#[net zero information given]

[eranthiss]

"Smack some cocoa butter on that bad boy and it'll maybe hurt the same maybe hurt less, depends on how hard you got vibe checked."

Her entire left hip is drenched in the stuff. The visible part of her hipbones look glazed.

It's not helping the Bite.

[crescentmp3]

i am suffering

[ribbonstrawberrysurprise]

TMM Weapon and Attack Descriptions

Small followup to the character bios post, featuring the information about each Mew Mew's weapon and attack from the 2002 Fanbook vs the TMM New Artbook (both the 2002 insert and the main section).

See the comparison chart here.

First, one BIG thing to notice right off:

The '02 Fanbook actually spells the attacks as リボン/ribon instead of リボーン/riboon. This is big because there's always been debate on whether they should be transcribed as "Ribbon" (usually spelled リボン, with a shorter o) or "Reborn" (usually spelled as リボーン, with a longer o).

Basically, does the stretched out o sound mean it's meant to be understood as "Reborn"? Or is it meant to be understood as each girl stretching out the first word dramatically ("Ribboooon,") before moving on to the personalized ending section. This is definitely the way they enunciate it in the anime and parallels the way other magical girl shows structure attacks (e.g., Mars... Flame Sniper, Precure... Blue Forte Wave, Hirogaru... Sky Punch). I've weighed in on this here.

So, does this settle it once and for all?

Well… not in my opinion. Like, I do still think "Ribbon" is the correct transliteration! But I don't think the Fanbook is reliable for a few reasons:

1) The editing on the Fanbook is a little spotty, so there are multiple spots of inconsistent formatting/spelling. For instance, in the charts, all items in lists are separated by interpuncts (・) except for Buling's special skills, which is separated with a comma (、). There's also a missing interpunct in the list of Retasu's favorite foods (the other girls' lists do put an interpunct on the end of a line, so it's not a purposeful choice), and Shirogane's name has a space between the kanji of his surname and given name, something done for no other names*

*(Okay.... so it's also done for Buling's, but this is a real thing sometimes done for Chinese names to indicate that the surname is only one kanji instead of the 2-3 you'd expect of a Japanese surname...... But this is also changed/corrected in the New version, though, so???)

In my non-professional opinion, some of the phrasing also feels a little weird, and there's not much care put into text spacing and especially where lines break, but I'm not confident enough in my Japanese skills to state this for certain or put specific examples...

2) There is no other place where the attacks are written as リボン/ribon across the MANY places they are spelled out (e.g., the original manga, a La Mode, ReTurn, the PS game guide, character profile stickers). See above for examples!

3) Even though the TMM '02 insert in the TMM New Fanbook reuses a lot of text from the '02 Fanbook, it does NOT maintain this spelling, which suggests it was another error that was corrected.

So it's net zero information imo 🤷‍♀️

More small things under the cut:

I translated 必殺技/hissatsu waza as "finishing move". It literally means something like "certain kill technique" and is commonly translated as stuff like "special move" or "special attack" as well. 

The '02 Fanbook describes the attacks in terms of what they do in universe, whereas the New Artbook describes what happens in the stock footage. 

The '02 Fanbook also makes a big deal out of Ichigo's attack being the strongest and claims it's the only one that can purify a Chimera Anima and release the Parapara. It's generally true that they have to play her stock footage she has to finish off the big Chimera Anima, but the other girls consistently finish off smaller Chimera Anima, plus instances like Zakuro instantly defeating the big crow in episode 10 and all of the girls (including Pudding, somehow???) managing to defeat a bunch of big Chimera Anima at once when Pie releases them en masse as a distraction in episode 49. The '02 insert keeps the note on Ichigo's attack being able to finish off Chimera Anima but drops the "not that strong" part from the descriptions of the non-Ichigo girls and even adds that Zakuro's attack is "strong enough to surprise/frighten Quiche". The New artbook has no mention of any one girl's attack being more powerful.

The descriptions of the attacks kind of back up my claim that none of the girls except Lettuce have an elemental attack and are instead all light-based and separated by range:

Ichigo: balls of light; final blow on Chimera Anima Mint: arrow of light; ranged attack Lettuce: stream of water; attacks multiple enemies at once Pudding: wave of light that turns into "pudding"; captures enemy Zakuro: whip of light; can be used close or far away, can bind enemies, can cut into pocket dimensions somehow

...Zakuro is clearly way too OP, since she can essentially copy the effects of Mint, Lettuce, AND Pudding's attacks plus having dimensional powers. I mean, the "cutting through dimensions" thing is way outside the range of the other Mews' powers??? And it shows up so little...

Speaking of Zakuro, the New version eliminates the space-cutting power but also describes her weapon as a cross with a ribbon attached to the end instead of as a whip! (It does say she uses it like a whip in the attack description...) She does move it like a rhythmic gymnastics ribbon a little even in her original attack footage, but it's kind of funny to insist the ZaCross Whip isn't a whip!

They sure are caught up on how Lettuce can use her attack even when tied up since she only has to move her fingers. A situation which only happens once.

I find it a little funny that they never really acknowledge how all of the weapons are based on musical instruments. The LettuceTanets are obviously called castanets, and the StrawBell Bell is noted to have a bell attached, but only the the New fanbook calls Mint's weapon "lyre-shaped" instead of "bow and arrow-shaped". Not once are the PuRing Rings compared to a tambourine (although New does mention the bell) or the ZaCross Whip to a flute.

Confirmed that in the anime Buling's attack is not literal pudding but rather something that looks like it. (The manga is still a toss up considering we see it being eaten...)

The difference in phrasing between the '02 Fanbook and the New insert is pretty funny. プリンのようなもの / purin no youna mono, "a thing/object/substance that's like pudding" vs プリン状の物体 / purin-jou no buttai, "a solid object in the form/appearance of pudding". Puddingy thing vs physical object in the form of pudding.

[mariacallous]

In 2023, the fast-fashion giant Shein was everywhere. Crisscrossing the globe, airplanes ferried small packages of its ultra-cheap clothing from thousands of suppliers to tens of millions of customer mailboxes in 150 countries. Influencers’ “#sheinhaul” videos advertised the company’s trendy styles on social media, garnering billions of views.

At every step, data was created, collected, and analyzed. To manage all this information, the fast fashion industry has begun embracing emerging AI technologies. Shein uses proprietary machine-learning applications — essentially, pattern-identification algorithms — to measure customer preferences in real time and predict demand, which it then services with an ultra-fast supply chain.

As AI makes the business of churning out affordable, on-trend clothing faster than ever, Shein is among the brands under increasing pressure to become more sustainable, too. The company has pledged to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 25 percent by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions no later than 2050.

But climate advocates and researchers say the company’s lightning-fast manufacturing practices and online-only business model are inherently emissions-heavy — and that the use of AI software to catalyze these operations could be cranking up its emissions. Those concerns were amplified by Shein’s third annual sustainability report, released late last month, which showed the company nearly doubled its carbon dioxide emissions between 2022 and 2023.

“AI enables fast fashion to become the ultra-fast fashion industry, Shein and Temu being the fore-leaders of this,” said Sage Lenier, the executive director of Sustainable and Just Future, a climate nonprofit. “They quite literally could not exist without AI.” (Temu is a rapidly rising ecommerce titan, with a marketplace of goods that rival Shein’s in variety, price, and sales.)

In the 12 years since Shein was founded, it has become known for its uniquely prolific manufacturing, which reportedly generated over $30 billion of revenue for the company in 2023. Although estimates vary, a new Shein design may take as little as 10 days to become a garment, and up to 10,000 items are added to the site each day. The company reportedly offers as many as 600,000 items for sale at any given time with an average price tag of roughly $10. (Shein declined to confirm or deny these reported numbers.) One market analysis found that 44 percent of Gen Zers in the United States buy at least one item from Shein every month.

That scale translates into massive environmental impacts. According to the company’s sustainability report, Shein emitted 16.7 million total metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2023 — more than what four coal power plants spew out in a year. The company has also come under fire for textile waste, high levels of microplastic pollution, and exploitative labor practices. According to the report, polyester — a synthetic textile known for shedding microplastics into the environment — makes up 76 percent of its total fabrics, and only 6 percent of that polyester is recycled.

And a recent investigation found that factory workers at Shein suppliers regularly work 75-hour weeks, over a year after the company pledged to improve working conditions within its supply chain. Although Shein’s sustainability report indicates that labor conditions are improving, it also shows that in third-party audits of over 3,000 suppliers and subcontractors, 71 percent received a score of C or lower on the company’s grade scale of A to E — mediocre at best.

Machine learning plays an important role in Shein’s business model. Although Peter Pernot-Day, Shein’s head of global strategy and corporate affairs, told Business Insider last August that AI was not central to its operations, he indicated otherwise during a presentation at a retail conference at the beginning of this year.

“We are using machine-learning technologies to accurately predict demand in a way that we think is cutting edge,” he said. Pernot-Day told the audience that all of Shein’s 5,400 suppliers have access to an AI software platform that gives them updates on customer preferences, and they change what they’re producing to match it in real time.

“This means we can produce very few copies of each garment,” he said. “It means we waste very little and have very little inventory waste.” On average, the company says it stocks between 100 to 200 copies of each item — a stark contrast with more conventional fast-fashion brands, which typically produce thousands of each item per season, and try to anticipate trends months in advance. Shein calls its model “on-demand,” while a technology analyst who spoke to Vox in 2021 called it “real-time” retail.

At the conference, Pernot-Day also indicated that the technology helps the company pick up on “micro trends” that customers want to wear. “We can detect that, and we can act on that in a way that I think we’ve really pioneered,” he said. A designer who filed a recent class action lawsuit in a New York District Court alleges that the company’s AI market analysis tools are used in an “industrial-scale scheme of systematic, digital copyright infringement of the work of small designers and artists,” that scrapes designs off the internet and sends them directly to factories for production.

In an emailed statement to Grist, a Shein spokesperson reiterated Peter Pernot-Day’s assertion that technology allows the company to reduce waste and increase efficiency and suggested that the company’s increased emissions in 2023 were attributable to booming business. “We do not see growth as antithetical to sustainability,” the spokesperson said.

An analysis of Shein’s sustainability report by the Business of Fashion, a trade publication, found that last year, the company’s emissions rose at almost double the rate of its revenue — making Shein the highest-emitting company in the fashion industry. By comparison, Zara’s emissions rose half as much as its revenue. For other industry titans, such as H&M and Nike, sales grew while emissions fell from the year before.

Shein’s emissions are especially high because of its reliance on air shipping, said Sheng Lu, a professor of fashion and apparel studies at the University of Delaware. “AI has wide applications in the fashion industry. It’s not necessarily that AI is bad,” Lu said. “The problem is the essence of Shein’s particular business model.”

Other major brands ship items overseas in bulk, prefer ocean shipping for its lower cost, and have suppliers and warehouses in a large number of countries, which cuts down on the distances that items need to travel to consumers.

According to the company’s sustainability report, 38 percent of Shein’s climate footprint comes from transportation between its facilities and to customers, and another 61 percent come from other parts of its supply chain. Although the company is based in Singapore and has suppliers in a handful of countries, the majority of its garments are produced in China and are mailed out by air in individually addressed packages to customers. In July, the company sent about 900,000 of these to the US every day.

Shein’s spokesperson told Grist that the company is developing a decarbonization road map to address the footprint of its supply chain. Recently, the company has increased the amount of inventory it stores in US warehouses, allowing it to offer American customers quicker delivery times, and increased its use of cargo ships, which are more carbon-efficient than cargo planes.

“Controlling the carbon emissions in the fashion industry is a really complex process,” Lu said, adding that many brands use AI to make their operations more efficient. “It really depends on how you use AI.”

There is research that indicates using certain AI technologies could help companies become more sustainable. “It’s the missing piece,” said Shahriar Akter, an associate dean of business and law at the University of Wollongong in Australia. In May, Akter and his colleagues published a study finding that when fast-fashion suppliers used AI data management software to comply with big brands’ sustainability goals, those companies were more profitable and emitted less. A key use of this technology, Atker says, is to closely monitor environmental impacts, such as pollution and emissions. “This kind of tracking was not available before AI-based tools,” he said.

Shein told Grist it does not use machine-learning data management software to track emissions, which is one of the uses of AI included in Akter’s study. But the company’s much-touted usage of machine-learning software to predict demand and reduce waste is another of the uses of AI included in the research.

Regardless, the company has a long way to go before meeting its goals. Grist calculated that the emissions Shein reportedly saved in 2023 — with measures such as providing its suppliers with solar panels and opting for ocean shipping — amounted to about 3 percent of the company’s total carbon emissions for the year.

Lenier, from Sustainable and Just Future, believes there is no ethical use of AI in the fast-fashion industry. She said that the largely unregulated technology allows brands to intensify their harmful impacts on workers and the environment. “The folks who work in fast-fashion factories are now under an incredible amount of pressure to turn out even more, even faster,” she said.

Lenier and Lu both believe that the key to a more sustainable fashion industry is convincing customers to buy less. Lu said if companies use AI to boost their sales without changing their unsustainable practices, their climate footprints will also grow accordingly. “It’s the overall effect of being able to offer more market-popular items and encourage consumers to purchase more than in the past,” he said. “Of course, the overall carbon impact will be higher.”

[tianasficrecs168]

Stony Fanfic Recs

So I've got a few ways I've marked up my fanfic list, just so I can sort through it easier (yes I do have a lot. yes I will be sharing).

Brackets (…) means it's still being updated/not done/WIP – and I'm paying close attention to it

Zeros with a strikethrough (000) Disappeared off the net (I still have a doc of it saved somewhere)

A black dot • means it's a one-shot

Ship with + means it's either time travel or dimension hopping – something along those lines

A heart ♡ means it's focused on Sexy times (it's pure filth PWP)

Anyway! Onto my MCU Stony fic recs...

Arysteia: “The Twice-Told Tale” (Steve/Tony+) • For someone he'd hero-worshipped for so long, Steve Rogers in the flesh is a pretty big disappointment. For one thing, he keeps looking at Tony as though he reminds him of someone else, and even if he never says anything, Tony's pretty sure it's his father. A lifetime of not measuring up to Howard's expectations is more than enough, thank you very much, and he's certainly not going to make an effort to live up to any of Steve's. Steve's pretty clearly failed to live up to his expectations, in any case, and that's not hypocritical at all.

Wordsplat: “Hashtag Finally” (Steve/Tony) (000) • Since the story's been deleted from....whichever site, can't remember - I have the doc saved. Also the summary for this one is just the beginning of the fic (I'm lazy): It started with Clint. Technically speaking, Tony never actually invited him. He would have, given any sort of contact information, but Clint disappeared right after the battle of New York and clearly didn't want to be found. Natasha probably knew where he was, but knowing didn't mean sharing, so Tony never got the chance. Invitation or no invitation, three years later Tony still found Clint Barton sitting on his couch, watching Dog Cops and eating Cheetos in his underwear. "Sup." "Shit!" Tony jumped, dropping his mug. "Aw, coffee." Clint peered over the top of the couch. "Sucks, man."

“Meet Your Heroes” (Steve/Tony) (000) • Another one that bit the dust -> google doc The summary is the first few parts of the fic: It’s been a while, sure, but it’s far from his first rodeo and he knows exactly what’s about to happen when the door of the black van in front of him rolls back to reveal four armed men in black ski masks. So yeah, not the best way to kick off the week. He’d had a great weekend. After months of toying with it, scrapping the idea only to circle back around, he’d finally committed and built the mechanized suit he’s envisioned since the “Avengers” first appeared on the scene a few months ago. Part of the reason he’d tried to scrap it so many times was how nervous he’d been to tell Steve. Steve didn’t like to talk much about the mysterious team of superheroes running around their city these days, so Tony had sort of assumed that expressing his desire to join them might make things tense to say the least, if not start an outright fight. To Tony’s pleasant surprise, Steve had instead been weirdly over the moon about it all. Told him to go for it. Went on and on about how the Avengers would be lucky as hell to have him. Practically rewarded him, jumped his bones no less than five minutes after he announced his intentions. So that had been great.

AshitaNewssnoopy: - “Worth It” (Steve/Tony) • When Steve said he wanted to court Tony, he assumed that he just meant that he wanted to take thing slow. And that was fine by Tony. No really, he could do this thing if that's what Steve needed (shut up, Pepper; he so could). Because Steve was worth the wait. But then the gifts started coming and the letters popped up and there were chaste kisses and romance and…and what is even with this? Just when did his life turn into a romance novel?

Anonymous: - “With you” (Steve/Tony) • Sometimes Steve gets overwhelmed by how much he loves Tony.

ItsallAvengers: - “Keep on Beating” (Steve/Tony) • There were an awful lot of things Steve loved about Tony. But one thing in particular Steve could never get enough of was his heartbeat.

Sara_holmes: - “Like Sunlight” (Steve/Tony) • Steve is used to the way it feels by now; a strange but gentle tugging connection under his sternum, warm tingles in his skin whenever they touch. That is, until Tony gets himself kidnapped. Then it kinda feels more like someone is trying to wrench his heart out through his ribcage.

Scifigirl47: - “Some Things Shouldn’t Be a Chore” (Steve/Tony) Steve takes things like personal responsibility and respect seriously. Tony's got people he pays to take care of that kind of thing, and anyway, he's pretty sure that he's going to die of some exotic disease in his workshop, because Dummy's still a little spotty about what is 'clean' enough to put on an open wound. The rest of the Avengers are in this for personal gain, except for Clint, he just enjoys being a dick. And some things shouldn't be a chore.

[kaurwreck]

Regarding your post about SB misinformation 👀 I’ve seen lots of people who, after reading SB, think Chuuya originally had the ability to amplify abilities before the Arahabaki Project. I assume because they think that NPC ability user from the footage was Chuuya. I’m not sure what to think about it tbh. I love SB but reading it usually raises even more questions haha. I wonder what your take on that is!

I'm not sure which part you want my take on, so I've provided several takes based on the various options:

The Ability User in the Video

I think the ability user from the video was someone I don't know or don't recognize based on the info given who was devoured by their own ability.

I don't think the ability user in the video would have survived that, at least not meaningfully. A singularity refers to the center of a black hole; people are matter, they were gone as soon as that swelled into existence, but as the center, becoming destroyed then destroyed the force creating the black hole and it disappeared too. This all makes sense to me, insofar as it follows narrative logic as much as physics principles in sci-fi and fantasy generally do. I don't know what happens to matter when it's been torn apart by a paradox, but I know it's unlikely that person was Chuuya. In part because Chuuya would have noticed if it were him, lmao.

I'm guessing at the parts of the video you might want my take on, if that's what your question referred to at all, because I don't know where it's ambiguous. I've seen people argue that N isn't reliable, but I haven't arrived at any particular detail suggesting he had an incentive to falsify that footage, nor have I ever seen anyone suggest one.

(Which is also wild to me; it's not a super useful exercise to notice a character is unreliable if you don't then follow-up with why, how, when, about what, and under which circumstances. You don't have to go through the exercise publicly, but "unreliable" is net zero information on its own, so it doesn't lend itself to the conclusion that the footage was fake or that's what Chuuya's ability was.)

Chuuya's Prior Ability

Regarding Chuuya's prior ability, I don't have any thoughts. It doesn't compel me as a question. Who we are is an amalgamation of our experiences and maybe something innate. He doesn't know the details of his prior ability either, so I'm not convinced those details have any bearing on who he is now. If I'm right, those details have nothing to say about his character or the relevant themes and story, so I don't really care.

It matters that he had a prior ability but was taken and mistreated and dehumanized until that ability collapsed on itself and created a black hole that he uniquely is capable of harboring within himself without allowing it to swallow him. But exploring that doesn't require knowing the details of his prior ability, and it wasn't shaped by his prior ability beyond the requisite capacity for paradox.

Abilities aren't separate entities, nor do they inform the person. They are manifested facets of the person. The person I care to understand in Chuuya is manifested by Arahabaki and Tainted Sorrow; not whatever came before. The extent to which who he was before matters to who he is now is already demonstrated in his capacity to be a stable singularity and his childhood memory related to his graphite scar.

So, I don't know what his prior ability was, but I can't really come up with a reason to care either.

Rereading Stormbringer

I don't think Stormbringer is ambiguous or open ended.

It surfaces a lot of lore, which, of course, prompts questions that you wouldn't have had prior to learning the lore. Some of that lore is relevant as pieces to the main story's puzzle, but, like, some of it is lore that's interesting and so much fun to explore, but not relevant to understanding Stormbringer or its implications.

Not everything that is lore or implicated by lore has a knowable answer, so it requires discernment to sort through what you know, what you don't know, what you want to know, and whether what you do or don't know matters relative to what you want to know. What you want to know is not necessarily what's relevant to the story, so that needs to be filtered through discernment, too.

Regarding the broader lore hinted at or explored in Stormbringer, I like to reread Stormbringer because it helps me interrogate what I think I know after some time away, which sometimes helps me recognize where I made assumptions based on premises that aren't certain.

But also, like, I think there are multiple potential answers for questions that won't ever have a canon answer. Both because Kafka Asagiri has repeatedly said as such, and also because that is just how most things are.

So, there's a lot in Stormbringer that I don't think is certain or definitively answerable, most of which I don't think will ever be or should be. Worldbuilding is a sandbox, I don't need someone prescribing for me what to do with the sand for me to enjoy playing with it, and I enjoy playing with it in lots of different ways, none of which preclude each other.

Some of it is relevant to the main story, even if not to Stormbringer, and that's a lot of fun to explore, too. But I don't expect to fully understand what hasn't been contextualized yet, and I'm not trying to, like, compete with the main story by somehow guessing what will happen. Stories aren't timed bar trivia or fill-in-the-blank quizzes; they're conversations and commentary and expressions of our less tangible selves. So, I like to check back in with what I've already read/watched every so often to see if there's more conversation to be had now that I have more context from the main story. So, it's not an exercise in answering outstanding questions; it's about returning to something familiar to see how my perspective might have changed based on what I've since experienced from the main story.

I'm certain of the story, even if I'm not certain about all of the lore implicated. I don't think it's ambiguous; what isn't clear in the text is clarified by reading the text in the context of the story's themes and metaframework. The literal text isn't the only information you're provided, so if it's the only information you're using, then it's like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle with a fraction of the pieces and no box. You can do that if you want, but a fraction of the pieces will only construct a fraction of a picture.

I'm not saying you have to know everything about every named author and all of their works. But, if a story's plot, themes, and perspective characters all keep relating back to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, then areas of ambiguity may be clarified when analogized to the plot, themes, and perspective characters in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

This is not only true for Stormbringer; any time you're engaging with any form of media that makes patterns of references, you are both allowed to and being enthusiastically encouraged to consider that media in the context of those references.

For example, the text in bsd doesn't explicitly state what confluence of circumstances caused the Great War. But if a work explicitly names an event in its timeline after one of the single most influential events to shape the timeline of its audience, that is the work providing its audience with an additional point of reference from which the audience can infer information. So, like, I wouldn't assume the assassination of Franz Ferdinand happened in bsd, but in broader terms, what really caused the Great War was imperialism, militarism, nationalism, and alliances. So then you can consider whether there is anything in the text of bsd evidencing the presence of any of those things. If you do this, you might notice that there are military police alongside civilian police in Yokohama; and that France and Britain are know for having powerful, state organized groups of gifted and gifted resources, which implies militarization, especially in the context of Mori framing the Great War as the first gifted war in Yosano's memories. There was probably also imperialism because the text confirms that the Yokohama Foreign Settlement exists and that there are foreign militaries stationed in Japan and that America exists and that Americans speak English (meaning Britain was probably colonizing in the bsd-verse too), plus there's a coffee shop so coffee is being cultivated somewhere and distributed globally. Nationalism absolutely exists because there are flags and armies and embassies and other signs that nations exist and are vying for their interests. Alliances exist because 55 Minutes confirms some of them in the Great War (such as France and Japan). In other words, it's safe to assume you're meant to use explicit references as information relevant to the text, and then specific relevant details of the story can be inferred by analogizing the reference with the text.

This principle doesn't only apply where there are references to irl events and systems. This is also what themes and motifs are for—if you're unsure about something in the text, then try reconciling the various possibilities with the themes and patterns. There may not be only one definitive answer, but there will be clarity.

This also means interrogating whether you have identified the themes and patterns relevant to the story. If you can't reconcile the theme with the text, it's possible you need to workshop your articulation of the theme.

As an example from Stormbringer, I've seen people say Chuuya's humanity is ambiguous because if he were human as the text suggests, that would frustrate the theme of the story, which is that it doesn't matter whether he's human or a clone. There are two issues with this assumption: (i) requiring him to be a clone to prove it doesn't matter if he's a clone would mean it did matter whether he's a clone, and the alternative is that if it really doesn't matter, then the text indicating he's human probably means he's human but since it doesn't matter, why include those scenes at all; (ii) Stormbringer is a continuation of Fifteen, and serves to apply the definition of humanity articulated by Rimbaud in Fifteen, pursuant to which clones are also human. So, the theme can't be that it doesn't matter whether or not Chuuya's human; that dichotomy is never made by the narrative and also can't really be extrapolated and applied outside of the context of a world in which there are artificially created and organically conceived people in the way themes are supposed to be. It's a false dichotomy made only made by the characters, whose arcs in the story track their unwraveling of that false dichotomy. The actual theme is easier to pin down when you consider the Frankenstein metaframework, but even if you just pay close enough attention to Fifteen and Stormbringer on their own, you should notice that the false dichotomy flourishes in each character when they are or perceive themselves to be isolated, and is only unwraveled when they acknowledge, affirm, and reciprocate their connections to others. In other words, inhumanity is not manufactured by humans in a lab but in isolation. I know this is the theme because when applied to the text of the story, it both affirms the text and fills in gaps in the text (it also reconciles with the themes in Fifteen, the main bsd story, Frankenstein, and major works by the namesake authors). So then, now that I've identified the theme, I can revisit where I think there's ambiguity and decide what would both reconcile the ambiguity and satisfy the theme. There may not only be one right answer; that's often the point. But there should be one or more answers that resonate, and therein you've done the thing storytelling is meant to do, which is relate to and make space within yourself for others.

All of which is to say that I feel like a lot of the story-relevant ambiguity that people perceive in Stormbringer is only ambiguous if you're reading only the literal Stormbringer text as projected on a wall in Plato's cave. Which is fine if you want to do that, that's certainly a choice you can make. But when your puzzle seems to be incomplete, you can't then claim those were the only pieces you were given or that your fraction of the picture is the entire picture. (Or I suppose you can, but you'd be wrong.)

I have no idea if any of this answered your question.

[coquelicoq]

i do love when i'm reading a book in french (written for people fluent in french) and there's a footnote defining some uncommon/dialectal word but the synonym given in the footnote is also a word i don't know. net zero information 👍

[phoenixyfriend]

Ko-Fi Prompt from @apprendere:

Economics topic: ethical investing (what definitions are they using when companies like amazon are on lists of ethical/social/green stocks?)

This one took me a bit of research 😅

My first instinct is that those are frequently greenwashing, and that any individual company needs to be investigated for those claims, personally, before actually going ahead to invest. I'm generally hesitant to call most investment/stocks ethical, but there are ways and reasons for ethics in the given industry (as discussed here with @rhokitten and @dasnya).

Green-chip stocks are, by name, a play on blue-chip stocks (established, stable, reliable companies that are unlikely to waver overly much if the economy takes a bad turn). Green chip companies are those that claim to be environmentally sustainable, or to support the environment in some way. If the company in question is one that works directly in environmental sustainability, such as solar panels or wind farms or organic farming tools, that's probably not a lie.

However... you also get companies like Ford claiming to be green. Now, from what I can tell so far, they have been cutting down on carbon emissions for two decades now, but any large company that historically relies on gas or oil claiming to be green is... a bit questionable. The Climate Town video on Carbon Offsets is a good primer on understanding how large transportation and vehicle manufacturing companies can use 'green' language to claim progress while effectively not changing any of their practices. With Ford, we've seen minor cuts in manufacturing pollution, but as this Guardian article points out, they still advertise for massive cars with terrible mpg... which is a related issue, because said massive cars, the SUVs and 'extended cab' pickups are unregulated compared to sedans and other, smaller vehicles (see: Not Just Bikes video).

Ford spends a lot of money advertising a car that is the opposite of green, and doesn't actually provide a use for the vast majority of people buying it. Unless you work in an industry where you need to haul large, dirty equipment on the regular, like on a farm or in construction or landscaping, you don't need a pick-up truck. And if you do work in those industries, an extended cab is generally not helpful.

So Ford is talking good game, but... is it following through? That's up for debate.

You mentioned Amazon, so I went to look at their Climate Pledge Fund. They mention a "net-zero carbon goal," which already sends up red flags, as explained in the aforementioned Carbon Offsets video. They do seem to be investing in a lot of companies that will theoretically make their future work have less of an environmental impact; the companies include electric vehicles, renewable energy, and custom packaging to reduce waste. It all sounds good.

But what do the critics say?

In this Thomson Reuters Foundation article, Khalil Abdullah addresses how Amazon has historically hidden most of its information on environmental impacts, engaged in a number of greenwashing campaigns, and shoved numbers on its enormous pollution under the rug. Yet, despite this, it remains on the list of companies that the ESG (environmental, social, and governance) investors consider a viable choice, because it's... easy. It's a good investment financially, so they can just... look away from the complications, because the money and reputation is enough.

In my eyes, the concept of green stock is yet another form of greenwashing, one with no actual, specified definition, which means it's about as useful in understanding your investments as words like 'organic.' Unfortunately, it looks like this is going to continue being one of the ways companies lie to us, and any individual investment needs to be examined thoroughly before we can figure out what it is that we're actually supporting.

My suggestion would be to look into companies that are acting directly in support of environmentalism (solar and wind are probably safe), have a long and transparent history of environmentalism, from before it was trendy, or are small, local, and maybe new enough that they aren't killing the environment in the name of economies of scale.

Maybe if you get in early enough, you can grab enough shares to have a positive impact on future green initiatives!

(Prompt me on ko-fi!)

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 59 – Spear by Nicola Griffith

So after loudly complaining about this year’s Hugo nominations enough, it was recommended I try using the World Fantasy Awards shortlist as a reading list instead. Spear is the first result of that – I’d never heard of either it or Griffith as an author before, but the library helpfully had a copy with only a three-week hold. It was, well – unevenly paced and characterized, often beautifully written, a setting I’ve got an enduring fondness for, a bunch of things. But at the very least I’m not confused or annoyed that anyone would nominate this for a ‘best novel of the year’ award, so beating the Hugo’s!

The book’s Arthuriana, of a mythological and Early Medieval type. Specifically, it’s a queer retelling of the story of Sir Percival (Peretur here, the book makes an attempt to use Welsh names for most. Artos and Cei and so on) intermixed with celtic mythology (the Four Treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann are stolen to be the Grail, Excalibur, the Stone the sword was in, and Peretur’s Spear). Also Peretur is a) a demigod raised from birth on soup and water drunk out of the Grail/Cauldron and b) a lesbian. The book follows her childhood, raised in the wilderness with only her mother and wildlife for company, how she eventually leaves her behind to fufil a dream of becoming one of the king’s companions, and the trials she undergoes to become accepted by them. The second half of the book then follows her falling in love with Nimune, accidentally breaking the geas that was hiding her mother and the cauldron from her father (a wrathful Tuatha Dé) the organizing of the grail quest and her, Lancelot, and Nimune going to kill her dad and retrieve the grail/cauldron. And then bury it away after lying to everyone that the queen had had a sip from it and wouldn’t be infertile anymore. Having thus doomed the kingdom, they set about enjoying their lives together.

So, queer early medieval Arthuriana retelling. Which on reflection probably seems like less of a natural/obvious combination to people who spend less time on tumblr than I do. The ‘Early Medieval’ part of that seems pretty carefully researched, and the book takes great joy in describing everyone’s panoply, situating the politics in a very specific post-Roman collapse politics and geography, and so on. In that sense reminds of Bernard Cromwell’s take on a ‘historicall’ Arthur in the same era (which I read far too young because my father had just left them lying around the house and still inform my default view of the genre.) The queerness is just presented to be taken as a given more than part of the actual plot – being a crossdressing lesbian causes Peretur exactly zero problems at any point, and Arthur/Lancelot/Guinevere are a loving polycule so actually it’s a net reduction in sexuality-related drama compared to the usual.

The basic conceit aside, the most striking thing about the book is easily the prose. It’s written in a kind of elevated, mythological or capital-R Romantic voice. There are passages that are legitimately quite beautiful, and just overall does a lot to sell the story as somewhere between chivalric romance and myth.

Otherwise – I pretty much adored the first half the book, covering our hero’s childhood and attempts to build a reputation that will earn her acceptance from the king’s court and a place at the round table. Peretur’s naivete and utter lack of understanding of politics form a nice contrast with her being, well, a superhuman demigod with magical wild empathy skills when it comes to everything else. The second half, on the other hand – I mean it just tries to pack in way too many plot points and too much lore in not nearly enough page count. The effect – one long procession of character revelations and things happening without preamble or fallout – fits the whole mythic style but, like, not in a good way.

Also since the whole happy ending is built around a central romance it’d help a lot if Nimune felt like more or a character and less of an exposition fairy. Peretur legitimately had more chemistry with Angharad-the-innkeepers-daughter from the second act. Also since it was how the book ended, the big choice to hide away the cauldron/grail and make sure neither king nor queen nor anyone else ever drinks from it is presented as this, like, considered and moral decision without ever touching on any of the massive hypocrisy inherent in it for ms. ‘grew up drinking from it every meal. But it’d corrupt and drive insane anyone else who did. For sure.’ was just deeply irksome to me.

Still, not at all a bad read. Maybe a bit style over substance, but it’s a good style and worn well.

[penultimate-step]

Oshi no Ko 145 Reaction

Live Crow Reaction

I debated if I even wanted to do a chapter react for this one, I did for the last two and this is a series I generally have a lot of thoughts about, but perhaps I was spoiled by how those chapters were deeply concerned with the character arcs for Ruby and Aqua, some of my favorite parts of the manga.

This one instead focuses on our mysterious crow girl, Tsukuyomi. Which is good, she has desperately needed some fleshing out, but....hmm. It feels very strange to go from essentially net zero information to having her whole backstory and thoughts about the other characters dropped on us all at once. The fact that the backstory is so completely out of left field just makes it worse. Like. Okay, so crow girl is....an actual crow? sure, let's go with that?

Would I be taking lethal amounts of copium to think this might be some kind of metaphor? I don't think it is because that would be too misleading for what OnK usually does but like. what is this development here.

I think the main reason this bothers me is because it feels incredibly one-sided. The hints that crow girl's previous life had a connection to the siblings was interesting, and spurred speculation on what the nature of that relationship was, but the actual answer here seems kind of...the least impactful way to go about it? It would have felt Weird and fanfic-y to suddenly introduce a random OC who was important to both Gorou and Sarina in their past lives, given that their isolation and loneliness were kind of key to their characters. But introducing a literal animal in the role feels kind of like a cop out. You want a character who could be seamlessly inserted into the character's backstories, without changing the trajectory of their arcs whatsoever? okay, she's the stray bird they met that time. In essence, it means Tsukuyomi gets to have a connection to Ruby and Aqua, but they don't have one with her. It's one sided.

Which, if I'm being charitable, could be the point - another way to explore the themes explored in previous chapters of people having different views of others. A crow viewing the pair from a distance without even being considered a peer could be an interesting counterpoint to previous thoughts on placing idols on pedestals - a god looking down at people condescendingly, even more so.

By the fact that she sees them as kids, even Gorou, who was in his thirties, it's clear that her view of them might be divine, but it sure isn't objective. But that's getting back into the supernatural elements of the series that I don't have any explanations or context to talk about.

I don't know, I can find explanations and ideas that make me think this could be cool when thinking optimistically but when speaking honestly I'm not super enthused by the execution in these few pages. And this is meant to be a reaction, not an analysis, so even if it isn't super professional of me I'll leave my conflicted thoughts up in the post.

This isn't a terrible revelation, I don't think this ruins the manga forever or anything, but it does feel like a bit of a wasted opportunity right now. makes me feel a little down about the chapter. But this is a serial, there's still time to make this all come together, in many different possible ways. Who knows, maybe in a few months after this arc wraps up I'll be talking about how crow girl is my new favorite character.

[henrysglock]

Funny to me how almost every negative trait ascribed to Henry in the VR game is Shadow Brenner talking. Like okay, sir, who are you trying to convince here?

It’s also hilarious to me that Vecna’s taunts sound just like Shadow Brenner irt choices of taunts/vernacular/etc…I smell bullshit. I smell “Oh, I’m the one in control, I’m not being influenced” when really it was entirely too easy to take control and all of Vecna’s shit reeks of Shadow Brenner. The best indicator of brainwashing is believing you’re resistant to brainwashing.

Which…it’s all 100% giving NINA, something we all know isn’t straightforward.

Hell, they even reference NINA-type dynamics for Shadow Brenner making Henry relive his old memories, particularly of the lab:

So I really, really am wary of claiming most of this as canon (something I’ve been saying since they teased it back in November).

Also: They’re very protective of 001, but Vecna shows up in things as un-canon as the Puzzle Tales game. So…I don’t take Vecna canonicity very seriously here, especially not as a meter to judge Henry/001 by…not to mention that they wouldn’t make any major, canon-altering reveals in a fucking video game. Like…come on, guys.

And on top of that: Half the shit we supposedly know about pre-Vecna Henry from the game is told to us in memories being replayed to Henry by the Shadow as Vecna tries to pull his shattered/jumbled mind together and keep control of the hive. The other half is given to you by the Shadow when it’s studying Henry! There’s no way in hell they’re as straightforward as you think they are. It’s all silly, terrible gameplay!

And they say as much:

It’s all a big experiment! And you think it’s going to just tell you everything you need to know about Season 5??? Be serious.

Didn’t think I’d have to say it, but: Let’s not fall for the NINA “taking everything at face value” trap again.

Even further…Vecna isn’t even subtitled as Henry/001:

As far as I’m concerned: We have net zero new information about Henry/001 as a person scoping out of his lab flashbacks…which is consistent with games and novels and comics not being strictly canon!

You’re telling me you’re gonna worry about the canonicity of a game where Virginia’s hair is brown and the Creel house layout is fucked up while Vecna struggles to put his mind back together? None of this is strictly canon. It can inform on canon, it can (and does) double down on existing subtext, but it’s honestly nothing that we haven’t seen already.

As always, never forget: THE FILM IS THE THING. The play, the TV show…they’re canon. Not a video game.

(the link to the interview will be added when I’m back to my laptop)

[monarch-afterdark]

Titan History: Na Kika & The "Skull Island Kraken"

Welcome once again to Monarch: After Dark, the digital gateway between you and the organisation dedicated to understanding and navigating this troubled new world we live in.

For today's communication, we bring a double-feature, covering two different Titans in a single entry due to lack of current information to warrant each Titan recieving its own individual entry. As such, we present the two tentacled terrors of the deep, Na Kika and the Skull Island Kraken.

(Pictured above: A full-body sketch of Na Kika, courtesy of Drew E. Johnson)

Monarch Database File: Na Kika

Monarch Designation: Titanus Na Kika

Length: 898 feet

Weight: Unknown

Nature: Bio-Virulent

Behavioural Classification: Destroyer

-----

Prior to 2019, Na Kika was a Titan held within a great deal of secrecy, even to those within Monarch's ranks. The underwater outpost containing Na Kika was classified and excluded from the publicly available outpost network, and the Titan itself had not yet been given an official designation, only nicknamed "Kraken" by those who studied it.

The longest Titan on current record, Na Kika boasts an impressive arsenal of skills. Able to siphon the elemental energy of other Titans through the suction cups on its tentacles, Na Kika could quickly render an enemy helpless in its grasp. The Titan is also immensely intelligent, able to alter its state of being through disguising its own radiation signature. As the workers of its outpost discovered with horror, Na Kika was capable of playing dead.

Na Kika is also capable of changing its biological sex on a whim, going from male to female and vice versa. The Titan's strength is also notable, able to singlehandedly drag an entire Monarch outpost to the depths and devour ships with ease.

(Pictured above: Artistic rendition of Na Kika breaking free from netting used to trap her by ecoterrorists, circa. 2020)

In the ancient past, Na Kika had made contact with the Austronesian people of Kiribati, who came to worship the Titan as one of their gods. This worship continues even today, with their modern descendants continuing to worship Na Kika.

Throughout the world's oceans, Na Kika was at the center of a campaign of terror known to many cultures. A monstrous cephalopod sinking and devouring ships, feared by sailors for centuries. This fear continues to the modern day, though much smaller creatures than Na Kika seem to be the source.

In 2019, when Monster Zero awakened the other Titans, Na Kika responded to its calls by flatlining and appearing to those within the outpost that it had died. It is believed that, somehow, Na Kika's intelligence allowed it to figure out that the containment field around it only worked on living Titans, and played dead to be able to phase through. Once free, Na Kika wrapped her tentacles around the entire outpost and dragged it into the depths, killing all inside.

A year later, at the tail end of 2020, Na Kika found itself captured by ecoterrorists and held within an electrified net. Looking to exploit Na Kika for resources and Titan trafficking, Godzilla intervened and helped Na Kika free itself before destroying the rig being used to hold it captive. Na Kika retreated to the open seas, before later going dormant.

To date, no further activity from Na Kika beyon 2020 has been reported.

-----

(Pictured above: Artistic depiction of the Skull Island Kraken, based on eyewitness accounts, circa. 1993)

Monarch Database File: Skull Island Kraken

Monarch Designation: Titanus Kraken

Height: Unknown

Weight: Unknown

Nature: Unknown

Behavioural Classification: Destroyer

-----

Unfortunately, most of what we can report on the mysterious Skull Island Kraken is fairly limited, as a Monarch presence had not been established on the island around the time the Titan was alive. As such, all we can really report on is the information that survivors of the 1993 Skull Island incident were willing to provide to members of the After Dark team who questioned them.

From what we've been able to gather, the Skull Island Kraken was a chimeric creature that dominated the waters surrounding Skull Island. It's larger tentacles were capable of dragging down ships, tearing apart helicopters and throwing fully-grown whales several hundred feet inland to the island. Smaller red tentacles delivered a powerful electrical shock that also packed a venomous punch. This venom would slowly cause humans to sicken before entering a critical state.

The Skull Island Kraken was known to be a cruel, vindictive and relentless Titan. According to some Iwi accounts, the Kraken had ravaged a coastal village of island natives that Kong had grown attached to, and according to the 1993 survivors, it would throw whales into the island in order to bait Kong into approaching the waters. During its battle with Kong, the Kraken endured multiple brutal hits but continued to rise up until Kong finally killed it.

(Pictured above: Artistic rendition of the Kraken battling Kong, both Titans having sustained damage, circa. 1993)

In 1993, the cryptid-hunting vessel Once Upon a Maritime came under attack from the Kraken, most of the crew being killed and the survivors washing ashore on Skull Island. A team composing of mercenaries and the survivors witnessed the Kraken throw a whale onto the island in order to draw Kong's attention.

Eventually, Kong was lured toward the waters when Annie (a stranded islander) and her beast companion Dog stole a pendant belonging to an island native that Kong had a friendship with. The Kraken immediately jumped to attack Kong, and the pair engaged in a long and brutal battle. The Kraken endured being hit in the face with a shipwreck and pummelled mercilessly by Kong, continuing to get back up no matter what.

Kong ultimately defeated and killed the Kraken by grabbing hold of its colossal body and tearing it in half using nothing but his own brute strength.

Almost 20 years later, in 2012, Monarch officially established a presence on Skull Island. To date, no Monarch search of Skull Island's waters has successfully turned up with the Kraken's remains.

-----

And there you go! The world of the Titans continues to fascinate and inspire intrigue, and peeling back the curtains to reveal further monsters that have gone below the radar for centuries is always a joy to us here on the After Dark team. We hope you enjoyed this Kraken double-feature.

Until next time,

Monarch: After Dark

[strangeauthor]

not to net zero information but i thought it was like. that alastor was the one who had slaves technically (the cat dude and some other one that was like a maid for the hotel) but Honestly given how much a shitshow this whole franchise is i wouldnt be surprised at the last anon being right abt /him/ being one to someone too somehow.

the show needs to BURN

[olderthannetfic]

'dead dove alone has no information value' is 100% true--but it's still the reader's fault if they see a fic with net zero information in the tags and then read it and find out it contained something they didn't like. if you have allergies, don't pick up the mysteriously labeled casserole that doesn't actually have any nutritional information on the packaging, because there's no way of knowing what ingredients it contains, therefore it could be ANYTHING. and even if the fic says 'no archive warnings apply', that just means none of the main tags are present in the fic, not that there's nothing potentally triggering/disturbing (especially given the wealth of major triggers NOT covered by the big five warnings)

basically, as ever, lack of content information is, itself, a warning--if the fic is unlabeled, then you've got no one to blame but yourself if you read it, not knowing what it contains, and find something distressing.

--

[blackjackkent]

Ran into an earthquake, proceeding south through Rivington.

Presumably this is the sort of quake we heard mentioned in that cutscene with Gortash - fallout from the elder brain straining against the Chosens' control. Feels like a bit of time pressure for sure.

But for right now Hector has no idea what it means, just that more trouble.

Shadowheart also commented, "If I was a Sharran lookout, this is the sort of place I'd wait around," which feels very ominous. Definitely feels like we're about to get jumped, but there's no one immediately obvious in the vicinity that is interactable, so possibly Shadowheart is just being paranoid.

Moving on, there's a fight going on between a dude and some squatters in his house.

"The place was empty! Keep those thugs away from my family."

"ZENOVIAAAAA! GET THESE SQUATTERS OUT OF MY HOUSE NOW."

This guy is comically upper-class - loud and dramatic and very upset with the situation. Hector does not have much familiarity with such people but he can sense that Karlach does; she lets out a soft snort behind him and rolls her eyes.

The merc at the man's side, on the other hand, is anything but humorous; she's carrying an extremely large and well-cared-for sword on her back and looks like she's fully ready to use it.

"Arfur, *sweetheart*, you paid me and my boys to be caravan guards, not cattle wrangles," she drawls, and gives the man in the house an unpleasant grin. "If you want us to get our hands dirty, it'd be our pleasure, but that'll be extra."

Hector doesn't fully understand what's happening here, but it's obvious there's the threat of violence, and so - almost without thinking about it, he steps in.

(One of the available options here is "Does no one we meet ever get along?" which is excellent. I don't think Hector would say it but he's definitely thinking it right now.)

"Calm down and tell me what's going on," he says, his tone automatically shifting into something placid and firm, a voice of authority - not the tadpole's sort, but that which the abbot would use to calm a disagreement of monks in the monastery.

"I just want to remove these unlawful interlopers from my property!" Arfur wails aggrievedly.

Hector raises an eyebrow at him. Given the state of things around here - and in particular, given the mass of bodies he just saw at the site of the battle outside the gates - he doesn't have particular interest in indulging this man's superiority complex, or being party to turning a family in need out on the street. But the mercenary with the sword is worrisome.

So he has to consider his approach. Something nonconfrontational but unambiguous. He summons the memory of the cleric who ran the services in the monastery's temple and puts on his most beatific smile. [CLERIC] "The gods study our deeds during crises," he points out. "Now is a bad time to be uncharitable."

"Excuse me?!" Arfur yelps. "I'm *exceedingly* charitable. Ask anyone in this wretched town! It's one thing to donate - extremely generously - to those less fortunate than oneself, and quite another to give away one's entire home!"

It seems to Hector there is likely a middle ground to be struck here - but something else sticks out to him as he listens to the man rant.

Narrator: [INSIGHT] This man's indignant demeanor barely masks a seething anxiety. There's more to this situation than he's letting on.

"I'm a very magnanimous individual, but this is my home," Arfur insists. "Either they leave or I'll make them."

"You seem to be a little on edge," Hector says carefully. "Are you all right?"

Arfur stiffens. "Well, wouldn't you be on edge if your beautiful home had been defiled by such brazen interlopers?"

(A/N: This conversation is fairly confusing/frustrating. Passing the above insight check and then following up on it gives us zero net new information to act on in the conversation, as shown above, and also cuts off an available [CLERIC][PERSUASION] check - which Hector would have been physically incapable of passing but was still more likely for him to say.

At this point in the conversation we have three options: a) completely back out of the situation, b) an option from Hector's rogue multiclass to do the job instead of the mercs for cheap (???), or c) intimidate - a check which Hector cannot pass either and leads to violence. Of these three options I guess we'll go C, and I don't mind it tremendously since (especially having seen some of Arfur's other dialogue) this guy seems like kind of an ass, but the conversational line feels weird.)

Hector sets his jaw. He has seen far too much suffering over the past few months to be able to easily stomach this man's dismissal of people in need. He can sense Karlach's agitation too; she wants to give the man a blow or two herself for how he's behaving. [INTIMIDATION] "How about you live and let live," he says coolly. "And I let *you* live in return."

It's an ill-advised comment, perhaps, given the merc with her sword standing directly nearby. And he regrets it almost as soon as he's said it; he doesn't want to encourage the threat of violence here. But damn it... this house has room for these people if Arfur would just open his ears, and Hector finds that he can't stay silent.

Arfur draws himself up to his full height and glares at Hector.

"Are you threatening me?" he snaps. "Zenovia - why are you just standing there? Do what I'm paying you for!"

The merc grins casually. "You paid us to protect you and your high-quality merchandise on the road - and we've since arrived at our destination. As I said - anything else is extra."

"Ughhh," Arfur groans. "This is the last time I hire someone from the Guild." Coin flashes across his palm as he tosses it towards Zenovia. "Fine. Here's the extra. Finish the job." He turns to look at Hector balefully. "Now please show this meddler some of that famous Rivington hospitality."

-----

"Nice one, Hec," Karlach says with a gleeful laugh as the mercs turn on them; she draws her sword and gives it a dramatic whirl. "Let's show 'em what we learned in the wilds!"

Shadowheart lets out a heavy sigh, already weaving a Shield of Faith between her fingers, ready to throw. "Are we to right every wrong in the city on our way to the gates?" she asks dryly. "Hector, I know you're compulsively charitable but this place has no shortage of wrongdoing."

"All the more reason to do what we can, where we can," Hector says firmly.

Jaheira just laughs softly. She remembers another man, much younger but with that same determination in his eyes - unwilling to see a wrong and look away from it if there was something he could do. "Like old times, indeed," she murmurs. "Do not worry, Shadowheart; we will find our way to where we need to be, one way or another."

[kaibacorpstocksplit]

wondering the true scope of noa’s knowledge like yes he could download any information he wants but not only is what we know constantly changing, there’s all sorts of conflicting ideas and theories on what the meaning of anything is, and yknow there’s personal experiences too, and also if tech suppprt forums are any indication sometimes there’s just net zero information on a given subject