#failed for the second time my russian test

[scarfacemarston]

Teacher!Natasha x Teacher!Reader Oneshot

For Lesbian Visibility Week! If you enjoyed this, please note and reblog! Feel free to send other prompts or requests! Prompt: The students come into your classroom complaining about Natasha as a teacher not knowing you're her wife. This is version 1. You sighed as you glanced at the digital clock on your computer. Damn. Your planning period was almost over, and you really needed to finish grading these essays. Soon, you would be back to teaching your high school history classes for the day. The period ended far too quickly as students began to file their way into the classroom, discussing this and that. You were so engrossed in your work that you were hardly paying attention until you heard “Ms. Romanoff” mentioned not once, not twice, but in a string of sentences. Oh boy. Ms. Romanoff was one of the more controversial teachers at the school known for her no-nonsense attitude, sternness and sarcasm , but she was also fair with a dry sense of humor. “Why did I take international politics as an elective? Oh, that’s right, I thought it would look good on my transcript!” One student said sarcastically. “She’s so nitpicky! I got an A-. AN A MINUS!” “Hers is the only class I don’t fall asleep in anymore. Not since….last time.” “She’s so strict even the Macklin brothers shut up.” “She’s terrifying. I heard she used to be an undercover agent in the CIA”. You smirked at that one. You should probably look into that rumor. “A spy? Shut-up, man. Who’s going to believe that?” “I heard she was a failed actress.” “I heard she voiced the Russian Siri.” “I heard she’s a rich heiress that lost all her cash.” “Look, guys, I don’t care. She just ripped our class to shreds.I just can’t right now. Nearly the entire class failed her last test. These test corrections are going to take all night.” “At least you’re allowed test corrections! We’re her AP class and the only way we can make up points is through a new essay.” “She’s scary. I swear” “I think she knows what I’m thinking and then that makes me think more and then she thinks what I’m thinking and that thinking makes my head hurt.” “I was ONE minute late to class and she gave me a late slip!” “One time my grandma called me in class, and she made me pick it up.” You shot a quick text to Natasha before the bell rang. Her classroom was two doors down from yours since you two were technically in the same department. Time to log off your grading program and begin class. You pulled out the binder with today’s lesson plans ready to begin. “Wow, you all are full of comments about Ms Romanoff today.” You said neutrally. “Miss Y/N, you don’t understand. She’s so ….uh, extra.” You withheld a smirk. Natasha wasn’t what you would call extra, but she was set in her ways.” “I don’t think she’s extra. I think she just has high standards.” You responded. One of the students rolled their eyes.

"Do you all talk about me like this when I'm not here?"

"Nooo Ms. Y/N, we would never!"

"Well, maybe you could extend the same courtesy to my wife next time," you said, withholding a laugh. The room fell silent. A pin could have dropped.

“Fuck” you heard someone say under their breath. “Language”, you chastised, but you couldn’t say you blamed them. You saw the students in various forms of awkward shuffling, a cough here or there or “Ummm” or “Uhh” as students tried to form sentences. “Wait, you’re married?” a student questioned before being glared at by the others. Your fourth period class was near silent for the rest of the period, with the students seemingly still in shock. One minute til the bell rang. You saw a flash of red hair out of the corner of your eye. Thirty seconds. Natasha knocked on the door. “Hey, you, we’re all ordering from Robert’s Deli for lunch. You want your usual or will you finally try something new?” Natasha teased. The class whipped their heads collectively towards the door. It was becoming harder not to laugh. Natasha narrowed her eyes. “What’s going on, Y/n?” “Oh, you’re scaring my class, dear!” You said, smiling widely. Natasha scoffed. “Dear, huh? Oh, so they found out, didn’t they? As if us entering the building together and leaving together in the same car wasn’t hint enough that we’re married.  Yeah, I might have scared a few of them. It was well deserved, trust me, Isn’t that right, Reynolds?” Jason Reynolds sank down into his seat, not meeting Natasha’s eyes. The bell rang. The students couldn’t scramble enough as they grabbed their bags and rushed past Natasha. You gave a small laugh as you finally met Natasha. “You’re a mean woman, you know that?” “Hey, you texted me, babe.” “It was great, not gonna lie. Sorry the “secret” is out.” “It’s not like we’re closeted, we’re simply professional. I’m surprised they didn’t figure it out sooner….or maybe I’m not.” Natasha muttered. Your stomach growled. “Alright, I’ll look up the menu. Find something new to try for once. Promise.” You said in response to your stomach. Natasha nodded. “Don’t want you to scare the next class because you’re hungry.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

End

#natasha romanoff #natasha romanov #natasha romonova #black widow #natasha x reader #black widow x reader #black widow x female reader #natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanoff x you

[not-so-wholeheartedly]

Delet later

#coldness #failed for the second time my russian test #probably will start to take private lesson from a girl in order to improve my translation #but yeah i have to wait til january and meanwhile i crushing myself since i have to pass german plus i've been #neglecting it for quite some time as i was focusing better on russian #not to be dramatic but it think my reaching really a bad point on here #like i should have known this was a difficult choice since i've picked up two new languages #even with cases so yeah the whole complex of analysing logically structures of the language #but ultimately my temporaly crashing acadamy life and my personal one really created a mortal mix #yeah guess what i'm still talking about love and also even frienda #like the only girl i talk to we had some kind of towards each other for reasons and i don't feel like talking for long with her #i'm just standing here letting my negative thoughts take over and getting the best of me #feeling like trash both academically and as a human being #i hope with all my heart better times are coming i am truly at my lowest

[ja3hwa]

♡ 𝐂𝐮𝐭𝐞 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐲 | 𝐎𝐭𝟖 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 ♡

【Synopsis】 : What if a Mob Boss decides to adopt/date a hybrid?

-> Genre: Suggestive. Gore. Fluff.

Pairing: Ot8!Mafia Bosses x Hybrid!Readers

[Warnings] : Swearing. Criminal activity. Killing. Death. The reader is a bad ass, okay. Mention of abusive and past trauma. Russian reader for Yeosang. Black Reader for Yunho and Mingi cause uh duh, my mans love them so brown beautiful women. San's reader has vitiligo. Mention of blood. Mention of being horny and sexual activities. Puppy love. Sappy shit. All the boys are whipped. What can i say hehe.

Note: SURPRISE! I know you all most definitely have been wanting me to update with another part to the dilf Au or my vampire mini series, but rest assured. I am still writing both. But i whipped this together cause i needed a little break. The dilf au part is currently at 3.8k words, and it's gonna be a long part, let me tell y'all ahha. Thank you for being patient with me, and i promise you'll be seeing more stuff soon. But for now. Enjoy some hybrids.

Masterlist | Navigation

Hongjoong - Slow Loris

Now, these hybrids are some of the most cutest and more desirable. And Hongjoong would be the type to want someone cute, and kind but fucking dangerous. When he first met you, he was in awe with your sweet like beauty. Now innocent you looked. Down to your soft smile and floral outfit. It was only until he watched you get hit on by another low-level mob boss. It was then that he saw the real you. The way you sat on the disgusting man's lap, you had not spoken a word, nor opened your mouth to smile. But within a split second, you bit down on the man's neck. He’d groan thinking you were just playing rough. But when you pulled away that’s when his men knew something was very, very wrong. Your venom had gotten into his system faster than anyone could save him. He’d be dead in minutes and Hongjoong would be in love in seconds.

Seonghwa - English Lop 

Seonghwa wanted to make sure the hybrid he got was perfect. But somehow, we are talking to Hongjoong for a couple of hours. He found himself in a local shelter for abandoned hybrids. And that’s where he found you. A very long-eared bunny. Your ears would fall past your shoulders, and you’d use them to cover your face. You were skittish, and Hwa found out that your type of breed was a product of human engineering. So you were bred to look like that, and you were a failed test. Seonghwa fell in love the moment he saw your big wide eyes. You were scared of the world and scared of humans. But Seonghwa was going to slowly teach you the joys you’d missed out on, and he was definitely going to find the men who hurt you and kill them for throwing you away. Cause you weren’t trash. You were just perfect.

Yeosang - Pallas cat

Yeosang wasn’t looking for a hybrid at the time he met you. But when he was having a meeting with some businessmen for a shipment log, you’d stroll in with a grumpy expression and fluffy tail all frizzed up and swaying annoyingly. Your thick Russian accent would catch him by surprise, and he would never admit it, but he loved the way words slipped off your tongue, and if he could, he would listen to you speak for hours. He knew your type of hybrid breed was naturally aggressive and dangerous. So when one of the men tried to boss you around, you easily just pistol-whipped him cause you could. He would make sure to get your number at the end of that day, and later, you found he was the only human you’d tolerate being around.

Yunho - Rottweiler

We all know for a fact that if this man was a hybrid he’d be a golden retriever. End of story. He holds the sun in his eyes and a constant pip in his step and even though he is supposed to be this big scary mob boss. Behind closed doors with his friends and family, he is just this lovable giant. And when he met you, it wasn’t he that went after you. But the other way around. He was at this bar, and some girls that he had no interest in were disturbing his alone wolf fun. He came to his friend's bar to get away from the clingy, whoring women that slither their way into the underworld scene. They were all the same and it bored him. And no matter how many times he told them to fuck off. They would not listen. And that is where you came in. Normally you wouldn’t get caught dead in a night club but your friend, a local street cat, needed some…fun as she put it. And you were her guard dog. She ditched you after 5 minutes, leaving with some guy that she said ‘He's so fuckable’. that’s when you saw Yunho being cornered by the snakes. You jumped into action, standing in between the girls and him, and successfully scared them away with your rage-filled swaying tail, straight pulled back ears, and snarling teeth.. They ran off quicker than a mouse. Yunho said thank you about a million times that night, immediately in love with your beauty. Your beautiful dark skin. The way your hair was slight patches of browns, blonds, and blacks with loose curls falling in front of your face. He was instantly taken by you, and like a golden retriever, developed puppy love.

San - Raccoon

Now, San did not want a hybrid. He never actually wanted one. The idea of having a creature to look after and don’t get started on people falling in love with them. He didn’t understand the fascination for them. Until he met you. Your mismatched nubbed ears, big almost pitch-black eyes, and faint patterns on your beautiful patching of dark and skin skin.. Your little bookshop became a place he would sneak off to when he got too stressed or just simply needed to see your cute little face. It would take him months to work up the courage to speak to you. And oh, the way your face would light you and your little ears would twitch whenever he was around…. Oh, yeah. He understood now.

Mingi - Spotted Deer

Mingi’s jaw would be on the floor when he first saw you. Your beautiful amber coloured skin with white creamy dots to complement. You were a walking goddess in Mingi’s eye. And the way your tight curled hair was up in a braid that held up a stunning crown that matched your sleek but classy dress. Yunho had dragged him to a hybrid pageant show cause he wanted to see what kind of hybrids Mingi would be interested in. And let's just say he was not going to leave the venue until he met you and got your number.

Wooyoung - Red Fox

Even though red foxes are common, they are one of the desirable in the hybrid trafficking rings since they are very breedable. Wooyoung and a sub-unit of men, a part of his organization, sought out these rings to help save hybrids, and that’s where he met you. Little, shy, scared you. The colour in your fur was almost gone, and there was no spark, no life in your eyes. It took months until you opened up, and then some more just for you to crack a smile. Your playfulness and cheekiness started to come out. You would run around, screaming, laughing, being chased by him. The life in your eyes was back, your smile growing and growing every day. And his love for you grew just the same.

Jongho - Red Panda

He was on an undercover sting for the last four nights. Sitting on the same street, waiting for some bastard low life that was crushing some of the operations Jongho was working on. And through these four days, he saw you every night. At the same time, on the dot going for a night walk. He was curious why such a cute little fluffy ball hybrid would be out at such an hour. Every night, too? What were you looking for? Were you just going for a walk for fun? It wasn’t until he saw the low life he was trying to catch grab you and pull you into a nearby alley. Jongho was out of his car and in the alley in seconds. But what he saw wasn’t the horrific image that flashed in his head. No, it was much more. Your sharp teeth covered in blood, dripping down and staining your clean clothing. Your fur is frizzy and puffed up. There was anger in your eyes. And Jongho knew two things. One, He was oddly horny about you killing someone twice your size and two, never, ever, get on your bad side. Luckily, he has never been in a direct line of your rage…. Wooyoung wasn’t so lucky.

#ateez #ja3hwa #ateez smut #ateez scenarios #ateez imagines #ateez reaction #ateez reactions #ateez fanfic #ateez fluff #ateez scenario #ateez fanfiction #ateez x female reader #ateez x reader #ateez x reader smut #ateez fic #atz reactions #atz smut #atz fluff #atz drabbles #atz hard hours #atz imagines #atz scenarios #atz x reader #atz fanfic #ja3hwa; Posts #Hybrid #mob boss #mafia au #kpop scenarios #kpop fic

[guardkeywolf]

I needs some Russian male reader that owns a ranch and da cod boys (and konig and that Spanish dude forgot his name because of how long his name is 👁👄👁) that came to visit since soap praticly begged male reader to visit his ranch along with the boys and male reader agrees and just fanning over the fact of how big and the ranch is and how many animals he has and that fact he makes Russian food and have allot of dogs, cats, snakes, and other pets that you can think of and is able to ride a horse and has a Buffalo

Like I can't find any Russian male reader on any platform i have 💀💀🥲🥲

Russian Male Reader X 141! Boys + Alejandro and König

Stella (Ball Python)

Vera (Stallion)

Alek (Mustang)

Hello @gamersansblog !!!

I was pretty shocked when I got this request to write a Russian Male Reader (considering I'm American lol) and especially about a ranch!

But I really did enjoy this one a lot so I hope you enjoy it as well!

And some slight Soap X Male Reader at the end too...

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When Soap, had asked Y/n to come down to the base for the tenth time, the man couldn't help but sigh and smile as he made his way down to the base.

As a retired soldier, the 141 didn't mind letting the Russian come down and enter their base, seeing him as another friend.

During the 141's lunch break, they were all making small talk with each other about some random topics Y/n didn't particularly pick up on and instead scrolled through his phone. While conversating, Y/n could help but perk up at the word "ranch" leaving someone's lips before responding himself.

"What about a ranch?" He asked looking up from his phone with a curious look in his eye.

Soap looked up towards him with soft eyes.

"Oh nothing in particular, just saw some horses recently on my way here. Couldn't help but wonder what it be like to ride them," his eyes glowing at the thought as he smiled.

"We bet it 'ould buck him off in 3 seconds," Ghost said from behind him, others chuckling as well.

"Oh 'ush! I bet cha' 'ouldn't last any longer than me!" Soap cried making the other laugh more.

"I don't know, Soap, I think Ghost would at least manage to hang on longer. You'd get throw off instantly," Gaz spoke from the other side of the table while sitting next to Price.

"I don't know Hermano... You just might get bucked off," the Colonel voiced while trying to hold in a laugh that he failed at immensely.

"Come on...don't you believe in me König?" The Scottish man turned to the Austrian with glossy eyes nearly shedding a tear.

"I'm sure you zan do zit," König responded softly.

"See! König thinks I can do it!" The Scottish man cheered as smirked at the others.

"Alright then... if you can do it, where are to gonna test it, Sergeant?" Price spoke.

"Ah...well..." he scratched the back of his head.

"I have a ranch... and last time I checked, you've been begging me to go there," Y/n said.

They all turned to him instantly, eyes wide as if he grew a second head. Soap jumped on him immediately with a small grin painting his lips.

"You own a ranch?!" Gaz yelled in surprise.

"Da, I got cow, dog, cat, and horse too Soap," Y/n reassured him as he watched the grown man bounce in his toes in excitement.

"Y/N YOU GOTTA TAKE ME PLEASE!" The Scottish man said, back to being giddy. The man was on his knees as begged the Russian.

"Now hold on, Y/n just said he owned a ranch, Soap, didn't say you could use it," Price intervened.

"It fine, Kapitan, plus it not too far from base. If you'd like to come, feel free," Y/n said, shrugging in the process.

"REALLY?!" Soap squealed.

"да!" ("Yes!") Y/n replied. "Are you all free tomorrow?"

"Last time I check, ye'" Price responded.

"Good, I will meet with you tomorrow, then we can go to ranch," Y/n grinned.

The next day, the 141 waited at the front of their base for Y/n to arrive. When they caught sight of the Russian's truck, Y/n drove over near them and rolled down his window.

"Follow me, comrades," he replied as he watched the others nod and walk to their cars. Meanwhile, Soap and Ghost rode with him. Gaz and König with Price and Alejandro.

They followed him outside the town, a vast array of green plains taking over the landscape. As if time passed instantly, Y/n would end up turning into his ranch.

It was beautiful honest. They were met with the sight of horses, cows, chickens, sheep, some lambs, and even some dogs and cats wandering around. Hell, even a Buffalo too.

The men stared in awe at the mere beauty of the scene. As Y/n turned to park he got out with Soap and Ghost following in tow before waiting for the others to park. When they got out, they couldn't help but stare.

"Ahem," Y/n coughed, "You like, yes?"

Soap was the first to respond.

"Are ya kidding?! It's amazing here, Y/n," the man exclaimed as his eyes sparkled at the sight.

Y/n let a laugh escape him as he motioned for the others to follow him inside to his home.

There, they saw the kitchen but also other foods stored around the house, each labeled for each product with specific animal feed.

Y/n walked them over to his exhibit that house a very, very, long white snake.

"Comrades, met Stella," he waved a hand to the female ball python before opening the top of the enclosure.

Price and Alejandro stepped back instantly as Y/n took out the 10 foot ball python.

Y/n laughed at their reactions.

"Don't worry, she don't bite. She likes meeting people," Y/n reassured them quickly.

"If you'd like to touch her, stroke her scales slowly please," Y/n advised watching the ball python himself as well.

Soap, Ghost, König and Gaz all moved to touch the snake, running their fingers around the smooth scales softly.

"She's beautiful Y/n," Ghost commented.

"Thank you, Ghost. I take good care of her."

Y/n offered to let the Colonel and Captain touch the reptile but both men refused to leave from their spots and Y/n simply nodded before putting Stella back into her glass enclosure.

"Alright, let us go to the horse now."

Y/n led them to the horse stables outside the house.

There, the were greeted by the equines that resided within.

While Y/n introduced each horse, Soap couldn't take his eyes off one in particular.

Brown with white spots and lovely blue eyes and a beautiful mane that Soap could only imagine running his fingers through.

"Y/n...what's this one's name?" He asked.

"That is Vera, a strong stallion I found a couple week ago. Would you like to ride him?"

Soap turned back to him in awe.

"Can I?"

Y/n nodded before telling the others to wait outside by the gates so he could bring out the horse.

As he walked out Vera into the pin, the men couldn't help but enjoy the sight of Y/n and the horse, how calm they looked together.

Y/n beckoned Soap to come over once he finished putting on the saddle.

"Alright MacTavish, you ready?"

"As I'll ever be..."

Y/n first told him to get up onto the saddle first, laughing a few times as he tried to get up along with Alejandro saying something in Spanish making the others laugh, before making sure the man sat properly and the saddle was strapped to Vera correctly.

While Y/n used one hand to keep Vera in place to not move so much, he grabbed the reins and handed them to Soap.

"Be gentle with the reins, and slowly feel in tune with Vera. Animals feed off our emotions, so do not get nervous, da?"

Soap nodded slowly and looked back down at Vera.

"Go ahead and stroke his neck a little bit to get comfortable," Y/n instructed.

Soap followed and let his hand run along Vera's neck, letting soothing words fall from his lips as he greeted the horse.

Vera leaned in slightly to his touch and MacTavish beamed internally.

Y/n smiled as he noticed the action before turning back to Soap.

"Alright, we will go around the pin, ok?"

Soap nodded slowly.

He let Y/n lead him and Vera around the pin before coming back to a stop.

"Well done Zergeant," König said from the other side of the gate.

"Thanks, König."

"Alright how about this time you guide him?" Y/n suggested and the other let out sounds of approval as well.

"Yeah, MacTavish let's see if you can truly ride a horse!" Ghost said from the gate.

"I'll show ya!" Soap replied back before noticing Vera move at bit when he yelled and immediately apologizing.

"How about I ride alongside you, Soap?"

"Please..." Soap looked him dead in the eye as he pleaded for Y/n to ride with him.

Y/n let a chuckle leave and instructed Soap to get off Vera and stay with him while he went to get his own horse.

Soon enough, Y/n walked out with an all black Mustang he named Alek.

"Meet Alek, my mustang," Y/n said as he rode on top of the horse like it was nothing.

He galloped over to where Soap was before getting off and helping Soap back onto Vera, watching the man struggle a bit to get back up and laughing.

"Y/n!"

"It funny," Y/n grinned at him as he checked the straps again on Vera.

Once Soap was ready, he got onto Alek and showed Soap how to use the reins this time.

"Alright, you ready, comrade?" Yn asked.

Soap sighed and nodded.

"MAKE OR BREAK MACTAVISH!" Ghost yelled.

Soap laughed as he gripped onto Vera's reins and looking at Y/n one last time before moving the stallion around the pin slowly.

Thankfully, Vera was easy to work with as she went around slowly and came back around to Y/n and Alek before letting both join on the second loop.

Soap gleamed as he rode Vera and Y/n smiled at him.

"They look good together, eh?" Gaz whispered to the others.

"Yeah, if only MacTavish would ask him out," Ghost commented as he watched the Sergeant enjoy himself on top of the Stallion.

"Now he really looks like a Los Vaquero," Alejandro spoke from beside with a slight chuckle as well.

König smiled under his hood as he watched the pair enjoy themselves on the horses.

"I knew you zould do zit, Sergeant..." he whispered softly.

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Thank you for reading!

-Guards

#cod modren warfare 2 #call of duty modern warfare 2 #cod mw2 #cod x male reader #simon ghost riley #simon riley #john soap mactavish #johnny soap mactavish #soap mactavish #kyle garrick #kyle gaz garrick #john price #captain price #captain john price #alejandro vargas #könig #konig #guards writes

[long-life-to-bsd]

Exam season

Pairings: kunikida, dazai, ranpo, nikolai × reader

Tw: mentions of having to do an exam🥲, slightly suggestive, Dazai

Unfortunately I'm writing this to cope with the fact that tomorrow I start a very bad exam session... Yeah, let's go

KUNIKIDA

He was a math teacher and that would be very helpful because he would be super serious about you doing good on this exam.

He asks you to repeat everything out loud to him and prepares tests to help you.

He would be very strict (because he knows from his experience what his best for a student). But the second he realised he had been to harsh with you he would immediately apologise.

Lots of compliments and kisses every time you do something good

He will make sure you follow an healthy routine during exam season: prepares you healthy meal and snacks, makes sure you get at least seven hours of sleep (mostly because he loves sleeping with you)

Helps you dealing with stress and anxiety

Would also be very gentle and caring and would make the day before and after the exam just about you.

He would be so so so proud of you (and happy that you are a cultured woman)

Thanks to his help you would never fail. He would start preparing you months before. But absolutely no cheating.

Going to give you the a very nice reward😏

DAZAI

Slightly annoyed by the fact you cannot give him all the attention he wants.

But he likes the fact that at least one in the relationship has a better education (truly concerned about bsd characters education, like... basic human rights where?)

Would randomly close your book or interrupt you for a kiss

Or would say something "Why don't we continue in bed? Every time you are right I will make sure you'll fell soooo good!" ""Sure Dazai, like you know the difference between-every topic you want-?"

Makes sure you are not to stressed or tense: he gives you the best massages ever.

Great support the day of the exam: like, he would be outside waiting for you with giant posters and other members of the agency.

Would not help you actually studying. Absolutely not.

Does not know a thing about the topic you've being studying

Finds you sexy between all those books and paper and would let you know.

He makes sure the professor knows he better not let you fail.

RANPO

He would always make sure you have a sweet snack while studying.

Would be silently keep you company while he eats them.

He gets bored easily but if you want to repeat everything to him he will listen.

Doesn't find what you are studying interesting, but honestly do you?

Would immediately understand when you are to stress and help you with that.

Very supportive and proud of you. Moreover he loves seeing you studying like that because you look smart and loves to be in a power couple: you to could easily destroy anyone just by looking at them.

Lots of hugs

Would suggest you to use sweets as rewards to study more. Even though he would prefer another kind of reward.

If you fail (which is not going to happen) he'll ruin the professor reputation telling his darkest secrets.

NIKOLAI

(Don't ask me way, I just thought he could be nice, I would want him during my exam season🙃)

"Dove, don't worry, if you fail you can always work with me!? You don't need to study Russian literature to be a terrorist!!"

Would randomly close your books and guess what, it's quiz time

Would actually prepare little quizzes just for you exam even though he really doesn't understand why you do that (really why are we doing this)

He your answer is incorrect well, you just choose death. Everywhere you go you would find the right answer written on a sticky note. He would wake you up in your sleep and asks you that.

Special rewards (and punishments). Would use the exam as an excuse for this. Like you have time

You could never fail this exam. He made sure of it, he personally threatened the professor and their entire family just for you. How sweet.

#bsd #bsd headcanons #kunikida #bsd kunikida #kunikida headcanons #kunikida x reader #dazai #bsd dazai #dazai × reader #dazai headcanons #ranpo × reader #bsd ranpo #ranpo #ranpo headcanons #nikolai headcanons #bsd nikolaj #bsd nikolai gogol #nikolaj gogol × reader

[usafphantom2]

SR-71 Blackbird RSO recalls the North Pole Mission he and his pilot flew the Night Before Christmas to spy on Soviets setting up acoustic sensors to track US submarines

The SR-71 Blackbird

The SR-71 spy plane, the most advanced member of the Blackbird family that included the A-12 and YF-12, was designed by a team of Lockheed personnel led by Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, then vice president of Lockheed’s Advanced Development Company Projects, commonly known as the “Skunk Works” and now a part of Lockheed Martin. The Blackbird completed its first flight on Dec. 22, 1964.

SR-71 T-Shirts

CLICK HERE to see The Aviation Geek Club contributor Linda Sheffield’s T-shirt designs! Linda has a personal relationship with the SR-71 because her father Butch Sheffield flew the Blackbird from test flight in 1965 until 1973. Butch’s Granddaughter’s Lisa Burroughs and Susan Miller are graphic designers. They designed most of the merchandise that is for sale on Threadless. A percentage of the profits go to Flight Test Museum at Edwards Air Force Base. This nonprofit charity is personal to the Sheffield family because they are raising money to house SR-71, #955. This was the first Blackbird that Butch Sheffield flew on Oct. 4, 1965.

The SR-71 was designed to cruise at “Mach 3+,” just over three times the speed of sound or more than 2,200 miles per hour and at altitudes up to 85,000 feet.

In 1969, on the Night Before Christmas, my father Colonel Richard “Butch” Sheffield, SR-71 Blackbird Reconnaissance Systems Officer (RSO), flew a North Pole night mission. To honor him I’m going to share this story.

This is the Night Before Christmas as told by a Habu.

Late In 1969, shortly after I was crewed with Bob Spencer, we were tasked to fly a night mission to the North Pole. Night missions were very rare in those days because of St. Martins crash (summer of 1967) at night when navigation system failed. We were one of the most experienced SR crews and we were told that the Russians were doing something with our submarines at night at a station they had built on the ice near the North Pole.

SR-71 RSO tells the story of when he and his pilot were able to land their crippled Blackbird after it experienced a catastrophic engine failure while flying at Mach 2.88 at 68,000 feet

Butch Sheffield Pre- flight

It was believed that our Side Looking, High Resolution Radar System could gain valuable intelligence by spying on the unsuspecting Russians in the middle of the night. I found out a few years ago what the Russians were doing, setting up acoustic sensors so they could track our submarines under the ice cape.

We launched from Beale at night, flew north to Alaska and refueled over the central part on a Northern heading. Once we were full of fuel, we lit the afterburners and climbed to about seventy five-thousand feet heading north to the ice station. The tanker was briefed to continue to fly north in case we lost an engine. There was no place to land and our emergency procedure was to turn around 180 degrees and do a head on rendezvous with the tanker on one engine.

As we departed Alaska heading North with the after burners blazing, I looked out the window at the barren land and ice. I could see well because of star light. We had no moon that night. The thought came to my mind, “this is really risky business,” and if anything goes wrong they will never find us. Nothing went wrong, I turned on the Side Looking Radar (SLR), looked at the location and took the images. Returned to Alaska and refueled from the tanker and returned to Beale.

SR-71 Blackbird over North Pole the Night Before Christmas

SR-71 print

This print is available in multiple sizes from AircraftProfilePrints.com – CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS. SR-71A Blackbird 61-7972 “Skunkworks”

The SLR had a great resolution plus the speed of the SR traveling three thousand feet per second caused the antenna to believe it was much longer. The SLR could image out to eighty miles to the side of the SR so if the site was manned they would not hear our sonic boom. The CIA found out that the station was not manned during the worst part of winter. When not manned, the CIA landed a few people by parachute to find out what was going on at the station. They found everything to include code books. The men were recovered by being snatched up into a low flying aircraft.

This event has been documented by book and a movie.

The night of the mission, the family had gone to bed at the regular time. I got out of bed, went to the flight line, flew the mission and returned home to the bed. The next morning as the family sat around the table having breakfast before school, I thought to myself, no one would believe where I was last night, the North Pole right before Christmas?

Be sure to check out Linda Sheffield Miller (Col Richard (Butch) Sheffield’s daughter, Col. Sheffield was an SR-71 Reconnaissance Systems Officer) Twitter Page Habubrats SR-71 and Facebook Page Born into the Wilde Blue Yonder for awesome Blackbird’s photos and stories.

Photo credit: Linda Sheffield Miller and NASA

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird model

This model is available in multiple sizes from AirModels – CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS.

Linda Sheffield Miller

Grew up at Beale Air Force Base, California. I am a Habubrat. Graduated from North Dakota State University. Former Public School Substitute Teacher, (all subjects all grades). Member of the DAR (Daughters of the Revolutionary War). I am interested in History, especially the history of SR-71. Married, Mother of three wonderful daughters and four extremely handsome grandsons. I live near Washington, DC.

@Habubrats71 via X

[jinxquickfoot]

@badthingshappenbingo prompt: I Will Punish Your Friend For Your Failure

Find the fic on Ao3

“If I went back in time and told you that one day you’d be sharing a crappy coffee with a Russian spy, how crazy would you have rated me? Say, out of ten?”

“I’ve learned in this line of work to never say never.” Fury shifts behind the steering wheel of their parked car, grimacing as he takes a sip from a flimsy takeaway cup.

“So, what, a seven?”

“Hm, six.”

“Generous.” Natasha tries to get comfortable herself, legs starting to cramp after hours of surveillance. That move would have earned her a beating, once. A Black Widow never shows weakness.

“Besides, I’m not sharing a coffee with a Russian spy. Unless you’re intending to double-cross me this late into the game, Widow.”

“Never say never, right?”

“Don’t even joke. You and Hill are about the only agents I can face doing surveillance with since Coulson headed up his own team.”

Natasha gives up on trying to stretch out. “You’d think running a mission with the Director would at least get you leather seats.”

“That’s because this car isn’t checked out under my name. No one needs to think I’m playing favorites.”

“You just listed me and Maria as your top two surveillance buddies.”

“You’re a spy — I pay you to keep secrets.”

Natasha smiles behind her coffee lid. “So not only doing a stakeout with a former Russian spy—”

“Oh, it had better be former, Romanoff.”

“—but now you’re saying I’m your top choice? Would that shift your crazy scale a couple of notches higher? Does it get us to an eight?”

Fury checks the building they’ve been keeping an eye on for half the night. No activity yet. “Sometimes in this line of work, the obvious allies are the ones most prepared to stab you in the back. Or the eye.” He gestures to the eyepatch.

“You know, rumors around HQ say that was a cat.”

“Exactly. Who is a more obvious ally than a cute little kitty-cat? Sometimes the wild cards are the exact ones you need to win the hand. Such as a certain redhead from the KGB with a proclivity for electricity.”

“Well, you didn’t exactly give me a choice.”

Fury raises his cup, realizes it’s empty, and discards it with a sigh. “Oh trust me. You had a choice. You could pass my test, or you could fail it. That was all on you.”

Natasha had been sitting in the SHIELD cell for five hours, twelve minutes and eighteen seconds.

At first, she’d all but rolled her eyes. Keep her seated on an uncomfortable chair, wrists and ankles bound in ice-cold chains, and let her stew. An interrogation tactic so basic she’d been insulted until she realized it wasn’t a tactic at all. They weren’t making her wait to try and lower her defenses. No one had come to talk to her because they had no idea what the hell they were going to say.

She still wasn’t completely sure why she’d followed Clint Barton back to the States. It went against all of her training—trusting in a gut instinct rather than logic. Logic would have been to serve her country. Logic would have been to stay with the people who gave her purpose. Logic would have been to stab the enemy agent who had been sent to kill her and send his body back to SHIELD as a reminder of just who they were dealing with.

That gut instinct had told her that this was the only window she was ever going to get to leave, and that she had to take it.

Apparently, she hadn’t been the only one following an instinct she didn't fully understand. She’d pulled out every interrogation technique of her own that didn’t resort to violence to get Barton to tell her why he hadn’t taken the shot. He hadn’t explained himself beyond saying he’d just known it was right. Which Natasha shouldn’t have fallen for, he had to have another motive. Instead, she found herself believing him.

SHIELD hadn’t taken too kindly to one of their own going rogue. They’d sent their entire STRIKE team after them, Natasha telling Barton time and time again to just leave her and go home. “What home?” he’d countered. “I let you live. That’s treason.”

“I didn’t ask you to do that.”

He’d just shrugged. “I know. But if they’re after me as well as you, maybe we can help each other not get shot.”

When they’d finally been cornered in Moscow, their only potential escape route a bloody one, Barton had suggested an alternative to her instead: work out a deal with SHIELD instead of shooting through scores of their agents.

“Why would I do that?”

Barton had looked her up and down and then said, with far too much understanding for her to feel comfortable with, “Because I have a feeling you’re tired of killing.”

Which was how she’d ended up here, in this freezing cell, having committed a treason of her own.

It was another forty minutes and thirty-one seconds before the cell door finally opened. “This,” Nick Fury said as he stepped into the room, “is what we call on this side of the pond a shit show.”

“I’m aware of the term.”

“I’m sure you’re aware of a lot of things.” He brought in a television screen on a cart next, wheeling it next to the table she was handcuffed to. “Which might work out for or against you.”

“Depending on what?”

“Depending on how the next five minutes go.” Fury dropped into the chair opposite hers, the cell door slamming closed and locking behind him.

“You really think it’s a good idea to lock yourself in a room with me?”

Fury indicated her handcuffs. “Well, you haven’t broken out of those yet even though I’m sure you could if you wanted to. I’d like to take that as a sign of good faith.”

Natasha settled back in her chair, as much as the restraints would allow. “You want me to spill secrets about the Red Room.”

“No,” Fury corrected her. “I want you to help us destroy the Red Room.”

The words sparked something in her; a fire she had thought long since extinguished. A memory she’d tried so hard to bury—throwing herself in front of the girl she called sister, determined they wouldn’t take her too. “That would be suicide. I came to you to start a new life, not end mine altogether.”

“So Barton said.” Fury clasped his fingers together, leaning over the table. He was unarmed. Either because they didn’t want to risk putting a weapon in the room with her, or because he was about to make her a genuine offer. “How much did he tell you?”

“About SHIELD?”

“About himself.”

Natasha didn’t let the surprise show on her face. “Out loud? Nothing. But I’m sure you know I don’t need a person to talk to me to know everything about them.”

“Everything, huh? So, tell me about Barton. What do you know?”

Natasha chewed on her next words, considering how much to give away. “He’s not military,” she decided to start with. “His fighting style is… unique.”

Fury snorted. “You could say that. Surely you got more?”

“No attachments,” Natasha continued. “No one commits treason for a stranger if they have a family to go back to.”

“And?”

“And he knows his way around the streets in a way that’s beyond SHIELD training. So, no military training, no family, used to living rough. Happy?”

“We don’t go into this profession for happy.” Fury leaned back in his chair, considering her. “Barton was a criminal once, too. By circumstance, not by choice. We offered him a new start here, a chance to use his skills for good. Guess he thinks you’re worthy of the same.”

That… explained a lot. Except for why Barton had decided to extend that chance to her of all people. “And? Am I worthy?”

“That’s what I’m here to find out.” Fury eyed her, calculating. “The only way I can know for sure that you won’t betray us to the Red Room is if there is no Red Room at all. We’ve been trying to eliminate that lot for years. With a Widow on our side, that goal might actually be attainable.”

Traitor. The word sat uncomfortably in her stomach. Widows were marble. Widows never broke.

She was sure that none of that showed on her face, but Fury seemed to guess anyway. “I guess you’re not used to being the one talking in interrogations. Or is that some hesitation I see about giving up your former employers?”

Natasha met his gaze. “I have no loyalty to the Red Room.”

The moment the words left her lips, she knew they were true. Maybe they had been true for a long, long time.

Fury seemed to know it too. “No loyalty, huh?”

“None,” Natasha confirmed, and something seemed to shift in her as she said it aloud. As though a part of her could breathe again. “I will help you take them down.”

“Well, that’s a good start. But I’m sure you understand that I can’t just let a Black Widow loose on her home turf with nothing but a hope and a prayer that you won’t betray us.” And he turned the TV screen on. “This is live.”

It could be a photograph for how still Barton was sitting. He was in a cell identical to her own, hands and ankles also cuffed, staring straight ahead at the blank wall.

“What is this?” Natasha turned back to Fury, almost insulted. If SHIELD thought she’d fall for a trick this obvious, she was having second thoughts about working for them. “You can’t use your own agent as leverage.”

“No, I can’t,” Fury agreed. “Except Clint Barton is no longer an agent of SHIELD. He threw that away when he decided to help his target run away as opposed to putting her in the ground.”

Her heart shouldn’t be beating this fast. “I barely know him.”

“You spent weeks on the run together. Barton could have tried to spin it as a hostage situation, make his actions look like incompetence rather than noncompliance. He didn’t. He vouched for you instead. Said you would make a great SHIELD asset if we gave you a fair shot.”

Natasha forced herself to look away from the screen. “I came to you willingly. I want the Red Room destroyed.” Saying those words shouldn’t have felt so good, but they did, and there was no one around except a SHIELD agent to hear her say them. “I want it gone.”

Fury considered her for a long moment. “No loyalty.”

“None,” she confirmed, and meant it.

“Huh.” Fury leaned back, throwing a look toward the screen. “I don’t want to do this, Widow. Barton does good work for me, and he does it for the right reasons. But I have people I answer to, and right now they want blood. They need a story, and there are two I can sell them. The first is that Barton risked his life to bring us one of the greatest assets we could hope for—a Red Room insider willing to work with us. You go back to Russia, you help us, you prove Barton was right, and I’ll be able to convince the World Security Council to let him walk.”

“And if I don’t?”

“If you don’t? If you betray us to the Red Room? Or even if you just run off the second we let you leave this cell?” Fury shrugged. “I won’t have a choice. Someone will have to face the firing squad, literally. And as you’ll be gone, and I’m sure as hell not going to let it be me…” He let the rest of the threat hang in the air.

It shouldn’t have been effective. She’d been trained her whole life not to have attachments, to not allow weaknesses like sentiment cloud her judgment. The Graduation Ceremony had hammered that lesson home loud and clear.

“If I run, or if I fail, you punish Barton for it,” she clarified.

Fury reached for the remote, switching the screen off. “He’s in this mess because for some reason he believes you’re a good person. So let me ask you this—are you going to prove him right, or not?”

“You would never have actually let Clint get shot.”

Fury huffs as he checks the building for the umpteenth time. “Of course not. He's one of my best agents. The World Security Council wasn’t even aware we’d brought you in until the entire Red Room was in the dust.”

“But you let me think you would anyway. Risky move. You had no idea I wouldn’t let an American agent die to save my own skin.”

“No, I didn’t,” Fury agrees. He turns around to look at her properly. “You served the Red Room for your entire life, and yet I knew you meant it when you said you weren’t loyal to them. And I knew you had no reason to be loyal to SHIELD either, and that you might never be. But I had to know you could be loyal to something.”

“Someone,” Natasha corrects him softly.

“You didn’t run,” Fury continues. “Even after the Red Room was down, you stayed. I know you well enough now to know you really did want to turn over a fresh leaf. But the fact that you could stay loyal enough to someone to risk your freedom for them—that’s really what made me vouch for you to become a fully instated SHIELD agent.”

Natasha is quiet for a while before she says, “You were right. I’m still not really loyal to SHIELD, you know. I don’t think I could ever be fully dedicated to an organization again, not after the Red Room. But loyal to individuals—that I can do.”

“I’ll take being loyal to friends over intuitions any day. How Barton managed to get you to trust him I’ll never understand, but I’m glad he did.”

Natasha allows herself a smile. “I don’t just mean Clint, you know.”

“Careful, Widow, you’re going soft.”

“I don’t think I’m the only one, Nick.”

“Watch it, I’m still your boss.”

“And I’m one of your favorites, apparently.”

“That stays in this car.” Fury drums his fingers on the steering wheel. “So, when exactly did I win the loyalty of the infamous Black Widow?”

“When you said you’d let Clint die if I ran off, I believed you. Took me years to figure out you would never have actually done it.”

“So I won your loyalty when you realized I wouldn’t throw one of my own agents to the wolves?"

“No,” Natasha corrects him with a smile. “Because not many people can lie to me like that and get away with it. Thought that might be a person worth fighting with.” She’s barely at the end of the sentence when the lights of the building they’ve been surveilling finally switch on.

Fury’s already pulling his gun. “Speaking of fighting—ready?”

“Lead the way, Director.”

#bad things happen bingo #bthb card #i will punish your friend for your failure #natasha romanoff #nick fury #clint barton #marvel #mcu #black widow

[sorcerous-caress]

I can't fall asleep so here is a fun story.

When I was 16-17, I watched that russian sleeping experiment video, and it stuck with me for a while. I thought there was no way it's real, like it was clearly a creepypasta, but also I knew the best lies were built on half-truths, so it must have held some truth to it.

I did some digging on the Internet and found an article that stated how the stages the human body goes through the more they go without sleep. It was summer break, and I thought, what's a better use of my time than testing this out on myself?

I was curious and skeptical, i felt like some of the stuff in these articles were exaggerated. I didn't have a plan i just had a lot of free time, a locked room, lots of energy drinks, coffee, and a very uncomfortable chair.

The first day went easy. I spent it normally and stayed up playing video games and watching movies. Nothing unusual.

The second day went fine at first but I had to give up the bed, I dragged a very uncomfortable plastic chair into my room, it didn't even have arm rests. That's also the day i started slowly drinking energy drinks. My focus was deteriorating so I couldn't do anything but scroll through the apps on my phone.

The third day is when strange things started happening. By that point, I was unbelievably exhausted. I drank so much caffeine that I could see the veins on my hands slightly bulging out, and their colour was more prominent.

I couldn't stay sitting down because I would fall asleep, so I forced myself to get up every 10 minutes and walk around the room in circles. I was listening to loud metal music at max volume during the whole thing because the second my mind relaxed, I knew I'd fall asleep.

It was barely the start of the day too, this was me 1/4 through the day. I really didn't to fail now especially when I came this far.

The article mentioned that the hallucinations start on the third/fourth day. It's also when your brain forces you to fall asleep each time you blinked, it's called microsleep.

I did experience it. It wasn't like a normal blink where the world around you resumed, more like a long, slow blink that disconnected you from your brain for a second before you snapped back into reality.

So i kept this routine up for 3 hours. Sit, scroll through social media, stand up, walk around, and sit back down. Rinse and repeat.

I kept reading through the article, It was the only thing motivating me at that point. Especially since I had an argument with a friend earlier during day 2, when they screamed at me to go to sleep. I almost ended up losing them because of it, so I just lied and said i will go sleep.

They just didn't get it, yk? I already committed to this. I can't turn back after everything I endured. I wanted to see what happens, to witness it first hand because each one of those articles about sleep deprivation sounded like the plot of horror movies, and I wasn't buying it at all.

Also, I hate the taste of black coffee, but by that point, I just swallowed it all down without care. I don't even remember if it tasted like anything. My hands were shaking so much, but I knew I'd fall asleep without it, so I kept going.

I successfully made it halfway through the day, I've reread the same article so many times.

I kept thinking about the hallucinations, wondering when they would finally start. Would it be like seeing a ghost in the room? Auditory hallucinations were out of the question because I never stopped listening to the loud music, I also locked myself inside my room, just in case I attempted to wander outside and sleep on a couch or fall down the stairs by accident.

While I was circling the room, I kept staring at the poster on my wall. It was the Vitruvian Man by Da Vinci. It was the only humanoid poster I had up, so my eyes kept naturally seeking it out.

And there was something about its stare.

Each circle I finished would get me closer to it bit by bit, I couldn't see anything else besides it. I couldn't stop feeling like its eyes was speaking to me.

I kept remembering the article and the hallucinations, wondering if this is when it's finally starting. I embraced it and felt excited, i wanted it to speak to me, to come out of the poster and stand in front of me.

I couldn't even hear the loud music in my headphones anymore, only its stare. I stopped walking and kept standing still staring at it, waiting for something to happen.

But the look in his pupils, the crystal clear meaning of it.

Oh, i realised, it wants to kill me.

That empty stare in those soulless eyes, terror washed over me, and all excitement was replaced with fear.

Genuinely bone-deep fear. Me, a teenager in the 21st century who has had a comfortable modern life for all my years of living, felt true fear for the first time in my life.

It's going to murder me, I kept repeating. I was afraid to look away because I genuinely believed it would jump out at me the second I did.

Then I remember day 4 in the article, how they described that any hallucinations will get more intense, more real.

I was terrified, and I didn't want to die, so I did what any normal person would do when faced with a whispering cheap poster of an old creepy painting.

I caved in and went to sleep.

Laid on the bed, i imagined it walking behind me, I imagined him slowly moving towards me.

My heart was beating so much, every fiber of my being was beyond terrfied.

I was convinced he is standing in front of the bed.

Thankfully tho, It didn't take more than 3 seconds for me to fall asleep after I closed my eyes, I didn't even have to try.

I've only made it to the middle of the third day, by the time I woke up, it was the afternoon of the next day. I slept a whole day and my body felt beyond broken.

I needed to eat, i needed water, and I needed to go to the bathroom. I did all of these things in an hour and then immediately went back to bed.

I slept for another full day.

The following week, I slept for 16 hours per day, then it dwindled to 13, then 8, and after a month, I went back to my normal sleeping schedule.

But the thing is, the painting doesn't have eyes, really. Not clear ones, at least. They're so small already, and it was printed on a cheap poster, so they were basically a couple of pixels.

Yet I remember seeing clear eyes on the third day, with pupils and everything, i could almost count the eyelashes. And they didn't seem out of place either, it felt like they were always a part of the painting.

Anyway, I never threw that poster out. It cost me 10$, which to a broke teenager was a lot of money. Also, Da Vinci is a pretty chill guy. I felt kinda mean to throw his painting out over one murder hallucination.

I did get my answers, tho! My experiment wasn't a complete failure, and I went back to the friend I lied to so I could inform them of my results. They weren't pleased, and we ended up falling out because of it. It's alright.

But since that day, i never could stay up much. Like whenever I get sleepy, I really really get unimaginably sleepy. Feels like my brain removed my admin access to my sleep cycle, and I lost the ability to stay up for more than a day.

Probably for the best, it's been years since this happened and my sleep still suffers from the same problem really. Which is funny because sometimes I do get insomina and can't sleep, but it never lasts for more than a day before my brain forcefully shuts me down.

It was fun I guess? I don't recommend doing it because the results aren't that impressive really. Thank fuck I didn't have a mirror in my room at the time, I feel like it would've made the hallucinations come by quicker.

Also, I am very aware of how stupid and an endangerment of my life it was to do that, now that I'm grown at least. You don't have to tell me about it. I don't plan on repeating it, and none of you should, really. It's more of a cool story I tell nowadays, a found memory of when I almost self-indunced psychosis. And yes! That russian experiment video was fake af.

Anyway, here is the painting for reference.

I had tiny stickers to cover his peepee so dw dw.

I couldn't find the article I was reading at the time, but here is a really similar one that explains the stages and is very accurate to what I experienced.

Imma sleep, goodnight <3

#don't even know what to tag this wjth #♡not writing?

[theculturedmarxist]

The member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – consisting of the teetering Masters of Empire and their tawdry entourage of class-stratified vassals – have just concluded a historic confab in Vilnius, Lithuania, capital of the alpha Baltic chihuahua.

In a shockingly transparent but otherwise rather banal series of events it became unmistakably clear that their grand plans to subject Russia to the “rules-based order” have come to naught.

Among others, the following consequences will ripple in the wake of this reality:

Russia will achieve a decisive conclusion to the war on terms they dictate.

NATO is shattered as a military alliance, and coming apart at the seams as a political alliance.

Germany is on a trajectory of becoming a failed state, and as it goes, so will go the incoherent iron and clay mixture of the so-called European Union.

The great myth of overwhelming US armaments supremacy has been exposed as little more than a modestly scaled boutique enterprise utterly ill-suited and ill-prepared to prosecute industrial warfare against a peer adversary.

Of course, many will immediately object:

“But the US hasn’t even employed its military in Ukraine! If the US entered this war with its awesome air and naval power, and its “best-in-class” army … well, the Russians would get pounded to dust within a few weeks.”

Well, I hope the thesis is never put to the test, because it will NOT end well.

I am now more convinced than ever that Russia’s specific strengths match and will consistently defeat the American military’s perceived strengths.

Russia admittedly does not wield an expeditionary military, but the concept and constitution of the military it has built renders it effectively unbeatable in its own neighborhood.

A little over a year has now passed since I published an essay entitled The United States Could Not Win and Will Not Fight a War Against Russia. I have recently revisited it. I felt no impulse to change a thing. Indeed, I am struck by how much it is more apropos now than it was a year ago. I believe it constitutes an essential element of understanding in relation to the geopolitical realities at work in our world circa 2023.

Since I wrote the article, there have been many twists and turns in the path of the continuing quasi-proxy war in Ukraine between the rapidly descendant American Empire and an increasingly resurgent Russia. But in early July 2022, it had, in my estimation, become undeniably evident that Russia had effectively wrecked the formidable original proxy army the empire had built, trained, and partially equipped on the foundation of Ukrainian flesh and blood, and a substantial collection of legacy Soviet implements of war.

Sure, there were still scattered potent remnants, but it had been degraded at least 60% by that point in time. Despite a few own-goals along the way, the Russians accomplished this using a force less than half the size of the one the Ukrainians arrayed against them, while inflicting severe equipment losses and at least a 7 to 1 casualty ratio.

So NATO was forced to up the ante. Aspiring to address the obvious Russian advantage in firepower, they shipped several batteries of M-777 155 mm howitzers to Ukraine, followed soon by a few dozen M-142 HIMARS rocket launchers.

Both weapon systems enjoyed a smattering of early successes that were ecstatically trumpeted by western media and their devout disciples around the world.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Ukrainian young men were being trained in NATO bases dotting Europe and the western hemisphere. They were instructed in the use of NATO equipment, and to fight the Russians according to NATO battlefield doctrine.

By mid-summer, a significant portion of this second iteration of the Ukrainian army had arrived back in Ukraine, along with hundreds of NATO infantry vehicles, mountains of ammunition – and perhaps most significantly – a substantial contingent of NATO-affiliated “volunteers” from many countries within the western alliance, notably Poland.

I am convinced this escalatory step convinced the Russians they must immediately begin to more fully prepare themselves for the prospect that NATO would directly intervene in the war.

First they gave priority to learning how best to track down and destroy the limited-mobility M-777 howitzers. And rather than obsess unduly on targeting the elusive HIMARS launcher vehicles, the Russians instead focused on electronically jamming / spoofing the GPS sensors or otherwise shooting down the rockets with their short- and medium-range air defense systems.

(Their success in this respect has been nothing short of a revolution in military affairs. It is unprecedented in the age of aerial warfare. Yes, some missiles still get through, but not many, and typically only in the absence or on the outskirts of Russian ECM and air defense coverage areas.)

The Russians had, throughout early- to mid-2022, made significant offensive advances into the Novorossiya regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Lugansk, and Kharkov. But as the summer waned, they began to perceptibly consolidate the entire line of contact. They then quickly brought to pass popular referenda in all but the Kharkov region – thereby formally assimilating the other four into the Russian Federation.

In mid-August 2022, the AFU began to advance against Russian forces on the western borders of the Dnieper River near Kherson. The Russians savaged the initial attacks, but then assumed a tactical-retreat posture. This continued for many weeks as they methodically contracted their lines into a bridgehead on the western part of Kherson city proper, all the while exacting severe losses on the attacking forces.

They would eventually effect an almost-flawless evacuation of twenty thousand troops and virtually all their heavy equipment to the eastern bank of the river, blow up the Antonovsky bridge, and then proceed to savage the AFU troops on the other side with artillery and airstrikes that continue to this day.

As September rolled around, the Ukrainians (with significant numbers of NATO-affiliated “volunteers” in the vanguard) moved with an even more potent force in the Kharkov region, aiming for the strategic cities of Kupyansk, Izyum, and Kremmenaya.

Again, amid much triumphalism in the western punditsphere, as well as bitter recrimination and hyperbolic dooming from the Russian 6th column and its acolytes, the Russian high command effected what I observed to be an orderly, well-executed fighting retreat to the other side of the Oskol river, where they had prepared fortified lines and installed substantial reinforcements.

At that point, the Ukrainian offensive in the Kharkov region reached its high-water mark, and as autumn turned to winter and then to spring, every attempt to advance further was met with a decisive repulse.

Though consistently ignored by those who laud the “lightning advances” of the late-season AFU “counter-offensive” in Kharkov, the attacking Ukrainian forces were horrifically mauled between the first week of September and mid-October – and ever since.

As the Russians contracted their lines to much more defensible positions, they concurrently mobilized and commenced intensive training of several hundred thousand reservists; ramped up armaments production to completely unforeseen levels, and settled in for the next few months to fight a punishing war of attrition against Ukraine and its NATO benefactors – even as they simultaneously prepared to face the credible possibility of direct NATO intervention.

That said, despite a mostly defensive posture throughout late 2022 and early 2023, the Russians did launch an operation against the strategic cities of Soledar and Bakhmut that few foresaw would evolve into the greatest battle on European soil since the Second World War. “Surovikin’s Meat Grinder” would eventually consume many tens of thousands of Ukraine’s best remaining troops and equipment.

In the end, the second iteration of the Ukrainian army was degraded even more comprehensively than was the first.

Ukrainian air power has long-since been rendered effectively negligible. Provided with occasional but very sparse deliveries of old Soviet aircraft from the former Warsaw Pact nations, they have continued to manage occasional stand-off missile strikes, but close air support has been nonexistent.

Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure in early 2023 served to rapidly deplete the legacy Soviet air defense systems. And all western shipments of would-be replacements have proven to be inferior to Ukraine’s old stocks of S-300 and Buk systems.

Fantastical Ukrainian and western media claims of 90%+ shoot-downs of Russian missiles notwithstanding, the Russians now routinely strike targets throughout Ukraine where and when they will.

Most debilitating of all, persistent ammunition shortages have now become acute. Original and supplemented stocks of Soviet-sized 152 mm artillery are all-but exhausted. And despite the US having coordinated the shipment of millions of NATO 155 mm artillery shells from every nook and cranny in the empire’s vast global network of bases and those of its obedient vassals, the cupboard is now bare.

What was widely (albeit fallaciously) believed to be a nearly inexhaustible supply of equipment and ammunition in the warehouses of the Pentagon and its various less-than-sovereign minions around the globe has been exposed as entirely inadequate to the demands of a real war.

It is an astonishing development in the eyes of a great many in the world.

And yet, it shouldn’t be.

In my July 2022 article, I prominently cited US Army Col. (Ret.) Alex Vershinin's all-important analysis regarding The Return of Industrial Warfare, which had appeared in RUSI a couple weeks previous. If you have not already done so, I highly recommend this short but powerful essay. His entire argument has now been confirmed by events.

Here in mid-July 2023, almost everything that eighteen months ago was only seen through a glass darkly is now undeniably apparent to all with eyes to see:

Far from being massively attrited, as any number of empire-compromised NATO rent-a-generals and politicians have ludicrously argued from the first weeks of the war, the Russians have employed an extremely impressive economy of force to achieve their objectives. To be certain, they have suffered losses in men and equipment that would be far in excess of anything western nations could abide. But the fact remains that the Russians have inflicted the most disproportionate casualty ratio of any major war in the modern era.

My sense of the matter is that the aggregated total of Russian, Donbass militia, and PMC Wagner combat deaths is probably in the neighborhood of twenty-five thousand.

On the other side of the line, Ukrainian combat deaths are now almost certainly in the range of 250k to 350k – at least 20k of that total occurring just since the first week of June.

The third iteration of the Ukrainian army, equipped predominantly with imported NATO armor, artillery, and ammunition, has been torn to shreds over the course of the previous six weeks of their last gasp offensive. The AFU very likely has been husbanding its scant remaining stock of NATO equipment and ammunition for one last “charge of the damned”, but otherwise Ukrainian offensive potential is played-out, and there will be no fourth iteration of a Ukrainian army to face the Russians on the field.

Meanwhile, upwards of four-hundred thousand uncommitted Russian reserves are champing at the bit to be turned loose. With Russian military industrial output now in high gear, these troops are better-equipped than any that have yet taken part in this conflict.

The Russian air force has received substantial numbers of new airframes from the production line. Attack helicopters roam the battlefield with near-impunity. Russian supply of strike drones, cruise missiles, and supersonic air-launched missiles appears to meet all its battlefield demands. Its so far modest deployment of hypersonic missiles has shown them to be extremely potent weapons that defy the attempts of antiquated western air defenses to interdict them.

This war is a lost cause for the empire and its hapless allies in Europe and around the world. And that, of course, is the unavoidable conclusion that has finally managed to seep into the otherwise dense skulls of the various participants at the recent NATO summit in Lithuania.

The Masters of Empire now face a no-win scenario. They must abandon their failed Ukraine gambit — and inexorably, over the next few years, yield to maximalist Russian demands regarding the roll-back of NATO to its pre-1997 borders — or else yield to the mad impulse of a futile attempt to subjugate Russia by force of arms in the form of direct US/NATO intervention into this war.

Either way, the decline of the empire will be radically accelerated; NATO will almost immediately cease to function as a credible military/political alliance; the EU will dissolve as a monetary/political "union"; the demise of the global dollar system will rapidly gain momentum.

And though many, if not most, find risible the assertion that these things could possibly come to pass in anything like the near- or medium-term (2 - 5 years), I increasingly expect they will be proven catastrophically mistaken.

#russia #nato #ukraine conflict #european union #us imperialism

[buzzdixonwriter]

The War Came To Me

(I wrote this four years ago to someone I know.  I’m posting it here and now because the situation grew even more dire in those intervening years.  As a courtesy to the original recipient, I’m removing their name and any identifying information, but the message still stands and so do I.)

Why should I believe anything any Republican has to say?  The GOP spits on vets and tells 'em it's mana from heaven. They betray the best interests of their constituents, they do not believe in rule of law except when they can use it as a cudgel against those they dislike, they sold out every value they've ever claimed to possess to prop up this toad as long as it keeps them in power one election, one year, one month, one day, one hour, one second longer.

I remember having a conversation with a Republican several years ago when Trump was peddling his schtick about Obama's birth certificate. This Republican sounded almost gleeful over Trump doing this, making Obama respond to an outrageous racist demand, a demand never made on any other president of the United States.

Boy, do I remember that conversation...

And the poison that Trump spewed into the American political system then, the GOP supported it. Oh, the party used all the mealy-mouthed legalisms -- "Well, I don't know, could be interesting to find out" -- but that was a God damned* racist dog whistle and the GOP knew it and the GOP let Trump blow it as hard as he could.

The GOP let Trump climb on the stage in 2008 as a faux candidate so he could promote The Apprentice; okay, fine, maybe they thought he’d at least going to make a real attempt at securing the nomination.

Nope, just hype.

But then the GOP let him on the stage again knowing he was bogus, because he would stir up the white evangelical base the GOP. 

I know these white evangelicals, I grew up among them, I understand their thinking, and while all of them may not be hateful bigots, I'm hard pressed to think of one that isn't a white supremacist.

The Nixon and the GOP made their deal with the devil by catering to that crowd, a complete rejection of everything the Republican party used to stand for.

Then the GOP let Trump on the stage a third time, and this time with alt-right money and white evangelical churches openly supporting him and the Russians dropping their turds, he squeaked by a narrow electoral college win, losing the popular vote by the biggest margin of any candidate who won the presidency.

All this might have been endurable if the GOP put a leash on him and kept him from filling the cabinet with corrupt cronies who systematically looted the country.

But they didn't.

Behavior that would see any Democrat impeached or indicted, they turned a blind eye to. We can literally count the number of Republicans who stood by their principles on the fingers of one hand.

I have skin and bone and blood in the game. Soon-ok never used to get hassled by racists...until Trumo. I have Latino and African-American family members who face an increase in white hostility, gay and transgender friends and acquaintances more anxious about their personal safety than three years ago.

My mother-in-law died from covid early in the pandemic.  For that, I don't blame Trump directly, because even the best efforts to keep a disease out will eventually fail, and once a disease gets inside a community, some people will catch it and among them some die.

But not 63,000 in under 4 weeks, which is when Soon-ok’s mother died isolated in a hospital. She might have caught covid anyway even under the best testing and isolating conditions ala South Korea, but there wouldn’t been another 63,000 deaths in a month’s time (400,000 for the duration of Trump’s presidency).  

That's a screw up of several orders of magnitude.

She died alone and frightened and gasping for air.

I'm not forgetting that.

Ever.

So kindly stop telling me to back away from it.  That's not going to happen. The war came to my doorstep; I didn't want it but here it is.

  © Buzz Dixon

  *  God damned here used in its strictest theological context.

#politics #Trump #January 6 #insurrection #sedition #covid

[rebelrobin86]

Platonic Stobin Month

(Prompt list by @lesbianancyy)

Part 2

Protect (Robin)

Robin got up and walked over to the door of the elevator. "If there really are Russians on the other side, I've got your back Steve."

"I'll protect you Robin." Steve responded.

"You don't need to. I got this." Robin started pressing buttons and looking around for another exit.

"You remember at Family Video when you thought there was a ghost?"

Family Video (Steve)

"I didn't think there was a ghost!" Robin laughed.

"It did creep me out when the Phoebe Cates from Fast Times cardboard cut out was following me!"

"The scene at 53 minutes and 5 seconds, I used to haunt you til you asked Vickie out on a date." Steve reminisced.

"I still can't believe you pranked me like that, do you know how stupid I looked asking Keith to get rid of that thing?"

"It was funny!" Steve laughed.

Upside Down (Robin)

"Steve! It's not funny when you have nightmares, where you're stuck in the Upside Down, but Phoebe Cates turns into Vecna!"

Nightmare (Steve)

"That actually makes it funnier." Steve laughed. "I don't think we'll ever stop having nightmares about the upside down, but we both know being there with Phoebe would not be the worst thing."

"That's true." Robin smiled.

"Do you remember after everything when we all went to the beach for our free day?"

Free Day (Robin)

"Yeah, that was fun. We played volleyball and the winner got to pick the movie. It was me, you, Nance and Eds, but you tried to trick me into swapping Eddie for Nancy."

"You wouldn't go for the trade and kept Nancy on your team." Steve shrugged.

"It was good I did, without her we might not have got to watch Gremlins."

Vampires (Steve)

"I think we had to go to the beach to prove to you that Munson wasn't a Vampire after the Upside Down."

"Well he was bitten by demobats, it was vampire or rabies and I didn't want to take my chances!" Robin replied.

"I still remember you threw garlic bread at him yelling 'VAMPIRE'" Steve affectionately mocked his best friend's silly behaviour.

"It was a test to see if he was a vampire."

"A test?"

"Yes, a test that he clearly failed by screaming at the garlic bread I threw at him." Robin and Steve laughed.

D&D (Robin)

"You remember when he taught us how to play D&D?" Robin smiled. "He really got into being Dungeon Master."

"Taught Henderson everything he knew so he could take over after graduation." Steve remembered proudly.

Wedding Guests/Crashers (Steve)

After a while, the elevator operators came and got Steve and Robin out safely.

"Is it bad that, it was a lot more fun when we had to climb out the one at Starcourt Mall?" Steve groaned.

"Come on dingus, can't be late for the wedding!" Robin grabbed Steve's hand and they ran.

"Henderson?" Steve asked as he burst open the doors in the middle of someone else's wedding ceremony. Everyone looked very annoyed at them and Robin ran out laughing. Steve looked confused.

"Henderson wedding is the next room." The minister answered seriously.

"I'm so sorry, congrats by the way, I-" Robin then dragged Steve back out, before he rambled like she usually did.

Picnic (Robin)

A few weeks later, Robin and Steve sat on a bench in a forest. Steve's daughters running around playing, while those two were eating sandwiches and catching up.

"I still can't believe Dustin and Suzie are actually married." Robin smiled.

"It was even better when we got to the right wedding. Late, but I think they understood."

"Sure." Robin sighed. "It's weird everyone's getting married now, even Tommy."

"I remember you stopped him from beating me up. That was awesome, you're awesome! I wish we'd been real friends in high school."

"Me too but at least after Scoops Ahoy, we were like friends for life." Robin reassured Steve, making him smile.

1983 (Steve)

Steve was at the gas station, his face rightfully beaten up by Jonathan. He looked at Tommy and Carol and started to defend Nancy. They didn't notice Robin watching them, after leaving the store with a bag full of snacks.

"You know neither of you ever cared about her. You never even liked her, because she's not miserable like you two. She actually cares about other people."

"The slut with a heart of a gold." Carol gave a cold hearted response.

"I told you to watch your mouth!" Steve yelled back at her.

"Hey!" Tommy pushed Steve against the car. Robin didn't know why watching this made her so angry, thinking Nancy Wheeler was a priss and Steve was a bully. Robin couldn't stay quiet any longer.

"Can you two losers back off?" Robin yelled. Tommy backed away from Steve, both him and Carol turning their attention towards Robin, laughing like hyenas.

After seeing King Steve the Hair Harrington risk his reputation, standing up to the bullies, made Robin feel braver. "What are you gonna do about it?" Tommy got uncomfortably close to Robin's face, as she spat in his face. Tommy shoved Robin.

"Let's go!" Steve yelled, as Robin ran into the car. Steve drove away, they saw Tommy and Carol yelling at them as he kept on driving.

"I need to go to band practise, but if you can drop me off wherever we won't get chased by those two idiots, I'd really appreciate that!" Robin panted.

"No, I owe you, I'll drop you off at school. Thank you for saving me back there, I'll drop you off, then I need to talk to Nancy."

"Good luck." Robin smiled then got out of the car as Steve dropped her off outside the school. "Thanks for the ride."

#stobin month #robin buckley #steve harrington #platonic stobin #stranger things #family video

[controlledchaosetc]

Who's your current favorite oc, and what's the most unhinged thing about them?

My current favorite OC because I'm finally getting to play her after multiple failed games is Blossom Summers, a cotton candy pink tiefling born with one arm, dresses like Victor Frankenstein, and is about as dedicated to discovery as him. However, absolute sunshine baby, bubbly as hell, and will talk for hours about whatever has peaked her interest. I literally practiced a cross between a German and Russian accent for like a month to use for her character because her first language is Infernal.

(Art by @sleepyforestbeast)

Most unhinged thing about her is she's going to blow herself up one day and is fine with it, and technically already has twice.

First time was when she was going to prove her theory that lightning could revive someone dying and decided to test it on herself! She set up a lightning rod during a thunderstorm on top of the roof of the wizard college she was attending, drained all life from herself, and then by sheer luck a lightning strike revived her while giving her horrible burns and blowing a hole in the roof.

Second time was during the opening of the first failed game where she was introduced to the party through a loud explosion. The party rushed over and found her trying to put out her wagon that was on fire while her hand was mostly blown off. She was fine with it though, chalking it up to "well it was probably going to happen someday".

Runner up to most unhinged thing is she's technically invented electricity but doesnt see any other purpose for it yet than making a defibrillator.

#thank you so much for the ask!!! #i love my silly girl so much #currently playing a witchlight game #and she's so far out of her depth #the fey confuse her so much and she's trying her best #dnd oc: #blossom #dnd #chaos asks

[hasufin]

BezosMart and shoplifting

So, the Bezos place opened a store within walking distance of us.

Now I want to emphasize were are in the opposite of a food desert here. There are four normal supermarkets within easy walking distance of us. There are Indian and Arabic grocery stores nearby, a Russian grocery store, a Polish grocery store, several Farmers’ Markets, and... well, honestly, it’s hard to keep track of it all.

That said, we did feel it when Earth Fare shut down it was a very nice, convenient health food store which had a very good selection of exactly what my wife and I wanted. And it’s particularly galling that the site remained closed for a couple of years only to have a fscking golf store open there. Not a “This is a sporting goods store which has a golf section”, a dedicated golf store. And it is especially vexing that we live in a city which cannot support a regular goth night but somehow has dozens of dedicated golf stores within ten miles of us. But I digress.

Anyway. The new Bezoes Flesh place is within really easy walking distance. And it would be nice to have a place to which I can just pop over to for dairy alternatives; most other places which carry them (especially the soy-free I personally need) are far enough away I’d rather not do it during a work day.

Now, shopping there is a thing. It’s like... it’s like a Whole Foods being run by warehouse workers with really nice aprons. The people who work there are not rude, but they’re not exactly familiar with the idea of working in a grocery store. And the last time I was there, it seemed like most of the employees were busy filling online orders. (I use curbside pickup for regular shopping, but this was a “pop over to grab something I needed to cook dinner” thing.) Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get what I needed - apparently it’s a thing which exists, which they intend to have in the future, but they don’t have it on the shelves just yet.

Now, the really interesting, standout thing with this place is, if you have a Bezos account (which I do) you can do Walk-Out shopping: you show a QR code when you go in, you just pick up stuff, you show the QR code when you walk out, and your account is billed for the things you grabbed. I’ve used this twice so far. In both cases, the store was not very busy. And I confess I tried to stress-test it a little bit: picking up items and putting them down again. If I were a little more bold, I’d try bringing an item into the store (say, a piece of produce) and putting it down. I could also move things - e.g., I pick up an item, decide later I don’t want it, and set it down on a random shelf. But they’re not paying me to test their system. So far, it has worked pretty well - the first time, it took about twelve hours to process but it accurately showed what I had purchased. The second time, it took less than an hour but was not quick enough that I could check it before I left the store. I’m not sure what their Special Sauce is here. They don’t have RFIDs on every item - the produce doesn’t even have tags. They claim it’s all cameras, which is interesting and I’m not certain the system will work when the store is truly crowded. In theory, though, since people won’t be standing in line so much, the store shouldn’t get that crowded. But color me skeptical on that. And systems like this do fail.

My overall impression is, I’m not entirely confident on the experience. It’s pretty much what I’d expect of a supermarket run by a “disruptor”: the tech is cool, but it’s failing in predictable ways which the more traditional approaches have long since handled, and which could have been avoided if only they had listened to experienced people.

On the other hand, I do feel our relationship with food and supermarkets is changing. For most grocery store staples, there’s just no need for me to physically go into the store; this is ironically very much like how it was a century ago when a housewife would present the grocer with her shopping list and he would bring it to her - it’s just now the process is all online. I’m less sanguine about the walk-out thing, and I especially get why some people are Very Concerned: it’s absolutely the kind of a thing a SV techbro would come up with and not think how it affects people who aren’t Just Like Him.

Now, if this were an independent startup, I’d predict that in about two years it would be replaced with a more traditional approach, and a few of the ideas would be adopted by the industry. However, the most important idea, online ordering with curbside pickup, was already broadly accepted before these stores even opened. I’m unsure about walk-out buying as a thing, but I expect Bezos will continue pushing it because his pockets are deep enough to do that.

I guess my big concern as I think about it is, these systems are going to mean even something as basic as what we eat will be closely surveilled. These toys are great, but we very much need an extremely tight legal and cultural approach to privacy. It’s possible, right now, to track someone’s habits in ways that were unimaginable even 30 years ago, and we need to protect ourselves.

[delta-queerdrant]

science girls (Parallax, s1 e3)

Some people have posited that Star Trek is a franchise about a universe that celebrates twentieth-century liberal values such as peace, tolerance, and diversity. I argue that it is actually a show about spatial anomalies.

Is there anything more iconic in Star Trek than the Weird Space Mystery? It is a mode of storytelling that feels like a holdover from the pulp days of science fiction. The Weird Space Mystery is episodic. It’s a whodunit, but bloodless. It reveals character but is ultimately detached from character, unlike modern weird television and film (your Russian Dolls and Everything, Everywheres) It has a veneer of logic and science that does not hold up to a moment’s scrutiny. I find watching a Weird Space Mystery relaxing beyond words.

In Parallax, our new crew embarks on their first challenge, a timey-wimey puzzle involving a singularity and a spatial/temporal distortion. Apparently most of the crew has never heard of relativity; we are embarrassed for them. That’s okay, because Janeway and Torres are bonding over science!

This was my first moment of real fondness for this show, which has given us two science girls (three, really, Kes is absolutely a science girl), a thing we never had back on the Enterprise. Here, as the two team up to solve the puzzle, the show passes the Bechdel test so effortlessly that we forget it could be any other way. Additionally, it manages to check off one of its core mandates - giving us a little twinkle of wonder and discovery, even if the formula is not appreciably different than that of its Alpha Quadrant counterparts.

Meanwhile, this episode tries to say something about the integration of the Starfleet and Maquis crews; unfortunately, it kind of sucks. We watch Chakotay use soft power to make B’Elanna Torres chief engineer. It ought to be compelling, yet Chakotay feels like such an undynamic character; we don’t really see him struggle or second-guess about how to navigate the power dynamic he’s found himself in. Of course, if the rest of the show had built on the promise of this episode, I might feel differently.

B’Elanna Torres has some great episodes in season one and this is one of them; here, she articulates the ways in which Starfleet Academy failed her, as a nontraditional learner who didn’t thrive under pressure, and she finds confidence in a leadership role. As someone who hates credentialism I find this very cool! Except the show makes sure to inform us that B’Elanna’s Academy instructors saw promise in her and it was her fault for giving up so quickly. Between this episode and Learning Curves, it is evident that the Academy has AWFUL PEDAGOGY and I will never not be mad about it.

Should I be rating these? I’ll give it 3.5 out of 5 temporally distorted starships, I really did have a fun time watching it.

#star trek #star trek voyager #janeway #b'elanna torres

[russianstudyblr]

Week 4 Overview

Hello! Week 4 is over! Another great week. Wednesday was our Mid-Module 1 exam, aka our first test that wasn’t just a little vocab quiz. There were two parts to it: reading and listening. I got a 92.93% on the reading portion, and a 96.25% on listening!! I am so happy!!! 

Academic successes this week: 

The above, lol

Stayed on top of homework (need to get ahead of it again this weekend though!) 

Things I need to work on:

Getting my knowledge of verb conjugations to a more instinctual level. I know how to conjugate verbs, but I want to be able to do it in the moment without thinking too hard.

Same with accusative case endings. I need more practice on this than the conjugations, but the goal is the same. 

Typing. I want to get as good at typing in Russian as I am in handwriting. 

My academic plans for this weekend: 

I’ve already started a OneNote section for practicing typing vocab words, and it’s helping a lot in both getting used to the Russian keyboard, AND in memorizing vocab words! So I will keep doing that. 

Practice writing sentences that use lots of verbs and accusative case, this way I get more and more used to it. 

Work on homework that’s due Monday 

Get started on a long-term partner project 

Get ahead of next week’s homework

ALSO, since I’m probably gonna start keeping track of my physical performance here as well, I’ll post about my physical success this week!!! Yesterday I took the a fitness test that I was SUPER nervous for (like, I literally got no sleep the night before because I was so anxious and scared I would fail).  And not only did I pass the whole thing, I also beat all of my personal records for all six events!!! I am so happy, and SO motivated to get even better. So I now have some long-ish term physical goals to work on: 

Get my 2-mile run time COMFORTABLY under 20 minutes

Get my plank time COMFORTABLY to 1 minute 40 seconds  

Generally work on things like upper body and core strength so that my other events get better too

I’ll eventually turn these long-term goals into more structured short-term goals as I figure out what kind of workouts work for me, and how to fit everything into my schedule. 

Overall, this was a very eventful and very successful week! Let’s see what Week 5 brings! 

#studyblr #langblr #russian studyblr #russian langblr #weekly overview

[nimble-stuff]

VI. RUSSIAN ROULETTE || Linhardt & Hubert Hubert and Linhardt bond over some cups of wine.

Fandom: Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Also on AO3

Request a Prompt here! I’m doing the card for FE3H. I’m not accepting requests for specific characters because I have my own specific ideas. I’ll accept requests for prompts though!

@badthingshappenbingo​

<< PREVIOUS || NEXT>>

Linhardt surveyed six goblets of wine sitting on the table in front of him. Six glasses, so a one-in-six chance he would leave the room alive. He yawned.

“I have all night,” said Hubert.

“Oh, no, I know that,” said Linhardt. “Your will is nothing but immovable. If given infinite time, we’d just be staring at each other for all eternity. I just don’t see why you insist on doing a loyalty test when I have been nothing but cooperative and considerate to Edelgard. If anything, I’ve been downright patient with her.”

“And still you fail to see the point,” Hubert sighed. “I can tolerate your indifference towards Lady Edelgard because of your usefulness. However, I need to know that you are willing to die for her.”

“I’m not.”

“You don’t have a choice.” Hubert folded his hands under his chin and rested his elbows on the table. “You play my game, you leave this room. If not, we can sit here having a staring contest which, I assure you, I will win.”

“I’m perfectly cognizant of that, Hubert. Do you think you could tell me which glass is poisoned?”

“That defeats the purpose.”

“It would be the fastest way out of this room.”

Hubert just peered at him from under heavy-lidded eyes, dark as the shadows around them. Linhardt picked up a goblet. It was silver, and there was an engraving of a skull on the side.

“Really?” said Linhardt. “Aren’t skulls a little tacky?”

Hubert said nothing.

“Tell you what,” said Linhardt. “I’ll play along, but you have to drink the last one.”

Hubert threw back his head in a laugh, exposing the long white expanse of his throat. “I agree to your terms.”

Linhardt gulped down the wine in one go. The taste was strong and burnt his tongue, however after a pause, he wasn’t dead. He set the goblet upside down on the table.

“You’re still alive,” said Hubert.

“Unfortunately.” Linhardt drank the second glass with no problem. “Did you have a plan for if I beat your game?”

“You go free, of course.”

“What if I die?”

“Then I’ll have to hide your body.”

“I’m sure that won’t be too much trouble for you.”

“It never is. I’m nothing if not prepared.”

“Where do you hide corpses? I assume you’ve collected at least a few of them since we came to the Officers’ Academy.”

“You want to know all my secrets? Where’s the fun in all that?”

“You’re right, forget I asked.” Linhardt downed a third glass. “Could you give me a hint?”

Hubert’s knife-filled grin struck back at Linhardt. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

Linhardt hummed noncommittally. That was the answer he’d expected from Hubert. He held the fourth glass under his noise, trying to detect an odour and finding nothing. He guzzled it down after hesitating for as long as he could without betraying his thoughts.

“Has Edelgard ever asked you to assassinate anyone?” Linhardt asked.

“Oh, she never needs to,” said Hubert. “It’s my duty and pleasure to anticipate her every whim, so if she were to desire someone dead, then it would be done before she could even ask.”

“Did she ask you to assassinate me?”

“No, this is just for my amusement.”

“Why choose me for this game? I feel like it would make more sense to pick someone who has a more…extreme emotional range. I’m sure Ferdinand would give you endless grief over a stunt like this.”

“I wanted to test your reaction,” said Hubert. He spun one goblet around so that the skull faced Linhardt. “Someday, I’m hoping I’ll get you to crack.”

“Not today, though,” Linhardt sighed, disappointed. He selected a fifth goblet and finished it without dying.

“Ah, well,” said Hubert. “It was almost a fun game. I sort of wished it had lasted longer.”

“Try harder next time,” said Linhardt. “Can I go now? I’m missing my nap.”

“Of course.”

Hubert toasted Lindhardt and drank, slow and languid. When finished, he set it down, stood, and unlocked the door.

“…None of these goblets were poisoned, were they?” asked Linhardt.

“Oh, that last one was poison, alright,” said Hubert.

“Then how are you not dead?”

“Lady Edelgard still needs me.”

Consummed with the desire to have a nap, Linhardt chose not to question it. Perhaps it was better not to when it came to Hubert. He gave Hubert a small wave and a bored stare, free of charge, on his way out.

“I’ll see you at dinner, then,” said Linhardt.

A few hours later, Linhardt saw Hubert at dinner, a dusky shadowy expanse that flocked around Edelgard. Hubert didn’t even look paler than usual, however Linhardt did note that he skipped the meal. When their eyes met across the room, he could swear he saw a terrifying almost-smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

Then again, it was probably just a trick of the light.

#fe3h #fire emblem three houses #nimble writes #fe3h linhardt #fe3h hubert #hubert von vestra #linhardt von hevring #badthingshappenbingo #no guns in fe3h #we get poisoned wine instead #that counts right?