I heard a lot of things I wanted to share earlier today, but haven't reached a non-work computer until recently and was distracted by the airdrop news so I had to talk about that first. Most of the things that stood out to me were in the Democracy Now podcast, but I'll be linking the headlines from their website, which has text versions of the articles instead of just audio.
The Intercept: New York Times Exposé Lacks Evidence to Claim Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence Oct. 7:
Shortly after the first Hamas attack, the New York Times published an inflammatory article about systematic rape by Hamas soldiers. It initially intended to have an episode of The Daily (its podcast) about the topic, but the podcast's fact-checkers found that the article's writers had bent a lot of truths and their sources were often questionable at best; the needed rewrites for honest reporting were so comprehensive that the episode script was scrapped entirely. Goes over the ways in which the reporters manipulated facts and opinions, the NYT not really acknowledging the conflict, and how heavily it impacted international response to Israeli actions, especially by the US government.
From their Headlines page, the bold is their titles and the reset is my summary or additional references:
Defense Sec. Austin Refuses to Draw Line in Sand for Israel After Food Aid Massacre in Gaza - DS Austin is grilled by a congressmember and still doesn't commit to anything; notable is that he cites a death toll that is probably accurate to the estimates of real death, but not accurate to the confirmed deaths and so the numbers had to be later walked back by the Pentagon.
Washington’s Largest Union Backs Democratic Vote for “Uncommitted” Ahead of Primary - UFCW is joining the movement that Michigan got rolling. I talked about it more in a recent addition to this post, if you want to know more about which states are organizing to do the same.
Lebanese PM Says Gaza Ceasefire Would End Conflict on Its Border with Israel - Lebanon has been bombing northern Israel for a while now; this is just the 'if you leave Palestine alone, we'll stop sending explosives your way' message that's been broadcast for a while.
There are a number of other stories going on that aren't getting a huge amount of coverage on most platforms, like Texas's wildfires, or are just too complex for me to summarize (they have a longer article on the border visit and policy debate), but these three stood out to me, which is probably why they're the first ones mentioned.
like i said before, i’m decidedly not an artist BUT i didn’t have any fic ideas for today so here we are lol. my fic for tomorrow is a little silly but i hope u enjoy anyway :) it’s been a fun week!
also if anyone figures out how to draw a bat hand (claw?) or a human hand for that matter please let me know because christ this was a struggle
"I have not wept since the death of my parents," said Luxa quietly. "But I am thought to be quite unnatural in this respect."
Gregor felt more tears slipping down his cheeks when he thoughts of how badly you had to be hurt to lose the ability to cry. He forgave Luxa everything at that moment.
---
Luxa blinked. A tiny tear formed at the corner of her eye. A battle took place on her face as she tried to stop the feelings rising up inside her. The feelings won, and to Gregor's great relief, she ran into Vikus's arms.
The theme for day 3 is love and as we all know Ripred LOVES shrimp in cream sauce. I decided to make an edit that shows that love. As you can see it’s Ripred and the Shrimp and each of them have their own smaller bowl of shrimp. How lovely!
@oneunexpected here’s my contribution to day three!!
“You always win!” Boots yelled, kicking the pile of cards and throwing those in her hand onto the stone floor.
“The game wasn’t even over yet!” Lizzie argued back, putting the two cards in her hand down and starting to organize the remnants of their fourth game of Go Fish.
“I’m so bored!” Boots flung herself dramatically on the ground, crossing her arms and sticking out her bottom lip. “It’s not fair they won’t let us leave this stupid castle without Gregor.”
Lizzie sighed, trying to think of a way to explain political instability to a seven year old. She gave up, knowing Boots wouldn’t care anyway. “We can go Over if you want, I think Mom said it was supposed to be nice out today.”
“We’re already going back Over tomorrow for the fair. Gregor said he would take us to the Waterway today!” Boots rolled onto her stomach with a groan, “Why doesn’t this place have TV?!”
“You just said you didn’t want to go Over!” Lizzie abandoned straightening the cards and glanced over at the mix of Underland and Overland board games they had gone through already. While they had Underland friends, they weren’t allowed to go anywhere without an escort lately and if they invited people to them they had to be chaperoned. Nothing was worse then having guards watch you play.
So here they sat, in their room inside the palace, bored out of their minds. There was a rebellion rising among the Underlanders over a recent Treaty that had raised all the prices of Spinner goods.
Boots rolled over again with another long groan, “do you think Hazard is here yet?”
“He should be, why don’t you go look for him?”
They barely got to see Hazard. He lived with distant family in the Fount. The way he talked about his home Lizzie knew that he really liked it there, but she still wished he had stayed closer. It felt like he never visited long enough.
Boots groaned once more but stood up anyway. Lizzie watched her disappear through the doorway and almost moments later heard her yell, “Hazard!”
Lizzie straightened, smoothing down her hair and feigned interest in the cards again. Hazard replied to Boots in Crawler and they had a short conversation before they walked back into the door.
“Found him!” Boots proclaimed proudly.
Lizzie ignored her sister, “hey, Hazard.”
“Hi Liz,” Hazard walked over and sunk to the floor beside her, “what’re you playing?”
Lizzie straightened the last few cards and placed the neat stack down. “We were playing Go Fish but Boots is a sore loser.”
“Am not!”
Lizzie laughed at Boots’ flushed face. “Would you teach us another Under game?” She asked.
Hazard leaned back on his palms, “We always play my games, why don’t you teach me one of yours?”
Boots lit up, “Ooh! I know Old Maid, and Go Fish, and War, and Spee-“
“War?” Hazard interrupted, his eyes wide.
“Not, like, that kind of war.” Lizzie tried to explain, “you just sort of compare cards.” Hazard was fascinated with war and with good reason. His father had preached against it for so long, and they had all seen so much. He was always writing Lizzie facts about different battles or about how hard everyone was trying to keep him from learning more.
“Can you teach me?”
“I can!” Boots yelled, snatching the deck and sending a few cards flying. She loved showing people she knew things.
Hazard listened intently to Boots’ confusing instructions. Lizzy piped in to clarify a few things only to be admonished by Boots.
“Okay let’s play!” Boots said and began clumsily dealing the cards.
“Strange how casual war is in the Overland, isn’t it?” Hazard asked as Boots handed him his cards.
Lizzie shrugged. “In some places. It’s just really big up there. Easy to forget sometimes. You’ll see.” Hazard and Lizzie had been planning forever to travel the world when they were older. Different cultures were hard for him to understand since it was just humans up there. It was hard for him to imagine people of the same species being so different from one another. He was always so amazed at the range of appearances when he went with them to New York.
Lizzie opened the book she was reading, occasionally peeking over the pages to watch Hazard and Boots play. Boots won the first few games and Lizzie watched more intently to find that she had been cheating. Lizzie settled in as referee to make sure that Boots stopped making up nonsense rules in her favor.
She watched them flipping down their cards, the winner picking them back up. The best card wins and it’s all up to chance. She wondered briefly if that’s how real war actually worked. If anyone could make a difference or if it was chance predetermined from the start.
“Hey guys, are you ready to go?” Gregor interrupted her thoughts. Boots threw her cards and launched herself at him. He caught her and unceremoniously dangled her upside down. Her giggles filled the room.
“Waterway! Waterway!” Boots chanted through her laughter.
“Alright, alright. Clean up your mess first.” Gregor put her down and she pouted.
“I got it.” Hazard said, the deck of cards already in his hands mostly straightened.
“Yay! Let’s go!” Boots grabbed Gregor’s hand and dragged him into the hallway. Lizzie stood up and waited for Hazard to do the same.
“Race you,” she said once he was on his feet and the two bolted into the hallway, thoughts of war far from their heads once again.
Gregor woke up with a start, laying in a pool of his own sweat on the floor next to his bed. It's been a year since end of war in The Underland, but Gregor still has the dreams.
He could feel himself falling through the air, the ground coming closer and closer. Darkness surrounding him but he could feel the stalagmites crowding in, as if trying to be the one that pierces through his middle.
His first thought was to not panic, he knew that Ares would be coming to save him, just like how he had chosen Gregor over his bond, Henry. But then came a shock when Gregor remembered and hit the ground, bringing him back to the real world.
Sobs shook through him as he tried to forget his black, fuzzy friend. He tried to forget the wind going through his hair and the happiness he got while riding on top his back. He felt so free whenever he was with Ares, like he could forget everything. Forget about Sandwich and his stupid, self-fulfilling prophecies. Forget about the war he had gone through. Forget about the pain that he thought he were going to die, to forget about the thought of leaving his family alone.
Whenever he were with Ares, it was just the two of them against the world. But now, Gregor has to go through it all alone. Wake up alone to the shivering thoughts of his life ending as he places a hand over his chest, feeling the deep scar that his last moments with Ares left. The salve that the Underlanders gave him to put on the scars was suppose to make them go away, but he couldn’t bring himself to put it on this one. It’s what ended the war. What reminded him that it was all over, even if his best friend had been sacrificed in the process. It was all over, all that was left is what’s in his dreams. He’ll get over those sometime, he knows it. Because he has Luxa by his side, and she understands it all because that war was her life. Everything had changed afterward.
Maybe it will all get better, but for now..
“War’s a bitch.”
~A/N~
Hope you guys liked my addition to the UCFW! I know it’s a bit late, but I kind of lost all the writing so I had to restart and then I procrastinated! I’m very hopeful that I’m gonna finish all of them tonight and post them all!
I think I didn’t get the tags right but who cares lol.
blood relations aka a family tree! i know the design isn’t the best but i quickly gave up on making this artsy because that is NOT my strong suit. hope it’s still a neat (and maybe helpful?) visual though! putting X’s over some of these names was heartbreaking <\3
(also i hope this is all accurate lmao, pretty sure it is! no clue on the status of henry’s father though, is he alive? lol)
