#(but if you do them AFTER seeing this post. then legally i'm required to challenge you to a duel)

[perseephoneee]

(For Ficmas 2023) Isaac Lahey and cookie decorating

cookie decorating (isaac lahey x f!reader) {ficmas 2023}

꒰ ࿁ ˙ ˖ ໑ happy day 12 of ficmas!

warnings: allusions to sex

a/n: its christmas eve! this one is short but i wanted to keep it sweet and to the point. thank you guys so much for joining me in this journey to write 12 fics in 24 days (honestly exhausting, but i'm happy I did it). reminder that my requests are open, and to join my taglist if you want to read more of my work in the future. i have a couple requested fics that i need to work on, but i'm hoping to start having a regular posting schedule for you guys in the new year. once again, ily and thank you guys for supporting me always <3

↳ masterlist  ↳ ship exchange ↳ taglist ↳ ficmas 2023

Before your last school vice principal was killed by one of the many werewolf problems that arose in Beacon Hills, the high school didn’t have as many “school spirit” events. There were the typical ones, but truthfully, not a lot. But then, the high school needed a new vice principal, and suddenly, Beacon Hills High School was experiencing an influx of school-wide events. Some of them were incredibly stupid, annoying, and trivial, but occasionally there would be one that would excite all the students. This was one of those times. 

“I am happy to announce that for the holiday season, we will be doing a series of competitions centered around winter,” Mr. Bean, the new vice principal, announced at a school assembly one morning. You almost skipped it but were caught by Coach Finstock in the hall before you could sneak out. Your boyfriend, Isaac, was asleep next to you. “They will be non-denominational, of course. But what is the prize, you ask? After careful consideration, it was decided that the team that gets the most wins out of the twelve contests will get automatic As for the winter break homework– that’s right, a free pass!”

That got the students awake, chatter filling the auditorium as students daydreamed about not having to do any work over the break. You also perked up. Even though you were a good student, you never got an actual vacation with how things went in your life, and your brain almost couldn’t process all the reading and napping you’d get done if you didn’t have any homework. 

“Isaac,” you hissed, slapping your boyfriend in the arm. He groaned as you awoke him. “We are entering this.” He looked at you in confusion as you explained the competition to him. That seemed to wake him up. 

“I’m not doing too hot in Chemistry right now, so that’d be great,” he mumbled, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. 

“You told me you were okay!” 

“I lied,” he shrugged, and you slapped him in the arm again. 

“I offered to help you with your homework.”

“I wanted to make out with you instead.” That made you roll your eyes, but you didn’t get the chance to chastise your boyfriend as you finished listening to the rules of the competition. 

The following days went by as pretty much every student in the school participated. Everyone got points for the challenges, and the team with the most points got automatic As. There would be two runner-ups who got Bs. You questioned whether any of this was legal, but your lust for winning overtook the rational part of you. Your competitive nature shined as you and Isaac quickly rose to the top of the leaderboards. Between your book smarts and Isaac’s athletic prowess, you took the contests by storm. There was trivia, a sledding race, a snowman competition, and a relay race. Ethan and Aiden were The only team close to beating you two, which just spurred on Isaac more. Even Scott and Stiles, who had fallen behind since they spent more time arguing like a married couple than cooperating, were rooting for you and Isaac just to see Ethan and Aiden go down. 

The final contest wasn’t anything crazy but required precision and focus. Cookie Decorating. Of course. 

You hunkered down at your house, baking cookies and looking at YouTube tutorials for the best way to decorate cookies. You had some cookies look like ornaments, others like reindeer, and a couple as snowflakes. Unfortunately, Isaac had grown distracted about half an hour into your baking adventure. Which meant he had turned to distracting you. 

“Can we take a break?” he sighed, sitting at your counter as he watched you add frosting to piping bags. 

“We need to turn these in by 4 pm today, so we need to hurry,” you responded, tying off the plastic piping at the top and looking at your sketched designs before adding anything to your cookies. Isaac slid off the stool, standing beside you as he watched you draw careful shapes. You weren’t paying attention to him, so you missed the devilish smirk on his face as an idea came to him. He pushed your hair to one side, standing behind you as he wrapped his arms around your middle. You hummed, still focused on decorating, when he pressed kisses along your neck and shoulder. You became hyperaware of his lips on your skin as he licked a line from your artery to your jaw, hot, open-mouthed kisses following soon after. You bit your lip to stop a gasp from leaving your mouth. “Isaac,” you hissed in warning when he bit down, coaxing a sigh from your lips. 

“Y/N,” he hummed, his hands dipping under your shirt and running up and down your sides. His hands were cold and made you shiver wherever he touched you. 

“You’re being a nuisance,” you whispered, hand shaking as you kept trying to decorate. 

“Take a break,” he smiled against your skin, continuing his ministrations. You tried to calm yourself, but after making another mistake in decorating, you growled in frustration and turned around in his arms. 

“You’re obnoxious,” you muttered, back pressed against the counter as Isaac had you cornered. He just smiled, leaning down to kiss you as he had you caged against the counter. You let him kiss you, hands running up his arms, tangling in his hair. You let him take you to your bedroom, make love to you, and effectively distract you. And when he was done being needy, you went back to finish decorating the cookies, wearing just his shirt and underwear, even letting him steal one when he thought you weren’t looking. 

You ended up winning the competition, much to the chagrin of Ethan and Aiden, and you couldn’t find it in yourself to care as you spent winter break in peace with Isaac. 

[smaller-comfort]

Extremely rambly thoughts on necrontyr society/marriage headcanon stuff. Some of this dovetails with the snecron biology stuff; you get 'gestational parent' and 'inseminating parent' as concepts because I'm not going to be more creative with words tonight.

At the upper levels of society, marriage is solely for cementing political alliances and the transfer of wealth. That's it. It's a legal contract between two families, and the contract lays out how wealth and power are shared and inherited between them.

Courtship would vary wildly between dynasties and even between different vassal states within a dynasty (a lot of this gets flattened out post-biotransference, alas). But before then, culturally, a dynasty from the eastern fringe might be nearly as alien to a dynasty in the west as any of the Unclean. (The fact that they've got mutually intelligible language across the galaxy is hilariously the biggest science-fantasy leap for me, I'll be honest.) Also, space-mormon Ithakas is weird as hell to everyone.

So, for example: Nihilakh crownworld nobility courtship customs involve, first and foremost, a team of lawyers, on both sides. Immediate members of the Phaeron's household probably have to get permission from the Yyth seer before even beginning the process. Courtship gifts are wildly expensive and extravagant and meticulously documented, with particular emphasis placed on the provenance of unique rarities. The exchange of courtship gifts is always a public spectacle- 'subtle' is for crypteks and lawyers.

At higher levels of society, the two people getting married might not even meet until after the paperwork is filed. Mid and lower level nobles are a bit more relaxed about it, but they're also not dealing with quite the same scale of wealth. Weddings are still ridiculously over-the-top affairs that can and will bankrupt smaller houses hoping to secure a politically advantageous match to a larger family.

Meanwhile, on Solemnace, you do see a similar emphasis on legal documentation, and rare or unique courtship gifts, but they're much less extravagant about the displays of wealth. Gifts are more often exchanged in private, and though weddings can get elaborate, it tends to be more about tasteful, elegant luxury than extravagant excess. Is this at least in part to keep their Overlord from stealing the silverware at the wedding? It's impossible to say.

Over on Mandragora, you announce your intention to court by challenging your intended to a duel. The date and time of the duel is the anticipated date of the nuptuals. Generally the intended couple will not actually fight one another, but the wedding will involve a lot of demonstrations of martial prowess, and usually there will be a ritualized duel of some sort between representatives of each family. Whichever family wins gets to officiate the wedding, and keeps the larger share of the dowry.

On Gidrim, no dueling is required, but it's customary to present your intended with some sort of hunting trophy. There'd be some kind of annual tourney or major gaming event where young necrontyr might dedicate their victories to their intended- think medieval tourneys, and knights jousting for tokens from their beloved. Now, given that gender parity is standard, this potentially means that you end up fighting against the person you're trying to court. This sort of thing is frequently the subject of romantic comedies and dramas. Gidrim weddings usually last several days, with feasting and recitations of long form epic military ballads and more games/martial demonstrations. The subsequent hangover may last up to a week, if you're doing it right.

Those would all be courtship practices for a primary spouse or consort for higher-level nobility. Polyamory is common, both for the purpose of providing heirs, and because at the end of the day a marriage contract is a business contract, and why wouldn't you try to form as many alliances as possible?

So it's not uncommon for third or fourth children to be married off as secondary spouses to vassal houses, to reinforce political ties between families. Since everyone is dying of turbo cancer, it's also not uncommon for these secondary marriage contracts to include a clause for what happens when the fourth kid in the line of succession becomes the heir apparent. (Divorce practices vary between dynasties as well, but by and large it is a fast process out of necessity.)

Secondary spouse courtship and weddings can be just as elaborate as consort matches, depending on the status/wealth of everyone involved. Usually they're not quite as involved- on the other hand, if your new intended is the Phaeron's fourth daughter, you're damn well going to go all out, or suffer the consequences.

Because of rampant fertility issues due to turbo cancer and a not insignificant amount of inbreeding among the nobility in certain dynasties, inheritance and succession frequently have nothing to do with parentage or genetics. Heirs are adopted from subsidiary families all the time. There are some families where heirs are always adopted, to reduce infighting among the actual children, or to avoid particular genetic defects.

That said, some dynasties do place a lot of weight on genetics and familial lines, so contract marriages or concubines/surrogates are frequently used to produce heirs. Any children produced via concubine are legally members of the family who owns/employs the concubine. Doesn't matter who the inseminating or gestational parent is; legally, the child has legitimate status as a member of that household. (This can afford the concubine a certain amount of status as well, or at least security; fertility is a highly sought after trait.)

(Sidebar on contraception and eugenics: contraceptive implants are used most frequently among nobility/merchant class/military officers. The further down the social ladder you go, the less available any kind of medical technology is, never mind contraceptives, and commoners/serfs/slaves are encouraged to reproduce as often as possible. Rank and file miltary, however, would be surgically sterilized, and have any viable gametes extracted for genetic testing and possible use by surrogates. Sometimes this is reversible; most of the time it isn't, because it's assumed they're going to die before they'd be able to retire and have children anyway. A majority of pregnancies result in miscarriage; many children don't make it out of infancy because of birth defects. Infanticide is still common in some parts of the galaxy, but they'll usually try to terminate a pregnancy early if it looks like it'll be nonviable.) (Maybe they do lay clutches of eggs, I'm fuzzy on a lot of these details, honestly. Not all of them- but a lot of them.)

(Zahndrekh does not get to retire to a remote garden on a mountain with Obyron to write terrible poetry and raise a bunch of fat, happy children. He thinks about it sometimes, though.) (Obyron does not want to imagine how impossibly unruly Zahndrekh's progeny would be, and is frequently, fervently glad that he's sterile.) (Also he's pretty sure 'retirement' is just what happens when you meet the wrong end of a pike.)

Circling back around to Ithakas being fucking weird, it's traditional for Ithakan dynasts to practice either parthenogenesis or self-fertilization, which is considered either taboo or just kind of gross in most other parts of the galaxy. (Not everywhere- but definitely a lot of places. Parthenogenesis is actually a fairly rare trait for necrontyr; it was considered one of the things that made Ithakka the Lawmaker holy by the original separatist cult. It's not something all of their descendents have shared due to the general weirdness/instability of necrontyr genetics.) So there's no mention of Oltyx and Djoseras's mother, because they only ever had one parent. (Does this make everything about Unnas ever so slightly worse? Sure does!)

If biotransference hadn't happened when it did, Djoseras would've been expected to start producing children as soon as it became clear that Oltyx wasn't going to live past the age of 20. (At one point someone probably floated the idea of ending the Ithakas-Ogdobekh war by marrying Oltyx to Zultanekh. Djoseras would've shot down that idea- and whoever suggested it- with extreme prejudice.) (Zultanekh still laughs about this on occasion. No one ever told Oltyx; Zultanekh certainly isn't going to.) (Zuktanekh would have suggested a contract marriage between himself and Djoseras; after all, would Zultanekh not have birthed the most magnificent sons to be seen in the history of either dynasty? Yes, yes he would have! Alas, it was not to be. Djoseras rejected Zultanekh's courting gift of sulfur wine, and anyway, Anathrosis and Unnas would have come together united in abject horror and rage at the idea.)

Ogdobekh courtship usually starts with gifts of food or wine, followed by fine metalwork- either weapons and armor, or jewelry. Ithakas courtship has similar beats, since they were an Ogdobekh subsidiary originally. They're more about subtle gestures and acts of service than material gifts, though. (Oltyx is not really aware of any of this; as kynazh, he would've been explicitly forbidden from courting because, again, Ithakas is fucking weird. Yenekh, on the other hand, would be familiar with the process, and probably had no shortage of suitors pre-biotransference. He was a little too busy being a war hero to entertain any of them seriously.) (His first true love is the sea the void fancy spaceships fancy swords duty to the dynasty.)

(Drazak courtship usually starts with fighting side by side in the horde; sharing kills, sharing food, sharing flesh. The hunger is always easier to bear when you find someone to share it with.)

Cryptek conclaves can get weird and varied as well; some are extremely insular, and any children born to members of the conclave would be raised and trained there. Others will excommunicate anyone who gets pregnant, because pregnancy interferes with certain schools of technomancy. (You cannot have a pregnant plasmancer. It ends badly for everyone involved. Chronomancy also tends to have unpredictable effects on developing embryos.) Those conclaves actively recruit new members from military and commoner castes, rather than relying on existing members to keep the population going. Generally, crypteks don't marry, because their legal obligations are to their conclave first, and then their patron.

Cryptek/noble or cryptek/merchant couples would be vanishingly rare, because most crypteks don't have the wealth or status to make a politically advantageous match. (Orikan is kind of an exception to that rule, and he would've had a number of people vying for his favor, though not so much in a courtship-leading-to-marriage kind of way. I'm torn between the idea of him slutting it up in the Sautekh court, or being universally repulsed by anyone he considers less intelligent than him. Could go either way.) Pre-biotransference, crypteks of different schools who didn't see each other as competition would be the most common pairing, but even then actual marriage would be rare. There's no wealth or power to inherit or share, so couples would be more common-law/informal.

Otherwise, it'd be bullshit academia rules dialed up to 11. "Did they...you know...publish research together?" "No, they were fucking in the library." "Oh, I thought it was something scandalous. Nevermind then."

[fainthedcherry]

HAPPY TURTLE TUESDAYYY TMNT FANDOMMM!!!! I have a treat for y'all artists who love to make TMNT OCs!!! If you love the 2012 era, you're gonna love this one too!!!

A FREE TO USE TMNT DARK HORIZONS FLASH GAME CHARACTER SELECT TEMPLATE, MADE FROM THE ACTUAL GAME SPRITES!!! (Scroll below for the Google Drive of the files, credits first to the artist though sorry! :D)

(ft also the fancy animation particles for when you get to this menu, for those who wanna add it too! (( the GIF is the raw version, without the effect settings/scripts added in Flash tho.)))

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND!! I DID NOT CREATE THESE ASSETS, NOR HAVE I DRAWN THEM

(I am an artist posting this, who has replicated the game's art as a fan, so I want to disclose clearly, that these are NOT MY WORKS HERE.)

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give all the credit to the SENIOR ART DIRECTOR working on this Flash game, Damian Aliberti and his team of artists from Quadramma (I could not find sources online that confirm who are said artists unfortunately, so I can only credit the art-director for now)!!!

He even made a page about this project, for his portfolio! Check it out, it's AWESOME!! (CLICK MEE / TAP MEEE)

^I didn't know they planned to bring this to mobile, so you can predict that I'm happy, that this game is still seemingly loved by the Italian studio that made it seemingly. x) (I can only assume they're Italian, due to the file-names, don't quote me on this though, barely any info exists on this Flash game as you can predict LOL)

GOOD NOW THAT YOU HOPEFULLY READ WHO MADE THE PRETTY ART: CLICK ME OR TAP ME FOR THE GOOGLE DRIVEE (drive provides the GIF, a PSD, SAI2, PNG and MDP file!! [the joys of owning several art programs, making this much more accessible to people :v])

btw, also like..Maybe not use this for commercial/profit purposes though, that'd be profiting off resources you didn't make, and that are copyrighted. I don't think that's legal. :"v

NO CREDIT REQUIRED. COMPLETELY F2U. I did not after all make the assets, nor will claim so. :V as I mentioned, I extracted these from the actual game, which is why these are all so crisp and nice looking, instead of me using a snipping tool like 2 yrs ago for my fun challenge of recreating the game's artstyle LOL

I do NOT claim these assets or the art I've extracted as my own, this is all purely from the game, and very obviously, these are I guess, owned by Nickelodeon, so I ask you ofc do not...Do some legally questionable things w/ this stuff sdfklsd, pls behave fans, I'd rather not get reported for something I didn't do for providing this to the internet. xD

--

Whilst credit would be nice, and linking back to this would be even nicer for other fans who might just like me,, wanna replicate this cool game's aesthetic sdfskldglk, it's optional, completely LOL. It did only take like 2 hrs to piece this stuff together, to look like a real screenshot thank god. xD

FEEL FREE TO SHOW ME IF YOU ALSO DRAW IN THE GAME'S STYLE OR WANNA BANTER ABOUT TMNT OCS OROROR YKNOW USED THE THING AND WANT ME TO SEE ITTTT I GLADLY STARE AT TMNT POSTS NO MATTER WHAT ERAAAAA~

I JUST WANT PEOPLE TO APPRECIATE THIS GAME'S ARTSTYLE NGL. THAT'S ALL I WANT. And if more ppl also would wanna draw in it it'd make me so happy. I am like...The most acoustic TMNT fan out there man, I have the weirdest wishes in mind xD

Hope anyone wants this orrr like needs it orr dreamt of doing this too orrrr just never thought about doing it, but now that a free template is out there, someone might also wanna do it!! I love whenever like- fandom templates and stuff is made. I plan to maybe make this a Toyhou.se code too, since I do have the raw files of the games and could try to see if I can replicate the animations and stuff and make it non-premium and premium!

(Maybe I should make fandom codes more often in general tho at the topic of that, did it before for Terraria and helped out w/ a Monster High code, to give it a mobile compatible version LMAO)

If anyone or me figures out the artists behind the sprites, I'd gladly show them too, bc GORGEOUS GAME MAN!!!! THEY DESERVE ANY PRAISE THEY GET FOR THE ART AND THE GAME ITSELF ANSAHSHAJS, here I go again I swear, I'm done yapping now. I should participate in internet olympics when it comes to writing essays in every post I ever made. xD

[demystify-2025]

The Advisory Board

There are 54 groups listed on "The Project 2025 Advisory Board". While most of them are relatively straightforward, there are a few that I don't truly have the background to understand without doing a deep dive. Those are noted in the summary of the group.

Here we go. I hope you all understand just how confused my FBI agent must be right now. (Hi, Ken.)

Alabama Policy Institute: its mission statement claims it "honors the principles of free markets, limited government, and strong families." Looking further down their About page, they support the right of a person to be protected from "liberalizing social conventions". Their "abortion and adoption" page offers a list of Pregnancy Resource Centers and proclaims the "Pro-Life Legacy". Curiously, I am unable to find anything regarding "strong families" under their 'social policies' section.

Alliance Defending Freedom:The main link on Google takes me to a page asking me to "Become a monthly partner and help defend your God-given rights year-round!" I have to delete everything after the ".org" to see their website and any other page, which is a) terrible website design and b) a violation of Google's Terms of Service regarding obfuscating links. Anyway. The ADF's feature article on 7/15/2024 is about challenging the current Title IX, which would include gender identity as a protected class under sex-based discrimination. They are a conservative Christian lobbying group.

American Compass: A conservative economics group that believes "markets require rules and institutions to work well, that they are a means to the end of human flourishing and exist to serve us". This is a group that I don't have the economic background to truly understand, but their "family" page prioritizes marriage and children. Refreshingly, it doesn't say a word about religion or what constitutes a family. I'll have to dig more deeply into this one.

The American Conservative: A magazine that's exactly what it says on the cover. The blog posts seem reasonably fair; one of the ones I read regarding the dismissal of Trump's document mishandling case took care to note that Cannon, the judge in question, was appointed by Trump. According to Wikipedia, TAC "opposes unchecked power in government and business, promotes the concept of the nuclear family, free markets, and supports realism and restraint in foreign affairs based on America's national interests."

America First Legal Foundation: Quote from their front page: "With your support, we will oppose the radical left’s anti-jobs, anti-freedom, anti-faith, anti-borders, anti-police, and anti-American crusade."

American Accountability Foundation: A group that "deploys aggressive research and investigations to advance conservatism, while heavily scrutinizing politicians, political appointees, establishment organizations, and government policies. Every day, our work is exposing the truth behind the people and policies of the Biden Administration that threaten the freedoms of the American people."

American Center for Law and Justice: A group focusing on legal challenges to unconstitutional oversteps. Their "About" page mentions successes that are examples of clear overreach, like people being banned from the National Archives for wearing a shirt reading "March4Life". However, from their "Life & Liberty Drive" page, their underlying philosophy beomces clearer: "Israel is under violent attack, as Biden betrays our ally. The Left is waging war on our Christian faith, banning Bible studies...And Planned Parenthood is using your tax dollars to expand abortion on demand, as the Deep State shreds the Constitution."

American Cornerstone Institute: Again, the link on Google goes directly to a donation page where I'm unable to access the rest of the website. Terrible design choice; I'm trying to learn more about you and your first step is asking me for money. From their About page: "ACI will remain a non-partisan, not-for-profit institute". Their website prominently promotes faith-based solutions.

American Council of Trustees and Alumni: ACTA's mission is to "promote academic excellence, defend academic freedom, and ensure accountability". Their members have testified before Congress about student disruption of guest speakers that "prevent speakers from voicing disfavored (generally, conservative) viewpoints".

The American Main Street Initiative: The 'about' page of AMSI says they focus on issues that matter to most Americans, but gives no details on what those issues are. The front page list COVID conspiracies and claims "Americans are no longer safe in their cities".

American Moment: AM believes that "he American family, rooted in faith and tradition, is the bedrock of this nation and must be supported" and that "Government has a moral responsibility to foster public virtue". The other 8 priorities they list include immigration, China, law & order, trade policy promoting the middle-class lifestyle, and limiting the power of "multinational corporations".

American Principles Project: The APP bills itself as "America's top defender of the family" and proclaims, "We want to impose a political cost on the Left’s anti-family extremism. If they want to attack parental rights, confuse young children about changing their gender, undermine the ability of parents to protect their children’s innocence, or drive a wedge between parents and children in education, then they are going to be punished at the polls."

Center for Equal Opportunity: CEO claims to promote colorblind agendas in hiring and diversity. In February, they announced that they had sent a letter to the American Bar Association taking issue with the fact that their Diversity Clerkship Program gave preferential treatment to minority groups - POC, women, and people who are queer, disabled, or come from a disadvantaged background.

Center for Family and Human Rights: You already know what they stand for, solely by the name. One of their core values is "Fidelity to the teachings of the Church" (capitalization theirs); their mission is "To defend life and family at international institutions and to publicize the debate."

Center for Immigration Studies: Per their About page, "The Center is animated by a unique pro-immigrant, low-immigration vision which seeks fewer immigrants but a warmer welcome for those admitted." Their 'topics' menu links to "Biden Border Crisis", "Sanctuary Cities", "Welfare Use", "National Security" and both Legal and Illegal Immigration pages.

That's just the first fifteen! I have to break up the block of bullet points because it turns out Tumblr has a 4096-character limit on these things. Go drink some water.

Center for Renewing America: Their "mission is to renew a consensus of America as a nation under God with unique interests worthy of defending that flow from its people, institutions, and history"; "God, country, and community are at the heart of this agenda."

Claremont Institute: "We take the lead in DC through our Center for the American Way of Life, which is devoted to restoring political liberty by arming the Right with moral confidence, ideas, and new policies, while working to undermine the Left's hold over America's institutions and conscience."

Coalition for a Prosperous America: CPA is "a bipartisan coalition of farmers, ranchers, manufacturers, and labor organizations that make and grow things in the United States. Our members believe that America’s strength and well being is based upon growing America’s productive capacity and quality employment more than cheap consumption."

Competitive Enterprise Institute: The tagline is "40 Years of Eliminating Excessive Regulation and Unleashing Human Potential". They don't provide an easily-findable summary of their major positions to see how their actions back up their tagline.

Conservative Partnership Institute: "CPI provides a platform whereby citizen leaders, scholars, and activists who are committed to conservative values and principles can be connected with the conservative movement, and with Congress, congressional staff, and organization leaders in Washington, D.C.  " They're a networking group.

Concerned Women for America: CWA "protects and promotes Biblical values and Constitutional principles through prayer, education, and advocacy".

Defense of Freedom Institute: DFI is another "Constitutional"/"First Principles" group. From their Civil and Constitutional Rights page: "America is facing a historical moment, when many are pushing for policies that violate core constitutional and civil rights essential to a free society. DFI exists to defend the Constitution and the rule of law and protect civil liberties at school and work."

Ethics and Public Policy Center: EPPC works to "apply the riches of the Jewish and Christian traditions" to public policy.

Family Policy Alliance: FPA wants the USA to be a nation where "God is honored, religious freedom flourishes, families thrive and life is cherished!" (Snarky side note: Nothing says 'religious freedom' like promoting one religion to be honored above all others.)

Family Research Council: FRC wants to "serve in the kingdom of God by championing faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview."

First Liberty Institute: First Liberty "has been leading the fight to reclaim religious freedom in America." You may recognize them from defending the baker who wouldn't make a cake for a gay wedding.

Forge Leadership Network: FLN is a networking group who wants its members to "examine public policy and ethics from a Judeo-Christian worldview".

Halfway there! Just 27 more to go. Now's a good time to stretch it out.

Foundation for Defense of Democracies: FDD is a nonpartisan, nonprofit national security organization. In their individual policy pages, they imply that COVID was a biological weapon.

Foundation for Government Accountability: FGA claims to "advance policies that improve lives." At the same time, they are against ranked-choice voting and claim, "Mail-in and absentee ballot are a big problem when it comes to election fraud and ballot harvesting"

FreedomWorks: FW is a bland website that talks about individual liberty, draining the swamp, and smaller government. They're light on actual policies that they back, and several of their internal links are broken.

The Heritage Foundation: If you're reading this far into a post about the contributors to P2025, you exactly who THF is. Their mission statement: "Heritage’s mission is to formulate and promote public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense."

Hillsdale College: A private religious college with about 1400 undergrads that proudly boasts it was the first to admit both women and men. From their statement, "The College values the merit of each unique individual, rather than succumbing to the dehumanizing, discriminatory trend of so-called “social justice” and “multicultural diversity.""

Honest Elections Project: THey describe themselves as "a nonpartisan group devoted to supporting the right of every lawful voter to participate in free and honest elections". They also want "fair, reasonable, common sense measures" in place to protect against fraud.

Independent Women's Forum: They claim to focus on educating women about relevant policy. Their front page prominently displays anti-transgender messaging. They also back JD Vance as Trump's VP pick.

Institute for the American Worker: A group that claims to protect workers' rights. Going into the 'news' section reveals them to be anti-union.

Institute for Energy Research: They believe that "freely-functioning energy markets provide the most efficient and effective solutions" and that "Government policies should be predictable, simple, and technology neutral."

Institute for Women's Health: From their "What We Do" page: "The Institute for Women’s Health is committed to building coalitions that revolutionize women’s access to care." Looking through their op-eds, they are primarily an anti-abortion group.

Intercollegiate Studies Institute: Their header proclaims, "Your time at college is too important to feel isolated or attacked for questioning the ever-narrowing range of debate on campus. Get the education you deserve. Explore intellectual conservatism; Join a vibrant community of students and scholars; Defend your principles".

James Madison Institute: Not to be confused with James Madison University, JMI believes in "free markets, limited government, and economic liberty".

Keystone Policy: A group focused on "bringing leaders together". They focus on education, civic engagement, and tribal policy.

That's 40! We're almost through.

The Leadership Institute: TLI "provides training in campaigns, fundraising, grassroots organizing, youth politics, and communications. The Institute teaches conservatives of all ages how to succeed in politics, government, and the media." They furnish lists of their recruits to other conservative organizations.

Liberty University: A private religious college.

National Association of Scholars: From their about page, "We expect that ideas be judged on their merits; that scholars engage in the disinterested pursuit of the truth; and that colleges and universities provide for fair and judicial examination of contending views. We expect colleges to offer coherent curricula and programs of study."

National Center for Public Policy Resarch: NCPPR is a "non-partisan, free-market, independent conservative think tank" whose mission is "to grow the freedom movement by taking our message to new constituencies to secure liberty now and for future generations."

Pacific Research Institute: PRI claims, "public policy is too important to be left just to the experts." Their mission "is to champion freedom, opportunity, and personal responsibility for all individuals by advancing free-market policy solutions".

Patrick Henry College: A "conservative Christian college" that is "equipping Godly leaders".

Personnel Policy Operations: PPO believes "There are many opposition groups to the policy implementation of an America First agenda, such as the radical left, corporate media, tech companies, leftwing NGOs, and other activists". They firmly believe in the America First ideology.

Recovery for America Now Foundation: An addictions recovery group who believes "the Miracle of Recovery should be available to all. Our foundation was born out of our belief that all human beings possess intrinsic value, and that nobody is too sick to recover." They are currently working to repeal IMD, which limits recovery options available to Medicaid subscribers.

1792 Exchange: They work to "develop policy and resources to protect and equip non-profits, small businesses and philanthropy from “woke” corporations, to educate Congress and stakeholder organizations about the dangers of ESG (environmental, social, and governance) policies, and to help steer public companies in the United States back to neutral on ideological issues so they can best serve their shareholders and customers with excellence and integrity."

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America: An anti-abortion advocacy group.

Texas Public Policy Foundation: "The Foundation’s mission is to promote and defend liberty, personal responsibility, and free enterprise" (emphasis theirs). Their front page mocks Democrats for not winning a statewide election in 30 years, then their about page says "The public is demanding a different direction for their government".

Teneo Network: The Teneo Network believes in limited government; a "transcendent order" based on religion, philosophy, or tradition; strong national defense; and free enterprise.

Young America's Foundation: Another group decrying the state of conservatives on college campuses. They want to make sure that American students "understand and are inspired by the ideas of individual freedom, a strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values."

And that's it for the listed contributors! Next post, we'll be getting into the meat and potatoes of Project 2025.

[guillemelgat]

I’m sorry to be Like This 24/7 but this is your daily reminder that here are valid ways to refer to Catalan:

català (Catalan name)

Catalan (English name)

catalán (Spanish name only)

....and here are not valid ways to refer to Catalan:

catalá

catalán (when speaking English)

Please, I’m begging you, if you want to use the accent MAKE IT IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. If you’re writing in English and can’t retain that, I promise it’s okay to use the English-language term (and if you’re writing in Catalan please learn ASAP that á does not exist, there’s only à). Thank you for your time :)

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hi! So I'm writing this story where a cold, calculating Serial Killer-Killer adopts the baby of his last victim (who was a single father). But I'm kind of stuck on what difficulties my main character could face (he's VERY inexperienced when it comes to taking care of kids and he's trying to still do his "job" of hunting killers). Do you have any advice on what problems I could throw his way?

Serial Killer Becomes Adoptive Parent

There's a lot to unpack here...

1) Why does this man decide to adopt the baby? If he's "cold and calculating" it's not likely to be out of affection for the child, a desire to experience the joy of parenting, or a moral concern for the child's welfare. Pretty much all that leaves is self-serving reasons, and someone who becomes a parent entirely for self-serving reasons is going to face different challenges than someone who becomes a parent at least partly for selfless reasons.

2) People can't just point at an orphaned child and say "I adopt you," and off they go on their merry way together. The only way that could happen is if he kidnaps the baby after committing the crime, and takes it home to raise it in secret. Otherwise, the baby would presumably be found by whoever discovers the crime scene, taken into police custody and then custody of Child Protective Services. CPS would look for the victim's next of kin to find someone to take the baby. If no one could be found, the baby would go into the foster care system and eventually be adopted by certified parents who are already working with the system and are waiting to adopt a baby.

3) That said, the only way he could officially adopt the baby would be if none of the victim's family or friends came forward and the serial killer was able to successfully falsify records and pretend to be a close relative of the victim. In that case, if CPS evaluated him and felt that he was a safe and qualified person to take the child in, then they'd probably release the baby to him and put him on the path to adopting it (which is a lengthy and involved legal process.) So, at that point, I think you'd need to consider whether or not this "cold and calculating" serial killer could appear to be a loving, responsible, and capable parent with the means to adequately provide for the child financially.

4) Assuming that the serial killer kidnaps the child from the crime scene, before it's discovered by anyone else, the challenges he'd face in raising this child would be much greater than simply being inexperienced...

Does this man have friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, or service people that he interacts with even occasionally? If so, how will he explain the sudden appearance of this child?

The discovery of a murdered man whose baby has gone missing is going to be big news, and that baby's photo and details will be splayed across television screens, billboards, and social media feeds probably nationwide. That will make things mighty difficult for the serial killer when he suddenly has a baby in his care, especially when that baby's face is currently big news. How is that going to work?

Required immunizations, doctor and hospital visits, daycare, and school are just some of the things that will be tricky for the man to obtain for the baby without a birth certificate or other official government documents. These can be faked, certainly, but every use of fake documents puts the man at risk of being found out. And if he's found to be in possession of a child who was kidnapped from his parent's murder scene, it's a short leap for the police to realize the man is actually the killer.

5) Assuming you can figure out a way around all of that, or if you simply want the child in his care for some amount of time before he's discovered, here are some general "inexperienced parent" issues he might come up against:

Sleep Disruption - babies and small children rarely sleep through the night and to a decent hour of morning. They tend to wake up (babies will cry) multiple times throughout the night, and are often awake for the day as early as four or five a.m. This can be challenging for anyone who suddenly finds themselves taking care of a child.

Feeding Issues - babies and small children require a lot of nutrition, but sometimes feeding them properly can be a struggle. They may not want to eat or may not eat the amount they're supposed to. They can be picky, entirely refusing some foods. They can also be very messy eaters, requiring clothing changes, baths, and massive clean-up efforts after some meals.

Crankiness & Tantrums - Sometimes babies and small children scream and cry incessantly. They might be tired (but unwilling or unable to sleep), hungry, gassy, in pain, frustrated, need a diaper change, or not feeling well. Sometimes, even if you try everything you can to address and relieve potential issues, they just want to scream. This can be very frustrating, even for experienced parents.

Parental Exhaustion - Babies and small children are a lot of effort. Not only are you probably beginning your day on a sleep deficit, you're going to spend your day changing diapers (8-12 changes per day for 0-1 year olds), preparing and feeding meals (several times per day), bathing/cleaning up, soothing when crying or tantruming, playing with them/interacting with them (making sure baby gets "tummy time" and crawling/walking practice), taking them outside/going for walks, cleaning up after them... It may be rewarding for people who want a child, but it's still mentally and physically exhausting, especially without help. And, given this man's situation (and all the things addressed in #4), is it likely he would have any help?

Aging - This is a long-term one, but something to consider depending on the timeline of your story. Babies grow up, and eventually they need companions, need to go to school, require medical care, and start asking hard questions like "who is my mom" or "why don't I look like you?" What will the man do when this happens?

Hopefully that gets the ball rolling in the right direction for you! Good luck with your story!

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[ae-diaries]

My Life Testimony

Warning: Long post ahead

The content of this blog has me holding a secret I've kept hidden for a long time. I'm a bit hesitant to share my personal story because others (who knew me already) may be shocked or turned off 😅, but hopefully, the thoughts would bless someone and help you face your weaknesses and rise above them. This is a celebration of the greatest miracle I received from God. I never thought that miracle was real, until circumstances proved that it is possible. 

Foremost in my mind is when I was a high school kid. My life was symbolized by the microphone; I’d been exposed to sing in front of a crowd, be it in school or amateur singing contests. It's not to boast but it felt like I was a singing sensation back then, others dubbed me as 'songbird', 'sweet nightingale' to name a few 🤣. But when no one's looking, I felt, for lack of a better description, just off. This was caused by a certain physical condition that tear down my self-image. 

It all began when my mother noticed that I had an uneven shoulders when I was 13 years old. Later on, I was diagnosed with scoliosis measuring a 20-degree curve, and so my doctor from PGH gave me various stretching exercises and required me to wear a brace to prevent the curve from worsening or else surgery awaits me.

I freaked out inside. At the back of my mind, I wondered, “Why me?”. From then on, a hidden scar symbolizes my 'private' life. People might not notice it, but really I was riddled with inferiority complex and lack of self-worth. Nakakaiyak isipin, imagine ako lang bukod tanging estudyante sa private skul na may ganitong klaseng kundisyon. How I pitied myself. Parang ayoko nang lumabas. Hiyang hiya ako. 

I usually cried and pahirapan pa every time my mother would be putting the brace into my body, kabilinbilinan niya wag ko daw aalisin para daw mapabilis paggaling ko, but there was this one time, while I was on my way to school, naisipan kong dumaan muna sa haus ng classmate ko para lang ipatago yung brace ko. And it happened many times. Ang bigat nyang dalhin, di lang sa katawan kundi pati narin sa kalooban. Later on, they found out what I was doing, until wala na silang nagawa sa tigas ng ulo ko. Fortunately, my classmates did not bully me in school; however, I was still very conscious and afraid that my crush would see me like a bionic kid. To this day, I have never told my parents about this reason. You know as a teenager, I was overly sensitive by the opinion of others. And that's all that matters to me. I didn't think of the consequences of this action. 

Fast forward to 2012, sabi nila end of the world na this year (according to Mayan calendar), feeling ko katapusan ko nadin when I went back to the doctor and learned that the deformity progressed to over 50 degrees. Reality finally hit me! A major surgery was needed to correct my S-curved spine. Why I didn't just wear that darn thing? I must admit nagpabaya ako as I was trying to live like a normal kid. At that time, I was already employed in my first job so I filed for a two-month leave. Luckily, my very understanding boss approved it. I also had an amazing orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Teodoro Castro, who explained to me the procedure (though it was as clear as mud to me). He was very reassuring, so I didn't get scared. 

And when he asked, "Kelan mo gusto magpa-opera?," Without a second thought, I replied, "Kahit po bukas na doc!". My thoughts were, "If not now, when pa?"( I felt like I was running out of time.) His eyes bulged upon hearing my immediate response! And so he set the schedule to May 16, 1 p.m (which I spent at Sta. Teresita General Hospital in Quezon City). 

It was exciting, really, though it had 'Final Destination' feels. Andaming 'what ifs', what if di ako maka-survive? Bigla kong naisip talagang 'life is short' at ang dami ko pa palang di nagagawa sa mundong ibabaw such as makapag-serve kay God through joining a spiritual ministry, to travel for a cause, makapag-abroad, makakanta sa tv, makita si Regine & Sarah, magamit license ko to teach students, maigala ang magulang ko, and to have my own family. Sana magawa ko pa ang mga ito after post-op. 

More so, I felt my family's collective fear; I could actually hear the loud beating of my parents' chest when they signed the waiver 🤣. My father had worries that my voice might deteriorate after the operation. Laying in my bed and knowing that I may be that close to dying, I delivered my prayer of surrender to God and remained fearless. The comforting lyrics of 'You made me Stronger' by Kelly Clarkson became my fight song while in the hospital.

Waking up after the operation was the highlight. Being groggy from the anesthesia, I opened my eyes, feeling like it's just a continuation of my short sleep. I saw the nurses and my family - patiently waiting for me to wake up for almost 6 hours na daw. The first thing I asked was, "Tapos na?" (many times). I felt a huge sigh of relief when they uttered the words that struck me to the core, "Oo, tapos na." S*** I couldn't believe my ears; I was flying with joy! For years I have prayed for this miracle. I wanted to shout and do any dance challenge, 🤣 but how could I do that? They were preventing me from talking yet or make any movements because a mask was surrounding my nose and a lot of apparatuses were attached to my body. Later on, I learned that my younger brother cried after seeing me survived the operation. May kadramahan din pala si brother na lagi kong kabangayan 😂. While the success of my operation wouldn't be possible if it weren't for the assistance provided by my father's company, DMCI Corp. That's why I'll always be indebted to their big boss, VAC (May his soul rest in peace).

My healing lasted for almost nine months. I never suffered from complications, just pure torture and regrets na sana di nalang ako nagpa-opera (huhu). This is no exaggeration but dinaig ko pa talaga ang na-cesarean. On the first month after my operation, I became disabled and reached levels of pain I thought never existed in human experience: It was difficult to breath; I could not stand and walk on my own; I became excessively skinny because of drug intake - this was a legal drug prescribed by my doctor which can remove the pain only for 4-6 hrs. It felt so pathetic and frustrating to see myself in front of the mirror. No matter how much I tried to be positive, my insecurities gripped me down again and again to the point of questioning God: "Is there a hope for me?", 

"How come others could breathe and walk so well? During these times, inggit na inggit ako sa mga taong nakakalakad at nakakahinga ng maluwag. Feeling ko life is so unfair. Somewhere deep inside, I believed I was ugly, that He really didn't like me and it was His punishment for all the sins I did in the past. As I poured out my grief before God, a question popped in my head: “Mira, give me reasons why you should remain grateful?.”

“Seriously, how can I be grateful in times like this?.”

But in those agonizing moments, a light of hope from my parents’ eyes illuminates my darkness. 

In all the times that I cried and complained, I never saw them get too tired to feed me or serve me even if it would make them uncomfortable to make me comfortable. I couldn't imagine how they felt when I looked down on myself. Aside from my parents, my siblings, concerned relatives and genuine friends also never left my side. It's as if they became my extra pair of legs when mine refuse to walk. And my heart is full of gratitude today because they have loved me during the times that I didn't love myself. 

I'm living a normal life now as if nothing happened but others observed that except for my angelic voice 🤣, I tend to become forgetful and a little bit of deaf (Yes to this level) - this was probably caused by my extra dose of antibiotics intake 🤣. They noticed that I walk with lightning speed, as if may hinahabol daw ako lagi - maybe subconsciously, this has something to do with my life goals. Yes, I do get tired easier that's why there are some things that I must not do such as lifting heavy objects, sport activities (except for swimming), washing a mountain of clothes 🤣, bawal ma-stress and ma-exposed sa extreme cold places 😅.

As they say, true wisdom is learning from your shortcomings. For everything that I'd been through, I realized that there's a lesson hidden underneath the pain and it was God's way for me to:

(1) strengthen my faith - It was through this difficult times that I also underwent a 'spiritual surgery/enlightenment'. It has helped me find my stride in God and pray like I have never prayed before (for I know nakalimot ako). I didn't know all His plans but surely He was turning my brokenness into greatness. 

(2) love myself, invest in my relationships and create good memories - The whole discernment gave me the courage to keep progressing. I began to accept my imperfections, pick up my self-esteem, and do the things I haven't done before: Much is to be done but so far, I already saw Miss Regine and Sarah in person, traveled to different places, got to teach students in schools, treat my parents - brought  them to concerts and resto; spent midnight snacks and watched movies with my siblings; hang-out with friends; reunited with a long lost friend; restored a broken relationship, and tried to forgive someone;

(3) appreciate the fine details of life - More and more, my wishes become simpler. I realized there is more to life than any material thing could give, and that is getting enough oxygen and optimal healing to every organ in my body. Sobra kong na-appreciate ang buhay ko, especially the air I breathe, and the legs that carry me everywhere.

Eto lang sapat na 'to be happy'. Why did I fail to notice this before? And that's also what I want to ask you, when was the last time you were thankful for the air around you? True to what they say, the best things in life are free, but the problem is we're not contented with what we have and complicate rules to experiencing happiness: “I will be happy only if I’ll be able to upgrade my phone, buy a latest collection of chanel bag, wear a new pair of sketchers shoes..” And I'm so guilty of it because I once was a shoppaholic before that I forgot to remember how 'enough' I truly have.   

As I look back, hagulhol nako sa iyak - there were tears in my eyes, but they were no longer tears of pain but tears of gratitude - thinking how would I survive without the amazing people in my life.

I believe that God wants me to write this article so that I could speak for Him and claim that today, I can go out without any worries because I'm no longer ashamed of the scar life has left me with. It's a blessing in disguise; a sign that I conquered pain and fear. Wala na sigurong pagsubok na di ko kakayanin dahil kinaya ko na yung 'pinakamahirap' because truly, life is about not giving up and trying to fix yourself up after every fall. 

I cannot make the scar disappear but by looking at it, I see a testimony of survival, inner strength and God's miracles. Jesus never said it wouldn't be easy, but He said it would be worth it!  - Matt. 7:13

#secondlife #lifetestimony #embracingmyscar

[dea-certe]

I really want so many people to see this post. If I have the power to make a post go Viral* or whatever, let this be the post.

My dad is a truck driver. He has been one since I was 5ish (I have memories of living in my grandmother's house behind her florist shop, from when he wasn't a truck driver, before he got his CDL, but I'm like 99.9% sure it was 4-6 that he started driving). I cannot, for the life of me, remember a time that he wasn't breaking the law by keeping 2 logs. Truck drivers are required to keep logs showing that they got the legally required amount of rest. The "legally required", the "the most amount we can have them work before they kill someone" logs were ridiculous. They can be found in detail here but the number one takeaway is not driving for longer than 14 hours. Now, have you ever spent 14 hours on the road? I have. My mother has. My father has. My sister has. My brothers have. Pretty much every adult in my extended family/friends-that-are-family group (over 100 people) has done so.

I want you to think about that drive. I want you to think about when it was over. Another big thing the law states is that they can drive 8 hours before they must take a 30 min break. So picture a drive where you've only gotten out to pee, stretch, get food and water, once in 8 hours. Now, at the end of it, 14 hours, you've now got to drive home (if you're lucky, someone can pick you up, but yards are rarely within 20 minutes of places to live). Then, finally, at last, you can shower and change and brush your teeth and move around. Most importantly, you can sleep. You have 9 hours to do that. Recommended sleep time is 8 hours but no adult I know gets that regularly. Usually 5-6 is good. Spend an hour with the kids after school, or see your friends and family, maybe even watch a movie or episode.

Now, do it again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. Because they can make you do this for 5-7 days before you have to have 34 straight hours off. And that's your life.

I want you to picture how goddamn exhausted and honestly sick of driving those people are when they get into their sedans and f-150s and challengers and drive home. On the same highways and frontage roads and city streets and school roads as everyone else. At any time of the day. Maybe while your new driver of a teenager is taking their siblings home.

That was my dad, and his friends at work, and the folks he met along the road, and the 3.6 million other CDL drivers on the road. Along with the new doctors. The parents who can't afford a sitter or daycare and so go to work at night while their day shift co-parent is at least at home with the kids; those folks are usually running on 2-3 hours of sleep a night at best, and often going 32+ hours without sleep for 5+ years until the kids go to kindergarten. Along with millions of other drivers going through their same crap.

This is all a long winded way of saying "People dying of lack of sleep due to health reasons or accidental reasons is responsible for approx. 500,000 deaths a year."

Sleep deprivation is just one of the things that working the American Average of 47 hours a week. Add up the other reasons (poor diet, untreated injuries and diseases, addiction, etc) and you've got a million or so people dying a year (at least) in large part due to our work culture.

So to answer "Who the fuck does 13 hour shift?"

Everyone, except the young and rich.

when you get off a 13 hour shift

[setepenre-set]

Set, I just have to ask. How is your writing process? I'm blown away by the speed you publish such quality stories at! What's your secret?? If you don't mind my asking :)

an anon also asked: 

How do you write so fluidly? You’re an inspiration and I’d love some tips or even just how you prep to write? Thank you, love your work!

Thank you so much! 

( I’ve got a number of other writing advice posts: one, two, three, four which you may find interesting. And, as always: remember that writing is an individual thing; a technique that works for one person may not work for another

I go through periods of intense hyperfocus and extreme productivity sometimes; I don’t know how to make them happen, sadly. but! I can give you some tips and go through what I do for prep work and my writing process!

I will use my fic Love and War as an example, so that you can see what I’m talking about. ( later on, there’s also an example from my fic Code: Safeword )

Step one is, of course, to get an idea for a story.

And the very important step two is to play out the story in your head–check that you can imagine a good and satisfying ending, that you have an idea for the beginning of the story, and a rough idea of how to get from the beginning to the ending.

So–my idea for Love and War: The Fairy Kingdom and the Dark Forest fought a war over the love ban / imprisonment of the Sugar Plum Fairy. The Dark Forest won, and Bog marries Marianne for political reasons. Eventually they fall in love.

There’s a satisfying ending there: “eventually they fall in love”

There’s a beginning: “Bog marries Marianne for political reasons.”

But did I know how to get from the beginning to the ending? I did not.

So I adjusted my ideas for the fic: Make it much shorter; a one-shot. Instead of having the ending be the demonstration of Bog and Marianne’s love, the ending will be the reader learning that this love will eventually come to pass. So all we need to see is the start of them falling in love.

Ending: the reader sees Bog and Marianne start to fall in love, and is assured that they will eventually be in love.

Beginning: Bog marries Marianne for political reasons.

Middle: We need a reason for Bog to start falling in love with Marianne, and a reason for Marianne to start falling in love with Bog.

In canon, Bog seems to start liking Marianne when she breaks through his skylight and attacks him. Marianne seems to start liking Bog when, after this fight, he leaves his weapon in the throne room, takes her to see her sister, and assures her that he’s working on an antidote.

Bog falls in love with Marianne’s sharp edges. Marianne falls in love with Bog’s kindness. And the whole thing centers around the two of them dueling.

So in the fic, Marianne challenges Bog to spar with her, gives him a sharp smile, and half-jokingly threatens to maim him. And Bog starts falling in love with her sharp edges.

And when he comes to her rooms to spar with her, Bog treats her as an equal, clearly enjoys fighting with her, and doesn’t even suggest that they consummate the marriage. And Marianne starts falling in love with his kindness.

And just like in canon, the whole thing centers around a duel.

So we have a beginning, a middle, and a satisfying ending, and the plot of the fic echoes the plot of canon in an interesting way, which is extra pleasing to me.

When I’m writing a one-shot, this is generally the extent of my prep-work; I start writing after this.

I wrote out the first chapter of Love and War, which follows the plot outline, and has the satisfying ending of them starting to fall in love.

After publishing the one-shot, several people asked me to continue the story, so I tried again to plot it out in my head. And, again, I couldn’t think of a middle bit. 

At this point in the prep-work, if you’re stuck for a plot, it can be useful to bounce ideas off of other people–and if you’ve already posted the one-shot, then comments and speculations from readers can be useful as well. 

Finding a middle for the story is sort of like finding the original idea for the story: it requires a certain amount of sudden inspiration–there’s usually an ‘ah-ha!’ moment when you figure out the plot.

Mine came when I read a comment from @displacerghost on the first, one-shot chapter. She mentioned that non-consummation is potentially very problematic in political marriages.

AH-HA!

Well, Marianne, as crown princess, would know that, of course, and so it would be likely that Bog, as king, would know that as well…but wouldn’t it be more interesting if, for some reason, he didn’t know? Cultural differences in marriage law–

–so you’ve got Marianne worrying over the non-consummation and…yes, she would try to come up with a way to solve this problem, and being who she is, she’d probably favor an attempted coup–

–but that’s a secretive thing; it’s something that only Marianne will be doing; this story is working towards the satisfying ending of Bog and Marianne’s happily ever after, so the plot absolutely needs something for Bog and Marianne to be doing together while they’re falling in love…

–cultural differences in marriage law–cultural differences in all laws! And of course since their kingdoms are united, now, they’ve got to come up with a unified law code!

Play out the story mentally:

Beginning: Bog and Marianne’s political marriage, the start of them falling in love.

Middle: Bog and Marianne work together to create a unified law code while Marianne secretly plots a coup, and all the while the two of them are falling in love.

Ending: Marianne decides not to attempt a coup, she and Bog confess their love; happily ever after.

We have a beginning, a rough idea for a middle, and an idea for the end.

Time to work this plot out in more detail and outline!

For a while I didn’t outline stories until I was about a third of the way through them, but lately I’ve been working more with outlining them ahead of time. Love and War was definitely outlined.

The original outline for Love and War looked like this:

BREAKFAST, ARGUEROLAND VOLUNTEERS TO HELP COUPLAW CODE / FALL IN LOVE / MARIANNE PLOTSDAWN AND SUNNY ENGAGEDDIVORCE MISUNDERSTANDING / LOVE BAND LIFT

MARIANNE IS BITTERPLANNING WITH DAWNROLAND CALLED OFF

BOG AVOIDING MARI

DAY OF THE WEDDINGBOG COMES TO TELL HER ABOUT SEPARATIONF I N A L L Y   T H E Y    T A L K

AT WEDDING, EVERYTHING HAPPENS, ROLAND STARTS COUP, SUCCESSFUL, CONVINCES EVERYONE SHE TOLD HIM TO DO IT, DAGDA BELIEVESDAWN SAYS MARI WOULD NEVER STAGE A COUP DURING HER WEDDINGMARI COMMANDS THEM TO LET HER GO, SHE KICKS ROLAND’S ASS, CUTS HIS FACE AND THROWS HIM OUTPARTYMARI DRAGS BOG TO HER ROOMSEX SCENE HAPPY ENDING YAY!

You will notice that the plot of it is considerably different than how the actual story turned out–many of the details are missing (Imp, the love potion, all of the girls at the party, the trip to the Dark Forest, Griselda). And Bog and Marianne confess their feelings before the wedding / the attempted coup–and the tone of the sex scene is different; Marianne is clearly dominant in this version.

Outlines do change as the story is written–you get better ideas, details take shape; it’s very exciting! The outline isn’t there to force you to do anything; it’s just there to help you keep track of your thoughts. It’s a safety net, not a prison cell.

I typed this outline directly into the Love and War document, and then started writing the actual text of the story above the outline. That way the safety net was always visible to me, and I could cross off each plot point as I wrote it out, which is satisfying.

BREAKFAST, ARGUEROLAND VOLUNTEERS TO HELP COUP

(so satisfying!)

And as I write and details emerge, new plot points become necessary–I add these to the outline, and change things as needed.

ROLAND CALLED OFFMORE PLANNING WITH DAWN (TRANSITION)ROLAND PLOTS, CONVINCES GIRL TO GET POTION

BOG AVOIDING MARI, WEDDING PLANS, BOG AND MARI SING

TALK ABOUT SWORD DANCES

ROLAND TRIES LOVE POTION, IT FAILS

SWORD DANCE DEMO

MUSES ON FINALIZING THE LEGAL SEPARATION OF THEIR KINGDOMSROLAND TALKS TO PLUM, LEARNS ABOUT LOVE POTION,

BOG TAKES MARIANNE TO THE DARK FOREST, TALK WITH GRISELDA

ROLAND COMES UP WITH PLAN

DAY OF WEDDING IMP IN MARIANNE’S ROOMIMP TO ROLAND’S ROOMSFAMILY BREAKFAST WITHOUT BOGMARIANNE’S AWKWARD TALK WITH DAGDA

ROLAND ON THE WAY BACK FROM READING THE LETTER IN FRONT OF THE TROOPSIMP IN ROLAND’S ROOM

CELESTE NECKLACE SEARCHROLAND IN MIRRORBOG CAPE PAPERSBOG’S BOUQUET, NOT NOWCELESTE TAKES SWORDS TO BALLROOM, MARIANNE PUTS DAGGER IN POCKETCELESTE GOES TO ROLAND’S ROOM, FINDS MEMENTOS, FREES IMP

WEDDING, BANQUET, BALL BEGINS, FIRST DANCES, SWORD DANCE TO STARTGO! WE SURRENDER, NO WE DON’TROLAND’S PLAN UNFOLDS, DAGDA UNCERTAIN, MARIANNE DAGGER, SEARCHEDBOTTLE AND ACCUSATIONS, PUNCH, IMP, BOTTLE AND POTION FALL ON BOG, HE SEES DAWN FIRST, NO REACTIONCELESTE DOESN’T RECOGNIZE SCENT, APHRODISIAC NO NOTHING IF IN LOVEMARIANNE ACCUSES ROLAND OF DUSTING HERCELESTE SAYS HE MADE HER GET THE POTIONBELLA CLAIMS HAIRCELESTE MENTIONS NECKLACE, MARIANNE SUGGESTS THEFTROLAND POINTS OUT LETTERCELESTE MENTIONS DRAWERPOTION SHENNANAGAINSDAWN SAYS MARIANNE WOULD NEVER RUIN HER WEDDINGMARIANNE DEMANDS FREEDOM AND SWORDFIGHT, CUT, BANISH

NECKLACEBALL CONTINUESMARIANNE LEAVESBOG FOLLOWSDISCUSSION AT LAST

WINGSROBESNECKLACEBOTTLE, DRESSWINDOW SEAT, WALL, BED, NEW BED, EXCUSE FOR A PARTYHAPPY ENDING YAY!

You will notice that the details of the sex scene itself has now been outlined: wings, robes, necklace, bottle, dress, window seat, wall, bed.

As I wrote the story, my feelings on what the tone for the sex scene should be shifted–we see Marianne come into her own and take charge in the ballroom, which is good and emotionally satisfying. So the sex scene can be emotionally satisfying in a different way. Marianne’s spent this entire story feeling like the weight of the world is on her shoulders, like she has to manage everything all the time, has to always be strong. 

The sex scene is emotionally satisfying because it allows her to finally relax and let Bog take care of her–because she has gotten to a point where she trusts that letting him take charge right now won’t mean that he respects her less or gives her any less power in their relationship.

And it’s emotionally satisfying in regards to Bog because he’s spent the whole story feeling ugly and untrustworthy and now he’s allowed to really realize and revel in the fact that Marianne wants him so badly and trusts him so much.

You are allowed to change your outline as needed!

A note about plot–the big “action” moments in the plot should also be the big “emotion” moments for the characters. This is where my first outline was unsatisfactory! 

If Bog and Marianne confessed their love before the wedding, Marianne wouldn’t have spent the entire wedding in a state of emotional upheaval. She and Bog wouldn’t have been so emotionally overwrought about dancing with each other. And the drama the attempted coup would have been lost–Bog couldn’t have that big emotion moment of thinking Marianne had set up the coup, and surrendering to her, and Marianne couldn’t have that big emotion moment of saying that they don’t surrender and stepping in front of him. No extremely emotional sword dance! No intense misery concerning both of them being dusted with the love potion.

Do you see what I mean? Every big ‘action’ moment: the wedding, the dance, the coup, the sword dance, the love potion–needs to be a big ‘emotion��� moment for the characters. 

The things that happen have to matter to the characters not just on a surface level, but in a way that affects their inner emotional state of being.

Outline for the emotion, and write towards the ending. 

Having a good and satisfying ending is, in my opinion, the most important thing when writing a story. Everything that happens in the story is working towards that ending.

And this holds true for each chapter of a story as well! Every chapter should have a good and effective ending; the entire chapter should be leading up to it. Cliffhangers are generally effective, as are notes of despair, and uplifting notes.

The ending of Chapter 12 of Love and War is Roland shouting “go” to start the coup, and the line “and chaos erupted in the ballroom”. Clearly a cliffhanger!

But this is also something that the entire chapter has been working up to. Things are tense, and the tension has been wound tighter and tighter until finally chaos! And the cliffhanger!

Chapter 2 of Love and War has Marianne curling up on her bed in despair and thinking “you cannot trust anyone”. This–the note of despair–is an effective ending to the chapter because she has spent the entire chapter feeling as if things are steadily getting worse, and as if nothing she does improves things. The chapter has been working towards this moment of her despair.

Chapter 26 of Code: Safeword, on the other hand, ends with Megamind and Roxanne lying in bed together. Megamind tells Roxanne that, because of her, he’s trying to stop hating himself and to believe that she’s right about him. He asks her to try to like herself more, too, and to believe that he’s right about her. She says that she’ll try, and the two of them fall asleep. An uplifting note.

This chapter has also been working up to this point–there have been plenty of explosions of tension in the chapter–this ending is satisfying because, after the arguments and explosions of tension, we saw the two of them trying to begin the process of recovery–they’ve begun discussing their concerns and problems openly with each other, and have started to be emotionally honest. The uplifting note is a reward for the reader and the characters, an assurance that they really are beginning to recover.

Mechanics-wise, I write a chapter at a time, and when I’ve finished a chapter, I read through it once, proofreading and correcting as I go. Then I copy and paste the chapter into a separate document, and change the font to something completely different. (I write in helvetica; I change it to american typewriter.) If you write in a sans serif font, change it to a serif font, and vice versa; the change of font allows you to catch mistakes more easily.

If I catch a lot of typos during this read-through, I do another proofread. Repeat as needed until I manage to get through it without finding more than one or two typos.

Then I copy and paste the corrected chapter into the main document, delete the original, uncorrected text of that chapter, and save. And then either send to my beta reader (if I’m using one for the story) or post the chapter!

So! That is an example of my writing process, and some writing advice. I hope it is helpful!

-Set

[star-anise]

I'm in my last year of undergrad and I feel like everything has gone to shit. The past year and a half have been awful, i have depression, anxiety and im almost positive i have ADHD too. I feel like such a piece of shit because I keep asking for the extensions on projects and exams, and I'm afraid I'm gonna be this way forever. Sorry this is a lot but do you have any advice on how to take the first step in digging myself out of this hole ive created?

Okay, so it seems like you came in via this post. That’s pretty much my philosophy here. I don’t know if you’re gonna “be this way forever” or not--I know I will probably be the way I am (depressed, anxious, with ADHD) forever, but that isn’t necessarily the same as being a trash disaster on academic probation forever.

I’ll be honest, I kind of feel like after a year and a half, you’re kind of an expert on what you can do with two hands and a shovel. You’ve been digging yourself out as fast as you can, and it’s been a real struggle. I think it’s time for you to get actual help, as in, other people. Reaching out to me was a good first step. I can help you decide where to go from here.   

Keep it simple and take it slow. If you don’t know where to find any of this stuff, feel free to private message me your school’s website; I have a minor knack for reading organizational structures.

For the next week, pick ONE OR TWO of the following options. Even if they’re all good ideas, keep your goals manageable. And then, of those one or two, pick one or two SMALL ACTIONS you can do to pursue them, like looking up a number in your student handbook or making an appointment. If you do more, that’s great, but the siren song of our people is, “I’m gonna accomplish so much!” 

Without further ado: Some Options For Help

Your school’s Disability Services/Accessibility Office/Office of Inclusion/whatever they call it

You’re looking for the office that helps Deaf/Blind/mobility-impaired students succeed in school. Mental health falls under the same category. It’s their job to make sure your school is providing you with as much chance at an education as it would provide to someone who’s totally neurotypical. Tell them what you told me.

Stuff they can do:

Tell you what your school’s requirement is for documenting a disability

Give you information on local assessment and treatment options--what psych professionals locally are good? Is there a fund somewhere that will cover your testing? Does the student health centre have a psychiatrist?

Provide you with a letter that tells your instructors that giving extensions, having flexible schedules, or dropping penalties for non-attendance is a legal requirement to accommodate you. This is not necessarily a free pass--a professor may decide that some things are mandatory or non-negotiable--but it is an easy way to bring these problems up early, before they become an issue.

Help find your or fund you a tutor (more on this later)

Help you find other resources and services on your campus

Your school’s Counselling Centre/Wellness Services/Social Work Office/wherever they hide the shrinks

This is the place where they offer free counselling. If there’s walk-in, go to walk-in; if they can book an appointment in a week, go in a week; if there’s a three-month waitlist, get your name on the waitlist.

Funny story--I had graduated undergrad before I realized that students got free counselling on-campus. I’d been in therapy since I was 16, but five years of undergrad? Yeah, no clue. I was looking for therapists on Psychology Today and shelling out hundreds of dollars out of pocket, and there were hot and cold running therapists under my very nose.

In fact, there might be more than just therapists. The school I worked at had regular counsellors, and also a Learning Specialist, whose job included teaching people with executive function disorders like depression and ADHD how to study effectively!  It’s worth asking about.

When you see one of these people, it’s very tempting to think they are An Adult Who Is The Boss Of You. They will look at you, understand you with their expert knowledge, tell you what your deal is, and give you instructions on what to do now!  

In reality, therapists are not Sherlock Holmes, or profilers on TV. We can’t just look at you and go, “I see by the way you button your coat that you’re a middle child and ambiguity makes you uncomfortable.”  We rely a lot on “client report”--on what you say is true. Psychological assessment is a process involving interaction, not a detached observation of stable qualities. If a therapist says something about you that seems inaccurate, it is beneficial and good to say, “No, actually, I think you’re mistaken. To me, it looks more like...”

You’re recruiting an experienced co-traveller to go on a trip with you. They know a lot about rocks and trails and climbing harness, but they don’t know the territory you’ll be travelling together. So first and foremost, you want to find someone you want to go on a trip with: a therapist who is a good fit for you.

If you don’t like your assigned therapist, ask for a new one. We have an ethical responsibility to provide referrals when we can’t provide someone with the treatment they need, and since a good client-therapist relationship predicts therapy outcome like 70% of the time, simply not liking or trusting your therapist is a good enough reason to try somebody new. If you want you can just email them after the session and say, “I don’t think you and I quite clicked. With what you know now of my personality and issues, is there someone else in your office you can refer me to?”

Medication. Different medication.

Not gonna lie, going on antidepressants was like... getting the inside of my brain whitewashed. There was so much space. So much room. I could think and feel without being constantly smothered in negativity! And going on ADHD meds on top of that was like.. the thoughts that had always been slippery, unable to grasp or manipulate, suddenly became solid in my hands. I could grip them, slow them down, tell them to go somewhere else.

Both times, it took five to ten adjustments to get to the right cocktail and dosage. For example, I was on an antidepressant that stopped me from crying and freaking out all the time but killed my creative drive, so we added a drug that gave me more energy so I could write again. Then money got tight, we tried me on a generic, found that didn’t work, and found a way to pay for the first version. Each time, it meant seeing the doctor, trying a dose for two weeks or a month, and then going back to report progress and try adjusting it again.

Again: It’s a process, an interaction. It’s something you get a say in. And if you’re currently on meds--well, let me just say: If you sent me an ask like that, your meds aren’t doing their job. They’re not the right ones for you. So it’s time for an adjustment.

If you can get to or afford a psychiatrist, great! A general practitioner who’s known you for a while will often do. And if you need to, well, I’ve gotten my meds adjusted by a different doctor every time at a walk-in family practice clinic. You do what you can. Information on who and what is available is often why Disability Services is a great resource--who knows, maybe there’s a psychiatrist on campus you can see for free who sees the depression/anxiety/ADHD trifecta all the time!

(General life tip: When they give you an assessment for depression, anxiety, or ADHD, don’t downplay your symptoms. Answer the way you would on a bad day or when you’re struggling. Of course you know how to cope with these challenges, but the unfair part is that you have to cope with them at all)

A tutor or academic coach

This never occurred to me for a long long time, because I was always a “smart kid”, and I always thought tutors were for people who didn’t intellectually grasp the material. Meanwhile: Surprise! I have a developmental disability that significantly impacts my learning! My grad school put me on academic probation and effectively foisted a person of this job description on me, and it was the BEST THING EVER.

If you’ve ever felt like you would work so much better if only you had someone sitting there all the time making you work? Or a sympathetic friend who could help you break it down and be less overwhelming? If the only time you get your work done is when someone else asks you about it? This is the person for you.

Most schools provide these services to students for free, or subsidize disabled students’ tutoring. If all else fails, you can find a tutor on your own and say, “I get this stuff intellectually, but I really need someone who makes me spend time with it, because left to myself I’d get anxious and ignore it all until the night before the deadline.”

If you have good friends who can do this for you, that’s great too--but the biggest objection to the post that brought you here is, “I’m depressed and socially anxious--I don’t HAVE anybody to help!”  So this post is aimed at linking you up to people whose explicit job it is to help you--people you, your insurance, or your tuition dollars directly pay for.

[asianhistory]

Hey, do you know anything about Chinese immigration to America, especially paper sons and illegal immigration, before 1910, when Angel Island facility opened? I'm writing a story on a character who is Chinese and has to illegally emigrate from China to America by pretending to be a rich, legal man's deceased son to join his father in the late 1880s. Also, how much did the average Chinese farmer make in terms of wen and money? Thanks

Roughly speaking, you’re talking about 28 years between the Chinese Exclusion Act and the opening of Angel Island. This ask will be reblogged to @ushistoryminuswhiteguys, because it’s slightly better suited there, but I’ll answer here anyways.

That said: the larger influx of “Paper Sons” spikes after 1906. This is because in 1906, a fire sweeps San Francisco after the great Earthquake, and it’s the fire that destroys public birth records at the City Hall of Records. Because of this, Chinese men already living in the United States start to claim that they are born American citizens whose birth certificates were lost in the fire. 

 Chinese men already living in the SF area obtained U.S. birth certificates, claimed citizenship, and then claimed sons that were still in China. Because those men now had American citizenship, their paper “sons” could therefore also be eligible for American citizenship. 

Earlier “paper son” arrangements relied on testimonies and documentation that could be sold:

While trying to enforce the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the courts and U.S. Immigration documented the identities of existing Chinese in America.  Much of the documentation was based on oral evidence given by existing Chinese residents during court challenges.  Included in these documents were details of family history and village life.  This set of documentation became the first set of “paper son” certificates sold to people in China.

- My Father was a Paper Son

Those declared sons on paper would be sold as “slots” 

Prior to 1882, you don’t really need a paper son certificate, and prior to 1906, it’s not quite as easy to fake a paper son unless you’re referring to someone who was definitely born in the US. 

The first immigrants from China to California were in 1848, so you’re talking about someone who is an American born Chinese man who can’t be much older than 33ish in 1882, (so about 39-40 in 1888-1889)***, has the money/means with which to sponsor a paper son, and managed to meet all the requirements of the Exclusion Act, plus the 1888 Scott Act (prohibiting Chinese residents from being able to leave and then return to the U.S.). This rich man wouldn’t be able to leave to get his “son,” and the son wouldn’t be able to arrive without certification from the Chinese Government. 

***Naturalization would have been impossible due to the Naturalization Act of 1790, prohibiting Naturalization for non-white peoples in the U.S.  

The Exclusion Act outlined that the Chinese government would provide documentation stating that an immigrant was not a “laborer”:

That in order to the faithful execution of articles one and two of the treaty in this act before mentioned, every Chinese person other than a laborer who may be entitled by said treaty and this act to come within the United States, and who shall be about to come to the United States, shall be identified as so entitled by the Chinese Government in each case, such identity to be evidenced by a certificate issued under the authority of said government, which certificate shall be in the English language or (if not in the English language) accompanied by a translation into English, stating such right to come, and which certifi- cate shall state the name, title or official rank, if any, the age, height, and all physical peculiarities, former and present occupation or profession, and place of residence in China of the person to whom the certificate is issued and that such person is entitled, conformably to the treaty in this act mentioned to come within the United States. Such certificate shall be prima-facie evidence of the fact set forth therein, and shall be produced to the collector of customs, or his deputy, of the port in the district in the United States at which the person named therein shall arrive.

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. [See also: US Nat’l Archives]

So in sum, it’s not really terribly likely from 1882-1906. Perhaps if this man was a merchant with documentation from the Chinese government who collaborated that the son was indeed his - pretty much only merchants had been able to bring both their wife and children to the U.S. 

The only exception I can think of would be this:

SEC.13. That this act shall not apply to diplomatic and other officers of the Chinese Government traveling upon the business of that government, whose credentials shall be taken as equivalent to the certificate in this act mentioned, and shall exempt them and their body and house- hold servants from the provisions of this act as to other Chinese persons.

Otherwise I’m not sure it’s very believable - just because it was so difficult outside of very specific circumstances like being in the employ of a government official, or pretending to be the son of a documented Chinese merchant. 

If you can push it back or forwards a few years (either pre-1882, or post-1906), then you have more wiggle room. I don’t have the average Chinese farmer’s salary of the time, except to say that Southern China (and the Qing dynasty as a whole) was suffering from the aftermath of two Opium Wars, the Nian Rebellion, the Taiping Rebellion, etc. 

Feel like that helped? Tips appreciated for Asian History - Keep History Diverse!

[possible-modernist]

​​​​After much delay, I thought I would pick up on the point you made here about multiple levels of optimizers. As a caveat, I feel like I'm not sufficiently conversant in some of the terminology that is being deployed (ironically, since the original post is about clearing up terminology), and I'm especially unconvinced it makes sense to speak here in terms of base and mesa optimizers. Nevertheless, I'll just try to build things up starting from where I see the light.

For me, the cleanest example of a reference system for working with many of these concepts is a multiplayer strategy game (think Risk, Catan, all that has grown from that). One of course could substitute more stripped down, precise examples (e.g., Chess, Poker), but I like the fullness of the example provided by games with a fair bit of flavor.

Games such as these provide particularly nice examples, if we take them at face value, because there is a well defined objective for each player (basically, get the highest score), and a well defined set of rules. In practice of course things are somewhat more complicated than that. One relevant question that arises is, how does one player manage to win at such a game?

In many cases, luck may be one component. Sometimes the dice just happen to land a certain way. There is also some component of what we might call cleverness or skill -- basically the ability to see more moves into the future, or to better anticipate what others will do, or to work the social dynamics to encourage players to take certain actions, etc. Finally, there can also be tremendous value in knowing the rules. This might seem trivial, but is actually quite important in practice, in part because the rules for such games can often be quite baroque. (For a simpler example, one can imagine someone losing a game of chess because they didn't know that capturing en passant was a legal move).

There are two things which make such settings fundamentally unusual. First is the fact that such games (again, almost but not quite) exist as closed worlds, where the objectives are perfectly well defined and don't bleed over beyond the start and end of the game. Second is the fact that there actually is (usually, hopefully) a well-defined set of rules. In principle, one can simply consult the rule book to determine the proper ruling for any edge case, though the expertise of a rules lawyer may be required to parse them in some instances.

There are, of course, multiple ways in which this idealization tends to break down in practice. The first is that the in-game objective isn't necessarily a player's only true objective. For many (most?) people, there is likely a higher order objective, which is something like have fun (though some people really just do want to win), or perhaps to create a positive experience for all, such that there will be additional games in the future.

Second is the existence of the metagame. This can be made quite formal, and I think traces its roots to trying to make sense of iterated prisoner's dilemma games, but has a much more interesting texture in the board game arena. Assuming you're going to play the same game (or even a variety of games) with the same people over an extended period of time, doing well in general may become more important than winning any particular game, and this may influence one's decisions with respect to things like trust and even apparent competence. (Of course for the true aficionado, it only adds to the challenge when everyone else already expects from the beginning that you are going to inevitably win).

Third, for any reasonably complex game, it is naturally impossible (or at least very hard) to write down the rules with sufficient clarity and detail such that no ambiguous cases remain. It is a delight to find a rulebook that is sufficiently clear and comprehensive, but the more typical experience is finding gaps and confusion. Community-driven solutions will often merge (FAQs, etc.), but in the moment, there may be no obvious way to resolve a discrepancy in the rules, and such a discrepancy is probably most likely to be noticed when at least two parties have conflicting investments in the outcome. A sensible strategy might be to have a house rule in place for how to resolve such disagreements (e.g., voting), but already we are sipping beyond the rules as defined on paper. Turning to the best accredited rules lawyer provides another alternative (perhaps they could say what would usually be the case in a game by this designer, for example) but of course they must be careful not to overextend themselves, lest they risk their credibility.

I'm getting somewhat more bogged down in this idealized scenario than I intended, but I do think it is useful to have in the back of one's mind. The main thing I want to suggest here is that the key differences between such games and everything else is that outside of such constructed scenarios, a) objectives are less singular and more varied; b) the rules, such as they are, are typically not well defined; and c) everything is in game.

It is definitely useful to consider a system like the stock market, which has many similarities to a more traditional game, in so far as there are clearly many players, most of whom are pursuing more or less the same objective (making as much money as possible, over some particular time horizon, within some acceptable level of risk, or maybe just doing better than the next person), and what seems like a set of rules which governs everything. Unfortunately that is very much a simplification because a) the lack of a clear end state makes any evaluation transitory and contingent; b) the prize in this case has much more significance than an in-game score (to the point where we can meaningfully talk about the overall effect of people getting richer); and c) the rules are not only not well defined, they are not even fully established, and are subject to both revision, clarification, and filling in the empty spaces, for a cost. This is somewhat important in the stock market case, but critical in many more typical scenarios.

I'm finally getting closer to the thought which originally motivated me to write about this, and which now feels like a sidebar, but one thing which I think is interesting is that the notion of efficiency / adequacy (to the extent that I understand them) seem to depend on something like a kind of utilitarian premise, in which the overall goodness of a configuration can be simply computed as a sum of individual value functions. If we accept such a premise, then one way of interpreting efficiency / adequacy is whether there is another possible configuration of people's choices in which everyone would be better off. If so, then it would seem obviously preferable to move towards that, though there may nevertheless be things which prevent such movement (making it an inadequate equilibrium?), as you and Crispy have discussed above. The reason I think this requires some sort of big-U thinking, is that it seems computationally intractable to evaluate possible states if the overall value depends on individual values which in turn depend on the value of all others. At a minimum, it would seem to be far less likely that one would be able to find any state in which literally everyone would be better off than wherever one presently is

That of course is a high bar, and perhaps too high. In some sense the "magic" of markets is Adam Smith's basic insight that, under the right conditions, everyone pursuing one's self interest can make everyone better off on average (even if not actually better for everyone), and perhaps that is all we want from efficiency. The giant caveat here is the "under the right conditions" clause, which finally brings us to the question of where such systems come from.

In the case of board games, some individuals have taken it upon themselves to create systems of rules, and various groups of players have chosen to devote their time to playing within those rules. In the larger world, it is more the case that we are all operating within systems which we did not opt into, and which no one person created, often governed by systems that predate anyone currently living.

It is sometimes convenient to factor this into a set of rules (the game), and the people within it (the players), but I think we lose a lot in that simplification. Rather, we have many individuals pursuing their objectives (trying to push the world towards a state that they would prefer, at least according to their preferences in that moment). Rules, for lack of a better term, shape what actions will be taken, but they are quite different from the rules of a game in the more limited sense. Yes, external forces (instantiated by rules followers) will eventually push, restrain, and even murder you should you push too hard against these rules, but by more subtle tactics, almost any one of them could be changed. Most importantly, the changing of the rules is fully within the game!

This has not been as clear or coherent as I would like, but I want to try to bring this to a close with one final extended point. What I find truly remarkable is that we have systems such as we have in place at all, which in many cases are productive of well being, even though they are no doubt flawed. The truly remarkable thing is that most of these systems came about through the same mechanisms as any other actions (people pursuing a particular vision of the world), and yet that the most important effects of the most important actions of those particular people extend far beyond any specific benefits that they could personally experience.

As a simple example, we could imagine a very wealthy person conspiring to change a rule so as to enable them to get slightly wealthier, and yet such a rule change might have vastly greater consequences for the wealth or poverty of others, both now and in the future. In fact, it's entirely possible that such a person would view that broader intended consequence as their primary purpose in wanting to bring about such a change, though this can always be viewed as a pursuit of their preferences, and of course in most settings, they would have very little reason to know with certainty what the broader effects would be.

To conclude, those who do strive to modify the rules in such a fashion (your base optimizers, perhaps, though again I don't love the terminology) are presumably aiming at a set of outcomes that are assumed to be an appropriate target based at least partly on extracting a utilitarian ideal from the behaviour of individuals operating within existing systems. This is not even necessarily inappropriate; it just feels like somewhat of an unexamined assumption. We believe we know what people want based on how they behave within certain complicated systems, and may try to shift the terrain such that they will get more of it, even as they (as we) continue to exploit opportunities in the evolving system in pursuit of a particular set of objectives.

Inadequate Definientia

I'd like to attempt to clear-up the bundle of "anti-inductive", "inadequate equilibria", and the implied "adequate equilibria" all at once. I think they're all part of the same confusing knot, for which specific kinds of teleological blindnesses are to blame.

"Inadequate Equilibria" is a termed coined by Eliezer Yudkowsky in the book of the same name. It describes situations in which a certain part of a system has reached an "equilibrium"—used casually to specify a stationary state that is difficult to escape from under certain assumptions, similar to a stable equilibrium—that EY feels are "inadequate". I think the definition of inadequate here is very vague, and digging hard to pretend that it's coherent seems a bit silly. However, what I think EY is pointing at is that the games certain people claim to be playing, e.g. the Bank of Japan claiming to try to be regulating Japan's economy for maximum profit and health, are often not the games they're actually playing. This is an extremely broad set of phenomena, but EY restricts himself to games where the players are kinda sort playing the game you think they're playing but with some caveats/extra rules/unexpected incentives.

I enjoyed the book and I think it's a decent intro to spotting "the games people are actually playing and when you should trust their claims", but the main issue is that EY doesn't seem to have any criteria for what makes the equilibria inadequate vs. the people telling you the rules just straight-up lying. Clearly both happen.

To make this worse, EY conflates the fact that certain games don't have the incentives you would want them to have (if you really wanted them to complete their stated goal) with the fact that certain games don't have the right conditions to make solution finding highly efficient, e.g. because one party has a monopoly.

Let's clear this up.

The latter case, when a game is currently blocked by something within the game that could be changed without breaking the rules or changing the game is the definition of market inefficiency. Let's just call it "inefficiency" because people get fussy about what counts as a market.

The former case, where you could redistribute or inject resources into the game, but the game isn't setup to incentivize what you—the protagonist of Reality—want from it is the definition of surrogation, i.e. "you're optimizing one thing and dreaming that it correlates with another".

Easy peasy.

If you think "surrogation" is often subjective, because not everyone will agree on what a game is "for" you're right! But if you think "efficiency" is objective, you're wrong: real systems are way more complex than most toy examples of efficient markets and we never really know "how good this game is at finding solutions" in comparison to the best possible game. Thus, "adequate equilibria" are judgement calls.

Sidenote: Despite my immense respect for LessWrong and the Rationalist community more broadly for incentivizing open, critical discourse and the construction of new and useful vocabulary, a lot of this vocabulary ends-up secretly being about "what I think system X should be/claims to be/is about vs. what it really is". There's often lots of interrogation of "what it really is" but relatively little of "maybe it's complicated how to define what something is for and most names/descriptions are just short-hand or for convenience?" I call this "the teleological lens". Everybody tends to fall into it, because communication is naturally about what you want from people, but literalists tend to think themselves immune because they define things so clearly. Most rationalists have at least a literalist streak, because it is what starting from first principles demands. Literalists are always in danger of taking other people's words too much at face value and completely missing the point, a complementary error to most people's inability to see literal meaning.

Finally, we reach "anti-inductive" which, in the article people tend to point to, seems to be something along the lines of "games where common knowledge is priced in". While this is a perfectly reasonable definition to inspire discussion, I think it's difficult to assess for many reasons, two of which are: (i) how do we agree what's common knowledge at time T? (ii) how the hell do we know it's priced in?

I propose the following definition for anti-inductive play:

anti-inductive (adj) — describing a property of certain kinds of game play where moves, on average, (i) leak information about your strategy and (ii) knowing such leaked information allows for the creation of counter-strategies.

In other words, anti-inductive plays are "scoopable", not just because effective counter-strategies exist (ii) but because their construction is a function of observing other strategies at play (i). Without both stipulations, pure randomness might be the winning strategy, in order to ensure eventually hitting on an effective counter-strategy.

Usually equilibria are sustained by anti-inductive play, in which different parties are constantly developing counter strategies and counter counter strategies, keeping the system locked onto some other fundamental factor, e.g. the actual overhead of a service during a price war. Adequate equilibria are ones where the byproduct of the game matches the in-game score well enough and is optimized quickly enough that the person saying "adequate" is happy with it. This is usually a result of anti-inductive play (e.g. web browser features that are useful spreading to all browsers) but not always (e.g. playing the cooperative game Hanabi when everyone is invested in doing well). Inadequate equilibria simply describe situations in which the system is "stuck" from the point of view of the speaker.

This might seem like "ruining the magic" of the term: "What do you mean it's all just about whether people like stuff?" I remember being struck by the "aha!" feeling of EY's description of inefficient and misaligned systems, and I don't think this at all changes his guide to spotting inefficiencies and misalignments from one's own point of view. It does require use to ask "inadequate to what?" and to answer with how you imagine the current system could be (i) more efficient (ii) better aligned. This seems like a low-bar, and it's one EY certainly passes, but which a lot of people referencing the concept eschew. Real systems are complex and we can almost only make relative judgements, efficiency and alignment give us axes to make these relative judgements comparable to each other. Anti-inductivity gives a sketch of the most common mechanism used for keeping efficiency and alignment stable.

The video game industry is at an equilibria where it is inadequate to create as many story rich games as I would like, since investing more in narrative design doesn't yield linear (or even predictable) returns. Anti-inductive play forces us to ask: why hasn't someone scooped up the free energy from my willingness to buy such games?

[olsonpallooza2018]

Mountain climbing with the Didgeridoo

You know, pants are hard. Once again, I managed to put them on inside out. But, yesterday turned out to be pretty great, so maybe it's a good thing I can't dress myself? I have no idea how these two things correlate, but I'm a wee bit hungover, so cut me some slack.

We're off to Edinburgh today. 2.5 hours on the train where I can shut my eyes for a while... maybe. We didn't realize you could reserve train seats; just assumed it was first come, first serve. Whoops. We probably should have done our homework a bit better on that. Instead, we ended up sitting in someone's reserved seat. It was a bit of scramble with the bags and finding an unreserved seat. But we managed. I felt like a can of smashed assholes on the train ride down, but survived.

Tonight we are headed on an undergoing ghost tour. I looooove haunted stories and creepy buildings. The tour guide was hilariously creepy, with a very appropriate name, Edgar. We toured the underground of the South bridge and learned about the closes. These are the narrow alley ways between buildings. It was really something to stand in the same close where people were trapped, and left to die from the black plague hundreds of years ago. I wouldn't say it was a good feeling. On top of that, I learned of the "Nastiness Act" of 1749. Truly the most disgusting thing that is STILL IN PLACE! Not that I think people do this anymore, but THEY LEGALLY COULD! Basically, the act states you can dump your chamber pot, or shit bucket out the window... But only after 10 pm. So if you're stumbling around the closes of Edinburgh after 10 pm, I wouldn't look up when you hear, "Prenez garde a l’eau!” - meaning literally ‘beware of the water’. But, that's the French way of saying it. We're in Scotland, so it's more like, "gardyloo!". That's what the people would holler just before dumping their.... Well, dumps.

After the tour, we had some dinner and then parted ways again. Lana and Mom went to this super sweet open mike night. Lana almost forgot her phone I guess, but a young Scottish buck saved the day! And then asked for her number.

Lane and I went for a hike in the dark. Like, pitch black. We climbed Aurther's Seat. All the way to the top. But instead of finding the proper path, we decided a challenge was required. Because mountain climbing in the dark isn't challenging enough. We took the path that required a significant amount of climbing, rather than walking 30 feet up the road to the beaten trail. Why make things easy? The reward should be earned dammit!

Anyhow, the view was unfreakingbelievable. We almost had a 360 view of the entire city of Edinburgh. Pictures don't do it justice, but I have posted a few. Unreal. I don't really have any words to describe what it looked like to see all the city lights from here. It's like nothing I've ever seen before.

We had brought a couple wine samplers up the hill with us, but, we thought maybe it wouldn't be such a great idea, given the challenging climb, and it being dark, to have a drink and then climb back down. We did find the easy path on the way down, so we could have, but, the fear of falling to our death really took over. We saved the wine for celebration of finding out way back to our place.

On the way down the mountain, there was a dude up top paying a didgeridoo. In the dark. By himself. Interesting. I don't think I heard one in real life before. I wonder what possessed this guy to be on top of this mountain at 9:30 pm on a Monday, and play his didgeridoo. Lane suggested maybe his wife didn't like it, so he went to the most secluded place in the city. I hope he knows it was enjoyed by us!

Tomorrow, Edinburgh castle! Until then...