great addition to the team, he missed Kate. It was also the same look he got on a single day of the year, the day Shannon and Kelly had been killed. He had loved and lost so many times you weren't sure if there was any love left for him to give. 

"What was she like?" You asked. "Before I met her, before I met you. Paris." 

"She had a way of making ya' see things different. We could be lookin' at a case file, I got one idea and she always had the right one. Not even that, jus' any situation she could turn 'round. I's half empty, she'd always be half full." 

"What happened between you two?" 

"She left." He stated plainly. The drinks had certainly gone to his head and part of you felt like asking him questions that he wouldn't like sober was wrong, but you needed him to talk. He needed to talk. He wanted to talk. "Didn't fit into her picture perfect plan. Too many loose ends, a liability." He finally knocked back the pain medicine you had set down for him. 

"Is that what you think you are? A liability?" 

"Why ya' ask that?" 

You shrug. "I figure a self respecting, half-decent, Marine doesn't drink himself silly with a gun sitting three feet away unless he plans do to something to himself."

"Not gonna do anythin'." 

"You know, for someone who's a great interrogator, you're not very good at lying." You gently laid your head on his shoulder. "Why do you think you're not good enough? I see it in your eyes all the time. When you're bossing us around, you seem like the biggest guy out there; when you sit at your desk and just look at us all, being silent Gibbs, you look like you're thinking. Like you're afraid to say the wrong thing. You don't believe in yourself."

"Everyone I love dies, Y/N. Everyone that loves me is dead." 

"And why do you think that?"

"Shannon, Kelly, Kate, Diane, Macy, now Jenny?" 

"You think those are the only people that love you? What about our team? Abby, Ziva? Me?" 

"Don't love me like they did. Not like Jen. Miss 'er." 

"I miss her too." 

"Why didn't ya' save her?" 

You had momentarily forgotten the fact that he was drunk and probably suicidal but the question made you realize just how much he was hurting right now. It was true, it was your fault. Well- not really your fault, you had agreed with Ziva but Tony had insisted that everything was fine and the Director could take care of herself. You shook yourself out of your head and went back to Gibbs. "You need to get home, or at least off the floor." You put his arm over your shoulder, doing your best to lift him off the ground. You made it a few steps over to the couch and helped him down. "I'll stay if you want me to. If you'd rather be alone.." You bit your lip, not really liking the idea of leaving him alone in this state. Before you could stay, a single word slipped from his lips. 

"Stay." 

"Ok.." You grabbed a blanket from the bottom drawer in Jenny's desk, draping it over the both of you. You wanted tea but that would mean leaving the room, and Gibbs. You counted the seconds as the clocked ticked and ticked and ticked. 

The next time you looked over, his eyes were closed and his breathing had steadied. You were sore for sitting for so long and you decided getting yourself a cup of coffee would be helpful. You stood up and took a few steps but before you could get past him, he snagged the hem of your shirt. 

"Huh?" You turned around.

"Wanna talk." 

You nodded, understanding. "I'm going to use the restroom and get some water. You want water or a coffee?"

"Coffee. Black."

"Ok. I'll be back." You patted your hip to make sure his gun was still there next to your own.

The office was dark. Even the janitors had gone home and there was no flashlight of any of the night officers to be seen. The only light was that from the vending machines. You filled up his cup with coffee and yours with water and grabbed you each a chocolate bar. You took your time walking back upstairs, just trying to give your boss some space. You missed Jenny like hell but you had a different way of dealing with it. Instead of crying about it, you blocked it out. You clicked open the door, expecting to see Gibbs in the chair. Instead, he was curled up on the couch reading a magazine. 

"You look better," you say.

"Just because I look better doesn't mean I am."

"Here." You hand him the coffee and situated yourself on the couch next to him. "I'm gonna get some sleep if you don't mind. Jenny always let me sleep on her couch when I didn't want to go home. You can stay if you want." 

"Yeah."

You stayed like that for a minute or two in awkward silence when you felt tears welling at your eyes. You hadn't cried when Jenny was shot, you hadn't cried at the funeral earlier today, you couldn't remember the last time you cried, and yet here you were. About to cry. Crying. "Gibbs." you whisper. Nothing else needed to be said.

He pulled you down on the couch next to him and let you lay down, your head on his chest and his arm around you. He placed a gentle kiss on your forehead. If you didn't have each other, you weren't really sure what either of you would do. "Thank you, Y/N. Need you right now."

"I think…" you trail off, "I think I need you too."

TAGS:

@aleck-cross @ah-blossom @ilovemark1951 @marennnx @originalsoulcollector @hotchmeeeeeuppppp @kittenlittle24 @twilightlover2007 @whoreforhondo @pinkcrystal44 @marvelslut16multistangirl07 @alexxavicryry @leroyjethrogibbsgirlrl @hobbsy27-blog

#ncis x reader #ncis #leroy jethro gibbs x reader #leroy jethro gibbs #gibbs x reader #jibbs #grief/mourning

[utterlyhooked]

I had to sleep on it and I have calmed down a bit. Till The End Of The Moon hooked me from the very first episode which is very rare. Even my favourites took a while, The Untamed took 21 episodes for me to get really into it. Love Between Fairy and Devil took around 18-20 episode mark for me to care. I really loved them afterwards!

You are probably wondering, what does the GIF above have to do with what I have to say. Well, it’s simply there to remind me why I love this drama because I still do but I am heartbroken about how the ending was handled. My thoughts are everywhere, so, I’m sorry if it’s incoherent.

The takeaway from this drama is tribulation, one after the other. Just suffering, suffering, more suffering, and martyring yourself to an ungratelful populace in every realm and only acknowledged by a handful. Yes, a handful, or maybe the Yiyue Tribe would add to that number but, we don’t know because Nian Baiyu was just flung into the Barren Abyss never to be heard from again. *sigh* Apologies, I’m being bitter. Li Susu probably told everyone and got the sects in line.

If they were going for a sad ending, then what was that?! If an open ending, again, what was that?! And then a happy ending audio was thrown in to the mix! The indecisiveness was breathtaking, it simply makes you seethe! Pick one, commit to it and do it well! They were trying to please everyone and utterly missing the target.

Those who love this kind of Xianxia with very dark themes (for cdramas, I think this is dark) mostly are not averse to sad endings. Sometimes it’s even expected. Great sad endings leaves you sobbing, heartbroken, and melancholic. That’s the beauty of it, it makes it memorable! If it’s a happy ending, fantastic! Everyone loves a happy ending. Great open endings make you think, not angry!!! however, I find that open endings are generally just ok (with exceptions), but thats ok too! The tragic thing about all this is the source material already had a sad ending, if a sad ending was what they were aiming for, and the epilogue of the novel provided a happy ending, if a happy ending was what they intended to do! They did not even have to think of an alternative because it was already there! And yet... *sighs*

Some mutuals decided to end watching at episode 35. They are happy that they did it and I am happy for them. But if I was to recommend this cdrama, I can’t really say that they should end at that episode because subsequent episodes brought us

Shifu and Cang Jiumin scenes which was beautiful, I was sobbing.

Li Susu thinking that TTJ was dead and was trying her hardest to fight and kill her awful bio dad and failing miserably

TTJ saving her and killing Di Mian, extremely satisfying!!!

The relief in her face seeing him alive only to realize that he had the intention of becoming the Devil God. The scream alone is worth watching!

When he took out the soul extinguishing spikes from his heart to convince her that he indeed has become the Devil God. The sorrow in her eyes.

I’m sure theres a bit more

and of course, the later part of episode 39... the Ye mansion scene. The sadness and longing. Somehow missing each other so much while they are in each others arms. So bittersweet.

Having read the novel, I knew from the few chapters in that they have deviated from it so much. I thought, ok, at least we are getting 2 stories out of it. Its just that precious screentime was used on characters that I thought was irrelevant to the overall story. Mo Nv could have been taken out completely and it would not have mattered to the story at all. They could still made Gonye Jiwu a jealous, vindictive, and bitter (ex) without her. Li Susu and Tantai Jin meeting with Ye Qingyu in JIng Kingdom was cut out instead. I saw some stills, so they did film it. It would have been better story showing on how the emperor can be the same emperor for the last 500 years.

I still have a lot in my mind but this is getting too long. Anyway, I now have 2 new favourite actors, so there is that.

#长月烬明 #Till The End Of The Moon

[the-bottom-of-the-abyss]

siren song - chapter 4

previous chapter: chapter 3

next chapter: chapter 5

Playlist

A/N: This is also pretty mission based, like last chapter. However, next chapter will delve more into Ghost and Siren's dynamic! Also if you like playlists, I made one for this fic! It has a bunch of songs that just describe the general vibe but also for backstories and storylines we haven't gotten to yet. I'm planning for this to be a long series!

Also regarding the taglist, apparently I can't tag more than 100 people in a post so I will comment the ones that don't fit!

Siren

30 August 2022

1100, En route to cartel compound, Las Almas

 

You held onto the handlebar above you as Alejandro floored the newly acquired pickup truck over the rocky terrain on the way to the cartel’s compound. Bumps and unpaved roads made you bounce in your seat, your white knuckled grip being the only thing keeping you somewhat steady.

“We’re about there, be ready,” Alejandro warned. A collection of buildings and fields came into sight, what you could only assume was the compound Hassan was being held in.

“There should be ammo at your feet. Stock up while you have the chance.”

You grabbed a generous amount of ammo, having been dwindled down to 20 rounds of .300 and 39 rounds of 4.6mm in the fight with the Mexican Army.

Just as the truck went off of the road and into the grass, Graves’ voice came through over the comms.

“Ghost, this is Shadow-1, orbiting the compound now. Standing by for visual…”

“Shadow-1, Bravo 0-7,” Ghost replied. “We’ll mark our position with IR laser, over.”

“Roger 0-7.”

The car jolted to a stop and the four of you jumped out, weapons at the ready. 

“How do we find Hassan?” Soap asked.

“He’ll have an armed guard. Cartel protection,” Alejandro answered.

“Lotta places to hide…” you muttered as you walked past a couple haybales stacked on top of one another.

“Graves covers with close air. We clear the buildings,” Ghost ordered as you all got into cover. You and Soap crouched behind a wooden crate wile Alejandro and Ghost were behind another pickup truck.

“Copy that, Lt.,” Soap replied.

“Mark us,” Ghost told Soap before hailing Graves. “Shadow-1, we’re east of the compound. Position is marked.”

Soap took out a laser and waved it around in a circle upwards.

“Shadow-1, Bravo 0-7. We’re marking with IR laser. Do you have a visual, over?”

“0-7, copy your mark.”

“Shadow-1, be advised, Hassan is moving with an armed guard. You cover external, we’ll clear the buildings. How copy?”

“0-7, good copy. Armed guard. We’ll secure the area so you can move in. Stand by.”

“Roger that,” your Lieutenant said, glancing around the truck at the surroundings. You peaked your head up as well, seeing what looked to be a greenhouse, a stable, a couple of sheds, and a large building in the back.

Not even a minute later, all of you zeroed in on a truck coming out of one of the buildings.

“Shadow-1, there’s a truck leaving the stables, moving west.”

“Copy.”

“We won’t be able to keep Hassan,” you commented while you awaited direction from Graves.

“Probably not,” Ghost replied. “But we need him more for interrogation about the missiles than we did when we had execute authority.”

“Slippery bastard,” Soap muttered.

You nodded in agreement and continued to look for any movement.

“The greenhouse,” Alejandro said, drawing your gaze to the clear building. You could see armed guards alongside civillians but other than that, you had no way to see who was inside.

“Shadow-1, we’ve got targets at the greenhouse to our northwest. Roping now.” As Ghost finished speaking, Soap pointed the laser at the greenhouse ahead.

“0-7, no visual on target. What’s the call?”

“That army convoy’s gaining ground,” Alejandro cautioned.

“We go in guns blazin’,” Soap began, “hope he squirts, lock him up from there.”

While you may have wanted to utilize stealth on such a big compound, you just didn’t have that kind of time to spend.

“Graves,” Ghost said, “you’re cleared hot to engage exernal. We’ll clear the buildings when secure.”

“0-7, copy that. Keep your heads down.”

The four of you sat behind cover as the sun beat down onto your sweat-slicked skin while you waited for Graves to clear the area around the greenhouse.

One moment all was still and in the next bullets rained down like the anguished tears of a vengeful deity, eviscerating anything that laid in their way.

“Wow,” you whispered. The bodies didn’t even seem real; they flew around like ragdolls, like they weighed nothing at all.

Before you could think on it anymore, bullets started coming your way. You pulled out your rifle and began to take aim at those firing at you. You managed to take out a few and you’re sure the boys did too, but air support did most of the work, leaving behind a trail of destruction.

“0-7, all visible targets are down. Over.” 

At that, Ghost waved to move up, with him and Alejandro taking cover behind yet another truck and you and Soap on the side of a shed.

“Shadow-1, copy that,” Ghost told Graves. “We’ll be clearing the stables building first. Roping now.”

Soap marked the building with the laser for Graves and his crew. It was a stable, having multiple entrances and exits. 

“0-7, copy your mark. You’re clear to proceed.”

“Shadow-1, we’re moving now. If the target squirts, let us know.”

“Shadow-1 copies.”

You followed behind Ghost as he brought you close to the building. 

“Soap, freeze down the right side. Siren, Alejandro, on me.”

“Aye,” Soap confirmed.

Alejandro and Ghost stood on either side of the door while you took a place on Ghost’s other side.

“Breaching,” Ghost said quietly as he pushed open the door.

“¡Bajarse, bajarse!” Alejandro yelled as you entered. You saw multiple people drop the supplies they were using to clean the empty stalls and run out of the building while a handful picked up rifles and began to fire at you three with wild abandon.

You shot a few with your VEL-46, avoiding any potential civilians but a few of the cartel members remained. A woman screamed from behind one of the stalls, clutching her child to her chest. You maneuvered yourself so you could talk to her but still be in cover.

“Vamos,” you told her urgently pointing to the door. She cried out, holding her child tighter and rushed away from the four of you. Hopefully the child was young enough to forget this, to forget the death that followed in your wake.

You held the button to speak into the comms. “Graves, check fire. Woman and child exiting left side.”

“Siren, solid copy.”

You fired round after round, trying to take down as many as possible. 

“You got a visual?” Ghost yelled to no one in particular.

“Negative!” You replied, ducking into cover to reload.

“Graves, negative on Hassan! It’s a dry hole!” Ghost told him.

“Ghost, copy that. I need you out of the building. Move north right now.”

“Copy, Moving!”

You ran from the stables and took cover behind a large rock, not wishing to be caught in the crossfire.

“Graves, we’re clear!” Ghost yelled out. “Drop that fuckin’ building now!”

Within seconds, before your very eyes, the building you were just in was destroyed. Chunks of wood flew in every direction and small, contained fires erupted where haybales once stood.

“Shadow-1, good shots,” Alejandro told Graves. “We’re pushing west to the greenhouse.”

The four of you moved forward, making sure to check for any remaining hostiles in your path. 

“All stations, there’s armed personnel in the greenhouse.”

Before any of you could respond, someone took notice of the four of you creeping towards the building.

“Contact!” you yelled, taking cover behind a small shed. 

The gunship aided in taking down some of your attackers, but Soap yelled into the comms before any bullets could stray into the greenhouse.

“Check fire! Hassan could be inside!”

A few seconds passed. You assumed they did a scan for Hassan and found nothing based on Graves’ next order.

“Ghost, keep your team back, we’re fixin’ to engage the greenhouse.”

“Solid copy!”

Glass erupted from the greenhouse frame as your air support pelted it with bullets

“Shadow-1, good effect on target. We’re moving up,” your Lieutenant told Graves.

“Roger, 0-7.”

You creeped up to the greenhouse, glass crunching underneath your boots. The dying gasps of a cartel member came from the rubble.

“These guys are fucked,” Soap said, looking at the bodies.

“Dust ‘em,” Ghost ordered, nodding his head to the man still struggling to draw a breath. You pulled the trigger, silencing him. A mercy, in your opinion.

“Where is this fucker?” Soap questioned, looking around at how big the cartel’s operation was on this plot of land.

“He has to be in that compound,” Alejandro answered, obviously meaning the giant white building with two main areas connected by a long corridor. It was gated and looked of importance, just by architecture alone.

Ghost led the team to take cover behind a small shack along with sandbags and blue barrels.

Ghost spoke into his radio. “Shadow-1, what’s the ETA on that convoy?”

“0-7, convoy is six klicks out, advise you step it up and secure exfil.”

“I’ll contact Rodolfo,” Alejandro responded.

“Do it,” Ghost told him. “Graves, we’re working on exfil. Be advised, last building we’ll hit is the compound. How copy?”

“0-7, good copy. Hold your position until we clear the area.”

“Roger that.”

Once more, your team became a target, countless guns firing at you, bullets only barely missing at times.

“Shadow-1, troops in contact!” Ghost shouted.

“RPG!” you yelled, spotting a man aiming a rocket launcher towards your cover standing on the water tower. He fired and there was not much you could do to avoid being thrown back as it hit your cover and exploded. Thankfully the adrenaline flowing allowed you to get up quickly and fall back along with the boys to return fire.

“Move left! Now!” Ghost yelled, grabbing your arm and yanking you away from the RPG’s next target. You stumbled but regained balance quickly, moving to cover once more.

“Shadow-1, x-rays at the water tower!”

The water tower was hit brutally, the foundation shaking.

“Positive impacts! Hit ‘em again!”

The next few seconds of gunfire caused it to break open, and fall to the ground, surely crushing whoever dared to stand in front of it.

You were taking down one hostile after another, not faltering until you saw Ghost jerk back out of the corner of your eye.

“Ghost is hit!” you yelled, running towards where he laid on his back a few yards away. You felt a surge of panic flare up inside you, its cold icy grip an unfamiliar feeling.

A cartel member approached from the side, gun raised to shoot Soap who was focused on the enemies in front of him.

You quickly drew a knife from your vest as you ran towards your Lieutenant and threw it with deadly accuracy, the knife lodging itself into your target’s neck. You didn’t even care about retrieving the knife as you sprinted to Ghost.

“Fuck me,” you heard Ghost mumbled as you fell to your knees to look him over. Your hands shook slightly, as you raked your eyes over his vest. No blood, thankfully.

“Are you okay?” you asked him, raising your voice to compete with the gunfire going off in the background.

“Yeah, hit my plate. Bastards,” he told you. He looked at the face-down cartel member and then back to you. “Nice throw.”

You stood, intending on getting back into the fight, and held out your hand. He took it and you pulled him up, giving his hand a squeeze before letting go.

As you looked around it appeared that Graves and his team managed to take out the rest of the hostiles, leaving a clear path to the headquarters.

“Ghost, no movement detected. What’s your status?”

“He’ll be alright,” you answered. “Round hit the plate.”

“Affirm,” Ghost said. “Good thing your aim isn’t shit like theirs.”

Graves’ tone turned humorous at the remark. “Roger that, 0-7. Be advised, you’re clear up to the compound, but the gate is blocked at this time.”

“Copy,” Ghost replied. “Give us a way in, yeah?”

“We’ll open the door for you. Stand by…”

“You okay, Lt.?” Soap questioned.

“Yeah, mate. I’m good.”

The gate was swiftly destroyed along with any cartel members in the courtyard.

“Ghost, door’s open. You’re clear to proceed.”

“Copy that. Moving now.”

Ghost motioned to follow him into smoke created by the bullets hitting anything and everything in the immediate area. 

“Ghost, no movement detected.”

“Copy. We’re pushing to the entrance now.”

“Roger, we see you.”

You passed flaming cars, destroyed sheds, and mangled corpses on the way to the front door. It was a sight, that was for certain.

Ghost and you took a place on the left side of the door while Alejandro was on the right; Soap put C4 on the door before also standing on the right.

“Be advised, the convoy is three klicks out. You need to haul ass.”

“Solid copy.”

“Alejandro,” Soap asked, “where’s that exfil?”

“Five minutes out.”

“It’s going to be close,” you cautioned.

“Let’s do this, then,” Ghost said, determination hardening his voice.

“Breaching,” Soap said before detonating the explosive. The door blew off and the four of you swept inside to see a room filled with people surrounding a very familiar face: Hassan.

“Shadow-1! Positive ID on Hassan!”

“He’s moving upstairs!” you added, using your VEL-46 to take out any cartel members you could see. It seemed like taking out one caused another three to take their place.

“Graves, he’s exiting the second floor! North-west side!” After the room was cleared, you followed his path up the stairs and outside, just in time to see him running into the other building.

“He ran inside!” Alejandro yelled. You sprinted across the corridor alongside your team and reached the door to connected building.

Alejandro wasted no time bashing it open, allowing the four of you to funnel in. There were only a few cartel members which were disposed of quickly. Meanwhile, you all shouted to Hassan.

“Get down!” you yelled.

“Get down, now!” Alejandro echoed.

“Who the fuck are you?” Hassan spit out.

Ghost hit him in the face with the butt of his gun while Soap secured his arms.

“Mexican Special Forces,” Alejandro answered. “You’re coming with us.”

“Shadow-1, Bravo 0-7,” Ghost said into his radio. “Jackpot. I say again, jackpot. Target is secure.”

“0-7, solid copy. What’s the status of your exfil?”

“This is Victor 1-1,” Alejandro cut in. “Exfil is two minutes out!”

The exchange of gunfire continued, all of you covering Soap while he held onto Hassan. 

“All stations, be advised—convoy is closing on target area now.”

“Copy that, Shadow-1. Good eye,” Soap said.

“Alejandro, what’s the call?” Ghost asked, peeking out of cover to shoot an approaching hostile.

“They’re with the cartel—free to engage.”

“Shadow, how copy?” Ghost asked.

“Solid.”

Explosions rocked the compound, and smoke rose from the ashes of the destruction. The sound of cars exploding and missiles hitting the ground were unmistakable. Eventually, return fire fizzled into nothing, leaving you with a feeling of unease at the quiet. Such a big area, once filled with life, laid to waste for this one very, very dangerous man.

“All stations, visible targets are down. You’re clear to proceed.”

“Shadow-1, copy that.” Alejandro replied. “Exfil is inbound now.”

Ghost led all of you to the back of the compound, bashing the doors open with his shoulder. You exited just in time to see Rodolfo slide the car to an abrupt stop in front of you.

“I am a Quds Force Major! You have no right-!” Hassan began but was cut off by Soap slamming him against the car.

“Shut the fuck up,” he snarled.

“You will pay dearly for this!” Hassan said as Soap shoved him into the backseat. You rolled your eyes at the dramatics and hopped into one of the seats in the trunk. Ghost sat on the other side of Hassan while Alejandro conversed with Rodolfo in Spanish.

“We’re good!” Soap said into the radio.

“Go!” Ghost told Rodolfo. “Shadow-1, package secure. We’re RTB.”

 

—

 

Ghost

30 August 2022

1145, Olmeda, Las Almas

 

The drive was relatively silent as Rodolfo sped away from the compound and into Olmeda. It was a successful mission; they got the target and no one was killed.

Ghost’s chest still was a little sore from where the bullet hit his armor plate, but he certainly did not regret seeing Siren’s handiwork while he was on the ground. The knife throw was impressive, one that rivaled his. And the quiet fury in her eyes was something he wouldn’t forget anytime soon.

“Wait, what’s that?” Ghost heard Siren say from the trunk.

Rodolfo slowed down the car once the gas station came into view.

“All stations, what’s the hold-up down there?” Graves asked.

“Shadow-1,” Alejandro replied, “there’s movement at the fuel station ahead. Possible cartel. Roping now.” He pointed an IR laser out of the passenger window.

A beat passed. 

“All stations, no visible threats in the area. You are clear to proceed.”

“Shadow-1, copy that. We’re moving.”

It wasn’t too long before they were stopped once more. A man wheeled a cart into the middle of the road, suspiciously slow.

“Shadow-1, we may have a situation here…” Siren said quietly. Rodolfo yelled out the window to no avail. 

“¡Rodéalo! ¡Rodéalo! Go around!” Alejandro told Rodolfo.

Rodolfo went to swerve around the cart, but hit it instead, temporarily blocking the view of the road.

“On the right-!” Soap shouted before the grating sound of metal colliding with metal filled the air. 

Somewhere in his mind, Ghost knew the car was rolling. But in the present, he only could take in the force of the seatbelt on his chest, the yelps of those around him, and the sound of broken glass.

It’s possible he blacked out because for a second he was in a comfortable limbo, absent of all sensations and then all of the sudden he was upside down, blood rushing towards his head. He scrambled for a knife and cut himself out and looked to see Soap doing the same. Soap grabbed Hassan and crawled out of the smoking vehicle, only to rush around to the side to avoid getting shot.

Ghost followed in suit and was relieved to see Alejandro and Rodolfo already out and returning fire. However, Siren was still in the car.

“Cover me while I get Siren!” Ghost shouted, yanking open the trunk doors to see her coming to, blood coating one side of her face. A sliver of fear struck him for a second at the injury, but he pushed it down. He needed to remain focused, for everyone’s sake.

“What the fuck…” She mumbled. Ghost took out his knife and cut her seatbelt, catching her before she could hit the glass-covered ground.

“Sergeant, you need to wake up,” he told her firmly, shaking her. Her head wound thankfully looked superficial, not too serious. She blinked rapidly and brought a hand up to her temple before wincing. It seemed then that she really saw him now, because her eyes widened a fraction at their surroundings. She removed herself from his grasp and looked towards the chaos outside.

“I’m good, Lieutenant,” she assured him, grabbing her guns that had fallen. “Just a scratch.”

He ducked out of the trunk at that and began to fire back at the approaching cartel members. Siren did the same, killing hostiles one after the other.

“All stations, we’re engaging danger close. Give me a sitrep when able.”

“Shadow-1, we’re up!” Ghost told Graves. “No casualties, Hassan is secure!”

“0-7, copy that. Colonel Vargas, what’s the word?”

“Shadow-1, we’ll hardpoint in the building behind us, over!” Alejandro yelled beginning to back up towards the restaurant.

“Copy that.”

Ghost followed the two Mexican Special Forces agents and his two Sergeants into the restaurant. It was a cozy place; not the kind that should be seeing gunfire and ground warfare.

“Clear!” Rodolfo yelled. They made their way up to the roof for a vantage point, with Ghost and Siren aiming East towards the gas station, Alejandro and Rodolfo covering South where the school was located, and Soap faced the Northwest, Hassan sitting tied up beside him.

Alejandro yelled to Rodolfo and Ghost assumed it was to call for extraction which Rodolfo did promptly.

Ghost focused on the targets in front of him, taking them out with ease. Air support eventually took out the majority of the hostiles at the gas station, leaving only a few more for Ghost and Siren to pick off.

Just when he thought they took them all out, he saw something headed straight towards them.

“RPG!” he yelled. Siren hit the deck and Ghost followed suit.

“Get down!” Soap yelled.

The building shook as it was hit by the explosive, only missing them by a small margin.

“Shadow-1,” Soap called out. “We’re taking RPG fire from the east. Roping now!”

“Copy, engaging.”

It seemed to be endless, the amount of cartel members there were. Ghost was going through clip after clip, and he was sure others were in the same position. He was on autopilot, hitting every cartel member he saw, only focused on eliminating all threats. At least they had air support, he thought. Graves’ team was taking out leagues of members, raining down bullets and missiles alike.

Rodolfo yelled something to Alejandro, which the Colonel then translated. “All stations, extract birds are inbound. Five minutes!”

“Rocket!” Rodolfo yelled. “Get down!” 

Once again, Ghost took cover on the roof, and in the split second they were there, he looked at Siren. She wore an expression of determination, the blood on her face only intensifying it. She shot back up and returned to taking down hostiles with her rifle. The corner of her mouth lifted into a small sadistic smirk when she landed a good shot, making something flare up in his lower stomach.

Focus, he told himself.

More of the cartel crowded the gas station, taking all of his attention. It was a bloodbath, truly.

“Ghost, I’m gettin’ overrun!” Ghost heard Soap yell out. Luckily, air support swooped in just in time, taking out any remaining targets.

“Bravo 0-7, Shadow-1, all visible threats are down.”

“Be advised,” Ghost told everyone. “Resupplies are low. Conserve your ammo.”

He then addressed Soap, wishing to make sure Hassan was at least still alive and hadn’t been killed in any of the crossfire.

“Sergeant Soap, sitrep?”

“Hassan is secure. He’s still a prick.”

An amused huff came from beside him.

“And you’re as mindless as your weapons of war!” Hassan yelled.

“Bravo 7-1, you are cleared hot to shut Hassan the hell up.”

“I get to go next,” Siren said, a glimmer of mischief in her eye. He was pretty sure that if he gave the go ahead, she would gladly make Hassan cease his talking permanently.

Before he could contemplate it further, another projectile was headed towards his team.

“Incoming!” Mortars came at them from the football field, luckily the first few fell short of the restaurants.

“The football field!” Alejandro yelled into the radio. From that point on, chaos was the only word to describe what was going on. Graves took out the mortar team but every ten seconds it seemed an RPG appeared, now some of them aimed at their air support. The gunship used flares to avoid being hit but that meant more enemies Ghost and his team had to handle while their air support was occupied. 

He was getting dangerously low on ammo and based on seeing Siren switch from her Sniper rifle to her SMG, he guessed she was too.

“Alejandro, where’s extraction? We’re burning through rounds, here!”

“One minute out!”

“Three mags left!” Soap called out.

“¡Estoy abajo a dos!” Rodolfo added.

“I’m running low!” Alejandro echoed.

“Fuck, I am too,” Siren said from beside him.

This was not an ideal situation. Simon “Ghost” Riley had been in plenty of downright awful situations, and this wasn’t even in the top ten. However, he was used to working alone, not having to worry about other people’s lives in his hands. But now? He needed to make sure they got out together, as a team.

“Get your knives ready!” Ghost told them.

“I always have my knives ready,” Siren told him, flashing him a sultry smile that he chose to ignore for the time being. More cartel members arrived via helicopter at the school, running towards the restaurant. Siren must have officially run out because she slung her gun on her back and pulled out a knife. She left her position and stood by the door, ready for any intruders.

Maybe it was because of how much was going on and not being able to keep them all away, but within thirty seconds someone did make it up the stairs and flung the door open, only to be grabbed by Siren and stabbed through the heart. Blood poured over her hands, and some drops flew onto her face as she yanked it out.

Ghost had seen people stabbed, had been stabbed before, and knew a good bit about techniques. She wasn’t just blindly shoving a knife into the nearest patch of skin; she was strategic, and seemingly practiced with a blade, knowing exactly where to put it. Not to mention her knife-throwing skills.

“I’ve doing this a fucking long time!”

He thought back to when he confronted her about her operation. But before he could think any more about how long “a fucking long time” was, a new voice crackled over comms.

“All stations, this is Hatchet 3-1. We are approaching from the southwest. Thirty seconds out.”

“Extract in thirty seconds!” Alejandro echoed.

“Solid copy!” Ghost yelled back.

It was a good thing too; more and more hostiles were trying to get to the restaurant and their dwindling ammo supply was concerning to say the least.

“Shite, I’m out!” Soap called out.

“Here!” Rodolfo tossed him a magazine. “Last mag!” 

“Fucking hell,” Ghost heard Siren say. “Armor is blocking our exit.”

“Graves,” Ghost said, “our exit’s blocked by enemy armor. Requesting immediate air support.”

“Check north! We got armor crossing the bridge!” 

While Siren was busy stabbing another cartel member unfortunate enough to come upstairs, Graves’ gunship fired at the bridge and took it out completely, destroying any transports and preventing further reinforcements.

“Bravo 0-7, extract is on station. Exit west of the building, they are standing by.”

“Shadow-1, solid copy! We’re moving now!” Alejandro replied. “Ghost, Soap, Siren, Rudy—we’re leaving! Let’s go!”

“Copy! Moving!” Ghost yelled back. They ran to the stairs, careful not to step on the deceased cartel members. 

“Thank fucking God,” Siren said.

“Copy that,” Soap echoed.

They reached the downstairs, luckily no hostiles were inside.

“Bravo 0-7, HLZ secure, You’re clear to proceed.” Graves told Ghost.

“Copy. Moving now.” 

His team rushed out of the door and straight to the helicopter, the sound of the whirring blades music to Ghost’s ears.

“Everyone in!” Alejandro yelled.

Soap had slight trouble getting Hassan to get in but eventually managed. Siren hopped in as well, and Ghost followed behind her.

“This should send a message to the cartel, yeah?” Soap asked Alejandro and Rodolfo.

“It will, hermano,” Alejandro told him. “They lost something more than just soldiers today.”

“What’s that?” Siren asked.

“Their reputation.”

“Word travels fast in Las Almas,” Rodolfo added.

“3-1, we’re set!” Alejandro told the pilot. And with that, they were off.

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[crimsonlyinglilly]

Day 8 “This is your last chance.”    

| Drowning | Chair | Prisoner Trade |

Not truly doing June of doom, no matter how fun it looks, real life is busy but a few prompt look promising.

So more from The Caged Founder- where the Strix find out they may die with Elijah and had take steps.

Will be posting these in order of happening, as likely won't manage to fulfil all the days of June of doom.

Aya learn the difference between old vampires and an Originals.

----

Elijah had been traveling alone for just around a year since Mikael had descended upon New Orleans, burning the city and splitting his children.

They had no idea how long before the Mikaelson siblings would regroup so had to take their chance, claim their sire now and have word spread he returned to them on his own.

They had planned for it, gathered up their strongest and oldest, some of them were just a few decades younger than him; it should have been an even match.

It wasn’t.

It’s the first time Aya faces what Mikaelson truly means, not just a surname; the moment Elijah realised they meant to catch him he stopped being the kind intelligent man she admired and resented for leaving her.

She sees the moment curiosity turns to coldness, amusement to annoyance, when they went from once friends to object in his way.

He was the son of Mikael the destroyer and he proved it by tearing through her people. 

Elijah grinned, it was sharper than the wide one he shared with them over candle lit debates. 

Mikael had the same grin when centuries ago one of her people broke and begged for his life in return for where the Mikaelsons siblings had fled. 

Mikael had killed him anyway.

His hair’s darker and the eyes aren’t blue but as he snaps her neck he’s a copy of the beast that had destroyed their home centuries earlier.

—-

She revived in time to catch quiet but cold words.

“This is your last chance, Gavriel.“

“We can’t leave you free.” Gavriel replied without a tremour in his voice.

“That’s a shame.” Elijah says and Aya knows he means it, can hear his regret but that won’t stop him from killing.

She managed to sit up again to see the pair dart towards each other, Gavriel armed with his blade, while Elijah was still weaponless.

For a moment in the stillness after they clash she notices the blood on the blade, and naïvely thought he had won

Then she caught the sound of a soft thud and her attention was ripped from the dripping sword tip to the heart now by Elijah’s foot, the slash across his chest healing to leave the torn and red drenched fabric.

Elijah looked around barely paying any mind as Gavriel fell, crashing onto the floor.

She remembered watching them spend hours in debate once, Elijah letting the other man pull him under his arm and yet Elijah had killed him and others without barely blinking.

Tristan had thought sentimentally would win them some reason, some hesitation.

She hadn’t thought they would need it.

She was wrong.

—-

Aya is the one to lead the capture and one of the few to survive, she knows she shouldn’t have, Elijah had his hand around her heart, all he had to do was pull it out and move on to the other few and he would have been free. 

Fifty reduced to eight, her and two other of the vampires she had taken were all that was left while the witches had lost two of their number.

Elijah had killed 39 vampires, most over six centuries old some almost as old as him, and yet he hadn’t been slowing after that, they hadn’t even managed to tire him.

The Originals were monsters to even them.

Tristan was right, it was sentiment that stopped him, he hesitated as he caught her, hand in her chest around her heart and instead of killing her and moving on, he had paused.

And the witches had started chanting.

He had hesitated and in that moment it had cost him.

Still feeling the spell target him, he hadn’t just killed her, he had taken time to let go of her heart and pull his hand free.

He dropped her, allowed himself a moment to attempt to shake the growing heaviness, dizziness the spell was causing before he spotted one of the witches and started to move towards them.

Aya gathered all her strength, ignored her still healing chest and lunged grabbing his arm, pulling off balance he looked back at her in shock and confusion before he saw the spell catch him and his eyes roll backwards, sending him backward onto the floor.

In his forced sleep he almost looked like the man she had once watched seep on peaceful happy mornings, if only his was splatter with the blood of her people.

She smothered her remaining feelings for Elijah as the witches descended upon him, enchanted chains to weaken him and talisman to keep him asleep until they returned to their stronghold, the one prepared to hold Elijah until they found a way to break their link to him.

Instead she cast her eyes around at the broken bodies of her people, her chest aching from where his hand had been curled around her heart.

This was for the best.

#june of doom 2024 #june of doom #elijah mikaelson #aya al rashid #fanfiction #the originals #the vampire diaries #fic #tvd fanfiction #the originals au #the vampire dairies au #tvd #AU- The Caged Founder

[veliseraptor]

In your opinion, what was it about Xue Yang that XXC found so amusing in the 'Villainous Friends' extra ? And why was XXC so easygoing and gentle with this weirdo delinquent who ransacked a stall for no reason ?

Lol though I ship xuexiao due to their Yi City chemistry, I also find it confusing why yi city XXC would trust this shady stranger. Naivete ? The belief that he can easily protect himself against potential threats ?

ooh these are fun questions. to take the first one first: I think it's basically that to Xiao Xingchen, Xue Yang in that extra comes off less as a genuine threat and more as a boisterous young man with too much energy. it's not quite him being "boys will be boys!" about it, and certainly he knows it's not harmless - he chastises Xue Yang for causing the damage he does! - but to his eye he's not seeing a serious problem so much as a kid (funny, given that their age difference is negligible, Xiao Xingchen is also a kid based on canon ages at the time) acting out for lack of discipline. we do also know Xue Yang has a cute face and a sweet smile, which I'm sure also helps with Xiao Xingchen judging him as, like, mostly harmless, just in need of some minor behavioral correction.

which I think in general reflects how Xiao Xingchen approaches the world, particularly before his bad breakup with Song Lan: he wants to believe the best of people, and generally does. he just is pretty easygoing on the whole! he's not an aggressive person! even when he does go on to arrest Xue Yang and take him to be judged after the Chang massacre, he's presented as less angry and more matter-of-fact, presenting the evidence and expecting justice to come of it.

as far as Xiao Xingchen trusting Xue Yang in Yi City...I actually think there's a lot going on there. in terms of why, right off the bat, he's not insisting on answers or outwardly suspicious, I think at that point Xiao Xingchen feels like he's lost the right to any high ground. he understands, too, that there are many reasons that someone might want to hide their identity or not talk about a painful (literally) past - he's doing the same thing, after all. allowing Xue Yang his silence also allows Xiao Xingchen his own.

also, initially, Xiao Xingchen isn't expecting his mysterious stranger to stick around. he expresses as much to a-Qing when she warns him about Xue Yang: "Once he's healed, he will leave on his own. No one would want to stay in this coffin home with us." (Chapter 39). he's a temporary stranger who will move out of Xiao Xingchen's life as soon as he moved into it. why interrogate him too much when he'll be gone soon?

then as time goes by, and Xiao Xingchen gets to know his mysterious stranger...well, it's true that he has a shady past, sure, and clearly there's things he doesn't want to tell Xiao Xingchen about, but there are plenty of things Xiao Xingchen doesn't want to talk about. there's also the fact that at this point Xiao Xingchen is...a little more jaded, and recognizes that the world is not always just and people might be persecuted or targeted not because they actually did something wrong but just because they made the wrong person angry. maybe his friend is a little sharp-edged and not always kind, but that doesn't mean he's a bad person.

finally: Xiao Xingchen is so desperately lonely and in need of a friend, and this is a person who seems to have, in spite of everything, decided to be Xiao Xingchen's friend. to a certain extent...it's not "I looked at the red flags and decided they were sexy" it's more "I looked at the red flags and decided I could fix him and it'd be fine, let the past live in the past."

basically I don't think Xiao Xingchen was naive about it, or that he immediately completely trusted Xue Yang. I think he made a decision based on a lot of emotional factors, and some logical ones, and it just ended up really not working out for him.

I mean, what it also comes down to is the question Xiao Xingchen asks Song Lan (rhetorically) in true more than truth: “But how does one recognize a wolf, if there’s no fur or teeth to give it away? How does one determine when to reach out and when to hold back? Is it better to offer kindness too much, at the risk of danger to oneself, or too little, and risk abandoning those in need?”

Xiao Xingchen would rather risk putting himself (and he would think of it as putting himself, not others) in danger than abandon someone in need out of fear. and he believes too, I think, that choosing that compassion might keep the proverbial wolf from biting.

and the miserable thing is that, in a way, he's right.

#conversating #anonymous #xuexiao #xue yang #xiao xingchen #because xue yang does change! it just takes him too long #and in a moment of crisis he goes back to what's comfortable. #augh. i'm still fucked up about it #the sad queer cultivators show #lise does meta #i think this is on the meta side of things? #aggressively headcanons

[haveyoureadthisscifibook]

Are there stats for publication date? What's the predominant decade for submissions and how do the Sci-fi and fantasy blogs compare? Is there a period that a higher percentage of poll responders seem to have read? It looks like there's more submission of YA/children in fantasy and those have been more likely to get 50+% read. Is there just less sci-fi being written targeted towards younger readers?

hello! great questions. putting this under a read more because it’s a lot of numbers.

publication date

there are some marked differences between the two blogs on this point, although also some overall similarities.

most of the differences are I think pretty straightforwardly explicable by the fact that science fiction as a cohesive genre and marketing category is simply older than fantasy, having more or less fully coalesced by the 1920s, whereas fantasy wasn’t really established until the late ’60s. obviously there’s also older stuff that’s now considered to belong to each genre (Verne, Wells, Lovecraft, Plunkett/Dunsany, ...), but people who habitually read Fantasy and people who habitually read Science Fiction are, I think, most likely to have read books that were conceived, written, published, and marketed specifically as part of those genres, meaning that the fantasy submissions and results skew more recent than the sci-fi ones. the sci-fi results are also a bit more evenly distributed (though still skewed towards post-2010), reflecting, I think, the cultural prominence of certain classics — of which there are also simply more, because, again, older as a marketing category.

for starters, the mean publication dates of submissions:

fantasy: ~2002

sci-fi: ~1996

I haven’t been keeping stats by decade for submissions, but I can give you stats by decade for the results. for the fantasy polls:

1830s: 1 book (0.2% of the total)

1880s: 1 book (0.2% of the total)

1890s: 2 books (0.3%)

1900s: 2 books (0.3%)

1910s: 3 books (0.5%)

1920s: 2 books (0.3%)

1930s: 5 books (0.8%)

1940s: 4 books (0.6%)

1950s: 9 books (1.4%)

1960s: 8 books (1.3%)

1970s: 31 books (5.0%)

1980s: 59 books (9.5%)

1990s: 70 books (11.2%)

2000s: 146 books (23.4%)

2010s: 194 books (31.1%)

2020s: 86 books (13.8%)

you can really see the beginning of the fantasy genre as such here in the dramatic jump from the 1960s to the ’70s, and you can also see the age of tumblr users in the jump from the 1990s to the 2000s. the average yes percentages for the decades where there are enough books to give a meaningful average are a bell curve from 13.4% yes for the ’70s, peaking at 21.1% yes in the ’90s, and falling back down to 10.5% yes for the 2020s.

the medians also dramatically peak in the ’90s: median 7.6% yes for the ’70s, 6.2% yes for the ’80s, 14.8% yes for the ’90s, 11.8% yes for the 2000s, 6.1% yes for the 2010s, and 5.6% yes for the 2020s.

for the sci-fi polls:

1810s: 1 book (0.2% of the total)

1860s: 3 books (0.6%)

1880s: 2 books (0.4%)

1890s: 3 books (0.6%)

1900s: 2 books (0.4%)

1910s: 1 book (0.2%)

1920s: 1 book (0.2%)

1930s: 7 books (1.5%)

1940s: 7 books (1.5%)

1950s: 19 books (4.0%)

1960s: 31 books (6.5%)

1970s: 39 books (8.2%)

1980s: 54 books (11.4%)

1990s: 63 books (13.3%)

2000s: 49 books (10.3%)

2010s: 123 (25.9%)

2020s: 70 (14.7%)

I suspect the jump from the ’40s to the ’50s and ’60s reflects the relatively rapid post-WWII shift away from magazines as the primary venue for sci-fi publishing (which therefore leaned towards short fiction and away from novels) to pulp books (expanding the market for novels, and so for books eligible for this blog). I have no idea what’s going on with the 2000s.

the averages for the sci-fi polls are quite even across the decades with enough results to give meaningful averages, and, significantly, the decade with the highest mean yes is actually the ’60s (16.8%), followed by the ’50s (13.3%), and then ironically the 2000s (12.6%). the lowest is the ’70s, at only 8.9% mean yes. the medians are all over the place, but the highest is the ’60s (10.3%), followed by the ’80s (7.6%) and the 2000s again (6.6%). the lowest is the ’70s again (3.3%), followed by the 2020s (4.0%).

(it’s also worth noting again that children’s books are skewing the fantasy poll results higher overall than the sci-fi ones.)

age demographic

is there just less sci-fi being written targeted at younger readers? I don’t have numbers, so I can only answer this anecdotally: I think so. first off, I think there’s maybe less sci-fi being written period at this point, but even looking back, I’m thinking about my own reading as a child (and looking at my library spreadsheet) —

fantasy: The Hobbit; Narnia; most of Diana Wynne Jones’s books; Garth Nix’s Seventh Tower and Abhorsen series; Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising sequence; Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness, The Immortals, Protector of the Small, Circle of Magic, and The Circle Opens; Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series; Unicorns of Balinor; Harry Potter; Wizard’s Hall; the Chronicles of Prydain; Earthsea; The Gammage Cup; Redwall; Wayside School; Magic Tree House; His Dark Materials; Tales of the Nine Charms; the Warriors cat books; Eva Ibboston’s books; Children of the Red King; Meredith Ann Pierce’s Firebringer trilogy; the Bartimaeus Trilogy; the Enchanted Forest Chronicles; Edward Eager’s Tales of Magic; The Paper Bag Princess; ...

sci-fi: the ’90s Star Trek children’s books; Young Jedi Knights; Junior Jedi Knights; Animorphs; Bruce Coville’s My Teacher Is an Alien books; Space Brat; Alistair and the Alien Invasion; Commander Toad; the first two Harper Hall Pern books; Jedi Apprentice; the silly Jedi Prince books; the Tripods books; Monica Hughes’s Isis books; uh...

and granted, I loved the children’s sci-fi series — if you’d asked me in ca. 2000 I probably would have been more enthusiastic about Animorphs than any of the fantasy series I’d read at that point except maybe Circle of Magic. nonetheless, while this is very unscientific, you can see the disproportion.

it also becomes something of a self-fulfilling prophecy from a publishing perspective: there’s been one wild blockbuster sci-fi series for young readers in my lifetime (The Hunger Game), vs. three(-ish) for fantasy (Harry Potter, Twilight, and to a lesser extent Percy Jackson and the Olympians). fantasy for young readers looks safer for publishers —> more of it gets published —> more people read it —> more people decide eventually to write it.

#not a poll