#horde community service
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Etherian Post-War Safety-Course for Younglings
(or Kindergarten Kaboom!)
She-Ra fanfiction
Rated G
Comedy
Entrapta, Hordak, Catra, Pickles the Clone
Inspired by conversations had with @jidblogger
Summary: In the aftermath of the wars with the Horde, both cosmic and domestic, many dangerous weapons were left behind all over the planet. Clean-up work will take a long time and discarded weapons will pose a danger to civilians for years to come.
As part of their community service, former members of the Horde have been assigned to go to public schools to inform children as to what weapons look like and to avoid touching them if they find them. Entrapta, Catra, Hordak and a clone who has volunteered to assist them have been assigned to speak at a kindergarten. It goes...um...well?
(A bit removed from the real-world version of this as I wanted to keep a lighthearted spirit. In our world, landmines from ancient wars are still a problem and they maim and kill in many parts of the world - very often children out playing. In my story, since it is in response to a comedy-vein ask, I firmly went with the ‘80s cartoon style for a reboot-series story of “The Horde uses stun-weapons / the Horde doesn’t use real bullets, etc.” because I really didn’t want to show lack of respect for a serious real world problem). I tried to keep this funny with character-writing / character-focus.
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Etherian Post-War Safety-Course for Younglings
(or Kindergarten-Kaboom!)
“Class! Class! Settle!”
The Afternoon Kindergarten at Mystacor Elementary School was rambunctious after their nap and Graham crackers. Several of them were weaving simple sparkle-spells and making misshapen animals and funny monsters out of light, the stuff of crayon-drawings done with magic. One little boy started levitating the paperweight off of Ms. Astral’s desk. She closed her eyes, put her fingers to her forehead briefly and then calmly grabbed it from the air and put it back. She’d been told that she’d taken up an especially difficult assignment and would have had an easier time if she’d chosen to teach in almost any other Etherian kingdom. Mystacor was, of course, the home of sorcerers’ children.
Ms. Astral stood before the class and raised her voice for attention. She held her hands cupped and crossed out before her. “Class? Classs! We are having some special guests to speak with us today! They are here as part of the Horde Rehabilitation Program and are going to speak to you about safety. Won’t that be exciting?”
There were a few groans. A few faces brightened at the mention of the Horde, a fascination with former enemies. There were some shocked gasps. A few of the more anxious kids fidgeted and looked afraid.
Ms. Astral jumped back as she opened the classroom door to let her class’ guests inside. She taught a diverse classroom and encouraged respect for all manner of people, but she could not help but be intimidated by the first entrant. Like many Etherians, she was taking some time getting used to the clones. They had sharp claws, sharp teeth, unnerving eyes without visible pupils and, most of all; they were big – just big. This one blinked - those weird eyes wide, green and glowing. “Um… is this Ms. Astral’s kindergarten?” he asked.
“Y-yes,” Ms. Astral answered him.
Tall, predatory- a super-soldier with just the slightest hint of machine-sounds as he moved…
The young woman reminded herself that there were clones in Mystacor. Some of her students’ families had even adopted a few. She, herself, had little contact. Did this one have to wear the old uniform? She noted that the Horde-wings sigil had been crossed out with a large red diagonal line, so she knew she was not dealing with a Prime-loyalist. Maybe this one was one of those who were not yet comfortable with Etherian clothing.
He bowed. “I am here to assist my most esteemed brother,” (he said “esteemed” with an emphasis on the last syllable) “The Promised Defiant! The First of the Named! The Legendary-”
“Pickles, stop.”
The clone awkwardly straightened up and entered the classroom in full at being broken out of his spell by the voice behind him. Ms. Astral’s eyes widened. She stared up at the figure that was looming before her. Steel-toed boots, a black dress (no sigil), heavily-armored arms, a collar with a gently glowing purple crystal in its center, a white face, red eyes lined in black and Stygian blue hair… Completing the look was a scowl that could sour milk.
“L-lord Hordak?”
He closed his eyes and held up a hand. “Not ‘Lord’ any longer, just Hordak,” he said, “or, if you wish, ‘Atoner.”
“Hah! Way to be overdramatic! Don’t mind him…he’s always so emo at these things!”
Sashaying her way in was a young woman who led with her tail. She spun around and casually looked at the claws of one of her hands. “Anyway, let’s get this over with! The sooner we get done with our mandated community service for the day, the sooner we can leave!”
“You shall have to excuse Catra,” Hordak apologized to the teacher. “She does not take these things as seriously as she should.”
A whirlwind of purple suddenly burst into the classroom.
“Hey, kids! Who’s ready for SCIENCE?!”
“A princess?” one of the children cried.
“A princess is here!” a couple of others shouted.
“It’s the pretty-hair one!” a little girl exclaimed. “Hey, can we brush your hair?”
“Why do you even care about that?” another kid said, “She’s the one who builds ROBOTS! Robots are soooo cool! Didja bring any robots?”
“YES!” Entrapta loudly proclaimed, “You’re all going to meet my best friend, Emily, today! She’s outside, though, so it will be later!”
“Ooh!” all of the kids gasped at once.
“Lord Hordak! Lord Hordak!” one doe-eyed boy asked, raising a chubby little hand toward the ceiling, “Did you bring your baby, too?”
“My…baby?” Hordak snorted, going cockeyed.
“Don’t you have a little blue-guy…” one girl resembling a horned-lizard stammered, “And he’s got wings and a tail and he looks kinda like my little brother, Dougie.”
“I left Imp in the care of trusted subordinates,” Hordak answered. “Er…um…friends. Friends.”
“Anyway!” Ms. Astral announced, clapping her hands. “Our speakers are here today to tell you about Horde-weapons and what to do if you see any old Horde-weapons lying around!”
“Safety First!” Entrapta said with a bounce. She lifted one tendril of her hair up in a finger to the oohs and ahs of the class. Ms. Astral gratefully sat down at the corner of the classroom. “Pickles! Can you write on the chalkboard for me?”
The white-clad clone delicately took a piece of chalk from the liner of the chalkboard and started writing in big letters: “Softy Farst: Harde We-pons.”
“Oh, oh, you spell it like this,” Entrapta corrected him, erasing part of his lettering and showing him what characters to write. She turned to the teacher and to the class. “He’s still learning how to write Etherian-Standard.”
“Ah, okay, like this?” Pickles asked. For flourish, he wrote Hordish characters beneath the newly-scrawled “Safety First: Horde Weapons.”
“And you want to become a teacher…” Catra scoffed.
“Sister Entrapta says I have to start somewhere!” Pickles countered, “Which is why I am following your community-service as a teacher’s aide! Glory be, the things I am learning!”
“None of us are perfect!” Entrapta chimed, “and he’s grasping our languages surprisingly well for having it just dropped on him!”
“Fair enough. Shadow Weaver barely taught me anything.” Catra commented, “I had to learn from copying Adora. At least the teacher doesn’t smell like booze.”
“I would never drink on duty!” Ms. Astral asserted indignantly.
Catra sniffed.
“She’s using cat-senses!” Entrapta loud-whispered to the class. “Fascinating!”
“Nope, no wine,” Catra said. “This place reeks of crayons and play-clay. Wow, you kids don’t know how lucky you have it! All we Horde-cadets had to play when I was your age was scrap metal, dead rats and stun-grenades.”
“Dead rats? Ewww!”
“Grenades? Cool!”
“You can smell our crayons? What does yellow smell like?”
The kids were all talking at once.
Hordak held up a finger and his ears were pinned to the sides. His previous milk-souring scowl had officially turned into a glare that could scare said soured milk into instant hard cheese. “How did you get into the grenades?” he demanded, “They were for battle-use only! Using them for sport was well against protocol!”
“Search me!” Catra snarkily replied “Not my fault the higher officers weren’t securing the munitions sheds! Anyway, we all called them ‘boom-potaters’ and Adora, Lonnie and I would play hot-potato with them all the time!”
“Oooh!” – All eyes were on Catra.
“And Adora and I would go up to our favorite spot to watch the moons set – it had a view of the entire Fright Zone and we’d just lob those suckers off of there and see how far we could throw them! It was a contest! I once got one straight through the window of Shadow Weaver’s office and she never caught us! And one time, we blew up a sewage pipe…”
Hordak was grinding his teeth. “So THAT was the mysterious explosion that destroyed the plumbing system for a week! I had to make arrangements with the inspector and re-format the pipes MYSELF! It took precious time away from our Fifth March on Thaymore and…”
“Yeah, yeah, I know, it was a total mistake!” Catra said with a dismissive wave. “We had to sh…” she remembered her audience suddenly, “We had to make poo-poo and pee-pee in boxes and jars for a week. It wasn’t fun and it was smelly.”
The classroom burst into an uproar of laughter.
“And you see, class,” Entrapta chimed, “This is why you shouldn’t play with any grenades you find! You could mess up an entire infrastructure system and have to go potty in a box for a week! And I bet there were no baths, either!”
Catra wrinkled her nose. “Yeah. We could all smell Hordak coming.”
“WHAT?”
“You already smell like machine-oil and blood. I bet you don’t even notice what you smell like unwashed!”
“Did you not have an amniotic-fluid shower set up, Brother?” Pickles asked.
“I had to… make do… with local limitations,” Hordak grunted. “And I bet the former Force Captain smelled of unwashed fur.”
“Wrong!” Catra gave one of her arms a long lick. She flicked her ear. “Part-cat! We’re self-cleaning!”
“Moving on?” Ms. Astral inquired.
“Oh, yes!” Entrapta said with a big grin. She pulled a small device from her hair. Ms. Astral went stark white. Several children ducked under their desks. A few children remained seated and leaned over their desks looking forward. Entrapta held aloft, in one tendril of hair, a standard-issue Etherian Forces Horde Stun-Grenade.
“Oh, don’t worry!” she said. “I deactivated it!”
“Are you sure?” Catra asked.
“Yep!” Entrapta slammed the grenade down on the teacher’s desk. Children screamed. Ms. Astral jumped and shielded the children at the front. When the explosion didn’t’ happen, they all looked up cautiously to see Entrapta holding two halves of a grenade, showing the interior components.
“See?” she said. “Every Etherian-Horde Grenade has a liquid-chamber inside!” She held up a tiny vial with a red liquid. “I took it out for the demonstration. See, nice and safe! Oops!”
The vial slipped through the silky tendrils of her hair. She swiftly caught it in one of her gloved hands. “Oooh, good thing that didn’t happen! If it had hit the floor and broke, everything would have gone kaboom! Which would have been AWESOME! And…bad…um…very bad.”
Ms. Astral did not drink on duty. However, at the moment, she wished for whiskey.
Entrapta held the vial out for the children to see (as soon as they’d stopped ducking, letting their curiosity overcome them). “It is an explosive compound. Your Principal didn’t want me to explain the chemistry because they thought it was too advanced for you, but I just think she just doesn’t want you all to make it, which is ridiculous because I was making explosive-compounds when I was three and I turned out fine.”
“Perhaps I should take that while you show them the rest, Entrapta,” Hordak offered, gently taking the vial with a thumb and forefinger. He placed it in a compartment on his hip-guard.
“Okay, so take a look at the inside of the grenade!” Entrapta said, holding out a half. “So, the vial you saw fits into here, and the charge is here! And when you pull the pin, this mechanism here strikes the vial, which causes a chain-reaction in the chemicals and makes a BIIIIIG stun-charge! Oh, and you should never, ever pull the pin with your teeth! That’s a great way to make your head explode into sloppy spaghetti! KER-BOOM!”
She was laughing maniacally. Some of the children hugged each other. Some hugged Ms. Astral. Others…started laughing manically.
Hordak sighed and addressed the class. “The point of all this is not to touch them. If you see a grenade when you are out…um…playing? Playing, was it? With your little friends, you should report it to an adult for proper containment and disposal.”
Pickles held up a finger. “Oh! And if you see any white ones, definitely do not touch them! They are the same model on the exterior, but they are Prime’s! My most exalted Brother, Hordak worked primarily in the non-lethal phase of conquest! Weapons from the Fright Zone will still hurt you, but Prime’s will kill you!”
He drew pictures of several robots and ships on the chalkboard very quickly. They were extremely skilled, like blueprints – exacting, the kind of plans drawn by one who had them programmed into his brain.
“Prime,” he stated, “Had four phases of conquest when he found a planet inhabited by intelligent beings. The first was Gospel – he would announce his presence and welcome everyone to enter peacefully into his Light. If the entire population did not obey immediately, the second phase was Subjugation. Etheria spent most of its time in this.” The clone pented his hands gently, “This was non-lethal warfare, stun-beams and containment of towns. We Brothers of Prime were authorized to use some force, but were not authorized to end lives, for all creatures great and small belonged to Prime. After that, there was True War – the lethal phase to gain control if the populace was stubborn, and the final phase, when Prime had given up bringing a hopeless world into the Light was Annihilation.”
Hordak flicked an ear. “Indeed, I spent most of my conquest of Etheria in the Subjugation-phase lacking direct orders from Prime.” He looked down. “People did… die by my hand, but I thought it prudent to gift as many resources – including the living – into Prime’s hand.”
The children regarded him with some fear.
Pickles smiled brightly, reaching over to pat Hordak on the shoulder. “But we all know that Prime lied now! And he cannot hurt any of us anymore because he is super-duper dead! The once Reagent of the Seven Skies is the Regent of a Thosuand Worms! Deader than dead! He Without Existence! The Lonesome Wanderer of Pure Oblivion - !”
“But his weapons can hurt you!” Entrapta fielded. “This is a land mine!”
Ms. Astral stood and shielded her children again.
Catra laughed. “Oh, that’s a model. Adora took away all the real ones she tried to bring in!”
“Oh, no, this one is real! I smuggled it in!”
Catra’s eyes went wide. “Entrapta!”
“They have to know what a real one looks like, riiiight?’ She set it on the floor. “Prime’s robots buried a bunch of these in the ground and covered them with grass and stuff. And if you step on them, you go kaboom!”
She STOMPED on the mine.
The entire class screamed.
“I disabled it!” she exclaimed. She held it up in her hair, showing that it was a hollow shell.
Catra’s nose wrinkled. “I smell pee,” she said.
“Honestly,” Hordak said smoothly, “I am surprised that we have, thus far, avoided explosions.”
“Alright class, calm down…uh…heheh...uh...heh?” the teacher stammered. “Are there any other things that the children should watch out for?”
“Oh, very much yes!’ Entrapta exclaimed. “All robots are to be reported to the Dryl offices! That’s my domain!”
“And you should never repurpose tanks for parties, like those idiots in Elberon did,” Catra added, flicking her tail. “They stuffed the canon full of confetti. I’m surprised they didn’t blow themselves up!”
Hordak drew a small staff from a carrying case. “This,” he said, “is a stun-baton. They were standard-issue for my troops. They were also standard issue in the Galactic Horde.” He turned to the class, holding it aloft. “If you find any, please do not play with them. Entrapta, will you demonstrate?”
“Okie dokie!”
The teacher yelped as Entrapta started lifting up her top.
“No! No! No! No! You can’t get naked in front of CHILDREN!”
“Naked? Huh?’ Entrapta said, smoothly turning around. She kept her shirt partially pulled up, showing her back to the class, her front firmly covered. “Pish! Don’t get in a tizzy, I’m just showing off my back! See this scar, kids? I got it from a stun baton!”
Catra was cringing. Her ears were back, her head was down, she had one hand wrapped around an arm and her tail tightly coiled around one leg.
Entrapta pulled down her shirt. “Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt anymore. Oh! Oh! And this is exactly how the baton disrupts the humanoid nervous system!”
She was scribbling on the chalkboard with multiple chalk-pieces in tendrils of her hair. Soon, there was a human body, a brain, a spinal cord and various branching nerves. She was drawing arrows representing flow. “Oh, the electrons go in here, and they seize up the brain and you wake up with a BIIIIIG headache, believe me!”
Catra was still looking down. Hordak subtly growled and gave her a sideways look. He smoothly pressed a switch on the stun baton, bringing a web of crackling electricity to life.
“IT’S LIVE?!” Ms. Astral screamed.
“Of course it is. My cadets trained with these often and learned to build up a resistance. They do not hurt much when on their lowest setting.”
“I got a high dose!” Entrapta chimed.
“Fortunately, we do have a lab-animal to demonstrate the effect on,” Hordak rumbled.
“Oh, no!” Catra said, backing up, holding up her hands. “You aren’t using that on me!”
Hordak gave her a wicked smile. “You do want to educate the children, do you not?’
Before Catra could make a move of self-defense, Entrapta beamed and withdrew a stuffed animal from under the desk. “Tada!” she said, presenting a pink fuzzy plush creature that resembled a koala crossed with an owl with big, floppy ears.
Hordak strode over to it and plunged the active stun baton down on its head. Smoke rose from it and it burst into flames.
The sprinkler-system activated. The children screamed and laughed.
“Alright, children! Single file!” Ms. Astral instructed, making the evacuation calm.
Entrapta was laughing. “Time for the outdoor demonstration!” she chimed. “Who’s ready to see some ROBOTS?!”
“There…there’s MORE?” the exhausted and exasperated teacher quailed.
“MUUUUCH MORE!’ Entrapta said, leaning up on her hair and coming close to Ms. Astral’s face.
Hordak and Pickles walked straight and stiff. Catra sighed. Entrapta expanded her hair and shepherded many excited children out to the playground outside the classroom. “Emily!” she exclaimed as the robot beeped and trundled her way.
Children squealed and surrounded her. Emily tucked in her legs and rolled. “She’s a giant ball!” some kid laughed. She rolled to a stop and Entrapta patted her on her top. “Emily was a standard Horde search and destroy drone!” she explained. “I met her when I was chasing a little cleaner-bot in the Fright Zone! I reprogrammed her and have given her loads of upgrades! Queen Glimmer made me get rid of her steel-melting laser, which was so poop of her, but Emily retains a whole range of complex capabilities. She’s smart and affectionate, too!”
Entrapta clapped. “Show them your shuffle, Emily!”
Emily danced around in a kind of crab-walk. The children cheered.
“Now, I am going to show you all of the components of a Fright Zone drone – with Emily’s assistance! Now, most of them should be out of commission and the rest I’ve reprogrammed for rebuilding-help! However, if you meet one when out playing on the planet’s surface, there are some safety things you need to know!”
Emily obediently raised up for her so Entrapta could show the rapt children how her legs worked. She then pointed to her optic. “Here is the optic – she sees through this and this is also where she could fire a laser if she still had one. All she has now is a pointer-light. Anyway, you just need to dodge to the side here to get out of the sight-range, and if you hear a ‘whoooo’ powering up, stop, drop and roll!”
“If you have claws or can get your little fingers under the chassis,” Catra said, you can rip out their ‘guts!’ The main power-unit is right under here!”
Emily backed away from her.
“Okay, who wants to play a game of ‘Search and Destroy’ with Emily?” Entrapta announced. “She’s got her harmless laser-light and her optics and she won’t hurt you. It’s like Hide and Seek! She’ll beep loudly when she finds you! Go, go, go!”
Ms. Astral sighed as the children scattered in all directions, climbing playground equipment and trees. They hid behind playground cubby-boxes and bushes. Emily spun around, seeking a target.
“I assure you that no harm shall come to them,” Hordak said to the teacher.
Pickles slunk down and got into a hunting mode, himself, deciding to up the excitement of the game by adding a Galactic Horde warrior to the mix. “You have been captured!” he said to a squirming boy with goat-horns as he grabbed him from behind a tree.
“Alright… I guess this relieves the tension from earlier,” the teacher said, wiping her brow. “But please, if you come to my class again, DON’T SET THINGS ON FIRE!”
Laid out on a table were various tools, scrap and a few weapons that were to be a part of the demonstration (Entrapta wanted to show the kids how to build small robots if they had time, just to make EXTRA SURE they wouldn’t accidentally build one if they found old Horde-scrap). Hordak was guarding it when a small boy ran right up to it and grabbed one of the grenades.
“I’ve got a boom-potater!” he cried in triumph.
“No, you little fool!” Hordak hissed running after him.
“Let’s play hot-potato!” he squealed, tossing it toward a pair of children who were outrunning Emily.
In an instant, Hordak launched himself between the children and the stun-grenade. He took it full in the chest. A loud boom sounded and a flash of red light temporarily blinded everyone in the area. His armored form ragdolled, almost going right off the edge of the floating island they were on. He came to rest in a rumbled heap on his side and didn’t move.
Entrapta was immediately on her feet running toward him.
“Brother!” Pickles cried.
Catra held some of the children back. The two that had been the ‘hot-potater’ target stood with Hordak at their feet. Inquisitive kindergartners climbed down from trees and playground equipment.
“Is he…dead?” worried children said, approaching him.
“Poor old vampire…” one little girl lamented. One of the little boys nudged his head with a toe. Entrapta was soon bent down before him, checking his armor and his vitals quickly with both her hair and her hands.
“He’s okay!” she said with a thumbs up as he opened his eyes and groaned.
“Brother, would you like some help up?” Pickles offered. Hordak grunted as Entrapta lifted him to his feet with his hair and helped him to limp to a bench.
Ms. Astral stood in stark wonderment. “Give him his space, children,” she instructed. “I believe our safety lesson is over for the day?”
Here today, the once Scourge of Etheria had just risked his life and gotten himself hurt to save her children. Of course, he’d kind of saved them from himself since the Horde guest-speakers had brought weapons to class in the first place, but at this point, she was going to take any blessings she could get.
When Adora, Bow and Glimmer showed up to pick up their community-service-servers they found Hordak sitting on a bench, sipping tea with a blanket over his shoulders and a gaggle of children looking up at him adoringly, one latched onto his right leg as he kept his ears down with a subdued scowl. Catra was lobbing stun-grenades into a duck-pond to delighted squeals, Pickles was gently hugging a sobbing kindergarten teacher and Entrapta was leading an army of youngsters who had built small robots that were demanding in mechanical voices “Cook-ies! Cook-ies!”
“I think we need to rethink this part of the Horde Community Service Program,” Bow said as Adora tried to stop Catra and Glimmer balled up her fists, ready to explode.
#spop#she-ra fanfiction#hordak#catra#entrapta#horde clones#spacebats#pickles the clone#comedy#humor#post-canon#post-season 5#horde community service#use of mere stun-weapons to keep to the spirit of the series both past and present#and to not show disrespect to the tragic real world version of this
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i heard about the killdozer guy but what about the rooftop koreans?
During the LA riots in 1992 the LAPD abandoned minority neighborhoods, leaving the locals to fend for themselves. Some Korean families posted up on the roofs of their buildings to protect their businesses with guns. Without any other context, they've become something of a right-wing gun culture meme. Y'know, the whole "model minority defending their property against the savage hordes with glorious firearms" sorta thing, you can see the marketing appeal.
(And I do mean marketing quite literally, there are tons of Roof Korean merch churned out on Internet shops).
The thing is, this is a somewhat whitewashed version of events. Racial tensions had been inflamed between the local black and Korean communities recently, most intensely by the killing of Latasha Harlins by a Korean store owner, Soon Ja Du. Du accused Harlins of stealing juice even though she had money in hand to pay, initiated a physical conflict, and then shot Harlins in the back of the head when she was trying to flee the store. Du received a suspended sentence for manslaughter: five years' probation and 400 hours of community service, plus a $500 fine and Harlins' funeral costs. The killing is widely seen as a contributing factor to the 1992 riots, especially with regard to Koreatown being targeted.
As for the actual defensive actions by the "Rooftop Koreans," in practice it was kind of a disaster.
What's more, if you talk to the actual Koreans who were out there that day, they don't see anything to celebrate about it. If anything, they found the abandonment to be a wake-up call with regard to their standing in society: Second-class and fully expendable.
But because of the sanitized version of history that became a meme, you can guarantee every time there are mass protests and riots, some douchebags are going to run in, drop their pants, and start furiously cranking their hogs, moaning "we need roof Koreans!" for the duration.
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I will never shut up about how Kingdom Come: Deliverance is the most tenderly written game served to the most loutish horde of jackasses. I think it is possibly one of the greatest pieces of popular fiction made about feudalism in recent history, even if it's not always the most historically accurate.
And that's because the whole damn thing is about the profound, authority-enforced inhumanity that self-propels feudal order... but this time, it's written from the perspective of, for lack of better word, "humanity undermines, and humanity wins."
Love wins, if you want to be cheeky.
This was originally meant to be a reply to @feelinungry's excellent post on the subject, but it outgrew itself and got super bloated, so I'm plopping it in its own post to not be obnoxious...
KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW
And the reason all this about humanity and love is so important to the core of the story, to the very backbone of the narrative (even beyond the plot), is that it exists in opposition and to the impairment of the feudal system. Kingdom Come: Deliverance means to teach us, by way of deeply dramatic plots following individuals, how feudalism works and why it worked the way it did. And why and how that system fails.
The vehicle by which the game does this is by showing us, over and over, how the stratification of feudal class is eroded and sometimes outright dissolved (either in general, as with Henry and Hans, or when it matters most, as with Radzig and Henry) by plain and simple love.
Feudalism, like most class-stratified systems, relies upon 1. dehumanization of those beneath one's appointed status; 2. fealty (mock-love) to those above one's status, their title-appointer class; and 3. the maintenance of a deep separation between these artificially bestowed statuses, as enforced by church (as in word of clergy, not word of god) & state (legal rules and law). Those words and laws existed to propel the system by divide-and-maintain (of the workforce populace, placing it firmly below the next class in line, etc.) in the service of unify-and-profit (for the ruling class).
Sigismund & his invading army are wholly separated and adherent to the feudal theory, even if they have flouted codes of warfare & inheritance; they are presented to us as the main dehumanizing force of the story world, a wave of Order that indiscriminately burns opposition flat rather than an individual leading a royal coup, a cyclical destruction that paves the way for the next flavor of rule to continue the feudal system ad infinitum. They're thoroughly separated from the story even when they are burning down a village in front of our eyes and generally move as one, with Markvart occasionally stepping out of that mass of Feudalism and its antihuman nature to give it a face. They're more a force of nature than an individual as far as the narrative goes.
And we are meant to understand that in sharp contrast to the "close" story, the cast we get to know and watch as they attempt to answer this force of nature. And the second we see these characters get close enough to each other, by raw proximity, to poke a pin into the wineskin of feudal order as dictated to them by authority, it bleeds--everywhere. Not in the sense of ruination but in the sense that a tiny wedge of empathy cracks open the dam and leads, yep, to rehumanization--and love, the most human driving force there is.
And that changes everything, for everyone. Not just internally, as with a character's personal development arc (i.e., Hans learning why his duties, which he resented and viewed as an impingement on his freedom when dictated to him by authority, are incredibly important for real people who experience pain) but externally as well (as @feelinungry so elegantly points out in the original post).
Over and over, at every stage of the story, it's the rehumanization of and by these decision-makers (at a family level, at a community level, at a regional level, at a national level) that cracks the feudal cycle, even if in very small ways. Hans really brings this back home in a petri dish in late game, after the siege, when he complains to Henry about the noble's code (letting Istvan go) potentially leading to pain and disaster for the common people Istvan's machinations are likely to harm in the future. He chafes--and we chafe, and so does Radzig, and so does Divish--against feudal stratification because he has learned a general empathy through loving an individual, and that has in turn reshaped the way he sees the world.
And that's exactly why and when feudalism begins to fail, and why it thrashed itself the way it did, from the enforcement of sexual mores (though this wasn't exactly like it is in movies) and gender law to terror upon its own populations.
And it's the crucial understanding I think we begin to forget after being exposed to so much Hollywoodification of history, where the oppression always exists for cruelty's sake alone rather than in active and deliberate service to a political construct.
And I think it's why we've "lost the plot" so horribly when it comes to understanding that people in history were still people, not monolithic one-mind entities (as the feudal system demanded they be). And why we somehow forgot that such people fall in love, in all kinds of love, in a way that has never given a damn about authority. And that this in turn undermines supposedly supreme authority, even divine authority, and will always continue to do so, as long as people are people.
This is what it always comes back to. Always. From Henry's parents and their mysterious bond with Radzig informing the protagonist's journey from "the past"--to Henry & Hans falling into stupidly fierce soulmatehood with each other in the present--from Istvan & Erik's destructive fuck-the-world romantic love on the "enemy" side--to Divish's humbling, humanizing realization that he loves Stephanie in some way, he really does, despite the chasm of age/gender enforced upon them by their adherence to feudal order that doomed their romantic love to failure.
People will always love each other, even when the world orders them not to, even when faced with death and worse. People will always, given proximity and shared experiences, learn to see each other as human again. KCD reminds us of that. It's why the "slow" storyline exists and why it works.
And that is why this game is so fucking fantastic, and why the genpop fandom has utterly failed it.
#kingdom come deliverance#kcd#kcd2#henry of skalitz#hans capon#radzig kobyla#divish of talmberg#stephanie of talmberg#redmeta
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I know you like entrapdak but Hordak is responsible for the Horde and everything it did and at the end, nobody cares. He was abused by Horde Prime and is in love with Entrapta so that makes everything okay!
yeah, hordak is a villain and he kinda gets off scot-free in the end (though nate does say he does community service by cleaning up beast island) but his relationship with entrapta was healthy and mutual, unlike a certain other ship in the series. that's why i like the ship, not because i excuse hordak's actions.
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Hi aziraphaels-library!
I have several fics i am mildly obsessed about and they are "What we make of it" and "Or be nice" by charlotte_madison, "Tabula Rasa" and "Clementine" by mussimm, "Demonology and the Tri-phasic model of trauma" by nnm, "Long haul" and "Search and Rescue" by snae-b. Better than many books I read, including award winning ones! Maybe you coluld recommend something as good as these? I love an anxious and off-beat Crowley, and his honesty issues, but do not limit myself to such stories. Thanks a lot!
Hello! The fics you've listed are very well known and popular within the fandom. You should check out the fics on our #fandom favourites tag for more you may enjoy. Here are some more great fics for you...
Summer's End by FeralTuxedo (E)
2095. Britain is a post-apocalyptic wasteland ravaged by droughts, the collapse of civilisation, and hordes of the undead. Despite that, Aziraphale’s life is actually pretty good. He has his caravan, his books, and his work, offering his services to the men who stop by Tadfield on their arduous journey north.
One day, a mysterious stranger knocks on his door. Crowley is charming and handsome and he appears to know his way around a vegetable garden. He comes with the tempting offer of a mutually beneficial arrangement. But it’s in Aziraphale’s best interest not to get too attached.
A dystopian cottagecore sex worker AU.
Readings From the Books of Ashtoreth by Quefish (E)
Vicar Aziraphale Bookman has a comfortable life. He lives in and serves the small village community of Tadfield. He enjoys contributing to local businesses, taking walks, and of course reading. His 'guilty pleasure', which gives him no guilt and all pleasure, is a series of novels by one AJ Ashtoreth. But what happens when he reaches out with an innocent bit of fanmail?
It never hurts to keep looking for sunshine by elf_on_the_shelf (E)
After Adam's parents die in a car crash, Aziraphale is forced to start taking care of him as more than just an uncle. Don't get him wrong, he loves the little devil, it's just that he is completely clueless and could rather use some help.
In comes Crowley, Adam's new nursery school teacher with his amazing skills in dealing with kids. Could he be the answer to all of Aziraphale's prayers - Adam-related and otherwise?
Well, it looks like he might be just that, judging by the weird things Aziraphale's heart seems to be doing whenever he sets eyes on the man. Now, if only the tall ginger returned his feelings...
I Knew I Loved You by AppleSeeds (E)
In September 1999, when his family gets connected to the internet, prospective Marine Biology student Crowley discovers an online forum where he can actually talk to people who share his passion for saving the whales. He begins corresponding with a kind stranger he knows only as Ocean_Angel, and is incredibly excited when the opportunity arises to meet this mysterious person in real life.
As their friendship develops, Crowley shares things with Angel that he can't talk about with anyone else, and Angel's insights help him to explore and embrace his own identity. As Crowley works towards finding a place in this world where he feels like he really belongs, he realises that a big part of the answer to that question might actually be right in front of him. What if where he belongs is with Angel?
secondhand smoke by PaintedVanilla (T)
you're second hand smoke, second hand smoke
i breathe you in, but, honey, i don't know what you're doing to me
mon chéri
the year is 1990, and anthony crowley is looking for a church in london that might be tolerable. the one he winds up attending isn't exactly such, but he decides to stick around for one reason. said reason happens to own a bookshop that crowley begins to frequent, much to the surprise and delight of anathema device and newton pulsifer, who seem quite convinced that crowley could use something else to focus on besides gardening, their campaigns, and visits to tadfield.
Siren's Song by Kedreeva (T)
Crowley, a lone siren, calls a ship to wreck upon his reef, but finds when he meets pirate captain Aziraphale that sirens are not the only ones able to lure another creature to their heart's desire.
- Mod D
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Yesterday was the anniversary of the violent ending of the student occupation of Columbia University in 1968.
(This is a long-ish post; it is political; you’ve been given fair warning, but I can’t be silent on this today, my principles are my principles.)
Last night, hordes of heavily armed NYPD swarmed onto Columbia and City College’s campuses in upper Manhattan and proceeded to dismantle the peaceful encampment and occupation by students in protest at the university’s continued support for the Israeli regime and, by extension, the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
As some of you know, I am an academic. We think of ourselves - or should think of ourselves - as a global community. The students and faculty of Columbia and City College, like the students and faculty of the universities destroyed (and their communities murdered) in Palestine, are my colleagues, my people.
The student journalists on WKCR last night were so young, so brave in what they were trying to do, to keep reporting and make sure their story was being told. Meanwhile, the focus on Columbia meant eyes were turned away from the NYPD’s assault on City College, which has a much more diverse and working-class student body.
Student activism has always been an important vector for change. I do not know how we are supposed to teach our students that they can change the world, watch them try to put that into action, and then somehow stand silent while the riot police drag them out of their campus in zip ties.
Today is International Worker’s Day, traditionally a day of activism and solidarity, and with this in mind, here are some links to show support and solidarity. I’m trying to find a verified bail bond fund for students at the moment.
UNWRA:
MSF/Doctors Without Borders:
International Red Cross:
#forty five thousand dead you're arresting kids instead#columbia university#free palestine#tw: opinions#tw: politics#i can’t believe I’m adding those tags but how and ever#international workers day#personal post
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lemme infodump about my entrapdak fic real quick!
i think we can all agree as entrapdak fans that the idea of hordak being forced into community service on beast island feels kinda dumb? i, personally, would have totally accepted it if any of the other villains were mentioned to be repenting similarly. but like, catra, scorpia, entrapta, the other horde soldiers, and the clones seem to have gotten a free pass? and, like i've argued, she-ra doesn't seem to be *about* redemption arcs, it's about healing and stuff.
SO. in my fic (set post-canon), i decided to make it *entrapta's* choice to go there! i feel like, after the story, she could grow to a place where she feels more secure in her relationships, and going there willingly could be a sort of reclamation for her. and, of course, there's a lot of tech and data to collect.
and i decided to make hordak accompany her. i think he'd have a lot of problems with: 1) entrapta risking herself for anything and 2) being without her, because he doesn't have a lot else going for his life post-war. so i wanted to use beast island as a chance for him to learn more about entrapta and himself!
that's basically the set up. idk, i just really talking about my creative decisions (i literally am a creative writing student)
so um. if you like the sound of that, give it a read? :) and leave a comment, constructive criticism is always appreciated
#spop#she ra#entrapdak#entrapta#she ra and the princesses of power#hordak#entrapdak fic#spop fic#fic wip
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Hello, Can I así for Saturu Ska8er boi I was listening to Avril and thougth it could be nice hehehe
(only if You want to ofc , thank You for sharing your Beautiful work with us !)
skaterboi!satoru is like so genius ohmygod…
warnings y disclaimers / sfw. fluff. established relationship. puppy love satoru. spanish usage: mi alma..my soul | mira.. look | pero..but | papito.. (erm idk how to explain this one, but it’s just a nickname)
𝐒𝐊𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐁𝐎𝐈!𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐔 . . . is heavily fucking obsessed with you. you’re all he thinks about day ‘n night. he could simply be strolling down the street and if he were to walk by a store and see something he knew you’d like, he would buy it without hesitation. right there, on the spot. it had become quite a bad habit, to the point where you sneakily stole his debit card for a week and he was acting like a drug-addicted fiend begging for it back like his life depended on spoiling you. (it did.)
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀when he wasn’t hovering over your back trying to buy you everything you dared to lay your eyes on, he was mindlessly skating his life away at the park where he first met you. it was a happenstance. quite a coincidence. it had been his first time going to that park simply because his was being cleaned that night. he told himself it’d just be a one-night thing. he would never go back. yet, the minute he laid eyes upon you after you jumped from within the pool, he couldn’t pull them away.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀the radiant smile you bore enticed his entire attention. despite the fact that you had crowds surrounding you whilst you performed your favorite tricks, satoru felt as if you were the only other person there at the park with him. even when he made his way into the horde of people that surrounded the left pool, he couldn’t believe such a beauty like you could associate with a low-status group.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀it took him months of straight up bothering you, poking fun, walking you home, offering to help you do community service; just so you would alas say yes to his date offer. you hadn’t a clue as to why the estranged boy was so hyper focused on you, but your curiosity didn’t stop you from abusing the spotlight. every chance you could, you’d have him do something for you and it humored you to see the puppy-like expression he had marred on his face.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀even while your relationship is still going, he loves running errands for you. if it had to do with you, he was all for it, no matter the circumstances. his friends swore there was no one who loved you more than that boy.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ “toru, c’mere.” you ushered the boy to you, one foot rested along the end of the board with its back on full display for the pool below. your other foot was planted on the apex, no pressure being applied at all.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ “yes, mi alma?” spanish had come easy to the man after picking up a few phrases from you, you thinking it was cute that he paid attention to the small details of your native language.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀broadening a sharp grin at your boyfriend, you watched as he hurriedly rushed to your side with a hint of wariness and curiosity lingering within his bright blue eyes. it was endearing to see him so full of life at just the simple sound of your voice. you brought your bottom lip to the skim of your teeth as a slight chuckle tumbled from your lips, satoru’s eyebrows pursing together at your abrupt actions.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ “you’re cute, y’know that?” if it wasn’t how you teased and prodded at him, it was your words that caused the oh-so familiar red hue to shade the man’s face.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀it wasn’t odd for you to suddenly compliment him, rather it was rare. yet, each time you happened to do it, he was left as nothing but a pure puddle of stammers and wandering eyes.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ “mira, i wanna try this move pero like i need you to hold my hands so i can properly turn” you motioned while realigning your stance on the board.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀the moment you mentioned needing satoru’s help, his ears perked as if he were some sort of trained dog who was being ushered for a treat. he hastily took hold of your hands before observing your every move. one step at a time, he watched whilst you turned your body to face his own, keeping an eye out for any slips or cracks so he’d be able to catch you.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀once you had finished readjusting yourself, you smiled at him prior to quickly pecking his cheek. the move was not only tricky, but also risky since you had to do it backwards for the first half. but, you knew you’d be able to do it. you were the one to teach yourself how to skate anyways.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀the minute you let go of satoru’s hand, your body began to propel backwards. you could feel your heart sinking into your ass from the sudden endurance, yet you calmed your nerves by delving your nails into your palms. the wind that rushed through your clothes wasn’t helping your situation, but did reassure you that even if you fell, the current would cause you to at least fall forward.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀as you were halfway down the ramp, you bent your knees and lowered your body by a slither, leaning to the side a bit just before you jumped into the air. the second your feet lifted from the board, not only did your body do an entire 180° spin, but your board did likewise. you spent a rather long minute in the air, satoru’s jacket that you wore snuggly on your body floating and flailing around from such a harsh pivot.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀all you could think while your body remained mid-air, was how if you messed up the landing; the hospital would be your new home. your board was only a slither ahead of you, but you knew that when landing back on it you could adjust yourself to fit right back where you started. and so you did. it was a rather unpleasant heart attack that you gave yourself, but once your feet planted solidly on the wooden surface, you couldn’t help but smile like a toddler on christmas.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀due to the momentum and speed you started off at, your board was able to swiftly guide you up the opposite side of the pools ramp. the moment you could reach the top, satoru was right there awaiting your arrival. he had the cheesiest and most adorable grin smeared clear on his face, a tight embrace hoisting you from your board whilst your ecstatic laughter filled his ears.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀you could tell he was just as nervous for you as you were, your chest fully engulfed into his to the point where you could feel his heartbeat. your arms wrapped around his neck before he captured your lips with his own, faint giggles and squeals leaving your mouth and getting muffled against his.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ “jesus, you had me worried.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ “i know, papito. i know.” you cooed, the pad of your thumb running smoothly across the flesh of his cheekbone as you caught his eye contact.
ᶻ z Z ! © TAKST4Z — all rights reserved. mature discretion. please do not plagiarize or steal any of my works or graphics.
#⠀❙ 𝐀𝐒𝐊𝐁𝐎𝐗𝐈𝐄𝐒 .†#⠀❙ 𝐙𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐁𝐄𝐒 .†#⠀❙ 𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐁𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐃𝐑𝐎𝐏𝐒 .†#⠀❙ 𝐉𝐉𝐊 .†#⠀❙ 𝐆𝐎𝐉𝐎 .†#⠀❝ 𝐒𝐅𝐖 .♱#gojo x you#jjk gojo#gojo fluff#gojo#gojo x y/n#gojo x reader#gojou satoru x reader#gojo satoru#gojo comfort#jujutsu gojo#jujutsu kaisen satoru#gojou satoru x you#jjk satoru#jujutsu satoru#satorugojo#jjk x y/n#jjk x reader#jjk x you#jjk
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Cale Rok Headcanons:
KRS is a pillow princess
Bulky/stronk sub
Ace → sex neutral
Willing to do it to fulfill partner
Can make him feel closer to Cale
Wants Cale to be happy
Cale will never engage unless he is certain that Rok Soo consents
Doesn’t enjoy the physical activity aspect
Tends to forget about it while having sex
Can enjoy the act occasionally
Enjoys cuddles after sex
He prefers to express his affection nonverbally
Cuddles
Hugs
Snuggling
Gifts
Acts of service
He loves Cale fiercely
Has a habit of listening to Cale’s heartbeat to remind him that Cale is alive
This habit stems from the trauma of everyone he’s ever loved dying
Cale is the top
Lean muscle dom
Ace → sex positive
Feels closer when and after doing it
Ensures he has consent
Will not engage in any sexual tension if he isn’t sober(almost never)
Enjoys sex
Prefers to express affection physically and verbally
Words of affirmation
Says i love you frequently
Flusters and comforts Rok Soo
Gives compliments frequently
Kisses
Any positive physical touch
Hugs
Snuggles
Arms on waist/shoulders
Gets really insecure about relationship at times and ends up in a spiral of thinking he doesn’t deserve Rok Soo
Rok Soo hates this and tries to help by showing his affection as often as possible
Rok Soo can be averse to touch and won't allow anyone to touch or get near him
Cale respects this and ensures that no one disturb him
Rok Soo likes it when Cale just talks with him during those moments
He also appreciates that Cale will always ask when he is going to go near Rok Soo
The two are the best parental units to their hordes of adopted(legally and emotionally) children.
Cale is genderfluid
Has different wardrobes for all their genders
Ron and Hans can somehow inherently tell which gender Cale is that day/ at the moment(much like Magnus in the Records of Ragnarok)
Deruth is jealous of this ability
KRS is agender but uses he/him pronouns
Due to his appearance people often just assume he is a boy
KRS doesn’t care about whatever pronouns people use for him he just uses he/him because it’s easiest to explain
He actually really likes it when people use anything other than he/him or use he/him but not in a way that seems to imply that they see him as solely a boy (I am 100% projecting here)
Cale catches onto this and will often use whatever random new pronoun he found today in his encyclopedia of neopronouns
Open communication is extremely important to the two so they practice it frequently(I know it’s OCC but in this essay I will-)
They keep almost no secrets from each other
Always inform the other of their plans and if they are injured
Respect keeping each other secrets as they respect each others privacy
Were both hurt by miscommunication in the past so they make sure to always inform the other
KRS is nonverbal
Cale learns sign language to better communicate with KRS first
Rest of the family learn as well
Order:
Kids
Ohn
Hong
Raon
Hans
Ron + Beacrox
Alberu + Rosalyn
Violan + Basen + Lilly
Deruth
Choi Han
Bud Illis
Toonka
Eruhaben already knew sign language
KRS likes to cook for Cale
Cale loves KRS’s cooking
Cale loves to dress KRS up
KRS is fine with whatever as long as it’s comfortable
Cale kisses all of KRS’s scars
KRS finds the scars to be shameful and scary so he gets flustered whenever cale does this
@aro-screams-into-the-void bestie pls opinions I need them!
#tcf#cale henituse#trash of the count's family#kim rok soo#kim roksu#kim rok soo x cale henituse#og!cale henituse#KRS x Cale Henituse#kim roksu x cale henituse#KRS x og!cale henituse#au#totcf au#totcf#kim rok soo x og!cale henituse#kim roksu x og!cale henituse#headcannons#may add more later#I also might write that essay mentioned earlier#and permaybehaps a drabble or two?#permaybehaps#:)#reread this and went like damn I wrote THIS.... damn#headcanon#mine
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You are worth more than your productivity. Your value is inherent. It is scooped from the fabric of the universe and poured into your being. This capitalist hellscape is a crudely constructed illusion, designed explicity to keep us isolated, guarded, and grinding our bones to dust. All for slips of paper or numbers on a screen.
All in service of the ruling class. All so they can horde the lion's share of your labor. All so most your tax dollars can bomb children and push corporate/political interests, instead of feeding the starving children here and abroad. Instead of paying teachers the wages and benefits they are so rightfully owed. Instead of rebuilding and mainting infrastructure.
To simply be is the most beautiful existence to live. Without expectations. Without the ever looming fear of society turning its back in you and letting you die. Without the pressure of needing to compromise the shape of your soul to fit in a square society. Without judgemental family smearing your name behind your back or to your face, until they deem you deserving of praise. Without pointed, passive aggressive assumptions without a full picture of who you are. You are beyond their comprehension. We are not stationary. The work to build and strengthen communities will still be done without threat of death or exile.
You are worth more than this shallow, sham of a society wants you to believe. Even at our lowest points, we are worthy of love and respect. We are worthy of praise simply for surviving, especially those of us with mental illnesses. You are, always will be, and always have been enough. Let your bright, brilliant light shine, and may it blind anyone who opposes or disrespects you ❤️
#my writing#anti capitalist#antiwork#nonfiction#motivation#reassurance#love#respect#life#writers on tumblr#self love
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Tumblr and The Old Internet Re-Awakens, An Opinion Essay
This is going to be a super long post about my thoughts on the current state of the internet, with a chunk of what I'm about to say having been stuff I've already said elsewhere on other sites. To save your dash, I'll be putting a READ MORE break.
The fact that Twitter and Reddit have basically been destroyed by their own hubris is both hilarious and sad. It's funny because "ha ha rich man's hubris" but also sad because this is very emblematic of the current direction many social media companies that have been at the top for too long are going.
Ever since the muskrat purchased Twitter, it was clear from the beginning that something seriously wrong had happened, with worse decisions to follow. Something I hadn't realized was just how extensive the ripple effects of this would be. Reddit is now being destroyed by their leader's desire for more and more money, as if they needed any more.
I've been having this conversation with my friends via Discord and with strangers on the Starmen dot net forums. The writing is on the walls. The internet is moving towards a future that caters to advertisers more than its users. If there's even the slightest hint of getting more money by screwing over users, the higher ups of a given site will be chomping at the bit.
Where does that leave us?
Well, with Reddit and Twitter both now in a state of complete and total self-destruction, albeit rather slowly, we have seen an influx of new and returning users. Fantastic! I love when an old place gets new life breathed into it.
That being said, I don't believe that Tumblr is the bastion of The Old Internet, far from it, and many of you would agree.
Instead, I think that the resurgence in Tumblr's popularity could be just the first step towards the return of The Old Internet. We have the power to go back to the days of making our own websites. Information on web design and web programming are available online for free, in addition to many places offering free hosting services for a basic website or blog that don't need many bells or whistles (just don't go to GoDaddy).
Tumblr, in my opinion, once you know how to use the advanced editing tools, can make for a great "Baby's First Web Blog." There are some users on here that have made GORGEOUS blogs that will absolutely blow you away.
What about peer-to-peer communications?
We've seen that Discord has been another victim to the plague that is internet gentrification. They've removed the discriminators for usernames, had a store put in, and so many other little changes that have consistently annoyed the end users.
That being said... Discord is not going to be falling apart anytime soon. It's still a fantastic way to connect with many people at once and have quick access to all your different communities.
However, you could make the case, and I certainly try to, that internet forums fulfill the same thing. It is true that forums for many topics have drifted into the void of internet history, but is that not simply the nature of the internet? Communities sprout up, thrive, have an internal way, break apart, and start anew. We've seen that with many Discord servers, albeit rather small ones.
I will still hold my ground that forums should be revitalized if we truly want to go back to the days of old.
What does the future hold?
I... don't know. Despite my vast horde of opinions, research, and second-hand accounts of what The Old Internet was like and how The Current Internet is becoming, I cannot say for absolute certainty that we will see a total collapse of these tech empires. At the very least, however, I do believe that they will become hollowed shells of their former selves.
I have yet to talk about YouTube and its history, and, to be quite frank with you all, I simply must avoid that topic for now. All I will say is that I implore my fellow content creators, specifically those that create Video On-Demand content for YouTube and TikTok, to look into creating your own websites to host your content in the event that something happens to these empires, too. If you don't have offline copies of your videos, do so when you can.
That will be it for now. Thank you for reading this essay. I love your faces. Stay safe.
#da12thkind text post#opinion essay#opinion#essay#the old internet#internet#twitter#reddit#tumblr#twitpocalypse#elongated muskrat#reddit refugee
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Silly fanfic idea
Hordak, Entrapta and Catra go to a school to teach kids what NOT to do when they see old Horde weaponry lying around after the war. It goes just as good as you think it would with those three trying to do a presentation.
It's part of their community service.
Oh, dear, so it's like those recovery of land-mine programs and such? Like, teaching kids if you find a mine or an old grenade, DO NOT TOUCH IT and "Don't play in this field" and so forth?
(I don't know if the Horde ever used anything as horrible and real-lifey as land-mines, though. Maybe some kind of G-rated "stun-mines" - but still something they want kids to stay away from).
And "Don't play on the tanks like those people in Elberon who made one into a confetti-canon, THAT IS VERY DANGEROUS and they could have all gotten hurt!"
Hordak takes it very, very seriously. He takes everything seriously. He also feels like he MUST ATONE. Occasionally, however, since he had the program of training kids to be soldiers and was an engineered soldier, himself, he'll accidentally lapse into instructing kids how to USE the weapons they find laying around, and oh, dear, other clones who help manage the kids just lapse into that, too! They're showing them the various settings on an arm-mounted canon and the kids are all "COOL! BADASS!" - but those canons are actually relatively safe because they're keyed into clone genetic-signature and cybernetics, so Etherian children who don't have internal hardware cannot use them, but they can easily, TOO EASILY persuade said clones to demonstrate by blowing up things.
Someone blows up Principal Castaspella's office. She's okay.
Catra is kind of non-chalant about it. It's not like these weren't the things she was trained to use ever since she learned to walk. Hordak has a gak! moment when she describes some of the stuff the Horde-children were not supposed to do around the Fright Zone and did anyway. She, Adora and Lonnie used to play Hot Potato with the Stun Grenades. She and Adora used to have contests of how far they could throw them off their moonset-watching spot. Hordak's ear twitches because he had no idea that the cadets were managing to get into the grenade stashes and wasting Horde resources.
Entrapta gets into the SCIENCE! of it all. "And this is how, exactly, a laser-blast can disrupt a mammal's entire nervous system!" "Oooh, ooh, this war-bot has been modified to melt through solid steel! For infiltration missions!" And, while she's trying to atone and teach SAFETY, by the end of the day, an entire class of kindergartners is building weapons-grade mini-robots.
There is now a robot-army demanding cookies.
Queen Glimmer's head is about to explode. Adora has transformed into She-Ra. Bow is crying.
"Community Service" did not go as planned.
(I'm a little "buh" on fanfic writing lately, so @sometipsygnostalgic - or anyone else who does silly comics in this fandom - here's your sign if you're bored).
#the horde#hordak#catra#entrapta#community service#horde clones#spacebats#I need to get back into a fanfic writing mood one of these days
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Why were the princesses suddenly so mean to Entrapta in the first part of season 5? I mean, Entrapta wasn't always the most beloved by her fellow princesses, but it was unlike them to lash out at her. I get that things are tense and Horde Prime was gonna kill them all. But it is weird that Entrapta, the only autistic character in the show is the only one that gets blown up on like that. Especially when other princesses have their own bouts of unhelpfulness also.
Thank you! Don't get me wrong, she shouldn't of helped out the horde, but leashing her??? Scropia, Hordak, Shadow Weaver and Catra did much MUCH worse, but they got away with a slap on the wrist, (Nobody really trusts Shadow Weaver and Hordak had community service, but that's a pretty small price to pay for literal war crimes) meanwhile Entrapta got dehumanized!? What about Catra who literally killed Angella and attempted to end the whole world to spite Adora???
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American moral reformers have experienced a lot of fails, but one of the most funny ones has got to be that time when they inadvertently encouraged more soldiers to seek gay men for sex while cracking down on female prostitution during World War One.
So, imagine: New York, 1917 & 1918. The city, being the major port, is filled with soldiers from all over the country. Some of them have never been in a city like this, and all of them are away from their families. And New York offers a lot of vices.
Suddenly, moral reformers realise that these hordes of unsupervised young men spend their free time on all sorts of entertainment, but namely on prostitutes. Furthermore, god knows what they are up to in Europe (where gay subculture is much bigger than in the States, by the way). Something has to be done. It wasn’t just fears: it was an actual problem, and a big one. In just twelve weeks, according to the Committee for Civilian Cooperation in Combating Venereal Disease, there were 21,742 new cases of venereal disease reported. It incapacitated soldiers and cost the government to keep them in hospitals for up to eight weeks.
And so, the government and different civilian organisations, including YMCA (which inadvertently created gay colonies, but that’s a tale for another time), started a big campaign against venereal diseases. They educated soldiers about their dangers and enforced laws banning their main cause: prostitution. Well, female prostitution.
You see, back then people did not really think that homosexual sex was dangerous. On the contrary, it was perceived as less dangerous, because of course only women could carry venereal diseases. And another interesting detail about that time is that working class men often had sex with fairies and still considered themselves straight. Fairies, or inverts, were the most visible part of New York's gay community: effeminate men who occupied saloons, dance halls, cafeterias and streets, often offering their services to men. As long as a fairy played the “female” role in intercourse and a straight man (who they used to call trade) maintained his masculinity by performing the “male” role, everything was fine and no one was judged or ostracised. In working class society, people tended to have a gender identity rather than a sexual identity. There was no division between heterosexual and homosexual men, but rather between masculine males (“normal” men, often including queers, homosexuals who also maintaned the masculine role, but weren't fairies) and effeminate ones (fairies), who were basically regarded as women and/or third sex combining both male and female elements.
Right, and here are soldiers listening and reading about how they should save their morality and protect their health, and how dangerous prostitutes and simply “loose” women are. The campaign rarely focused on sex without a condom: it was mostly about the dangers of sex with a woman. Soldiers processed all that, understood that they could catch syphilis or other diseases only from women… and went on to have sex with gay men. Who of course were very enthusiastic about confirming that, yes, any man would be absolutely safe with them.
Worth noting that fairies gradually became more available in New York and other big cities during the war. Prostitution was pushed underground, many establishments closed, and the police and civil societies constantly persecuted women who they thought were prostitutes. They did not touch men, however, and suddenly noticed “an apparent increase in male perversion” involving soldiers everywhere. Oops. Sailors meeting fairies wasn’t uncommon before the war, but now they could be seen walking arm in arm and kissing on more or less dark streets. It was just easier for men to find fairies than female prostitutes. Since it was basically the same for them, because the partner was feminine in any case, soldiers and simply working class New Yorkers moved from one option to another.
It was right after the war that the police and moral reformers actually paid attention to the “pervert problem” for the first time. Before that, there were only sporadic raids and arrests. Until the early 1920s, gay men were more actively and severely persecuted, but then focus shifted to other problems caused by Prohibition and for about a decade gay men enjoyed relative peace again.
#queer history#gay history#world war 1#ww1#first world war#american army#new york#wwi#blog: new york#blog: history
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yeah sure let's put the fucking national guard (with MACHINE GUNS) and the state cops on the subway platforms alongside the extant hordes of useless NYPD cops, why not. who needs money for libraries and schools and community services when we can instead spend obscene amounts of money putting droves of cops and entire fucking soldiers (WITH MACHINE GUNS) on the subway to search people's shit with the intent to make people "feel safer" (whose safety is being considered here?)
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KINDRED SPIRITS - PART 10
summary: alexandria, the kindgom and the hilltop launch their calculated attack on the sanctuary. tensions rise when daryl wants you to stay home from the battle, but you refuse and he eventually caves. secrets still loom as you and daryl team up to lead the horde of walkers to the sanctuary
daryl dixon x reader
part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6 part 7 part 8 part 9
After the fight with the Saviors, Maggie, Rick and Ezekiel had gathered together with their communities, vowing to fight the Saviors until freedom was achieved for every person standing. The win from the days previous, as the Saviors and Scavengers fleed Alexandria, had given everyone the injection of hope and vigor that they had needed all along, now seeing how strong they all were together; what they could achieve. Everyone's spirits and motivation were high, as plans had started to be made, setting their eyes on the biggest prize of all; taking the Saviors for good this time, indefinitely,
You had rested up for a few days under Daryl's orders and his comfortable watch, not letting you out of his sight as he voted to ditch some of the teams going on runs, letting them handle it to take care of you. You had told him you were fine, it wasn't like you had experienced any fatal injuries, bruises more so here and there, especially the ones that covered your neck from the chokehold Negan held you in harshly during the battle, before you had managed to get away. It wasn't the physical scars Daryl was entirely worried about. He had noticed your nightmares, which seemed to be continuing as he would comfort you every night, as much as you apologized for waking him up with your screams and pleas. He was worried for your mind, which seemed to wander, how you would flinch at his hand meeting your shoulder, though you did it involuntarily, his heart would still twinge slightly at it. He did every task, even if it was within arm's reach, making you food, turning the TV on, everything. And while you were thankful for his acts of service, as caring as they were, especially in the first day or two, now you were just sick of being coddled after days of it,
You expressed a yawn as you turned in the bed, seeing no figure there lying beside you, as you rubbed your eyes, sitting up to see Daryl pulling his clothes on quietly. "And where are you going?" you asked teasingly as he turned to see you awake, smirking at you. "Gotta help them hit some of the lookout spots," he replied kindly but it came out as more of a murmur, as you pulled the covers back, getting out of the bed. "Well I'm coming too," you stated with a smile, almost as if it was obvious, and it was. Daryl knew you'd want to come which is why he had tried to sneak out. "Nah you ain't. Yer stayin' here with Rosita and Michonne," he argued, as he grabbed his crossbow. You scoffed as you started pulling jeans and a shirt on defiantly. "Daryl, Rosita got a bullet to her shoulder, Michonne was brutally attacked and suffered a broken rib. I am fine. I'm unharmed and I'm coming with you," you reasoned, being just as stubborn as he was,
He grumbled an aggravated sigh at you as he watched you pull your boots on, zipping them up with a headstrong smirk. "You hear what I just said? Yer stayin' here. I need you safe, and safe is here," he growled out gruffly as you rolled your eyes at his determination to keep you here. You grabbed your gun from your bedside locker, fastening your belt with your knife sheath, around your waist as you shook your head frustrated. "Daryl I have been holed up here for days, and I appreciate your help the last few days. You know I do. But right now, they need every able-bodied person out there helping, doing something. And I am able-bodied. So I'm coming with you. You can't stop me," you blurted out angrily as you watched him relax slightly, backing down,
He shook his head at you, before finally staring at you as you gazed up at him. "Fine," he grumbled out, though his usual aggression wasn't there, not for you. You smiled at him gratefully, happy that he wasn't annoyed at you. How could he be? You were right. He knew he had cared for you to an extreme in the days you had been home, and he knew you appreciated it. But he couldn't keep you here forever. And he'd rather you come with him, than stay here angry at him. He couldn't handle you being angry with him. "Thank you," you smiled as you stood on your tip-toes, placing a slow kiss on his lips as he reciprocated, entangling his arms around you. After a few moments of bliss, he pulled away as you smiled,
"Knew you were soft for me, Daryl Dixon," you joked with a mischievious smile as he let out a 'pfft,' pushing your face away with his big hand as you giggled, his shove not being forceful in the slightest. "Shut up," he muttered, trying to hide his smile and the blush that crept onto his cheeks. He knew that too, that he had a soft spot for you, he was sure everyone knew that by now, though none of them mentioned it for fear they'd get an arrow through the eye for pointing it out. He was being vulnerable with someone for once, and he wasn't sure how to navigate it. Everything he had once known had melted away. And it frightened him, but he still let it. After years, he let you in, unable to keep his front up anymore when it came to you. He questioned what his feelings were. The worry he felt for you when you were missing, the anger that had boiled within him as he watched Negan hold you close, the relief that washed over him once he had you in his arms after so long,
He hadn't felt this way about anyone before. Sure, he'd protect every member of his group with his own life if he needed to. He'd lay himself on the line and let everyone walk over him to keep them safe. But when it came to you, it was more than that, he knew that. He would do anything for you. He wasn't sure how to label his feelings or whatever there was between you. The moments of affection you shared, they meant everything to him, even though he hadn't said any of this out loud. To you or to anyone. He didn't know where to start. He didn't know if you wanted something casual, a fling, a relationship; hell, he didn't even know what he wanted. All he was sure of, was that he wanted you to be happy, not to feel pressured into labelling anything too soon, though he was dying to know what you felt, what you thought. So he said nothing,
You both walked out, getting ready to head out. You, Morgan, Carol, Tara, and Daryl had been tasked with taking out the lookout posts of the Saviors and to direct a giant horde of walkers towards the Sanctuary. Rick decided to assist and join in taking down some of the lookout spots. Meanwhile, the remaining Alexandrians, the Kingdom and the Hilltop launched a direct assault on the Sanctuary as a distraction, until the walkers got there. Maggie prepared their people, as they welded sheets of steel and metal to the sides of the vehicles they'd be driving towards the Sanctuary when the time was right. Carol and Tara would track a herd of walkers, going to the highway to wait for yous, while you, Morgan, Rick and Daryl took out the lookout posts. You watched Daryl get on his bike, as you moved to get on. "Nah," he said with a bit of urgency there, as you eyed him confused, pulling your hands away. His gaze softened as he realized how rushed his tone had sounded. "I mean. I need you to go with Morgan, help him take out the other lookout post. He's been actin' a bit weird lately, need ya to keep an eye on him," he explained gently as you stared at him for a moment, still unsure before you nodded,
"Okay," you smiled lightly, "if that's where you need me to be, then that's where I'll be." You still were a bit suspicious of his tone, but you were still grateful he was even letting down his protectiveness over you to let you come in the first place, so you chose not to argue with him as you turned around to see Morgan, looking stoic. You turned back to Daryl as he revved the engine of his motorbike. You reached forward to hug him tightly, as he wrapped his arms around your waist, breathing in your scent as he hummed in content. "Be careful," you warned him, moving a bit of his dark hair out of his face as he nodded. "You too. I'll meet you at the highway," he whispered to you, looking around to lean up to place a kiss on your cheek. You smiled, you knew he wasn't totally keen on PDA,
You walked over to get in the car with Morgan as he drove to the lookout spot. You took them out with expert skill, shooting them before they'd even realized you were there as Morgan wielded his stick, driving it into the skulls of the remaining soldiers. You both exchanged a nod and a smile as you got in the car, heading straight for the highway as Daryl arrived at his lookout spot, taking out the men without warning, before he headed towards the Sanctuary. Once he arrived at the back of the perimeter, he looked to see a soldier standing there. He took his aim, firing the arrow towards the car next to the soldier on lookout; Dwight. This had been the real reason he didn't want you to come. Daryl hadn't yet found the right time to tell you that Dwight had joined your side and he wasn't quite sure how you'd take it. Realistically, he wanted you to come with him, to keep a watchful eye over you, to protect you, even though he knew you could protect yourself,
Dwight spotted the arrow, looking around to make sure he wasn't being watched, before he took the piece of paper rolled around the arrow, unravelling it to see the word 'Tomorrow' emboldened on the page. He turned to where it had been shot from to see Daryl, ducked behind a vehicle as he sent him a nod in confirmation, knowing the groups meant to attack the next day. Dwight used the crossbow to shoot it back, Daryl nodding back firmly as he took the arrow, climbing back on his bike to make his way towards the highway. You and Morgan had drove, parking up beside Carol and Tara. "Any sign?" you asked Tara, as she looked down at her watch before she shook her head, knowing you weren't talking about the herd, but Daryl. You sighed loudly before you heard an engine, looking up to see Daryl driving towards you as he parked his motorcycle, walking towards you now, relief washing over both of you,
"What took you so long?" you asked, as you hugged him for a moment. "Got held up," he lied gruffly, but you didn't question him anymore than that, focused on waiting for the horde of walkers to come. The clock striked the time Tara and Carol had predicted as you exchanged a worried glance with Carol when you saw no sign. Suddenly, Daryl saw them in the distance. "Hey," he said patting your shoulder gently, "look!" You noticed his touch as he directed your gaze to the walkers coming towards you in the distance. You sighed in relief as you couldn't help but smile slightly. This plan was actually going to work. "Okay, close enough," Tara scoffed as you laughed at her calculation being a minute off. "Ready?" Carol asked as she looked at Morgan,
"Ready," he said firmly as they shared a smile as they began running towards the next station spot they had mapped out just up the road. You jogged over, getting on the bike behind Daryl as you wrapped your arms around his waist. "You okay?" he craned his neck to ask gently, as you nodded, indicating you were ready for him to drive. You followed Tara, Carol and Morgan a few paces away, sticking beside them as Daryl drove at their pace, before Carol hit a button on the remote she held, as you all heard a boom. You turned around to see the car on the highway successfully lit on fire, as the walkers followed it, leading them the way that you needed them to go. Once you were at the next spot, you got off the bike, helping Morgan to tie the tripwire. You worked on using a knot that Daryl had taught you at the beginning of it all, to tie it successfully to a hook on the wall of a building as Morgan pulled it, making it taught as he got to work on fastening the other end to the wingmirror of one of the vehicles,
You and Morgan shared a trusty handshake as you walked up the stairs, joining the others at the top of the bridge that stood above the tripwire you and Morgan had just installed. You looked out to see the walkers in the distance, coming in your direction just like you wanted them to. Just ahead, you spotted a walker wavering dangerously close to the trap as Tara seemed to notice it at the same time. "Shit. Could that set it off?" she asked with a panic, as Morgan already began descending the stairs rapidly. "I got it," he announced as he ran towards the walker, piercing his stick through it's skull swiftly, just before it hit the tripwire. Morgan looked out to see the Saviors' vehicles approaching as he moved nimbly, hiding behind a dumpster just in time. You and the others stood watching from the bridge that was out of the Saviors' eyesight, watching as they hit the tripwire,
The explosion sounded and fire engulfed the cars and motorcycles, successfully burning the Saviors within to a crisp. You looked at Daryl as he nodded; second phase of the plan was complete. You heard gunshots in the distance as you all got to your vehicles. Your eyes darted towards the Sanctuary. "It's started," Carol said, as you heard the battle begin at the facility in the distance. "It was always gon' be that way," Daryl responded as you nodded, all of you watching the walkers approaching now, right where you wanted them. "Pleasure doing business with you," Tara smiled with a mock salute as you mirroed her action, the two of you laughing. Tara and Morgan ambled into the car as Carol approached you and Daryl, holding him in a close hug before taking your hand softly, giving it a knowing squeeze,
"Be careful," she whispered to both of you shakily, her worry for yous evident in her voice. You squeezed her hand back, sending her a reassuring smile. "Shit, this is gonna be fun," Daryl humored as he watched the oncoming herd. "Hell yeah it is," you resounded with a laugh, both sharing a smirk as you climbed onto his bike, wrapping your arms trustly around his torso again, your thumb moving subconsciously to rub his hip as he blushed, Carol noticing as she smirked at him but he gave her a look that said 'be quiet.' She gave you both one final smile, before getting in the car with the others as you heard them drive away. "Ready?" he asked amusingly, as he turned to you. You flicked the gun in your hand, checking the barrel was full before clicking it back into place, lifting your hand to smile at him slyly. "Ready when you are," you replied as he smirked at your shared enthusiasm, both of you ready to kick those Saviors' asses,
You held on as he started the engine, driving his bike at a slow pace, the walkers right behind you now as they followed the noise of the motorbike. You got a few yards away, before you cocked the gun in your hand, aiming it straight at the metal container you had placed there earlier, shooting it expertly as it exploded in flames, the walkers being spurred on even more as Daryl continued to drive. "Nice shooting, who taught you how to do that?" he asked smugly as he kept his eyes on the road. "Carl," you replied arrogantly, as he turned to send you a glare as you laughed, knowing it was him who had taught you, though you and Carl did target practise together often now and you both led the training of the Hilltop citizens in weapon combat over the last few days, getting them as experienced as possible for the battle that was now upon you today,
You and Daryl continued to ride as you shot at the designated explosives along the way, expertly setting them off as Daryl smiled secretly at your skill, not caring to admit how proud he was. You shot the final one, taking the detour as you watched the walkers be led to the Sanctuary as you both drove away, heading towards the meetup spot where the others would be waiting
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MEANWHILE....
After waving off you, Morgan, Tara, Carol and Daryl, Rick got to work on his task, as he made his way in the vehicles, secured with the steel armor with the rest of his people, to the meetup spot where Maggie and Ezekiel's soldiers would be waiting in similar vehicles. Once they met there, they headed out towards the Sanctuary, parking the cars outside the front gate of the Sanctuary as they began to pile out, raising their guns towards the facility. With one firm swoop of Maggie's arm, the people began to shoot a few times before halting their shots. After a few moments, Rick heard a door creaking open, leaning out to see Negan strolling out onto the balcony along with a few of the Saviors, his right hand Simon, Dwight and Eugene,
"Sorry I'm late. I was in a meeting," he apologized mockingly as he swung Lucille over his shoulder. Rick stayed silent as everyone kept their guns fixated on Negan and his men. "See, I see no reason to participate in throwin' lead at each other, Rick. I care about my people. I won't send my people to die in the firing line to play "my dick is bigger than yours,"' he stated dramatically as he paused, shrugging his shoulders, "it is. But hell, I won't let my people die for that fact. Like you're about to." With his last sentence, Rick watched as Negan pointed Lucille right in his direction, through the sheets of metal tantalizingly. Rick ignored Negan asking him what he can do for him in a mocking fashion, instead pointing at the soldiers next to him. "Really hope you don't have Y/N in amongst those cars of yours. Be such a pity to watch my wife die. I just hate seeing pretty people die," he teased, as Rick's jaw clenched at his mention of you. "She's not yours. Not anymore," Rick warned, as Negan simply chuckled at his frustration, as he pointed his finger up at the soldiers next to Negan on the balcony,
"Dwight, Simon. You're Eugene, you're?" he yelled, clearly asking the woman her name. "Regina," she quipped as Rick nodded. "Regina. All of you here, all of you inside. You surrender and you can live. Can't guarantee it any time after now," he offered as Negan snickered at him. "What about me, Rick?" he asked in faux worry, placing his free hand to his chest, faking a wound. "I told you. Twice. You know what will happen," Rick seethed viciously as Negan licked his teeth slowly in a wide smirk. "You're right. I know what's about to happen. But you don't, Ricky boy. You really think you got the numbers for this fight?" he boomed loudly as he gestured to Simon, who brought Gregory out from the facility. Rick stayed silent as Maggie's jaw clenched at the sight of Gregory,
"What did you wanna say to Rick and his piss patrol, Gregory?" Negan asked coolly, as he draped an arm over Gregory's shoulders, who flinched involuntarily. "The Hilltop stands with Negan and the Saviors. Any resident who takes up arms against the Saviors will no longer be welcome in the colony," he shouted, trying to sound sure but his voice wavered. "And?" Negan whispered to him expectantly. "A-and their families will be thrown out to fend for themselves. Go home now. Or you won't have one to go back to," he threatens as Maggie scoffs, shaking her head as silence fell over both groups now. "You do what you need to do," Maggie whispered sincerely to the Hilltop citizens who stood next to her, but they didn't falter, giving her assured nods,
"All I have at Hilltop is a bunch of books and a lobster bib anyway," Jesus laughed as Maggie smiled brightly back at him. "You heard him. Go back to organizing wheat or whatever it is you guys do," Negan taunted. "Doesn't look like anyone's goin', does it?" Maggie yelled back menacingly, but amusement was evident in her voice at the fact that his threat hadn't worked. "Hilltop stands with-" Gregory started angrily, before Jesus interrupted him. "The Hilltop stands with Maggie," Jesus shouted as the other Hilltop citizens nodded in agreement. Simon suddenly moved from his spot to stand dangerously close to Gregory as he began to cower, stepping backwards as Simon walked forwards. "I invested a lot in you," Simon growled out as he pointed his finger at him, "and I am very disappointed." With his final words, Simon reached out his hands, shoving Gregory down the metal staircase that he was standing in front of, sending his body tumbling harshly down the steps,
Suddenly, an explosion was heard nearby as everyone's heads whipped around to see the explosion that you and Morgan had orchestrated. Rick smirked as Maggie nodded at him. "You lieutenants are going to have to decide now," Rick demanded as he stared at them through the gap in the sheets of metal from the cars. He watched Negan smirk, but knew underneath it all that he was struggling for options. "Maybe we can convene and take a time out," one of the other soldiers piped up, fear in his voice, as Negan turned to glare at him. "No. It's here and now," Rick refused, making his intentions clear, before he stepped to lean on his left leg, scoffing now. "You really gonna make me count?" Rick asked amused as Negan glared at him,
"Fine. 10...9....8," he counted slowly, emphasizing every number as he did so. "...7," he yelled and without warning, raised his gun shooting straight at where the soldiers stood, his group following his move, as they all raised their guns beginning to shoot out the windows of the Sanctuary, bullets raining down on the facility. With Rick's swift movement, the others managed to get inside as Negan was forced to practically dive down the staircase, ducking from the gunfire. The others began to pile into their cars, shooting as they retreated into their vehicles. People got into the RVs, driving them straight through the front gates, before parking them up as they jumped out, running back to the cars. Once Gabriel saw everyone got out safely, he turned to Rick and gave him a rapid nod as Rick wasted no time, hitting the button on the remote, as the two RV's exploded in flames, as they both ducked,
Through the smoke, Rick spotted Negan limping towards and hiding behind a piece of scrap metal from the debris. He saw red as he began shooting blindly, trying to catch him in the gunfire, seeing he was alone, defenseless. Gabriel's hand on his shoulder halted him as he turned around seeing Gabriel's panicked face. "We need to go Rick. This isn't about you, right?" he asked firmly as Rick listened, looking around at the walkers coming emmanantly closer towards them, grumbling a sigh but running towards the car, getting in as Gabriel got into his. Rick drove away, thinking Gabriel was right behind him, when in reality he had seen Gregory scared running to find somewhere to hide as he got out to help him; a mistake as Gregory took Gabriel's car, driving off swiftly, as Gabriel was forced to stumble into of the cabins, shutting the door and locking it as he panted, turning to see a figure; Negan,
----------------------
You and Daryl reached the meet up spot as he climbed off of the bike, reaching his hand out to you to help you off. You gazed at him in awe slightly, placing your hand in his palm as he graciously helped you off the bike, his hand ghosting your back to make sure you got off okay. You began to walk towards Rick and the others, only realizing now that neither of you had dropped the hold, still holding hands. You both noticed but neither made a move to let go as you blushed lightly. Once you reached the others, you were forced to let go of his hand as Maggie's arms engulfed you in a hug as you hugged her back, both of you smiling as you both swayed side to side a bit. "It worked," she whispered as you both pulled away, beaming at one another,
Daryl walked over to Rick as you spoke with Maggie. "We can wait some more," Daryl reasoned as they stared out at the horde of walkers attacking the Sanctuary. "We can't," Rick denied. "Gabriel stopped to get me. Negan. He was right there. I was trying to kill him and Gabriel stopped me," Rick said to Daryl as he listened to him. "You all right?" Daryl asked at his words, but Rick only chuckled lightly. "This isn't about me," he replied, before gesturing towards the cars, as Daryl took his nod, sounding a loud whistle letting everyone know to gather and leave. Everyone got into the vehicles as you got onto the bike with Daryl again, holding onto him extra tight, leaning your face against his back as he let a small smile grace his features at your action as he drove to next output you needed to take out, the group splitting to take out as many of the Savios outposts as possible. You relished in a few moments of bliss, not needing to worry about anything as Daryl drove the motorcycle. You felt the wind hit your face as you closed your eyes, feeling a few minutes of complete relaxation before you'd have to fight once again
PART 11 COMING SOON ;) let me know if you want to be added to the taglist <3 hope you enjoyed. for continuity purposes, this is a short chapter compared to the others, because i want it to flow a bit better and didn't want to cram too much into one part <3 not entirely proud of this part, so apologies if it's subpar
TAGLIST: @onlyheretoread2 @iheartyouyou @lothiriel9 @goosegorl @carlgrimeskisser @catisnotademonn @hopefulatrocity @filmsbyblair
#twd#the walking dead#daryl dixon#daryl dixon x reader#daryl dixon x you#daryl dixon x y/n#daryl dixon fluff#daryl dixon fanfiction#twd fanfiction
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