#//like clearly in the very link they provided in the post there is evidence that increased site traffic has done A LOT

[spectrumspace]

i don't wanna go on the post itself because it might come across as aggressive and i agree with the sentiment overall but re: "arab.org only donates $90 a quarter":

they guarantee a donation of ~$90 a quarter even if a certain goal isn't met (shown as "The Olive Tree SAL Guaranteed Click Equivalent"), and it usually hasn't been met.

however, it was met last quarter, because the amount of clicks they got had increased fortyfold since october.

$380 is still rather paltry, but it's not as "stupid" as op was claiming.

still, i agree with the sentiment that if you can donate directly to unrwa, you should. as this receipt shows, just fifty people donating ten dollars would do more good than half a million clicks.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Canada’s ground-breaking, hamstrung repair and interop laws

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/15/radical-extremists/#sex-pest

When the GOP trifecta assumes power in just a few months, they will pass laws, and those laws will be terrible, and they will cast long, long shadows.

This is the story of how another far-right conservative government used its bulletproof majority to pass a wildly unpopular law that continues to stymie progress to this day. It's the story of Canada's Harper Conservative government, and two of its key ministers: Tony Clement and James Moore.

Starting in 1998, the US Trade Rep embarked on a long campaign to force every country in the world to enact a new kind of IP law: an "anticircumvention" law that would criminalize the production and use of tools that allowed people to use their own property in ways that the manufacturer disliked.

This first entered the US statute books with the 1998 passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), whose Section 1201 established a new felony for circumventing an "access control." Crucially, DMCA 1201's prohibition on circumvention did not confine itself to protecting copyright.

Circumventing an access control is a felony, even if you never violate copyright law. For example, if you circumvent the access control on your own printer to disable the processes that check to make sure you're using an official HP cartridge, HP can come after you.

You haven't violated any copyright, but the ink-checking code is a copyrighted work, and you had to circumvent a block in order to reach it. Thus, if I provide you a tool to escape HP's ink racket, I commit a felony with penalties of five years in prison and a $500k fine, for a first offense. So it is that HP ink costs more per ounce than the semen of a Kentucky Derby-winning stallion.

This was clearly a bad idea in 1998, though it wasn't clear how bad an idea it was at the time. In 1998, chips were expensive and underpowered. By 2010, a chip that cost less than a dollar could easily implement a DMCA-triggering access control, and manufacturers of all kinds were adding superfluous chips to everything from engine parts to smart lightbulbs whose sole purpose was to transform modification into felonies. This is what Jay Freeman calls "felony contempt of business-model."

So when the Harper government set out to import US-style anticircumvention law to Canada, Canadians were furious. A consultation on the proposal received 6,138 responses opposing the law, and 54 in support:

https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2010/04/copycon-final-numbers/

And yet, James Moore and Tony Clement pressed on. When asked how they could advance such an unpopular bill, opposed by experts and the general public alike, Moore told the International Chamber of Commerce that every objector who responded to his consultation was a "radical extremist" with a "babyish" approach to copyright:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/copyright-debate-turns-ugly-1.898216

As is so often the case, history vindicated the babyish radical extremists. The DMCA actually has an official way to keep score on this one. Every three years, the US Copyright Office invites public submissions for exemptions to DMCA 1201, creating a detailed, evidence-backed record of all the legitimate activities that anticircumvention law interferes with.

Unfortunately, "a record" is all we get out of this proceeding. Even though the Copyright Office is allowed to grant "exemptions," these don't mean what you think they mean. The statute is very clear on this: the US Copyright Office is required to grant exemptions for the act of circumvention, but is forbidden from granting exemptions for tools needed to carry out these acts.

This is headspinningly and deliberately obscure, but there's one anecdote from my long crusade against this stupid law that lays it bare. As I mentioned, the US Trade Rep has made the passage of DMCA-like laws in other countries a top priority since the Clinton years. In 2001, the EU adopted the EU Copyright Directive, whose Article 6 copy-pastes the provisions of DMCA 1201.

In 2003, I found myself in Oslo, debating the minister who'd just completed Norway's EUCD implementation. The minister was very proud of his law, boasting that he'd researched the flaws in other countries' anticircumvention laws and addressed them in Norway's law. For example, Norway's law explicitly allowed blind people to bypass access controls on ebooks in order to feed them into text-to-speech engines, Braille printers and other accessibility tools.

I knew where this was going. I asked the minister how this would work in practice. Could someone sell a blind person a tool to break the DRM on their ebooks? Of course not, that's totally illegal. Could a nonprofit blind rights group make such a tool and give it away to blind people? No, that's illegal too. What about hobbyists, could they make the tool for their blind friends? No, not that either.

OK, so how do blind people exercise their right to bypass access controls on ebooks they own so they can actually read them?

Here's how. Each blind person, all by themself, is expected to decompile and reverse-engineer Adobe Reader, locate a vulnerability in the code and write a new program that exploits that vulnerability to extract their ebooks. While blind people are individually empowered to undertake this otherwise prohibited activity, they must do so on their own: they can't share notes with one another on the process. They certainly can't give each other the circumvention program they write in this way:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/28/mcbroken/#my-milkshake-brings-all-the-lawyers-to-the-yard

That's what a use-only exemption is: the right to individually put a locked down device up on your own workbench, and, laboring in perfect secrecy, figure out how it works and then defeat the locks that stop you from changing those workings so they benefit you instead of the manufacturer. Without a "tools" exemption, a use exemption is basically a decorative ornament.

So the many use exemptions that the US Copyright Office has granted since 1998 really amount to nothing more than a list of defects in the DMCA that the Copyright Office has painstaking verified but is powerless to fix. We could probably save everyone a lot of time by scrapping the triennial exemptions process and replacing it with an permanent sign over the doors of the Library of Congress reading "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."

All of this was well understood by 2010, when Moore and Clement were working on the Canadian version of the DMCA. All of this was explained in eye-watering detail to Moore and Clement, but was roundly ignored. I even had a go at it, publicly picking a fight with Moore on Twitter:

https://web.archive.org/web/20130407101911if_/http://eaves.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/Conversations%20between%20@doctorow%20and%20@mpjamesmoore.jpg

Moore and Clement rammed their proposal through in the next session of Parliament, passing it as Bill C-11 in 2012:

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

This was something of a grand finale for the pair. Today, Moore is a faceless corporate lawyer, while Clement was last seen grifting covid PPE (Clement's political career ended abruptly when he sent dick pics to a young woman who turned out to be a pair of sextortionists from Cote D'Ivoire, and was revealed as a serial sex-pest in the ensuing scandal:)

https://globalnews.ca/news/4646287/tony-clement-instagram-women/

Even though Moore and Clement are long gone from public life, their signature achievement remains a Canadian disgrace, an anchor chain tied around the Canadian economy's throat, and an impediment to Canadian progress.

This week, two excellent new Canadian laws received royal assent: Bill C-244 is a broad, national Right to Repair law; and Bill C-294 is a broad, national interoperability law. Both laws establish the right to circumvent access controls for the purpose of fixing and improving things, something Canadians deserve and need.

But neither law contains a tools exemption. Like the blind people of Norway, a Canadian farmer who wants to attach a made-in-Canada Honeybee tool to their John Deere tractor is required to personally, individually reverse-engineer the John Deere tractor and modify it to talk to the Honeybee accessory, laboring in total secrecy:

https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/12/canada_right_to_repair/

Likewise the Canadian repair tech who fixes a smart speaker or a busted smartphone – they are legally permitted to circumvent in order to torture the device's repair codes out of it or force it to recognize a replacement part, but each technician must personally figure out how to get the device firmware to do this, without discussing it with anyone else.

Thus do Moore and Clement stand athwart Canadian self-reliance and economic development, shouting "STOP!" though both men have been out of politics for years.

There has never been a better time to hit Clement and Moore's political legacy over the head with a shovel and bury it in a shallow grave. Canadian technologists could be making a fortune creating circumvention devices that repair and improve devices marketed by foreign companies.

They could make circumvention tools to allow owners of consoles to play games by Canadian studios that are directly sold to Canadian gamers, bypassing the stores operated by Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo and the 30% commissions they charge. Canadian technologists could be making diagnostic tools that allow every auto-mechanic in Canada to fix any car manufactured anywhere in the world.

Canadian cloud servers could power devices long after their US-based manufacturers discontinue support for them, providing income to Canadian cloud companies and continued enjoyment for Canadian owners of these otherwise bricked gadgets.

Canada's gigantic auto-parts sector could clone the security chips that foreign auto manufacturers use to block the use of third party parts, and every Canadian could enjoy a steep discount every time they fix their cars. Every farmer could avail themselves of third party parts for their tractors, which they could install themselves, bypassing the $200 service call from a John Deere technician who does nothing more than look over the farmer's own repair and then types an unlock code into the tractor's console.

Every Canadian who prints out a shopping list or their kid's homework could use third party ink that sells for pennies per liter, rather than HP's official colored water that cost more than vintage Veuve Cliquot.

A Canadian e-waste dump generates five low-paid jobs per ton of waste, and that waste itself will poison the land and water for centuries to come. A circumvention-enabled Canadian repair sector could generate 150 skilled, high-paid community jobs that saves gadgets and the Earth, all while saving Canadians millions.

Canadians could enjoy the resliency that comes of having a domestic tech and repair sector, and could count on it through pandemics and Trumpian trade-war.

All of that and more could be ours, except for the cowardice and greed of Tony Clement and James Moore and the Harper Tories who voted C-11 into law in 2012.

Everything the "radical extremists" warned them of has come true. It's long past time Canadians tore up anticircumvention law and put the interests of the Canadian public and Canadian tech businesses ahead of the rent-seeking enshittification of American Big Tech.

Until we do that, we can keep on passing all the repair and interop laws we want, but each one will be hamstrung by Moore and Clement's "felony contempt of business model" law, and the contempt it showed for the Canadian people.

Image: JeffJ (modified) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tony_Clement_-_2007-06-30_in_Kearney,_Ontario.JPG

CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

--

Jorge Franganillo (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Duga_radar_system-_wreckage_of_electronic_devices_(37885984654).jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

[vaspider]

youve got a lot of really great thoughts on a transphobia and homophobia, tbh more critical thinking than most people on here, and i was wondering how much you knew about the theory of rapid onset gender dysphoria/if youd be comfortable sharing your thoughts on the ridiculous idea

It was explicitly invented by transphobes as a means of delegitimizing trans identity, and that invention was backed up by a "study" in which the person running the study never spoke to any trans people or to any professionals providing care for trans people, only spoke to the parents of trans minors, and those parents were specifically recruited from forums for anti-trans parents.

The paper which supposedly coined ROGD was taken down for a while and corrected. Further studies have found no basis for ROGD.

What's really interesting is in the cache of emails which became public earlier this year from a former detransitioner there's a paper trail which pretty clearly indicates that the term was actually created on a very heinous website called 4th/wave/now (forgive my anti-search slashes, these people are awful) well prior to the study.

Hey, you want to guess where the parents for this study were recruited from? If you guessed "the one where the term was invented," you're right!

But wait, there's more!

It appears from the journalistic work done by Mother Jones, Jude Doyle, and Julia Serano, that this term was created by an anti-trans activist who works extensively with right-wing think tanks and who went to great lengths to hide that she invented the term.

Jude Doyle:

Finding anti-trans narratives that would “sell” to the general public was a constant concern for this crowd, and Shupe says it didn’t much matter if the narratives were based in fact or not. Marchiano, for instance, eagerly watched the spread of the ROGD theory — “[transfeminist writer and researcher Julia] Serano has already written a takedown,” she exulted in one August 2018 email. Shupe suspects Marchiano’s role is larger than the public knows: “Marchiano never explicitly said she is the inventor of ROGD, but the evidence points to her, and she’s listed as a contributor to the [Lisa Littman] study on PLOS One,” she writes to me. “My ‘opinion’ is that Marchiano and the 4thWaveNow folks are behind the ROGD study, and Littman merely fronted it for them to make it appear unbiased.”

Jude Doyle again:

On July 2, Shupe sent Marchiano a link to Jones’ blog post telling her “you’ve upset Zinnia again.” (Shupe had a tendency to send Marchiano news of ROGD, and to attribute the theory to “you” — that is, to Marchiano — whether Marchiano was explicitly named or not. In the communications I’ve reviewed, Marchiano does not reject the attribution.) Marchiano responded by saying that Jones had done something to “make her nervous” — namely, she’d dug up a blog post about ROGD that Marchiano had written under her own name.

Julia Serano:

If all of this is true — that Marchiano ran YCTP and invented ROGD — then it would follow that Marchiano was also likely skepticaltherapist, the supposed parent of a trans child who invented the idea of “transgender social contagion” in the first place.

Julia Serano again:

Also on March 15, 2016, at 6:07am (so very early in the day, likely before the aforementioned YTCP piece is published), skepticaltherapist posts her final comment on 4thwavenow before mysteriously disappearing. In a reply to someone named Starrymessenger, skepticaltherapist says: 'I wanted to mention that this month’s Psychotherapy Networker is focusing on trans youth issues, and the tone of each article is uncritically celebratory — lots of mentions of “courage,” and “bravery.” You may need a subscription or at least an account to comment, but I have so far.'

At the time of this comment, "Lisa" is the *only* person to have posted a comment on this particular Psychotherapy Networker article, as the 2nd comment doesn't appear until later that evening (7:30:15 PM on March 15th; both 4thwavenow & Psychotherapy Networker appear to be based in the U.S., so the should be only a few hours apart, if at all). Therefore, "Lisa" and skepticaltherapist must be the same person.

Did you catch all of that?

This is a fraudulent "diagnosis" explicitly invented by an anti-trans psychologist who at times has used sockpuppets to manipulate online conversations, claimed at times to be the mother of a trans child, or maybe it was her friend who had the trans child, or maybe she just knew somebody who just randomly decided he was a trans boy after going on tumblr. (Boy, does Lisa Marchiano hate Tumblr, lol.)

After inventing this diagnosis and pushing it on a forum for parents who don't like that they have trans kids, Marchiano then approaches a different researcher and uses this other researcher to launder this term, launching it into the verbal stratosphere, while explicitly working with right-wing groups who used this "evidence" to manufacture anti-trans bills. This list of right-wing groups and individuals includes the Alliance Defending Freedom, the "American College of Pediatricians," -- not to be confused with the American Academy of Pediatrics, the legitimate organization, ACPeds is a fringe right-wing group.

They literally made all of this up, this idea that transmasculine people specifically are being "infected" by online sources, and then they laundered it through a shitty study and tried to hide the laundering they did, so that shit like this can happen:

The president of the American Principles Project, a member of the coalition, recently told the New York Times that his group’s goal is to eliminate all transition care, starting with children because that’s “where the consensus is.”

This isn't about protecting children or any bullshit like that, and it's not about this fallacious "disorder" because it doesn't exist -- and they know it doesn't exist. They know it doesn't exist because they were the ones who made it up.

Like... what else is there to say? It's like if I made up Purple Big Toe Disease and claimed that all people taller than 5'10" and born on a Tuesday have Purple Big Toe Disease and should not be able to buy aspirin, because it's G-d's plan that people who have Purple Big Toe Disease should not prevent themselves from feeling the pain that G-d has planned for them, and then I asked someone to write a paper about PBTD and pretend I wasn't the one who made it up so I could point at the paper and be like le gasp, PBTD is the number one problem! We need to stop everyone over 5'10" and born on a Tuesday from being able to buy aspirin! And then some dude in South Dakota starts writing up bills in consultation with a bunch of Evangelical lawyers to deny basic health care to people over 5'10" and born on Tuesdays.

If it sounds fucking ridiculous, it's because it is.

[putschki1969]

📢UPDATE📢"sprinter" LIVE AUDIO

Thank you to everyone who voted in my poll and left a comment in the reply section of my previous post on the matter. I was intrigued when @gslin sent me a link to this audio but I had no idea it would spark so much interest.

I received two very enlightening messages today that provided some substantial evidence. With the added information, I now feel confident that I can clarify the situation. This will hopefully clear up some of the confusion.

The first lovely follower (who would like to remain anonymous) sent me their personal recording of the live in question. They have been a fan for a very long time and got the chance to attend the concert back in 2008. First up, a big apology. I wish I could post the recording but they asked me not to share it so I will respect that. However, I've been given permission to talk about it so here's what I've been able to find out〈(•ˇ‿ˇ•)-→

Just in case you are wondering, there's no doubt in my mind that my follower's bootleg is legit. You can tell immediately that this was recorded from within the audience. There's clapping all around and the music is considerably louder than the vocals. You can still make out the song pretty well though. None of the voices sound off or out of place. It's blended together pretty well without losing the distinct vocal colours of the individual singers. Which is why I know that this can only be from the YKL Vol.#2 front act performance since you can clearly make out Maya during her "bokura ni dekiru koto wa tada" line and some other parts. From what we know, no other live performances of "sprinter" have featured Maya.

For the past hour or so, I've been listening to different versions of the song on repeat, mostly focusing on the YouTube audio and the newly acquired bootleg. While the bootleg is of admittedly quite low-quality, there are two things that very clearly set it apart from the version on YouTube. Those two obvious differences make it absolutely impossible for the recordings to be from the same live performance. And since we've already established that Maya was not present for any other "sprinter" performances, we can easily conclude that the YouTube audio is fake.

Difference #1: Absence of the infamous guitar riff. @octopusofpaint already mentioned this in the reply section of my original post. The YouTube audio has a pretty blunt opening whereas the bootleg recording starts with the guitar riff we are all so familiar with. It's hard to know how audios are cut/edited so I'd be willing to let this slide if it weren't for the next difference.

Difference #2: In the authentic bootleg recording of YKL Vol.#2, one of the final lines, "naite sakende kiete yuku bokura wa", is sung by no other than (!!)Keiko(!!). That is very surprising since it is usually not one of her lines. Look up any random official live performance of "sprinter", starting as early as 2009 on the NHK program Pop Up Japan, you'll absolutely never hear Keiko sing that line. You know who has always been in charge of it since becoming a three-person-unit? Wakana!! Now let's listen closely to the YouTube audio again, shall we? Whose voice do we hear? I'm giving you a hint! It's not Keiko's! But it's not Wakana's either!! Surprise, surprise, it's Hikaru's!! And do you know where Hikaru sings this line? Only in the studio version (and most recently during Kalafina covers at YKL but with a notably different voice so I won't take that into account here). And you know what else is very specific to the studio version? The lyrical cold open without a guitar riff. This leads me to believe that the studio version was almost certainly one of the main sources for this awkward mash-up on YouTube.

Now onto the second message I received today. This time from my lovely follower @concretebadger. Thank you so much! Many of you speculated that the 2010 live performance might have served as an inspiration for this supposed "unreleased" audio track. And I think you were not wrong about this. While I do believe that the studio version might have been the "main" source, I do think that the creator needed to add something else to make it sound more like a live performance. This is where the 2010 Red Moon version comes in. @concretebadger actually took the time to mash up the two tracks for a comparison and the result makes it quite clear that the two audios are eerily similar. Check it out for yourself〈(•ˇ‿ˇ•)-→

If you use the studio version and Red Moon live version as base layers and then add a few tweaks here and there to distort certain sections in order to make them appear more raw and unedited, you basically end up with that mysterious track that's currently floating around on YouTube. The previously mentioned line "naite sakende kiete yuku bokura wa" might actually be a good example for the layering/mashup of those two sources. While you can definitely identify Hikaru's vocals during that part in the YouTube audio (indicating the usage of the studio version as base), there seems to be a slightly different texture to her voice that makes it sound almost ethereal. This is most likely due to Wakana's singing of the line being added to the mix. It's very subtle and Hikaru's vocals are certainly more prominent but it's worth mentioning.

Anyway. Mystery solved. At least for me. Maybe you still have some thoughts on it. Feel free to share them below.

[opinated-user]

I feel like it's time to shine a light on MOs immigration again:

For the uninitiated: November 2022 is when LO asked her fans to donate money for this process. December 2023 is when one fan finally asked what happened to the money (they gave a good amount) and LO claimed they had at this point submitted all the necessary paperwork and are in the background stage. It is Now September 2024.

All the following information is taken directly from the official Canadian government page:

1. During the pandemic average waiting times spousal immigration was around 12 months, it has since gone down to ten. MOs immigration therefore should be going through within the year.

2. Once you've submitted your paperwork you are eligible to apply for a working visa, that is easier and quicker to get than normal if you link it to your immigration, and move to and work in Canada. This will also show the authorities that you are willing and able to support yourself in your new home, thus have a positive impact on your process.

While we don't know MOs circumstances, she very clearly loves LO and wants to be with her + her living conditions in the US are very bad. So I'd assume she'd want to move asap.

The fact that no further updates have been given to fans who gave them money is already suspicious. Best case scenario these two are not very good at navigating government sites, worst case scenario LO is stringing her along and pocketed the money raised. Also LO claims to have a lawyer on standby, who she could then theoretically consult about any questions about the process. Weird all that.

(while I do not necessarily think moving in with LO would be good for MO, I even more do not want her hopes and dreams crushed)

actually, that is not all. it's my belief that LO not only does not have any intention of moving MO with her, she also has already misused the money that she gained from her followers for her own gain without any disclosure.

in that post i showed, with evidence that i gathered myself and LO herself provided, that is highly likely that LO spend the money from that fundraising on a desk. not only that, at the same time that LO was bragging about getting this new desk (two days after making that fundraising, then lying about it), she was also talking about getting a another desk, a more expensive one, for MO. a desk that only LO would end up using because, again, they don't live together. all of this we were talking about at the start of this year and nothing has changed.

for the record, if LO had just said openly "guys, i need urgently a new desk, i need to use this money", nobody would have a problem with it. if LO had done a fundraising for a new desk in the first place, nobody would care. streamers and youtubers ask donations from their fanbase to get new equipment all the time, that is normal. the lack of transparency is the issue here.

the issue is that LO over two years now promised, both to her audience and to MO, that she'd be working on the immigration process. she used other people's money in order to do that. they deserve to know what happened to that money.

[lymooniee]

Why I hc Shadow as autistic:

Just gonna preface this before I begin, this is all for fun and is a headcanon of mine. Your headcanons may be different to mine and that's valid too! Any grammar mistakes uh- ignore because I'm too lazy to edit this like crazy.

I will also link the video I made of all the moments, too, since it is way too long to post it on here. Keep in mind that not every moment is in the video, but like 95 percent of it is.

Shadow for me has always shown plenty of signs of being autistic, I'll provide as much evidence as I possibly can while doing my best to try and keep this at a reasonable length.

Shadow has always been the silent type of character when he is written correctly or, in other words, whenever Shiro Maekawa was involved with his writing in SA2, heroes and 06. Currently Prime too has done his character justice. I have to state this because I feel this is the best possible way of actually understanding Shadow as a character, so I'll mainly be touching his good characterizations and then some from his own game (not a lot however). He was silent, lonely, calm and often was in his head more than outwardly speaking out. I believe many autistic people like myself, connected to this side of him. Facing with so many adversities because of our differences from others, we become shut in and lonely too, since most autistic people don't feel as if they fit in. You can easily argue this is because of his ptsd from losing Maria, but I'd like to challenge the idea that it can easily be both and his ptsd enhances his traits.

I'll first begin with SA2, Shadow's first scene with eggman to me is quite hilarious if you put a different lens on it, the way he stand there ignoring Eggmans questions and then quickly demands Eggman to abide his rules. It puts Eggman into shock, but I think you could tie these moments that Shadow has as an autistic trait of his. Social cues are quite difficult for a lot of autistic people, and having no filter adds into this difficulty. The way Shadow ignores Eggmans questions to quickly ask him to do what he wants instead really emphasizes this point I made.

I love how he remains calm too, he doesn't yell this at Eggman and instead walks away casually and confidently. It's always been one of my most favourite moments with him. It really does make him stand out as he was able to influence Eggman to follow his wishes. If we want to talk about when he gets introduced to Sonic, I find this moment also again pretty funny in an endearing way when you put in this perspective. Sonic running to him asking Shadow to say something to speak, as Shadow stares at Sonic with silence. He's once again in his head more so than externally present, he also may be struggling to craft up a response or is at a lost with why Sonic is desperate for an answer. Conversations or socially interacting with people is challenging for most autistic people for a plethora of reasons so anything can really explain why Shadow here wasn't responding.

I've also found some of his moments when thinking of Maria (two specific moments being when Amy encourages him to help fight and the other being before Rouge approaches him to ask why he saved her), these moments he's very in tuned with his thoughts. After realizing his true promise with Maria he is in his head not responding right away to Amy, he sheds a tear and runs quickly to help and exclaims how he has to go now to keep that promise. This confuses Amy, however she doesn't stop Shadow or anything. When Rouge approaches Shadow and saying it was unexpected and unlike him to save her, he answers by saying that he didn't go to save her and was doing it for the chaos emeralds. She clearly catches on that this isn't the entire truth, this moment to me is harder to explain. But I think it's because of how he struggles to express his true intentions and feelings in the matter, similar to the Amy one before because he doesnt understand his own empathy.

Now one of if not the most obvious moments in SA2 is when Amy mistakes Shadow for Sonic, he slowly turns to look at her. Doesn't say a word or anything the entire time, and just continues to stare at her. I always loved this moment. I feel this one just speaks for itself lmao.

Now moving onto Sonic 06 moments (sorry there's not a lot in heroes tbh. There is a lot in Sonic X/Prime, Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, and the Twitter takeovers though!) Sonic 06 main one points out how he is going to discover himself and make his own path. I've always loved this about him as a character, he's not there for anybody but himself, he knows he is different. He will embrace this about himself and not let others try to make up what he has to be. Other subtle traits in 06 are also ways in which he responds to those around him, head nods or simple "yes" responses. Again, it's his way of expressing himself in conversation that really hints at his struggles for social cues. I also adore when Rouge asks him a question and he once again demands for something, and she is like "ok cool, but you didn't answer my question?" Moments like that not only add a lot of charm to him, but something I really connected too because I do this all the time without realizing it. I think partially it's because I get stuck with my own thoughts and those questions I feel I've already got it answered for myself so it's prolly similar where that realization that you may know the answer already, but the other doesn't just doesn't click together sometimes. It could also be because he needs to get out what he needs right away to feel a sense of stability.

Sonic x just has a lot of funny moments that really make his character shine, when he crashes the plane with Espio, Vector and Charmy. He doesn't use his words and instead guides it down forcefully, I similarly do stuff like this where I struggle to express what I need or have to do so I usually just do it without saying it. This happens often when people are in the way of something I have to get to. Like if I have to throw out something for example. I also love that when Espio asks why Shadow didn't just ask, Shadow responds by saying he needs to go find Dark Oak and then just crashes straight into the wall. He really just has such a difficult time expressing exactly why he needs to do things lmao. I also love how he has a challenging time understanding instructions. Eggman asks him to do something and because to Shadow they didn't feel clear, he asks more than once for confirmation. Or when he gives the silent treatment to Rouge and she teases him about it, he just walks away without a word. Now this isn't only applied to Sonic X but Shadow has a really REALLY REAAAALLLY difficult time finding the true intentions of people, Sonic X he gets upset at Rouge and Chris for calling him out on trusting Eggman. He gets defensive and argues back at them saying that Eggman is worthy of trusting because he knows the most about him. It's all he has even though Eggman has been evidenced of tricking others around him. There's countless of other times where Shadow struggles with this, like basically every moment in his own game where he blindly trusts Black Doom. One other moment too I can't exactly remember which game it was, but Rouge was clearly lying and goes "you can trust me! really!!" And he does and then tells her absolutely everything that she wanted to hear.

Sonic prime moments are a lot less, but I do feel his way of just remaining very inwardly or to himself about things can once again be his difficulty in trusting. The way he also overanalyzes a lot of things around him as well. I also just love certain scenes like, "they're air shoes" or "hardly, I'm the ultimate lifeform" because he is blunt and took it quite literally. As he usually does in Prime, where he takes things quite seriously in general. I also feel because sonic is very VERY adhd coded in prime, it really does emphasize the contrast between the two of how someone with autism may interact with someone with adhd. In the most recent episode, he once again finds it difficult to express his protectiveness and plays it off. Or when he does compliment Sonic, he just glares at him when Sonic somewhat jokes around because it felt out of character for Shadow to do that. Even though Shadow was just being blunt about his thoughts and had a moment where he does express properly, but then his glare somewhat shows once again how he has a difficult time crafting up responses lmao.

Some more stuff but more miscellaneous, the Twitter takeovers is funny but it depends on if we want to take it as canon. He loves dry foods, adores kittens to the point he wants an orphanage (connection to animals on a deeper level), he has an organized bedtime routine, and yeah that's basically all the ones I can think of atm. These are quite explanatory I feel. Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog shows he has empathy but struggles to show it similar to basically every other moment I've described, but also just love that he can't handle computers I think that's so funny idk why. I can't even describe how it's an autistic moment for him it just feels like it. He stims with his quills a lot as well, which ugh I adore so so so much.

A lot of these things I've expressed about Shadow come from just from me loving him but also being able to see myself in him as well. I'm happy that Prime is bringing back his character to what it was, I think so many people love Shadow in the fandom simply because of how much they relate to him. He's such great representation despite it not being canon, because of how easily those can see themselves in him. I really do love Shadow and I know this is super long so if you read this, thank you and I hope you enjoyed it.

Have a cute photo of him as a reward ♡

[waitmyturtles]

I decided to wait until I caught both episodes of Spare Me Your Mercy (episodes 6 and 7) this week to offer my thoughts. @clairedaring has been on that button with the (spoiler alerts!) updates between the show and the original Euthanasia novel series, and these posts have provided so much needed context for me to understand how this show was constructed.

@my-rose-tinted-glasses (I'M SORRY, ROSE, I can't find a link at the moment to your tags on this) has posited that there is an editing issue with the show, which I FULLY agree with. The scenes and the dialogue, at this point in the series, are making big jumps to move the story along, when we need more time spent on building more emotion between Kan and Tew. At this point, like others (nice to meet you, @shima-shimmer!) I am still in the guessing stage about where these two are in their situationship (can I call it a relationship yet?!). I don't know what their actions mean between each other, from sharing the bed and alternating among glaring/staring/rifling though things/snuggy-wuggy?, to wanting a smooch on a cheek and getting a tiny tap instead. Where was the build, where was the journey, where were the very obvious conversations that a drama needs to establish a consensual relationship? Not in Wiang Singh, y'all.

But besides that -- I actually think the mystery itself has gone a little haywire, too. I do think the set-up of Boss ended in a way that wrapped his storyline up fine. But it ended up not being terribly bombastic or revealing? He was clearly a very fucked up young man who did very, very bad things.

It was the whole sending-Orn-into-Boss's-house that really threw me. Tew -- you're a COP. (ACAB.) SEND AN EXPERT IDIOT TO GATHER ILLEGALLY-OBTAINED EVIDENCE. How could he sign off on this? To send Orn to almost-certain danger? Like? And Kan is all like, omg we need to check on her, and these two dudes are just in a pretty living room, on their phones like, omggggg what's happeninggg. Y'all actually sent a NURSE to be a COP, what?

We have one episode left to unwind a lot of shit. Something's up with my favorite creepy forensic pathologist. (Clown theory: she's the daughter of Kan's mentor who Kan euthanized.)

And, oh yeah -- KAN, YOU NEED TO TALK WITH TEW. Instead of SHOOTING the guy who was gonna NARC on you, KAN, maybe you could just, you know, HAVE A CONVO WITH TEW about your past deeds! I am waiting with BAITED. BREATH. (/snark) about how this show is going to convince me that Tew should remain with Kan vis à vis Kan's very, very morally gray ass.

At this point, I would much rather ship Tor and JJ in real life, and I hate real-life shipping, I hate it. But my hopes were high to see these two dudes kill a script, and the script killed them instead. I'm hanging on to the end, because Kan needs to get some sort of punishment from Tew. And if that doesn't happen? I'd at least like to know how the show will attempt to save itself.

[dreambeloved]

you don't think that the snaps were sent to someone else? he's said on his twitter that he had relations with someone over age back in 2020, from where I'm standing it looks very much like that person was possibly nat, who has admitted recently that she's been in contact with the people behind the burner.

not to mention that the evidence of the alleged exchanges between dream and the victim are images of screenshots of screenshots of a video of someones phone.

I just think it's way too soon to go throwing everything away, he hasn't even released his video yet!

much love and i hope you're ok <3.

There are over 50 asks in my inbox right now, but this one is actually worded kindly, so I’ll answer. Believe what you want of course, I’m not here to harass people into seeing things the way I see them, but just an explanation on the way I view it.

It’s very clear to me that he lied about who he sent those snaps to when everything is put together. At first, I wanted to attribute it to just forgetting who they were sent to, or mixing people up- but the way he went about proving that lie is what makes it obvious that this isn’t some mix-up.

To start, I want to point out that both the burner account and Nat (who Dream says is the actual recipient of those snaps) have denied Nat’s involvement with the burner beyond sharing the “chia seeds” discord screenshots. She also provided proof (linked here) that she hasn’t been in contact with him on snap since 2019. (burner account confirmation linked here).

Now, when he provided proof of Nat being the recipient, he provided this screenshot (seen below on the left). It should be noted that the “Sam” in discussion was a mutual between them both on Twitter, and not his ex, like some think. In the screenshot Nat provided (seen below on the right), there are voice memos that were either edited out or deleted before Dream posted them. Nat also provided videos (linked here) to show that the messages are authentic.

Okay I’m going off on a tangent here. I don’t have the energy to go through every little piece, so for now, here’s my conclusion for the Nat thing. To me at least, it very clearly isn’t her. But if the actual recipient of those videos wasn’t someone that shouldn’t have been sent them in the first place, why go to such lengths to claim so? Why go through all the trouble of bringing in someone completely uninvolved if there was nothing wrong with it in the first place? Even as a stan, I could admit that he has a thing about lying at first when he’s in the wrong, so all this just feels like the final nail.

Now, even if this was just some elaborate set-up to get him cancelled, I still find it really uncomfortable and strange that he sent something like that to a fan anyways? I feel like a lot of people forget the whole power imbalance aspect when it comes to youtubers with their fans. The fact that he has so many intimate relationships with stans/fans strikes me as weird whether they’re legal or not.

That’s all I have for now, at least on the “could be Nat” situation. There are a Lot of asks and messages that I don’t have the energy to go through, so I’ll probably make a final post and then never look in my notifs again.

[intersexcat-tboy]

I don't feel like responding to your entire reblog and also I'm blocking you but CVI is NOT visual processing disorder

Context (link)

Sources will be at the bottom after disturbing arguments are addressed.

I'm going to respond to this assuming there is a missing "a", as I never said CVI is VPD, I said it's a type. That's probably clear but I'll make it crystal

Could you clarify any particular reason as to why you believe you are the arbiter whose opinion should be regarded above all else? I welcome the opportunity to be educated and proven wrong, but you have yet to support your original claim and still fail to provide any evidence regarding this one.

Saying a disabled individual knows nothing about the condition they literally have? Wow. Just wow.

You previously called someone obsessed and implied they were stupid for reblogging with a response and leaving a comment on your post. If that's considered obsession, what would you call yourself, who has subblogged someone after you left an ask saying you've blocked them?

And then I find this?

Are you actually fucking kidding me? I can't believe I fell for someone's obviously bad faith bullshit as you clearly believe that those who have disabilities understanding senses have sensory disabilities. How is sensory processing disorder NOT a sensory disability when you blatantly include one of the manifestations???

I find it notable you did not respond to stitchieau-the-actual-one or trashiesttrashboy’s points like this, instead, you opted to fabricate a quote as a personal attack to mock Stitch as if they had said “I'm as dumb as rocks”, when one could've easily pointed out how dyspraxia is a form of SPD, not the other way around.

Very interesting, it seems your motivation for blocking could very well stem from the desire for the inherent concealment of concerns about misinformation and bigoted biases, particularly after having sanism and hindrance to disability activism pointed out. Funny how the sanist comments suddenly disappeared after I mentioned them, shame I didn't screenshot it.

You "don't feel like" responding to my (or any respondent, really) reblog because you HAVE nothing to respond with.

SOURCES N SHIT

I wasn't just saying it for the hell of it.

The Child Neurology Foundation (link) describes CVI as visual processing disorder. The American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology & Strabismus (link) explains that in CVI, "the message is not properly processed or integrated".

The Pediatric Cortical Visual Impairment Society (link) notes that "CVI is a problem with the visual processing centers and visual pathways of the brain, not the eye." They continue on another page (link), "the eyes can see, but the brain can't interpret the visual world.” Perkins (link) says it is "caused by damage to the brain’s visual pathways or visual processing areas," and that "the brain has trouble processing what the eyes can see".

The Eye & Ear Foundation of Pittsburgh (link) states "it can involve any visual processing part of the brain," and that it "affects the visual processing centers in the brain". The National Eye Institute (link) drafted a definition in a workshop sponsored by NIH, defining CVl as "a spectrum of visual impairments caused by an underlying structural and/or functional brain abnormality that affects the development of visual function and processing'":

This PubMed article (link) states that “[the] broad consensus definition embraces the wide range of damage or dysfunction of the neural pathways, centers and networks involved in visual information processing," highlighting how this particularly impacts the visual brain areas “involved in integration, identification, analysis and interpretation of […] visual information […]." Given this complexity, it follows that “disturbance of any element of these complex mental visual processes can occur in a range of patterns of CVI", including "impaired processing of visual details", showcasing how "cortical or cerebral visual impairment can interfere with any or all aspects of visual processing."

Another study (link) mentions that "an important aspect of CVI are visual processing dysfunctions (VPD)" processing dysfunction is synonymous with processing disorder.

A different study (link) notes "CVI can be characterized as a condition of 'dorsal stream dysfunction' and represents the most common type of visual processing impairment observed in children with this condition.”

Boston children's hospital (link) lists autism as a confusing diagnostic entity, probably because dorsal stream function were significantly associated (link) with autistic traits.

This study (link) calls CVI a "visual processing disorder"

The only argument I can possibly interpret to be made in good faith would be pointing out how cerebral is different from cortical, which is not what you've done. It isn't a strong argument anyways, as cerebral is often substituted for or used interchangeably with cortical "to more globally encompass these higher order visual processing deficits and their presumed association with damaged areas of the visual processing pathway".

That study (link) continues by explaining how “a practical and useful conceptual framework in characterizing observed deficits in CVI is to incorporate the two-stream hypothesis of visual processing". Within this framework, “impairment of dorsal visual stream processing would impact upon an individual’s ability to process and interact with complex visual scenes […]". This concept is supported by recent studies investigating “individual pathways implicated in the processing of visual information between cortical areas of the brain with the aim of establishing a possible association between the structural integrity of these pathways and visual dysfunction in CVI.” Those studies reveal that “the observed reductions in the structural integrity associated with the key extra geniculostriate visual pathways implicated in visual processing help provide for a neuroanatomical basis for the visual dysfunctions observed in individuals with CVI”

CVI Scotland (link) has discussed a paper titled "Central Auditory Processing Disorder: The Hearing Equivalent of CVI".

Again, I welcome being wrong! I love being educated (: but you have given absolutely 0 indicator that this is anything more than your personal opinion sneered out of frustrations taken out on fellow disabled individuals (oh that's right, you just think they have issues)

[eeveecraft]

Hihi! I saw this post in the syscourse tag and was wondering if u had seen it?

https://www.tumblr.com/kipandkandicore/723924087333879808/alright-so-we-feel-like-we-need-to-respond-to

The post says u blocked that user. I wanted to make sure u knew about this in case you didnt since its about your essay and all

Well, you can probably understand why I have them blocked. I was initially planning to reply to it, but I decided against it because I really don't want to give it attention.

Like, oh my god, that post is atrocious. Nearly every goddamn sentence they typed (out of 2.6k WORDS) is twisted or just false. All it did was really highlight how horribly ignorant this system is of not only our community (seriously, they say they've been in the Tulpamancy community for a year and has a spouse who has a tulpa, but then clearly state misinformation like "Tulpamancy" or "Tulpamancer" being used with the paranormal definition of "tulpa" when both of those terms were made in the community and are exclusively used by the community), but also just Buddhism in general.

For context: that system is white and clearly suffers from white savior complex, it isn't even funny. They go on tirades about uplifting POC, but then are the ones to make Google Docs, make these harmful posts, and legitimately harm people with them (some of which definitely include POC). They tried to group all Asians into one homogeneous group that can dictate each other's culture (which is so goddamn racist, what the hell) and when they were called out on it, they backpedaled and then swapped to lumping all Asian *Buddhists* into one group that can have say over all of Buddhism. They have this habit of stripping the nuance from things like religion and race, and in my opinion, that is far more harmful than us using "tulpa."

And like every single system who tries to say us using "tulpa" has caused harm, they provide zero actual examples of "tulpa" specifically causing harm to Tibetan Buddhists. Yeah, they linked articles to other aspects of Tibetan Buddhism being appropriated and how those specific instances are harmful, but I'm gonna say this for the umpteenth time: tulpa was DERIVED from Tibetan language, not directly ripped. Tulpa as a word literally does not exist in Tibetan and if you tried saying it to a Tibetan person, they're going to look at you funny.

Every single time any of us has asked for any specific instance of "tulpa" being used by the Tulpamancy community causing harm to actual Tibetan Buddhists, these people can't provide any because there is no harm. They just can't admit it.

And again, though they can't cite any harm besides the word annoying them, we can cite multiple instances of harm being done to the community and others because of posts made by this system, Amanitasys, and more.

Such as: The harassment we faced before. Sophie being told to end it because she uses tulpa (and literally is one).

The post you linked labeling us as racist, @cambriancrew as ableist, and @sophieinwonderland as a "proud racist."

Posts like these flooding the #tulpa tag.

And more! We have literally been told in Discord servers that people want to drop tulpa, not because they agree that it's appropriative and/or racist, but because they're tired of arguing/getting harassed.

That sounds like a harassment campaign, NOT a good-faith discussion on a term that DOES have a murky history of both good and bad.

Oh, can't forget how they called me racist because I supposedly "promot[e] incredibly racist ideas," and they provide ZERO evidence for this besides me saying tulpa isn't an inherently racist word. While also simultaneously going (paraphrasing), "Well, we don't condone harassment, buuuut we can see why because Eeveecraft is racist." Please tell me I'm not the only one who realizes what's being implied there.

Overall, that post is, quite frankly awful in every sense of the word and it really highlights why "tulpa = appropriation" is very often not made in good faith. I don't even encourage replying to it and slam-dunking it into the ground like it deserves because all that does is give it more attention and visibility. Though obviously, I can't stop people from doing so, even if I don't condone it. EDIT: I also want to add that this system says that the majority of systems who say "tulpa = appropriation" are pro-endogenic, but then posts like this exist that just blatantly disprove that.

And in that same post, you can see what many users on r/Buddhism think about Tulpamancy and most of them are either neutral/fine with it. Who woulda thunk it?

7-27-2023

[bullshit-tqia]

As known for over a decade, one of B.S’ tactics for getting away with harassment of marginalized people is by deleting any tweets/messages that clearly show her abusive behavior.

Instructions on how to submit evidence of bigoted behavior:

I do not accept submitted posts, to protect the identities of those who were targeted.

For single screenshots, you can DM me the screenshot. I will need context provided for the screenshot if it is the only thing you have. For this reason, multiple screenshots are preferred.

For several screenshots, please upload them to google drive or mega. Please name each file to indicate the order that the screenshots are in. You can then DM me the link to the google drive or mega folder.

I cannot ensure that your submission will be posted.

I will be vetting the screenshots you send to me. I will not tell you that your screenshots have been determined to be insufficient evidence. This is to protect my sanity and to not waste my time.

To ensure your submissions will be approved, check to make sure you follow BOTH of the guidelines below:

1. Is Benjanun clearly involved?

You can submit posts from her friends, but you MUST prove that Benjanun is in support of said statement through evidence of her liking the post and/or agreeing with what is said, OR she is present in the thread. This shows that her general community of people are not safe for POC/trans women who disagree/trans men.

2. Is what is said severe enough?

Benjanun or her friends calling you a moron is not sufficient evidence for her bigotry. If it is her simply calling you a moron, you MUST prove that it is bigoted. It is bigoted when she is calling you that DIRECTLY AFTER you describing an aspect of your identity, or anything along those lines. Her saying that your argument is stupid is not sufficient evidence. There is a chance that your argument is stupid. I will be determining this. But do not worry, I am VERY educated on social justice issues.

3. If you are not sure that no.1 & no.2 applies, DM me.

You can DM me on this account, or you can DM me on Twitter. Whichever is easiest for you.

My links:

Twitter

My main tumblr blog

My discord is: senxen

Archive

click on the text to open the links above.

[iviarellereads]

System Collapse, Chapter 6

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Murderbot Diaries, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

In which 57 sources of anxiety sounds low, actually.

The team is not happy. Iris records another briefing, even though it's early for a check-in, and Murderbot hopes that this and the other pathfinder return soon with some insight from the rest of the team, but only counts on it as a way to let them know what happened if the B-Es attack them. Threat assessment puts the chance of a B-E attack low, but mostly because these three and MB aren't much of a threat to at-least-5 and another SecUnit.

And oh, that SecUnit is causing some discussions among the team. MB has to explain that it can't just go around freeing every SecUnit willy nilly, and besides that, a freed SecUnit doesn't instantly become trustworthy. A freed unit might need to be killed anyway, if it goes rogue and attacks the humans. Tarik seems to understand. Ratthi definitely doesn't, but acknowledges that MB is the expert on the matter, and he doesn't want to press it into something it doesn't think is safe. MB appreciates that about Ratthi.

After all that, MB and AC2 arrange a secure connection for Iris and Trinh, the primary "operator" for AC2. Trinh is a little unnerved at a second group of strangers making contact so soon after B-E. MB figures it'd be pretty freaked out at that, too. Iris explains the situation, and Trinh observes that she's saying the same thing B-E did: that she's here to help. MB groans mentally that the colonists have no reason to trust them.(1)

Tarik, Ratthi, and Art-drone strategize on the shuttle, and a lot of time is spent on the potential arguments to be made, and what the colonists might and are likely to know from their sporadic contact and, potentially, spying via AC2's connection to AC1.

On the plus side, AC2 gave MB the location of the B-E shuttle, and the best route to it without alerting them. So, it takes the opportunity to go scout it out. MB grumbles about the lack of cameras in the last section of the path AC2 directs it to, as well as none outside. Preparedness is everything, dangit!(2) Meanwhile, Art-drone has taken a defensive position just inside the hangar.

MB takes some comfort that the colonists might not trust them, but AC2 trusts it. Mostly, computer systems trust easily if you keep things simple and don't try to provoke their boundaries. AC2 wants to protect its humans, and MB has so far showed no sign of wanting to harm them.

So, it provides the team with the video feed where the B-Es are still talking to most of the humans. There's no audio, but Art-drone is interpreting from mouth and facial movements, and they probably understand more than the B-Es do since Thiago's translation module is "clearly better". AC2 vouching for MB won't win over any humans, though. Sometimes not even solid evidence can convince them.

AC2 asks MB why the B-E SecUnit refused a connection request. MB thinks that's a good thing, since normal SecUnits can't hack, only CombatUnits.(3) MB is pretty sure this one's a normal SecUnit, since its armour is very similar to Three's. So, it has to explain to AC2 that it's under the control of a governor module. It doesn't have an answer for AC2's subsequent why (is this allowed)?

By now, MB has made it to the other hangar, where the B-Es landed. It wonders how the B-Es knew to look here particularly. Earlier, Iris asked Art-drone if the B-Es could have followed them in, but Art-drone came to the conclusion that they arrived at least a day earlier, from some gap in Art-prime's pathfinder scanning. Art-drone is miffed enough that it expects Art-prime will be furious.

Still, back in the present, MB realizes it's drifted off again, and Ratthi brings it back to task by noticing a second door. AC2 sends MB a rough map of the installation, and MB shares it with the humans. With nothing better to do, MB decides to stand there and hang out on purpose.

The wind outside gets stronger, screaming through the hangar's crevices. Art-drone says pathfinders confirm the weather is getting worse and it may lose contact with them. AC2 confirms, that matches its weather station data.

MB pulls up some Sanctuary Moon, not wanting to distract Art-drone with something new. After a couple of minutes, AC2 asks what MB is doing. MB explains watching media, and AC2 offers its entertainment partition, and MB has hit a goldmine, though some of the titles don't match words in its language modules. When Art-drone notices, it says these are pre-CR media.

The scene flips(4) over to the now-unredacted incident again, and MB says it's fairly sure the corpse never chewed on its leg, but it's even more sure it saw that happen to a human at some point on a survey mission. It told Art that it (MB) had fucked everything up and that Art and its humans shouldn't want it to do security for them anymore. Art asks why, and MB says something is broken inside it.

Art points out that its wormhole drive is broken. MB says that's fixable, and knows it was a mistake to say so since it really doesn't know all of what happened to Art from Art's point of view, but continues that its flaw is in its organic neural tissue. Art points out that this is how the humans diagnosed it so quickly, and asks if they're disposable when it happens to them. MB grumbles that that's what corporations say. Art says it's not a corpo.

MB tells Art to stop, that this isn't it talking, just its… Art finishes the thought MB trails out of: its certification in trauma protocol, which is obviously useless in this situation. MB says it's for humans, and Art points out that this affects MB's human bits. MB says it's not talking to Art anymore.(5)

The first thought MB has is that it should trade all its media for all AC2's. The second is that its humans aren't going to be staying much longer, whether they go with Art or B-E. At least the situation sucking so bad is a great distraction for how much MB feels it sucks, it thinks, just before realizing it missed something in its distraction.

Trinh invites the team to spend the night in the installation, since the weather is worsening. Iris asks MB if they should, and despite the threat of the B-Es, MB agrees. Art-drone thanks it, and MB knows it's not the only one that was imagining the other SecUnit sneaking up on the shuttle.

Trinh sends them directions, which they don't need with AC2's map, but that put them at the opposite end from the accommodations the B-Es were given. It's a nice gesture, even if it's only a twenty minute walk apart.(6) MB sneaks back through the back corridors to meet up with the others. MB does its best to act like the others, even to folding its hood and helmet back. It's not sure what AC2 has told the colonists about it, and it doesn't want to ask, in case it hadn't told them about MB and this causes it to. MB knows it can't stay a secret, but it wants less interaction with them if possible.

Flash to a clip of it telling Mensah it doesn't know what's wrong with itself, and Mensah saying she thinks it knows, and just doesn't want to talk about it yet.(7)

In the present and in the team feed, to prevent eavesdropping by B-E, Iris says so far, Trinh has rejected B-E's requests to speak to the whole colony. They're only allowing them the smaller group. Ratthi worries what kind of employment pitch they might make, and Tarik says they'll be real good at dressing it up, and this group might be more vulnerable to their manipulation.

Iris says the group seems pretty independent, she thinks the chance of them falling for it is low, but it might not even be in their best interest to leave with the others. If they can forge the charter right, they'd have the right to choose to stay or go as they please. Ratthi adds that it would be even easier if the University comes to study the contamination, offering a means of transport out later as needed. Tarik is about as optimistic about this as MB, which is to say, not very.

MB notices that they all look really tired, and kicks itself as it asks Art-drone how long it's been since they slept. It replies that they were supposed to take naps on the flight in, but nobody could rest. MB feels like it fucked up again, but Art-drone offers that they both fucked this one up.

AC2 notifies them that there's a human approaching, as they near their assigned quarters. Ratthi asks in the team feed if this is a sign of trust, on the system's part. Iris asks Art-drone if that's possible, and it reminds her that they've discussed anthropomorphizing machine intelligence before. Ratthi asks what Art-drone considers human characteristics in this way, and Tarik begs them not to start. There's some lighthearted teasing of Tarik by Art, and Iris laughingly says she's sorry she asked.

The human doesn't have a feed ID, but AC2 supplies a name of Lucia and he/him pronouns when MB asks, since it knows the humans will want to know. Iris thanks him for inviting them in, and he nervously says she's welcome and walks them to the rooms, showing them the facilities. Iris tries to initiate three different conversations, to no avail. The team all worries B-E poisoned the well already.

Iris goes to lay on one of the beds in the other room, while Ratthi and Tarik stay in the first room to talk about what's going on between them. MB is stuck in the doorway between the rooms, monitoring everything in case of attacks. It recalls overhearing a heated discussion on Art after the incident, and learning that it was Ratthi and Tarik having a "sexual discussion". Apparently, this felt like the right time to talk again. MB backburners their audio except for a keyword filter in case they yell for help, plays a nice nothing loop of sound, and stares at the wall.(8)

The humans do, eventually, manage to get some sleep. Art-drone gets MB to watch an episode of World Hoppers. MB thinks about how it has fifty seven unique causes of concern or anxiety, and it can do nothing about any of them. That goes up to fifty eight when Trinh calls to ask for an in-person meeting with them and B-E.

=====

(1) Trust the process. (2) There are reasonable limits, it's true. Being prepared beyond a certain point is just feeding your own paranoia. Just look at all the right-wing "preppers" who keep expecting the apocalypse. But, a certain amount of preparation and expecting the worst can keep you safe in an emergency. Never installing cameras in a whole section of your installation or at the exits is absolutely an error in judgement on some level. (3) I'm sure it means hack something this complex, but… Murderbot, you hack literally all the time. Are you secretly a CombatUnit? (4) It's not lost on me that, now that we know what the redacted incident was, it feels like more pre-CR talk means more flashback and MB being more distracted in the present. (5) If that lasted 5 minutes I'll do something improbable. (6) I dunno, see, this is one of those things where MB is programmed to go past what I think are reasonably pessimistic expectations of danger. It's understandable, this is what it was literally built for, but situationally speaking, I think it's a bit excessive. Nobody wants to make a bad impression on the colonists, if nothing else. (7) Why this conversation? Why now? Why here, right after being worried about the colonists figuring out what it is? (8) Personally, I want all the juicy details, but I can't blame MB for its lack of interest.

[torreshalstead]

all of it

Summary - She was finally back in his arms, arms that provided her the comfort they always had. It had taken them a long time to get here, but they had made it.

Post 10x17 morning after fic.

Notes: Rated T - AO3 Link

The first time was frenzied, hands roaming over any piece of bare skin they could find. His beard scratched her neck as he littered it with open mouth kisses, all the while his hands worked to remove himself of his last items of clothes, and rid her of hers. It was fast, it was messy, but it was honest. The pair had spent so much time apart that in the act of coming together now, neither wanted to waste a second. And any inch of their bodies that were not connecting, felt like a waste.

The second time was gentle, slow, filled with whispers of love, of thanks, of care. Adam had stopped to press kisses to the newest additions to Kim’s scar collection, looking up at her under his eyelashes as he did so, the love evident in his eyes. She fell apart in his arms, holding on as tightly as she could, fingers clawing at his back, heels locked around his hips. They stayed joined together afterwards, her face tucked tightly into his neck, refusing to be separated from him.

Being with Adam was like coming home. His touch was familiar, his voice whispering in her ear, the soundtrack she loved to play. He knew exactly how to get her where she needed to be. He always had. But tonight had been different. He had known that they both didn’t want to waste time, that they needed to be together as quickly as they could, it was a carnal need. But that it also needed to be something more, something they both felt on a higher level.

They had fallen asleep shortly afterwards, the exertion from their physical activities mixed with the emotions that the pair had experienced over the last few hours getting the best of them. When Kim awoke, it was still dark outside. The arms tight around her provided her the comfort they always had, that she had always seeked. The heartbeat steady under her head proving that it hadn’t been a dream.

She felt at peace, for the first time in a very long time. She felt sure of her emotions, of what she wanted, of what she deserved. She had spent years persuading herself that she didn’t feel for Adam what she clearly did. Of pushing the emotions down, of silencing them, of listening to others when the only person she should be listening to was herself. Persuading herself he didn’t feel the same, despite his countless attempts to prove otherwise. And yet, when she had finally let down those walls and told him, he had shown her that he felt the same.

She pulled herself regretfully from his arms, she would stay in them forever but right now she was gasping for a glass of water. Picking up his discarded flannel, she wrapped it around herself and tugged up her underwear. They were alone in the house but they hadn’t closed the curtains in the living room or the kitchen when they returned home. They had been slightly preoccupied, she smirked, but the neighbours didn’t need a free aftershow.

Padding barefoot into the kitchen, she took a second to look around. If you’d have asked her 5 years ago if she’d have ever thought she’d have ended up here, she would have politely disagreed. And yet here she was, here they were. She was a mom, Adam was the father she had always dreamed he would be and their daughter was the light of their lives. He had bought them a house, bought them a home and when it had seemed like it might be too much, had offered it to them with no strings attached. Willing to give up his family home, so her and her daughter had a place to call theirs. And now they were this modern family, the one they had discussed all those years ago when for a small moment in time they were going to bring a life into the world together, only to have it harshly ripped away from them.

The modern family may have just become a little less modern tonight, Kim thought to herself as she filled a glass of water and leant against the counter. Her gaze landed on the fridge which was covered in various art projects Makayla had brought home from school or done at home. The classic family image of the child and two parents, the house with the chimney in the background. Everything that Kim had always wanted. Everything she now had.

Returning quickly to her room, where she’d left Adam sleeping on his back, she lent against the door frame. The moonlight was filling the room, his bare chest reflecting the light, sheets pooled down by his hips. She obviously found Adam attractive, had from the moment she had met him 10 years ago now. But seeing the man he had become, she was so madly in love with him. She let herself a moment to just take in his beauty, to appreciate the body that had made her feel such incredible things just hours previously, the dull ache between her legs her own personal reminder, one she relished.

He stirred, the apparent lack of Kim in his arms waking him from his slumber. He rubbed his hand over his eyes and propped himself up on his elbow looking over at where she was still leaning against the door. ‘Darlin’ you okay?’ his voice thick with sleep, the old endearment sliping easily past his lips.

‘Just needed a drink,’ she said softly, a small smile tugging on her lips when she noticed his gaze drag down her body, taking in the shirt she was wearing, his shirt, open against her chest, the expanse of skin leading down to her lace trimmed underwear, his eyes roaming down her bare legs. ‘Didn’t get enough of an eyeful last night?’ she said with a smirk.

‘No such thing,’ he said smugly. ‘Coming back to bed?’ he asked and his smile grew when she nodded, climbing in next to him. Lying on her stomach, her head on his chest, arm thrown over him and legs tangled together. They fitted together like puzzle pieces, meant to be.

‘What time do you need to go back under?’ Kim asked, her voice quiet in the dark room, her fingers tracing meaningless shapes against his chest. She felt his arm tighten just a fraction more around her at the words, the acknowledgment that they would need to pull themselves into the real world at some point. That the real world for Adam right now was more dangerous than it usually was, something that she didn’t wish to linger on.

‘I should probably check in about lunch time,’ he said, his voice muffled by her hair as he had tucked his face into it when she had returned to the confines of the bed.

‘Okay,’ Kim’s voice was even softer now as the pair fell back into silence. Their steady breathing the only sound.

‘This is it now Kim,’ Adam said after a while. He was clearly attempting to keep his voice steady but it faltered slightly at her name and Kim could hear his heartbeat picking up slightly from where it was vibrating against her cheek. ‘Us,’ he continued. ‘I can’t go back to anything else.’

‘This is it,’ she echoed, tapping her forefinger against his chest three times, in the hopes he would understand the meaning, ‘we’re it.’

‘All of it. The proposal, the getting married in some bad banquet hall, the babies, the job, the mess, the whole thing.’ Kim’s hands stilled a second, shocked to hear her own words echoed back to her. She pushed herself up on his chest so she could look into his eyes.

‘You remembered?’ she asked, pushing her hair back off her face.

‘When the woman you’re in love with lists the reasons she doesn’t think you want to be with her, you remember,’ Adam said, reaching out to cup her cheek, his thumb smoothing gently under her eye, his stare full of love. ‘I always wanted it, you know, all of it.’

Kim nodded, knowing his words to be true. ‘We’re in a better place now’, she said. ‘If we’d have gone for it all then, I’m not sure we’d have made it here.’

‘I know. But I just needed you to know. You’ve always been it for me Kim. And I would have waited for years if that’s what you needed.’ His words tugged at her heart strings, the ones that had been broken years ago when she had walked out of the locker room without the ring that until that moment had been her most prized possession. It took a long time to heal, to let him back in, her walls had been a fortrice for a long time. Maybe too long. But they had healed. And they had grown stronger, she had learnt to heal them herself, to make them stronger. And when she had finally let him back in again, his strength had added to them, tangling his love for her around her love for herself and allowing her the opportunity to risk them breaking again. Because without risk, could there be love?

She had risked it all taking in Makayla, knowing that her relationship with Adam, her relationship with anyone would never be the same again. But it had been worth every ounce of risk. Her daughter was her pride and joy. She had risked it all going back to work, to a job that had almost killed her, had put her through hell. But she loved her job, she was a damn good officer and was willing to risk everything to serve and protect the people of this city. And slowly she had let herself risk heartbreak again by getting close to him once more. She kept him at arm's length for a time, easier to pretend what she felt for him wasn’t true. But with everything he did, everytime he showed her the man he was, that distance had lessened. She risked it again when she agreed to move in with him, knowing that it was inevitable that they would end up like this. But also knowing that unless she let him in, he would also keep her at a distance.

But here, in his arms, it had been worth it all. They were stronger now, stronger together. They were a family.

‘I know,’ she said quietly after realising she had been staring at him for possibly too long. ‘I just needed to get here, so thank you’.

Adam raised his eyebrows in a silent question.

‘For being patient with me. For being by my side through all of it. Through the scaredness, the numbness. I’m not sure where I’d be without you,’ her eyes began to swim with tears.

‘It’s where I’ll always be,’ he said, reaching down to press his lips against hers. It wasn’t like the kisses they had shared before, the frenzied ones, the slow ones, this one was full of promise. A promise that the life they had always dreamed about sharing was within reach, that it was possible. That it was theirs.

[justleaf]

Long post ahead. Looking at what's going on around our fandom, here's a pre-emptive guide on..

Reporting someone who is harassing you on AO3 and on Tumblr.

Making your case clear-cut

You're defending against an attacker, not instigating the attack. Find a post in which your harasser was the first to antagonise you, and use that.

It should be very clear that the harassment is meant for you. Were you tagged in a post in which you were harassed? Did your harasser leave a nasty comment on your post or fic? Did your harasser send you an Ask? Those will work. What's not going to work is if someone writes an essay on "People who step on legos for fun really suck", and you assume that it's directed at you because you like stepping on legos. There's no clear link in those cases.

Leave the evidence intact. Don't delete anything. If you're sent an ask, let it marinate in your inbox. If you're gifted a fic, don't reject it. Just leave it be.

Document. The harasser might delete their post or comment. Save the URL, and obtain a screenshot with time and date visible somewhere in the screenshot.

Reporting On AO3

Before you report...

Know what you're reporting by reading the terms of service. Search for "IV. Content and Abuse Policies" to get to the bit you're looking for.

After that, here's how to go about your report.

Click here to get to the page where you can file your report. If the link doesn't work, it's under "Policy Questions & Abuse Reports".

Keep it to just the facts. There is no character limit, but the people reading these reports are human and it would be nice if you made their job easier by being concise. State what the problem is, what you've tried to get it to stop, and what the harasser has done. Provide evidence, otherwise it's all hearsay.

Here's an example: I would like to report a case of Harassment (section IV.G of the ToS) directed at me by the user boatyard18. On 3rd January 2020 I was gifted the work linked in this report by boatyard18. The work included a message directed at me, in which they falsely claimed that I "love stepping on legos". To provide some background, boatyard18 has explicitly been asked to stop communicating with me on 1st January 2020 via a Tumblr post (linkhere). I have also blocked them on Tumblr in an attempt to stop communication. This has clearly not worked, as they have looked for me on a different platform to try and communicate with me. Thank you for your time.

Don't submit more than 1 ticket. AO3 works quite quickly and they look at every single report.

Reporting On Tumblr

Before you report...

Make sure you've blocked the user prior to their continued harassment.

(optional but helpful) Explicitly stated publicly or in a DM that you don't want them to interact with you.

Read and understood which policy is being violated.

These steps are important, because it will show that you've done what's in your power to prevent the person from harassing you and there's nothing left for you to do but take it up to Tumblr.

If all these check your boxes, here's how to go about your report:

Don't respond negatively, or just don't respond at all. Don't give the harasser you're reporting anything to use against you. Don't say anything that invites them to talk to you.

Click here to get to the form. Keep it short. The report form has a limit of 360 characters. State what the problem is, what you've tried to get it to stop, and what the harasser has done. Keep it factual.

Here's an example: I'd like to report that I am being harassed by the user boatyard18. I blocked the user as of 1st Jan 2020 and told them to stop communicating with me [linkhere]. Since then, boatyard18 has made a post linked in this report, in which they uploaded screenshots of my blog, tagged me, and wrote a message to me. Thank you for looking into this.

Don't submit more than 1 ticket within 14 days, unless you have something new to report. In my experience, Tumblr may take some time to take action and probably will not get back to you about the resolution. Unless 2 weeks have passed, then maybe it got lost or there was a glitch and you might want to submit another one.

That's it. Good luck, and I'm sorry you're being harassed.

[horizon-verizon]

What I like about Alicent and what I will always like about her is that she and Corlys Velaryon were the only ones to say at any point during the Dance, “You know what, let’s put down our swords and talk.” By that time, Alicent could recognize that there was clearly a disputed (and disputable) point of law in the Dance, stemming from the Great Council of 101 AC. Jaehaerys had in 92 AC set the precedent that a king could name his heir, over the dictates of traditional Andal-First Men succession rules. That’s fine and dandy, until 101 and the apparent precedent that a male-line claimant comes before a female-line claimant. Viserys named his heir as Rhaenyra, but his male-line claimant was Aegon. Which precedent was more correct ? With three great lords (Stark, Arryn, and Tully) declaring Rhaenyra to be the rightful claimant, and three others (Tyrell, Lannister, and Baratheon) advocating for Aegon, the answer was obviously not as clear as either side had previously believed it to be. 

So what does Alicent do when Rhaenyra flies into KL ? She says “Let’s call a Great Council”. She put a lot on the line here; there’s no second try or appellate court for a Great Council’s decision. Now, did she think Aegon would probably win ? That’s a fair guess, Viserys had won 20 to 1 over Rhaenys and her children in 101 AC, but it’s not a guarantee, or the Green council would not have pored over the records of the first Great Council to note which lords would and would not support Aegon. Still, Alicent was willing to risk losing in a very public Westerosi legal forum to end the bloodshed and destruction in the realm. That takes courage and wisdom, the wisdom of a woman who saw her eldest son crippled and horrifically burned in his first battle, her eldest grandson coldly beheaded in the name of vengeance, and her daughter descending into madness.

So I like Alicent. She’s no saint, she’s not a good person, and she fought hard to place her son on the throne over his half-sister. But she offered to back down, and that takes guts.

Maybe a post responding to this recent one.

You: "But she offered to back down, and that takes guts."

AND

You: "Still, Alicent was willing to risk losing in a very public Westerosi legal forum to end the bloodshed and destruction in the realm. That takes courage and wisdom, the wisdom of a woman who saw her eldest son crippled and horrifically burned in his first battle, her eldest grandson coldly beheaded in the name of vengeance, and her daughter descending into madness."

No. Absolutely not.

Always Remember:

If we compare her to Alicent, Alicent is a heavy-duty blood purist who never looked out for other women, even seized power from another woman entirely for herself and her house's patriarchal prestige and power. No matter who Rhaenyra was before King's Landing or after, Rhaenyra was "vulnerable" to this due to her gender's inequitable access to higher positions of power in Westeros. Rhaenyra was never a tyrant before King's Landing and the greens' usurpation.

.............................................................................................................

And to the second bold text, refer to section A of the post I linked above, where I provided evidence of her doing very much the opposite and did it to deceive, bide time, or because she was angry. Not for "the realm"!

Aside from the fact that Alicent had been after & had been actively publicly (subtle and unsubtle) undermining Rhaenyra years (since she was 10) before the Dance and Viserys' death, there is so much that shows that no one can trust Alicent to be so self-sacrificing or diplomatic towards Rhaenyra and most blacks.

Grand Maester -- Geradys (Rhaenyra's candidate) vs Alfador (Alicent's candidate)/her saying Rhaenyra was "meddling" despite Gerardys saving Viserys' life

Alicent enlisting Criston Cole after he killed Joffrey, seeing the separation bt him and rhaenyra

her making as if she were concerned about Rhaenyra's well-being concerning Cole years before, but really trying to get Cole separated from her/dismissed and Rhaenyra's prepubescent virginity questioned in the minds of others

try to get Aegon married to Rhaenyra not for Rhaenyra's sake, but Aegon's...as Viserys himself pointed out

Rhaenyra had no reason to think Alicent would be so, and we even have more information proving that!

A)

1.

You: "So what does Alicent do when Rhaenyra flies into KL ? She says “Let’s call a Great Council”. She put a lot on the line here; there’s no second try or appellate court for a Great Council’s decision."

Quote to which you refer ("The Red Dragon and the Gold"):

...anon, did you skip over the "Upon seeing that resistance was hopeless, the Dowager Queen Alicent emerged from Maegor’s Holdfast" part that shows she only came out bc she saw there was literally nothing else she could do? There was no graciousness about her motives for doing this, nothing but defeat for herself and survival.

And like the anon from before mentioned, she was doing all she could to keep Rhaenyra and her armies back right before Rhaneyra took KL. She had every intention of winning and resisting to win before Rhaenyra put her into a corner...as well as biding time for Aegon and his kids to escape.

Why is it so hard to remember that Rhaenyra is the one to have tried to negotiate for the throne that is already hers through Viserys' ruling and by being firstborn? why do you, anon, and others think Alicent & Aegon were the ones gracious 7 rational when they sent those terms for Rhaenyra's surrender way before any fighting began? ("The Blacks and the Greens"):

Rhaenyra vs Aegon - Negotiations (Alicent and the green council's Terms, really) ->

Oh and, this lovely line of her wanting Rhaenyra to die in childbirth is so "gutsy" and a sign of her willingness to "back down" ("The Blacks and the Greens"):

Is it so hard to contemplate that Alicent hated Rhaneyra?

I'll say why: bc you actually think the sexist customs and feelings against women leading are in themselves valid enough to bar women from leading. Apparently, "culture" wins against logic and actually figuring out how to create safer environments for more people and not just a select few.

You'd say bc the Great Council? Once again, Jaehaerys muddied succession by allowing subjects to participate in selecting their new king/monarch when he was all about consolidating power for his own dynasty...this precedent he set for strengthening male primogeniture is actually both self-contradictory AND relatively new. Yes males are preferred in Andal succession customs, but there were female heads of house in their own right while male relatives existed. Or female candidates that were eldest but actively barred from ruling without Jaehaerys' precedent and despite women having some ability AND her being older than the 8 yr old male candidate. A few named ones are in TWoIaF: Shiera & Agnes Blackwood.

It's quite obvious that misogyny worked against these women to their deaths or inability to use autonomous power and leadership despite some becoming leaders. Alicent comes from these actions becoming president, Jaehaerys' actions reaffirmed the feeling against female rulers. To try to minimize the detrimental effects to not only the target of misogyny but wider society is ridiculous.

2.

You confused either show!Rhaenys or show!Corlys for book!Corlys ("The Blacks and the Greens"):

Corlys only did the "You know what, let’s put down our swords and talk" thing after Rhaenyra died and the Greens had Baela in custody. Remember that she tried to kill Aegon above Dragonstone when he came on Syrax.

Again, Alicent only did something similar when Rhaenyra was going to kill her sons/her side could lose ("Bastard blood shed in war") AND after Rhaneyra dies she has the luxury of conceding...bc Rhaenyra is dead and her supporters hadn't really grown enough for her to be vicious or worried as much as she would later be. Neither were really doing it for the sake of peace for smallfolk or social peace & harmony. Nor were neither against violence for their own ends (section B, mentioning what happened right before and after the Battle of the Kingsroad).

There is this maybe-rumor--but in my eyes, a very believable one considering her words about Rhaenyra's labor death and her wanting to mutilate 10- year old Aegon, and her actions putting KLers more at risk than you seem to think--of Alicent laughing at Tumbleton death and rape, including children's in her anticipation of it coming back at the blacks/Rhaenyra ("Rhenayra Triumphant"):

B)

QUOTES of Alicent and Corlys actually being at odds on how to go forward (her never actually trusting him, being annoyed at him for holding her back) and her actually not being "gutsy" but calm enough to listen to others (who were conspiring against her for their own ends after she and Aegon became more and more resilient to some advice, eeven threatening Aegon III and Baela), and despite when she did "listen", her insistence on killing all of those who supported Rhaenyra AND harming Aegon III/Baela leads to Corlys and Larys working together to kill her son:

Larys:

C)

You: "By that time, Alicent could recognize that there was clearly a disputed (and disputable) point of law in the Dance, stemming from the Great Council of 101 AC."

AND

You: "Viserys named his heir as Rhaenyra, but his male-line claimant was Aegon. Which precedent was more correct ? With three great lords (Stark, Arryn, and Tully) declaring Rhaenyra to be the rightful claimant, and three others (Tyrell, Lannister, and Baratheon) advocating for Aegon, the answer was obviously not as clear as either side had previously believed it to be."

Anon refers to Alicent after Rhaenyra dies and Corlys switches before he kneels to her and they are negotiating, which I already showed she wasn't that willing to accept his particular terms.

Anyway, how does Alicent see what you think she is seeing? Where is that proof? Especially in the face of the total opposite happening that my quotes show, anon? In order to argue that she somehow "changed her mind", you need proof and a reasonable argument using said proof, not pure conjecture.

This, the debate over which precedent was "more" correct, was never an issue for Alicent. She never philosophized over it, nor doubted that the throne should have gone to her son, Aegon. Not once. Ther eis no suggestion that she had a change of heart. Just as Rhaenyra in her last words affirmed her right to rule Aegon by emphasizing her firstborn status, Alicent' never expressed her thoughts's thoughts about the succession in regards to her own son never deviated from what she said in the following quotes:

("A Question of Succession")

("The Blacks and the Greens")

She went to her grave trying to kill Aegon III and spite Rhaenyra and her legacy, willing to use anyone and anything at her disposal. How many times do I need to repeat this?

Conclusion

NONE of what you say, anon, was an honest or observant reading of the text!

You have not used context and past events nor seen tone and mood in the language given to you to see that Alicent remains as she was, even becoming more determined to get to her goals/desires. To realize her enmity against Rhaenyra.

[the1975attheirverybest]

Halla, I get that you have to deal with lots of naysayers but wow… that was really not necessary. I'd actually be the first one who’d agree that most of the items in the house set bear specific meaning but, as my reply clearly showed, I'd already looked into the books a bit because I had the very same idea as you. Shocker, I know — there are others who think about those things!! That is why I had the link at the ready btw. I’ve just not found any deep/ convincing connections to the themes yet but I'm open to change my opinion if you find any. I also suggested that they picked the books for family connections/ sentimental reasons. I didn’t say "not that deep". And concerning Faust - I actually studied this play at university (in Germany btw) and teach it every year so that lecture wasn’t needed. I am perfectly aware that it’s about "selling your soul to the devil" duh. The themes that I named are perfectly correct. (ofc there's still more than that…) I'd normally be really excited to read your thoughts/ discuss how those themes relate to ATVB/ SATVB (and yeah, there’s plenty of cool things to talk about) but now I'm not that keen anymore. I get that I am just some rando on anon and maybe I didn’t express myself that well but you really didn’t have to bite my head off.

Excuse me? “Bite your head off” because I said to each their own??? What the fuck, man?

Just how stupid do you think I am? This is why I honestly should get off this fuckin app at this point. It’s not worth it trying to have a conversation with anyone anymore cuz all people want to do is be like you’re wrong and I’m right and how dare you even question me.

Idk you mentioned you’re a German teacher yeah? So i would imagine that as a teacher you are familiar with a middle ground??? That’s something we have in common. Teaching I mean. It’s all about synthesis of ideas. At least mine is. And when we have evidence that a) Patricia has helped to provide specific things to make the set look a certain way but also b) that books on the shelves are specific to Matty (he’s read infinite jest at least 3 times; the song “surrounded by heads and bodies” comes from a sentence in chapter 1 of infinite jest; he mentions David foster Wallace in 2020

In the video where he cries about not being able to perform cuz of Covid, I could keep fucking going but you get my point). Then the logical thing to conclude, as a teacher, is that both positions are valid? This is, after all, the 1975. So, while yes they’d build a set around a certain aesthetic, they’d also never not personalize it because the core of their work is about personal involvement???

I don’t know why any of that would threaten you and make you feel like he bitten your head off but that sounds like your problem not mine. Idk what you think you’re doing here but I don’t appreciate it.

Sorry I bit your head off or whatever.

Alright that’s it I’m done here.

I think I had the right idea the other day when I said that I will only use this blog to post fics from now on. Let me return to that.

Hope this helps. Peace.