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sugolara · 1 year

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𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐓𝐨 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝

Feat. Katsuki Bakugo x Shoto Todoroki x Izuku Midoriya x fem! reader

A series. Book One

cw: gore, quirkless! au, apocalypse! au, zombie! au, weapons, death, angst, lots and lots of blood, cannibalism, suicidal thoughts, updates thursday/sunday, slow burn, cross-posted on ao3, wattpad, qoutev

˗ˏˋ+ ´ˎ˗ After a deadly virus leaks all over the world, every country is forced to close down it's borders and airports to prevent anyone from coming in and out. Though, it's to late for some people. The dead has rose and is looking for revenge.

Inspired by, ''The Walking Dead''

(ongoing)

playlist!

" Space Junk - Wang Chung " Wolf - First Aid Kit " Into The Black - Chromatics " My Life In Rewind - Eagulls " Hush - Trills " Bad Before Good - Dayone " Run Boy Run - Woodkid " You're So Cool - Jonathan Bree " So Bored - Gorgeous Bully " Operations - Duster " Blue Light - Mazzy Star " Civilian - Wye Oak " Can't Stop - Red Hot Chili Peppers " Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses " Skyfall - Adele " Struggling Man - Emily Kinney (original: Jimmy Cliff) " The Last Pale Light In The West - Ben Nichols " Up The Wolves - The Mountain Goats " Blackbird Song - Lee DeWyze " Be Gone Dull Cage - Kiev " Into Dust - Mazzy Star " Warm Shadow - Fink " Tomorrow Is a Long Time - Bob Dylan " Poison Tree - Grouper " Rhymes Of An Hour - Mazzy Star " You Are The Wilderness - Voxhaul Broadcast " Running - Delta Spirit " People, Turn around - Delta Spirit " The Lion's Roar - First Aid Kit " Pain - Boy Harsher " The Setup - Favored Nations " The Old Death - Ben Nichols " Revolution - Red Shahan " The Man Who Sold The World - Nirvana " Beautiful Mess - Balian " The Day The World Went Away - Nine Inch Nails " Mr. Splitfoot - Paris Motel " Empty Words - Bowery Electric " No Longer Making Time - Slowdive " Step Away from the Cliff - Blue-Eyed Son " Paradise - Silverberg " Take Care (To Comb Your Hair) - Ty Segall " Glad I Had a Friend - Galt MacDermot " Machine Gun - Portishead " Shadows of Planes - Duster " No Peace at All - Aldous Harding " Save Us from Ourselves - Digital Daggers " I'm No Heroine - Emily Wells " Salt in the Wound - Delta Spirit " It's All Right - Sam Cooke " To Build a Home - The Cinematic Orchestra " 6 Underground - Sneaker Pimps " Edge Of The World - Dayshell " Bye Bye Bye - School of Seven Bells " Arsonist Lullaby - Hozier " It's All Over - Johnny Cash " The Stars Just Blink For Us - Say Hi " Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division " Knockin' On Heaven's Door - Guns N' Roses " Runnin' Down a Dream - Tom Petty " Fly Like An Eagle - Steve Miller Band " You Are Not Alone - Mavis Staples " Welcome - Harmonia & Eno ‘76’ " Hope We Can Again - Nine Inch Nails " outside - Oneheart " sleepless - Odyzon " Alesund - Sun Kil Moon " Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd " Don Abandons Alice - John Murphy " Wicked Game - Chris Isaak " Rule of Rose OST - Playing Airship " 1908 - Repulsive " I Shall Cross This River - The Black Atlantic " Easy Way Out - Low Roar

table of contents:

Season 1: Episode 1: Begin Episode 2: Not alone Episode 3: Gone but not forgotten Episode 4: You belong in this world Episode 5: Because all life is precious Episode 6: Musutafu, we'll meet again Episode 7: Izuku: I'd always thought there be more time

Season 2: Episode 8: During these two weeks Episode 9: Diopside, like your eyes Episode 10: For the first time in a long time Episode 11: Almost complete Episode 12: Determined to survive, stay alive Episode 13: Fear Episode 14: Katsuki: You are going to beat this world

Season 3: Episode 15: Away with you Episode 16: Three months ago Episode 17: Slowly withering away Episode 18: Don't die, not yet Episode 19: How long before I’m alone Episode 20: Nothing else to lose Episode 21: Shoto: Everything you would be will be gone

Season 4: Episode 22: Trouble Episode 23: For however long that'll be Episode 24: Searching Episode 25: The fallen city Episode 26: Stay who you are Episode 27: All together Episode 28: F/n: With you beside me

Season 5: Episode 29: Here Episode 30: Cruel Episode 31: Too loud Episode 32: Back on road Episode 33: All is lost Episode 34: Safe in your arms Episode 35: And so it begins Episode 36: At stake Episode 37: Sorry or whatever Episode 38: Familiar eyes

Season 6: Episode 39: A relief Episode 40: Upcoming trouble Episode 41: Never to easy Episode 42: To good for death Episode 43: Old memories Episode 44: A stroke of luck Episode 45: Be aware Episode 46: Bait Episode 47: A thump in my heart Episode 48: Belong to me Episode 49: One step closer (Towards you)

Season 7: Episode 50: Sorston Episode 51: Tenderness Episode 52: Here to stay Episode 53: The start Episode 54: Crushed Episode 55: Reporting to duty Episode 56: Good morning and goodbye Episode 57: An end to sorrow, grief & regret Episode 58: On the move Episode 59: Confirmation Episode 60: The world was on fire and no one could save me but you

Season 8: Episode 61: Not who you were Episode 62: Just you and me Episode 63: The Plaza Episode 64: The other side

to be continued...

Book two: To The One You Left Behind

taglist: @mikeyswifie @k0z3me @sky-angel101 @stevenknightmarc @nahwajinswhore @mn-0p @a-helen113 @azrral @mary-jinx @chixkadee @flowers-4-you

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rinbowaman · 7 months

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Can you write a yan Niki fic? Your my fav writer when it comes to Yanderes 😩. Just some fluffy and yan Niki is alllllll i need to live🫶🏼 Thank you

(No smut tho❤️)

“Nik’d My Face.”

Warnings: some fluff, yandere love, suspense, mentions/hints of murder, bullying, and threats.

I'm sorry but this is only half proofread, I finished it in mid-flight on our way to visit some family for a few days and didn't have access to my word doc, so my notepad on my phone had to do the job. lol. enjoy.

Moving to a new place wasn’t easy, fitting into a new school was harder. Literally plucked from your comfort zone and placed into a new area where you were forced to acclimate yourself among strangers, you couldn’t have thought of a more turbulent event as a senior in high school. However, you were known to be strong willed, and allowing for something as miniscule as being a loner was something you refused to bring you down. It will be only a few more months until you graduate and can focus on entering college, therefore establishing a new path onto adulthood.

Attending class was going as good as it could be, just the same really. Day in and day out you frolicked among the student body and politely waved or even verbally greeted passersby, but it never went beyond that. Good thing there was only four more months left until summer break.

“Y/N, could you please take these attendance sheets to the main office?”

“Yes Ma’am.” Your teacher gratefully hands you the stack of loose papers. The building your class was held at was separated from the structure that housed the main facilities. Cutting through the courtyard, you stayed along the stone path, doing your best to ensure the documents remained placed in orderly fashion, keeping them from shifting around as the wind pick’s up. A strong gust swifts through, waving the bulk of your hair over your shoulder while you hug the sheets close to your chest, preventing them from being carried off. You hurriedly make your way to the entrance; your increased haste to get out of the wind distracted peripherals, causing you to lack self awareness of the surrounding area as you took a turn, migrating through the narrow halls. A sudden impact hits your chest, followed by swift, blackout vision. Your feet stumble, causing you to lose your balance while you feel the teetering effect of your frame leaning too far back, indicating you were in the midst of falling. The cacophony of books hitting the ground was all you heard before the rush of blood flows through your fingertips. Something firm and steady loops around your lower back, catching you from completing the fall as the attendance sheets disburse in mid air, swaying as they softly land on the ground.

"Your hands shoot out and catch the chair rail to stabilize yourself as the mass of your weight is supported by whatever it was that cradled you, preventing the fall. Shifting your eyes vividly, you adjust your sights and find yourself parallel to a young man of altitudinous height. His frame leaned towards you to establish the hold he had around your waist, while his free hand takes its own grip on the rail, mutually sustaining the balance. Straightening his posture, his forearm aids you up from the pull as he straightens his posture and stands fully upright. Surely he hadn’t meant to pull you as close as he did, or so you thought as the tip of your nose brushes against his shirt. Your back straightens and his hand slowly rides up your spine, traveling in between your shoulder blades before you instantly felt him palming the back of your head, further substantiating your stance while he steadies himself.

“You okay?” his voice was placidly deep; the image of standing mid-waist in a lake, halcyonned in tranquil surroundings, was entrenched in your mind as your brain memorized his pitch. You nod your head before looking up and inhaling a clear view of the man’s face. He was of Asian descent, though you couldn’t pinpoint exactly what nationality he was. Perhaps Chinese? Japanese? Korean even? Either way, he had striking features, and looked even taller when standing straight.

“Y–yes…thank you.” You immediately kneeled down and started collecting the loose sheets, but the hidden reason behind your intent was to cut off his intense gaze, which was amplified by his sharp eyes. He was handsome and though you were certain, given the circumstance of him being inside the main building wearing your school’s uniform, you figured he was the same age even though he looked mature, evident by his graceful entry to manhood. He kneels beside and assists you, accelerating your heartbeat. Shifting over as you extend on all fours to gain more distance, reaching for the remaining scattered sheets, you glance at the textbooks on the ground. You gently gather them into a neat pile and present them to him. “Heh, thanks.” he smiles modishly before swapping the books out for the other half of the rosters. “You new here?”

“Yes, I just transferred a couple weeks ago.”

“Nice. What’s your name?”

“Y/N…you?”

“Niki.”

You nervously shifted your gaze to the ground beneath your feet as you and Niki exchanged greetings. He was so tall and handsome, you weren’t entirely sure what else to say other than informing him of your task in taking the attendance rosters to the main office.

“Oh, I’m going that way, I can take you there.” he responds calmly. He didn’t leave you any room to respond as he gently pulled you to the side and walked you to the main staff office, yet it was strange considering when you ran into him, wasn’t he going in the opposite direction?

You shook things off and became enamored by his appeal. He was charming and rather quiet, but had a playfulness to his persona. He dropped you off at the staff office and from that moment on, NIki became a regular in your daily life. You didn’t expect to make a close friend, but he was always insisting on meeting up with you, walking you to your classes, or texting you to sneak out as your professor was in the middle of a lecture, just so he could talk with you for ten to fifteen minutes. He was so kind and thoughtful towards you, and made an effort to be a true friend by volunteering every bit of his vigor to aid you, should you need it. Little did you know, you were going to call upon his services sooner than you had thought, the best part? You didn’t even know you were doing it….

Your mother wasn’t entirely too pleased about having to re-purchase your supplies, including a new bag. She repeatedly spoke about meeting with the principal about the bullying, adamant in demanding that the perpetrators should be the ones to reimburse your items. You weren’t in the mood to make a comment, what happened earlier was the most displeasing event that occurred since you attended this school. Your father, much like Niki, believed it was all due to the bullies having a crush on you, yet it didn’t excuse them from acting so horribly considering they were all at least eighteen, the same age as you.

After replenishing your school supplies, you and your mother went back home. Running up the stairs, you started to remove the price tags and put everything together, still mentally worn and frustrated about what happened.

“Y/N! Your friend NIki is here to see you!” your mother shouts from downstairs.

“Oh okay! Coming!”

You take a quick pause and run down to see Niki standing by the doorway.

“Hey!” he says excitingly, smiling upon seeing you come down the last step.

“Hey, thank you so much for picking everything up for me.”

“No worries, I just realized I left the planner inside my car.”

“Oh, I'll come out with you.” Slipping on your shoes, you walk out to the driveway in front of your parents residence, watching as Niki dips into the back seat and grabs hold of your new planner. Handing it to you, you smiled graciously and received it.

“Thank you again Niki.”

Upon handing you the book, you noticed a spot of blood on his finger. “Oh, did you get cut?” you remarked as you inspected his hand. “I can run in and grab you a bandaid.”

“Oh, it’s fine,” he calmly remarks. Gently pinching your cheek as he thanks you for the offer. “I’m sure it’s just a paper cut.”

Bidding goodbye, you wave him off as he drives back home. At least his visit was able to take your mind off of things, and comforted you. Walking back inside, your father was making his way over to the main room, when he sees you walking back in, shutting the door behind.

“What’s that on your face?”

“Hmm?” you looked at him confusingly. Your father takes a closer look and sees a small residue of blood on your chin, from Niki’s small cut. Teasing you, your father jests out a small comment, one that made you blush. “What did you do? Nik’d your face while shaving?”

“Very funny dad.”

“Well you know, I’ve nik’d my face plenty of times, but if you ever need a lesson on how to shave your face, let me know.” He teases out one last time before patting you on the back as you chuckle and make your way back upstairs.

The next day, your peers garnished you with their stares. Initially, you had thought that they were staring out of sympathy from yesterday’s unfortunate event, yet the longer you stared back, the more you realized that the look on their faces wasn’t one of pity, instead, it almost looked as if they were…

“Why do they look so scare-”

“Hey! Y/N!”

Turning around, you watch Niki approaching you from behind, his voice cutting you off in mid thought. “Oh, hi Niki.”

“Having a good morning so far?”

“Mm yeah, so far so good. I haven’t seen those idiots from yesterday but I’m sure my teacher is going to make them apologize, plus my mom says she was going to talk to the principal.”

“Oh really? Well I hope they don’t give you a hard time anymore.” winking at you, he playfully gestures a soft punch as he gently swings and halts his movement once his knuckles softly makes contact with your cheek. You chuckled at his facetious gesture, when he calmly, yet abruptly gives you explicit instructions, and was rather adamant about it.

“Y/N…..”

“Y-yes…?”

“Go…straight to class, and wait there until I come to meet with you and take you to your next class….” His eyes widened, rather horridly as his countenance no longer flared that charming appeal you had come to know him for, instead, he looked rather fierce and ominous. “Understand?” he finishes, firmly gripping your shoulder.

“Y-yes…”

“Good.” patting you, he winks as he turns and walks away. You stood for a second, confused and shaken, what in the world conspired him to develop such a frightening gaze? It was enough to give you nightmares. You shuttered upon thinking about it, opting to shrug it off before opening the door and walking in. The teacher was not in, at least not yet. Taking your seat, a series of whispers monopolized the classroom, and you figured everyone was talking about you and the bullies from yesterday. Speaking of which, the boys that had destroyed your belongings, must have been with the principal, since they were not present in the room. Your teacher walks in, rather seldomly, and instead of taking attendance first thing, like she normally had done, she appeals to the class to close their books and to give a moment of silence.

“Class, let us take this moment to be silent for what has happened.”

You looked around confused, what in the world was she talking about? “Excuse me, Miss Catherine? What are we having a moment of silence for?” you asked in all earnest.

“Y/n, we are having a moment of silence for Jason, Griffith, and Riley.”

Your eyes widened as you leaned your head in, did you hear right? Did she just name off the bullies that tormented you yesterday, and state that the class was having a moment of silence for them? What on earth happened? Just before you could ask for closure, a peer that sat directly in front of you turned back and she was kind enough to fill you in.

“Y/N, they were in detention yesterday…you know…after what they did to you…but three hours after their restriction ended, the parents called the police, claiming they never made it home. They searched the school and found….well…they found….”

Cutting her off, your teacher gently ends the conversation by remarking how cruel the world can be, reminding the importance of situational awareness and to be cognizant of the people around. After the class paid their respects, the teacher allowed for everyone to take a ten minute break to collect themselves, and to come back to begin the review for next week’s exam.

“Remember, the boys restroom is still closed. If you need to use the restroom, you’ll have to go use the one in the building next door.”

Still confused, you stood up and walked out, scouting the hall for the girl that sat in front of you. Catching sight of her, you quickly walk up and bid her to finish her story.

“Hey, could you please tell me what’s going on? I’m still confused.”

Looking at you rather concerned, she pulls you aside and looks around. “Y/N, the boys were found in the restroom, horribly dismembered and their body parts were staged. It was terrible. The police are trying to find the culprit, and they suspect it’s one of the maintenance staff, since there was blood found on the garden tools inside the school’s storage shed.”

Your breath hitched. You couldn’t believe what you had heard, and felt as if your entire chest cavity had collapsed into your stomach. You needed air. Stumbling your way outside, you propped yourself against a pillar, breathing the air deeply as the breeze glazed over your face.

“They…they died?....Last night?...But how?”

“Hey.”

Snapping to look over your shoulder, facing the direction of where the deep voice emerged from, you watch as Niki calmly walks over to you. HIs hands remained casually tucked in his pockets as he stood beside you, gently resting his shoulder against the same pillar that decorated the entrance to the building.

“Wh…what are you doing here? Don’t you have class?” You inquired curiously.

“Oh I don’t have classes, not anymore. I finished all of them last year and graduated early, I just like to hang out at school, especially now since…well… I have you.”

Furrowing your brows together, your countenance grows eerily stern as you watch him continue to stand, flashing you his charming smile, which now has reeked a malicious aura surrounding it. “You’re…not a student? What have you been doing inside the school?”

“I told you. I’m here for you.”

You lips begin to quiver, you had no idea that he was not a student, what with him wearing the schools brand and logo, how could you have thought otherwise? Except…now that you had thought more about it, you hadn’t shared any classes with him, he was always waiting for you outside your classroom door, and the most frightening discovery of all, was…

“Niki…what happened to your cut?” Your eyes linger on the sight of perfectly intact skin, with no abrasions, cuts, or wounds of ang kind. Looking up, you slightly raise a brow in question, expecting an answer in return.

“Oh don’t worry about that, turns out it was something else.” His eyes began to widen once more, there he goes again with that suspenseful look on his face, the one that scares your soul right from your body. Gripping your shoulder, he leans to whisper in your ear…

“Be good, and be a silent girl. I’ll pick you up after class. Do anything brash and mommy and daddy might have an accident….you don’t want that, do you?”

Your eyes began to glisten with tears of fear and anxiety, what has he done? Were your parents safe? What about you? Was your safety on the line? Building enough courage to ask, you question his initiative as a single tear breaks, traveling down your cheek.

“Are….you going to hurt my family…and me?”

Letting out a quick chuckle, he raises a hand and wipes the drifting drop from your face, before responding.

“Of course not. You’re the one that I love, and dream of. Now be good, and don’t do anything sneaky.” Pairing a wink to match his devious smile, he giggles joyfully. “Now be good and I’ll see you in an hour to take you to your next class. If you do anything stupid, people will get hurt, be good so they can live. Okay?”

……

Moving to a new place is never easy, yet when you meet someone who falls hard, and is willing to kill for you, turns out, not only is ‘moving’ actually easy, it’s also a luxury that you’ll forever miss, considering your future was sealed with Niki…forever.

#niki imagines #niki fanfic #niki enhypen #niki x reader #enhypen niki #niki smau #ni ki x reader #ni ki enhypen #ni ki imagines #ni ki #nishimura riki

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sailorspica · 3 months

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hitch is jean in a different font

i might have a new WIP or two cooking, and one of them has me vibrating and combing over canon to make this argument: hitch as jean's shadow, their parallel journeys, her growth only a few months behind his. marlowe as a kind of marco, stohess as her trost.

for me it's all toward a reijean / hitchannie agenda but pray any hitch and jean stans appreciate:

we meet hitch as an almost-jean: well-aware of what the military police actually is. pragmatic. in the anime's expansion of stohess, jean looks at the MPs scrambling and thinks, "i could've actually been one of them too, huh? just how did i end up here instead?"

the scene of marlowe and hitch cleaning up stohess is another anime addition, in the s2 premiere. marlowe is bewildered that titans were in sina to begin with, but hitch's focus is more mundane: "the worst thing about it all is that so many people died for no good reason." the hulu subtitles are more like "there's no official reason all these people died." levi echoes the sentiment in 59 when he bluntly tells them annie was the female titan: "no one knows a damn thing."

levi trusts jean to feel them out for a reason, and i think hitch impressed him way more than marlowe. he respects her disgust for loss of life, and her balls to blame the survey corps for it. she's actually a mini nile dawk there, to me, when nile realizes what erwin is up to in stohess, and it makes me think that jean's pragmatism is a necessary injection of the MPs' better traits into the suicidal SC. that it's in the same chapter as jean and armin recovering from their run-in with the interior squad is telling.

in the 125 hitch/annie date, annie is looking up at the colossals, and hitch literally grounds her. annie is struck by their height, maybe she thinks of bertolt, maybe she's thinking of her mission to prevent this from happening, but hitch doesn't give a shit about the titans themselves, only what they leave in their wake. it feels similar to jean telling eren about marco's death in 22. marco instilled in jean that a leader is honest about what they ask people to die for; hitch is disgusted by the senselessness of the death her whole career has been about cleaning up.

i think it's easy to look at hitch yawning among the jaegerists in 139 as a bit of her cockroach quality—keeping her head down and saluting along for her survival among fascists, like shadis advises the recruits who beat him (also in 125). but we have seen her demonstrate such kindness, and mourn. practically, she must be pissed that the junta she and marlowe risked themselves to install has been totally upended; she stands by her actions in the uprising arc, look at how she and armin witness zackly's assassination. but beyond that, she hates death more than anything. she could reason that marlowe's death was toward something tangible, the truth of their world, but that it snowballed into the death of most of the world? the rumbling is probably a national holiday to those freaks. it's ghoulish to her.

for my ship agenda (even if you're into these relationships only platonically):

hitch talking to annie's crystal feels like jean saving reiner in shiganshina. everyone else was ready to discard or forget about these traitors, but hitch, jean, and armin all cling to the softness they couldn't reconcile with annie and reiner's titan forms. with what he thought were his dying breaths, reiner delivered ymir's letter. on her day off, in Wall Sina, Goodbye, annie kept her word, and tried to reunite a father and daughter. hitch might have negged her for it, seen it as busy work, but it's the same kindness she bullied marlowe for, if carefully buried under annie's insistence that it was just the quid pro quo between them.

idc that armin talked to her, too, or he knew her longer. hitch fuckin mourned her!! and i think being angry with annie, questioning her for four years, is way, way more humanizing than armin basically monologuing at her while feeling sorry for himself and bertolt and titan shifters generally. (this sounds like i hate armin but swear i love him; i just think aruani is most interesting when bertolt is involved.)

hitch accurately clocks that annie seemed afraid of getting close to people. her own fellow cadets just thought of her as distant, bored; when hange asks the scouts in the 104th about RBA's interactions as cadets, they're at a loss, even armin. even her fellow warriors didn't really see her. annie's distance was a kindness, and her own armor. she sees reibert's deep cover as a waste of time, but i think she also sees they're bound to hurt themselves and their mission in the long run. even though everyone felt betrayed after stohess, reiner was a greater shock, a deeper wound. i think annie wanted to minimize hurt on all fronts. (look how she dips out of the alliance, it's because she's tired, and doesn't want to kill eren, or anyone.)

jean comes to understand reiner only after he and connie and armin have to kill their 104th classmates at the pier. hitch can't fully fathom annie's circumstances or pain, especially not annie saying she'd do it all again, but hitch listens to it all and thanks her for the vulnerability, for softening, which is more compassion than most of the paradis side of the alliance has managed so far. she has a head start on the emotional strides jean makes in between 127 and 133, maybe because she got a bit of catharsis beating her fists against annie's crystal for four years.

they're both sick of their shit

#hitchannie #hitch dreyse #jean kirchstein #hitch x annie #reiner x jean #aot meta #hitch is levi's favorite MP #♃#aottxt #reijean #jeanbo #snk 125 #snk 59

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dont-look-up-at-the-sky · 6 months

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(reblogging from the toxic yaoi tournament poll) @rabbityshen I've noticed your tags and I'd like to share my thoughts on this, just because you raised a good argument and not to make you change your mind! I hope it's fine!

My point is, while on a first look it could seem that Suzaku and Lelouch started as a sweet and functional friendship, I don't quite agree looking more in depth at their relationship since the very beginning.

They've met as 10 years old when Lelouch was sent as an hostage to the Kururugi shrine. They were sons of the leaders of two nations at the opposite sides of an impending war, so bounded to be enemies by birth.

Now, Lelouch was an already traumatised child, he had seen his mother die and his sister becoming blind and crippled after the attack, then was abandoned and strumentalised by his father. Japanese were no kind to him to say the least—I mean, being secluded in a, what was it, an old shed, with really poor care for the children wellbeing except for the basic needs to make them stay alive because they were useful pawns? He was beaten on a daily basis, insulted and stepped on. He was followed by men who stood by and watched as he was being battered since their job was not to be his bodyguards but only to prevent him from killing himself, damn!, as if it were a perfectly reasonable and contemplated eventuality that no one cared to avoid by providing a bit of support, but just by blocking him from committing suicide if he ever tried! A 10 years old kid.

In a word, he was miserable. And at the very start was Suzaku any different than all the other Japanese? No. He bullied, beated and insulted him. He called him a weakling, he also said to him that he didn't even have the right to address him and speak to him, because he was the son of the Prime Minister and Lelouch a nobody. Sign that he was somewhat aware of the disparity between them and that he was taking advantage of that power unbalancement rooted to those racial differences and political issues that would soon escalate into war. Obviously as a kid he couldn't really understand all of this, he was just mimicking the adults, and let me stress that I don't want to condemn him, I LOVE his character, and if I don't go into a more detailed analysis here it's just because it's not the point of my argument.

What I intend to say is that not only they didn't start "on the right foot", but the premise of their future friendship was already bitter. That rivalry had more serious roots than that of the two usual kids that at the beginning don't get along well. Yes, Suzaku soon regrets being cruel to him, take pity on him and decides instead that he "must protect him". But the fact itself that a child as broken as Lelouch was immediately grew attached to whom until the day before was his BULLY speaks of emotional issues. It's because of Suzaku that he realises that since his mother died he too wasn't laughing anymore, not just Nunnally. He needed that friendship as you need water (pun intended, if you've watched the OVAs :D).

Then the war broke out. They even spent a short time surviving together in the middle of a war-torn country covered in ashes, blood and corpses, a traumatising experience that can really bond two (three, in this case) people in an extremely strong, visceral way. What makes so important the shared memory of that "summer of joy" is that it's been the last glimpse of their innocent childhood before it was brutally stripped from them. If it wasn't for that, it would be almost laughable the level of mutual obsession they have for each other only on the basis of– what, a few months spent playing together and having fun as if they were two normal kids that briefly met on a summer camp 7 years before?

To Lelouch, Suzaku has been his last chance at being still a child when he was already miserable, a light in the dark. To Suzaku, though, Lelouch has been probably a sunset before nightfall, since everything started to collapse for him the moment they met (in this regard, I find it "funny" how Lelouch has been the unintentional cause of it, since him and Nunnally presence was just a trap, a false sign of submission and guarantee of peace on Britannia's part to make Japan lower their defenses. Which is why the sudden attack was so effective. Japan was no weak, actually it was an economically powerful nation (the most) with strong alliances, they've been just caught by surprise).

Then they meet again as 17 years old, they even become schoolmates, but by then they're already denied the chance to truly be just normal, functional friends, since they're unknownly enemies.

To quote Suzaku own thoughts, a pov that takes place BEFORE the SAZ massacre and Euphemia's death, and which proves that deep inside he already knew Zero's true identity (for how long?),

An accident of birth tied you to me as my first enemy, and now… you have become the worst friend I’ve ever had.

:,)))

#code geass #suzalulu #suzaku kururugi #lelouch lamperouge #lelouch vi britannia #suzaku x lelouch

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mariacallous · 3 months

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Under a simpler and more stable global order, the United States would likely be concentrating its efforts on building an international coalition to counter China. But conflict and instability around the globe—first in Ukraine, and now the Gaza Strip, in particular—are dividing U.S. attention, diplomatic bandwidth, and military resources. Washington’s virtually unconditional support for Israel in its war against Hamas has generated global outrage—and cast China in a comparatively favorable light.

China has certainly taken advantage of this anti-American sentiment and is using it as an opening to position itself as a constructive player in the Middle East and broader global south, following its successful brokering of a breakthrough deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran last March. After taking over the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council last November, China’s U.N. ambassador declared that addressing the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians was the body’s top priority. Later that month, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs published its own peace plan, calling for an immediate cease-fire and affirming the need for a two-state solution.

Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated these points at an extraordinary virtual summit of BRICS—the economic bloc then comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—convened in November to address the situation in the Middle East. And earlier this month, China called for an international peace conference to determine a “binding roadmap” for determining the future of the Palestinian people.

China’s engagement with this war can be understood as part of a broader strategy to displace U.S. diplomatic hegemony by promoting multilateralism that is both resistant to Western dominance and susceptible to Chinese influence. Part of this strategy is rhetorical: Chinese officials tout their commitment to mutual respect and so-called win-win cooperation, contrasted against the United States and other Western powers whose dealings they characterize—implicitly or explicitly—as unilateral and bullying.

But China is also taking substantive action at an institutional level. This involves both joining and forming multilateral forums that exclude the United States, including the decades-old Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which focuses on security and counterterrorism in Central and South Asia, the recently expanded BRICS group, and Beijing’s newly established Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative, and Global Civilization Initiative.

This strategy also involves challenging the United States in shared multilateral forums. In the U.N., China has repeatedly criticized the United States for vetoing two Security Council resolutions calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. China also vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution that condemned Hamas for the Oct. 7 attack against Israel (which China itself has refrained from doing) and called for the immediate release of all hostages as well as “humanitarian pauses” to let in aid.

Thus far, China has stood only to gain from its own and other countries’ efforts to address the Gaza crisis through multilateral institutions. It can now credibly claim to have amplified non-Western calls for a cease-fire, humanitarian relief, and a two-state solution while taking the United States to task for obstructing them.

However, the recent charge of genocide brought forth against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the U.N.’s principal judicial body, complicates Beijing’s calculus. The case was lodged in late December by South Africa—a BRICS country and a key player in a region that China views as critical to its economic and geopolitical agenda.

Although the ICJ typically takes years to reach a verdict, it may issue “provisional measures” to prevent further potential crimes within a matter of days or weeks, as South Africa has requested.

The problem for China is that it, too, stands accused of genocide and crimes against humanity for its treatment of the Uyghurs and other minorities in the province of Xinjiang. If momentum builds behind the Israel case, it could also spur new multilateral action on Xinjiang, especially if South Africa is seen as having improved its international standing by initiating the proceedings.

Simply put, the more China elevates the forums responsible for resolving conflicts and protecting vulnerable populations, and the louder it trumpets its own leadership in the process, the greater the diplomatic cost will be to silence or ignore collective calls to hold China accountable for human rights violations in the future.

Importantly, no state has formally lodged genocide allegations against China with the ICJ. The United States and several of its allies have independently claimed that China has committed genocide against the Uyghurs, and the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights concluded in August 2022 that China had committed serious human rights violations that “may constitute… crimes against humanity.”

However, in October of that year, a majority of the U.N. Human Rights Council voted against or abstained from voting for a proposal to even discuss the findings of that report.

China vehemently denies these accusations and has persuaded representatives from many states—including numerous Muslim-majority ones in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation—to endorse its policies in Xinjiang. In any event, although China is a party to the 1948 Genocide Convention, it does not accept compulsory jurisdiction of the court—nor do France, Russia, or the United States, for their part—and can also take comfort in the fact that the ICJ lacks an independent enforcement mechanism, relying instead on the U.N. Security Council (where China has veto power) to determine the practical effect of any verdict or provisional measures.

Still, China is skeptical of any procedure that could be cited as precedent by an external body to try to constrain its behavior on internal matters, or any decision that could serve as a model for galvanizing global opposition against Beijing. Just last October, China’s U.N. ambassador reiterated his country’s opposition to “politicizing human rights,” including on “Xinjiang- and Hong Kong-related issues.”

In this context, there are striking parallels between Israel’s case and that of Myanmar. In November 2019, amid international outrage at Myanmar’s treatment of its Rohingya minority, Gambia brought a charge of genocide to the ICJ. In January 2020, the court issued provisional measures ordering the Myanmar government to protect the Rohingya while the case proceeded. However, the following month, China (together with Vietnam, a rotating member of the Security Council at the time) blocked a vote on a joint statement by the Security Council.

This is far from an isolated incident. In 2021, for instance, China blocked a Security Council statement condemning the military coup in Myanmar that year. More recently, it unusually blocked a U.S. effort to post an online broadcast of a March 2023 Security Council discussion of the human rights situation in North Korea.

Of course, self-interested manipulation of U.N. procedures is hardly unique to China, and the United States has been widely condemned for what many member states view as its selective diplomatic sheltering for Israel.

But the ICJ case against Israel is particularly notable because it crystallizes the tension between the two roles that China aims to play on the international stage: the champion of multilateralism, standing up against the United States; and the defender of sovereignty, trumpeting the right of states to handle domestic problems—especially when it comes to terrorism and security—without foreign interference.

Chinese officials have so far remained quiet on Israel’s case. At a press briefing earlier this month, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning acknowledged the case and stated that the Chinese “oppose any action that violates the international law and urge parties to the conflict to earnestly implement relevant resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council and General Assembly, reach an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire and stop the collective punishment against the people of Gaza.”

China’s response to any provisional measures imposed by the ICJ on Israel on Friday will be an important indicator of how it will reconcile this tension. Precedent and the continued sensitivity of the Xinjiang issue suggest that Beijing may determine that its safest bet is to veto any binding resolution that the U.N. Security Council might issue to enforce an ICJ ruling.

On the other hand, Beijing’s unprecedented embrace of multilateralism means that stymying U.N. action will leave it more vulnerable than ever to charges of hypocrisy. Ironically, however, as long as China can count on a veto by the United States against any efforts to coerce Israeli restraint, it may be able to keep playing both roles.

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seriousposting · 2 months

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Editor's note: This story has been updated. It contains descriptions of violence against a nonbinary person.

Nex Benedict, a nonbinary high school sophomore died on February 8, the day after reportedly being beaten by classmates in the bathroom of their high school in Owasso, Oklahoma.

An anonymous source who identified herself as a friend of Benedict’s mother told local news outlet KJRH that the 16-year-old was attacked by three older classmates on February 7, adding that she believed Benedict died from “complications from brain trauma.” The source claimed that although Benedict couldn’t walk to the nurse on their own following the incident, school staff did not call an ambulance. According to KJRH, Benedict’s grandmother brought the student to the hospital after the altercation.

"I know at one point, one of the girls was pretty much repeatedly beating [their] head across the floor," the source told KJRH.

The Owasso Police Department (OPD) told KJRH that they were called to Bailey Medical Center on the afternoon of February 7. When they arrived, Benedict’s parents told police their child had been involved in a fight at school. OPD provided a statement saying that the cause of death has not yet been made public.

Since Benedict’s death on February 8, they have been repeatedly misgendered and deadnamed in media reports.

“As many are learning of the horrific news out of Owasso, OK, many news outlets, and therefore, many of you, are using their dead name,” the official X account for Oklahoma County Democrats wrote in a February 19 post. “Their name is Nex Benedict. They were a 4.0 student. They liked cats. They deserved to live. May they find peace now.”

Benedict’s grandmother, Sue Benedict, told The Independent that other students started bullying Nex at the beginning of the 2023 school year. The Independent notes that the 2023 school year started just four months which was a few months after a bill requiring public school students to use bathrooms that matched the sex on their birth certificates became law.

The LGBTQ+ advocacy group Freedom Oklahoma, as well as numerous progressive and LGBTQ+ media outlets (such as the Los Angeles Blade, Daily Kos, and LGBTQ Nation) pointed out that Benedict’s death comes as Oklahoma’s head education official, state superintendent Ryan Walters, continues to embrace anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and policy. In January, Walters pushed an emergency rule to prevent students from changing the gender listed on their school records. Last month, he also appointed Chaya Raichik, the woman behind the virulently anti-LGBTQ+ platform Libs of TikTok, to the Oklahoma State Department of Education’s advisory council overseeing the state’s school libraries, despite Raichik not even living in Oklahoma. Last year, a Tulsa elementary school received a bomb threat after Raichik shared a video with the name and school of a local librarian. In 2022, Raichik similarly targeted a teacher in Benedict’s school district for openly supporting LGBTQ+ students who weren’t accepted by their families. The teacher later resigned following harassment.

Freedom Oklahoma remembered Benedict in a February 19 social media post, writing, “We wanted to reach out to our community grappling with this horrific harm, and the grief we all share as we reflect on the growing anti-2SLGBTQ+ sentiments out youngest community members are facing more often, fueled by state law and the rhetoric around it, words and actions of our state elected officials, and the growing platforms those in power are giving to people like Chaya Raichik who continues to use her platform in a way that leads others to threaten real harm at Oklahoma kids.”

In the post, Freedom Oklahoma also shared memories of Benedict from people who knew them. They described the 16-year-old as an unfailingly kind person who “always searched for the best in people.” Benedict, who The Independent reported, is of Choctaw ancestry, is described as a lover of rock music, who often bonded with others over headbanging. A post from Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents says that Benedict loved The Walking Dead, playing ARK and Minecraft, drawing, and reading. During the funeral, their family said they loved to cook and would often make up their own recipes. Nex was also a straight-A student.

A previous version of this story said that Nex was a member of the Cherokee nation. They were of Choctaw ancestry. We regret the error.

#op #trans #transgender #non-binary #choctaw #oklahoma #nex benedict #transphobia #hate crime #murder #child death #transphobic violence #uspol #news #links #them.us #bad news

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spooniestrong · 1 year

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In the U.S. where mask-shaming and spread of misinformation against mitigation measures were allowed, vulnerable people who need to stay safe face discrimination and bullying every day. We’re grateful to Jeanine Santucci, a national news reporter at @USATODAY, for showing solidarity with the marginalized community in @usatodayopinion.

#MaskTogetherAmerica & @spooniestrong highly recommend all politicians to read “A letter to my loved ones about COVID. You’ve moved on, but I’m still here.”

“…our country’s most vulnerable people deserve to be part of society. With the removal of mask mandates in health care settings and essential places such as pharmacies, public transit and grocery stores, #immunocompromised people are made outcasts. Telling #disabled and chronically ill people to “stay home forever” is cruel.”

Santucci, diagnosed with #T1D type 1 diabetes 11 years ago, a new mom, wears N95s, carries a portable air purifier, monitors air quality and tests her family weekly. She worries about #LongCovid. She is not alone. Santucci understands the despair and danger #spoonies with chronic illnesses are facing today.

We agree with Santucci that #Masking & #CleanAir are the most effective mitigation tools. It’s time for politicians to acknowledge that #CovidisAirBorne.

“I’ve kept up with vaccines and boosters – though even vaccinated people are reporting C19 to be the worst illness they’ve ever had. And my underlying condition might make it much harder to manage. What I’m more afraid of is what could happen to my body in the long term. I’m worried about health impacts that might crop up weeks or months later, and last for months, or even years…I’m worried about the impact to my short-term memory, vital for a parent.”

3 in 5 Adult Americans, ~200 million people in the U.S. need to avoid C19 infection due to the list of factors the CDC provided. We share Santucci’s fear. Immunity wanes. With C19 data lagging, precautions will save lives and prevent outbreaks. Let’s stay #COVIDSMART. If you are a hospitalist, please #keepmasksinhealthcare.

Link: http://bit.ly/3n8YqQH

#spooniestrong #spoonie #Covid #wear a mask #keep masks in healthcare #mask up #covidiots #protect the immunocompromised

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lastsonlost · 1 year

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Jack Reid, 17, a student at Lawrenceville School in New Jersey took his own life after being bullied by other students

A year after his death a school statement recognizes the failure of the school to protect Jack noting how inaction by teaching staff contributed to his death

School has committed to taking corrective actions including appointing a new dean who will be responsible for dealing with mental health issues

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources

An elite New Jersey boarding school has admitted that 'more should have been done' after a student took his own life in his dorm room following a year of bullying by his peers.

Jack Reid, 17, attended The Lawrenceville School, between Trenton and Princeton, where tuition is $76,000 a year.

He died on April 30, 2022, but in the 12 months leading up to his death he had become the victim of a vicious bullying campaign that consisted of cruel and malicious rumors that labelled him as a campus rapist.

The rumors were made up by fellow students and were said to Jack both in person and posted anonymously online thereby spreading the story beyond the campus walls.

During a secret Santa gift exchange among his classmates, Jack was given a rape whistle together with a book about how to make friends.

Although school staff were made aware of the bullying, the school has now admitted make an extraordinary admission of failure on the anniversary of Jack's death.

'There were steps that the School should in hindsight have taken but did not,' the school wrote in a lengthy statement.

Most damning of all is the fact the school did not make a public or private statement that it had in fact investigated the rape and found the rumors about Jack and the entire story to be completely untrue.

Neither Jack not his parents were ever told that he had been exonerated over the claims.

The school's officials have now admitted that they were aware of the bullying, but fell short in their obligation to protect him.

In a frank, honest and heart-wrenching admission the school, which ranks among the nation's top boarding schools, believes Jack's death could have been prevented and stated how 'there also were circumstances in which the involvement of an adult would have made a difference.'

'As we seek to improve as a community, we have examined our role and take responsibility for what we could have done differently. Lawrenceville's top priority is the physical, social, and emotional health, safety, and wellbeing of our students. We recognize that in Jack's case, we fell tragically short of these expectations,' the statement read.

'Jack was universally regarded as an extremely kind and good-hearted young man, with an unwavering sense of social and civic responsibility and a bright future. We continue to mourn this loss,' the school wrote in the statement noting how a settlement had been reached with his parents, William and Elizabeth Reid.

The agreement requires the school, which hosts 830 students, to undertake a series of corrective actions, including creating a new dean's position that will focus on mental health issues, with the goal of becoming a model for anti-bullying and student mental health.

'We feel like we both have life sentences without the possibility of parole,' Jack's mother, Dr. Elizabeth Reid, a clinical psychologist, said to the New York Times.

'The only thing I'd love to change here is to get Jack back. I can't. I do know if he were alive, he would want me — both of us — to try to make something good out of this and honor him in the way he lived his life.'

'We think bullying, with the 1,000 times echo chamber of the internet and everybody knowing, is much more devastating to kids and, in Jack's case, produced a very impulsive act,' dad, William Reid said.

'He had to escape the pain from the humiliation he was feeling.'

The school explained how after a student who previously had been disciplined for bullying Jack was expelled for an unrelated violation of school rules, Jack was allowed to return the school but was left largely unsupervised where students gathered.

'Some harsh words were said about Jack,' the school revealed adding that administrators did not notify or check on Jack once he was back on campus.

Later that night, Jack, who was a Dean's list student, took his own life, telling a friend that he could not go through the ordeal again.

He had a bible in one pocket of his gym shorts, as well as a note directing his parents to a Google document, in which he described his helplessness.

MORE HERE

#false allegations

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horizon-verizon · 10 days

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god SORRY not to keep blithering on about how much Biden sucks (because it’s BLATANTLY obvious) but it really is insane that his track record is abysmal and violently anti black and misogynistic and radlibs are like “oh well he’s probably changed and gotten more liberal as he’s aged” AS IF THAT HAPPENS ??????? THAT RAPIST MURDERED 1, 000, 0000 IRAQUIS, HE’S LITERALLY MURDERING PALESTINIANS RIGHT NOW ?????

The other asks:

There’s nothing to say any more. We live in a racist world where 40,000 brown people can be slaughtered and no one stops it. But one raging bullying nation can bomb multiple countries then cry at retaliation and the white supremacy of the West kicks into action overnight.

Biden giving the orders for US military to shoot down Iranian drones headed for Israel proves one thing: At any point in time over the past 6 mos he could have prevented Israel from bombing hospitals, apartments and refugee camps - saving countless lives. He chose not to.

So within hours of launching, Biden is convening G7 leaders to condemn Iran’s missile attacks that killed no one, but has no sense of urgency regarding Israel’s bombardment of Palestine that’s killed over 50,000 over the last 6 months ?

I don't disagree.

#ask #palestinian genocide 2023 #us politics #us liberals #israel #palestine #white supremacy #joe biden #not asoiaf

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thatkinkyboi · 2 years

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A Less Popular Topic on the LGBT Community

Pride month is here, and I am so excited for all the gay shenanigans I am going to get into. One event I am looking forward to most is the party my partner and I am throwing. While checking off the task list, we tackled the guest list, the time and date, the decorations, the food- of course, the food.

And the drinks.

We actually had a bit of a hiccup here. We didn't really know what to do for drinks. Most of the guest list were of age, and the one or two under-age we didn't mind having a drink. And the millions of options wasn't the issue either.

The problem is our (and some of our guests') relationship with alcohol. A significant amount of us are in recovery. Some of us had an unhealthy relationship with alcohol, either being full blown alcoholics or well on the way to being one. The last thing we want to do is put ourselves and our guests in a place where they may feel pressured or expected to drink.

When you're planning your parties, try and keep this in your mind because I'd bet my bottom dollar this isn't a rare occurrence.

Substance use and substance use disorders are rampant in LGBT youth and adults. In LGBT adults, the substance use disorders are often mingled with other mental health disorders, known as comorbidity.

LGBT adults and adolescents are often time the victims of abuse, harassment, bullying, and substance can be used as an escape or to self-medicate pre-existing or currently growing mental health conditions.

Queer adults are more than twice as likely to suffer from a substance use disorder. The Process Recovery Center states this on their website:"According to 2015 data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, adults defined as ‘sexual minority’…were more than twice as likely as heterosexual adults to have used any illicit drug in the past year….Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adolescents were 90 percent more likely to use substances than heterosexual adolescents…"Using drugs intravenously comes with another risk other than addiction: disease. Many diseases (such as HIV or Hepatitis) can be spread through dirty or shared needles. While there are many harm reduction organizations trying to prevent and reduce this number, these diseases still spread.

According to Alcohol Rehab Guide, up to 25% of the general LGBTQ community has moderate alcohol dependency with bisexual women having the highest drinking rates. Of the bisexual women reporting, 25% reported heavy drinking. Comparatively, only 5-10% of the general population has moderate alcohol dependency.

The article goes in to discuss some information about other subcommunities in the queer community such as transwomen. For more information, check out this site: LGBTQ Alcoholism - Alcohol Rehab Guide

So, when you're planning your pride party this year, maybe consider offering a mocktail to two!

Spread the word, stay safe, and have fun!

#lgbtq community #lgbt pride #lgbtq #lgbtpeople #lgbtlove #lgbtq positivity #lgbt history #lgbt #lgbt discourse #gay pride #trans community #trans pride #pride month #pride

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drst · 1 year

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/02/13/teen-girls-violence-trauma-pandemic-cdc/

Article from the Washington Post:

Teen girls across the United States are “engulfed in a growing wave of violence and trauma,” according to federal researchers who released data Monday showing increases in rape and sexual violence, as well as record levels of feeling sad or hopeless.

Nearly 1 in 3 high school girls reported in 2021 that they seriously considered suicide — up nearly 60 percent from a decade ago — according to new findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Almost 15 percent of teen girls said they were forced to have sex, an increase of 27 percent over two years and the first increase since the CDC began tracking it.

“If you think about every 10 teen girls that you know, at least one and possibly more has been raped, and that is the highest level we’ve ever seen,” said Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health who said the rise of sexual violence almost certainly contributed to the glaring spike of depressive symptoms. “We are really alarmed,” she said.

Ethier said it’s important to determine who is perpetrating the violence, which the survey did not address, and how it can be stopped.

Almost 3 in 5 teenage girls reported feeling so persistently sad or hopeless almost every day for at least two weeks in a row during the previous year that they stopped regular activities — a figure that was double the share of boys and the highest in a decade, CDC data showed.

Girls fared worse on other measures, too, with higher rates of alcohol and drug use than boys and higher levels of being electronically bullied, according to the 89-page report. Thirteen percent had attempted suicide during the past year, compared with 7 percent of boys.

Sharon Hoover, a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine and co-director of the National Center for School Mental Health, said she was struck by “the magnitude of the increases and the gender difference.”

Hoover and others pointed out it is unclear whether the data is influenced by other factors — if girls were more aware of depressive symptoms than boys, for instance, or more inclined to report them — or whether girls are simply far worse off.

The crisis of student mental health is much vaster than we realize

Richard Weissbourd, a psychologist and senior lecturer at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, said there is probably not a single cause to explain the data but rather interacting causes that vary by race, ethnicity, class, culture and access to mental health resources.

Even so, he said, “girls are more likely to respond to pain in the world by internalizing conflict and stress and fear, and boys are more likely to translate those feelings into anger and aggression,” he said. Boys are more likely to “mask depression,” he said, while girls may be more vulnerable to social media and “a culture obsessed with attractiveness and body image.”

CDC researchers said schools could be a lifeline as students struggle, pointing to studies showing better mental health outcomes for students who felt connected to their schools.

The pandemic took a heavy toll on adolescents, who already struggled with depression, anxiety and thoughts of suicide before it began. Many were cooped up at home for months. They continue to grapple with social media pressures, academic strain and family turmoil. Some lost parents and other relatives to covid-19. “These data make it clear that young people in the U.S. are collectively experiencing a level of distress that calls on us to act,” the report said.

In 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital Association together declared “a national state of emergency” in children’s mental health. A year later, the organizations sounded the alarm again.

The isolation and stress of pandemic lockdowns were followed by a rise in domestic violence — and may have also driven an increase in the sexual assault of teen girls, said Heather Hlavka, an associate professor of criminology and law studies at Marquette University with expertise in sexual violence.

CDC data do not suggest where the assaults happened or who perpetrators are, but Hlavka said it could be a combination of peer violence, dating violence and violence in the home — and should be a target for more research. “It’s really important to disentangle the relationships between the perpetrators and the victim-survivors to better understand the reasons why,” she said.

CDC researchers have kept an eye on data about forced sex for a long time, Ethier said. Now, “we see this increase from 11 percent to 14 percent of teenage girls saying that they’d been raped just between 2019 and 2021 — and that’s extremely concerning,” she said.

The CDC analysis is based on data collected in fall 2021 from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, taken by a nationally representative sample of students in public and private high schools. The results released Monday, derived from more than 17,200 responses, are the first since the pandemic began. The survey is done every two years, and Monday’s report showed trends that spanned from 2011 to 2021.

The findings about hopelessness and sadness among girls are true to the school experiences of high school senior Riana Alexander, 17, who founded the organization Arizona Students for Mental Health. As a group, girls tend to struggle more openly, she said, while boys “tend to struggle in silence.” The sexual violence figures did not startle her either, she said. “I’ve yet to meet a teenage girl who has not had something disgusting said or done to her by a man,” she said.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and questioning students were significantly more likely to experience violence,including rape, than their heterosexual peers. They were also more likely to be electronically bullied and to report persistent sadness or hopelessness. Twenty-two percent had attempted suicide during the past year. (The survey did not have a question about gender identity, so the analysis did not include transgender students; future versions of the survey are expected to include the question.)

“These data show a distressing picture,” said Debra Houry, the CDC’s chief medical officer, speaking at briefing Monday. “America’s teen girls are engulfed in a growing wave of sadness, violence and trauma.”

That was not completely a surprise for Laurie McGarry Klose, past president of the National Association of School Psychologists. The first thing that came to mind about the rise in depressive symptoms, she said, was “this is the hard data that shows what we have known anecdotally for the last couple of years.”

Teens were hit hard by the isolation and disruption of the pandemic, but many were also shaken by a series of high-profile cases of racial injustice, Klose said — as they simultaneously navigated personal and family difficulties. “It was trauma after trauma, especially for kids of color,” she said.

The report showed disparities by race and ethnicity. Black and Hispanic students were more likely than White and Asian students to avoid school because of safety concerns, a finding the authors said suggested exposure to violence in the community or at school. Black students were more likely to attempt suicide than Asian, Hispanic or White students. White students were more likely to experience sexual violence than Asian, Black and Hispanic students, and they were the only group to see an increase in it.

American Indian or Alaska Native high school students were more likely than other groups to have been raped.

The report also spotlighted some positive findings: Students reported less alcohol and drug use. Over the last decade, fewer students reported ever having sex, currently having sex or having had four or more partners during their lifetime.

Though usage was significantly down over a decade, girls were more likely than boys to have consumed alcohol and used marijuana during the past 30 days. They also were more likely to have recently vaped or ever used illicit drugs such as cocaine, heroin, inhalants, meth and hallucinogens.

Girls were almost twice as likely as boys to be electronically bullied through texting and social media. The targets of bullying were more likely to be White, American Indian or Alaska Native, or LGBQ+.

In its report, the CDC steered attention to the nation’s schools, saying activities there can make a profound difference in the lives of teens. It recommended improved access to mental health services, more classroom management training for teachers, school clubs that foster gay-straight alliances, high-quality health education and enforcement of anti-harassment policies.

Ideally, schools would take on multiple initiatives: “The more of these things you do, the better the impact in the school environment,” Ethier said.

Research shows that those who feel close to people at school have a significantly lower prevalence of serious thoughts of suicide and feelings of persistent sadness or hopelessness. “Our research has shown that young people who feel more connected in their schools do better, both while they are adolescents and up to 20 years later,” Ethier said.

Those least likely to feel connected to school included girls, students of color and LGBQ+ students, according to the data.

Emily Ozer, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health, recommended more mental health services in schools and even small ways to relieve student stress — whether it’s greeting each student by name as they enter class, responding to an absence with a caring inquiry, or giving the occasional homework pass. Student well-being is also linked to the mental health of teachers and other adults in the building, and they, too, need to be supported, she said.

“It takes a lot to be there for students,” Ozer said, “especially distressed students.”

Strikingly 86 percent of students reported high parental monitoring, defined as parents or other adults in the family knowing most of the time where teens are going and who they are with — also considered a protective factor. Nearly 90 percent of girls reported it, compared with 84 percent of boys.

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