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[ncfan-1]

I know this is probably not news and that I am no doubt not the only person who feels this way, but I just can’t shake the feeling that whenever Mae pursues her revenge quest in any fashion, the thing going through Sol’s mind is just a bemused “kitten thinks of nothing but murder all day kitten thinks of nothing but murder all day kitten thinks of nothing but—” He’s just terminally incapable of taking her seriously as a threat to him, the whole “lost lamb” thing is just that strong in his mind.

[ncfan-1]

If anyone wants to know how I'm doing right now, the answer is: not great.

[ncfan-1]

Error pages and missing kudos emails

AO3 uses a technique called rate limiting to help prevent activity that could threaten the Archive's stability or security. However, the way we usually do rate limiting isn't working, so we've had to temporarily change our approach while we work on a fix.

Unfortunately, this new, temporary approach makes it more likely you'll run into error pages while using AO3 normally. We're very sorry about that! If you get one of these errors, please wait a few minutes and you'll be able to continue using AO3.

We're also looking into reports that some users are not receiving kudos emails.

We're sorry for the inconvenience and we'll keep you updated.

Posted: 06:57 UTC 19 January, 2025

[ncfan-1]

nobody say a fucking word about tumblr we can’t remind these billionaires we exist

[ncfan-1]

It is with the deepest frustrations that I must report Microsoft has pushed out Copilot onto Microsoft Word no matter what your previous settings were. If you have Office because you paid for it/are on a family plan/have a work/school account, you can disable it by going to Options -> click on Copilot -> uncheck 'Enable Copilot'.

(Note, you may not see this option if you haven't updated lately, but Copilot will still pop up. Updating should give you this option. I will kill Microsoft with my bare hands.)

In addition, Google has forced a roll-out of it's Gemini AI on all American accounts of users over 18 (these settings are turned off by default for EU, Japan, Switzerland, and UK, but it doesn't hurt to check).

To remove this garbage, you must go to Manage Workspace smart feature settings for all your Gmail/Drive/Chat and turn them off. Go to Settings -> See all settings -> find under "Genera" the "Google Workspace smart features" -> turn smart feature setting off for both Google Workspace and all other Google products and hit save. (If you turned off the smart settings in your Gmail, it never hurts to open Drive and double-check that they're set to off there too.)

Quick Edit: I found the easiest way to get to the Smart Feature settings following the instructions above was to do it through Drive. Try that route first.

Now is the time to consider switching to Libre Office if you haven't already.

[ncfan-1]

I will destroy you if I must.

THE ACOLYTE | 1.08

[ncfan-1]

Reminder for when he “saves” it. He was the one who wanted this, and now he gets to be the hero and win favour with young constituents. Don’t give him the credit for fixing his own problem.

[ncfan-1]

And this is exactly why they hate fact checking.

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The left is so hostile to women—both cis and trans women—and so forgiving to even the most violent and abusive men, it should make you feel ashamed and guilty and it should make you want to fix the state of things that the only avenue that Neil Gaiman’s victims had to go to speak out about their rapist was a shitty TERF podcast. It shouldn’t make you go “well I support the victims BUT—”, it should make you go “wow we need to fix the misogyny problem here on the left so women feel like they can speak out about the abuse they experience from otherwise progressive men without being silenced and having to reluctantly go on a TERF podcast because no one else was willing to let them speak out about the horrific rape they experienced”

[ncfan-1]

This is head canon and not analysis, but I’ve always had this idea that if you were to ask Osha and Mae who their family’s favorite was, they would each confidently reply that it was their sister who was the favorite.

From Mae’s perspective, she would seize upon the point that their mother spends a lot more one-on-one time with Osha than she does with her. She perceives that Osha has a much closer relationship with their mother than she does, and is envious of that.

To that, Osha would say that the reason their mother spends so much time with her is because Osha doesn’t do well enough in their lessons on how to use the Thread to satisfy their mother. That extra one-on-one time is for remedial lessons that Osha often walks away from feeling frustrated and guilty. On the one hand, their way of life doesn’t do much for Osha. She wants more than this, wants something that would let her differentiate herself from Mae and be her own person, and their mother doesn’t really support that? Mother Aniseya only concedes that she has to let Osha go when things reach a breaking point, and everything up to that consists of her trying to convince Osha that she can be content with life as a witch if she just tries hard enough. So Osha feels frustrated that she’s not really being listened to, and she feels guilty because she loves her mother so much and knows that she’s letting her mother down by continuing to cling to the idea that she wants something other than the life she has, but she can’t lie to herself and say that she would be content to stay on Brendok with the coven forever.

And from Osha’s perspective, she sees that Mae isn’t scolded for inattentiveness during lessons or rule-breaking like she is. Mae is the measuring stick that Osha is measured against, the one she is always compared against. Why can’t you be more like your sister? Mae understands how to do this: why can’t you? Mae understands why this is so important: why can’t you? Osha definitely feels as though Mae is the favorite, because she’s held up as the shining example, the one to emulate, the one who gets everything right. How is that not favoritism?

Mae would say that the thing about being the measuring stick is that people place much higher expectations on the measuring stick than they do on the person being held up against it. She perceives Osha as being coddled by their family, perceives Osha as being held to much lower standards of progression. She has a more natural grasp of using the Thread than Osha does, but even though she doesn’t always understand how to do something first thing, she never feels like she can ask for help, because she’s supposed to be the example-setter. She’s Mae, and Mae is supposed to get it all right the first time. Mae looks at Osha and sees someone who is allowed to get it wrong the first time, someone who is allowed to not always pay attention, someone who is indulged when she wants to daydream about life outside of their coven. From Mae’s perspective, Osha is cut a lot more slack than she ever has been. How is that not favoritism?

But the thing of it is, though the witches are no more the perfect family than anyone is, though they mess up sometimes just like any family does, they are ultimately the only people who have ever loved Osha and Mae equally and tried their best to treat them equally. They are ultimately trying to raise them both to realize their full potential, to become functioning members of their community with the same capabilities as one another, who can protect themselves from the dangers arrayed against them. And soon, Osha and Mae are going to be tossed out into the wide galaxy, where they will never be treated equally again.

[ncfan-1]

[ncfan-1]

[ncfan-1]

Congratulations! You are the new sidekick to a DC or Marvel superhero. Spin the wheel to determine who your mentor is. (NO RE-SPINS)

Assume you will have a similar superpower or will learn a similar skill set (for the non-powered heroes) as your mentor or one of your mentor's canon sidekicks (dealer's choice) so you aren't completely screwed.

[ncfan-1]

Thank you! It’s fascinating to me how all four of the principal characters of The Acolyte crave love and companionship, but when they pursue it, they ultimately fail to get it (or don’t get it the way they wanted it) because they self-sabotage, they act in ways that ensure that they can’t get what they want.

Qimir wants “the power of two,” wants love and companionship, and to that end, he seeks an acolyte. But he fails to have the kind of relationship that he wanted with Mae thanks to his deceit and implied mistreatment of her. He fails to foster a trusting relationship with her, fails to win her trust or affection, and instead succeeds only in fostering her fear and resentment.

Mae wants Osha’s love and attention when they are children, wants to always be together and never be apart. But Osha finds her clinginess suffocating. Mae’s attempts to stick to Osha’s side only makes Osha want to peel away from Mae’s side more. The tighter Mae holds on, the more Osha wants to fly away, so on and so forth. The tantrum Mae throws when it looks like Osha will leave her permanently leads to the fire that burns down their home. Mae’s own behavior makes it easy for Sol to deceive Osha regarding who was responsible for the coven’s deaths, and makes it damn near impossible for Mae to reunite and reconcile with Osha in the present day.

Sol wants Osha’s love, wants to have a father-daughter relationship with her, but ultimately he can’t, because, well, he’s Bluebeard. With all that that implies. He can’t have the kind of relationship with Osha that he wants because their relationship is built on a foundation of lies, with her mother’s bones buried underneath, but also because his adherence to the Jedi Code ensures that he can be honest about what he wants with neither Osha nor even himself. Sol wants to be Osha’s father, but he can never admit that to anyone, not even himself. He can only say that he wants to be her Master, that he wants to teach her and train her, and ultimately shuts himself out from the kind of love that he wants.

Of the three of them, who fell into pitfalls before the present day, only Mae is able to stop self-sabotaging. Qimir refuses to admit that he voided any claim he had to Mae’s loyalty long ago by dint of his deceit and implied mistreatment, and lays the blame for how things shook out between them entirely at Mae’s feet, writing her off as having only cared about revenge. Sol clings to any straw he can use to justify his actions to himself to the bitter end, refuses to take accountability for what he did to the bitter end, and that is what gets him killed. But Mae is ultimately able to look back on her childhood behavior with clear eyes and amend her behavior as an adult, and is able to reconcile with Osha and, if only for a moment, get the kind of love that she wants by being selfless, by giving Osha space to assert her own wants instead of relentlessly pursuing her, and by being willing to let Osha go.

And in the present-day, we have Osha. From sixteen years ago up until Episode 8, Osha has been denied the kind of love that she longs for and needs to feel truly nourished, not through any fault of her own, but by Sol’s wrongdoings. And then we watch her obtain that love, only to immediately self-sabotage the way Qimir and Sol do.

If she had stopped short of agreeing to let Mae be memory-wiped, I wouldn’t say that she had self-sabotaged, I wouldn’t say that she had thrown Mae’s love away, and I wouldn’t say that she had completed her fall to the Dark Side. If Osha refuses to let the memory wipe go ahead, then even if she still separates from Mae at that juncture, it indicates that Mae’s well-being is not a line that she’s willing to cross. To at least give Mae the chance to, say, sneak back to Sol’s ship and try to fly it off-world to get away from the Jedi, would indicate that she wasn’t willing to screw Mae over for her own personal benefit. But Osha is willing, even if reluctantly, to screw Mae over for her own benefit, Mae’s well-being is a line Osha is willing to cross, and it’s there that Osha falls into the pitfall that the other three principal characters fell into in the past. It’s there that Osha self-sabotages. In the same moment that should be Osha’s moment of triumph, the moment of finally obtaining the love she has craved for sixteen years, she casts aside that love, and her victory turns to ash.

(As an observation, it’s interesting to me that of the four of them, the only one who actually manages to stop self-sabotaging is Mae, precisely because of Mae, Osha, Sol, and Qimir, Mae is the only one of them who was never a Jedi. I think you could take it as commentary on how easy it is for the Jedi’s ideals to give Jedi really, really fucked-up interpretations of and relationships with love.)

I think another reason that I’m so firmly in the camp that Osha completed her fall to the Dark Side not by killing Sol but by allowing Mae to be memory-wiped is because of the observation Qimir makes in Episode 6 about Osha’s relationship with love.

Qimir posits, and Osha evidently agrees, that she has spent sixteen years longing for someone to love her fully, deeply, and unreservedly, and that she’s spent sixteen years longing to be able to love others in the same way. Why do you only love people who can only go so far, who can’t go as deep as you can? He asserts, and is unfortunately correct, that thanks to the Jedi’s strictures against attachment, Sol and Jecki were always going to hold her at arm’s length to some degree or another. Those were always going to be relationships unequal in terms of depth and intensity.

And that isn’t what Osha wants. It leaves her feeling empty and unfulfilled. She has not felt loved in a way that would actually nourish in sixteen years, she’s spent sixteen years with the belief imparted upon her by the Jedi that the way she loves is inappropriate and “too much,” and it’s killing her. She does not want impersonal love devoid of attachments. She wants to be loved the way her family loved her. She wants to love in that fashion without being told that the want is a flaw, that there’s something wrong with her for wanting it.

Along comes Mae in Episode 8. By being willing to undergo the memory wipe to protect Osha, Mae demonstrates that she does love Osha as fully, deeply, and unreservedly as Osha has craved for the past sixteen years. Who would accept her love without telling her that it’s inappropriate or deviant, that it’s “too much.” There is someone who Osha knows is willing to go as deep as she is, and she’s standing right in front of her.

But just because someone is willing to sacrifice themselves for you does not mean that you should let them. Osha receives the love she has longed for—and by allowing her sister to be stripped of her memories of her, she throws that love away for her own personal gain. Osha is offered another’s love, and she throws that love away in favor of a guarantee of freedom and power—not for herself and Mae, but only for herself, and at Mae’s direct expense.

And that’s just really sad. Osha gets what she wanted, what she felt empty without, and she throws it away, because she ultimately values herself more than she values love, or the one who would offer it to her.

[ncfan-1]

I think another reason that I’m so firmly in the camp that Osha completed her fall to the Dark Side not by killing Sol but by allowing Mae to be memory-wiped is because of the observation Qimir makes in Episode 6 about Osha’s relationship with love.

Qimir posits, and Osha evidently agrees, that she has spent sixteen years longing for someone to love her fully, deeply, and unreservedly, and that she’s spent sixteen years longing to be able to love others in the same way. Why do you only love people who can only go so far, who can’t go as deep as you can? He asserts, and is unfortunately correct, that thanks to the Jedi’s strictures against attachment, Sol and Jecki were always going to hold her at arm’s length to some degree or another. Those were always going to be relationships unequal in terms of depth and intensity.

And that isn’t what Osha wants. It leaves her feeling empty and unfulfilled. She has not felt loved in a way that would actually nourish her in sixteen years, she’s spent sixteen years with the belief imparted upon her by the Jedi that the way she loves is inappropriate and “too much,” and it’s killing her. She does not want impersonal love devoid of attachments. She wants to be loved the way her family loved her. She wants to love in that fashion without being told that the want is a flaw, that there’s something wrong with her for wanting it.

Along comes Mae in Episode 8. By being willing to undergo the memory wipe to protect Osha, Mae demonstrates that she does love Osha as fully, deeply, and unreservedly as Osha has craved for the past sixteen years. Who would accept her love without telling her that it’s inappropriate or deviant, that it’s “too much.” There is someone who Osha knows is willing to go as deep as she is, and she’s standing right in front of her.

But just because someone is willing to sacrifice themselves for you does not mean that you should let them. Osha receives the love she has longed for—and by allowing her sister to be stripped of her memories of her, she throws that love away for her own personal gain. Osha is offered another’s love, and she throws that love away in favor of a guarantee of freedom and power—not for herself and Mae, but only for herself, and at Mae’s direct expense.

And that’s just really sad. Osha gets what she wanted, what she felt empty without, and she throws it away, because she ultimately values herself more than she values love, or the one who would offer it to her.

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[ncfan-1]

But the Jedi Code is like an itch. He cannot help it.