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lulu2992 · 4 months

Text

Uncovering the unreleased Far Cry 5 in-game Encyclopedia

The almost complete but unused in-game encyclopedia, reconstructed thanks to the oasisstrings file.

Please note that it’s still cut content, so some information might not be relevant anymore.

You can read the oasisstrings file here. Pictures from this encyclopedia were also extracted and posted by @xbaebsae here.

Part 2: Locations - Holland Valley

Gardenview Packing Facility

The last facility added to the Hadlers' apple empire. They shipped their apples throughout Hope County and beyond. When the cult went red state, the Hadlers stopped their legal threats and resorted to violence.

Silver Lake Trailer Park

A community of people just trying to do their best.

Gardenview Orchards

A part of Doug and Debbie Hadler’s apple empire. After their ciderworks facility, they expanded to a second, larger orchard: Gardenview Orchards. Then they opened the Gardenview Packing Facility.

Rae-Rae's Pumpkin Farm

Fiery matriarch Rae-Rae Bouthillier cares about two things: Prize-winning pumpkins and her dog Boomer.

Gardenview Ciderworks

The first major facility owned by Doug and Debbie Hadler. Ten years ago, they had a dream: an empire made of apples. They nearly achieved it too, until the cult forcibly took over everything they had worked for.

Bridge of Tears

It was called the Mišihrew Bridge when the railroad was still active. It’s now a rickety old train bridge and John Seed's ideal location to send a warning message to all sinners.

Frobisher's Cave

In 1970, a cougar, named "Frobisher" by the locals, killed the star pitcher of a rival baseball team. The Hope County Silver Foxes won that year and changed their name to the Cougars in Frobisher's honor.

Howard Cabin

Home of Niesha Howard, an extreme rock climber from Canada who moved to Montana to be a prepper.

Copperhead Rail Yard

Copperhead Rail was created in the late 1800s by Emmet Reaves. It was shut down in the early 70s and a lot got left behind. It became a place for kids to get drunk or bums to find shelter, then the cult bought it.

Lincoln Lookout Tower

It’s the last working fire tower in the county. A man who worked here promised to help the Strickland family fight off the cult if ever their farm was under attack.

Sergey’s Place

A hobo historian calls this place home. Nobody's seen him in a while though.

Boyd Residence

Will Boyd lives here, or at least he did. No one in the valley talks about him. And for good reason.

Strickland Farm

Property owned by the Strickland family of farmers. No friends to Eden’s Gate.

U.S. Auto

A scrap yard containing trashed cars, broken farm equipment, and even a few busted planes. Eden's Gate uses the garage to build and maintain their convoys.

Doverspike Compound

Les Doverspike was a militia nut and he built himself a bunker. Nobody in the prepper community liked him. Despite that, he was anti-cult and pro-Resistance.

Harris Residence

Mike and Deb Harris were preppers with a cunning plan to keep themselves fed after the end of the world.

Reservoir Construction Yard

Deep North Water wanted to build a new reservoir for the Holland Valley. The company ran out of funding and was chased away by Eden’s Gate.

Dodd’s Dumps

Colin Dodd used to run garbage disposal for the whole Holland Valley, and his business lot shows it. The cult intimidated him into leaving but has yet to sort through all he left behind.

Davenport Farm

The remains of a run-down farm. Local farmers let their cows graze here. Can't let good land go to waste.

Hilgard Electric Power Station

The Holland Valley's power supply is reliant on this transformer station which is controlled by Eden's Gate.

Golden Valley Gas

Once the kind of gas station that gave out free bubble gum to kids, Golden Valley is now a strategic point of gasoline and auto maintenance for the Project at Eden's Gate.

Green-Busch Fertilizer Co.

Facing a decline in business, the Green-Busch family said “yes” and sold the place to John Seed on the condition that locals could keep their jobs and work alongside Eden's Gate.

St. Isidore School

Once a religious boarding school, it was forced to close its doors by Eden's Gate.

Dodd Residence

Home of Colin Dodd, hoarder and DIY enthusiast. He never throws anything out. His granddaughter Nadine's been known to lurk here.

Roberts Cabin

Home of Joe Roberts, a hunter. He's gone missing. He loved hunting deer above all else.

Hope County Clinic

Dr. Kim Patterson provides medical services to Hope County's farmers and low-income residents, many of whom would never receive care in such a remote area.

Holland Valley Station

In the days that it was up and running, Copperhead Rail used to stop here. Eden’s Gate uses this station to catch people who try to escape the region.

Grain Elevator

As the farmlands started to collapse, the grain elevator was the first casualty. Too expensive to maintain.

Henbane River Rail Bridge

Copperhead Rail was created in the 1880s during a mining boom, and shut down in the early 70s after the industry collapsed.

Flatiron Stockyards

Bobby Budell established the stock yards in 1946, and has proudly provided farm and ranch auction services since. The economic and community base employed over 25 people at its height.

Fillmore Residence

Home of Doug Fillmore. Not much is known about him.

Dupree Residence

Home of Tommy Dupree, an idiot who used to work at Green-Busch Fertilizer Co. He got fired by Eden's Gate because he was as dumb as the crap he bagged.

Catamount Mines

Fall’s End owes its existence to the gold Orville Fall discovered here in 1865. The mine brought a generation of prosperity to the region until a suspicious accident entombed 100 men within it, forcing its closure in 1912.

Sunrise Farm

Sunrise Farm was going under, so owners Mike and Chandra Dunagan reluctantly sold it to Eden's Gate. Big mistake.

Deep North Irrigation Reservoir

Originally designed to irrigate farms, the reservoir became a liability when the cult began putting Bliss in the water supply. The Resistance sealed it up to buy themselves time.

Red’s Farm Supply

The Redler family has run this place for 4 generations, and earned a reputation for honest business. Wendell did his best to keep it out of cult hands.

Purpletop Telecom Tower

In the 1950s, Purpletop Telecom built this tower, blessing people with the wonders of AM radio. As time and technology marched forward, they were also given the American splendor of a local TV station.

Woodson Pig Farm

This place has been in the Woodson family since 1943. Current owners Andrew and Frances Woodson used their wealth to try to stand up to John Seed and fight him in court. They lost, and joined the Resistance.

Sawyer Residence

Don Sawyer came from out of town to join the Project at Eden's Gate. He restores canoes, but isn't very good at it. Visitors have sworn they've heard him swearing in Russian over those boats.

Hyde Barn

Kenny Hyde's a poor man in Holland Valley, but that doesn't stop him from loving deep fried balls. He's the proud keeper of Fall’s End Testy Festy decorations, stashing them at his barn until they're needed.

Kupka Ranch

Zip Kupka's the only one who really knows what's going on in the Holland Valley.

John’s Gate

A missile silo long decommissioned and abandoned. The locals used to call it "Area 68." Eden's Gate bought it in secret and turned it into a bunker that is in John Seed's safekeeping until the Collapse.

Security Gate

Formerly the entrance to the missile silo, it's now the gateway to John Seed's bunker. Everything taken in the Reaping passes through this checkpoint.

Steele Farm

The Steele family managed to get their kids out of Hope County, but stayed behind to try and defend their home from Eden's Gate.

Lamb of God Church

A Lutheran church. Its elderly priest was overshadowed by Pastor Jerome’s charismatic sermons. John once asked the priest to say “yes.” Not a chance. Then, the priest was gone. He had taken a “long vacation.”

Lamb of God Sacristy

The Project at Eden's Gate has turned the Lamb of God Church's sacristy into a holding place for everything they need to baptize people at the water's edge.

Armstrong Residence

The Project at Eden's Gate targeted the Armstrong family early, burning their home to the ground when Grace Armstrong refused to devote her sharpshooting skills to the Father's cause.

Bradbury Tractor Shed

A shed for tractors.

Hope County Jail Bus

Prisoners hijacked this bus but were run off the road. The wreck was left to rot in the woods. When Eden's Gate brought prohibition to Hope County, some enterprising moonshiners set up shop behind the cult’s back.

Parker Laboratories

Home and workshop of Dr. Laurence Parker, and the origin of many mysterious noise complaints.

Seed Ranch

The power of yes gave John Seed this dream ranch overlooking the Holland Valley. it has commanding views, a private air strip, and secluded soundproofed rooms for his most invigorating religious pursuits.

Bradbury Farm

The home of the Bradbury family, hay farmers for generations. The strange pattern of dead hay in the field does not impact the quality of the final product. That's the Bradbury guarantee.

Bradbury Hay Field

Bradbury Farm's hay is baled and stored here before being sold to clients looking to feed their livestock with quality hay.

Laurel Residence

Laurel family honey was a local market favorite until their bee colony collapsed and jeopardized the business. It also spooked the Laurels who sunk money into a bunker and became preppers overnight.

Eden’s Gate Greenhouse

Bliss plants are found throughout the Henbane River, but they're also found here. John Seed takes the flowers he receives by boat from the east and plants them in his greenhouse.

Seed Boat Launch

Once a favorite spot for summer frolickers, this boat launch is used by John Seed for receiving shipments of Bliss and other supplies from elsewhere in Hope County.

Rye & Sons Aviation

This plot of land was first settled in 1920 by Willard Rye. He started a crop dusting business. His sons inherited both and it now belongs to the current generation of Ryes: Nick & Kim.

Kellett Cattle Co.

The Kellett family supplied beef for 3 generations. These proud Republicans thought they recognized the American spirit in Eden’s Gate, but when John Seed asked them to serve the Project, they said “no.”

Fall’s End

After prospector Orville Fall struck gold, his small mining camp quickly grew. Decades later, his rival, rail baron Emmett Reaves, shot him dead in the streets, giving the town its official name.

Old Silo

Welcome to the middle of it.

Kay-Nine Kennels

The owner, Kay Wheeler, loved her dogs more than life itself. She bred and trained hunting and guard dogs. When Eden’s Gate showed up, the local demand for guard dogs tripled. John Seed noticed and took action.

Sunrise Threshing

A silo and shed complex attached to Sunrise Farm. Rumor has it that Mike Dunagan's stashed a lot of cool shit around here somewhere.

Redler Residence

Home of Wendell Redler, local businessman and Vietnam veteran.

Adams Ranch

Jules Adams lost her husband in an "accident" after saying no to John Seed. Her family's struggled to keep the cattle ranch out of cult hands ever since.

Miller Residence

Despite financial hardship, the Miller family refused the cult’s invitations, prepping for doomsday all on their own. When the reaping came, Jerry Miller was out working.

Wellington Residence

The Wellington family mine is an urban legend, supposedly stuffed with gold, explosives, or both depending who you ask. Generations of Wellingtons (possibly inbred) have tried and failed to strike it rich here.

#far cry 5 #hope county #holland valley #boomer #wendell redler #kenny hide #zip kupka #john seed #jerome jeffries #grace armstrong #larry parker #nick rye #kim rye #far cry absolution #will boyd

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jlilycorbie · 1 year

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12, 20, and 40!

Describe your perfect writing space

I'd say somewhere quiet, maybe outside? I like going out to parks, and I like writing long hand, but I bought a small blue tooth keyboard that connects to my phone so I could have portable writing space. I really like the idea of hanging out at a cafe or coffee shop to write, except plague. Maybe someday?

But if I'm really honest about where I get the majority of my writing done...long hand at my desk in my office when I'm caught up and need to look busy.

How many WIPs and story ideas do you have?

I have absolutely no idea how to count these. Actual started WIPs? I'd say there's at least six active WIPs? The untitled fantasy WIP, the bad neighbors horror story, the near future cyberpunk story, the girl who escapes an anti-tech cult and goes to space, unionizing the asteroid belt, magic school dropouts...does The Cliffhanger count as a WIP? There's a lot of abandoned WIPs hanging around, too.

And ideas? I can't even keep track. I guess the doomsday prepper serial killer and his haunting is in the idea stage still. At least two cozy mystery series. Maybe three if the soup fairy ever turns into anything. As I think about it, more come back to me.

And I have a little cast iron cauldron filled with scraps of paper with ideas on them. I call it the plot pot. I'm not going near it to answer this question. And I'm going to call it answered enough, because if I think about it, I'm going to spend all night listing stuff.

It's probably good to pull them out to get a little air, though.

Share some backstory for one of your characters

I'm going to go with one of the characters for the story about unionizing the asteroid belt. I already wrote a story about her, and I think it's going to be the first chapter in the book when I get to it. You can check it out here if you want. I loathe the title. I've changed it many times. I'll probably keep changing it.

Anyway, Bryony was a super active kid, kind of a tomboy, and she loved tinkering with gadgets. She didn't do great in school, and could barely hold still most of the time. She was paralyzed in a hiking accident during a summer break while she was in high school, and she didn't handle it well.

One of her friends pointed her toward Project Hephaestus, an organization that ran independent communications in space that was run and staffed entirely be disabled people. If you join the project, they'll provide all the training you need and make any modifications and adaptations you need for your assigned location.

Bryony wasn't super into it, but she applied, and then she took her first training trip to the moon. She got an engineering degree with a linguistics minor, set off for space, and hasn't looked back.

She worked hard to get a chance manning a solo station, and she loves it.

Thank you for the ask!

#writeblr #ask game

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headspace-hotel · 3 years

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So like I mean this honestly, what do you do when the increments change has stopped. It sure feels like it has in the US with regards to material gains for most people in the US.

Revolution doesn’t end well, but it feels like we are broken at the federal level legislatively due to a combination of the filibuster, Gerrymandering, and stacked courts.

Wealth inequality, wages, and cost of living have all been going backwards and that’s real hard to address at a state level.

I already do stuff locally, activism, donations, protest but if there isn’t root and branch structural reform to how our democracy works I think we will stop being even a flawed one. Like you’ll still go out and vote but the combination of suppression and built in anti majoritarian rules will mean it’s impossible to change the status quo.

Georgia just passed voter suppression laws without even the pretense that it is against fraud and I think more states will too.

Any new kind of voting rights act is going to be filibustered and judging from how the relief bill is going and past history writ large the Democrats aren’t going to end it.

There’s a constant increase of surveillance and expansion of the police state. I think we are gonna end up looking like a post Soviet “democracy” where there are the trappings of one but no actual representation.

I’m far from being fully “against” revolution, if only in the sense that it’s hard to be “against” something that...happens, as a part of history. Tbh the writing is on the wall; the US is in a very volatile state, there is a lot of political extremism, and we are a striking outlier in how long our system has lasted without a regime change. Covid-19 has shown us just how much the people in charge do not care whether we live or die, and it’s done nothing but divide America further. Most Americans see our biggest enemies not as being foreign people, but as other Americans. Republicans may have a disdain for China but that’s nothing compared to their hatred of Democrats. Which is pretty damning. We are more divided from within than without.

This is very alarming to me looking forward because the increasingly fascist American right is far more cohesive and overwhelmingly better armed than the left. The military and police will side with the fascists. And they, too, are reaching a breaking point; a point at which they will no longer be able to tolerate plurality and compromise. The political situation is building up to something that I can’t see resolving itself in any way other than explosively.

With that in mind...shit, I’m really feeling that it’s more worthwhile to pursue things that will help people weather the explosion when it happens. We need community, cohesion. Better systems of providing aid and protection to people. A shift away from social media activism; people need to get involved locally. We’re expected to care about all the big stuff that’s happening worldwide but I honestly feel that cripples your ability to focus on what’s happening in your community right this second. So...it’s good that you’re doing stuff locally!

Say something does happen, and things become unsafe, and travel is restricted or impossible, and people are in need of food and shelter and basic necessities. People will need to know who is safe right in their communities, and people will need to be prepared to help each other. Organization and community stuff like that really needs to transition off the internet as much as possible—no communications online are safe, and the internet is easy to take out for a whole region, and also arguing on Twitter about whether “latinx” is more inclusive is such a massive waste of time.

So, community organization, but by that I mean “connecting with the people in your community in any way that means you can depend on each other.” Seriously. Maybe even become a doomsday prepper just a tiny bit. Keep nonperishable food, blankets, shit like that around that you can send someone’s way if they need it. American cities and towns are very much organized in a way to make local community as difficult as possible. But we have to figure out something, eh?

It’s the local stuff that’s important. That’s my opinion

#history #activism #community

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wisteria-lodge · 3 years

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lion primary + badger secondary (bird model)

ie A HOUSE MATCH !!

Hellooo, I’m sorry for bothering you but I’ve found this blog and I absolutely love your character analysis and overall thought about the SHC system, and I could use some help?

I’ve known the system for a while now, since the old SHC tumblr times, and while understanding my current primary situation has been quite easy, I’m having A LOT of trouble with my secondary and it’s becoming a bit of a issue for me because the more I think about it, the more confused I become, to the point where it’s upsetting me a bit.

First thing first, my Primary is a very “standard” Lion, the whole “you feel if something is right or not and if you do something that’s not right to you you feel bad/ill/it’s wrong” is extremely me. I had some doubts about a Badger model, but I think it’s just that my personal ideals and values align a lot with a Badger worldview, since I grew in a very Badger society and family (very leftist, a lot of emphasis on equality and valuing and creating communities). Reading various description/interpretations of primary Lion always feels right, while reading primary Badger always makes me think “yeah, this is all good and nice, BUT…” so this was quite easy to sort out (no pun intended).

Are you me? So far... I could have written this. It’s possible I *might* be biased going forward.

When it comes to secondaries, I see a lot of myself in Bird descriptions: I make spreadsheets for everything.

Pretty Bird.

I am a crafter with an apparently endless supply of books and tutorials and supplies ready, and the enthusiasm to share them.

That sounds more Badger.

I am the mom friend

Badger.

who always has what’s needed in their bag.

Bird.

I am that one person you can count on knowing a funny or interesting anecdote about almost any topic, from the mundane to the truly obscure. Learning new things, about any topic, is literally one of my biggest pleasures in life.

Bird [model?] Whichever one isn’t your secondary is a model you clearly love.

I take pride in all these things, but I honestly have trouble understanding if I like using them as tools because they help me with my ADHD and so I received a very strong positive enforcement using them and I kept the ones I like, or if I started doing them because they are what I like doing and coincidentally they help me managing my symptoms or better navigate the world in my day to day life.

Could be either, but modeling Bird because you’re neurodivergent is very much a thing.

Also, while I love planning, when it comes to making decisions I tend to gather all information and summarize it in a way that makes sense to me so I can visualize the issue in my mind as complete and detailed as possible, but the final decision tends to feel a bit… impulsive, to me?, there’s always A LOT of gut feeling involved, and when I don’t follow it usually it ends up being a wrong or subpar decision. I do need to gather all the available information about the issue/situation/item/people, but rather than making my decision by comparison, I use the information to make sure that I’m “seeing” the truth (or as close to it as it is possible) and then once I feel safe that I’m not overlooking anything important I just KNOW what is the correct decision.

That’s a Lion primary making a call.

Could this simply be a very strong primary interfering with the decision-making, even when it’s not about ideals but more mundane things?

Decision making is always a primary thing. Mundane stuff included. Mundane stuff is important.

On the other hand, I am an extremely hard working person (I am changing jobs right now because I feel like my old bosses are making more and more difficult for me to just do my job properly and without needing to cut corners, and it just feels wrong to me).

Oh good lord. I am ready to sort you as a Badger secondary solely on the basis of THAT.

People tell me I’m a very good listener and that I am especially good at helping others unravel their thoughts when they’re all confused and tangled because I ask the right questions. I seem to gain other people’s trust easily and often I get told gossip or secrets before others.

Badger. Also DAMN but that’s relatable. I think you might house-match me.

I got told several times by previous bosses that I should look into becoming a team leader because people like me and I make them get along better.

Sounds like a Lion/Badger combo.

People get attached to me very quickly and when I have problems the stream of folks asking if they can help or just checking in is always way more than I expect.

Isn’t it weird how that happens?

This all sounds like Badger stuff, from the descriptions I read, but many of them are not things I actively enjoy doing, I just.. do them because it would be weird to do otherwise? Or it feels like they happen to me with no effort on my part.

Because they’re just you. It’s just who you are.

I think they might be simply a result of me growing up in a society that values hard work and being kind to others, or just me being a likeable person

Not everyone finds this easy. Not even close. I have read so many testimonials written by people in Badger secondary households killing themselves trying to fit into this model. Wanting isn’t enough. Having examples around you isn’t enough.

or maybe coping mechanisms I had to learn in order to “pass” as neurotypical but as I wrote the more think and read about Birds and Badgers and their differences, the more I get confused and frustrated.

Now I know I’m projecting, but all my neurotypical coping mechanisms come out of the Bird secondary toolbox.

But it would make sense since I burned out badly in my teens from trying to always try to be perfect for my family, my friends, my teachers, society

That sounds like a young Badger secondary, more than a young Bird secondary.

and when I finally found who I really wanted to be I resolved to never let anyone define what or how I should be ever again (hello there, Lion primary!)

I hear that.

After a lifetime of beating myself up for not living up to the absurdly high expectations I set up for myself, I have decided that the only way to stay sane for me is to do the groundwork, be as prepared as I can

Bird

put in the work I should

Badger

but once I’m in the thick of it just… ride the wave. And now I got to the point where I have the confidence that I am smart enough to learn the basics of a new skill on the fly, if needed.

To me, this is so fundamentally, so spiritually Badger secondary. You don’t have tools. You are a tool. You made yourself into one. And that moment where you can just trust yourself to catch the world, absorb it into yourself, and become whatever it needs you to be... it’s ecstasy.

I’d say that lack of time is my worst enemy, but due/thanks to the ADHD that’s not true most of the time, since lack of time is what enables me to get past the executive dysfunction in the first place, so I’ll say I have a love-hate relationship with it. Doing things just before a deadline is it’s own kind of high, after all (I’m not saying it’s healthy).

At the base of your soul, you’re not really a Bird prepper/planner.

A practical example: I usually don’t like platforming games much, but I am LOVING Immortals: Fenyx Rising because in most situations, there is a “best” way to do things but you can also get creative by using different skills, using specific items, finding loopholes, or a combination of all of them.

Sounds like a Bird secondary having fun. [a fun model?]

When I fail a level/combat I don’t get frustrated because I know that I just have to try a few more times until I find the solution that feels right FOR ME, even if it’s not the most efficient ones. And when I do it feels great, even if I look a at guide afterwards and there’s a waaay easier solution! I usually feel a bit silly for not “seeing it” but also think something like “well, I think MY way is more fun!”

Oh yeah, a Bird secondary would not have that reaction. That is the sacred Badger consistency of method. How you do something matters equally as much as the final product.

When I cook, I usually find a recipe I like and try it as written, then I make small adjustments to improve it, see how it turns out, and so on until I have a recipe that is MY recipe, one I really like and that I know well enough to use as a basis to be changed if needed, knowing exactly how the change will affect the end result. I think this is why I prefer baking to other kinds of cooking, since it’s much more akin to chemistry I feel like I have more control over what a change will do.

On it’s own this could be a description of rapid-fire Bird. And you clearly have Bird, you have a lot of it. You love it.

So I guess that what really matters to me is being able to do things my way so that I can enjoy the process and live up to my standards instead of external ones?

But then you say something like this... it’s about the process... it’s about the method... it’s about something coming up to your own personal standards. And that’s so Badger.

This ended up being very lengthy… I’ve tried shortening it but English isn’t my first language and I was afraid I might come across not clearly.

Your English is perfect, and insanely clear. You’re clearer than I am.

Thank you again for the blog, I especially like your DS9 characters’ analysis and I am low-key hoping for more :)

I’m particularly proud of those ones. I’d love to do more, but before that I would have to go back and re-watch the show, or at least key character episodes. I’m not going to sort from memory. That would be doing a show I love, and a number of extremely complex characters a disservice. And it wouldn’t be nearly as fun.

(it’s that whole Badger integrity-of-method thing, you know how it goes.)

#sortinghatchats #sortme #wisteria sorts #lion primary #badger secondary #bird model #my lion badger #adhd #submission

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calder · 3 years

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I have no idea where I got the idea, as apparently it has zero canonical support besides them basically being an entirely different faction every game, but I always thought the Brotherhood had a larger presence in the pre-War armed forces, forging a group similar to the IRL masons (old people grouping together to form chapters across the nation that help their local community, or in context active and off duty veterans crossed with doomsday preppers) that were able to stay relatively independent and stable without central control.

hmmmm. i don't think there's any canon evidence to suggest that and i don't particularly prefer it over fo1's writeups of how the brotherhood established itself out of military fervor in search of a cause. i also think this would make them way less distinct from the enclave, and would invite a link to the lunar order in a way i'd rather sidestep

but it does make a hell of a lot more sense and gives them some much-needed intrigue. i'm sure a good writer could sell this. it's a functional idea and it would make an interesting retcon.

im not leaning towards this but im definitely going to give it a lot of consideration going forward

#brotherhood #spec #x #prewar

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desdemonafictional · 4 years

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retrospective

Since it’s been ten years since I wrote Up in Smoke (my god, what the hell) I’ve been thinking about it again with some distance and I’m fascinated by the product of the me I was back then, in 12th grade, before tumblr and twitter and corona and even #StopKony (you remember that, don’t you?)

Anyway, for today, I’ve got a messy collection of thoughts on themes and on masculinity in Hannapocalypse:

The way the apocalypse itself is treated in the narrative is sort of interesting. In masculine fantasies of apocalyptic survival, violence usually does get valorized. There’s this emphasis on the ability to take (usually what the villains do) and defend (usually what the heroes do), and the struggle for resources with robbery and cultlike monopolies dominating the economical scene. Look at Zombieland for an example of what was popular around this time—no one makes anything, they just wander around the ruins of an empty civilization, scavenging whatever they need. Doomsday preppers, which were about to break into the mainstream within a year or two of UIS coming out, overwhelmingly focus on 1. Hoarding supplies 2. Planning how to defend those supplies. It’s all MRE’s and canned food and fantasies of shooting other people who desperately want your MRE’s and canned food.

Hannapocalypse isn’t like that. While Hannapoc isn’t exactly focused on crafting and making the way that a more solar punk take on post-civilization recovery would be, it’s also not interested in hoarding or defending resources. It’s mercantile, honestly—by the third installment It’s the life of a traveling tinkerer, a service-based economy, in which you provide a service (exorcisms, magic, courier services) or you provide goods (scavenged, admittedly). There are many bases of stable civilization with which to trade. Hannapoc, in contrast with shows like The Walking Dead, offers a decentralized but ultimately capable view of human society. Instead of inevitable entropy and dissolution, communities look toward their local leaders for guidance and pull together in such a way that they survive and build new isolated governmental structures. It happens all over, and it doesn’t involve a lot of mass refugee movement. Neighboring towns consolidate and band together in every region. Sometimes the new power structure is bad, sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s neutral.

But violence itself… violence is deeply rooted in hannapoc in a way that goes beyond just “action based plot, fight the bad guys, save the good guys”. Violence is not social power—as stated before, aside from CMC, violence isn’t really the principle that society organizes upon. Violence here is personal power.

The moment that Conrad’s entire character begins the shift from being “helpless, confused, passive” to “formidable, capable, active” is the moment in the gas station where he either kills or very seriously injures another man in order to protect Worth (and himself, but Worth is the locus of the action). Conrad uplifts himself through violence. The basis for Doc Worth’s respect of him in canon is his lashing out at Worth in violence, and that trend only carries forward in hannapoc.

Yes Hanna Cross values negotiation and compromise, empathy; yes the social structure of the world values community recovery. But the two main characters at the center of this world are building not only their value (as guards) in the little economic unit of their traveling family but also their value to each other in a language of violence. They communicate on their very first road trip (and later) through outbursts of violence where words seem to fail them. Conrad’s fear, as well as his grief, are expressed through physically fighting with Worth. At the same time, Worth is struggling to express his compassion and care for Conrad by initiating violent interactions in which Conrad can express himself this way. It’s cathartic, but deeply dysfunctional. Maybe it’s inevitable for the situation—how can anyone hope to grapple with a meaningless and terrifying die out of their species without retreating into some mad urge or another? But it certainly isn’t wholesome.

This is where Fight Club’s influence really shows through. Because all of this? This is what Worth brings to the narrative, and the single greatest influence on the writing of Doc Worth is Fight Club. Fight Club (the novel) deals in themes of isolation, alienation, problematic coping, and most of all, masculinity as monolith. Tyler Durden famously states that “self improvement is masturbation”: self destruction is cleaner, more beautiful, more meaningful. It’s a nihilist view that idealizes the ugliness of permanently open wounds on a living-but-dying body. When you first meet Doc Worth, he is masochistically reveling in his own rock bottom life. He is a Tyler Durden without the cult, or maybe he is a Cult of One. He loves exactly two people, and only grudgingly. His ideal state is one of having nothing to lose. It takes the end of the world to make him admit that maybe he cares for Conrad, too.

The narrative never actually questions whether Conrad becoming more comfortable with violence is good or not. When he’s introduced he is repressed, afraid of his own strong and negative emotions as well as--it seems--his more positive ones. Does he get better at expressing himself once Doc Worth has provided a pressure release valve on his darker side? Debatable. Defending himself, Defending Worth, and contributing meaningfully to the family unit as physical support all make him marginally more confident as time goes on, but Worth continues to belittle him regardless of the ways in which he has improved. He takes Worth at face value throughout all of this, barely entertaining the idea that Worth might even be capable of warm feelings. The violence might help Conrad cope with his grief, and it might provide a basis for communication with Worth that augments their extremely limited verbal dialogue, but it does not give him the tools he needs to make this place--make this person--a home. He becomes very good at killing, which is a useful skill under the circumstances, but there’s not much room in the bedroom he shares with Worth for him to grow.

For a long time, antagonism remains the main way that Worth initiates connection with Conrad. There’s an uneasiness between Worth’s rock solid life philosophy and the story of survival/recovery that the overall series is trying to tell. In a Cowboy Beebop fashion, Worth seems to regard himself as someone who is already dead, and so whatever happens…. happens. It isn’t until his death and last minute resurrection by Conrad that these two poles are brought into alignment. It’s worth noting that the battle at the barricade where Doc Worth dies was written years before the fic containing it. It’s a specter that looms over the first era of the series, while also drawing out the uncomfortable disharmony for a very long time.

I have to talk about POV distance here. Even though all the parts of hannapocalypse are technically close third person, there are things both accidental and intentional that strip away the intimacy of reading Worth pov. The deliberate thing is the avoidance of using any clear emotional descriptions at all. Worth reacts to emotional stimulus in purely physical ways—his fists clench, teeth grit, his stomach sinks. He never describes his fear or anger or anything more delicate, leaving all of it in a kind of primordial stew of impulses and reactions. It is almost as if he doesn’t have the language to describe his internal state. The reader is forced to interpret his emotional core without much help.

But the accidental technique is the dialogue. The funny thing about transcribed accents is that usually they have the side effect of putting distance between the audience and the reader, because of the effort it takes to decode them and also because of the othering that happens when the narration looks one way and the dialogue looks the other. Doc Worth’s accent was inherited from a comics format, where accents are still pretty common in the mainstream and less othering because of the lack of frame narration, so it’s interesting to look at what it might accidentally be doing on the page. Doc Worth is your narrator, but he’s also sort of resisting the ordeal of being Known. I’m not saying the accent has aged well—honestly I think the writing would probably be better off without it, or at least with a much more toned down version—but it does cause some interesting effects. (Also, what the hell is this accent. It’s some hellish mish mash of whatever Tessa Stone was writing and I think a southern accent I was channeling. Trading “can” for “kin” definitely feels southern in the mouth.)

So what's the take away here? We have Spike Speigle’s dreamy nihilism, Fight Club’s empowerment through violence, a community-based social philosophy. Worth’s suspicious nature and cynicism are validated in almost every installment right up until it kicks his ass and causes him to self-sabotage in the death/resurrection arc. But in a way it’s been undermining him all along, putting Conrad in the position where he cannot safely make any overture of open friendship or care without being afraid of the punishment he will almost certainly take, even though what Worth wants most deeply is the security of Conrad’s affection. When you consider that Worth starts the story with only two relationships, both of which he maintains through antagonism and gestures of service (like a distant father, or a confused bachelor) a structure of themes starts to come clear.

I think you’ve basically got a clash of masculine and feminine lenses here in Hannapoc. The world itself, with an emphasis on community ties and cooperation, is a more feminine space. Worth, with his pride, isolation, and reliance on physical aggression, is a highly masculine figure superimposed on it. Conrad occupies this ambiguous space between, where he can be empowered through violence in the same way as a traditionally masculine character, but can never be comfortable in that place because of his longing for empathy, affection, and support. Because the series is ultimately a romance, warmth and human connection ultimately triumph, and at the end of things, perhaps the biggest takeaway is this: yet again, Gay Love Pierces Through the Vale of Death and Saves the Day.

#hannapocalypse

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pi-creates · 3 years

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I’ve only ever been able to play S4 on my little nintendo switch which isn’t the best quality, and i didn’t realize how BAD those walker guts were lolol. They’re really covered, no wonder Louis wanted a new set of clothes. Also, Pi, if you were in the apocalypse, how long do you think you would last?

Yup... those walker guts are on the... chunky side. Plus Louis’ jacket looks wool-lined, so that isn’t going to come clean easy.

And oooh, I like hypotheticals.

Honestly, in an apocalypse scenario I would be the kind of person who would be taken out by something that sounds ridiculous. Like, I’m allergic to a lot of stuff, so as soon as I’m out of allergy medication that would be one BIG problem. I can probably function without it (so long as I don’t do something stupid), but I’d be miserable and sluggish, so if I was by myself that wouldn’t be a good thing.

And I’m quite pacifistic, so if it was the kind of apocalypse where everyone is aggro... then nah, I probably wouldn’t last. I mean, I can swing a mattock like a madman, but I wouldn’t want to hit anyone... but zombos on the other hand. Smashy smashy.

Also, I live in Australia. So the US everyone has a gun thing isn’t true here. Most people would be running around with close range or improvised weaponry. Then you also have to factor in snakes and spiders and all that - as soon as people aren’t taking care of their yards, every little bit of long grass or stick pile would be a gamble. Though I guess that also means more food, if you don’t mind risking that... I don’t think I’d be brave enough for that one.

But like, I’m one of those people who isn’t really a prepper, but who is paranoid that if I don’t carry something with me that’ll be the time where I need it. So on a daily basis I carry around a first aid kit, a solar battery charger, a firestarter, a torch, a compass, binoculars, two multitools, a collapsible hatchet/hammer, and a sewing kit... my bag is always heavy. You’d also be surprised at how many times having all that stuff has been useful. So in terms of gear, I think I’d be fine.

And if there was a community setting, then I know I can make myself useful. I can grow food, take care of farm animals, build stuff, and I’m quite crafty. If there was an already established community then I’d probably be quite good at all the domestic side of things. Especially if it’s a community close to where I live since most people grow food and keep backyard farm animals (chickens, goats, sheep, horses, etc.), and there’s a creek and dam nearby for water.

So overall I guess it depends on the type of apocalypse and whether or not I’m in a cooperative environment. In a group, I think my chances are good. Alone, probably not - maybe for a while, but not long term.

This hypothetical actually reminded me of a thing I wanted to do ages ago but completely forgot about (or more realistically, I was too nervous to bring up for some reason). I wanted to make like an equivalent of those tabletop RPG character sheets with some alterations, but with the intention that people could fill them out as if they were themselves in the apocalypse. So like, if people wanted realistic OCs for stories, or to straight up play an RPG with themselves or other people’s skillsets. I dunno, I thought it would be a fun group activity if people wanted to RP as survivor groups or something.

#twdg talk

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sonxofxscars · 4 years

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There’s been discussion of what the closing down Wal-Mart stores mean. There is a thought that is considered a conspiracy theory, but it is starting to become apparent that this theory makes a lot of sense. Wal-Mart closed hundreds of stores to date and for what particular reason would they do this?

Here’s my take: There are hundreds of Wal_mart stores located near major highways across the United States. These are huge, empty stores with plenty of room to hold large capacities of people inside. With the ongoing coronavirus threat, this was a set up to force people to be quarantined at these locations. The Fed’s know there long running monetary policies are falling apart. They can’t keep this up for much longer without a major collapse. This specific virus was not found developing naturally in China. It was manufactured to be a biological weapon used on the rest of the world. We are in a time period known as the Fourth Turning, according to the Strauss-Howe generational theory provided by historians Neil Howe and William Strauss. There are four periods: The first turning is a high, the second turning is an awakening, the third turning is an unraveling, and the fourth turning is a crisis. According to their theory, we are currently in a crisis period. What does this mean?

The Fourth Turning is a Crisis. This is an era of destruction, often involving war or revolution, in which institutional life is destroyed and rebuilt in response to a perceived threat to the nation's survival. After the crisis, civic authority revives, cultural expression redirects towards community purpose, and people begin to locate themselves as members of a larger group. - Wikipedia

There is something brewing that a lot of people have neglected to even consider. The doomsday people also known as preppers, have for years and years been looked upon as crazy people for thinking society would allow such a period of time where Shit Hits The Fan or SHTF. But what if? What if we really are marching towards a moment in our lives right now where we are soon to experience a collapse of society so big and so destructive, that will forever change the course of the future moving forward.

I don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer, but if you think about it, at some point how can our society continue to play this game. A game of control over the masses by corrupted governments and possibility that a shadow government has their hands in on some serious shifts in how the world operates. I feel for everyone that just wants to make a life of their own. That’s why we’re here right? To live in a society, be respectful of each other’s aspirations, to set goals, and achieve great things. To have children, to see them grow up and have a family of their own. To find long lasting careers and enjoy the fruits of our labor as well as pave the way for future generations. The main problem we face is how long will we allow ourselves to lose not only our rights as human beings, but to hand over our free will for the sake of being promised security? You know promises are easily broken. But you can’t break spirits without suffering repercussions. It’s become an Us vs. Them kind of world. I’m not a big fan of religion and I find it puts spirituality in a box and conceals the purpose of it.

Everyone needs to keep their eyes and ears open at all times. Enjoy everyday like it’s your last and don’t freak out about anything. Slowly make plans for the worst to hit. You want to know that when the lights go out, you know how to light a candle so you can see in the dark.

There’s definitely something not quite right about this virus spreading quickly and organizations all over are suspending activities. Cities are being quarantined. It all sounds like something that was planned ahead of time. Is it a coincidence that in 1720, there was the plague. In 1820, an outbreak of cholera. In 1920, the Spanish Flu. Now 100 years later in 2020 and right on a tee, the Coronavirus. Makes you think...

One love to everyone.

#coronavirus #pandemic #virus #people #society #tin foil hats #conspiracy #fourth turning

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fc5holidayexchange · 4 years

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FAR CRY 5 HOLIDAY EXCHANGE 2019 [FIC]

‘come things only happy and whole’

Original Character/Sharky Boshaw -Pre Relationship. Deputy Rook, Sharky Boshaw, Earl Whitehorse, Original Characters

@ask-chibi-rook

This was a really fun experience with a really cool character concept! I think I scrapped like five ideas, which almost never happens. TYSM and I hope you enjoy!

Notes: general warning for Jacob Seed who is Sir-Not-Appearing but still felt, brief non-graphic discussion of miscarriage, gentle flirting, as close as I get to fluff.

–

The circumstances are specific.

Eden’s Gate has a now unusually large population of pregnant women. The Resistance has few in the family way and explicitly no children in or around the compounds. So colour Pastor Jerome Jefferies and Father Joseph Seed surprised when they received identical messages asking them to parley a little north of Dutch in a zone they’d been habitually calling Bear Trap. Because of the bears. Twelve women who had been friends on Facebook before the Reaping started had kept to the agreement they’d made to meet up at Sally Sue’s old cabin and stay the days or weeks it took for all of them to give birth. This would have been a ridiculous thing to organise if a) every single woman involved hadn’t been previously part of a larger prepper group before making a smaller, more intimate one and b) that smaller group hadn’t been specifically for women who’d survived multiple miscarriages.

“They’re ah, not coming down.” Some poor son of a gun has to tell Whitehorse at two am on a Thursday. They’re out in the chill, on the porch of a little house. “They’ve got four doula’s and a bunch of equipment they’d set up beforehand as well as a doctor. Marcie, that’s, uh, Walter Whit’s Marcie, says that we can shove it up out be-hinds if we want them to come down. It’s between them and God now.”

“She tell Seed that too?”

“She told Walt that.” The boy sighs. “She told Seed that he should have kept that prize winning show dog of his brother under better control as he stressed Wendy and Carlie something awful with their atonements. And that keeping any pregnant women near Faith, who she did have something unpleasant to say about as per her use of Bliss, was just about his greatest crime.”

Whitehorse snorts. “Has she seen the bodies?”

The boy holds up his fingers to make quotation marks. “That’s killing folk, not killing babies, and Seed was coming awful close to asking them to kill babies.”

“That explains the Peggies. When it came right down to it they picked their kids over the Father.” Whitehorse muses. “Would’ve been nice if they’d stood up for us. No, don’t relay that Jimmy, that’s me being an old grump. If those girls need things from us, you get it to them, alright?”

“Yessir.”

“And you,” he turns to point at Rook, tucked under a blanket on the front step with him, “go get some sleep.”

Rook points at herself, flips to the page in her small notebook that says me?

“Yeah, you. Relax Rook. Ain’t nobody around here going to need you to fix this.”

She probably should have figured that Whitehorse would catch on. It’s been a week, maybe two, since Jess took an all terrain bike and an exhausted, largely non-responsive Rook back to the Henbane. She has marks she doesn’t remember and bigger, scarier blanks in her memory, left to white knuckle it through whatever recovery is possible. Rook spends a lot of her life kind of tired. When it’s hard to communicate you have to be quick and clear about what to say. She’s gotten it right down to essentials by now but that leaves out everything complex. There’s a lot of things sitting just behind her teeth, just behind her gums, that she’ll never have time to tell anyone. Certainly not if Joseph gets his way.

From what she understands they are at a critical junction in Joseph’s plan. Months at most from his intended end of the world and he has been reacting with his expected fanaticism. A bunch of women trekking off into the woods should be a minor concern. All of this would be a minor concern, solved by Jacob, who had no one among the Prosperity Prepper Pregnancy Yarning Circle, but for one Miriam Lee, of John’s faithful, who led security. She’d changed the locks on any number of critical supplies and literally taken John’s secret stash of solar panels with her, leaving John to explain why he had solar panels in Joseph’s unreasonable and unlikely future, and why Miriam Lee was the only person who knew how to change all the passwords. This still wouldn’t have stopped Jacob but for Joseph, who had decided he’d had a vision and his eldest brother would be cast from paradise should he take arms against the innocent. The absurdity of that statement about that particular redhead aside it seemed the Father was dead serious.

For all his numerous faults it seemed Joseph Seed was unwilling to harm a child.

(Ha)

So the circumstances? Very specific.

Rook takes his advice and heads in to sleep. In her dreams places red and deadly pass and prosper, knives sharpen and music plays, a familiar voice sweet and betraying. It’s further away than usual, buffered in her dreams by smaller, stronger feelings currently unsaid. Her mind is dark, not quite unpleasant. When she wakes in the morning, just a few hours later, the Montana morning is fiercely pleasant. The weather is beginning to suggest it’s turning but it hasn’t done more than throw up some surprising afternoon wind changes. Enough that a light jacket and a scarf stashed somewhere is enough for almost any day.

Someone knocks on the door of the small space she’s been allotted. Rook pulls on her clothes. Soft flannel, thick socks. Two shirts for those aforementioned wind changes. She makes sure she has a small notebook and pen on her. There’s a small box of blue ones under her bed here, liberated from John, so she never feels quite bad enough about how often they get snapped. The door knocks again and she rushes to open it.

On the other side Sharky Boshaw has a chipped mug of tea and a little bit of a nervous look.

The soft feelings from her dreams return in daylight’s full glory. She waves hello, takes the mug and invites him in. Sharky takes in her messy nest of blankets, the pens scattered on the floor from her dash to answer the door and how, apart from her bed, there isn’t anywhere to sit. She can see him thinking, her own embarrassment flooding her face with colour, before Sharky kneels down and starts picking up her pens.

“I heard from Isaiah -that prepper with all the grenades? The one the Peggies stopped going near because he set landmines attached to flamethrowers, well he’s been rehabbing a Judge. Found her ripping through Jacob’s territory baiting his people into traps. Clever as hell. He invited me up there ‘cause I brought him some beer a week or two ago and I made a bet against Hurk about it. Says she’s nearly ready to get the hell off his property on account of how she keeps activating his traps to scare the wildlife.” He pauses, glances at the ceiling while he scratches his chin. “Also I owe Hurk money.”

Rook hears all that and as usual has specific questions. She opens her book. Sharky hands her a pen. She writes: You brought a man surrounded by landmines beer?

Sharky looked faintly offended. “I ain’t afraid of fire.”

But the landmines? She asks with genuine concern.

“Landmines are fine if they’re attached to flamethrowers.” He waits a moment to see if she has anything to say to that, then adds, “Obviously I just figured out how those worked and went backwards. Easy.”

Easy, obviously.

Sharky rubs the back of his neck. “So, wanna pet a dog?”

–

Whitehorse is a paternal combination of pleased and worried that Rook is leaving the relative safety of the Prison to pet a dog with a pyromaniac. On one hand, she’s been a mess since she came back from the Whitetails -the Whitetails that want her back pretty badly, not including Jacob- and a strong interest in doing things that involve walking outside in a relative state of peace is indicative of the good mental health she never exactly had. On the other hand Sharky Boshaw is taking her through woods not quite Resistance and not quite Peggie to pet a wolf that kills people.

“Kills Peggies.” Sharky corrects when Whitehorse manages to stop grumbling long enough to state his problem. “And Boomer does that too.”

“Boomer is a good dog.” Someone Rook doesn’t know says from their left. “Let the girl pet a dog, Earl. It’s not the most dangerous thing she’s done for us.”

Whitehorse makes a face she dimly recognises from her early days, when she stayed at the station all hours and didn’t so much as a glance at forming a relationship outside of work. At her one month review he’d said that he hoped that she’d one day find people here she could trust, that he hoped to be one of them, but until then he’d do his best to at least be a soft place to land. It’s months later, and there’s a war on, and his face still says that. Rook spends all her time trying to be what the Resistance needs, the person it needs. There’s not much room for being soft.

Whitehorse relents, settles on take the shovel and gives Sharky back the rocket launcher and the nun-chucks that Whitehorse personally took out of his trailer about three months before all of this started. Sharky treats both of these gifts with a reverence that they have all learned to tolerate while living in close quarters. He also gifts Sharky with a ten minute long lecture while Rook goes and resupplies her day pack. There’s no explicit mention of her but she gets the feeling Whitehorse has been telling everyone to just be nicer, try to get her out of her shell.

They take a car part of the way and leave it tucked in an overhang that the Peggies have yet to figure out. The way requires crossing the river and taking a circuitous route through some unallied areas. The trees are just sparse enough to let the sun bite her on the neck. The dirt is coming up off the ground at a rate that’s alarming covering them to their knees in grime and debris. The greenery sings with the sounds of small animals, cautious bird calls and absolutely no gunfire. Silence will fall all across the county for a few moments every now and then, as if the whole world is being as cautious as the birds.

Sharky just talks and talks and talks. But he’s Sharky enough, whatever weird thing in the Drubman-Boshaw family makes them simultaneously caricatures and decent folk, to look back at her every so often and make sure she’s okay with him. Maybe it’s that he’s used to sound without answer, even if it’s from the opposite side. Maybe he’s just a guy who needs social skills and less access to nitroglycerine.

“Whaddaya think?”

Rook hasn’t actually been listening.

“Ah well, not important anyway.” He holds his hands out to her, baffling, before she realises he means to help her up into the knot of a tree. “Oh shit. Come look at this. Haven’t been back here in ages.” He plants himself and all but throws her up into a curvature of branches. “Man I got a twisted twunkle in this tree once.”

Rook takes his hands. He guides her carefully among the brown bark and the sparing leaves.

The tree itself is huge and old. It might once have been several different ones that melded together as trees sometimes do. Under her hands the bark feels warm and dry, aged away and tough. It feels alive but waiting, like it’s been here before and will be here again long after. She tries to take that feeling inside herself. Being steady and rooted instead of the constant swaying that digs deeper and deeper after every nightmare. Sharky helps, first by literally pulling her further in until they can sit on a thick branch together, and then by telling her all about the things he knows about this place. She’s not sure how much is true but it’s nice all the same. From the height, and the little raised hill the tree sits on, they can see a little bit of the space around them. The occasional smoke of a fire, or a plane flying in circles. She pulls out her radio, more habit than need, idly flicking it on and off, frequency to frequency, in case someone needs help.

The radio speaks for a moment: -coming off the mountain-zzzt-no sign yet-zzzt-heads on a swivel A-Team, targets tricky and lean- Jacob hunting Whitetails, even in so-called peacetime.

Sharky turns it off, not soon enough to stop her sense of self crumbling at Jacob Seed’s voice, but soon enough that when he gives her a quick hug she clings to it. Sharky smells like a heavy mixture of adult male body odour, what was left of the laundry powder and wet ash. It’s pungent enough to clear her head. Sharky holds onto her for a moment or two past appropriate then slides away not quite smooth enough to be cool.

“Hey, Rook, look at that.” He points straight out, and she assumes it’s just to change the subject, but soon enough a small dance of butterflies flies across the sky. They twirl in a circle and pass the tree close enough for Rook to see that they’re spotted with blue and bright green, creatures of the Bliss for certain. They dip down intending to take a pass right through the tree Rook and Sharky are sitting in. Sharky says oh shit just before they’re hit-

The butterflies fly around them, the whole world the colour of wings and white, before it’s the clear Montana sky again. One lands on Sharky’s nose and he pulls a face of intense disgust.

She can’t help it, she laughs at him.

He looks at her for a moment trying to figure out what the fuck she’s doing with her face. When she’s done she begins to climb down, the small bubble of mirth still sitting high, right behind her teeth.

–

It’s just past dusk when they get there. All of the Resistance keeps odd hours. Isaiah’s house involves a hike that’s near vertical. They see signs of Peggie work as they circle closer -spray cans next to symbols on trees, a copy of Joseph’s Bible, the occasional item of clothing for some reason- but those signs thin as they get closer to the house. Instead scorch marks and gun holes pepper the land like confetti at a wedding. Rook pulls out her shovel.

Eventually Sharky takes a sharp turn, ducks behind a thick crop of trees and leads her to a neatly kept front yard in front of a shabby barnhouse-cum-fortress. There’s even an American flag hanging from the roof of the added-on porch. Sharky whistles loud and clear across the space. After five minutes or so a man emerges.

His thick beard and scarred hands tell a story all their own. He shuffles across the porch with a bag under his arm and a cane in his other hand. His leg acts like dead weight across the wood, scraping and scratching along. He makes an unhappy groan low in his throat. Acid burns. Isaiah never had a last name. Or if he did, he refused to give it.

“Hey, buddy.” Sharky hops over some line only he sees turns and holds out his huge hands for her small ones. Like before she hands him her trust and no small amount of affection and amusement and then they do the world’s silliest looking dance:

“Over here -that’s a trip wire, don’t hit that, good-”

“-now this’ll sound strange, two inches left with your bum or you’re gonna lose a bunch, and you’re small enough, ow, from your leg Po-Po-”

“-did you just trip? Dep, this is a real hotzone, come on-”

“-look, I know what it means when a woman makes that face at me, I’m sorry, I’m not trying to grope you, but they’re nice, so-”

“-Good, great, no, nope, that way goes Sharky’s testy festy and he needs ‘em for the Testy Festy seed swap, so come over here-

Finally they come up to the porch. Isaiah sits on his rocking chair under a blanket with ice tea next to him. His chest keeps expanding in little giggles. Both Rook and Sharky are sweaty and breathing hard. Rook’s hair is stuck to her neck and she’s sure she’s never been this embarrassed before. No wonder the Peggies stopped trying. Sharky stops her with a solemn hand. “Okay now we’re gonna hop twice.”

She abruptly realises he’s fucking with her. Gently, with good humor, but still teasing her. She kicks a clod of dirt at him now that they’re close to the porch and reasonably unlikely to die in a fire. Isaiah makes this noise, like a cat yarking up a bird, his whole upper body moving. He’s laughing. Sharky laughs as well and proclaims he’s going to see if there’s any beer. With nothing else to do Rook climbs up onto the porch and takes a seat against the railing of his porch. Isaiah passes her a glass of the tea. He taps his own throat, the angle revealing its scars and warps, then pulls out a pen and a board. With unpracticed fingers he writes on his own whiteboard: I heard you speak like this.

Rook nods. Isaiah nods back and returns his writing implements to their bag. Within reach but out of the way. The tea is blessedly cool against her forehead when she presses it in.

“He-ey girl!” Sharky calls from inside the house. “Guess who found beer! You don’t have to guess, it’s me.” He sticks his head out, probably to ask if she needs something, so she holds up her half full glass.

The Judge trots onto the porch. Her coat has been shaved down, patches still that bone terrifying white where the hair is longest, but all over are swathes of grey brindling. Her sharp blue eyes are clear as water in a face returned all the way from the Bliss. Around her foreleg a bandage is slowly turning pink from the injury beneath. She comes to rest her huge body near Isaiah but with her sightline out to the world.

Sharky pats her cautiously then fits himself down next to Rook. “What’s her name?”

Isaiah considers. Then he opens his throat. “Boudica. Queen stayed free.” His voice isn’t clear. It’s pained and filled with the feel of disuse. He names the wolf anyway.

Boudica rolls on her back and shows her fluffy, scarred belly.

Rook stands and shuffles closer. Her hand shakes as she brings it down, firm, on her upper chest. Boudica wriggles but stays still. Rook keeps patting. Her skin is scarred all the way up to a sharp cut right across her throat. She didn’t die. She can see it: Jacob’s knife, his music and his soldiers. Running as far and fast as you can because you can never be free but you can be away. Boudica defies that, though. Her fur is turning back from the Bliss and there’s not a hint of madness in her eyes.

Rook returns to her seat. Isaiah gives her more tea.

Boudica snuffles, rubs her nose with a huge paw. She picks herself up and trots through the front yard they had to dance through. Her path is noticeably straightforward.

“What the fuck?” Sharky says.

Isaiah laughs again. “Bad leg. Don’t have time.” He flings his hand towards Rook, the yard and possibly the entire concept of the war beyond it.

“‘t’s not fair.” Sharky whines. “When I brought you stuff you made me strap it on my back and crawl!”

Isaiah slaps his knee, giggling again, points at Rook and then back at Sharky. “You danced.” Isaiah rubs his throat, as if it pains him. Then as if it would pain him more not to tease, “Fair.”

“I- Well-” Sharky chugs his beer instead of talking. Isaiah refills her glass to the top and bullies Sharky into pulling out Boudica’s bespoke sleeping pen, giving lie to the idea that she’d ever be coming back down with them.

Night falls properly. They eat together. Isaiah has no room for them inside but Rook’s slept rougher and he brings out a little heater and a bottle of bourbon. Sharky unearths a pile of excellent quality sleeping bags in a shed hidden on the side. Rook watches him whine his way through the whole thing since they don’t actually know there aren’t landmines. The bourbon makes Sharky feel better, though.

He’s talking about…something, honestly she’s not sure how he transitions from topic to topic. She pulls out her notebook. She wrote it earlier in the day, never said it. Thank you, Sharky.

He smiles, face lit by what little ambient light there is. “Ain’t no thing but a chicken wing, Rook.”

Rook stays sober under a pile of blankets. Sharky has long since collapsed into snoring. The night is starry and silent. If she sleeps now she’ll have nightmares: falling through red rooms, black blood dripping down her mouth, her tongue returned but unable to make human noise, another layer between her and other people. Another place for someone to slide a knife. The night is starry and silent and in Hope County that will have to be enough.

Boudica comes back in the early hours. Rook is still awake. Her muzzle is a little bloody but mostly she seems tired and pleased with herself. She comes over for a very quick pat but returns to the nest of hand sewn blankets and repurposed pillowing that she calls a bed. She tunnels in, turns and wiggles her body, huffs, sleeps.

Not his wolf, she thinks, and goes to sleep herself. She was right about the dreams. But between terror and noiseless pain is her own feet under her running like she thinks Boudica would.

#sharky boshaw/deputy #sharky boshaw #deputy oc #earl whitehorse #oc #brief non-graphic discussion of miscarriage #gentle flirting #mild fluff #gift: fic #fc5holidayexchange #ask-chibi-rook #submission

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themechaneer · 4 years

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Porters || Headcanon

Listen---. Joel has nothing but the highest respect and admiration for porters and the work they do. He like so many others knows exactly how essential they are to the survival of most if not all of the preppers scattered across the remains of USA. And he appreciates their willingness to put their own lives on the line regularly to ensure that survival and that the needs of others are met. But unless he’s lowkey dying himself and bed bound with injuries or illness you’ll never catch him using their services.

It’s not him being distrustful, and it’s not arrogance built up upon his own abilities either. Joel knows with his BT sensing abilities for the most part he’s more then capable of doing his own runs for supplies or whatever he may need at home and whatever can’t be picked up or printed he doesn’t often have trouble building it himself. That being said, more than anything Joel can’t bare the thought of using poters from any company to supply him when he knows it takes their services away from others who need them a hell of a lot more then he ever will.

Joel is stubborn. And would rather risk meeting his maker early then even consider using the services of porters when he has literally any other option. To that point Joel DOES consider every porter as a precious resource. The people willing to make deliveries to the prepper community, especially those close to known MULE or TERRORISTS camps, or within ACTIVE BT AREAS are a dying breed, far and few inbetween. And becoming fewer with each passing year it seems. Joel may rail against using them himself but you can’t stop the man of doing everything he can and within his own skillset to help them and keep them safe.

This includes close maintenance and upkeep of equipment and structures that he knows see heavy traffic from porters, it also includes his garage being open to each and every porter that passes his way so they can rest if need be, towing services (the man has some stories to tell regarding this service), and occasionally escort services. Yes, more then once Joel has actually accompanied a porter or more to their expected delivery drop knowing they were bound to cross BT’s and wanting to do all he could to ensure they arrived safely

On the rare occasion he’s had cause to call on a porter you’ll more often then not find him using the Fragile Express, or independent porters. Not because his distrust and dislike of Bridges runs THAT deep but more so he knows how busy their main porter Sam happens to be and not wanting to add to it anymore then necessary.

His favorite porters to use though are the nomad (one of my own ocs ;)), Rush Porter , The Veteran (pre-retirement) , & Fragile herself.

#‟ let’s tell the truth just for once ” || headcanons

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headspace-hotel · 4 years

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Something I’ve started to notice, having spent a lot of time on both sides of the “left-wing”/“right-wing” divide, at least as it pertains to American politics:

a) Both sides interpret the other side’s beliefs a lot more than they observe the other side’s beliefs,

b) they are HILARIOUSLY bad at it.

i happened upon a post by that pro liberty pro life person and they were like....listing out a bunch of ways “left-wing” ideology discourages people from having or being part of families and a good half of it was stuff I had never heard in my life. They were like, knitting everything together into this huge anti-family and anti-community agenda and it was absolutely bizarre.

right wingers are in general crazily off the mark in terms of what the “left” actually believes. In the Christian homeschool group I spent a lot of my middle+high school years in a lot of people thought “transgenderism” was like...directly connected with moral relativism and it was supposed to be a symptom of a viewpoint where there was no objective reality or morality. some people unironically think abortion is somehow connected to child sacrifice, like, to demons. I think they don’t see it LITERALLY, as in people having abortions aren’t literally sacrificing to demons, but they see some kind of clear allegorical connection.

but also the stuff the “left” says about the “right” is also pretty wild sometimes!! That tweet about how they “value unborn fetuses purely because they might be male” is almost the same level of bullshit as people being trans because of moral relativism. Like in my (largely Christian) experience people overwhelmingly are pro-life because they genuinely believe abortion kills a baby.

These people don’t prefer male fetuses. Even the absolutely wildly misogynistic ones don’t because even they recognize that women are necessary.

I really haven’t seen widespread fear of women’s reproductive freedom. Sex outside of monogamous relationships gets people’s panties in a twist, sure, but panic over female independence itself is something I’ve only seen on weird nazi blogs on tumblr.

I knew kids who were so sheltered they didn’t know what the lord of the rings was outside of the name, and who said things like “women are cursed to serve their husbands” and even they didn’t see pregnancy as a tool to keep women from working or voting or something, or scream “OMG WOMEN WILL BE WORKING AND VOTING IF THEY CAN HAVE ABORTIAN???”

I’m not saying they don’t have oppressive ideas about what a woman’s “role” is but the degree that anti-abortion viewpoints are fueled by fear of women being free of patriarchal control is wildly overexaggerated.

ditto with whatever the hell “ammosexual” is supposed to mean. as someone who was surrounded by people who LOVED guns, this is...so goddamn stupid and it’s unbearable. intense love of firearms is usually motivated by a mixture of the following:

love of hunting/shooting as sports, usually because of having grown up with it and having had lots of positive experiences with authority figures in their lives surrounding these activities. Seriously, a lot of it is just...they like guns, as an interest. These can be pretty well-adjusted people too. Hunting or shooting as a sport doesn’t betray some underlying fixation on violence any more than liking horror movies or dark books or martial arts does. This is just what I’ve observed.

paranoia/reading conspiracy theories and becoming convinced that the government is going to take their family/rights/bibles/whathaveyou. Usually they find the fact that the government wants to disarm them suspect, and a prelude to violent oppression of some kind.

a “doomsday prepper” hobby (see previous bullet point) mixed with an incredibly individualistic and pessimistic view of human nature (that is, right wingers very reliably think people turn on each other during disasters)

paranoia

People who are trying to make it into a Freudian thing are reading really far into it and it’s weird af to watch

but like, the common thread is that people see others’ beliefs, and they immediately presume that there’s something else there that’s underlying them, and they have to come up with this unifying explanation that fits with their view of the world, and it ends up saying way more about them than it does about the other person’s beliefs

#random #politics #i guess?#Discourse #lol

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supertrainstationh · 4 years

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Glenn Beck is a joke.

Not even three months ago he was ranting and raving at Cpac saying Bernie Sanders and Black Lives Matter were dangerous radicals that were conspiring to carry out genocidal acts on US soil, or something to that very direct effect.

Beck has a repeated history of “changing sides” and swearing that what he said in the past was a mistake, because he has some complex where he always wants to be seen as some sort of underdog, where being on the side that’s presently “in power” isn’t enough for him as he need to be fighting against something to feel valid.

I’m not some random lib who saw a compilation of out of context Glenn Beck footage online long after the fact of his Fox TV show ending, I watched his Fox News show every day since before his program even really took off in popularity.

I started watching because a conservative economist who I actually LIKED and was genuinely interested in, who I’ve purchased books by, who I actually paid to be a member of his now defunct organization, someone who’s probably far more traditionally conservative than Beck himself, and probably more radically anti-socialist than most Republicans today, was scheduled to be on his show, only to be bumped at the last minute, likely for being too opposed to the interest of Fox in general.

So while the guy I actually wanted to see never appeared on Beck’s show, I found Beck himself interesting as well, and early on I found him to be kind of impressive in that some of the points he made or positions he had weren’t typical of Fox News in that he was actually making some objection to Bush era foreign policy that lots of people on Fox wouldn’t dare utter at the time.

So I watched this guy, every day, for a WHILE, and i didn’t agree with all or most of what he said, I genuinely liked him, and it was a very gradual process of me NOT liking him anymore, as I just watched as he honed in on anti-Obama frustration among conservatives and became more and more extreme and unhinged.

Its one thing to fail to use “unifying language” on his Fox News show.

What Beck did on his show went LIGHTYEARS beyond “non-unifying langauge”.

Highlights on material featured on his TV show included:

routinely vilifying black community groups, and actually ACCUSING people he was at odds with of being “community organizers”, using that term alone as an implication of wrongdoing or conspiratorial activity.

accusing black community groups of holding “fake protests” by bussing people to the site of demonstrations, though he later promoted Tea Party demonstrations such as the Tea Party Express bus tour that LITERALLY served to transport almost entirely white groups of conservatives to anti-healthcare reform rallies.

targeted community groups that were helping black people find housing and register to vote by promoting a fake news story that one of these groups was running a child prostitution ring, leading to that group (ACORN) being defunded by the government and forced to disband, though a number of conservatives still blamed ACORN for “rigging” the 2012 election in favor of Obama in spite of the group having been completely dissolved.

Peddling a conspiracy theory that Obama was going to sell large swaths of US land to China to pay the national debt.

briefly promoting a fake news story that Obama was building concentration camps to put conservatives in, before making a rapid U-turn and debunking the “fema camp photos” as North Korean prison camp photos with a FEMA logo pasted on them to create a hoax.

Saying that Obama is a racist and that he “has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture”, though this wasn’t on his own show, but during an appearance on another Fox show.

Airing footage of children in a black private school saying that Obama inspired them to become doctors and lawyers, and insisting that this footage were proof that Obama was inspiring an anti-American conspiracy

airing edited footage of an black government employee to make them seem like they harbored anti-white racism, leading to them being fired.

showing a historical Nazi Party propaganda poster promoting the state sanctioned murder of disabled people, and pushing the idea that if Obamacare wasn’t destroyed, people like his own special needs daughter would be rounded up and murdered by Obama’s administration.

Playing footage of George Bernard Shaw ranting insanity about doing annual evaluations of every citizen and killing the ones that weren’t productive enough, and insisting that this was Obama/Democratic policy intention. (but at the same time he was complaining that the Democrats give too much assistance and services to poor/jobless people, so....?)

Doing otherwise fairly decent historical coverage of human rights violations which took place in the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin, but tying it in with the idea that Obama was going to repeat these acts in the US and had to be stopped.

A continued fixation on railing against working families who were on unemployment insurance after the financial meltdown.

A weird phase where he began to idealize and romanticize the day after 9-11 as the peak of American community and values.

Doing pretty good coverage of a public school in Queens NY, one from my own home neighborhood, that had deplorable building conditions and non-existent educational capability, but after all this other shit, who would take Beck seriously on ANYTHING he says?

The funny thing is I don’t even like Obama, I mean I like him more than Trump, but that’s like saying I’d rather step in dog poop than get hit by a train, so it’s not like I’m out to defend him as this great leader or anything, I’m just against racism and ignorance that is based on made up bullshit.

Anyway, the more nuts Beck got, the more sponsors he lost, until the commercial breaks during his shows were nothing but promos for other Fox shows, or supplies for doomsday preppers that were sometimes endorsed by Beck himself, the dopiest of all included “food insurance” where a company would send periodic shipments of food to your house in the case of a... I don’t know, a Stalinist famine or a civil war or something?

So in spite of being the most popular show on Fox at one point, Beck was the only one making money off of it until he got pressured to end it from within Fox itself.

I’ve seen videos on YouTube where some leftie tries to edit footage from Beck’s old Fox show out of context and present him as a nutcase, its lazy and dishonest, as someone who actually watched his show regularly, you didn’t have to edit things or lie to make him look like a nutcase.

He’s given many “apologies” before for what he’s said, then goes back and says the same insane horrible shit all over again, you don’t go around saying Obama is a racist and hates white people and white culture, show footage of black schoolchildren saying they want to be doctors and lawyers as evidence of an anti-American conspiracy, go on saying Black Lives Matter is part of a plot to commit American genocide, and then cry crocodile tears that you “should have used unifying language”, when now, Fox is repeating those same messages that anti-racists are “coming to get you” and “want to attack and dethrone god”, while insisting that they aren’t racist but just trying to “protect America from communism” or whatever, and calling Mitt Romney a traitor for marching with anti-racist protestors.

You helped establish this shit as acceptable discourse Beck, you don’t get to apologize now.

Early on in his show’s run, he actually called out adults in that were turning away trick-or-treating children during Halloween if they suspected their parents were voting for Democratic candidates, he knew it was bullshit and called it out, but when he realized there was no MONEY in promoting POSITIVITY like that on Fox, he appealed to those same biased spiteful families as much as he could.

Beck was never mistaken or confused, he always knew exactly what he was doing and how to monetize people’s fear in an age where for the first time, someone not of their own racial background was “in charge of them”, and mobilized them to elect a racist gameshow host to “set things right” and make sure the tragedy of blacks being in power without their own personal permission was never made again.

#glenn beck #fox news #black lives matter

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maskugatiger · 4 years

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I would like to invite all citizens of the world who are in the same oppression with me.And want to gather all to unite in fighting the global elite who are affiliated in the new world order and the alliance as well as their troops. also to destroy all their evil agenda. then I expect you can connect with me via my tumblr, either with friends or follow my account. and this is not the wishes and expectations of most people, but the entire world community. the desire to live in freedom without shackles and controlled and controlled and manipulated by some groups of destroyers, they are mad against greed, status, and power, and ambition of wanting to enslave humanity to go astray and destruction. and they are the Antichrist devotee who obediently. and want to destroy the religion of God. after that we will face the end time events that will be so heavy and terrible future. therefore we must prepare and train the ability to survive we start now.

our propaganda tool against them are media twitter and facebook. if you are having problems understanding the language of another country, you can use the software qTranslate. for info update about the global issues you can use software applications from Microsoft. such as news.feedlab microsoft, google news.poddr, audials radio, SoundCloud, yt for youtube. for communication, our community can use the messaging tumblr, Discord, skype, xochat (DALnet and other), amino anime, Fanpop, ProDigits, Labayk, Furcadia, Habbo. for news about the global development of the browser, can be viewed through youtube, twitter, twittmaps, trend google, msn news,politico,bussiness,watch market,websites united nation, reddit, BuzzFeed, funyjunk, allchans, above top secret, Aljazeera, liveumap. disaster information can be seen in many specialized websites and catastrophic weather news. do not forget to look at the info outbreak and spread of the virus and its effects on the economy. know his later world economy will collapse, and will happen much chaos everywhere. , to learn skills can survive web through DIY craft, Prepper and survive, how its work, wikiHow, or youtube instructable.

maskugatiger id my tumblr, I want you to share this info to all of the connections of friends and your community that you think is they have the same vision, and a bow with our goals. and be careful in giving info or recruiting. intruder alert. because the new world order had many spies around the world. they are spread corona virus / covid19 this, and became his right as a biological weapon to carry out depopulation or destruction of 1/3 the population of the world community. for the sake of themselves. they really bear like madmen who ruled his whole soul to the devil. because the heart to mock and kill the lives of millions of people, without any sense of humanity and fear. and no regrets on any destruct and crimes done them. they are and Jewish elite truly empower this vicious system(satanic system) initiated by the evil, and makes the rulers of the world as hooligans and their tool to control the citizens of the world, so beguiled and subject to their slavery. and they were awaiting their leader is anti-christ / Dajjal. to lead them into error and darkness.

we have first communities to respond to disasters of this large systematic crimes. and our fighters and activists have voiced their protest and criticism as well as their resistance to the NWO. and they are world citizens who are the objectives in our community. they are from a few weeks ago to this day, unceasingly voiced their outcry via twitter media, and it is common knowledge, that Twitter is a good tool of propaganda media, especially to make back attack and revolution. through writings, posters, pictures and videos can be posted there. so that the citizens of the world that they are still deceived other in the elite game, they will be aware. and these masses will add to our strength to confront their military forces. to observe the activities of our buzzer ditwitter confrontation, you can search on search engines on twitter, by entering the keyword "new world order" and you can do check last post, it will be a lot of popping up the accounts of the world and our human fighters. who raise their voice in order to oppose and fight against the NWO agenda and aggression through their posts

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thecoroutfitters · 5 years

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Written by R. Ann Parris on The Prepper Journal.

Many aspects of the Modern Minuteman toolbox apply to preparedness in general, however personal and small-scale or widespread and earth shaking our pet disasters may be. As with overall preparedness, our exact situation and our expectations of disaster scenarios affects what we prioritize for our finite time and attention.

Last time, I concentrated on an “early/now” frame for prioritizing a handful of commonly recommended skills. This time, I’m actually taking the “at all” perspective, be it amped-up community watches, riot control, or some NWO-EROL situation we’re gearing up to oppose.

As always, opposing opinions are welcome. The more perspectives available, the better everyone is able to make their own decisions.

Gauge Community Climate

Absolutely and emphatically, yes.

Heaven help me, I recently found myself agreeing with Nancy Pelosi. A group of students approached her in her office to express their displeasure in her lack of support for an AOC environmental bill. Her reply was essentially that stupid to waste time on something with absolutely zero chance of passing.

That was a fair enough point on its own, and speaks directly to taking the pulse of a population.

Even more so was a nugget that made fewer news sites in the following days: The belief that trying to push too-extreme an agenda – however much she personally might agree with it – was worse than doing nothing at all. It would only further ruffle feathers, making things harder to achieve the next time around.

I’m no more fan of politicians than the next, but the ability to accurately predict and read the masses is something that we do need to be aware of if we have any interest whatsoever in being a citizen soldier.

What the community will stand and what they won’t is the bedrock of insurgency and resistance movements.

What they will and won’t stand in good times, versus crux moments and tragedy, historically makes or breaks those movements, as well as the hold over a community by a commanding force – whether that’s a large, visible government with policing agents and military, or the behind-the-scenes types large and small.

It applies to anticipating and either preventing or responding to something like a riot or demonstration, as well as guerrilla actions against occupations and undermining strongholds of loyalists for either/any faction.

Large scale, long-term or single-event short-term, we have to be able to gauge the mood of the mob and the climate of our communities, and our reactions have to come from a complete tool set – not just picking today’s hammer.

If we can’t, our chances of success are downright nil.

Denial & Disruption

Most emphatically, yes.

Riot control on sidewalks or countering the jackboot takeover, we want to be able to deny our enemy intel and assets, and disrupt their way of doing business (and ability to relax).

That can take all sorts of forms – and has, throughout history.

Interdiction and harassment take so many forms, it really rates its own set of articles even to nutshell the tactics and techniques employed by insurgency and resistance in guerrilla operations, community and large-force counters to guerilla operations, and even law enforcement and IT deterrents large and small, and internal policing by law enforcement and militaries and even lowly little small-business operations, as well as force-on-force operations from pre-tech eras to modern times.

On the larger scales, it involves all sorts of supply and travel disruptions, misinformation/counter-intel, harassing fire, false flags, etc.

Many of those can also be applied on the smallest of scales – even interpersonal conflict and self-defense situations – employing different techniques to the same theories, or adapting techniques to fit conditions.

Again, though, we really want to mind the effects on and reactions of our internal and closest-ties allies (family, coworkers, partners), the near neighbors, and the community at large, as well as our opposition and the reactions of their varying rings of influence.

Wilderness & Military Camp Setup

Yes, absolutely – anywhere.

Site development and placement of elements – modern or long past – have a lot of aspects that apply to preparedness in general, even “just” getting through a hurricane and “just” setting up our homes for everyday functional efficiency and security.

The same aspects keep them relevant to a modern minuteman intending to defend storefronts or residential communities from riots as well as the prepper who anticipates infantry-like service defending freedom.

Positioning for ready communication, rapid responses, protection of key elements, LOS, external observation points, latrines/sanitation, deployment outside the wire and-or green zones, individual safety and incoming-fire cover, fire safety, supply distribution, and awareness of known effective ranges by position and armament all factor in.

They apply equally to both the able-bodied foot soldier and to the physically limited watchman or rear-echelon non-combatant, whatever the situation, however big or small the location.

*Think that one through, and consider our daily nothing-wrong lifestyles – It really does resonate everywhere, from where our smoke detectors and fire extinguishers are, to aggravations or eases when we grocery shop, bathe dogs, do laundry, file and maintain paperwork, coordinate with family and coworkers, get to and from our chores and recreations, etc. We don’t have to be totally paranoid or OCD to start seeing typical trends in non-prepper, non-minuteman sources for safety/protection and efficiency.

Camo & Concealment

Meh.

Really, it’s situationally dependent.

For most of the scenarios we can list off, from protecting our corner of Baltimore or Koreatown to taking our turn as the insurgents – or countering them, or splinter cells of a larger force – unless you’re a sniper operating from the woods, mostly, “meh” leaning “well, nah”.

Flip side: Oh hell yeah, because camo and concealment isn’t always green and tan splotches of paint or fabric.

Camo and concealment is a suit or slacks and a briefcase in a courthouse, yoga pants and a light bag at the park, a “normal” passenger vehicle instead of an off-road rock-climbing mudder or Humvee on the average street, high-vis vests with dirty pants on a road crew with their bucket or tool box/bag, and scuffed up boots on a farm hand.

That camo and concealment extends to mixing up travel patterns to avoid breaking foliage and creating “deer trails”, being able to slip out of a location without observation, and presenting the appearance of following habitual movements and activities while deviating from the norm.

It’s also developing the control to watch our mouths and non-verbals rather than fight every battle that comes our way and picking every hill as our hill to die on. (Return to Nancy Pelosi above to make that an even uglier pill to swallow.)

And, yeah, in a few situations, it’s being able to become a rock on the hill or another tuft of brush, but unless we’re evading birds or sniper hunters, mostly breaking up our outlines isn’t too hard and doesn’t always require paint or cammies.

Hand-to-Hand Combat

Yes and no.

Don’t get me wrong. Self-defense capabilities are great to have, period. It’s not like this world has ever been totally safe, or like it’s getting any crazier.

However you want to apply it, keep in mind how often we see 2-5 cops or foreign militias trying to wrestle a bad guy into cuffs or move them after arrest, and weigh how much training and daily practice they get, versus our ability to invest time and money into training.

Our expectations of the bad guy we’ll be encountering, and how we’re deploying also factor in pretty hugely.

If we’re countering a significant force, whether it’s widespread jackboots and organized invaders or forces that have the benefit of protective gear, our chances of success are much lower.

Similarly, our chances against servicemen from one of the nations that focus significant continuing training time on some pretty gnarly martial arts, knife work, and batons … not so hot.

There are exploits for hand-to-hand combat even against somebody wearing body armor groin to neck, face shields and helmets, and knee pads. We just have to be realistic about whether we’re going to personally stand a chance with our available investment capabilities, or if we want to focus instead on something else.

Learn some basics that fit your physical condition for everyday encounters, but don’t break the bank on this one.

Instead, for minuteman purposes develop awareness, de-escalation, and evasion skills as well as Gray Man presentation.

Also work reflex drills, ankle-knee lateral and start-stop strength (or chair skills), and balance exercises – especially for people who are limited in some way by age, injury, or genetic luck of the draw.

Urban or rural, footing can be iffy. The better able we are to compensate for shifting terrain, curbs, bumps, and slips, and the better able we are to change direction on a dime, the better chance we stand of staying in the fight, whatever the scenario we imagine.

Modern Minuteman Skillsets

Most likely, the term “Modern Minuteman” brings a certain image to our heads. And, most likely, any 2-20 of us would describe very different images – particularly as the most likely and most common potential for a modern minuteman to deploy.

Because we have very different situations and needs, with very different scenarios in mind and very different capabilities due to our physical shape and local environment, the skills we are most likely to need are going to vary.

Some, though, are pretty universal. We can sometimes assign a value across the board, regardless of situation or scenario.

With any luck, somebody disagrees with these, or the matrix I apply at large, and presents points for discussion.

If not and until then, go find somebody who thinks “bah, PC community-pulse nonsense” or “moron, every soldier should fight with sticks”. Weigh the argument presented for those situations, and decide what does actually make sense for you. It’s only having multiple perspectives that really lets us prioritize, whether we’re picking out groceries or putting together our minuteman to-do list.

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underaprilskiesart · 5 years

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The Canal & River Trust estimate that 15,000 boats are permanently lived on in the UK; recent figures talked about in the media suggest this figure is far greater. There is no reliable way to record the numbers. A surge in popularity has led to overcrowding and a lack of facilities on the canal network, and navigable rivers in highly populated cities such as London. As house prices in major cities increase beyond the means of most, people turn to alternatives, such as living on boats. However, this is becoming more and more expensive with some CRT moorings in London reaching £20,000 per year, the cost of a private moorings can be a lot more. It is sad to see people who chose to live on a boat as a lifestyle choice being pushed out by those who may not care about the canal, the heritage and the culture, and will be there only temporarily. But, the housing crisis affects all of us whether we are boaters or not.

For most of the boaters on the canal network in the North of England, we enjoy a relatively less chaotic existence.

Boat dwellers, in the main, have a low impact on the environment and are more connected to nature than most land dwellers - Kingfishers, bats, owls, foxes, different types of geese, swans, herons, rats…. Not to mention the human activity on the tow path on a Saturday night...

I have lived on my narrow boat for the last thirteen years. I was attracted to the 'bohemian' lifestyle, the freedom from rental apartments and the desire to have a home I could do up and design myself. I moved a lot when I rented and realised this was because I got itchy feet regularly. So, a boat seemed like something I could try.

Living in Hebden Bridge on a permanent mooring was one of the best periods of my life so far in terms of feeling part of a vibrant boating community and the freedom the lifestyle gave. I really believe that if I hadn't moved onto a boat, I would not be a creative now - I was in a very corporate job when I bought it. This choice definitely switched my mindset into chasing beauty rather than the buck.

“When cruising it’s best to be prepared, do your research and not have high expectations” anonymous boater

Roaming can be a challenging way of life, especially when it comes to finding water points and walking miles to get rid of rubbish, or to go shopping and get to work. Living without electricity in the winter months is harsh. In some sections e.g. between Leeds and Skipton facilities are poor - few water points, rare refuse collection, scarce sanitary stations, many broken locks and silted up sections. There is occasional criminal activity such as theft and anti-social behaviour, as well as a shortage of places to moor up.

On a positive note the challenges make you appreciate comforts and luxuries and you build up resilience to going without occasionally.

“Overcoming adversity becomes part of life”

For most of us, it is a choice we are glad we made and worth the occasional tough times.

"….. I just want to be moving around on the boat, dipping into different communities for a while and then ducking out again. I think that is one of my favourite parts of boat life" Sofia

Trina, 22 moved onto a boat on a permanent mooring in Liverpool with her girlfriend after travelling. They wanted a home without being tied down and also really fancied the idea of giving a DIY project a go.

"Sitting on the roof in the sunshine drinking beers and having barbecues are the highlights" Trina

For Trina, the downside of boat life is the restricted space. She has also encountered ingrained sexism in the boat world, which hasn't stopped her living the dream and dealing with situations you will only get on a boat, such as finding water rising above the floor, having to pump water out of the bilge for hours - we've all been there. She feels that with the increase in the popularity of life on the waterways, there may be a strain on available facilities in the future

Public perception: "it must be so cold", "is it cold?", "how cold is it?" Trina

Sofia, 49, originally from London, bought her boat nearly 3 years ago when she was splitting from her husband, who she’d been with since she was 20. She was helped by other members of the boating community to make sure she bought the right boat for her. Sofia navigated her 57' narrow boat from Liverpool to Skipton and decided to stay there for the winter whilst commuting to her job in Leeds - she is a Communications Lead for a large organisation.

Quite unexpectedly, she found love after another boater, quite annoyingly at the time, double moored up against hers - they are still together now, even though she says the only thing they have in common is the fact they both live on boats. All I can say is at least they have one each...

Recently, Sofia's daughter has been struggling with her health, so she decided to navigate back to Liverpool to be closer to her for a while.

"It was brilliant to be able to just untie the ropes and go to be with her. It’s been such fun being here in the centre of Liverpool. Everything on my doorstep" Sofia

Sofia's perspective is that the world just isn’t set up to cope with people who do not have a proper address. This can affect registering at the doctors, registering to vote and being able to apply for finance etc. It is still a marginal way to live in that normal rules don't apply.

"....being woken up at 3am in Granary Wharfe, Leeds to find a man injecting on the front of my boat. He claimed he had hurt his leg and needed somewhere to sit. When it got light, we found he had left his used needle in the foot-well"

Most people have a fascinated, curious and positive reaction when they find out you live on a boat. I often change the subject fairly quickly as the topic tends to dominate the conversation. People who live on their boats, either on permanent moorings or roaming (continuously cruising) are not defined as an ethnic minority (therefore our way of life is not protected by law), and sometimes face prejudice, discrimination, and encounter misconceptions and occasional hostility. I personally have been accused of 'council tax dodging' - we do in fact pay C&RT an annual fee to cover this. I've heard boaters being called names such as 'crusties', 'pikies' and moorings being called 'floating junk yards' and 'eyesores'.

The thing is we are such a diverse group - creatives, professionals, students, families, digital nomads, activists, retirees, witches, tradespeople, raging individuals, freedom seekers, subversives, preppers - the list goes on, but I can confidently say we all have one thing in common - we love the freedom of being able to untie the ropes and move on.

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