#societal response to torture

[cuubism]

I complained that Morpheus's season 2 cemetery fit wasn't tits-out, @magnusbae said "tits in outfits are so devastating because you know there's tits to be seen but they're in," I decided that's something Hob would say while drunk and that he should say it to Dream's face. And here we are.

--

“Listen,” Hob says, with the slurred, utter conviction of the very intoxicated, “listen. This’s. Important.”

“I am sure,” Dream agrees, sipping his wine. He himself is not drunk, but he’s gaining a surprising amount of amusement from watching Hob.

“You listening?”

“Yes.”

“Yeah,” Hob sighs, looking down into his glass. “You’re a good listener.”

Before Dream can respond to this, Hob shakes himself.

“But listen. S’such a tragedy you know?”

“What is?”

“Tits,” Hob says passionately, and Dream chokes on his wine.

“In,” he manages, once he’s swallowed and not asphyxiated, which felt dangerously possible despite his nonhuman form, “what way?”

“Always covered up,” Hob says mournfully, face crumbling. “Should be more societal—” he stumbles over the words, tongue heavy in his mouth, “socially acceptable to just. Be tits out. You know?”

Dream is not certain he himself has a strong opinion on the matter. He does not spend much time contemplating others’ breast tissue.

“Perhaps one day it will be,” he says, in an attempt to soothe Hob’s devastated expression.

“Can’t come soon enough,” Hob agrees, and raises his glass to Dream’s in a toast to the matter.

Dream obligingly clinks their glasses, and after Hob has drunk, swaps Hob’s glass of beer for a glass of water. Hob doesn’t seem to notice.

“Horrible to know that they’re there and you can’t even see them,” Hob continues.

“Torturous,” Dream agrees. “Unsurvivable.”

“Nah nah nah,” Hob counters, waving a hand. “Tits is a reason to survive.”

“I see,” Dream says, hiding a smile. He suspects Hob will be too hungover to even remember this in the morning. Probably it is for the best.

“Eleanor had great tits,” Hob sighs. “Among other things.”

For a moment Dream worries his cheerful drunkenness will tip over into melancholy, but then Hob adds, seemingly oblivious to how he’s blowing past his usual boundaries, “You know. I always thought—” he hiccups “—that you would have. Fuckin’. Bangin’ tits.”

Dream drops his wine glass.

It shatters against the table, but he pays it no mind as he stares at Hob, who’s looking off into the middle distance, lost in a memory.

“Dunno why,” he says. “You’re always so. Covered up. But I know there’s something there. You’re beautiful, you’re…” he trails off.

Dream does not know what to say to this, to the revelation that Hob is thinking of him in such a way. It strikes him more strongly than even hearing the word tits applied to his person, which is its own hard shock indeed.

Perhaps he is more drunk than he’d thought, for the first response that does come to his mind is would you like to see them?

This is undoubtedly a cue to end the evening.

“I think perhaps you should have some water and sleep now, Hob,” he says. “Your body will not thank you tomorrow.”

“Mmm,” Hob says, not really listening to him. “Yeah…”

Dream takes him by the arm and pulls him up from the table, manages to maneuver a stumbling Hob to the stairs at the back of the inn, to his bedroom, where he lays Hob down on the bed, pulling off his shoes. Hob reaches for him, and for a moment Dream is afraid Hob is going to grab at his chest, but he doesn’t, just lightly touches Dream’s cheek.

“You’re beautiful,” he says, the words all blurred together, and something in Dream’s chest tightens.

“Sleep now, Hob.” He brushes a hand over Hob’s forehead, and Hob falls asleep instantly, relaxing into the pillow.

Dream lays a blanket over him, leaves water and aspirin on the nightstand. Stands, observing Hob, for longer than is proper or necessary. And then takes his leave to the Dreaming, where Hob’s words, drunken ramblings though they were, circle him for hours afterwards.

--

The fact of the matter is. Dream wants Hob. And has for some time. He does not know when exactly it struck him, only that he has increasingly become fixated on Hob’s hands, on the breadth of his shoulders, the warmth of his eyes. He has not known how to broach the topic. He has never had a lover who was a friend before.

Nor had he known whether Hob would be receptive to such a thing.

He supposes he has that answer now.

Hob has also handed him, though he probably did not realize it, an easy way to convey his interest. It will also, Dream thinks with a little smile, be somewhat… amusing to surprise Hob with the reality of his desire. Likely he never thought that would be the outcome of ranting to Dream about his breasts, such as they are.

I will visit him tits out, he resolves. Tomorrow, when he wakes.

--

Dream is no stranger to more revealing attire, though he has not cared to wear it since his captivity. This, he thinks, is worthy of making the change. He garbs himself in normal slacks and boots, his usual long coat open and unbuttoned— but under it is a sheer, long sleeved shirt, ruffled collar, cut out over the chest precisely as Hob had requested, drunk though he was. Truly, Dream thinks, observing the look in the mirror he has manifested in his chambers, the fashion of this decade is interesting indeed.

Thus clothed to the requirements, Dream commands his sand to take him to Hob’s flat, now that he can feel Hob has woken. He stands in Hob’s living room, and he waits.

Hob comes into the living room at the sound of his arrival, rubbing his eyes, still sleepy and hungover. He’s still in pajamas, and clearly has not been awake long. “Listen, Dream, I’m so fucking sorry, I should not have said— oh holy fuck.”

“I thought this would appeal,” Dream says, and watches Hob reel, eyes wide.

“Appeal. Appeal? Appeal to what, my fucking dick? Oh Jesus Mary and God-fucking-dammit, I’m making it worse—”

Dream is feeling very validated in his choice now. He smirks, taking a step closer. “You were very passionate last night. I thought perhaps. You would like to test your theory.”

Hob’s eyes are still huge. He swallows, throat bobbing, gaze bouncing between Dream’s eyes and his lips and his bare chest.

“My theory,” Hob says faintly. “Are you coming onto me? Please tell me you’re coming onto me and not just trying to break me. Because you broke me, I’m broken.”

“Until you spoke last night I… did not know that you thought of me like that,” Dream admits.

“Didn’t know? And here I thought I was the most obvious—” he bites the sentence off. “Doesn’t matter. I’m not dreaming, am I? I guess it could still be you…”

“You are not dreaming,” Dream confirms.

Hob steps closer to him, then, as if hypnotized. Strokes a thumb lightly over one of Dream’s bare nipples, and Dream shivers at the touch. Then Hob presses his hands flat to Dream’s chest, cups what little flesh is there in his palms. Dream does not have a particularly substantial chest but Hob seems compelled anyway.

“Are my ‘tits,’” Dream asks, quoting Hob from last night, “‘banging,’ Hob Gadling?”

Hob goes bright red, but doesn’t remove his hands. “Yeah, Dream,” he says, strangled, “you have the prettiest little titties I ever saw.”

This is not something Dream has ever cared about or even considered about himself, but he preens anyway.

“And if you’ve no objections I’d really like to get my mouth on them,” Hob continues. “You free now? Or did you come just to upend my world and run?”

“I am ‘free,’” Dream confirms. This is, in fact, his desired outcome. “Is that the only place you will put your mouth?”

“Fucking hell.” Hob kisses him then, rough and hot, hands going to Dream’s waist to pull him in so their bellies are touching. Dream hums in pleasure. And Hob pushes his coat off his shoulders. It falls to the floor, unheeded. “No, I want to fucking bite you. Kiss you everywhere. And I dunno what you have going on down there, but I’m going for that, too.”

Dream raises an eyebrow. “‘What I have going on down there?’”

Hob huffs. “Well I don’t know, you personification of insanity. What do you have going on down there?”

“What would you like me to have going on?”

“No,” Hob says, half a whine. “Don’t say shit like that, I’m not a strong man. Come on.”

He takes Dream by the hand, drags him towards his bedroom. And Dream smiles to himself. A desired outcome, indeed.

#this is the most ABSURD thing i ever wrote for this fandom but i make NO apologies #dreamling #dreamling fic #hob gadling #dream of the endless #my writing #magnusbae #tits0ut #never have a put such insane sentences in dream's mouth #the titlet

[elumish]

I've been thinking a lot recently about unpacking "not liking" something in stories.

And this isn't pointed at anyone or in response to any particular discourse as much as just something that's part of my own journey of thinking about the type of media (books, movies, TV shows, fanfiction, etc.) that I engage with and how, as well as what I write and how I write it.

So I think there's at least five types of "not liking" something in media:

I don't like it because it's poorly made/poorly written. Stuff that is just not well done (imho) from a technical or writing standpoint, even if it's something I would have otherwise enjoyed (e.g. fanfiction with no paragraph breaks).

I don't like it because I'm not into the writing/directing/editing/etc. style. Sometimes I just hate how stuff is made/written/created, even if by many standards it's good.

I'm not into it. There are some genres/tropes/etc. that I am just generally not into (e.g., horror, hard sci fi, raunchy humor).

It makes me uncomfortable. There is content that causes visceral discomfort when I engage with it (e.g., body horror).

I think it causes or perpetuates societal harm. There are some things that I think do actual harm to publish in whatever medium (e.g., ableist stereotypes, racist narratives, antisemitic tropes) and that i wish people would be more cognizant of when writing and publish less of.

One of the biggest issues that I've run into time and again is that the fourth and fifth ones are really hard to tell apart sometimes. Is my immediate reaction of "this shouldn't exist" because it disgusts me or because it's something I think perpetuates harmful ideas? Where in this framework do we fit under- or un-negotiated kink, or characters ending up with the person who sexually assaulted them, or positive representations of torture? How do we talk about all of these in a meaningful way?

#ethical writing

[tainbocuailnge]

Hello, I hope it's ok I'm sending this ask but you've written some amazing posts and explanations about Cú Alter and Medb and I was wondering if you also did their valentine's scenes? Have a great day and Happy Valentine's Day 💕

i don't think i've ever talked about their valentines gift scenes specifically. they're pretty straightforward displays of their particular styles of responsibility and diligence.

medb takes love very seriously both as a tool of control and as her genuine true heart's desire so her gifts as both rider and saber are extremely high quality to the point where it seems storebought (handmade chocolate is seen as more genuine than storebought) and she calls every chocolate she hands out her true love chocolate (as opposed to obligation chocolate, the gift you only hand out because there's a societal expectation for women to give valentines gifts to all their classmates and colleagues), because she has complexes and both intentionally and unintentionally smudges the lines on how genuine her displays of affection are so that she can maintain plausible deniability on whether she showed vulnerability or not. but while most people would aim for this plausible deniability by making medium effort obligation choco that could mean nothing she instead makes everything a display of true love because love is deeply important to her.

she wants the excitement of confessing her true love, and she wants the control you have over someone who is in love with you, and she wants the safety of people not knowing her true feelings and thus not having that control over her in turn. she's assertive and a bit fussy and when she decides to do something she always makes sure to do it well, and the result is beautiful professional quality handmade chocolate, but in her saber scene when she decides she wants to be the one who is pursued for a change she kinda fumbles it because even though she's assertive and prides herself on "taking whatever she wants" she has a hard time asking for what she really wants (close relationship as equals with someone she loves), because of the complexes.

cu alter meanwhile is clearly uncomfortable with displays of affection both because of medb's specific style of affection-as-control and because he just thinks of himself as a weapon rather than a person and gets really annoyed when guda doesn't share that view. he brusquely dismisses any attempt to treat him like a person but also has a way too strong sense of duty, so even though he doesn't want guda's gift and says he's just gonna throw it out later he still has to arrange a return gift, it's the obvious thing to do. there's a disconnect between what he says and what he does for basically everything he does because he's torturing himself by thinking he doesn't get the luxury of being the same he's always been even though he's still just the same he's always been. he's obviously not actually gonna throw out that chocolate.

mini cu-chan debuted in the prillya event that ran before male valentines scenes got added and i think they made that the gift just because they couldn't really think of something he would give lol. there's various possible explanations for why the description says medb doesn't recognise it, maybe it's the usual event amnesia handwave, maybe she's lying because she thinks she posted cringe in the prillya singularity. i don't think cu alter is lying about it just showing up in his room one day because he tends to lie about his opinions (to himself most of all) but not about facts. i do like that even though he says you can throw it out for all he cares he obviously did not do that himself, because his sense of duty is way too strong and he takes care of his own as the obvious thing to do even if it pisses him off.

its a fun little contrast between the two of them, medb is very verbally affectionate but struggles to actually unambiguously display affection for a myriad complicated reasons while cu alter grumbles and complains but through his actions is always clearly on your side. but they're both very reliable and diligent, if you need medb for something she will absolutely pull through for you and this very sincere diligence of hers is exactly what she's trying to obfuscate with her elaborate ambiguous affection so that it can't be taken advantage of while cu doesn't really care if he's being taken advantage of because he's gonna do it anyway and that's what frustrates her so fucking much about him that she had to make a version of him that will at least loudly complain about it.

#wearingmidnight #king of asks #metapost #hound of the irish #all dressed up and nakey #ugh my medb tag probably hasnt seen anything new in over a year WHERE is the medb fanart on my dash

[poisonsmistress]

Thinking about the chapter 1 finale of the Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One.

Thinking about how Umora's relationship to spirits, with their wild, unpredictable magic, conflicts with the societal structure of order and hierarchy the Empire's wizards have created.

Thinking about a world where colonization doesn't exist, but war, militaristic social structures, and capitalistic motivations do. Thinking about how respect for the old ways has stayed in Umora's regard for witches, but dissipated in regards to respecting spirits. Thinking about the difference between large cities with an imperialistic structure and isolated pockets of community, versus small towns where everyone you meet is your community. Places where elders and their wisdom is honored. Places where people need each other and help is taken or given without a second thought.

Thinking about how this story, more than any other Brennan has ever created, speaks to me of colonization, and the effect it has on the people who experience its violence.

Thinking about a white man who created this world for a table of people of color, players who have all had to experience the lasting effects of colonization to some degree. Thinking about how those players brought characters to the table whose individual response to their reality is deeply familiar.

Thinking about Eursulon. Thinking about connecting honor and responsibility to joy and love and kindness. Thinking about a boy who distanced himself from his inherent wildness out of the need for safety, and survival. Thinking about a spirit who saw one of his own trapped and tortured, who could only find the drive to do something about it when his compassion outweighed his fear.

Thinking about Suvi. Thinking about learning magic and life by strict rules, learning hierarchy can't be broken. Thinking about a child living up to the legacy of the parents she lost under shady circumstances, parents that didn't follow the rules. Thinking about a girl who wants to prove her worth, who is good to her core, who spent her life propping up systems of oppression, and who is learning that the world is so much more complicated than she expected.

Thinking about Ame. Thinking about responsibility, about the weight of living between two worlds who need you to interpret for them. Thinking about the fear that comes with not knowing how to do that, but having no choice but to navigate it anyway. Thinking about how much she is pulled by both those worlds.

Thinking about how distant each PC is from the other two in terms of their worldview, their responsibilities, the things they consider important. Thinking about these people who could be, and in some ways are, worlds apart. Thinking about childhood friends who had every opportunity to break their connection during the years they spent growing up, and instead, after all this time, they are *still* siblings.

Thinking about how they are all, very soon, going to have to confront those differences.

#worlds beyond number #the wizard the witch and the wild one #worlds beyond number spoilers #suvi kedberiket #eursolon toma #ame the witch #brennan lee mulligan

[hwanghyunjinenthusiast]

✨️1K Followers Celebration Day 1: Monsta X bias wrecker - Hyungwon✨️

Royal Secrets

AN: Starting the week off with Hyungwon! My Monsta X bias list has been... a journey since I got into them but, he's prevailed lol. Also, the first Monsta X fic on the blog 🥳

Synopsis: You knew being in a secret relationship with the crown prince is incredibly stupid and reckless but, when he smiles at you like that and kisses you until you can barely remember how to breathe, it all seems worth it.

Heads up: Chae Hyungwon x Fem! Reader, established secret relationship, Non-Idol AU, bit of a mix between a period piece and fantasy AU, Prince! Hyungwon, Royal Seamstress! Reader, the plot is paper-thin, brief mentions of hunting, dirty talk, nipple play (f. receiving), oral sex (f. receiving), slight overstimulation (f. receiving), unprotected piv sex, creampie, brief mentions of wanting to have children towards the end and a sprinkle of angst.

Word count: 1765

I will block you if you are a minor and/or have no easily visible indication of your age on your blog if you interact with me in any way.

"Someone could've seen us," you hiss against Hyungwon's lips as his hands run along your sides, and he presses you against his bedroom door.

"There wasn't anyone in the hall," he mumbles in response, his large hands running along your hips and thighs and pushing up your dress. He's usually a lot better at controlling his desires. Both of you knew you'd like be dead if anyone found out that you were sleeping with, let alone dating, the crown prince.

"I missed you," he breathes against the sensitive skin of your neck where his taken to kissing messily. "Missed you too," you gasp out, holding onto his broad shoulders to steady yourself. Eyes fluttering when he nips at you and your insides squirm when you feel him pressed against your stomach.

"I'm never going on another one of those stupid hunting trips again," he grumbles and you can't help but, laugh breathlessly at his annoyance. "You're ah t-the prince. You're ex-expected to accompany the k-king on royal hu-hunts."

"Well, I think that's idiotic. When I'm king, I'll never make my sons accompany me on some archaic societal trip, " he mutters against your skin, his breaths sending shivers down your spine. Making the wetness coating your thighs so much worse. You choose to ignore the way your stomach flips at the mention of him taking the throne one day and having children. That's a can of worms for another day.

You cup his handsome face in your hands and pull him into another world-titling kiss. Gods, you really did miss this. A sharp gasp leaves your lips when his hands knead your breasts. Desperate mewls being swallowed by him as fingers toy with your nipples through the fabric of your dress.

Hyungwon is usually the more composed one. Sending you amused grins from across the room when you become flustered seeing him in his royal attire or, biting back a smile when your shakey hands take his measurements for some or other robe you need to make for him in a room filled with people. He rarely gets like this. Not that you're exactly complaining. These past few weeks without him have been torture.

"You have no idea how much I've missed having you like this," he mutters against your throat, leaving messy kisses on whatever skin he has access to. His large hands impatiently tugging down the neckline of your dress. Before you can chastise him for not being a little more delicate, his mouth envelopes one of your sensitive nipples and all thought dissipates.

"Hy-Hyungwon," is all your brain can manage at the moment. Needy hands weaving their way into his hair and tugging. Your knees buckling dangerously when he very lightly runs his teeth along the sensitive bud. He even has the nerve to breathe out a laugh against your skin at your reaction. He's lucky you're too desperate and wet for him right now.

His other hand kneads and massages your unoccupied breast. Long fingers tugging on your nipple and pulling sounds out of you that briefly make you worried that someone might hear. He soon distracts you from that thought when his hand drags downwards, fingertips brushing against the wetness between your thighs.

"You're not wearing anything?" He asks after removing his mouth from your nipple, a barely constrained feralness in his lidded gaze. "I thought it-it would make th-things easier," you stutter out while he continues to run his fingers along you. He's being so unfair right now.

"Fuck," he practically groans. His eyes shutting momentarily as he seemingly tries to gather his bearings. Before you can concretely realise what's happening, he's impatiently pulled you onto his overly large bed. Frenzied hands tugging your dress up while he slots himself between your thighs.

You don't think you'll ever quite get used to the sight of his head buried between your thighs. You're sure almost everyone in the kingdom would have an aneurysm if they saw their prince like this. Fortunately for you, you're the only one who gets to.

Your hands fly to his hair at the first drag of his tongue. High-pitched whimpers and moans falling from your thoroughly kissed lips as Hyungwon makes it his personal mission to bring you to completion with his mouth in record time.

Hiccuped cries of his name, or what you're able to piece together of his name, fill the space of his bedroom along with the obscene sounds of him sucking and lapping at you. Your hips jolting into his face further when he runs his tongue along your entrance and his nose brushes your hypersensitive clit all the while.

Maybe it's because it's been so long or it's because your boyfriend is stupidly gifted with his mouth but, it doesn't take much for you to fall off the proverbial edge. Tremors coursing through you as he doesn't stop. Eager licking up everything you're willing to offer and keeping you firmly in place when overstimulation begins to set in.

Not stopping until he's well and truly satisfied.

Your lungs burn as you try to catch your breath once he finds it within himself to show you mercy. Despite just cumming literally seconds ago, the vision Hyungwon is makes you clench hard. Usually immaculately styled hair completely ruined by your tugging and fisting and his pretty lips coated in your arousal. His lidded, hazy gaze finding yours while his tongue chases any traces left of you on lips.

He's too much, gods.

"I should go away more often if it gets you to cum like that," he muses.

"Weren't y-you just complaining about t-the hunt not too long ago?"

"Yes, it's an awful tradition but, clearly you missing me has its benefits,"

"You know what? I didn't miss you actually if you're going to be insufferable about it,"

His answering laugh turns the butterflies in your stomach to dragons.

"Your pussy says otherwise,"

Before you can retort, he slots his mouth over yours once more. The taste of yourself on his tongue sends you further into a heady tailspin. Your hands clawing at his stupid shirt. You're sure your more professional side would be aghast at how you're treating his admittedly pristine shirt but, you can't bring yourself to care at the moment.

His smug chuckle irks you but, you can't be too annoyed when he shrugs his shirt off. Finally letting you feel his bare skin against yours while he hurriedly tugs off his bottoms as well. You'd be lying if you said his desperation isn't wildly attractive. Those weeks must've worn away at his patience.

The air in your lungs stills when you feel him tease your entrance with the head of his ridiculously pretty cock. Well, seems like he still has enough composure to tease you and make you beg. Your pride isn't worth pretending you haven't been aching for him. Missed the familiar, pleasant sting of him stretching you.

"Please," you whine, desperately clawing at his back and trying your best to entice him to just sink into you.

"Please what?"

Sometimes you wonder why you love this annoying, mean, insufferable man.

"Please fuck me," you whimper, grinding yourself against his length. Coating him with your wetness as best as you can in this position.

You try not to grin when he falters. A throaty curse leaving his lips and his cock throbbing against you.

"You're lucky I missed you," he says, usually warm eyes filled with dark promise as he sinks into you. While you appreciate his concern since it's been some time, you just wish he'd sheath himself inside of you. Letting you experience the drag of every centimetre of him.

Perhaps that's what prompts you to wrap your legs around his slim waist. Giving him (and yourself partly) little time to comprehend that he's now fully inside of you. He whines. He actually whines against your shoulder while his cock pulses. You don't think you've ever been more wet in your entire life.

"Hyungwon please. Move, please," you whimper into his ear, clutching at his broad back. That seems to snap him out of whatever daze you put him in. Fiery, lidded eyes finding yours through his hair. He fucks you without abandon. Large hands holding you to him while he kisses you so harshly that breathing comes as an afterthought. Too lost in his mouth and his hands and his pretty, long cock that always brings you to tears.

"You wanted my cock, right? Why are you whimpering and crying? This is what you've been craving, isn't it?" He bites against the shell of your ear, chuckling when you tighten around him and shudder underneath him. Before he can continue on his self-satisfied tirade you interject, "Yes, wa-wanted your cock. Miss-missed you. Love you."

He becomes frenzied then.

Picking up his pace considerably and shoving his hand between your bodies. He moans when you instinctively clamp down on him, long fingers rubbing almost frantic circles against your sensitive clit.

"Love you t-too," he stutters out between sloppy kisses. Peppering wherever his mouth is able to reach. Your neck, your cheek, your lips.

It catches you by surprise when Hyungwon cums. His hips stilling as his cum fills you. You've missed this more than you fully realised. It's warm and familiar and just him, and it doesn't take much more for you to fall apart once more right after him. His moans increasing in pitch as your walls spasm and clench and milk his hypersensitive, still cumming cock.

"You're trying to kill me," he mutters against your throat, his ragged breathing leaving goosebumps in its wake. You giggle a little deliriously, toying with the ends of his overgrown hair, "Says the man who practically fucked me within an inch of my life."

"I was just making up for lost time," he responds, smiling against your skin.

Hyungwon watches you drink your contraceptive tea. Trying his best not to get distracted by your naked form on full display.

He knows you two can't be together. Not in the ways you want to, at least. But, he's never loved anyone more in his entire life. He probably seems spoiled and naïve, but he would happily give up his crown if it meant building a home with you in the countryside. Raising children with your pretty eyes and his hair.

It's only been a year. It's going to be quite some time before he can bring himself to tell you any of this. For now, he'll have to be content with what the two of you can have.

#chae hyungwon smut #hyungwon smut #monsta x smut #1k followers celebration day 1 #1k followers celebration #1k followers milestone

[highladyluck]

Would you be so kind as to write a quick little "why you should/shouldn't read" for the Vorkosigan saga? Doesn't have to be specific, but it sounds like you're having a lot of fun over there and I want a reason to join in on another unreasonably long and convoluted-sounding book series. Also it sounds like you're ready to gush about it at a moment's notice

Ooooh, with pleasure! The Vorkosigan saga is a collection of short stories, novellas, and novels written across 30+ years by Lois McMaster Bujold, focused on Miles, the disabled scion of one of the most politically powerful (and progressive) feudal lords of the 3-planet Barraryan empire. Barrayar was a colony planet settled by a couple ethnic/cultural groups from earth (I’ve spotted Russian, French, & Greek and I think there’s a 4th) and they ended up left to their own devices until around 200 years ago when they were discovered by the rest of galactic society (other human colonies).

They have a cultural trauma around genetic mutations due to being atomic-bombed by a neighboring empire about 4 generations ago, and Miles’s life is shaped by the attendant prejudices around this. He isn’t actually mutated but he looks like he is, due to teratogenic damage from an attempted political assassination (chemical weapons + fetus = very short kid with brittle bones & chronic pain). He copes by being extremely desperate to prove himself, and is consequently pretty reckless with his physical body & mental health, but he’s protective of people he is responsible for & puts a very high price on personal integrity. (Reminds me of Rand and Mat, of course.)

There’s some ‘progressive for the 90s’ terminology/attitudes about queer people that are dated at best and wincingly off-base at worst, but that’s really the only complaint I have, and I think that has begun getting better as I go along. (I have similar issues with RJ.) It’s a series very much concerned with the politics of reproduction, in a way that still feels rare in science fiction. The implications of the technology of the uterine replicator on power, gender, sexuality, morality, and culture are explored. Worth noting is that the books also have some heavy torture scenes and occasionally deal with sexual assault. I think it is handled well & is not gratuitous but it’s definitely content warning territory.

The honor-based-checks-and-balances feudal structure of Barrayar is contrasted with various realistically flawed democracies (Komarr tends towards ogliarchy & the Beta colonies are a partially-automated semi-luxurious gay space socialist democracy), the other empire (Cetaganda is like the Byzantine empire if it was built on mad science eugenics), and various other interesting government models (Jackson’s Whole aka the libertarian goblin market, the Quaddie’s ascended engineer’s union, etc). The feudal structure is an exciting place to have the conversations about women’s labor (literally and figuratively), personal expectations, and societal responsibility that Bujold is interested in, because the personal and the political are so dramatically and obviously intertwined there.

In addition to the themes & setting, I’m enjoying it at least partially for the excellent structure of the stories; Bujold never forgets to hang up Chekov’s gun in the first act, but it’s always sneaky so it’s fun to try to spot it. Miles and his entourage are also a delight. These characters try their best, and make realistic mistakes, and are understandable even when you don’t agree with them. I also enjoy how the antagonistic cultures are fleshed out with nuance, much like how RJ introduces the Aiel and the Seanchan as faceless, inhuman enemies and then complicated things by giving them faces & human motivations. (In this analogy, Barrayar is Aiel and Cetaganda is Seanchan.)

For reading order, here’s some tips: https://bookriot.com/vorkosigan-saga-reading-order/

#vorkosigan saga #the vorkosigan saga #wheel of time #wot book spoilers #answered ask #using the RJ comparisons because I’m a WoT blog and so are you #also I like it for a lot of the same reasons I like WoT

[jellvisk]

why does it matter?

climb the ladder, see it all, see them crawl, hold, don't falter.

climb the ladder, live your dreams, fit the standard you should be.

climb the ladder, look at the ground, eventually it'll be in lost and found. hear them murmur, hear them murmur with a torturous fervor.

look forward, upwards, won't you? fill the shape and kill your folds. lift the crate of responsibility in the dreamland we have forged for the worthy in this perfect perfect world.

our perfect perfect world, listen to our standards of two, three, four. increment. climb the ladder, don't dare look down, they don't matter. win the race.

lace the water supply, create the swarm. don't you dare fall. don't let anyone make you fall to the hell we've created, you'd rather die, right?

push them before they push you.

push them before they push me.

don't look into their eyes as they cry, don't look into their eyes as their tie flutters with red dye.

remember: you're colorblind.

remember: ignore your mind.

remember: listen to ours.

keep climbing. keep climbing. you dream to paint? you dream to write? you dream to make music to inspire their light?

just climb the ladder, faster. those below will betray you. that's why we're always 90 degrees from the horizon.

humanity is those who live with us in these towers of babel.

deafen yourself to the screams, don't lean. the dye covers your face, but that's okay, the taste of pennies is part of the rise.

reach for the light, the light, the light, the stars, leave this world behind. let us make history tonight.

blue marble green lined, above the clouds we'll be safe from scrutiny in this society we've deemed to be.

why cry? you're perfect with me.

why cry? you're perfect, societally.

why cry? oh?

goodbye.

#poems on tumblr #song lyrics #my poem #my lyrics #original poetry #poems and poetry #poets on tumblr

[autolenaphilia]

I’ve seen at least one viral tumblr post argue for Steven Hassan’s BITE model for “mind control” to warn tumblr users for signs of a cult. And like, it’s a noble goal, but I don’t trust the BITE model one bit. For one thing, the concept of “brainwashing” or “thought reform” or “mind control” is very controversial and there is no scientific consensus that it’s real.

Now there are tons of abusive and authoritarian groups, let’s call them cults, who use tactics of socially isolating members from their previous family and friends and outside information. This is itself abusive and makes it harder for members to think critically about the group and leave. And children are easily influenced and can be indoctrinated, especially if they are raised in isolated circumstances.

Still, brainwashing theories do often make outlandish claims of a total “thought reform” that removes personal agency from adult members of cults in a way that is hard to prove or disprove. Scholars such as Rebecca Moore argue it’s even pseudoscientific.

It mainly functions as a comforting thought for friends and family of cult members, as it removes personal responsibility, the member becomes a victim instead of a willing participant, and it’s similarly useful for ex-members to absolve themselves of their actions. It was used more worryingly in the 70s and 80s to justify coercive “deprogramming”, which was family of cult members kidnapping them and attempting to reverse the claimed brainwashing of the cult.

This brings us to Steven Hassan, who I think might be the most visible advocate of “brainwashing” theories active today. He was a moonie for a couple of years in the 70s, before deprogramming and becoming a prominent member of the anti-cult movement of the 70s/80s. His BITE model seems credible at first glance. There are a lot of genuine signs of an abusive group environment on this list. If anything, some of the signs are too obvious, to the point of being facile. The model literally has “murder”, “torture” and “rape” on the list.

Hassan also places a lot on the idea of hypnosis being this super-effective method of controlling another person, which I don’t think the scientific evidence supports. And I have other reasons to think Hassan is a complete crank about hypnosis, more on that later.

A lot of these things are very general too, in a way that makes it easy to accuse almost any group of being a cult. A lot of these things are not in themselves abusive and just general human group behaviour. For example: “Extensive use of cult-generated information and propaganda, including... Newsletters, magazines, journals, audiotapes, videotapes, YouTube, movies and other media.“ This is literally just an aspect of being an organization in a society with mass media. The organization linked to above is set up by Hassan himself, and it has both a newsletter and a youtube channel. Another example is “Require members to internalize the group’s doctrine as truth.“ Basically any political and religious group has an underlying ideology which it expects its members to believe in.

So basically any group of people will hit many points on this model, which makes it liable to be misused to label any group the speaker doesn’t like as a cult. And Hassan himself likes to stretch his definition of “cult.” He has famously labelled the Trump movement as a cult. And not to defend Trumpists, but while Trump is an authoritarian fascist leader, in my view his movement lacks the rigid organization and cohesion to be an effective “cult” environment. Hassan’s idea of “mind control” also obscures the deeper societal reasons behind Trump’s success as a politician. The misogyny, racism, and transphobia of Trump’s ideology is rooted in systemic inequalities providing a material basis for such supremacist ideologies to prosper in USAian society.

Less famous, but more revealing, is his tweet thread from a few years ago where he comes to the conclusion that trans people are a cult, or at least a “cult-like situation.” You see, Steven discovered the world of forced feminization hypno porn youtube videos. Now that’s a weird subculture, and forced fem as a porn genre has problematic transmisogynist ideological baggage, as I’ve written about briefly here. But it’s porn, both the creators and audience know it’s not real. You can’t be hypnotized into becoming a trans woman against your will.

Except according to Steve Hassan, PhD and self-described “World-renowned expert on cults.”, they are wrong. As he explains “What I watched in Hypno porn IMO was weapons-grade mind control and if a person watches it...they could be profoundly influenced to, for example, believe they were a woman in a man's body.“

It’s a hilarious twitter breakdown, where Hassan destroys down any credibility he might have had in one go. His BITE model seems to be this sophisticated and realistic model of “mind control”, far removed from its depictions in literal cartoons and hollywood movies. But no, his idea of the power of hypnosis is identical to that of porn videos. The funniest thing about forced fem hypno videos are the transmisogynists who think it is real. Hassan has tried to explain his conversion to the moonies as a result of mind control, but I think the simpler explanation is that he is a very gullible person.

Of course, Hassan’s transphobia is worrying. He is a famous “exit counselor” for cults, an advocate of deprogramming and since he believes trans people are essentially a cult, the twitter thread is essentially advocating for conversion therapy for trans people. He explicitly disavows conversion therapy, but he is essentially advocating it by another name. He has similarly mostly disavowed the coercive “deprogramming” of the 70s and 80s anti-cult movement, except as a “last resort.” We should keep in mind that the “father of deprogramming”, Ted Patrick was involved in efforts to kidnap women to cure them of “leftism” (in the case of Susan Wirth in 1980) and lesbianism (in the 1981 case of Stephanie Riethmiller, which included corrective rape). Deprogramming and conversion therapy turned out to be the same thing.

It is legitimately funny when people like Steven Hassan think hypno porn is “weapons-grade mind control”. Yet there are many monstrous acts you can justify when you argue that people lack personal agency and need to be rescued.

#my writings #steven hassan #brainwashing #cults #cw: rape mention #transmisogyny

[bigskydreaming]

A person not liking deliberately unlikable or amoral characters or the things they do does NOT inherently translate to ‘this person needs all characters to be likable/moral’ or ‘this person doesn’t get that sometimes people can do bad things and still not be terrible people or that even terrible people can be compelling characters.’

Like, SOMETIMES that may be the case, yes, but if you’re going around assuming that people are judging you for liking ‘bad’ characters, you might want to keep in mind that you’re making huge leaps of your own if you jump to assuming someone feels the aforementioned way every time someone’s like “I hate Deathstroke/Kylo Ren/random-villain-of-choice, I think they suck” or something like that, y’know?

If you’re willing to go off about ‘its okay to just dislike a character or thing they do, you don’t need a whole moral argument about why,’ please consider if you’re at the same time discounting the possibility that people just dislike a character or thing they do because its MEANT to be unlikable/amoral and sometimes its literally just that deep and not an inch deeper because this is a NORMAL REACTION TO HAVE TO THINGS THAT ARE DELIBERATELY UNLIKABLE AND IT DOESN’T MEAN THAT A PERSON IS SO ‘UNSOPHISTICATED’ THEY DON’T GET THAT BAD CHARACTERS WHO DO BAD THINGS ARE IMPORTANT TO SHOW IN FICTION TOO.

Sometimes it just means.....hey all of that can be true and yet watch me still not like this character who did this awful thing purely on the grounds that I don’t fuck with this awful thing they did AND THAT’S A COMPLETELY REASONABLE RESPONSE TO THEM DOING THAT AWFUL THING.

Like yeah yeah purity culture this and purity culture that but have you considered what the hell’s up with a culture that judges people for being like "I dislike this Star Wars character on the grounds ‘being genocidal does not endear a character to me”?

THAT SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AN UNREASONABLE REASON FOR HATING A CHARACTER HAILKHFKLAHLHFA.

How absolutely wild is it that people are literally out here being judgmental about the mere fact that some people are disgusted by characters who are genocidal or torturers or rapists or what have you? Like, you want to get into it about how various fans treat or react to fans of ‘bad characters’ on a case by case basis, go nuts (though I’ll always lol at anyone who insists that’s a one way street and fans of dark themes/characters are neeeeeeeever the ones going around harassing people, like lmao okay sure, hey self-awareness, party of one, your table’s BEEN ready, please come sit down).

But if our societal perception/reception of fiction so completely waters down our viewpoints on anything and EVERYTHING it depicts, to such a degree that there’s NOTHING that can be written where people won’t be like “why are you having such a strong negative reaction to that/you’re unreasonable for having such a strong negative reaction to that, its just fiction”.....

Then at what point have you completely devalued the point of fiction itself? What use is fiction if a creative medium MEANT to evoke emotion and explore themes has been so thoroughly hollowed out that ALL themes are treated as being banally equivalent and ALL emotional responses are supposed to fit within certain lukewarm parameters lest they be considered unreasonably puritanical or moralistic or judgmental?

Just throwing that out there.

[okcomputeroknotok19972017]

attempting to write an actual response to the problem of saw but... im actually getting so fucking bewildered reading this that i can barely type up a response. every sentence of this paper is SATURATED with hatred for the series, right from the beginning. sharrett is slinging mud at a made-up version of the saw franchise, distorting the actual text and framing of each movie until it becomes something it never was. he is writing this for an audience who already disapproves of these movies without ever having seen them.

in what world can a film critic not understand the idea of an unreliable narrator? the concept of self-deception? "john kramer is the most active character in (nearly) every movie, and he fully believes in his flawed worldview and acts confidently according to it... so is he being framed as the good guy?! and some people online sure seem to like him, too!"

the way that sharrett spends the majority of the article waffling about other movies which he seems to have an extreme distaste for as well only serves to distract the reader and to suggest that he's making some kind of intelligent point by wandering aimlessly and using some big words. it's smoke and mirrors. none of it has anything to do with the supposed problem of saw, which sharrett cannot actually confront in detail because it is not there. it does not exist the way he wants it to exist. he is arguing with a made-up version of the series.

if you want to argue that john kramer is framed as a hero, then you have to ignore every time that the series points out his hypocrisy or general fucked up-edness, through text or through subtext. it's truly astounding to me that a professional film critic would need to have his hand held through a movie to figure out who's the bad guy. in the first movie, adam is tested because he does not appreciate his life. by the end, he is screaming that he wants to live. his death was rigged. you can't see that the movie is framing that as something fucked up? as something tragic? in the second movie, we see the extent to which john has manipulated and ruined amanda's life. do you have such little faith in the average moviegoer that you think they'd see that as a noble thing of him to do? do you think the movie is honestly justifying daniel's psychological and physical torment? if this is all too subtle for you, what does amanda's confrontation with john in the third movie mean to you? what does it mean to you?

this is all ignoring the behind-the-scenes context of saw. while the increasingly sensational gore of the later movies reflect societal trends, it's important to understand how and why this happened. saw was made by two broke australian film students, leigh whannell (writer/actor) and james wan (director). the idea of a slowly unraveling mystery set in a single room came about from budget constraints--they wanted a film to shoot in just one location. leigh's anxieties about health inspired the "hey, wouldnt it be crazy if..." idea of a serial killer with cancer who tortures others to vicariously make them "appreciate their lives." from the get-go, john is portrayed as a hypocritical monster--again, see the way adam's trap was shown to be unbeatable from the start through no fault of his own.

neither leigh nor james expected saw to get big, and its success was unprecedented. the one shocking scene at the end of lawrence severing his foot (a rather bloodless scene, mind you) amidst an extremely high-energy ending created lots of buzz, and saw was a very unique film for the time. the more intense second film was co-written by leigh, as it began as a script someone else wrote that was reworked into a saw movie. lionsgate, as any other corporation would, wanted to include more of the stuff that made people talk about their movie: gore. and so, it was ramped up. rinse and repeat for the rest of the movies, remove the original creators after the third movie, and insert a soap opera storyline of succession, family ties, and betrayal for the more dedicated fans to follow along with and feel rewarded for keeping up with ... and here you are.

(it is interesting that sharrett seems to think john kramer's complete dedication to his ideology must mean he is being framed as smart or correct. i, for one, can understand the difference between someone acting and talking like they're right versus actually being right. it's why i disagree with this article instead of blindly lapping it up because sharrett speaks with conviction.)

this paper is not about saw. not only does the author misrepresent the film series, but 85% of the actual text is about other fucking movies with no tie-in back to saw. the point sharrett is trying to make is shrouded in unrelated pompous bullshit about how he had some problems with that one jodie foster movie's portrayal of sexuality and blah blah blah blah fucking blah. this article only serves to affirm the biases of people who have never seen saw but have already made up their minds about it. it misrepresents the plot, narrative framing, and especially the portrayal of john kramer. also he calls billy ugly which is by far the worst.

#saw

[hamliet]

So, I keep seeing some takes on Em and Merc that seem to me as good victim and bad victim and I am scared this is where their story is going!

Fear not, young padawan! Jk. but honestly, don't worry, they aren't going there. If anything, Emercury's story has the potential--deliberate or unintentional--to deconstruct the concepts of "good vs bad victim."

So, what is good victim vs bad victim? Well, the concept of "good victim," while a colloquial term that might irk people, essentially points out a cultural reality: that people who respond in more societally acceptable ways to abuse (such as crying, feeling sad, even self-harming) are a lot more palatable. But people who respond to abuse in just as realistic, yet less societally acceptable ways (such as anger and lashing out) are a lot less palatable. To an extent, we can understand where this concept comes from--someone who is a "bad victim" is hurting others. But both are highly, highly realistic responses to abuse, because abuse doesn't usually make someone a better person.

Emerald fits the concept of "good victim" a lot more clearly than Mercury does. She's more emotional, she bonds more easily with people, she is able-bodied (has a powerful semblance), and she was always set up to be redeemed first.

Mercury, however, has many of the intrinsic "bad victim" traits: he's colder, he doesn't easily bond with people, and he's not able-bodied (yeah, look at fiction and how that tends to play out. It's a trope that is very common and ableist). However, I think the point is that Merc is very much framed as a victim.

Emerald grew up as a child abandoned by society. She's a victim of society who starts her redemption by helping an entire society (Atlas and Mantle) escape annihilation. Along these lines, it also makes sense she's able to bond with anyone who shows her kindness--society rejects her in her childhood, so she must be accepted by groups and society to heal. In alchemical terms, she's the macrocosm.

In contrast, Mercury is more of a microcosm. His trauma and his healing are found in one or two bonds with individuals. At first, his wounding came from his father, who abused, tortured, and stole his literal soul from him. Then it's Emerald and Cinder, and now Tyrian and Emerald. Mercury's bond with Emerald, however, should be what saves him--and he should redeem himself with something related to either Emerald or Cinder (not saving Cinder, but quite possibly confronting her and telling her off). When Mercury joins team RWBYJNORE, it'll probably be less him actually caring about doing the right thing and a lot more about him just caring about protecting Emerald.

So those are my predictions, and the differences in how their arcs/character roles are structured. But how is Mercury potentially a bad victim deconstruction?

Well, because of the two of them--Emerald and Mercury--the one who is constantly protecting the other is Mercury. That's something you'd expect of a good victim (there are some moments of Em doing this, but it's mostly Mercury). It's subtle but there from Emercury's very first appearance. Mercury:

At the fight at Tukson, Tukson lunges at Emerald. Mercury is then the one shown kicking him.

Mercury begs Emerald to flee with them when she realizes Cinder failed in Haven.

Mercury tells off Tyrian when he threatens Emerald in season 6: "back off, freak!"

Despite his coldness when Emerald asks why he came with Cinder and her, Mercury does open up to her and tell her exactly why he went with them, and tries to give her his own (albeit warped) advice, because his advice is how he's survived thus far. "Cinder doesn't care about you. She doesn't care about any of us..." Before delving into what he talks about his father. He clearly projects his feelings for his father onto Cinder, and is advising Emerald to do what she can to survive, like he always has.

In season 8, he warns Emerald from following Cinder around because he is worried for Emerald: "She went against our queen. I'd be careful who you back... would you stop trying to protect her already? She doesn't care about you!" Mercury gains nothing by telling Emerald not to care herself about Cinder--unless he cares himself for Emerald.

In the departure scene of Season 8, Mercury also tells Emerald the truth about why he's there: he's afraid, and he doesn't want to die fighting against Salem: "[Hazel's] not gonna pick fights be can't win. Neither should we." Note the "we."

I wouldn't be surprised in Team RWBYJNR are less willing to forgive Mercury than Emerald. Mercury has even more personal history with Yang, and of course, Mercury never bonded with them how Emerald did (even if Emerald said she was only acting, she clearly was not). I'm intrigued to potentially see this become a source of conflict in the story--because Emerald will surely want to save Mercury, while I am betting the others will understandably have doubts. There are a lot of potential themes that could be developed there.

Anyways, if they are going to save Cinder (even if I do think redemptive death is her likely ending), there's no way they can do that without saving someone who was a victim of her abuse, not in a YA show.

#ask hamliet #mercury black #emerald sustrai #emercury #cinder fall #rwby theory #rwby meta #rwby

[mariacallous]

Since the heady post-Cold War years, when many in the Free World were sure that the global tide was moving less toward dictatorship and extremism, and more toward freedom and tolerance, the world has instead shifted dramatically the other way.

As Western governments exhibited moral, military and strategic complacency, ant-democratic regimes and forces gained ground. Today, more, not less, people live under tyrannical and fanatical rule, and rulers are finding more cruel and dystopian ways to oppress them. Children, who have nothing to do with any of this, are caught in the maelstrom. Moreover, children increasingly targeted with violence and atrocities.

Tragically for children and their persecuted families and communities, in parallel with the serious deterioration in global human rights in recent decades, there has been a significant decline in human rights advocacy. Moreover, Reagan-esque speeches and coherent geopolitical strategies in defense of the democratic way of life have been conspicuously absent.

Progressives have succumbed to moral relativism that emphasizes “co-existence” with authoritarian, even brutal, regimes; international corporations have overlooked human rights violations for the sake of profit; new-right isolationists have simplistically equated overseas involvement with “endless war.”

Thus, the imperative of standing up for human rights that deeply influenced post-World War II thinking, policies and institutions, has become a niche endeavor, pursued by certain groups and committees, while not seen as a personal or societal obligation.

Making matters worse, my scan of human rights reports reveals only a marginal and occasional (and declining) focus on children. Save the Children, Justice Rapid Response (JRR) and The Ukraine Conflict Observatory are commendable outliers.

Appalling mistreatment

According to JRR’s Federica Tronchin, “it has become very clear that one of the overlooked components of international justice work is child victims.” Yet children around the world today are enduring heinous, heartbreaking levels and kinds of mistreatment. In Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Yemen, Myanmar, Sudan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, North Korea, Tibet, the Xinjang region of China, and many other places, their situation is dire.

Children are physically, intellectually and emotionally dependent and impressionable relative to adults, and rely on adult protection, assistance and guidance. On the other hand, children are vulnerable to being hidden and silenced by adults who choose to do them harm. Sadly, in places beset by oppression or terror, parents, relatives and mentors can be so persecuted themselves that they cannot, as hard as they try, shield the children from horrors.

In such terrible places, adults in power can get away with physically or sexually assaulting children, abducting or conscripting them, bullying or indoctrinating them. When even loving caretakers are not free enough to save children, it is up to adults in the Free World – policymakers, lawmakers, journalists, academics, NGOs, religious leaders, citizens – to speak and act.

The first and fundamental step is deciding not to look away. Might free peoples be moved to care more about severely oppressed peoples if they looked beyond their nationalities – Syrians, North Koreans, Venezuelans, etc. – and focused more on their personal struggles in the thralls of extremist regimes? And might they especially be moved if they looked at the plight therein of children?

Overlooking human rights means overlooking children who desperately need a light shone on their tragic reality. It is in dark, invisible places that those who exploit children prefer to reside.

Ukraine

Regarding Ukraine, it should be impossible to support a negotiated settlement that would allow Russia to keep some occupied territories after seeing Russia’s barbarically cruel treatment of children in those territories and throughout Ukraine.

In addition to bombing apartments, schools, hospitals, farms, cultural treasures and critical infrastructure, all the while ravaging, raping and torturing, Russians have abducted hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia and Belarus. At least 6,000 of them are held in camps and facilities where they are indoctrinated, a new report shows.

Imagine the unimaginable: the trauma to children and loved ones of being forcibly separated. Russia’s war of aggression has in addition left at least 1,500 Ukrainian children orphaned, and many casualties.

Ukrainian children have seen things no child should ever see, from soldiers raping or torturing their mothers or relatives to the utter devastation of their homes and towns. Adolescents have been victims of rape and torture and children were not spared the massacre and horrors at Bucha and elsewhere. The psychological scars of enduring relentless bombardment and witnessing terrible atrocities should not be underestimated.

China

The topic of children forcibly separated from parents and homes leads to China, where, too, the cruelty to children defies imagination. As part of its genocidal policies against Uyghurs and Tibetans, Xi Jinping and Chinese Communist Party cadres have created a system of “coercive boarding schools” that isolate millions of children from their families, and indoctrinate and militarize them.

Scholarly research (especially by Dr. Adrian Zenz) and leaked videos expose the CCP’s dystopian surveillance-police state in Xinjang and Tibet: not only the extreme torture and abuse of adults in camps and forced labor facilities, but also the sadistic intimidation of young children by overpowering males in locked “boarding schools.” One particularly heartbreaking video shows little boys trying hard not to cry to avoid punishment. 

North Korea

The subject of camps, in turn, leads to North Korea, where horrific atrocities continue, but regarding which the Free World is numbingly silent. While the government relies on an entrenched system of camps, I have argued the country itself is like a camp, wherein the people endure ubiquitous, omnipresent repression and indoctrination. Children are brainwashed from an early age and family members are expected to spy on each other.

Highlighting a 2016 report by Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Marcus Noland showed that North Korean Christians are especially vulnerable: “Christians are routinely sent to the kwanliso or political prison camps. There they are subjected to torture including beatings, being hung on a cross over a fire, crushed under a steamroller, herded off bridges, trampled underfoot, and used as test subjects for medical training and experimentation.”

Since then, gruesome torture of Christians, including young children, in “re-education camps” has actually increased. Christian persecution is at crisis levels across the world yet is mostly ignored. Following North Korea and Afghanistan, which are the very worst, countries with the worst Christian persecution are Somalia, Libya, Pakistan, Eritrea, Yemen, Iran, Nigeria, and India. Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans, too, face religious persecution along with smothering socialist repression.

Syria

Syria is another country whose people are mostly forgotten, in spite of the endless hostilities and atrocities, including against children, committed by Bashar al Assad and allies Russia, Iran and Hezbollah.

In a recent article, I highlighted the suffering and the increasing indifference of the “international community,” and the regional fallout. A 2020 UN report showed children experiencing devastating hardship, abuse and trauma. Children were being killed and maimed in a war that included pro-government forces’ use of cluster munitions, thermobaric bombs and chemical weapons.

Children “suffer(ed) from disabilities as well as devastating psychological and development issues.” Children as well as adults have been subjected to detention, physical and sexual violence, torture and mass displacement, and still endure a reign of terror. The dire humanitarian and refugee crisis cry for our attention.

Middle East and Africa

In Iran, the regime brutalized young protestors who demonstrated in response to the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the hands of the “morality police.” Protestors as young as 12 were raped and violated. The brave Iranian people want release from a regime that deploys detentions, torture and executions against free speech and expression, persecutes ethnic minorities, women and adolescents, and endorses child marriages.

In Afghanistan, the precipitous withdrawal of US forces and ascendancy of the Taliban have meant children live with terror, homelessness, hunger, extreme misogyny, child labor, child marriage, child trafficking, sexual abuse and lack of decent education. The scourge of child trafficking for sexual exploitation or forced labor has metastasized across the globe and, because it’s become a serious problem in the US, is finally garnering our serious attention.

The number of children living in conflict zones and/or displaced has increased dramatically in the last 30 years. Many conflicts, such as in Yemen, Myanmar, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan and Somalia,  include Islamist terror, murder of civilians, and child soldiers whose ranks have grown steadily in recent decades.

Child soldiers are all too often kidnapped, physically or sexually assaulted, plied with drugs, brainwashed and threatened into participating in attacks. Children in Palestine and elsewhere are indoctrinated toward jihad, and Gazan children are tragic victims in the current war. The world saw some of the worst atrocities it had ever seen in Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack against Israeli families and teenagers. Israeli hostages, including adolescents and children, have suffered the cruelest inhumanity, including repeated rape of young women. Meanwhile, antisemitism is growing alarmingly worldwide.

Time to act

Clearly, democracies’ languid deterrence, flimsy penalties on atrocity committers and frequent willingness to overlook human rights did not buy the longed-for post-Cold War repose. Perhaps recognition of our own lethargy and apathy will compel us to face the consequences for the world’s children?

On the other hand, perhaps recognition of the abuse, targeting and traumatization of children will open hearts and minds to broader concerns of human rights; analysts arguing against appeasement of the world’s worst dictators and aggressors would do well to highlight their mistreatment of children.

Voice of America-type programs should be invigorated and should include specialized focus on children in the hands of extremist groups and regimes. The US Congress could use the Magnitsky Act as a model for imposing sanctions and financial penalties on authoritarian officials responsible for “crimes against children.”

Western entities and companies that abet the abusers should be exposed.

With both impassioned pleas for liberty and brutal crackdowns on civil society intensifying, free people should show they care about the freedom of others, especially the most innocent and vulnerable. Who better to be alert to the worldwide suffering of children, and to the terrible predicament of their parents and loved ones, than policymakers, journalists and citizens who are free to speak and act. The time to remain silent and indifferent has passed.

[vincent-sinclair-deserved-better]

time to freaking escalate let's go

Talking about Cylas, Part I

General

Name (US): Cylas Keir | (DE): Larissa Siebert

Date of Birth: 10th of October | Zodiac Sign: Libra

Nationality: US American, German

Pronouns: She/They

Occupation: Nurse

Relationship status: Married to pizza

Physical Appearance

Age: Middle to late 20s, but usually seen as younger

Eye colour: Blue-grey

Hair colour: Natural dark blonde, dyed dark blue | Style: straight, reaches middle of their back, no specific style. Tends to have it in a ponytail or braided in some way due to the temperatures,

Height: 5'3"

Build: A little chubby, stronger and more muscular than she looks

Distinguishing marks: Scars caused by pseudo-scientific "experiments regarding the human pain response and effects of psychologically taxing situations" (some might consider it torture). The most distinct would be a burn scar on the right side of their head and another one reaching from the top of right her shoulder to her collarbone. They aren't insecure about their scars though and aren't ashamed to wear revealing clothes. They also don't regularly shave and have been told they have "man legs".

Personality

Introvert or extrovert: More of an introvert although they like spending time with their friends. It just gets draining after some time and she needs to "recharge" afterward.

Morals: Ambiguous? She questions the exact meaning or "moral" in general and certainly does not agree with the societal consensus.

Temper: Despite her issues with regulating her emotions, she still manages to keep a calm appearance. However, that only leads to frustration and anger building up behind the facade. This means that her reactions to what- or whoever was unlucky enough to push her past her limit tend to be over the top. They have only seriously injured a person due to losing their composure once. Maybe twice, but that's up to one's definition.

How to set them off: Talking badly about her sister can be enough, being disrespectful or aggressive towards people she cares about in general will definitely get some kind of reaction, violence against animals or children.

Drives and motivations: On the positive side, they have a big need to help others. She has been called a hero or (guardian) angel before, and patients often refer to them as the 'happy and friendly' nurse or say how she is 'always smiling. On a more negative level, there is a lot of hate and frustration in her. Friends have (only half joking) said that she "runs on spite, determination, and more anger than their body knows what to do with". Both make them hard to kill though - they will push past what many consider possible to save someone's life, just as they will give everything to prevent death due to something or someone they consider "not worthy or deserving". They have a strange sense of pride when it comes to dying.

Spirituality: Doesn't mind people's beliefs as long as the individuals themselves don't harm anyone. She hates Christianisation and isn't too fond of Christianity in general, but doesn't think it is the single worst religion either. Absolutely despises cults and sects.

Favourites

Colour: Dark blue, purple, and red

Music: Anything, really, lyrics are important though. They aren't particularly fond of songs that have hard-to-understand lyrics or no "real" singing. They do like instrumental stuff too, though.

Food: Pizza

Beverage: Cola and hot chocolate

Tea or coffee?: Tea all the way. Leaf juice over bean juice. (German Joke Time: Wer hat es schwerer, Tee oder Kaffee? Kaffee, weil er darf sich absetzeen, Tee muss ziehen.)

Film genre: Horror, Fantasy

Film: V for Vendetta, Und weg bist du

Book genre: Fantasy, Thriller, Poetry

Animal: Snakes

Plant: Forget-me-nots and Weeping Willows

Habits

Do they drink alcohol?: Not really, only around people they really trust. She never gets drunk though (and hasn't before), drunk people make her uncomfortable.

Do they smoke?: No.

Any drugs?: Not voluntarily, aside from medication.

Sleep: As regular as working shifts makes it possible, they try to get their eight hours. Rarely dream. Not a light sleeper per se but they do seem to have a sense for when something is off.

Hobbies: Gardening (difficult with her job but she makes it work. Their garden is fairly small), baking, parkour, writing, martial arts, knife throwing, crafty and creative things. It varies based on whatever they feel like doing. Also, to the surprise of many due to her being German, she does like firearms.

#cylas speaks #my oc #my ocs #my stuff #long post #very long post #oc stuff #cylas keir #they have a last name #cylas writes

[not-poignant]

ah! (this is the UtB worldbuilding anon) - i see i made the fundamental error of assuming that The Facilities had any actual medically positive societal function in a fic tagged 'dystopian universe' LMAO (/genuinely, am loling at my own self HA) ; id still like to know what the in-universe justification is, esp for the more 'humane' facilities (hv?) but it sounds like we'll get that in-fic from surprise hottie Gary, so!! i am very very much looking forward to it, thank you again for the Content

Yeahhh that tag 'second class citizens - omegas' is a good one for the general direction the dystopian universe is going in as well. :D

Okay let's talk omegaverse and dystopian tropes!

As for the justification: male omegas, because they can't get pregnant, are generally more useful as trophy husbands. Like alphas generally have a biological drive to mate with omegas, most will end up with one, so the idea is to make them as polite and sweet and passive as possible. Many already are those things, but omegas that have been abused can become repressed, or too scared, or 'abnormal' in other ways and in upper class society can end up in rehabilitation centres (most of which just break them so they're at least passive - Hillview aims for something a bit better than that).

In lower class society many male omegas end up working in prostitution, or just end up with an abusive husband and it doesn't matter what they're like or how they're treated. Most are claimed young and have no option to escape their relationship.

It's really common as a trope in a lot of omegaverse content that omegas are generally second-class citizens. They don't have the same rights to jobs, driver's licences, or universities sometimes. They're not allowed to become doctors or other high responsibility jobs. (This is often blamed on the fact that they go into heat on a semi-regular basis (which stereotypically causes them to lose the ability to consent, and they will be fucked by an alpha near them, because they're desperate to be knotted to calm the intensity of a heat - which makes them easy prey for alphas in this state), and a common trope in omegaverse stories is omegas who live on heat suppressants pretending to be betas or even alphas, so they can access the same rights as others, or just don't have to deal with bullshit. This is the premise of my published novel, Blackwood, in my Perth Shifters series).

Efnisien was raised with the hopes that he would 'become' an alpha, and be treated better if he could just be good enough at it - for him that justified the mutilation, the agony, the sexual assault, being beaten constantly by Gwyn, and more - to give you an idea of just how much omegas don't always want to be omegas. Finding out that Crielle has given up on her project and has abandoned him to a place dedicated to making him a soft, passive, complaint omega to be fucked by an alpha in a relationship he has no control over with a spouse he can't choose for himself (arranged marriages are common for omega, and the norm in high society) is pretty mind-shattering for him.

Even if Hillview does it differently, even if he's away from being literally tortured by his family and has people around him who care for him, it's still a pretty profound fall from grace that he's struggling with. And because he's been raised with the worst (but not inaccurate) picture of the worst of the rehabiltation facilities, he thinks he's about to be treated worse than he was growing up.

He's not. But he doesn't know that yet, and we - as the reader (well I suppose I'm the writer but go with me here) - are only learning that over time ourselves.

The fact is, most omegas that aren't Efnisien actually are a lot more placid, docile, gentle, or easily controlled. They are easily taken advantage of. There's less omegas and alphas in this world than betas (though it doesn't seem like it because of the setting, so I need to find a way to get that worldbuilding in there), so they're often left to their own devices, because betas be out here having mostly regular relationships with each other, and the world has generally internalised 'omegas are so helpless they need an alpha to look out for them, so it's better they're in a not great relationship that isn't ideal, than being gang-raped on the streets by random alphas who will take advantage of them' (and sadly, this is sometimes true).

Gary is pretty groundbreaking as an omega psychologist who simply believes in an omega's autonomy. While he's not doing a great job of that in a one-on-one situation, the fact that Hillview is the way that it is already makes it extremely challenging within this dystopian universe. But because he's been raised in a world that has these views about omegas, he has that clash of - this is what I philosophically believe and this is what this centre is for vs. what he's internalised alongside the fact that he's not actually attracted to omegas.

We'll get more into this psychology and the nature of this world as the story goes along! But this is the cliff notes version of where we're at.

I hope that helps anon! As always, you're welcome to ask more questions and some I will and some I won't (mostly around spoilers or what I think is coming up soon in the story etc.) :D

#asks and answers #omegaverse #fae tales au #fae tales #underline the black #perth shifters #pia foxhall #dr gary konowalous #efnisien ap wledig #efnisien's internalised self-hatred re: being an omega is *somewhat* justified #but the fact is it's not himself he should hate #it's the world that has raised him to hate himself to this degree #and specifically crielle #but we'll get there sdlkfjads

[meanypunches]

Below is a piece I’d written for a compliance industry blog but it was perhaps too close to the edge for ‘the office’. It relates to horror and modern society though perhaps not an exact match here. Still I include it as I would like to touch on issues of mundane horror, or the horror of everyday life, as perhaps Thomas Ligotti does with his short stories, though I am not nearly so glamorous. Still we all feel a certain sense of the uncanny in the everyday, the unity of the paradox as Luhmann says, so here you go, a little food for chit chat around the water cooler—

The importance of work-life balance:

‘Bad apples’ are out of fashion. Still, some studies estimate 3.5% of business executives exhibit ‘psychopathic characteristics’ (as opposed to 1% of the general population). Ironically those same executives may be the most exciting leaders.

Certainly, in an overtly corrupt environment it is much easier for ‘bad apples’ to conspire. Plus, ‘good apples’ are less likely to blow the whistle. With the idea of compliance culture there is the comforting illusion of control.

Psychopaths are unpredictable. Yet, some suggest they play an outsized role in societal dysfunction or political terror. Some hint that psychopaths could be the key to understanding modern society. The quintessential psychopath is often thought of as the serial killer, but this is misleading. Fears about psychopaths, ‘neckties, contracts’ and lawsuits are all modern fears.

In The Social Network, director David Fincher relates the harrowing tale of Mark Zuckerberg, a less murderous if still cutthroat H. H. Holmes for the Information Age.

In another Fincher film, the killer asks his helpless victim: “Why don’t people trust their instincts? They sense something is wrong. Someone is walking too close behind them. You knew something was wrong. But you came back into the house. Did I force you? Did I drag you in? No. All I had to do was offer you a drink. It’s hard to believe that fear of offending can be stronger than the fear of pain, but you know what? It is . . .” – perhaps worth thinking about in the context of society and ‘compliance culture’.

Tellingly in The Social Network, as Zuckerberg’s star is on the rise he meets again the young woman who first rejected him and sparked his digital ire. He asks to speak with her alone, but she refuses – “I was nice to you, don’t torture me for it,” she says.

The Social Network is a modern folk tale, but from the wolf’s perspective, about the dangerous collapse of the public/private distinction. The serial killer as ‘unsub’ similarly reflects the disintegration of the individual subject from the private into the statistical public sphere. Sean Parker in The Social Network warns the younger Zuckerberg, “Whatever it is that’s gonna trip you up you’ve done already. Private behavior is a relic of a time gone by.”

The family too is a relic some would say, a social network that lends itself to corruption, specifically kleptocracy but also in this context the childhood abuse that may contribute to a psychopathic personality. In contrast to the family we have the corporation – which some fear could eclipse even the state. Like the serial killer, and notwithstanding corporate social responsibility, the corporation remains a ‘person’ without a conscience.

One can perhaps then see the risk of a collapse between public/private, work and life. To illustrate further, Brandon Cronenberg’s ultra-violent (à la the Brothers Grimm perhaps) Possessor presents the case for such a dystopia, wherein family life itself is fatally erased, to be replaced entirely by the corporation, which finally renders corruption and society indistinguishable.

#corporate culture #compliance #horror film #brandon cronenberg #possessor #the social network #david fincher #girl with the dragon tattoo

[doxolove]

This seems like an odd thing to not grasp the concept of for three point five decades, but I'm finally contemplating 'selfishness' as its positive practice.

Fear of abandonment erases this concept from you, living a selfless life is more of a curse than a virtue. Not having value in yourself means it's impossible to fulfill your actual needs, and leaves you longing and searching for any form of fulfillment within others.

It is human nature to desire connections, togetherness, and belonging-- but misplacing your value within that communication is not healthy.

Each and every one of us is programmed to survive a special way, influenced by how we were raised or not raised. We mimic our elders and peers, to feel accepted or secure in a societal congregation, to not be the next one placed upon a chopping block. Societal banishment is a form of torture if you were raised to believe your value comes only from your acceptance within it.

In the end, your life is your own. You need to find value in your own company and clarity of what is going to fulfill desires in your life. As important as communicating and forming bonds is, it can't be your total value. Nobody will feel secure around you when they realize you don't live for yourself, it's impossible to fulfill both yours and others needs constantly. It's exhausting.

It is healthy and normal to feel/be selfish, it should be your primary function. If you don't know how to take care of and fulfill your own self, it is not the responsibility of another to decide that for you.

#text #mental health #tw mental health #selfishness #we are taught to be selfless in the wake of another's flawed selfishness #selfless acts have no caveats; they do not carry the weight of your value within them #im goin thru it this holiday lol