I hope Tumblr knows the UK has a new prime minister who has been openly racist in the past and was voted to be our leader by 0.15% of the population. The system is broken burn it all down
This is our new leader Boris Johnson. He has said the following in the past:
In relation to burkas: “I would go further and say that it is absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes … a female student turned up at school or a university lecture looking like a bank robber”
In relation to gay marriage: “If gay marriage was OK – and I was uncertain on the issue – then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men, or indeed three men and a dog.”
In relation to the BBC promoting equality for gay people: “must be a spoof”
Other homophobic remarks I don’t want to type.
There is more he has attacked different nationalities and been sexist which is just a google search away.
He’ll fit right in with trump at the official meetings
I was boutta say he looks and sounds like British Trump
For an uncanny amount of time after arriving in the UK, I assumed he was some kind of celebrity for some reason. I was absolutely gobsmacked to find out he was a real actual politician.
Plus; also referred to the investigation of historical sex abuse as ‘spaffing money up the wall’
Ok I love all the Kylo Ren jokes (human trashbag, complete monster, Emo Teen) but like
According to the novel Ben was ten years old when he left home to train with Luke, and fifteen when he destroyed Luke’s Jedi temple
So that means Snoke tempting him to the Dark Side would have involved a lot less offering untold cosmic power; and a lot more child-grooming, and subsequently absconding with a preteen boy
Idk about you but that skeeves me out
Oh noooooo
for bonus:
He had trouble believing what he was hearing. “So Snoke was watching our son.”
“Always,” she told him. “From the shadows, in the beginning, even before I realized what was happening, he was manipulating everything, pulling our son toward the dark side.”
We don’t know the details for sure, but if the movies go with this, Snoke was definitely grooming Ben from … infancy, pretty much.
There’s also that scene where Snoke tells Ben that he’s trained other people, but nobody like Ben because he’s special.D: D: D:
On a completely serious note, it actually 100% explains the tantrums. When you’re groomed from a really young age (and are hurt at a young age), your maturity in dealing with stressors can be developmentally delayed, and your ability to deal (in general) becomes extremely… fragile. You don’t develop proper coping mechanisms at a critical stage in your development, and even if you’re removed from the stressor your inability cope with them can affect you all throughout your adulthood. A lot of people lash out in anger, because lashing out in anger is what children do. They never really developed past that (mentally), which is kind of why Kylo/Ben acts like he’s 16 when he’s closer to 30. Honestly its pretty tragic.
After rereading the manga and looking at Misha’s role in story again, i realized that ‘rewriting the past’ seems to be important theme for the story and characters. (And it was also one of theme in Pandora Hearts too).
I also love that this panel tells a lot about how Misha sees the world. Everything looks shine but it looks like its covering the darkness, as if it looks like escapism from dark reality in a way.
Anyway, here we go.
Jung’s take on the Hero has a twist then. Archetypal heroism is ALWAYS accompanied by darkness. But here’s the real twist. A truly Jungian one. Darkness comes not only from outside the self – from all those trials and tribulations the present themselves through the course of our lives – but also from within The Self. What’s more, this is the most potent test of all. It is our own degenerate nature which above all else, must be exposed, acknowledged, and if not defeated, then certainly fought against. (Source)
In many hero-villain stories, villains are meant to symbolise hero’s biggest flaws. That they are the dark side of heroes, the side they dont want to face. The flaw they dont want to adress.
Heroes of this story is our protoganists, Vanitas and Noe. Vanitas has classic self-sacrificing behavour that heroes has, he is just the more tragic and dark version of it cause of his violent side. Noe is the same cause of his simple desire to help others but just like Vanitas, he is not just pure good, he is gray.
And when it comes to villains, well, we have characters like Doctor Moreu, Teacher, Ruthven, Faustina who became cursed and steal names etc etc. Just like any other story, vthere are different kind of villains. Most of them is still a mystery to us but anyway. There are just cruel-natured villains like Teacher and Dr Moreou. Ruthven is mystery but he is meant to be parallels with Noe. (They both wanted vampires-humans war to stop). And Faustina is most likely tragic victim who end up loosing herself but her story is mystery too.
There are also characters like Mikhail and Astolfo who is on the wrong side and doing wrong things but not because they are evil but because of their tragic backstories. They are villains too in a way. Astolfo is parallel with Vanitas, he symbolise the old self of him, they only choose different paths cause of destiny in a way. Meanwhile, Mikhail is both parallel with Noe and Vanitas, as i and other people already mentioned.
The Shadow is not so much the hero’s nemesis, as his evil twin. It is that irrational, unpleasant and unpalatable side of our nature that we all possess. It is our own internal and unincorporated darkness which must be encountered and assimilated. According to Jung, it is precisely because the shadow is an integral part of our whole self, that it becomes imperative for us to know that it exists. In fact, it is impossible for it not to exists. And this knowledge seems to be entirely lacking in most of us. (Source)
As villain, Mikhail’s purpose in story is rewritting the past and this is exactly why i think he is the shadow of heroes. The dark side, the flaw of heroes that they dont want to face or adress because we know that Vanitas and Noe try to rewrite the past why projecting that past onto people around them. Even though, Mikhail is the antagonist for them, that they dont agree with his purpose and actions, they do exactly same thing in a way. (Not just rewriting the past, Vanitas and Noe act violent too and doing wrong things too so.)
Repetition compulsion is a psychological phenomenon in which a person repeats an event or its circumstances over and over again. This includes re-enacting the event or putting oneself in situations where the event is likely to happen again. This “re-living” can also take the form of dreams in which memories and feelings of what happened are repeated, and even hallucinated.(Source)
As an example;
Vanitas putting himself onto dangerous situtions for no logical reason. Just like when he admitted that he is the kin of blue moon to the all vampires. He is putting himself onto danger cause he is used ti living his life in danger. (+ Him pushing people is also cause of fear of loosing those people).
Or even the scene where Misha forced Noe to drink his blood. Drinking blood thing is sexual activity in a way so forcing Noe to harass himself is because thats what happenned to him when he was child. “Then, here, you can take my blood”. Offering himself as if he is some kind of “object”. He is sexual abuse victim and this is how he was treated and he unconciously repeats his trauma.
Or even the reason Misha is choosing an adult (teacher) even though he uses him. But unlike their past, this time they choose those awfull situtions to feel more powerfull but in the end, they repeat their trauma.
“We repeat what we do not repair.” —Christine Langley Obaugh (Source)
So i would like to focus on Vanitas projecting his past onto Jeanne and Noe and a little Noe projecting his past onto Vanitas.
Main reason why Vanitas chose Noe and Jeanne is because he thought he was so sure they wouldnt like him and he unconciously saw the traces of pasts in them.
First, with Jeanne.
The reason he found her interesting is because ‘she became weak cause she found someone to protect’. Jeanne’s desire to protect Luna is similar to Vanitas’s desire to protect Misha. He saw his past self in her and found her interesting.
- (Chloe-Vanitas parallels too.)
He also said he found her pretty attractive, he is right but its kinda weird that he is attractive to someone who is similar to his brother. A woman who exactly look like Mikhail, even their aura, their cute behavours, expresions seems to be identical.
Mikhail-Jeanne panels looks so identical, its hard to differentiate.
They both idolise Vanitas. And the way Vanitas try to look cool and impress them is similar.
(Actually similarities between those two and other things made me write this analysis.)
Compulsive repetition of the trauma may provide a temporary sense of mastery or even pleasure (but ultimately leads to chronic feelings of helplessness and a sense of being bad and out of control). (Source)
And he also made a promise to her, that he will kill her, before she hurted someone she cares about (Luca). Vanitas was so familiar with that emotion. Theory, whether Luna or he hurt someone they love (maybe Misha), thats why Vanitas thinks he should kill ‘that person’ before they become something monstrious and hurt someone they love. He projects what happenned to him, Luna and Misha on her issues. Vanitas most likely failed to kill ‘that person’ before the whatever happenned so he is trying to fix that mistake by helping Jeanne. By rewriting the past.
And even he is giving her a promise, just like how he promised Misha in the past. The promise Vanitas failed to keep. So this time he is making a promise that he thinks he can keep.
Later, the scene when Vanitas fell in love with Jeanne, the moment he felt warmth. That smile of Jeanne is exactly look like Misha’s smile with Luna and Vanitas, the panel where Misha said he likes warm things.
And with Noe.
He found him interesting with his cute expressive personality, (Just like Luna and Misha).
Jeanne is a character who is identical to Mikhail while Noe is more identical to Luna. Noe has black skin, white hair with mature, tall, big body just like Luna. He looks like the male version of Luna. (Yeah, Luna doesnt have gender but still, she looks like female).
They both airhead, adults with manchild personality, they cant handle things by theirselves so other people need to take care of them. + Mikhail’s past, worldview, positvitism is parallel with Noe too.
Also both Luna and Noe are the first people who really gave a choice to Vanitas and understand him. Also Vanitas show his vulnerable side to them and open up. Vanitas rely on him, the way he uses to rely on Luna.
The scene when Noe gave blanket to Vanitas to make him warm is also similar how Luna gave him blanket too, again to keep him warm, showing that he is loved.
And again, just like Jeanne case, Vanitas wants to be killed by Noe, before he become something monstrious. This time, he takes the opposite role. Just like how he killed Luna before its too late, he wants Noe to kill him.
Even the Tarte Tarin scene, Vanitas making sweets for Noe is parallel with the times he did for Luna and Misha.
+ Mikhail wasnt wrong when he thought his brother is kinda replacing him :’))).
We know Noe too. How he projects his failure to save Louis onto Vanitas. By protecting Domi and by trying to reaching out to Vanitas. Louis and Vanitas also looks identical, not by apperances but characters. They both suicidal kids who is full of self hatred, secrets, desire to be saved but wont ask for help, they both jerks who push other people away.
Even the way Noe meets them is similar. They both acted like jerks and Noe become violent agaisnt them but only to eventually be fond of them. + Also Noe is projecting his relationship with teacher on Vanitas cause of slave mentality. Noe was slave and he was bought bu teacher, thats why he tends to obey and idolize his master, this is what he does with Vanitas too, sometimes. He also acts extreme, just like the time he violently hurt Misha, just because of what Vanitas said to Noe in Gevaudan Arc and his possesive feelings of Vanitas, i think. I really hope eventually he realize how much messed up this is.
I am sure that there is more, the more we look it more, the more we will find out.
(I wanted to use more pics to show similarities between panels and scenes but you get the point and its tiring).
Humans seek comfort in the familiar. Freud called this repetition compulsion, which he famously defined as “the desire to return to an earlier state of things.” (Source)
As much as its looks messed up, its actually realistic. People in real life tend to choose situtions and people that they are familiar. People might (often) choose partner who is similar to their family members (parental figure, sibling figure) or ex partners/companion. Just Noe’s feeling familiar with Vanitas cause of his childhood companion. And both Jeanne and Noe are meant to be Vanitas’s partners. He chose them cause of the familiar feeling he had for his found family but of course, Vanitas doesnt see Noe as parental figure, the way Luna became for him. Jeanne is not sister-brother figure the way Misha was/is for him. They are meant to be his partners (maybe more equal relationship). Even though its good thing that Vanitas found more people he can connect, his relationship with both Jeanne and Noe are toxic, unlike the healthy relationship he had with Luna and Misha, before the accident.
Of course, besides all that ‘projecting their issues thing’, they had other moments. After all, Vanitas, Louis, Mikhail, Noe, Luna, Jeanne, despite their similarities, they are different people. And i think they grown to each others by knowing each others after some time. With Noe too. He is learning to pay attention to the person in front of him. They still learn. They still lack of self awareness. I think Vanitas has the some/a little self awareness but he still does it anyway while Noe doesnt seem to has that self awareness yet. They still try to rewrite the past with each others but at the same time, the more story goes, they learn to let go of it. As example, Vanitas’s saying to give up on forcing Noe to what he wants him to do.
Anyway, i hope they realize how much they project past onto each others, stop doing it and looking at the people in front of them. I hope Vanitas doesnt leave Misha behind while doing this too. Also they should realize that this is what Mikhail is trying to do and realize him, empathize with him and trying to help him (to move on) too. Its interesting that at least Misha is more honest about what he wants and what he does with his desire to live, with his desire to literally rewritting the past and with his desire to be happy. Well, usually, shadows are honest so they all should do. Misha is more associated with life than Vanitas who just wants to die, i love how their trauma push them to opposite ways but at the same time, Misha always somehow keeps giving Vanitas a reason to live, even its force and he brings the kindness inside of him. This is what Vanitas should learn too.
Kaylee-Jayde Priest was a 3-year-old British girl, her grandmother described her as a happy girl with a beautiful face. She lived with her mother, 22-year-old Nicola Priest and her mother’s boyfriend, 22-year-old Callum Redfern.
On 8th August 2020, Kaylee was put to bed at about 7 pm, she wanted to stay up and play and began to cry. Priest and Redfern lost their tempers and one or both of them beat Kaylee until she vomited, inflicting a torn intestine, fractured rib and deflated lung on the infant. Kaylee-Jayde died later that night. An ambulance was not called until the next day by which time it was too late and Kaylee-Jayde was dead. Both Kaylee-Jayde’s mother and Redfern attempted to blame each other for the girl’s death and it is unclear who delivered the fatal blow and whether both were involved.
Disturbing details about Kaylee-Jayde’s tragic life emerged. During Redfern’s relationship with Priest, the child’s discipline became increasingly forceful and violent. Kaylee-Jayde had suffered historical injuries, these included broken ribs, lower leg fractures and a broken sternum. The post mortem examination of the body revealed around 68 separate injuries, some of which had occurred as early as two months before her death
In a text message Priest had told Redfern ‘I’m gonna kill her… because she keeps leaving the living room or going in the kitchen, so I’ve paled [hit] her one and smacked her for [soiling] her nappy,’ Redfern had replied, 'Good, give her one from me.’ Kaylee-Jayde was frequently heard crying, being called a brat by Priest and Redfern and being told to 'shut up,’ and 'go away.’ A neighbour also recalled hearing a bang on one occasion followed by Kaylee-Jayde crying and Priest saying 'I’ll just say she fell off the bed.’ When Redfern was asked after Kaylee-Jayde’s death how he felt he replied, 'It’s not my child… it’s not really affected me.’
Nicola Priest and Callum Redfern were both convicted of manslaughter. Priest was also found guilty of an additional offence of child cruelty and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Redfern was sentenced to 14 years, both must serve at least two-thirds of their sentence.
Summary:Severus Snape never asked for a distraction, but the one he receives the first morning of a new term will have to do.
Rating/Warnings/Tags: T (Physical Abuse; Black Eye; Professor!Severus Snape; Mentor!Severus Snape; Slytherin!Reader; Hogwarts Student!Reader; Implied/Referenced Child Abuse; Implied/Referenced Abuse; Implied/Referenced Sexual Abuse; Anxiety; References to Depression; Lily Evans & Severus Snape Friendship)
Requester:Anonymous
Request: “Please the one where se*ually and physically abused slytherin comes to Snape for help, without the detailed description of the assault plz. She suffers from anxiety and clinical depression. Snape is cold at first and then gets really protective and angry.”
Notes: Here’s another request from Tumblr, my first Harry Potter one. I’ve never written a platonic relationship between a student and teacher before (or a romantic one, for that matter)—and oddly this is only the first of a handful of these kinds of requests I have on my list now. I hope that I did a decent job.
Please keep in mind while reading this that some of things Severus says may not be the best thing to say in a situation like this. He’s a wizard, and not a trained Healer at that, so I tried to think of what he might say in this situation instead of what he shouldsay.
“Resourceful” Is Not a Dirty Word
Another year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry began just as the ten prior for Potions Master Severus Snape. He ate a meager breakfast as quickly as possible so as to avoid spending any more time than necessary with students outside his house or classroom. He made forced polite conversation with Minerva until she finally handed over that year’s class schedule. And he settled at his desk at the back of the dank, cold dungeon to prepare for his first class in the last bit of peace and quiet he could expect until the Christmas holidays.
True, an undercurrent of anger buzzed throughout his body as he went through his annual routine. A typical year would find him more apathetic than furious before he had to deal with the odious task of teaching. But no matter what Severus did that morning, no matter what path he forced his mind to take, he could not keep his thoughts from turning again and again to the fact that Harry Potter now walked the castle halls. He tried to grit his teeth and bear it by manually writing the instructions for his first class’s assignment on the chalkboard. There was, after all, no reason to take out his temper until the boy himself reared his ugly head, and that would not be for some hours yet. Before that happy time, he had an O.W.L. class of Gryffindors and Slytherins and a gaggle of third-year Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws to endure.
Then he heard the unmistakable sound of someone unlatch the door to the dungeon behind him. They opened said door only as far as they had to to slip inside, after which they pulled the door shut again with great care.
His hackles raised at once. Potter. The thought was ludicrous. Severus knew that as soon as it occurred to him. Potter would likely struggle to find his first class on time, let alone a place as out of the way as the dungeon. Yet Severus could not shake the feeling he’d had since he first set eyes on the boy at the Welcoming Feast the night before: James Potter’s son would not fail to torment him. James would have seen to that.
Severus spun, his black cloak billowing out ominously around him. The threat of taking points from Gryffindor was on the tip of his tongue when he spotted the actual intruder:
“Miss [Last Name],” he said in his softest voice. No one attempted to sneak up on him and got away with it, not even a member of his own house.
Sensing his displeasure, you frozen in the process of sliding into a seat at the very back of the room. Your expression was difficult to read that far away in the dim torchlight surrounding only Severus. He saw no reason to light the entire room up when only he occupied the dungeon. But one thing he could see very clearly: only one eye sparkling in the flickering flames. Vivid purple and green skin swelled the other shut.
“Good morning, Professor Snape,” you murmured.
He did not return your polite greeting. “I do not harbor students after they have been fighting in the halls. You may hide from Filch in your common room or you may turn yourself in to his tender mercies, but I shall not got involved.”
This being the start of your fifth year at Hogwarts, you ought to have known his feelings on misbehavior quite well. He did not care if Slytherins broke the rules so long as they showed brains enough to not get caught. Coming to him in the hope of help once spotted by another teacher or the caretaker would earn you nothing more than Severus’ ire.
Apparently this was one lesson you had not learned. You remained rooted to the spot rather than rushing away at this suggestion. Curious. After all, he made it a point to know the strengths and weaknesses of the students within his purview, and he had never noted you to be unintelligent. Perhaps a firmer hand was needed.
“I also do not appreciate when students come early to proffer their assistance,” he said. “I have no need for the aid of an unqualified witch. Your time would be better spent in the Hospital Wing, Miss [Last Name], and I expect that you will return from there at the proper time for class.”
Such a dismissal could not be mistaken for anything else. He returned his attention to the inventory list on his desk. Only a few lines in, Severus found himself interrupted once more.
“Oh, no, s-sir. I didn’t m-mean to—” The curl of his lips must have made you think better of stammering. You stopped, took a deep breath, and then went on a mite more calmly: “I didn’t come here to disturb you, sir. Or to help you prepare for class.”
“Then what is it that you do want?” he asked.
“Nothing, sir.”
“You would not have sneaked into my classroom while my back was turned for no reason. Spit it out. You are wasting my time.”
An inhale. An exhale. You looked nervously at the door.
“If you expect me to protect you from whomever you are fleeing from, you are sorely mistaken. You must be the one to finish the duels you choose to enter into.”
“I haven’t been fighting at all, Professor!” you protested.
Something about the pitch of your voice rang true. Things added up. He had never known you to pick fights in the corridors. Of course, the more boorish Gryffindors, such as their contemptible quidditch captain, would not care about that if they cornered you alone outside the Great Hall—but even that Severus doubted. Tensions between quidditch teams never rose so early in the term, and only two of the Gryffindors would dare to enrage Minerva before classes even started. What would they get out of doing so by picking on someone like you anyway?
Severus made his slow, calculated way down the aisle between tables to where you sat, back straight and stiff as a wand. Your bruise only grew uglier the closer he drew. Perhaps you knew this, for you ducked your head the moment he stood beside you.
“Look at me,” he ordered, and you reluctantly did so.
Your [color] eyes swallowed him whole. The entire process took a matter of seconds. He found himself standing next to you outside of the heavy door to the dungeon. True to your word, he could see no one in pursuit—and the ghastly muggle wound remained bright around your eye.
So he would need to go farther back.
He followed your memories backward through the morning, though your skipping breakfast, getting out of bed—Severus carefully skipped over your dressing for the day—sulking throughout the Welcoming Feast, and lurking alone in an empty corner of the Hogwarts Express. The black eye never vanished or faded.
“I see,” he said as he exited your mind.
The statement caused the color to drain from your face. “See what? Sir.”
“If you are not having problems with your housemates, I suggest you return to the Great Hall. Fifth year is difficult from the start. You will need your strength to get through my class today.”
“No, please, sir!”
You made a motion as though to grab his sleeve. Did you realize how lucky you were that he did not curse you on instinct for doing so? Severus doubted it. Narrowing his eyes, he took a small step backward and away from your grasping hands. At least you had the grace to look embarrassed for that disgusting display of desperation.
“Please let me stay here until class starts,” you murmured to your feet. “I’ll be quiet. I promise.”
“And how do you intend to keep such a promise?”
“I’ll read my textbook. You won’t know I’m here. Please, sir. Please.”
Upon the second please, you lifted your eyes to meet his again. The mark on your face reminded him unpleasantly of the face he used to see when he looked in the mirror during his days as a student—and more unpleasantly still of those who made his face look that way.
“Why?” Severus asked at last.
“I just…” Taking a deep breath, you plunged forward in as slow an explanation as he thought you could manage, “I don’t want the other students to gawk at me like they always do. Every time I get back from a holiday, it’s the same. I’m tired of it, sir. I just want them to leave me alone.”
I just want them to leave me alone. Yes, he could recall the same words coming out of his mouth once upon a time, and exactly who he said them to, if not who about. He’d had so many tormentors that even staying at the school for Christmas could not keep him away from all of them. Likely you had discovered that yourself over the past five years. What was it that he’d overheard one of your dormmates saying just last September? Something about the red blemishes [L Name] tried to hide as she pulled her robes on in the morning. At the time, Severus had dismissed the conversation as the cattish gossip so typical of fourth-year girls; now he realized it had been something more.
“How long?” he said in his softest voice.
“Excuse me, sir?” Your single huge eye betrayed your feigned ignorance without any need for him to resort to legilimency this time around.
“How long has someone been hurting you?”
“No one has been…” But you trailed away upon noticing his scowl.
“Do not try to lie to me. We both know you have not been fighting with your fellow students, so where else would you have received such a wound? Let me guess,” he went on over your attempted objection, “someone at home did not appreciate your being sent your acceptance letter.”
Silence. Given how still you kept yourself, Severus expected you were concentrating on not shaking in his presence. He could not see that you so much as breathed.
“Five years, then. At least. That answers my first question. Now on to the next: Who?”
“No one you would know, sir,” you said very quietly.
“A muggle, then.”
“No!”
“Then who? Spit it out, girl! Do you think I care to expose your lineage to your housemates? I have better things to do with my time than facilitate drama for my students.”
Your mouth opened—but only for a moment before your lips clamped shut. Perhaps he should have expected he would have to pull the answer from you millimeter by painful millimeter. He had not wanted to tell Lily, after all, and she mattered to him in a way that Horace Slughorn never could.
“Miss [L Name], I cannot help you unless you talk to me. And if you refuse to talk to me, this begs the question of why you felt it necessary to interrupt my work so early in the day. You have taken up enough of my preparation period. You may not stay unless you begin telling me what I want to know.”
Time passed. With no ticking clock on the wall of his classroom, Severus could not say how long your stare down lasted. He could have entered your mind once more while he waited. Instead, he looked down at you wordlessly. You would leave if you valued your privacy over your pride. It seemed you favored the latter, for in the end you finally replied:
“My father.”
The raw anger he felt at hearing these words must have shown on his face and terrified you far more than any of his threats had that day. You hastily went on:
“He’s not my real father. I don’t know who is. Mum married Edgar while she was pregnant with me, and she left when I was just a kid. It’s just been him and me there ever since.”
“And he does not approve of you or your mother being witches?”
“I think he’s just jealous. He’s a squib, you see. Mum’s family arranged the whole thing before anybody knew, and by then it was too late for her to get out of it. Please don’t tell the other Slytherins, Professor! They think I’m pure-blood. If they knew the truth, between that and my eye and the other bruising, the girls in my dorm would—”
“What other bruising?”
Your face darkened until it reached a shade nearly matching that of your swollen eye. “Things got worse this summer. He—”
Severus held up a hand to staunch the sudden flow of your confession. “I do not need the details.”
“Yes, sir.” Ashamed, frightened, or chastised, you cleared your throat several times before continuing, “Anyway, sir, I just wanted to sit down here in the mornings until my eye fades a bit. Is that all right with you, now that I’ve told you everything?”
Under ordinary circumstances, it would not have been all right with him. He could not risk all the students in Hogwarts starting to believe he would offer them shelter from the harsh realities of life. But as he stared down at you, he thought of his childhood and all the pain and ridicule it had brought him at the hands of James Potter and his merry men. If Horace had offered him respite, would Severus still hate him so? Obviously. The situations were, however, quite different, as Severus doubted Horace had faced a day of adversity in his entire life.
“I will consider your request,” said Severus, “if you also tell me what you plan to do about your situation at home nextsummer.”
“Do?” you echoed.
“Yes, ‘do.’ Do not be dense. It does not become you. No one else is going to ride to your rescue. You will therefore have to rescue yourself.”
“But—But how? I’m not of age! In a few years, maybe I can move out, but until then—”
“That’s not good enough! I have watched you, Miss [L Name], as I watch all Slytherins. You are ambitious, clever, resourceful, determined. That is what makes you a true Slytherin, not whether or not you were raised by a blight upon wizarding society. So what, I ask again, are you going to do about it?”
“I—I don’t know.”
“Think then. Have you contacted anyone at the Ministry? There are people in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement who might be able to offer you assistance.”
“Oh, no, sir!” Tears sprang to your eyes. “I can’t ask anyone for help. I didn’t even want you to find out. What will some random Ministry official think? They’ll laugh at me.”
“Such a viewpoint is narrow-minded and foolish to a startling degree. Asking for help is utilizing resources. Did I just not tell you that doing so made you a Slytherin?”
You gave him a hesitant nod. If he let you go now, you would surely promise to owl the proper authorities and never do so. Your tormentor would have free rein whenever you went home until such a day came that you could bring yourself to leave. Who knew what he could escalate to if allowed that kind of freedom? Severus needed to get you acting now.
“Very well. We will forgo the Ministry for the time being. How will you go about fixing your problem by yourself, then? I am sure that you are fully capable of doing so.”
“No, I’m not! Professor, even if I were as smart as all that, I can’t use magic outside of school. You know that.”
“Except in life-threatening situations, I believe the rule goes. It seems to me that you are more in need of the reminder than I. Be that as it may, you don’t need to use underage magic to brew a potion, now, do you?”
An eager light dawned in your eyes as the suggestion sunk in. He could see your imagination unfurling with a hundred different plots at the very idea. Though he did not necessarily disagree with the sentiment behind these plans, he did feel it was his burden as your head of house to dissuade you from the messier ones.
“You cannot kill him with a potion, much as the man might deserve it. That would attract the authorities, both magic and muggle. But you could use your skill in potions to keep yourself safe for the duration of the summer,” he said.
Safe. You mouthed the word rather than say it allowed, savoring the weight and taste on your tongue. Two of your fingers lifted to gently prod the blackened corner of your eye.
“What potions, sir?” Your tone sounded much more confident than it had all day. “Please tell me. I’ll study them. I’ll know them by heart before I get back on the train.”
“I will do better than give you a list. I will teach you myself.”
Your jaw went slack in a truly deplorable display of shock. Severus chose to be relieved you did not hug him instead of frustrated at your surprise. It was unusual for him to invite students for private lessons, especially for students doing adequate work in his class. A few seconds went by before you were able to control yourself enough to say, “Thank you, sir.”
“It will not be easy,” Severus warned. “I expect you to do exactly as I say exactly when I say.”
He allowed you a pause to accept this condition. You did so with a quiet nod.
“Very well. First of all, you will be here in my classroom an hour before class begins each week, starting next week. Arrive late, and our agreement will come to an end at once.”
“Yes, sir!”
“I also have one other condition.”
The happiness dancing in your eyes faded somewhat. “Yes, sir?” you asked guardedly. As though he would ever put you in the same position as that sorry excuse for your so-called “father.”
“You allow me to escort you to the Hospital Wing this morning. I cannot allow your current appearance to distract the rest of the class, now, can I?”
At first, he could tell that you wanted to argue. Accepting help from him was one thing; showing anything to Poppy would be quite another. Most students at Hogwarts knew she didn’t ask questions about whatever magical maladies plagued them—then again, this was not a magical malady. Perhaps you knew his presence would stave off any attempts on Poppy’s part to get to the bottom of things, because after a moment of mental struggle you said:
“Yes, sir.”
“Very good,” Severus said as he went to the door. He made it all the way there while you remained rooted to the spot. “Come along. Unless you want to run into your dormmates on the way.”
With a start, you stood, grabbed your book bag, and rushed right past him into the hall. Severus stopped only long enough to lock the door behind you both. Then the two of you headed side by side toward the stairway leading to the higher floors of the castle.
A tremendous waste of his time, taking a fully-functioning teenage girl to seek medical attention? Undoubtedly. But staying nearby to make sure you didn’t run off before Poppy finished with you did keep his mind off the imminent arrival of one Harry James Potter. And was it truly a waste of time to help one of his Slytherins get through a nasty childhood like his? As Severus watched Poppy tut over your black eye, he thought not—although no one would ever hear him admit it out loud.
Been on and off the phone all day with a 15 yr old in a potentially dangerous home situation talking them out of running away and instead waiting for CPS to visit tomorrow. And now they’re trying to decide if, when CPS comes, they should actually tell the truth about what’s been happening or if they should “lie again” because “it’s not always like this” and “CPS might send [them and their siblings] to foster care if I tell the truth” [insert lots of fears about foster care here that it sounds like come from the abusive individual]. Significant “the devil you know is better than the one you don’t” vibes. And it is so hard for me to not just…go get them and sort out the rest later but I know long term that’s not going to help them. I don’t know where I’m going with this I’m just tired and worried and struggling to sleep and I guess it’s good that I can’t fathom how guardians can hurt the kids they’re supposed to be keeping safe but. Holy shit. How. Why.
First pages of a comic I started working on last summer, as a way to keep me drawing while working full-time and practice digital art. While I’m happy with the progress I’ve made with the art, I won’t pursue this in its current form. Instead I’m re-writing the setting and the majority of the plot to make it more of my own, and less DnD-drow (this is like, just my DnD character’s backstory). Though, might still upload what I have here, just because.
Alright. So, I did not want to do this. This is literally the last thing I wanted to do, but this douchecanoe won’t stop. Zeroyalpyro or Noah Ezekiel Perez as his skype name heralds, has a history of abuse and sexual harassment with minors. He does not take no for an answer. He does not accept it from anyone. If you are taken, engaged to your significant other or a minor, he has a history of sexual harassment and forcing people into scenarios where they have to write smut with him or he would literally kill off their character. This is blackmail at it’s finest.
I also have not one, but 4 confirmed sources telling me personally and floating around the blog of zeroyalpyro that while in private skype calls with him, Noah has masturbated during the call and has been heard orgasming. I repeat. He has masturbated over the speaker during skype calls. With minors.
Here’s your evidence:
The youngest victim I know of was 11. Eleven. A seventeen year old. Masturbating into a call. With an 11 year old. That can be and is considered statutory rape in the state of California, where Noah is from. I am working on getting in contact with the police in California and seeing what can be done.
But Redfield, you ask, why didn’t these people speak up before? Are you kidding me? They’re kids and half of them don’t know it’s wrong and if they do, they’re afraid to speak up. So many people know and talk to Noah that they can easily be harassed and ridiculed into silence. Even after he admitted to being a harasser, people are still backing him up.
Please note, that there is no real apology in his missive, just ‘I’m going to avoid and ignore what I did wrong and keep doing it to other people in hopes that no one from my past notices’. He has caused all victims PTSD from his actions because you don’t just get over a rape.
I am calling this what it is, and it’s rape. In it’s simplest form, this is rape. It’s not sexual harassment. Masturbating into a speaker on a call without consent from others in the call is rape.
I used to be in a group roleplay for the corrupted creature hub, which was created by a lovely artist by the name of Ant. I called Noah out, personally, on several occasions. And he still kept at it. Long after our group disbanded because of his horseshit.
And he openly admits to his actions here. Albeit, this was on his ezekiel-the-eternal-flame blog, but it is still an admittance.
Also, while in the group for the corrupted creature hub, Noah would reblog people’s selfies with creepy comments attached. He still does it, and most people have responded unkindly to it. If he is so brazen as to masturbate over the speakers during a skype call with underage people, what makes you think he’s not doing it in private to these poor kids selfies? While it technically isn’t child porn, he’s still probably getting his rocks off to the face of an underage kid and that’s praying he didn’t convince any of them to send him their nudes.
He needs stopped. He needs shut down and while I try and get in contact with the police, I need help getting him off tumblr. This is where all of you come in. I need you all to send an email to [email protected] with evidence of his fuckery and ask that they ban him from the site permanently. I encourage all of you to use your personal experiences with this douchecanoe as motivation to get him off of tumblr.
Noah Perez is a rapist who shows no signs of stopping. This is an official blacklist from a person who has roleplayed for 10+ years. Report zeroyalpyro and ezekiel-the-eternal-flame for harassment and abuse. Shut him the fuck down.
Actually, I think the River one’s not so bad. He did meet her most often as an adult and had already done so when they kissed. It was only after that when he met her as a child. If I had the option now to go back and meet my partner for a brief period during his childhood years, I probably would out of curiosity and to see how adorable he must have been.
I dont think any of then are SUPER gross in isolation. All of them he knew more as adults more, albeit pretty young adults. But as a trend? As a recurring plot point? Ick
But context is important. I don’t remember the Madame Pompadour one (is that the one with the fireplace…?), but as they pointed out in River’s case he met her as an adult first. He didn’t realize that Amy was Amy when he came back and met the adult version of her and then she kissed him at her bachelorette party (and he went straight to Rory and told him). With Clara he went to her past to try and find out where she came from-if she was human or was something else (the impossible girl).
Its not the same as if he’s found these underage girls he thought were hot and said ‘i’m going to travel forward in time to when they’re legal’. Cause THAT would be pretty effed up.
Thats what i mean by each one not being that bad by itself.
But that moffat keeps doing this IS weird. It, as a repeating writing motif, its very off putting.
Today, a truly well-made classic horror film…and a forgettable abomination against taste.
Black Christmas (1974), directed by Bob Clark, is a Canadian horror movie and arguably the very first slasher. I say “arguably” because it 1.) came out pretty much exactly the same time as Texas Chain Saw Massacre and 2.) it’s kind of a bridge between Giallo horror and slasher. Here’s an article that sums that up, so I don’t spend a day babbling about it: https://www.ghoulsmagazine.com/articles/12-ghouls-christmas-blackchristmas-1974-giallo-to-slasher
This is the second time I’ve seen this movie, and I really genuinely do love it. It’s tightly plotted, with all of its elements meticulously foreshadowed and paid off. Its resolution is legitimately chilling, and it succeeds because – despite its ambiguity – the plot’s logic has been so tight that we understand in an instant exactlywhat’s going on…unlike anyone on screen who could actually do something to stop it. Augh. It’s just so good.
Which cannot be said for…
Black Christmas (2006), often shorted as Black X-Mas, was so terrible that I almost felt compelled to apologize to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot by comparison.
The film is directed by Glen Morgan, who you’ll recognize as the guy who remade Willard in 2003. Sadly, despite Willardbeing a favorite film of mine, he just didn’t pull off the same magic with this. I guess part of that is due to executive meddling – Morgan had a lot of issues with the studio execs, Harvey Weinstein in particular (ugh) regarding the film’s tone and ending. There was also a ton of footage filmed for promotional material that was never part of the script or included in the movie.
Anyway. This movie takes the approach of delving deep into Billy’s backstory, so I guess we have to talk about that. Spoilers for a 50-year-old movie incoming.
In the original film, we hear the names “Billy” and “Agnes” come up in the menacing phone calls. It’s not superclear what’s going on with them, but it kind of sounds like the caller is maybe mimicking or re-enacting being yelled at as a child, or some sort of domestic strife in general. It’s mixed in with bits of dialogue and things the caller has overhead in the house itself – like someone will say something in the house, and the caller will reference it later in a creepy way like “Hey was that a coincidence or was he listening to us?”
We know, as the viewer, that the killer is in the sorority house. We see him, in a POV shot, enter in the beginning, and we catch glimpses of him lurking around in the attic. The people *in* the movie think that the killer is actually one of the boyfriends, who we’ve seen acting like a temperamental douche-nozzle.
But the original film never resolves the identity of the killer. You never once figure out who the hell this guy in the attic is, what’s up with those phone calls, why he’s killing people, none of that. Which is, in my mind, a great strength of the original film. It’s much scarier that way and, frankly, we don’t needto know why killers kill people.
Anyway. So with all of that…back to Black X-Mas.
Glen Morgan decided that the way to approach this remake is to center it on the Billy character, aka, the killer. We see him locked up in a high-security mental hospital/prison ward type facility (which also has a fucking stupid little side plot with a santa claus, ugh) and then we get spoon-fed his entire backstory through a series of flashbacks.
Billy’s backstory was apparently loosely inspired by the real-life killer Edmund Kemper. We see this kid abused and neglected by his parents, locked in an attic, then raped by his motherwhen he’s 12 years old in order to produce a daughter for her to spoil and lavish with attention. Yeah. Oh, and don’t worry, just to make things even more obnoxious, when little sister Agnes grows up to be a killer just like her brother-daddy, she’s also cast by a male actor, because what’s scarier than an ugly mannish girl am I right.
/screams into a pillow for several minutes/
ANYWAY.
Aside from that, the rest of the movie is pretty boring. I kept mixing up characters because all of the pretty white girls sound/act/look the same and have no defining personality traits between them. The plot gets tugged along without anyone having any agency or making any choices. A couple of the kills are kind of neat. But its’ overwhelmingly just dumb. We’re supposed to believe that these characters are snowed into the house and unable to escape when there’s like half an inch of snow on the ground!
Supreme stupidity. Do not watch. It’s gross and boring and you too will be unable to get the mental image of Billy’s mom out of your head.
Tune in next time when we watch the otherBlack Christmas remake from 2019, which I’ve heard is also terrible but surely cannot be as terrible as this!
WOW HERES MORE FROGGY MARCY PAGES!!! im having a blast writing and drawing this story!! thanks everyone so much for reading <3 as always, you can check out the full story on twitter!
update yall: i am currently recovering from s/h (almost a month now!!!) and i want to recover from ed but i have no clue where to start bc i currently dont have access to a therapist/therapy in general so thats fun/s. my siblings and mom found out about my s/h bc they saw my scars and i made my mom cry bc of it which i feel bad for but we did have a good convo about everything, my parents got into fight yesterday and it didn’t get violent but there were threats of it but on a postitive note my mom wants to get my siblings and i’s last name to distance ourselves from our father and she said i could change my dead name too!!!
~ ELLA FITZGERALD AND LOUIS ARMSTRONG ~ “They Can`t Take That Away From Me”
In general, I post here about history and historical connections in fiction but I’m making an exception tonight to write a post for a fandom. For the ugly details of what has brought this on, check this article. For an excellent tumblr post on how to deal with this, as either a fan or non-fan, I recommend this postfrom@greed-the-dorkalicious
Dear Rurouni Kenshin fandom,
The song above has been stuck in my head today.
The way you wear your hat. The way you sip your tea. The memory of all that. No, no, they can’t take that away from me.
I’ve been on the fringes of Kenshin fandom, a late-comer to the anime/manga who mostly enjoyed and lurked on the edges of an immensely talented and fun fandom while being primarily in other fandoms. I remember explaining to a friend, “Kenshin fandom doesn’t write just fanfic, they write full-blown historical novels!”
You’re all great, and no matter where you go now, if you choose to take a break from fandom, turn to other interests, or live out your enjoyment of the story on your terms, I’m grateful to have been so often enriched by your friendships, your creativity, and your interest and support of my own adventures in history.
does anyone remember that weird scene in TUA season 1 (*season 1 episode 10, the opening scene) where it flashes back to reginald (pre-umbrella academy) sitting by a bed with this lady (who i guess turned out to be og grace)(*apparently this is not grace, really all blonde ladies look the same to me) (*also maybe this takes place in the 1800′s ??? ) (*or some peopl said that this doesn’t take place on earth and/or this lady is also an alien? but why would they be wearing human skin suits? idk)
and like, she says something (my poor braincell cant remember) and then like, peacefully dies and a bunch of glowy lights float out of her (*apperently reginald opens a jar and the lights come out, not from the lady) and out the window into the horizen (*also she is the original owner of vanya’s violin)
(did i hallucinate this scene? cause no one talks about it and i’ve never seen a gif-set)
anyway, like was that how the 43 kids were born? not to make this gross, but did reginald (as an alien) impregnate this lady, she dies, and releases alien hybrid spores into the world. which then found available women around the world to gestate and birth them? and they have powers because they are alien human hybrids?(*based on the jar information, the impregnating bit seems unlikely)
does that make reginald technically the father of all his adopted kids?
and then, stricken with guilt, reginald goes out to buy as many of them as he can to become super heroes, as some way to like, twisted way to protect the world in her honor?
((and then made her a robot lady and abused all his kids))
My nieces called from their school on Tuesday, finally reaching out to me because they were too scared to go home. My sister had caught wind that they’d done some pot and alcohol, and gone nuts.
She took their phones, their computers, the doors off their bedrooms, their hairbrushes, their toothbrushes,*all the food in the house* (so that they’d have to ask permission to eat). She pinned the younger one to the ground to force her to hand over her bank card.
(I know all this because my sister called to tell me about it. About how if you twist someone’s arm behind their back, and control their thumb, they HAVE to lie down on the ground, because of the pain… but it doesn’t leave any bruises. She. told. me. this.)
((Yo yo yo! Spacey here! Big shout out to @sanders-trash-4ever for helping me so much with this! Please head the warnings! This chapter depicts a flash back, and an abusive scene! I won’t be upset if you can’t read it, take care of yourselves!!! Also! Drayke is the dragon witch and the section in the middle that is all italics is the flash back))
Patton did not enjoy school. Now, he wasn’t one to say he ‘hated’ anything, but he was getting pretty close to using the h-word when it came to school. He was a freshmen, which wasn’t too fun, and most people didn’t exactly enjoy his sunny disposition, which was also okay! He didn’t need people to like him, but he would appreciate if they wouldn’t be so mean because of it!
In middle school it had been easier to hide getting picked on. Roman only saw him when he picked him up, but now he saw him everyday in the halls. He knew he could just join his brother and not have to worry about it, but that felt so invasive. Roman didn’t get much of a life outside of him and their younger brothers, so it felt awfully mean to take away his only time free of them.
He almost wished he could be more like Roman. Roman had several friends from the theatre department who had been his friend since middle school! Patton just didn’t have the easiest time making long term friends with people. He did what he could whenever anyone asked, but after that they were done. He couldn’t blame them, he couldn’t exactly hang out much or have people over without stressing Roman out, so he tended to just not. It was easier, everything he did that kept him from home or brought more people home made it more difficult on Ro.
Which is why he hated that he was stuck in mandatory after school tutoring.
Not only did he feel dumb, but it meant Roman had to come back to school after picking up Virgil and Logan, which wasn’t fair to any of them. It usually took Roman until four to come get him, which was fine! He didn’t mind waiting, but since tutoring ended at three-thirty, his bullies had plenty of time to tease and taunt him. Patton could handle that, their words weren’t anything he hadn’t heard before, but sometimes they wouldn’t attack him and that’s when he couldn’t handle it.
“God your just as stupid as your brother,” one of the juniors snapped, “Don’t even know when someone is insulting you.”
Patton tried the best he could, but he couldn’t stop the anger rising in his chest. No one insulted Roman! Roman was an amazing;y smart person who did a lot for everyone he met! He jumped from the bench he was sitting on and glared at the taller boy in front of him, “I don’t care if you’re mean to me, but don’t you dare be mean to my brother you-you witch!”
He could feel his rage growing as his outburst was met with laughter from the older kids around him, before the ring leader raised his hand and Patton was suddenly thrown into the past.
Virgil was standing in front of their dad, tiny fist clenched with Logan right behind him. Patton desperately wanted to run out there, but fear kept his feet rooted in place. He was fighting against everything in him he could, while silently begging for Virgil to just shut up and for Roman to please just get home.
“Logan’s just little leave him alone! You’re just mad ‘cause he’s smarter than you!” Virgil screeched with all the power his small eleven year old body could muster.
Everything froze when their dad started laughing, quietly at first before erupting into a massive roar. Patton rushed forward, feet finally un-frozen, and scooped Logan up as their dad’s eyes were closed. Just as he was about to grab Virgil’s hand, their dad stopped and everything froze again. Only to come alive when Patton felt their dad’s hand on his wrist yanking him forward.
“Did you teach him how to joke? I know you used to like those stupid puns,” their dad mused, before pulling on Patton’s arm again, “Well?”
Patton bit back a whimper, gaze focused on the hand locked around his wrist, “I-I-”
“Spit it out!”
A yelp escaped Patton’s throat as his dad yanked his arm up, causing him to drop Logan, “Sor-sorry! I-I guess I did-”
Another cry escaped his throat as their dad tightened his hold and hoisted him up so he was stuck on his tiptoes and staring him the eyes.
“I don’t want to see any of you for the rest of the night got it? And don’t think I won’t be telling Roman how you couldn’t handle watching your helpless baby brothers for twenty minutes.”
With that, he dropped Patton’s wrist, allowing him to crumple on the floor by his little brothers, before he stormed away towards the living room, not sparing a glance back at his crying son who could only think of the kind man he used to be.
Remy couldn’t believe what he was seeing, a group of kids were surrounding the cute flighty kid from his math class who was laying on the ground and- was he crying?! Oh no, this was not going to be a thing at all. He’d go get a teacher and- Wait. Did Drayke just kick him?! Crushes aside, Remy was not going to let this go on for another second. Besides, teachers were next to useless at this school.
“Hey!” He yelled, adjusting his shades and sauntering forward, “Don’t know if you guys care but there’s a teacher headed this way and frankly y’all look a bit guilty of putting the biggest teacher’s pet on the ground. Don’t think I’d stick around if I were y’all.”
He watched, feigning uninterested as Drayke’s cronies booked it around the side of the school, leaving just him and the asshole who started it all.
“I’m not as stupid as them,” Drayke spit, throwing his thumb back to gesture to his ‘friends,’ “I know the teachers never come over here, not matter what.”
“Next time you might wanna tell that to your buds, ‘cause right now this is reminding me a lot of a highschool cliche,” Remy went on, trying to ignore the boy whimpering by his feet, “Bully gets taken down a peg by the much more handsome protagonist, that’d be me by the way, who then kicks the bullies ass for fun!”
Drayke snorted, rolling his eyes, “You used to be my friend, but now it’s like you think you’re so much better than me.”
“Oh sweetheart, that’s cause I am better than you,” Remy laughed, before booping Drayke on the nose, “Shouldn’t you be lettin’ your ‘crew’ know how you bested me by now?”
A growl rumbled from Drayke’s throat, reminding Remy of a dragon, before he turned around and stalked off, no doubt thinking of how to make this whole encounter seem like he won.
Remy shook his head before turning to see two big brown eyes staring up at him. Shit.
“Oh uh, glad you’re awake.”
Smooth Remy! Now all you have to do is actually shove your foot into your mouth.
“You stopped them,” Remy watched in horror as Patton’s bottom lip began to wobble and fresh tears fell from his eyes, “You helped me.”
“Um, yeah?”Shit, no, don’t make him feel bad like it’s obvious you’d help! “I mean, Drayke’s a real piece of work, and not one you’d find in a museum.”
Patton’s hand shoots up to cover his mouth as he giggles, and Remy can’t help but notice how his entire face lights up at the lame joke.
“Wow,” Patton grins, rubbing at the tears making their way down his face, “You came up with that with ease-el!”
“Was… was that another pun?”
“Uh huh, sorry it was a bit sketchy! I’m not sure I framed it right,” Patton’s smile grew even wider as Remy began to chuckle.
“You just got beaten up, probably forced into a flash back, and here you are making jokes. I can’t even top that,” He went on, crouching down beside the lower-classman, “Honestly, where have you been all my life? I need some sunshine.”
Remy smirked as a blush covered the other boy’s face and he pulled his knees up to his chest, “I mean, if I can make you laugh after you saved me I think it’s the least I can do.”
“Hey, hun, look at me. I look great, so it shouldn’t be hard to for just a second,” Another lame joke, rewarded with a small smile from Patton as he turned his head, “There yah go, now listen. I helped you because I wanted to. I’ve honestly wanted to talk to you for a while, but I never could find a reason that didn’t seem weird, so in reality I should be thanking you for not making me actually have to work up the courage to talk to you.”
“You-I- you wanted to talk to me?!” Patton squeaked, face turning beet red.
God, how much cuter could this dude be?
“Of course! Look at you! You’re nice and funny, and god people are so mean to you and girl let me tell you, you do not deserve it, but you take it anyway. Hell, I’d say I admire you for everything you do and I bet I don’t even know the half of what you go through.”
Now, normally, Remy is pretty good at predicting what’s gonna happen when he talks. He thought that after this little speech Patton may be a little creeped out, but he’d still say thank you and offer him another million dollar smile because he’s a gentleman god dammit, but no. Instead, Remy ends up with this freshman practically tackling him into a hug.
“Hey! Not that I am not loving this, like seriously you give amazing hugs, but take it easy. I don’t want you getting hurt anymore today.”
“Sor-Sorry,” Patton sniffled as he pulled away, causing Remy to wince internally, he didn’t mean to make him cry again! “It’s just been a bit since someone who wasn’t my brothers complimented me. I didn’t realize how much I needed a friend.”
“Well, I hope you don’t mind cause you’re stuck with me now,” Remy vows, throwing an arm around Patton, “Sucks if you do cause I’m like a parasite.”
“Don’t call yourself a parasite! You’re much cuter than a parasite!” Protested Patton, lightly swatting Remy on the arm, much to his amusement.
“Okay, okay, but um,” Remy coughed, nodding his head to the front circle where cars were showing up to pick up their kids, “Do you know that angry guy stalking towards us? Cause if not we may need to book it.”
“Oh! No that’s just Roman! He’s my brother,” Patton grinned, lifting his hand and waving, leaving Remy to wonder in mild horror about how he had managed to get a crush on Roman Sanders’ little brother and not realize it. No way was he gonna survive Sophomore year at this rate.
As a boy, Evan McCulloch was hunted by a monster. Now, he himself is a monster…one who is on the hunt.
*Trigger Warning for implied/referenced child sexual abuse. If this will provoke anxiety, please DO NOT read this story. There’s nothing explicit or graphic, but I felt it was important to note this.*
Garret Bell had a man in his mirror. Though all the grownups said that he was making up tales when he told them about him, Garret knew he was real. He saw him almost every day. The man in the mirror was tall, thin, and pale, with a lot of freckles. He had messy brown hair and a funny voice, and when he smiled, Garret could see a gap between his two front teeth. When he had first appeared in Garret’s bedroom mirror, Garret had been a little spooked, but the man in the mirror had turned out to not be scary at all. In fact, he was really friendly. He listened to Garret when his foster parents, Dr. and Mrs. Reynolds, were too busy for him, he helped him with his math homework, he gave Garret suggestions about how to deal with the two other foster kids in the house, and he even played games sometimes. Fun games, not the weird ones Dr. Reynolds liked to play at night. At the thought of those games, Garret shuddered. Dr. Reynolds said that they were supposed to make him feel good, but they didn’t. They made him feel scared and nervous and upset. But Dr. Reynolds had told him that if he told anyone about their games, then he would get in big trouble, because only bad boys played those games. Garret didn’t want more trouble, so he kept his mouth shut. Besides, the one time he’d tried to tell his teacher, she hadn’t believed him. In fact, she’d told him that his foster daddy was a very important surgeon and that he needed to stop telling nasty lies about such a good man. And when Dr. Reynolds had found out about it…well, that night the game had been mean.
Part of Garret wanted to start crying, but he didn’t. When he had arrived at the Reynolds’ house after being taken away from his grandma, the two older foster kids, Stefan Lee and Bethany Martin, had told him that crying wouldn’t do him any good now that he was in a foster home, and he hadn’t cried once since. Instead, he went into his bathroom and started washing his hands, and didn’t stop until his hands were starting to bleed. He still didn’t feel clean, but if he got blood on anything, Mrs. Reynolds would be really angry with him. Garret left the bathroom, walked over to the mirror on his wall, and knocked lightly on it.
“Hello? Mr. Mirror Man? Are you there?” After a few seconds, the man in the mirror appeared with a crooked grin on his face.
“Howtizgoan, Garret?”
“Hello, Mr. Mirror Man. I’m…I’m doing okay,” Garret said.
“You sure, laddie? Ye dinnae look so good,” the man in the mirror replied. Garret cringed, hoping that the man in the mirror wouldn’t get upset with him for being a bother like Mrs. Reynolds did when he got upset.
“I’m fine. You don’t need to worry about me.” The man in the mirror looked worried.
“Ye ken that ye can tell me if something isnae going well, don’t ye? I dinnae want anything bad tae happen tae a good boy like ye.” Garret frowned.
“I’m not good. If I was good, bad things wouldn’t keep happening to me.” That was what Dr. Reynolds had told him, anyway. The man in the mirror frowned.
“It’s not your fault that your parents died when ye were a wee bairn, or that your grandmum got too sick to take care of ye. Just pure rotten luck, it was.”
“That’s…that’s not why I’m bad.” The man in the mirror started looking suspicious.
“Who’s been telling ye all this?”
“I…I can’t tell you. I’ll get in trouble.”
“Trust me, laddie. I’ll make sure that nothing bad happens to ye.” Garret swallowed nervously. The man in the mirror was his friend, and he trusted him…but what if he decided that Garret really was bad after he heard about the games he played with Dr. Reynolds?
“You…you promise?” If Garret hadn’t known better, he would’ve said that the man in the mirror was about to start crying.
“Aye. I promise.”
“It’s…it’s Dr. Reynolds. He comes into my room at night and…and he says that he wants to play a game with me…”
“For donating thousands of dollars to charity, his work with the underprivileged in the Central/Keystone area, and his fostering of no less than fifteen children, the Wayne Foundation would like to present Dr. Philip Reynolds with the Thomas and Martha Wayne Humanitarian Award.” Philip Reynolds smiled proudly as he graciously accepted the award from Mr. Lucius Fox, the head of WayneCorp.
“Thank you, Mr. Fox. Really, you are too kind. I’m flattered by the fact that you even considered me for this award,” he said. The audience, which consisted of many of the wealthiest and most influential people in the Central City area, applauded politely. As he left the stage to rejoin his lovely wife, his grin only widened. His life was going swimmingly. He had a booming practice, a sterling reputation, and a lovely trophy wife who never got in his way, and he had just earned himself the perfect ticket into the highest echelon of Central City’s social scene. After all, among the many attendants at the award ceremony were Roy G. Bivolo, the only supervillain to ever become a famous, wealthy artist, W.W. Wiggins, the head of Wiggins’ Toy Company, and, perhaps most importantly, Mrs. Rachel Rathaway, the undisputed queen of high society in the Central/Keystone area. If she gave him her seal of approval, he would be able to make all sorts of connections. With this in mind, he made his way over to her.
“Hello, Mrs. Rathaway, Mr. Rathaway. I’m flattered to have you here,” he said smoothly. He extended his hand, and she shook it.
“A pleasure to meet you, Dr. Reynolds,” Mrs. Rathaway replied. As she said this, Philip noticed the young girl standing next to her.
“And who is this charming young lady?” he asked. The child was gorgeous , just the sort to…no. No. He had young things at home to fulfill that urge.
“This is our daughter, Geraldine.” Philip smiled at the child as he indulged in a brief fantasy. If only the young things he had at home were as beautiful as this one.
“It’s nice to meet you, Geraldine.” Such a lovely name, that…
“Mother, I don’t like this man.” Philip paled. Just what he needed, a child potentially ruining his chances with the wealthiest couple in the midwest…
“Geraldine! I’m surprised at you!” Mrs. Rathaway scolded.
“He frightens me, mother.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Geraldine. Dr. Reynolds has just won a humanitarian award for his work with children. He would never harm a little girl like you.” Philip was starting to relax when an oddly-accented voice suddenly boomed out.
“I would not be so sure of that if I were ye, Mrs. Rathaway.” Philip looked around, but the voice didn’t seem to come from anywhere that made sense. In fact, it seemed to be coming from one of the wine goblets on a nearby table. Before he could even start to puzzle out how that could be, a dozen duplicates of what seemed to be the same man in a weird orange-and-green leotard appeared out of what seemed to be nowhere. The hustle and bustle of the crowd came to a screeching halt as the ceremony’s guests all froze (except for the Rathaways, who quickly moved towards the back of the room).
“But then again, he has always been good at putting on a convincing smoke-and-mirrors routine. That’s true, Dr. Reynolds, int it no?” Freakishly, none of the men seemed to be moving their mouths.
“Who are you? W- what are you?” The voice laughed.
“I’ll give you a wee hint: it’s all done with mirrors.” Philip paled as he realized what that meant. The Mirror Master was crashing his award ceremony. And worse, it was the crazy Scottish one! In the hopes of getting the psychopath to leave him and his illustrious guests in one piece, he pulled out his wallet.
“Here. Take the money. Just leave these innocent people alone,” he said. His voice shook, but he couldn’t ignore a sense of pleasure over the kind of PR that this act would net him. One of the duplicates took the wallet…and then shredded it!
“I am nae here for dosh, Dr. Reynolds. And even if I were, I wouldnae take it from the likes of ye.”
“W-what do you mean?” The voice laughed again, but this time it sounded decidedly sinister.
“Dinnae play stupid with me , Dr. Reynolds. I ken all about what ye do to the wee ones who are supposed tae be in your care!” Philip felt a jolt of alarm. He had been so careful to cover his tracks! How could anyone know about his little indiscretions?
“I…I haven’t the slightest idea what you’re talking about.”
“Of course ye dinnae. A humanitarian . ‘Tis an odd humanitarian who preys on the wee ones! Pure deid brilliant, so it is!”
“Are you accusing me of-”
“Fifteen bairns. Fifteen . And every last one says the same thing: you sacrificed ‘em to your appetite . You like to play with the wee ones, but only when naebody can see what ye make ‘em do! You may be a humanitarian in the light, but in the dark? You’re a beast.” The crowd gasped.
“Dr. Reynolds, is there any truth to what he’s saying?” Lucius Fox asked. Philip made a mental note to track down all of his foster children and punish them for their disloyalty. By letting out his little secret, they had risked ruining him!
“Of course not. The Mirror Master is a thief and a liar, and we have good reason to believe that he was a hitman as well. This is obviously just a scheme to destroy my good name!”
“Nae, nae. I am nae out tae destroy your “good name”. I’m out to destroy ye .” Suddenly, two of the duplicates grabbed Philip, who screamed and started to thrash.
“Guards!” he shouted. In response, two of the ceremony’s guards moved on the duplicates that were holding him…only for them both to suddenly be knocked unconscious by nothing that Philip could see. At this point, the crowd erupted into chaos, as the guests started screaming and running.
“ Now will ye admit what ye’ve been doing tae those poor bairns?”
“W-why do you even care? You’re a criminal!”
“As if you’re not? That’s rich, it is!” Suddenly, the world seemed to twist and flip upside down, and Philip found himself in a nightmare realm, full of bizarre colors and odd crystalline structures.
“Welcome tae my world, Dr. Reynolds!” Philip vomited, having been utterly disoriented by…whatever it was that had just happened.
“I…I’m a very important man, Mirror Master. No matter how much money you’ve been promised, it won’t stop the law from hunting you down.” The Mirror Master laughed and removed his cowl, revealing a surprisingly young man with wild auburn hair, freckles, and a frightening gap-toothed smile.
“This isnae about dosh, Dr. Reynolds. This is personal.”
“I…I’ve never even met you!” The man…no, he wasn’t a man. No man could do this!… glared at him angrily.
“My name’s Evan McCulloch. When I was a wee bairn, I lived in an orphanage. No mum, no da…just like the bairns whose lives ye’ve torn apart. Miss McCulloch, the woman who ran the orphanage, was a good woman, but there was an older boy there named Georgie. He preyed on the wee ones. Preyed on me. He put his filthy hands all over me; said he was going to make me feel good. Said it was a game, and that if I told anyone he’d find my parents and slit their throats. When I got big eno, I fought him off…and he never bothered another wee one again. And now that I ken what you are…I’m going tae make sure ye never bother a bairn again either.”
“You’re n-not really going to kill me, are you?”
“No need. I can do something much worse than just kill ye.” The monster snapped his fingers, and the world around Philip started to shift and contort; the crystalline structures sharpening and pointing at him and the colors darkening to an ominous hue.
“No, wait! I’m a very wealthy man, Mr. McCulloch. Surely we can come to some sort of arrangement!” The looking-glass creature smiled crookedly.
“And abandon poor wee Garret tae a monster like ye? Isnae enough dosh in the world to convince me tae do that!” The crystalline structures started to form a cage, and Philip was struck with a realization. His newest pretty young thing had mentioned a man in his mirror. Philip had dismissed it as nonsense. It seemed he had been wrong.
“Is that what this is about? If he means so much to you, I’ll leave him alone, I promise!” In response, the looking-glass creature started to cackle. It was a horrifying sound; utterly inhuman.
“I’m afraid that’s nae good eno, chief. There’s thousands ‘a’ vulnerable wee ones in this city. Leaving poor wee Garret alone would only free you up tae go after another of ‘em.”
“Surely we can come to some sort of arrangement. So far as anyone can tell, you’re a hitman. You can’t possibly be so very angry about a man playing a little game with children no one wants. It’s not as though they’ll get affection anywhere else. I’m probably doing them a favor.” The words were cut off in a shriek of terror as the look on the looking-glass creature’s face morphed from amused disgust to absolute fury.
“A favor ? Was just that kind of favor that helped make me what ye see today. Don’t you tell me that you do those bairns a favor!” There was a quick slash of something sharp, a scream of agony, and then nothing.
Barry Allen vibrated into the Mirror Realm to find a scene that was equal parts bizarre and horrific. Dr. Philip Reynolds, the man who had been kidnapped from his own humanitarian award banquet, was lying badly injured, if not dead, on the ground. Blood was smeared everywhere-on the ground, on what passed for the walls, on a number of crystalline structures, and all over the hands of Evan McCulloch, who was holding what looked for all the world to be a jagged piece of broken glass. Even more strangely, he was sobbing hysterically…so hysterically, in fact, that he did nothing to prevent Barry from picking up Dr. Reynolds, speeding him to the nearest hospital, and then re-entering the Mirror Realm. With the most immediate crisis dealt with, Barry carefully approached McCulloch. While he didn’t appear to be a threat right now, he knew from experience that Evan was incredibly unpredictable.
“McCulloch, what’s going on?” he asked sternly. McCulloch didn’t respond, at least not coherently.
“I dinnae want to play, Georgie! I dinnae want tae play! You cannae make me no more! No wee bairn I! Poor wee bairn…”
“Evan, you might have murdered someone….a philanthropic humanitarian, no less. You’d better be able to give me a coherent explanation for why quickly.” At that, the hysterical tears transitioned into hysterical laughter.
“Wee Garret and pretty Bethany and clever Stefan? Janice and Terrence and Tommy and Davy and Maria? Ashley and Jacob and Ben and Diego and Joseph and the twins, Matthew and Marsha? Where was Dr. Reynold’s bleeding philanthropy when he came into their rooms at night? When he made them do things no bairn is ready to understand? What kind of humanitarian is it that smiles in public and then preys on the wee ones in private?” Barry paled.
“Are you saying that Dr. Reynolds abuses the children in his care?”
“Aye. And as he lives, he’ll prey on more and more of the wee ones. Twist their minds; destroy their wee hearts. Bairns, Flash. Innocent bairns who are nae innocent no more…and all because ‘a him. If you cannae believe me, ask the wee ones who live with him.” Barry was now determined to do just that…but only after he dealt with Evan.
“I know that you Rogues make a policy of not harming children…but that’s a far cry from going out of your way to try to kill a child abuser. What spurred you to take things so far?”
“He hurts wee bairns! Is that not reason eno?” Barry had to admit, there was a part of him that agreed with that sentiment. If Evan’s allegations were true and Dr. Reynolds really had been abusing the children under his care, he was going to have a very hard time feeling sorry for the man if he died. But at the same time, a simple distaste for someone whom you suspected of deliberately preyed on children was a quite different from engaging in an active manhunt for one, especially on the part of someone who wasn’t exactly well-known for his sense of basic human decency.
“While I agree with the sentiment, it still seems like a lot of effort on your part. You’ve never seemed to care much about the plight of anyone. You’re not like the Pied Piper. I’d say you don’t even seem as concerned about people as Captain Cold. So why invest so much energy in this one man?”
“I befriended a lonely bairn named Garret. He’s a good laddie, but he’s all alone in the world, just like me. Felt a sort of kinship with him, I suppose. I didnae mean to get so attached-even I ken that I am nae a good model for the wee ones-but I couldnae help myself. And then one day that sweet little bairn told me that he was bad because his foster da made him play weird games at night, games that made him feel dirty and ashamed. When he told me, he cried, and when I looked into his face, I saw another wee boy who had gone through the same thing, many and many a year gone,” Evan replied. And with that, it clicked.
“You were…”
“Aye, Flash. When I was a wee bairn, an older boy in the orphanage took me outside at night. He made wee little Evan do all sorts of things he hated; but he told me that I liked it and that because I did, it meant I was dirty. And if I told anyone, he’d find my real parents and slit their throats at night. I can…can still feel his filthy hands all over me. Eventually, I got too big for him and I made him go away forever, but…but it was tae late for me. I was nae a little boy nae more once he was through with me. I…I didnae want the same thing to happen to wee Garret or anyone else. I ken what it does to you. Makes you feel like a filthy monster. See, part of ye does like it, and that’s the worst part. Was always the worst part for me. What Georgie did tae me…it twisted me up intae the monster I am. I couldnae stand by and let it all happen again. Better for a monster tae kill a monster than risk seeing a sweet little boy like Garret become something like Evan.” Barry was horrified. Well, that certainly explained a lot about Evan…
“Evan…I’m sorry. No child should ever have to go through something like that.”
“And now wee Garret never will again. I killed the monster that was after him, just like I killed the one that devoured me. Dead and gone. Dead and gone. They cannae hurt the wee ones no more. I thought it would make me feel better, but it didnae. It didnae. The wee ones are safe…so why do I feel so dead inside?” Barry was struck with the realization that he was probably seeing the real Evan McCulloch for the first (and quite possibly the last) time. Not the Mirror Master; not the cheerfully cavalier Scotsman…but the real Evan.
“Evan, listen to me. You need help.” Evan laughed, but the sound was wild and hysterical.
“It’s too late for that now. Help Garret and the wee ones. They can still be saved. I cannae. Wee Evan died a long time ago. Only the monster is left.”
“You’re not a monster, Evan.”
“What else would you call me? You’ve seen what I can do with Wonderland.”
“I would call you a dangerous, misguided man…and a lost, mistreated little boy.”
“Nae. Nae. Don’t you understand? The boy died the night Georgie put his hands on me. Never became a man at all. Only the monster is left; a twisted reflection of what might have been. I’m a monster. Just like Georgie. Just like Dr. Reynolds. Only difference is that I know it. Why d’ye think I hide behind another man’s mask?”
“Evan, we-”
“Goan and arrest me, then. I’ve done what I set out tae do. Ye can take me back where a monster belongs now. Just please…make sure the wee ones know somebody cares. Please. I dinnae want tae see them end up like me.”
“I will. And I promise you, this time they’ll be kept safe,” Barry replied, sickened at the very thought of someone who claimed to be a humanitarian putting children through so much suffering. He could only imagine the mental state of the Reynolds’ foster children. Evan was living proof of the havoc that abuse on such an intimate level could have on a person, and he would rather die than see another child grow up to be so hopeless and empty.
“Just dinnae tell little Garret what a monster his friend is. I…I’d like him to have one good memory from his time in that pure awful place,” Evan said quietly.
“Don’t worry. The last thing I would want to do is scare him by telling him that his friend is the Mirror Master.”
“Good. He’s a good laddie. Better than I ever was.” And when Barry saw the deadness in Evan’s eyes, he had to wonder if perhaps Evan was right when he had said that he had died a long time ago….
- Nightmare, wakes in a panic, clutching his chest, staggering, shaking, accidentally overdoses on his medication
- Still high from the overdose later on, smacked in the face, arrested, locked in a cell
27:
- Handcuffed, strapped to a chair, examined by a doctor, declared criminally insane, imprisoned in a psych ward
- Recovering in bed after electroshock therapy, pale and weak
28:
- Still imprisoned in a psych ward
29:
- Still imprisoned in a psych ward, fakes a stomach ache to escape
30:
- Forced to shoot his best friend, told that he died, hyperventilating, crying, smacking himself in the face, clutching his chest, drinking excessively
33:
- Shot in the back, collapses, cradled, jumps into a river, presumed dead, wakes up in bed, clutching his chest in pain
36:
- Betrayed, crying
- Grieving, falls to his knees, crying, tries to stand but his knees buckle
37:
- Grieving, crying
- Holding his dying friend, crying, in shock, hyperventilating, collapses
Chen Yu Zhi
01:
- Wrongfully arrested, arm twisted behind his back, held at gunpoint, forced to his knees
- Punched in the face and gut, bloody lip
02:
- Kidnapped with a bag over his head
03:
- Pinned to a wall by the throat, mugged, beaten up, cut on the chin with a knife, later seen with the wound dressed
04:
- Kidnapped, tied up, smacked in the face, bleeding from the mouth, held hostage, rescued
- Knocked out, wakes up in a train carriage being taken somewhere against his will
07:
- Hallucinating his sister, crying
- Tries to enter a burning car to save someone, restrained, screaming
08:
- Grieving, crying
- Sitting in the rain, shivering, crying, collapses and passes out, feverish, cradled, carried to safety, unconscious in bed, taken care of, handfed medication
12:
- Framed, handcuffed, arrested
- Tied to a post, whipped, bleeding, bruises on his face, collapses after being untied, unable to walk without support, has the wounds cleaned, crying out in pain
14:
- Held hostage at gunpoint
15:
- Handcuffed to a wanted criminal, kidnapped, held at gunpoint, cuffed to a table
16:
- Still cuffed to the table from last episode, held hostage at gunpoint
29:
- Betrayed, beaten up, bludgeoned with a chair, bruised and bleeding, recovering in hospital with fractured ribs, in too much pain to move, discharges himself AMA
30:
- Face still bruised from last episode
- Shot in the chest, left unconscious and bleeding in the street, haemorrhaging blood during surgery, given CPR, pronounced dead
31:
- Showing signs of life on the operating table after last episode, recovering in bed, wakes up disorientated and in pain
32:
- Still recovering in hospital
- Discharged, still in pain and unable to walk without support
33:
- Blackmailed into killing his best friend, crying, tries to shoot himself instead
34:
- Grieving, crying, smacked in the face
37:
- Shot in the chest, cradled, coughing blood, dies in his best friend’s arms
Yu Tang Chun
05:
- Coughing, insists it’s congestion, later being examined by a doctor, told he cannot sing anymore or he will cause himself permanent damage
08:
- Coughing up blood, hiding it from his friend
11:
- Stabbed in the gut, unconscious in bed, has the wound cleaned and stitched
12:
- Still recovering in bed from last episode, wakes up coughing, too weak to sit up
13:
- Still recovering in bed
18:
- Trying to sing when he was advised not to, coughing
20:
- Grieving, sobbing on his knees
21:
- Still grieving, fighting tears
24:
- Examined by a doctor, given until winter to live, asks for a means to end his own life
28:
- Still coughing
- Poisoned, fighting the symptoms, gasping for air, forces himself to vomit, clutching his stomach
- Examined by a doctor, still fighting the effects of the poison, coughing, shaking, unable to stand without support
- Dragged to a bed, vomiting blood, struggling to breathe, has an acupuncture needle inserted in his hand
29:
- Slammed into a table, restrained, held at gunpoint, choked, smacked in the face twice, bloody lip
- Tied to a chair, shivering, given a blanket, refuses to eat, violently force-fed
30:
- Still tied to a chair
- Forced to take poison, clutching his stomach, struggling to breathe, retching, writhing in pain
34:
- Still tied to a chair, coughing up blood, forcibly shaven against his will
35:
- Tries to blow up his enemy, killed in the explosion
TW: Contains themes of drug abuse, child abuse, noncon, implied paedophilia and suicide
I had to call the cops on my mum the other day. She’s been abusing my younger siblings for years and CPS refuses to do anything. I’m still trying to get the kids out of there but I knew there was an incident happening in the moment so I called the cops.
The police showed up four hours late, told mum which kid contacted me about the incident, and left. Putting that kid in even more danger than before.
The moderator on the phone blamed me for not doing enough to help the kids. When I told her that I’m a disabled 20 year old who’s already reported to CPS many many times, who’s already made an official complaint to CPS when they didn’t listen, who’s already contacted a family hotline, a legal hotline, red cross, lifeline, Vinnies, Legal Aid, my local member of parliament, and the minister of CPS for our state, she told me to just try harder.
if you look at an abused child with behaviors like aggression, setting things on fire, etc, and your first thought is “omg potential serial killer alert .. so scary” then you’re fundamentally missing the point + causing harm and i hope no child ever needs to depend on you
people learn about the macdonald triad in some true crime buzzword video and decide to let it inform their view of childhood trauma as something undeserving of compassion and “solved” by pathologizing and isolating victims
