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brotheralyosha · 3 years

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“Because I spent so long working on the later Roman Empire and its political disintegration, I’m deeply wary of making too explicit a comparison between it and the present-day United States. It’s too easy to make an overdetermined, square-peg-into-round-hole type of argument simply because it’s available and I know it well.”

“But one area where the comparison makes a great deal of sense lies in the role of the frontier.”

“There are a lot of different ways of understanding the end of the Roman Empire in the west: barbarian invasions, internal dissension, economic collapse, some combination of the above, or a gradual slip into imperial senescence. The one that’s always made the most sense to me focuses on the imperial periphery.”

“The Roman Empire’s frontier zones were a space dominated by the Roman army, not just as a military force but also as a cultural and economic institution. When the people living beyond the frontiers - barbarians - interacted with the Roman Empire, they were really interacting with its army. Sometimes they fought it, sometimes they supplied it with food and supplies, and most often, they joined it. The result was a distinctive shade of frontier culture focused on the Roman military, but with a healthy dose of “barbarian” - wearing trousers, using Germanic words, and so on - mixed in. This culture encompassed both sides of the border, creating a zone of intense interaction stretching well into both the barbarian lands and the Roman Empire.”

“In the later stages of the Roman Empire’s existence in the west, it’s often hard to tell the difference between a force of rampaging barbarians and a Roman field army. Both drew their recruits primarily from people living beyond the frontier. They used the same kinds of swords and wore the same kinds of helmet: Even the famous Sutton Hoo helmet from 6th-century England is just a Roman cavalry helmet (a Spangenhelm) with a cool-looking mustachioed face mask added. Roman soldiers spoke a variety of camp Latin that was generously spiced with Germanic words. Plenty of barbarian raiders had served time in the Roman military; it’s not hard to imagine that some barbarian recruits into the Roman army had probably raided Roman territory at some point before they joined up. Even Roman soldiers recruited inside the empire’s boundaries were often descended from recently settled barbarian groups.”

“The upshot of all this is that rather than seeing a series of barbarian invasions that brought foreign invaders into the Roman heartlands, we should instead think of what happened as the transposition of frontier culture from the periphery to the imperial core. We can’t really draw a line between the “barbarian” and Roman military, because there wasn’t a firm distinction; the two bled into one another, and it’s easier to think of this as a militarized and ethnically distinct frontier culture. This culture, and people who had been brought up with it and molded by it, was what moved, not a distinct series of barbarian ethnic groups who were unfamiliar with Roman ways and practices.”

“The Roman frontier was a violent place. It was, after all, a militarized space. When the frontier and its military culture expanded into the formerly peaceful Roman core, violence came with it. A military aristocracy that derived its position from its war-making capacity replaced the Roman civic elite; where the latter survived, it assimilated to the new, militarized aristocratic culture. Armies tramped through the interior, sacking and burning cities like Rome and Carthage. It’s a safe bet that the average folks of lowland Britain, coastal Spain, and fertile North Africa didn’t welcome the sight of the frontier coming toward them; that meant violence, blood-stained swords, armored men rifling through their possessions, burning huts, and much more.”

“When we see Border Patrol agents wearing camouflage and helmets, carrying M4s with optics, rigged up like they’re about to go on patrol in Ramadi or the Korengal Valley (or deal with a migrant caravan in the southwest), that’s empire coming home. The viciousness of their handling of immigration during the Trump era, complete with threats of gunfire, concentration camps, and consistent dehumanization, has been a preview of their handling of American citizens. So too have been the various misdeeds of American soldiers overseas.”

“Even leaving aside the fact that the mishmash of federal agencies providing these paramilitary forces are stocked with veterans of overseas conflict - about 30 percent of Border Patrol agents are veterans, for example - the equipment and us vs. them way of approaching conflict are straight out of the imperial frontier. The fact that these paramilitary policemen aren’t actually soldiers isn’t as relevant as the ways of thinking about force and power, and who constitutes a legitimate target for violence, that empire produces. At this point, the periphery has entered the imperial core.”

“When we see armed agents of the state beating a Navy veteran with batons, tear-gassing moms in bike helmets and the mayor of Portland, and planning further deployments to Chicago and Albuquerque, I can’t help but think of that man who spent five centuries buried in a mass grave at Towton, of his old wound and crushed face. Is that where we’re heading? Is it inevitable that the tools of imperial war will be even more explicitly turned against people here at home?”

“All empires fall. When they do, the violence and terror they’ve wrought on others has a way of coming back around.”

#us politics #imperialism #patrick wyman #long post #read the whole thing

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a-student-out-of-time · 3 years

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Hibiki calm down!! Oh jeez someone please hold her back so she doesn't do something stupid!

Really? Looks like she’s trying to kill me right now.

*Hibiki draws her sword* I’ll kill you...I swear to god, I’ll fucking kill you. How dare you even MENTION my sister...

So much for the tragic victim of a killer, eh? Killing someone for just being mean to you? You really are a worthless piece of human trash.

SHUT THE FUCK UP!

Hibiki, wait! Stop!

This is not the plan!

*Hibiki doesn’t listen and instead swings wildly in the air, too angry to focus on a strategy*

*The Killer has little trouble avoiding her*

HOLD STILL!

*He pulls a large buck knife from his coat* Hehehe-

HRRAGH!

*Hiroshi leaps into the fray and rams into the killer shoulder-first*

GAH!

*They’re knocked aside, slamming into the back of the old car and dropping their knife*

H-Huh?

Do NOT speak that way to that girl. She’s been through more than you can imagine.

Come at me, you little shit! I’ll take you on!

Alright..gugh... if that’s how you want it...

Someone grab the knife!

*Hiroshi grapples with the Killer*

Allow me!

*Sonia rushes over, picks up the knife, and unfurls her baton*

This is for making her cry, you piece of shit!

*WHACK!*

*She strikes the Killer in the gut, forcing them to double over*

AH! That’s dirty!

When have people like you ever fought fairly?

*Hiroshi grabs the guy’s neck and slams him into the bumper*

Gughh...you know...

You’ve got a point.

*The killer reaches into their pants pocket and pulls out a smaller knife before tackling Sonia*

GAH! Get off me!

*She grabs his wrist with both hands as he tries to stab her in the face*

RELEASE HER, DEMON!

GO FORTH, MY DEVAS!

*The Four Dark Devas leap off Gundham’s arm and latch onto the Killer’s face before crawling into his suit*

G-Gah! Ow! Ow! Fucking vermin, I- OW!

*Thanks to the power of hamsters, Sonia manages to kick him away*

*Hiroshi slams the guy up against a wall*

Son, take Hibiki and get her out of here.

B-But...

*Hibiki is too shaken to do anything at the moment*

Alright. C’mon, we gotta go.

You know, you’re pretty tough. That guy’s your son?

I’m not answering any of your questions. You’re a disgusting piece of filth.

Rrrgh...G-Get these goddamn rats off of me!

*The Devas drop out of his clothes and return to Gundham*

And thus, we have succeeded.

Are you alright?

*He helps Sonia up*

Yes. Thank you, Emperor.

Now, you will remain here until the police arrive.

Really? You think that’s gonna solve anything?

We’re done listening to you. All you’ve spouted so far is bullshit. You’re going to prison, regardless of what you do next.

So...you’re done with me talking, huh? Alright.

*He makes a motion with his sleeve*

What’s-

*Shank!*

GAH!

*Hiroshi stumbles back, gripping his side in pain*

SEE YA!

Hiroshi-san!

How many knives do they have?!

I’m fine! Go! Don’t let him escape!

#danganronpa #sdr2 #Super Danganronpa 2 #nwpm #neo world program monitor #sdra2 #Super Daganronpa Another 2 #Hajime Hinata #Hiroshi Hinata #Sonia Nevermind #gundham tanaka #hibiki otonokoji #Copycat Killer #a student out of time #DR #Let the Dogs Out arc

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imaginationfanstar · 3 years

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Princess Prom Aftermath

The missing scene where Glimmer and Bow get separated after they get captured at Princess Prom

Bow’s eyes blinked open slowly. His vision was blurry, his head foggy, and his body felt heavy like lead. A quiet groan escaped his lips before he shut his eyes tightly to see if that would help. When he opened his eyes again, the first thing he noticed was the dark metal floor moving beneath him. He was confused at first but as he started regaining his senses he became aware of the acrid smell in the air, the sound of machinery whirling and the feeling of his arms being held tightly behind his back as he was dragged forward. He blinked rapidly as his breath picked up trying to remember what had happened. The last thing he could remember clearly was going to find his cummerbund after his argument with Glimmer. However, as soon as he had walked out of the hall, he felt a stinging pain in his lower back and then everything went dark.

His heart was still pounding by the time he’d gained feeling in the rest of limbs, but he slowly calmed his breathing, kept his body limp and his head down as he discreetly surveyed his surroundings. From what he could see, it was clear that he was no longer in the Kingdom of Snows. Instead of beautiful but cold ice walls, he was surrounded by ugly metal walls illuminated by harsh green lighting. At his sides were a tall, green-skinned lizard man and a dark-skinned girl with dreads, restraining his arms as they hauled him along. He could vaguely recall his first encounter with them on the mission to recruit Mermista into the Rebellion when the Horde had attacked the Sea Gate. His best guess was that he was in the Fright Zone.

His stomach dropped as his gut was filled with dread. He was starting to have trouble keeping his breathing under control. He had never seriously entertained the possibility of ever being captured by the Horde. Sure, he’d been in danger before, but things had never felt as dire or uncertain as they were now. With the rules set in place at princess prom this was last thing he expected to happen. He couldn’t imagine what they’d do to him now that he was within their grasp. Would they torture him for information? Kill him out right. He wondered whether his friends would be able to rescue him before it was too late. If he died, his friends would be devastated. Adora would blame herself and Angella and Glimmer would probably take it the hardest considering they had lost King Micha the same way. Then there was his family. His dads… his dads didn’t even know he was fighting for the Rebellion. If he didn’t make it, they would never know what happened him. It would be like he’d just disappeared. His heart broke at the very thought. His spiraling descent into depression was interrupted, however, by a soft murmuring sound behind him in a voice that caused his heart to sink even further.

“Wha- Bow.”

He gasped and his eyes widened in shock. What was she doing here? he thought. He couldn’t believe they had gotten her too. “Glimmer!” he shouted back. Getting his feet under him, he glanced back to see his best friend being dragged along behind him by the white-haired scorpion woman who threw him off that Horde battleship in Salineas. His friend’s eyes were glazed over but they were rapidly clearing up.

“Bow?!” she gasped. Then she started fighting her captor furiously as she lunged toward him. “Bow! Let him go!” “Whoa, hey!” Scorpia exclaimed while trying to keep a hold of her fellow princess. Shouting furiously Glimmer disappeared in a cloud of her signature sparkles and reappeared beside Bow’s captors. She tossed a blinding ball of glittery magic into each of their faces to distract them. At the shouting Catra, who’d been carrying Adora’s sword, turned around and ran quickly back towards them. Bow yanked his arm out of one of his captor’s grasp, ripping his sleeve off in the process, and reached out towards his friend. Just as Glimmer was about to grasp his out-stretched hand, Catra tackled her to the ground but not before tossing the sword to Scorpia.

“I don’t think so princess,” Catra taunted as she made to restrain her.

“Ugh! Get off me!” Glimmer shouted. The two of them grappled with each other heatedly trying to get the upper hand. Glimmer’s dress started accumulating rips and tears from how hard she tried fighting the cat girl off. She even tried teleporting a few times to get some distance but refused to move too far away from her friend. Unfortunately, Catra was too fast, being able to remain nearly on top of her the whole time. Bow was in a similar predicament as he too fought furiously against tough odds as he struggled with two strong opponents to reach his friend.

“Keep them apart. Don’t let them anywhere near each other,” Catra ordered. While the two were distracted Scorpia was able to sound an alarm that brought soldiers running. Just as Glimmer teleported to a new location a Horde soldier was able to get behind her and shock her harshly with a stun baton. The princess cried out in pain before collapsing to the ground unconscious.

“Glimmer!” Bow shouted in panic before being forced to the ground with his arms wrenched behind his back. As his arms were cuffed together, he watched as their captor’s did the same to his friend.

“Take the boy to one of the holding cells,” Catra said as she straightened her rumpled suit. “Take the Princess to Shadow Weaver, she’ll know how to neutralize her indefinitely.”

“What? NO!” Bow shouted frantically. He tried fighting again even though he knew it was futile. “Don’t do this! You can’t separate us like this! Let her go! Glimmer!” She didn’t even stir as they were both roughly dragged away from each other.

He couldn’t believe how horribly things had gone. All he’d wanted was to have a good time at a fancy party with his friends. Instead, they barely spent any time together, he spent the whole evening telling the same stupid joke, got into a fight with his best friend, and got captured by the Horde. He should’ve just gone with Glimmer. Then they would have never gotten separated. They wouldn’t have fought. They wouldn’t have gotten captured. This wouldn’t (possibly) be the last time he ever saw his best friend again.

Here’s the post that inspired this fic

https://tippenfunkaport.tumblr.com/post/626114706137055232/you-ever-just-sit-around-and-think-about-how-when

Shout out to @tippenfunkaport. You’re amazing! This is my first fanfic post ever and it’s all thanks to you.

#glimbow #glimmer #bow #catra #scorpia #lonnie #rogelio #kyle #shera and the princesses of power #spop #she ra #shera #princess prom #no princess left behind #first fanfic

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zonamievents · 7 years

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Warmth Over Flowers

Word Count: 4,591 words Pairing: Roronoa Zoro x Nami Artists: @daftyoungen

Summary: When Zoro left to find Kaidou, he didn’t expect to be successful in locating the Yonkou so quickly. So of course, the Straw Hats would find him even faster! However, on a winter island, during a harsh winter storm, one member of the crew goes off to search for him all on her own and is in need of an immediate rescue… (title inspired by the manga series Boys Over Flowers)

NOTE: This story takes place on the unnamed winter island in Kaidou’s possession, where Scotch was located when Drake attacked him during the time skip. Without a name, I wanted to clarify that here, thank you.

BANG BANG! “NAMI!” Zoro cried out, hoping to breach the wild howling of the snowstorm with a belated warning. His voice couldn’t overcome the drifting ice shards or the thunder he spied a few yards away, and so the swordsman relied on his feet to carry him through the layers upon layers of snow that piled high around his legs as he fought the winter island’s storm in order to reach her. The gusts that blew past him, through him, collided with any of his exposed skin managed to steal every single breath from his frigid lungs while he stomped his way towards the battle.

He didn’t know just how many enemies Nami was facing, but in Kaidou’s territory, it was more likely that their power levels should worry her about rather than the quantity of the Yonkou’s subordinates.

A bright flash of lightning blinded him as it reflected off of the snowy field that he had been trying to cross. Zoro hissed even though his own ears couldn’t make out the sound as he raised his bare hands to somehow rub his impaired vision away. However, his Haki did not need his eyes to be open in order to activate – as his mind’s eye opened to warn him of the battle Nami was currently facing, he also managed to predict a new weather pattern that was looming overhead.

Raining icicles.

Impatience bleeding into his system, Zoro drew his swords and grit his teeth on the hilt of the Wadou. Sandai Kitetsu and Shusui in hand, he used their sharp tips to aid his escape as he clamored through the snow. Like ice picks did he pierce the ground beneath the snow and pull himself towards the battle. The first icicle that his Haki had warned him about slammed down three paces behind him and the force shot his hood up over his head as broken pieces struck his coat. That one crash gave him pause – did Nami have a coat before she escaped Kaidou!?

The next icicle cut off his path and he raised his blades to protect his body. He had barely taken a step! Before he could fathom his next move, his body moved of its own accord to cut through the icicle that was aimed at his head. The sky was clouded and darkened by the night enough as it was, with only Nami’s distant lighting brightening the island. He needed to reach her faster, before she called attention to herself!

Before the icicles impaled her!

Before anything took her life!

“Santoryuu,” growled the swordsman as he glared at the open field before him, icicles plummeting into the snow with enough force to shake his stance. Unafraid and unrelenting, he took the chance to catch his breath before calling out, “108 Pound Phoenix!” The blast from his attack was almighty without a direct physical target to receive it. As the force shot straight into the sky in a dome-like shape, so did it fly forward, digging through the snow, forming a thin path ahead. With swift feet did he rush forward in the direction he had seen that familiar lightning activity—

“D-Dammit!” He cursed at himself when he somehow managed to step off the path in a matter of seconds. Zoro stared firmly at the line his swords had drawn as he escaped the icicle storm and raced onward to save the navigator!

It was a very rickety run as he came face to face with his greatest yet silent flaw.

But it was even more distressing when he managed to reach the battlefield, where he found Nami.

There was a small hill that he had cut through unexpectedly and he nearly thought that he had somehow journeyed off course again. That is, until Zoro’s eye tore away from the line in the snow when a spark of lightning crackled at his boot so suddenly. His speed had carried him towards the battle, which had ended with a horde of Kaidou’s pirates’ bodies lying in every direction within a massive crater. So deep was it that there were patches of dirt peeking through the snow that tried to cover the indentation! Men and women of all sizes either laid dead or twitching with buzzing electricity dancing over their corpses…

“N-NAMI!” The swordsman shouted with a twist of fright in his voice as he leapt into the crater to retrieve the navigator. Her orange hair managed to stand out during the heavily clouded storm, but so was her signature green bikini top, acting as the only cover for her upper body.

“Dammit, Nami! What the hell are you doing out here, like this!?” His bark was hollow as he fell to his knees at her side. It was a horrifying notion to think that she was facing against a Yonkou’s crew alone, it was terrifying to see her body huddled in the middle of the battlefield without any winter clothes on.

But the worst scare he came face to face with in that crater was the fact that her skin had begun to turn blue.

It shocked him the moment he tried to pick her up, just how frozen her body was. Hadn’t she been fighting off Kaidou’s crew just moments before he arrived, he wondered. Her wide-range Thundercloud attack had blinded him!

‘Then why does she look like she’s been lying here for hours!?’

Unconscious and unresponsive, the navigator looked worse than he could have imagined her to be. Zoro genuinely felt that he was looking at someone else – that he couldn’t be staring at Nami of the Straw Hats, the woman who had been apart of the crew for nearly as long as he had – but that signature tattoo of hers was unmistakable.

As much as he hated to admit it, everything was unmistakable.

“Nami…” Feeling the low vibration in his throat of the way he said her name made his heart sink; the weather continued to oppose both of their survival and prevented him from hearing just how devastated he felt. A scowl befell his face, the dark and increasingly demoralizing thoughts crept up on him the moment he let his guard down. After all, Chopper had taught them all about the deadly illness you could contract in extremely cold temperatures. Hypo…

Hypo…ther…

Hypother…mastat, or something.

“Shit, what did he say?” Asked the swordsman as he tried to stand in for the Straw Hat’s doctor as his forcibly removed his coat form his body. His spine straightened, stiffened as soon as the frosty breath of winter blew against his back. He glared at Nami while lamely wrapping her up in his jacket simply because he knew that inside her intellectual mind were the answers he was looking for on how to tend to her!

At least her jeans protected her legs and prevented her condition from getting much worse.

Zoro lifted his crew mate into his arms and held her close, hoping to channel his warmth into her, despite how little her actually possessed. He moved a few of the stray pieces of fur from the hood out of her face in order to glance at her expression, now that he had a better view. He had never seen Nami sleep without her eyes being fully closed and it gave her a most haunted look. Skin pale, breathing weak, blue lips – whether it was that hypothermastat or not, she couldn’t have been well at all.

And then, it hit him.

“You’re not…shivering.” The fact was spoken so gently, Zoro wasn’t even sure he said it. If there was one thing he knew it was that cold bodies shivered… Living ones, anyway.

They also weren’t blue, typically.

And her eyes weren’t closing— “I need to find us somewhere to spend the night. Shit, somewhere indoors!” Constructing a plan, Zoro knew he needed a formidable shelter in order to survive and keep Nami alive. Anything inside a cave would still welcome in the cold. It was a fool’s errand potentially, but he had to find a building or a house of some kind if he was going to reunite the Straw Hats come tomorrow.

And that was exactly what he was going to do.

On top of the tired, dense body, he now had to lug around the lead weight that was Nami’s unconscious form. His robe might as well have been sliced to smithereens by the unforgiving wind and his boots were soaked through, yet Roronoa Zoro climbed out of the crater without so much as a grunt. The snow greeted him with a harsh smack in the face once he emerged, and he welcomed the refreshing burst if only to reawaken his weary mind.

One steely eye scanning the surrounding area, the once chivalrous swordsman scoffed. “Couldn’t you have left me a clue or something, telling me where you were going? You’re the navigator, aren’t you? You’re always making fun of me for having no sense of direction, so what am I—”

His toes knocked something light and thin, ending his mindless rant.

Zoro was shocked yet relieved to see that he had stumbled upon none other than the Climatact as he was leaving the makeshift battlefield. Reaching down carefully, he picked up his crew mate’s prized (and expensive) weaponry like it was some major triumph. Something positive amongst the chaos the night. Lifting it to show it to its owner, the swordsman hadn’t expected the Climatact to be much help on its own; it wasn’t until he raised the orange-tinted baton that he noticed something green flashing in the off to his right.

He uttered an unintentional ‘huh’ as he spied the light – was that beacon attached to a structure of some kind?

“…Shit.” Was all Zoro could say, hoping against reality that he could make his way towards the possible shelter without a single slip-up…

Not as he passed through the horde of fallen bodies…

Not when he traipsed over another hill…

Especially not during his descent through a sloping strip of trees…

“Heh, you must have rubbed off on me.” Concluded the swordsman as he found himself smirking up at an industrial-styled building that stood tall beneath the gleaming green light.

Just as he was about to celebrate his momentary victory, a tornado-like tempest swirled around him and battled with his stressed body to stay within its icy grasp. Snowflakes struck his cheeks like cold sandpaper in blatant protest of his attempt to flee the storm. Their assault only reminded him that he couldn’t relax just yet, not when he needed to guarantee that there would be no surprises once they made their way inside. The caution tape that wrapped around the building was tattered so badly that it wasn’t visible until he was standing directly in front of the wall of the building but he still managed to use it as a physical guide to lead him towards some sort of entrance.

Zoro nearly thought that he had somehow turned around and walked right back to the corner her had first arrived at until he spotted a deep line in the middle of the wall. No, he quickly realized, it was a mechanical pair of doors. Without a knob of any kind, the clueless swordsman had no idea how he was expected to open them. There was some kind of frozen black box on the wall – was there meant to be a key!? A childish, restless part of his mind urged him to cut through the metal or make his own damn doorway!

Allowing the winter weather inside by any means would be a foolish mistake, though.

Zoro wordlessly sneered at the mechanism that he could not use before continuing to stomp his way around the building. His Haki had not activated since the icicles attack and he truly believed that that meant they had found a rather secure place to hideaway. No security cameras meant no one was watching him foolishly waddle around the premises—

Foolish, until he found a traditional door with a frozen handle.

It didn’t take much for the relieved swordsman to use his Wadou’s hilt to chip away at the ice that kept them from going inside their shelter; a set of seven blows and the door knob was free to use…if one had a key. “…All right, that’s it.” Zoro nearly tossed the Wadou Ichimonji back into its scabbard, braced his arm, and threw himself into the door. Once, twice, three times he struck with his shoulder followed once with his foot in order to force it open and allow them inside. A weakened thud and a tumbling step forward indicated that he had achieved his goal. He felt a relieved breath escape him – nearly stealing all he had left inside his lungs – during his sluggish march inside their newly discovered shelter. On the floor a few tiles away from the entrance was a door knob…which he had presumably kicked out in his desperation.

Looking around, he doubted the place he had happened upon would have a spare.

It appeared that the swordsman and the navigator would be staying in an unoccupied security facility; there were screens laid out like a grid on the wall next to the door he had charged through, a control panel that was much too complicated for Zoro’s tastes resting beneath it. Again, his lone eye searched the surprisingly small space for any Den Den Mushi roaming around, silently relieved to discover that there was nothing within the vicinity to spy on them.

They were completely and utterly alone for the night.

“Okay, Nami,” Zoro spoke in a commanding tone in the hopes of awakening the frozen girl. Now that the wind was no longer thrashing around him, her limp body was even more alarming since he could feel just how still and lifeless she truly was.

As important as that was, there was something else he knew he needed to focus on first: sealing off the entrance he had bashed in, now that it was without a door knob. It took him a matter of seconds to see that there was some small yet sturdy-looking futuristic box propped up against the side of the control panel, perhaps heavy enough to close the door. Arms full, Zoro used his feet to shove the box in front of the ajar doorway. A buzzing sound started up the moment he knocked forward an inch but without any sparks and smokes coming out of the device, he persevered—

Pale, dim lights shuttered on above his head after he positioned his makeshift door jam in place.

“Huh,” was his brilliant reaction to the probable emergency lights that could make their stay a great deal easier – he managed to lock them indoors and provide them with lighting. Luck on his side, the swordsman moved onto his next concern: creating a place for her to rest in such a cold and office-like room. “Let’s see what we can work with here.”

He continued to hold her as he rummaged through the technologically advanced room. Everything was sleek and purposeful, emotionless and inhospitable compared to what he had envisioned while wandering through the snow. He had quite a long while to think of where he’d take her after all, given that he had left Kaidou and the Straw Hats before the sun had set on the west side of the island. If Nami had gone looking for him, Zoro assumed she would eventually run into him before he would have found her…

Again, he asked himself if she had been without a coat the entire time she had been separated from the crew?

Zoro squeezed her in his arms. Sighing, he paused his search to glance down at the typically rambunctious navigator in her current state. Being alone with her during a time where they were so far separated from any other living person on the island felt much more frightening than he imagined it would have. Nami wasn’t the type who would have sat quietly and waited for him to solve their problems, no. She would have told him where to go, most likely while he was forced to carry her on his back, all while loudly advising him on how to make the most out of the room he had found. She would have been warm due to her fiery nature and would have spent the rest of the evening berating him for doing what he did…

For putting them both in such a dangerous situation.

“I was trying to avoid this…or anything like this.” Mumbled the swordsman with a defensive rumble behind his words. He couldn’t remember the last time he was so physically close to her, yet being nearly face-to-face with Nami then and there was almost awkward as much as it was necessary.

“What I did…was necessary.”

Zoro stated the words he had kept within for so very long that hearing them spoken aloud shattered the tenderness he had experienced momentarily. Reaffirmed in his goal, he lifted his stare and noticed there were two more doors for him to consider. He nearly hissed when he examined them more closely, until he discovered what they each opened up to: his right led to the rest of the facility through a hatch marked ‘Corridor 001’ and the other appeared to be a glass-paneled opening to a closet that housed a dozen or so lab coats inside! More layers, which were exactly what they needed!

There was a moment of disbelief that opening the closet door required a mere sliding motion until it was tucked away within the wall. The easiest moment of his day, most definitely. “This is probably as good a place as any, considering where we are.” And on that note, the swordsman informally decreed that they would be camping out in the closet for the night.

To him, it made the most sense. The door he had used to enter the building was merely wedged in place at the bottom, which meant that any sort of strong gust could rattle it off its hinges and welcome some strong gusts of snow inside. The closet could be sealed off if need be, but casually, door opened just a sliver, it was technically an insulated space for them to come together for warmth. Zoro plucked the lab coats off of their hangers and let the metal hooks cry as he collected them for much less scientific reasons than they were made for. He jostled Nami around quite a bit during his nesting process – some for him to use as a cushion for the potentially long stay, others draped over them in a rather uncoordinated way – until he could tuck her into his side.

Then, finally, after everything he’d done to find her, Zoro could allow himself to relax.

“Ah…our temporary home.” He felt foolish for whispering something so blindly optimistic while releasing a breath that he had been holding onto deep within his chest. His nose was red like Luffy’s vest and his skin felt he had allowed Mihawk to slash at his flesh with his kogatana repeatedly; switching roles with Nami on a typical day would have been a foolhardy decision but to do so in an enemy’s territory, during a snow storm, felt very much one of the lessons he endured on Kuraigana Island.

Those challenges had been life-threatening in the beginning, too.

“Hm, I should probably see how you’re doing.” It wasn’t meant to sound like a question, at least, Zoro didn’t believe so. Nevertheless, his fingers twitched when they reached for the winter coat he had given her and began to slide it off of her shoulder. Nami reacted instantly – reminding him that she wasn’t merely sleeping next to him, but potentially fighting for her life – with a breathless whimper. Her desperation to keep his coat inspired him to move quickly as he moved to observe her one bluish skin.

To his great disappointment, it was still blue.

Franky’s hair color did not belong with Nami’s creamy complexion, Zoro decided in that moment. Brows digging into each other, lips burrowing into his cheeks, he was free to express his complete and utter displeasure when there was no one there to witness his natural response. However, as if she sensed his sullen mood, Nami’s head suddenly bobbed against his bicep. It felt as if she was calling him to attention! All he knew how to do was brave the bone-chilling touch of her body and place one hand on her shoulder, drawing her in.

“I don’t have anything else for us to use,” explained the swordsman with an earnest affliction to his tone. “This place wasn’t made for us to camp out here during the night, and I wouldn’t know how to turn the heat on, wherever it would be in here.” By the end of his explanation, it felt like he was pleading with her to understand that he had done his absolute best to bring her back from the frigid temperature that plagued her body. He hadn’t made her go out into the storm to find him – he hadn’t even invited the crew to follow him to the island! They had chased after him without his consent to do so. The Straw Hats were as everyone thought of them: eternal troublemakers that stuck vehemently to their causes.

Though Roronoa Zoro was the last person allowed to mock a crew mate for overzealous loyalty.

When a slight brush of wind slipped under the open collar of his robe, he couldn’t tell if it was Nami’s breathing beginning to regulate or a burst of air from his own nose, but it riled him just the same; he pretended it was her, as part of him had been thinking about how he came to be in his current situation. His newfound urge to speak his mind had been expanding ever since the crew reunited again all those months ago…it was only fair that the noisiest crew mate had her share of being scolded too.

“Wouldn’t need to figure out how to turn a heater on if I was in Kaidou’s headquarters, and you were safe on the Sunny, right? I told you guys time and time again that Kaidou would be our greatest threat – that we kept pissing him off with everything we were doing – but none of you listened. Then he takes Kidd and tries to make an example out of him, and suddenly you were beginning to take things seriously. But me? I had been thinking about what to do about Kaidou for a hell of a lot longer than all of you.

“I left to do what I needed to do in order to protect the crew. Usopp left, Robin left, you left once too, and… Yeah, we always chased you guys down. Sanji was the one exception for me, though…

“Argh, you guys shouldn’t have come!” Bursting with the strength that the budding warmth in his body provided him with, Zoro carried on audaciously. “You have no idea what I nearly managed to do for you guys so you could make it in the New World safely. I was so close to having him accept my terms and then you showed up so quickly! Your fault, huh? You didn’t even make Luffy bring Law and his crew with you! Now everyone else is sitting in a Yonkou’s jail! Why… It’s become worse than I could have ever wanted.”

Impassioned and unstoppable, Zoro turned to angle his head so that he could address Nami while staring her down. “You weren’t thinking when you brought them here, and look where it got you. Not in prison, yeah, but now you’re situation is a hell of a lot worse.”

Outside the building, the winter gusts shifted and struck the structure, mimicking the fury with which he had just chastised her. His reverence of Nami had always been the basis of his respect for her, the disillusionment sinking into the pit of stomach, mingling with the sick feeling of worry he had been housing whenever she made anytime of jarring movement. So when she bobbed her head again, Zoro felt the capacity of his endurance deplete instantaneously.

Sitting side by side felt so cold (ironically), so he shuffled her one again and propped her body up against his leg. Unintentionally, he was cradling her again, an act she appeared to appreciate as she fell into him rather suddenly. She wasn’t set up completely between his legs, however, the navigator easily found a place on his chest to rest her head, a space against his firm form to lay comfortably against.

And finally, she began to shiver.

“Nami!?” Zoro gasped soundly. It started in small jerking motions in her upper back, her hips, her hands, but it was unmistakeable that she was beginning to move again! That would normally be a negative sign in an everyday situation – to Zoro, it felt miraculous.

Unless he assumed that she was only beginning to feel better because she heard his accusatory rant and was planning to recovery quickly so that she could deliver her hefty, heated response.

He scoffed in disbelief at her unconscious vigor, then sighed at himself for being so aggressive with her. A remorseful hand patted the ground until he found a loose lab coat and draped it over her lower half in response. Nami rattled against him, teeth chattering as her shuddering unsettled her, and his typically emotionless heart twisted so tightly in his chest. His other hand became protective as he brought it back onto her shoulder, securing her against his most likely uncomfortable body. Everything about being on the worst winter island in all of the New World was uncomfortable…

Knowing that at least one member of his crew was safe was all of the comfort he needed, though.

Roronoa Zoro believed in the Straw Hats no matter what it was he had tried to do by pursuing Kaidou, including his faith-based prediction that they would escape from their prison cells without being harmed the way Kidd was. They were fine – he knew it – which meant that he could focus his sole efforts on taking care of their navigator. Even if he couldn’t remember much about that hypothermastat sickness Chopper had taught him about, the swordsman admired the strength Nami showed in fighting off its effects.

“…Let’s get some rest,” Zoro suggested while tucking Nami’s head under his chin, bringing her even closer. “If you wake up before me…you can take me home.” He promised her those words as a sign of the faith he had invested in her as well.

The sudden crackle of her voice was almost like a verbal reminder that that was her intention, all along.

((Thanks so much to the ZoNa Discord for giving me more than one idea for my entry this year! Ultimately, I went with this one because I never wrote a blanket scenario for ZoNa, and the sudden realization felt wrong!?

We DO know Kaidou has a winter island in his control, we know Zoro DOES somewhat fear him, so I put two and two together to make a premise for why there would be a naturally occurring blanket scenario for Zoro and Nami in the OP universe.

Thanks for reading! Now go show some love to @daftyoungen for doing an amazing job illustrating the last scene for this story before it was even finished being written! She did fantastic work and it really motivated me in the end~))

#zonami bang! bang!#maiden writes #daftyoungen #zoroxnami #swordgust

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alexconkleton · 7 years

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The Crows of Leipzig

During a recent visit to Leipzig I was taking a walk in Clara Zetkin Park and encountered a powerful natural phenomenon and perhaps a symbol of something more.

I first noticed the sound of birds whilst walking through the South West corner of the park, it was very noticeable, although appeared to be from some distance away.

As I noticed the source of the sounds I was shocked by the sheer quantity of crows in flocks. The flocks I saw from across the park numbered in the hundreds of birds and still flock after flock could be seen flying over the trees in the distance. I hoped to be able to get a closer view but expected that they were just migrating across the park.

However, as I approached I found that approximately 1km from where I first heard them, In the South East corner of the park, the flocks of crows were settled in the trees. The flocks I had seen were not just a single flock flying around the park, they had all been individual flocks of hundreds of birds and the total number of birds now numbered in the thousands.

Every black dot in the image below is a crow.

Every black dot in the video of a different view is a crow and listen to the caws:

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Every black dot in this video of a different view is a crow and listen to the caws:

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The crow is a powerful mythological symbol through the ages.In Celtic mythology, the warrior goddess known as the Morrighan often appears in the form of a crow or raven, or is seen accompanied by a group of them. What would a group of hundreds or thousands mean?

Typically, these birds appear in groups of three, and they are seen as a sign that the Morrighan is watching – or possibly getting ready to pay someone a visit. Imagine then the symbolism or the multitude witnessed. In some tales of the Welsh myth cycle, the Mabinogion, the raven is a harbinger of death. Witches and sorcerers were believed to have the ability to transform themselves into ravens and fly away, thus enabling them to evade capture. Were the crows a representation of a gathering or movement of those rich in magic. The Native Americans often saw the raven as a trickster, much like Coyote.

There are a number of tales regarding the mischief of Raven, who is sometimes seen as a symbol of transformation. In the legends of various tribes, Raven is typically associated with everything from the creation of the world to the gift of sunlight to mankind. Some tribes knew the raven as a stealer of souls. Perhaps that they follow the souls of the dead, in which case in Clara Zetkin Park I stood amongst hundreds, possibly thousands of lost souls. For those who follow the Norse pantheon, Odin is often represented by the raven – usually a pair of them. Early artwork depicts him as being accompanied by two black birds, who are described in the Eddas as Huginn and Muinnin. Their names translate to “thought” and “memory”, and their job is to serve as Odin’s spies, bringing him news each night from the land of men. Perhaps this great flock was a gathering of Odin’s informants.

Crows sometimes appear as a method of divination. For the ancient Greeks, the crow was a symbol of Apollo in his role as god of prophecy. Augury – divination using birds – was popular among both the Greeks and the Romans, and augurs interpreted messages based on not only the color of a bird, but the direction from which it flew. A crow flying in from the east or south was considered favorable. All the flocks I had seen were flying into the park from the South East, so perhaps this was a positive indication. In parts of the Appalachian mountains, a low-flying group of crows means that illness is coming – but if a crow flies over a house and calls three times, that means an impending death in the family. If the crows call in the morning before the other birds get a chance to sing, it’s going to rain.

Despite their role as messengers of doom and gloom, it’s bad luck to kill a crow. If you accidentally do so, you’re supposed to bury it – and be sure to wear black when you do! In some places, it’s not the sighting of a crow or raven itself, but the number that you see which is important. Mike Cahill at Creepy Basement says, “Seeing just a single crow is considered an omen of bad luck. Finding two crows, however, means good luck. (Three crows mean health, and four crows mean wealth.) Yet spotting five crows means sickness is coming, and witnessing six crows means death is nearby.” So what would be the meaning of hundreds or thousands? Even within the Christian religion, ravens hold a special significance. While they are referred to as “unclean” within the Bible, Genesis tells us that after the flood waters receded, the raven was the first bird Noah sent out from the ark to find land.

Also, in the Hebrew Talmud, ravens are credited with teaching mankind how to deal with death; when Cain slew Abel, a raven showed Adam and Eve how to bury the body, because they had never done so before. Are the crows spiritual guides.

The most common feature of this research is that the crow is connected in some way to the human spirit, as some form of guide, be it to a higher spiritual being, for the soul, to indicate good from bad, right from wrong, as a messenger to or from God. Whatever the deeper spiritual meaning or symbolism of the crow, it is clear that the crow has a legacy of mythology that dates from the beginning of understanding story sharing.

Battle of Leipzig

The Battle of Leipzig or Battle of the Nations was fought from 16 to 19 October 1813, at Leipzig, Saxony. The coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Sweden, led by Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg, decisively defeated the French army of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. Napoleon’s army also contained Polish and Italian troops, as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine. In the painting by Alexander Sauerweid the Russian, Austrian, and Prussian troops gather in Leipzig.

The battle was the culmination of the 1813 German campaign and involved nearly 600,000 soldiers, making it the largest battle in Europe prior to World War I.

Decisively defeated for the first time in battle, Napoleon was compelled to return to France while the Coalition hurried to keep their momentum, invading France early the next year. Napoleon was forced to abdicate and was exiled to Elba in May 1814.

The battle of Leipzig was the bloodiest in the history of the Napoleonic Wars. Casualties on both sides were astoundingly high, such that even locals had a hard time disposing of the corpses, and even then the corpses were still visible the next year. Estimates range from 80,000 to 110,000 total killed, wounded or missing.

Napoleon lost about 45,000 killed and wounded. The Allies captured 15,000 able-bodied Frenchmen, 21,000 wounded or sick, 325 cannon and 28 eagles, standards or colours, and had received the men of the deserting formerly pro-French German divisions. Among the dead was Marshal Józef Antoni Poniatowski, a nephew to the last king of Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski. The Pole, who had received his marshal’s baton just the previous day, was commanding the rear guard during the French retreat and drowned as he attempted to cross the river. Corps commanders Lauriston and Reynier were captured. Fifteen French generals were killed and 51 wounded.

Out of a total force of 430,000, the Allies suffered approximately 54,000 casualties. Schwarzenberg’s Bohemian Army lost 34,000, Blücher’s Silesian Army lost 12,000, while Bernadotte’s Army of the North and Bennigsen’s Army of Poland lost about 4,000 each.

Are the crows of Leipzig the remnants of souls still lost or refusing to leave? A memory of the 100,000 who lost their lives in the Battle of Nations.

German Democratic Republic

Another possibility comes from the coincidence that the crows gathering place was directly opposite the GDR famous Gaste Haus of Leipzig, or Honecker’s Palace, where only the most high profile East German government politicians would stay by invitation only.

This guest house was a retreat for the politicians who likely informally deciding policies and important government activities whilst enjoying the finest hospitality. This led me to the thought that the crows could be following the souls of those who lost their life under the GDR.

East Germany abolished the death penalty in 1987. The last execution in East Germany is believed to have been the shooting of Werner Teske, convicted for treason, in 1981; the last execution of a civilian (after 1970, capital punishment was rare and almost exclusively for espionage) was Erwin Hagedorn, for sexually motivated child murder.

By then, East German courts had inflicted the death penalty in 227 cases. 166 were executed, of which 52 for assumedly political crimes (espionage, sabotage etc.), 64 for crimes under Hitler’s rule and 44 for common criminality (mostly, murder under aggravated circumstances). Most of these took place during the 1950s; three known executions took place in the 70s and two in the 80s.

The guillotine (called the Fallschwertmaschine, “falling sword machine”) was used for the last time on former SS doctor Horst Fischer in 1966, after which it was replaced by an “unexpected close shot in the back of the head” (“unerwarteter Nahschuss in das Hinterhaupt”).

Berlin Wall Deaths

Another possible explanation for the crows is that these are connected to the residual spiritual remnants of those who lost their lives escaping from the GDR. This is again related to the GDR politicians who stayed at the guest house.

There were numerous deaths at the Berlin Wall, which stood as a barrier between West Berlin and East Germany from 13 August 1961 until 9 November 1989. Before the rise of the Berlin Wall in 1961, 3.5 million East Germans circumvented Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions, many by crossing over the border from East Berlin into West Berlin, from where they could then travel to West Germany and other Western European countries. Between 1961 and 1989, the Wall prevented almost all such emigration.

The state-funded Centre for Contemporary History (ZZF) in Potsdam has given the official figure of 139 deaths, including people attempting to escape, border guards, and innocent parties. However, researchers at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum and some others had estimated the death toll to be significantly higher.

The escape attempts claimed the lives of a wide variety of people, from a child as young as one to an 80-year-old woman, and many died because of the accidental or illegal actions of the guards. In numerous legal cases throughout the 1990s, several border guards, along with political officials responsible for the defence policies, were found guilty of manslaughter and served probation or were jailed for their role in the Berlin Wall deaths. Out of an estimated number of 5,000 escapees, a total of 239 people died while trying to cross the Berlin Wall.

The exact number of casualties is unknown.

There are different numbers that each derive from different investigations that used different definitions of what a victim in this case should be. Therefore, the numbers are hardly comparable. On top of that, some results are published infrequently or investigations were ceased with a provisional number. There is also a publicly held controversy between two groups regarding the number of victims. The opponents are the Arbeitsgemeinschaft 13th August and the ZZF. The former's numbers are higher, as they include, according to ZZF's Hans-Hermann Hertle, victims with an unclear or unsure connection to the border regime.

After the ZZF published its interim results in August 2006, Alexandra Hildebrandt of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft has accused them of withholding numbers to invoke a more positive picture of East Germany. She argues that the ZZF project was funded by a coalition of social democrats and leftists.

In 2008 the Arbeitsgemeinschaft claimed that since 1961 222 people had died because of the Berlin Wall. Hertle doubted these numbers, as they evidently included some survivors. As of 2006, 36 survivors were listed as deceased because of the Wall, and some victims were mentioned more than once. Because of these shortcomings, he assessed the list as an "extensive record of suspected cases" that "failed to set up a scientifically verifiable standard".

Berlin's Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit commented on the dispute with the words "Every single dead was one too many." In 2009, Hildebrandt reported of 245 dead caused by the Wall. According to her research, the first Wall victim was a suicidal GDR officer and not Ida Siekmann, as Hildebrandt also included border guards that committed suicide and cold cases of bodies found in boundary waters in her list. Another difference in Hertle's and Hildebrandt's list can be explained by the fact that Hertle had additional access to incomplete files from transport police. Therefore, their accounts vary in regard to the people that died of natural causes during border controls. Hurtle argues with a total of 251 of such cases, while Hildebrandt only compiled 38 of these cases.

Information on the dead can be found mainly in the administrative and military archives of West and East Germany. However, the records of Stasi, which were administered by the Stasi federal commissioner, are not completely accessible. Some parts, especially from the later years, were destroyed when the ministry was disbanded, some are not yet sifted.

Additionally, due to the Stasi records law, many records can only be looked at in the form of anonymized excerpts. An amendment from 2007 allows direct access to research projects, provided certain conditions are met. The East German Border Troop records are kept at the Bundeswehr archive, as the border troops were part of the East German National People Army. According to Hertle, when border troop, Stasi and the records from Western authorities are evaluated, one has to take into account the "values, interests and constraints of the record-keeping authorities and, by extension, of the respective power relations." The families of the victims can be another source, but were often fed with false information and therefore can only seldom answer questions regarding the events themselves.

In this analysis of the spiritualism of the crows, I recall to memory famous artistic representations of this relationship between soul and crow in The Crow.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crow_(1994_film)

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There is also the superb, crow focussed graphic representation in Jeepers Creepers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeepers_Creepers_(2001_film)

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This was so successful that Jeepers Creepers 2 and 3 followed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeepers_Creepers_2

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeepers_Creepers_3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vMwquLRAFk

Whatever your belief in the reason for the crows, the power of their ancient symbolism is intense and intrinsic to the human soul beyond life.

Is it fate or coincidence the location of so many crows?

Is it fate or coincidence that the evening I was completing the curation of this blog I was watching the X-Files, complete series, as I had done for a number of months preceeding. I had watching 6 seasons and was up to the 16th episode of season 7; Chimera.

Mulder investigates what appears to be the case of a missing woman from a small town, but soon turns out to be a murder by a spirit summoned from the underworld.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(The_X-Files)

In Bethany, Vermont, a raven frightens a little girl, Michelle Crittendon, at a park while a neighbour, Jenny Uphouse, watches. The bird is later found at her home. Her mother, Martha Crittendon, is then attacked and killed by an unseen monster. Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) tells Mulder that Crittendon disappeared and asks him what he knows about ravens. Mulder believes that the bird is usually associated with evil. Ellen Adderly, the wife of Sheriff Phil Adderly, is approached by Jenny and then sees a raven before the window of a nearby car shatters. At the Crittendon home, Michelle sees the raven outside her window again and Howard leaves to check it out, leading him to find a hand sticking out above the flower bushes. Later the police dig up Martha's body, with claw marks all over her face.

Ellen tells Mulder that she saw a reflection in the mirror earlier, and that's what killed Martha. Mulder believes the glass are doorways to a demonic dimension and that someone is summoning forth a demon to attack people. Ellen believes Jenny Uphouse summoned the spirits, but she denies it. Later, Ellen finds a skeleton key in her house and a raven by her baby's crib. In a mirror, Ellen sees the reflection of a monster chasing after her, but it suddenly breaks. She hides in the closet until Phil comes home and finds her. However, he attributes the commotion to stress, believing that she is imagining things. Mulder finds the skeleton key and it matches one found in Martha Crittendon's coat pocket. At the motel, Jenny sees ravens outside and is promptly attacked and killed by the creature.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hnZqgCVTF8

Whatever your belief in the reason for the crows, the power of their ancient symbolism is intense and intrinsic to the human soul beyond life.

Is it fate or coincidence the location of so many crows?

Fate or coincidence, all these other deliberations?

You decide?

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