#Has been intentionally done by the employees

[leurdhavemerky]

Only in His Dreams (Part 2/2)

Part 1 here

Remembering his intimate dream, Viktor has a particularly difficult time when you visit him at work.

Contents: Academy/scientist gn!reader, romantic tension, flirting, lovesick Viktor, Jayce catching a stray

Word count: 800

Viktor was adjusting his Hexclaw, holding a magnifying glass to an irritatingly small screw. He picked up his blue-handled flathead and prepared to tighten it, but there were footsteps coming down the narrow hall.

Had it been anyone else, Viktor wouldn't have cared. It was the familiar sound of your platform shoes that immediately caught his attention.

Louder and closer, louder and closer, louder and- ah!

Viktor dropped his tools. They clattered against the table. His screwdriver rolled along the surface.

Your footsteps stopped as you reached the closed lab doors.

One knock.

His eyes shot down to his chest as he hastily straightened his maroon tie.

Two knocks.

He ran a hand through his messy hair, trying to fix it quick.

Three knocks.

Deep breath. Exhale. Stand up.

"Welcome, allow me to get the door."

Viktor took a short journey to the entrance of the lab. He nervously reached for the gold-plated door handle and stood back as you stepped in.

Your eyes moved along the room, making observations.

There was a large window with the geometric academy motif on the right wall, and numerous chalkboards and supply cabinets on the left. A controlled mess of gears littered the central table, with Viktor's half-deconstructed Hexclaw lying on it's side.

Finally, you acknowledged him with a warm smile, excited about your work-related excuse for being in the academy's most esteemed space.

"Thanks, that was kind."

You met Viktor's amber eyes, and he lingered there. He looked lost.

"Am I...interrupting your work?"

He remembered the pink haze, the joy fading as he stirred awake. Viktor blinked. This is real now, he thought. I must do something about it.

"Nonsense. What brings you to me?" he asks, shifting his gaze. The heat in his face would have burned him alive if he hadn't done that.

"My department is interested in using Hextools for a 'productivity boost.' The council said we'd need signed documents, though."

"I am surprised I was recommended for this. Shouldn't Jayce provide his signature?"

You bit the inside of your cheek.

"I figured," you chose words carefully, "but he isn't in the lab much, at least from what I've picked up on."

Viktor shifted his weight.

"Besides," you shrugged, "you're very approachable."

He nodded appreciatively, beginning to guide you across the lab. His pace was intentionally a little slower, as he hoped you would admire his gadgets.

Along the back wall were two desks, one covered in grand vases of flowers, among other gifts and congratulatory letters. The second was "decorated" with open notes and silvery tools.

The aftermath of Progress Day.

Viktor's grip tightened on his cane. You glanced at the colorful arrangements a few feet away, playfully rolling your eyes to ease the tension.

He gave a knowing look, and one side of his mouth came up into an easy smile.

Viktor pulled the chair from Jayce's desk and brought it close to his own.

"Have a seat, right beside my lovely trinkets," he teased, gesturing to scattered parts.

"Lovely trinkets," you reciprocated, studying the grooves of various coppery cogs.

Oh, that voice. What I would do to hear your song once again.

"Now, what papers do you have for me?"

You presented Viktor with four pages, and he reached for a pen. It was constructed beautifully, black with gold accents.

Skimming through the introductory paragraphs, he recognized these documents as standard Academy approval forms. Nothing out of the ordinary, besides the individual before him.

...sanction the use of the following...acknowledge that...safe for the use of employees...

He could feel you looking as he read. His head felt lighter by the second.

..in the event that...incredibly nervous- no, no! Keep reading!...trained to handle...tools of interest...I understand these terms and- finally!

Relieved, he twisted that pretty pen open.

"Should I know anything more?"

You shook your head.

With that, he copied his signature on the necessary pages. The beginning of the V curved, with it's main dip cutting fiercely. The other letters were inscribed with more care. For example, the dot embellishing his i formed a near perfect circle on each page.

"Unfortunate," you state, "that I don't have any other business for you."

Viktor slipped the pen into the shirt-pocket of his white vest.

He took a soft breath and asked, "why do you say that?"

"I'm curious about these inventions," you replied, turning to the open claw and the contraptions surrounding it.

Your eyes fell on him. He was close to burning again.

"Not to mention- I'm curious about the inventor."

With that statement, you had lit a sparkler from the roaring flames in Viktor's heart. His eyes lit up with a rare speed, and his wordless lips parted. The house, the honey. The dream came back to him once more, but this time, the torturous doubt was gone entirely.

You winked and snatched his nice pen from the shirt pocket, quickly replacing it with a pink rose from one of Jayce's silly bouquets.

With growing disbelief, Viktor's head whirled.

I am not invisible! I belong in the mirror!

You grabbed the signed papers from his desk, laughing lightheartedly. As you rushed away, that hard platform sound echoed satisfyingly off of the marble floors. It further shook Viktor's already scrambled thoughts.

Quieter, farther. Down the narrow hall. Quieter, farther. Quieter, farther, and- ah.

[ivys-garden]

Today on "what has he done"?

1. Ended birthright citizenship. This is unconstitutional.

2. Pardoned almost 1600 capital rioters who tried to overthrow the government

3. Plans to withdraw from WHO due to how much America pays them... nations choose how much they send to WHO and America could choose to send less. He knows this. He intentionally hid the truth. He wants to make sure no other country can influence his actions in America at the cost of thousands who will now die from disease as no other country can make up the difference to fund WHO as the largest economy pulls out.

4. Declared a national emergency at the border with Mexico. Apparently asylum seekers and refugees could completely overthrow the country. Despite the fact that they benefit the economy and are less likely to commit crimes

5. Withdraws from the Paris agreement. Again, America set their own goals in the agreement. He could have changed them but instead he'd like to fuck everyone else over. Climate change is happening, that is an observable fact. Don't Let anyone tell you otherwise.

6. Revoked the electric car mandate and opens the door for more oil drilling to "stop the energy crisis". He ignores that oil drills can't be established safely in this short a time.

7. Stops all American assistance programs for 90 days so he can "review them". Probably just looking at what countries would suck up to him and cutting everyone else off.

8. Removing sections on Israeli settlers in the west bank who are actively kicking Arabs of their land and attacking them.

9. Removing Bidens descion to remove Cuba from the lost of countries who fund terrorism. Cuba does not fund terrorism. This would be like adding Ireland to this list because the IRA used to exist.

10. Wants more people using the death penalty. The death penalty is more expensive than life in prison. Oh and is inhumane.

11. Stops his ban on tiktok temporarily. Former tiktok employees have admitted the ban was a political stunt and now tiktok is restricting access of terms like "fascism" in America.

12. Creates the Department of Government Efficency. Presidents cannot make departments through excetative orders.

13. Ended programs regarding to gender. Calls basic rights for trans people "gender ideology ". declears there "are only too genders" so hermaphrodites and native American two spirits don't exist I guess. There have been third genders for all of human history across the world. Same with trans people. Remember Americas, if the government asks you if you know a trans person, no you don't!

14. Declares cartels terrorists. They literally aren't by definition and the last time America tried to stop terrorism in another country you got Afghanistan.

15. Said a bunch of other bullshit about cist of living of that. Plans to impose Tariffs, taxes AMERICANS are forced to pay on foreign goods. You know, most of the goods in the country. He just wants to stop international trade he doesn't care about the cost of living. If he did he wouldn't be buddies with billionaires

[trunksette]

I don't think I have ever made an "addressing the situation" post in my life.

You people have completely blown this entire situation out of proportion, you are completely ignoring the fact that none of this was done in good faith. KAB is not difficult to get ahold of, her DMs are open, her ask box is open, if someone wanted to "make her aware" they should have brought this to her first.

They did not, instead they posted a few out of context screenshots (containing only 2-4 messages each) to make Rose look as bad as possible.

I ask each and every one of you here to lay everything you have ever said in a group chat bare and see how you stack up.

Better yet, not to lay the entire thing bare, but to have someone intentionally crop and cherry pick what has been said into order to make you look bad.

This is a personal attack, Rose's privacy was violated, everyone in that server's privacy was violated.

Secondly I want to address of the problem of "professionalism" everyone is pretending to care about so much.

Everyone saying how "unprofessional" it is to insult their "boss" I want you to take a second of your time and look at the dates present in these screenshots.

All but one of these comments were made before Rose was hired as an official part of GB Patch's team.

These comments do not come from an "employee" but someone who was simply a black person in a fandom space.

Which brings me to my third point. All of you are upset, crying that this fandom is about diversity and is a "safe space"

Well I have some news for you. Diversity and acceptance is not about everyone dancing in a circle holding hands and singing "Kumbaya" being a true diverse safe space means making room for everyone to be heard, even when the things you are hearing make you uncomfortable.

Here's another thing, people of color, queer people, trans people, do not have to be polite when talking about their feelings when it comes to issues that directly represent and affect them. They do not need to hold your delicate hand as they walk you through the immense trauma they experience through simply existing.

People keep trying to say this is not about race but it is. Whether you knew Rose was black or otherwise these comments are directly linked to the fact that they are a black, trans, queer person existing in a fandom space created by a cis white woman.

You take offense with their rudeness, with their tone, as if you have any idea if this person has any right to the anger they are expressing.

I don't know what kind of "safe space" you all are trying to create here but that server was a safe space where we didn't tone police black people expressing dismay about an overly white community.

[queenshelby]

An Illicit Affair

Part 31: Taking a Turn

Pairing: Cillian Murphy (46) x Reader (23)

Warning: Age-Gap, Taboo Relationship, Infidelity

After he left the hospital, Cillian tried to call Danielle but, as he had expected, she did not pick up the phone.

Following three attempts to reach her, he gave up and made contact with the bank in an attempt to figure out the make and model of the car that she had bought. After a lengthy exchange with an employee, he found out the name of the agency through which Danielle had purchased the car and after ringing them, he got the details he was hoping for. 

His heart sank as the make and model matched those of the car that had been following you and whilst he realized that Danielle was upset and hurt, he had never considered her to be a woman who could kill.

"Do you need any more assistance, sir?" the employee asked.

"No, that will be all. Thank you," Cillian muttered, cutting the call as a barrage of thoughts consumed his mind, conjuring a whirlwind of uncertainties, fears and danger.

He sat there, in his car, the engine humming in the background, and stared blankly out the windshield, contemplating his next move.

He knew he shouldn't jump to conclusions, but the evidence stacked against Danielle was enough to incriminate her.

He took a deep breath, unsure of what to do, conscious of the risk he was about to take.

Cillian pulled out his phone and dialed the first number that came to his mind. It was the phone number of his divorce lawyer, Ari, and whilst Cillian knew that Ari did not handle criminal cases, he was certain that he could provide him with some much-needed guidance.  After all, the situation he found himself in was as far from normal as it could be.

He couldn't believe that the woman he had once loved and admired had stooped so low and he knew that he had to tread carefully now. 

"Cillian," Ari's voice echoed through the speaker as he picked up the phone. "What can I do for you?"

Cillian took a deep breath, bracing himself for the onslaught of questions and concerns that were sure to follow. "Ari, I need your help," he began, his voice low and tense.

"Alright, tell me what's going on," Ari replied calmly, his tone level and measured and Cillian hesitated, unsure of where to begin, knowing that the revelations he was about to make would change everything. 

"It's Danielle," he admitted, his voice heavy with guilt and regret. "I think she has been following Y/N and I have reason to believe that she intentionally hit her before driving off," he continued, the words tumbling out of his mouth in a rush.

There was a pause on the other end of the line, and Cillian could imagine the surprise and confusion on Ari's face.

"Y/N?" Ari asked, trying to recall your name. "She is the women you have been seeing, correct?" he then asked, still processing the information that Cillian had presented to him.

"Yes, that's her," Cillian confirmed. "She was hit by a car and is in hospital now with significant injuries, man. She could have died," Cillian told his lawyer with a shaky voice who sighed deeply before responding. 

"And you think that Danielle caused the accident, intentionally?" Ari asked, his voice laced with disbelief, though Cillian could hear the skepticism in his tone.

"That is a very serious accusation. Have you spoken to her about it?" he continued.

Cillian sighed, running a hand through his hair, leaving it in disarray, his composure crumbling. "She hasn't been answering any of my calls or messages," he admitted, kicking himself for not having done anything about his ex-wife's obsessive behavior sooner. "The car that hit Y/N is the same make and model she recently purchased  for our son," he added, anxiety tinging his voice.

"I see," Ari replied, his tone now more guarded. "Cillian, I understand that you're upset, but accusing someone of attempted murder is a very serious matter. Do you have any other evidence to support your suspicions?" he asked, seeking clarity.

Cillian sighed, frustration building up in his chest. "Apart from a series of threatening messages towards me, no, I don't. But I have a feeling that this is not a coincidence," Cillian replied, his voice trembling with a mix of anger and fear.

Ari sighed, taking in the information. "Okay, I hear what you're saying, Cillian. But we can't just go to the police with a hunch," he said, trying to reason with his client.

Cillian nodded, understanding the gravity of the situation. "You're right. I just...need to know that she's not going to hurt Y/N again," Cillian finished, his voice laced with desperation.

"She doesn't have a separate bank account yet and I can probably get copies of the statements for her credit card to see if it has been used in the past few weeks. If she did it, she would have had to be in London," Ari suggested, trying to help Cillian to figure things out. 

"If we can prove that she has been in London then maybe it is enough for the police to question her, but again, Cillian, I must insist that you tread carefully. It would be terrible for everyone involved if this turns out to be a misunderstanding and it would most certainly impact your divorce proceedings against her," Ari warned, concern coloring his voice.

Cillian nodded, understanding the weight of the consequences. "I understand," he told Ari who then told him that he would be calling him back in about an hour or so, after looking through the bank statements.

Cillian agreed and after hanging up, he didn't move an inch. He just sat there, his thoughts and emotions at war, his mind racing with a thousand scenarios, each more terrifying than the one before. 

As the minutes passed, the surroundings began to fade away until there was nothing left but the deafening pounding of his heart. It echoed painfully throughout his entire body, a painful reminder of his fears.

Eventually, he drew a shaky breath and forced himself back to reality.

Cillian cast a glance over his shoulder and out the window. The bustling streets of the city were a welcome distraction from the turmoil that raged within. The sun was beginning to set, brilliant hues of orange and pink painted the sky and cast long shadows over the buildings. He watched as people hurried to and from, pursuing their daily lives until, suddenly, the phone rang again. It was Ari.

"Cillian, I've got some news," his voice was serious, the tone of his voice reason enough to set Cillian's heart racing.

"Danielle has been taking frequent trips to London over the last month but she wasn't there on the day of the accident. She used her card in Dublin that day," Ari informed Cillian, his voice grave.

Cillian's heart sank as he took in the news. He was so sure that Danielle was the culprit and the fact that someone else could have hit you  made him feel slightly relieved and, at the same time, frustrated. He needed answers, and fast.

"There is something else I found though ," Ari continued, snapping Cillian back to attention. "There was a transaction on your account ending 0865 this morning for 189 pounds. It was a charge from CemClean, a car detailing business in Chelsea,"  Ari informed Cillian, the significance of the information not lost on him.

Cillian frowned, puzzled by the revelation. "I didn't go to Chelsea today," he wondered aloud, his thoughts racing as he tried to piece together the puzzle which is when, suddenly, he remembered that he had given his card to Max who wanted to catch a taxi back home from the hospital when he had left. 

Tags:

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@heidimoreton @nela-cutie @futurecorps3 @delishen @nosebleeds-247 @thirteenis-myluckynumber @gills-lounge @hjmalmed @lost-fantasy @tiredkitten @sidechrisporn @smallsoulunknown @charqing-qing @hopefulinlove @aporiasposts @shycrybaby @me-and-your-husband @hjmalmed @lacontroller1991 @galxydefender @aporiasposts

@galxydefender @hunnibearrr @saint-ackerman @lunyyx @gentlemonsterjennie1 @ihavealotoffandomssorry @nadloves @lost-fantasy @nolucesn@mcavoy-girl @hjmalmed @bloodybagels @obeyme4life @richiesgroupie @blushykiss @tatumrileyslover @teawithsatanx @orijanko @rhaenyra4ever @xcinnamonmalfoyx @budugu @nadloves @kmc1989 @bloodybagels @obeyme4life @richiesgroupie @forgottenpeakywriter @smailaway @sophiaaguirred

[allthelittlecreepycrawlies]

I have been binging analog horror again so semi-modern timeline where Meng Yao is a low-ranking agent of his father's company who has just gotten a big contract, but it's out in this kind of podunk-looking town. Whatever, it might still earn him some recognition, so he goes.

The place is weird from the moment he arrives. A lot of new, but empty buildings, as if the employees meant to fill them either abandoned their jobs or never arrived. The houses are all much older. There's something about those that he can't put his finger on. There are also a lot of signs about with curfews and mentions of weather phenomena that can't possibly be real.

He can't find the hotel he's supposed to be staying at, but there's an inn that looks about the same age as the houses. He considers going there to check in, then finds somehow time has gotten away from him and he has to get to work instead.

Nobody at the office building his father owns talks to him much, and he can't help but wonder if they... know.

The audits and stuff he was supposed to do on that first day take way longer than they should have. By the time he's done, it's well past dark.

Past the curfew.

Well, the worst is that the police get on his case for being out, right?

He steps out of the office building and hears the door lock behind him.

Then the street light above his head goes purple, and the temperature drops and a sudden sense of overwhelming panic floods him to the point he almost drops to his knees before freeze turns to flight and he books it away from whatever the fuck hits the ground where he'd been standing.

All the buildings are empty. All the houses are locked up tight. Except for the streetlights that turn purple as he runs under them, everything is dark.

Until he sees that the light over the inn's front door is also still on and puts the last of his endurance into making it to that one potential place of safety.

(He will later find out that his father intentionally sent him to this town in the hopes he'd get killed by the local Entity the townsfolk have structured their survival around, but for now, the Nies will catch him when he falls through the door of their family inn and look after him.)

[quaranmine]

im not american and i just saw your recent posts about all the firings. what is going on, what do they gain from this??

What's going on? Basically a hostile takeover of the American government.

What do they gain from this? Money. Control. Privatization. More money into the hands of billionaires. It's not a coincidence that the richest man in the world is leading the charge.

They're breaking the govenment intentionally, and then when nothing works and everything is suffering, they'll privatize all the services. They'll cut government workers under the claim of saving money, and then hire contractors to work in the same positions for more money. I'm sure it's no coincidence that Elon Musk himself has had $18 billion in government contracts. Or that the State Department was going to buy $400 million in armored Tesla cars.

When the National Parks can't function under a skeleton staff and no limits on entry numbers, they'll sell the federal land to a corporation to run, and then they'll sell it again for mining and drilling. They'll deregulate all the environmental laws and worker protection laws to make sure that corporations can maximise the profit completely. It's easier to make money if you can just dump your toxic waste anywhere! Nothing being done right now makes any sense to help anybody but the richest people in the country.

Why are they going against the federal workforce? Well, the Republicans have been aiming to attack civil service as part of their platform. They say it is full of inefficiency and fraud, but make no mistake--Washington D.C., voted overwhelmingly blue, and that's part of their rage. They're literally putting federal employees--mostly black people!--on watchlists and doxxing them, for reasons that include donating to the Democratic party. (Federal employees are subject to the Hatch Act, which prevents them from campaigning on behalf of any political party or doing political activity at work, but as private citizens on their own time and property they may vote and donate how they choose.)

So, Elon Musk donates massive amounts of money to Trump's campaign during the election. He hosted giveaways of a $1 million dollars a day for swing state voters who would vote for Trump and somehow this was deemed legal. Trump wins, and in return for his service, Elon Musk is given a special government position and access to everything. It's called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and they've installed people in major agencies to monitor employees, they've accessed the US Treasury, they've locked government employees out of IT systems that include the personal information of all federal employees, they've accesses sensitive government data, leaked classified information, and they're just getting started. They have access to the payment systems of Social Security and Medicaid, and Medicare. None of these people are elected, many are younger than me, and none have had background checks or clearance. One of them was fired from an internship for leaking company secrets so.....I don't really have confidence he won't leak national security secrets either.

The main thing DOGE is doing right now, other than possibly feeding all our data into AI and stealing it, is slashing the federal workforce. Shortly after Trump took office, DOGE via the Office of Personnel Management (OPM, a key player in this story) sent all 2.6 million federal employees a deferred resignation ("buyout") offer titled Fork in the Road. It's worth mentioning that "Fork in the Road" is the exact same email that Elon Musk sent to all the Twitter employees shortly before laying everyone off....and then he failed to pay them the promised severance. If federal employees accepted the offer, they'd be place on paid leave through September and have a chance to look for another job. Nevermind that much of what was promised wasn't legal. Nevermind that the probationary employees who took the offer found out yesterday that they never qualified in the first place and got fired anyway. Meanwhile, the daily Fork emails continued to use insulting language like that "the way to American prosperity" was for federal employees to "leave their low productivity public sector jobs and take a high productivity private sector job." The White House press secretary said that employees who didn't resign were ripping off the American people. Fox news says they should "get real jobs." Note that the demonization is intentional:

Russel Vought, one of the architects of Project 2025 (the rulebook they're following exactly), who is now the leader of the Office of Management and Budget, literally said the goal was to traumatize federal employees so they'd no longer want to go to work and the American people would hate them. Also, people have been able to use metadata to see that these Project 2025 people have been the ones writing various OPM government memos (some are not even government employees!)

The claim: federal employees are wasting taxpayer money with their....pesky jobs in public health, food inspections, veterans healthcare, wildfire support jobs. Note that federal employees are only 4% of the entire budget, and that there's roughly the same amount of them as there were in the 1960s, despite the population of the country rising since then. The job of DOGE: get rid of as many as possible.

So. Day one of the Trump presidency, he issued an executive order demanding the end of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in government programs. Make no mistake that DEI is the new slur for POC and LGBT people right now (remember the watchlist earlier with mostly black people on it? Now look at claims that agencies are taking down posters of minority scientists.) And make no mistake they aren't also coming for the A that normally goes on the end of DEIA, for accessibility (disabled people.) Using this executive order they placed many government employees administrative leave pending termination. They've also interpreted this to include environmental justice. Trump also blamed the recent plane crash over the Potomac on people with disabilites, and DEI. Washington Post reports that the next step for DOGE is to start identifying "DEI-focused" positions that aren't explicitly about implementing DEI....so we can all guess what "type" of employees will be targeted.

Then, step two. Probationary employees. Government employees in the United States have civil service protections. This is because the government used to operate on a spoils system where each election, the new president would fire everyone and hire loyalists to him. Turns out that kind of shakeup every 4 years is bad, and it's better if you can get subject matter experts to stick around across administrations. So federal employees have legal protections against firing them at random. Trump is trying to eliminate that, by the way, by insitituting a broad recategorization of federal employees who are in "policy influencing positions" to be able to fire them at-will. (The definition of "policy influencing" here is intentionally so broad that it will affect most employees in the government regardless of whether they have any influence on policy or not.) Oh! And remember the Fork email? Yeah, there's language in those emails about employees who don't resign needing to be "loyal." Will they be required to be loyal to Trump?

But in the meantime while he waits to fire everyone else, they're going after probationary employees first. This is because for the first 1-2 years of service as a government employees, you can be removed easier (they still must justify bad performance though.) It's not just new employees--the probation can reset when you take a new position, so experienced people with many years of service were also let go simply because they changed jobs within the last year. Around 200k~ probationary employees are in the federal workforce, and thousands got fired in the last two days and thousands more will be fired by Tuesday. This includes brilliant scientists in the middle of projects, with some people saying there's no staff left to feed living animals that were under their care. They're firing CDC epidemiologists. Wildfire support personnel in the Forest Service. People who are doing emergency response work right now in LA for the cleanup are being fired during this, despite the fact they're working 7 days a week, 12+ hours a day (sooooo lazy though, right?) The Trump admin also accidentally fired a bunch of people in charge of nuclear weapons since they didn't know what their jobs actually were, and had to scramble to undo that. It's tax season in the US, and the IRS may layoff thousands of workers.

It shoud be noted that a lot of these firings were illegal, because probationary employees can be fired in the case of bad performance, but it's stupid to claim that 200,000 people are all bad performers. Many of these people have paperwork documenting a glowing performance review. They'll be sued. But Trump and Elon are moving fast and trying to break enough things that the courts won't be able to stop all of it in time.

Nobody else is safe either, of course. On Tuesday Trump passed an executive order demanding agencies to conduct large scale reductions in force (RIFs). There's no knowledge yet on just how many more people this will target in the future. I can't give you an estimate how many people will be fired in the next few months, but nobody is safe.

Why does this matter for the average person? Well, this will affect everyone in the US. It'll affect highway safety. It'll affect product recalls. It'll affect food inspections and food recalls. It'll affect clean water systems and air pollution reduction. It'll affect enforcement action against polluters. It'll affect public health. It'll affect research. It'll affect fair housing. It'll effect the economy and consumer protections. It'll affect banking. It'll affect farmers. It'll affect people who rely on food stamps, childcare services, etc. It'll mean that the public will have less recourse to get things fixed, less of a chance of getting help for issues. It will affect the private sector when contractors get fired. It will affect local and state government when the grants that fund their programs get pulled. It will affect nonprofit employees. It will affect universities. It will affect government funded programs like Poison Control. So much of government work is functionally invisible to the average citizen, and things will start breaking in the next year. This concentrated attack to dismantle the government is the first step to dismantling everything else.

[anthroposeen]

tmagp 22 relisten notes

tmagp 22 spoilers below the cut! proceed with caution! this is a longer one!

scene:

this is a continuation of the night of episode 20 and 21, judged by gwen and lena's conversation and sam's confrontation of alice

celia:

- she repeatedly throws hooks at sam to get him more interested in the magnus institute, the opposite of alice's approach to this. rather than encouraging ignorance, celia pushes sam towards curiosity.

- "i might have come across some important names ... jonathan sims and martin blackwood." girl you literally met them! aside from the obvious implications (that celia is from the TMA universe and is referring to the people she met in that dimension) she could also be referring to the tmagp-verse jon and martin. so far, we dont know anything about them, so they coukd have been involved with the institute (though this may be unlikely, considering their ages would be different to that of tma)

sam:

- he noticed that someone edited his caseload, and confronts alice about it

- "youre trying to control me, again" -> interesting because it gives us insight to their past relationship, and why they might have broken up

- "im done trying to placate a jealous ex" sam seems to be interpreting alice's actions as purely made out of controlling and jealousy. from his perspective, she cant get over him, and has been disrupting his work to regain a place in his life.

- sam is a person whos been heavily controlled in his past, we know that his parents shaped his education and career paths and we can infer that his relationship w alice ended poorly bc of her controlling behaviors. it makes sense that hes not willing to sacrifice freedom once he has it

- "im in. all the way.", this is the first time since the series started that sam has thrown himself fully into this investigation. every other time he was confronted with it, he would claim to be moving on or uninterested. but now, hes accepting that hes involved with it.

alice:

- she admits to sam that she edited his caseload, and that she believes the computer is intentionally giving him cases related to the magnus institute

- she says that shes stuck around the OIAR because its easy money if you can ignore the bad qualities, and she enjoys having the seniority. shes been the only steady employee for a long time, and has the most experience, so she has a place of value in this job and she enjoys that trust and authority. she thought that by training sam, she could teach him how to ignore the creepy stuff like her, and she would be less alone

- she also comes off as upset that sam is choosing to continue his investigation with celia, both ignoring alice's advice and choosing celia over her

lena:

- she appears upset that gwen ran away from both ink5oul and [error]. she refers to [error] as "the watching figure", but thats based on gwen's description of the entity. i dont think lena actually knows about the entity (after all, its very new to the scene), she was just using gwen's description as its title for now

- "you didnt get any contact details from them?" this referring to [error], not ink5oul, further showing that lena isn't familiar with them

- gwen's behavior has convinced lena that she cant be trusted to interact with the externals and keep the situation calm. so far, she's been prone to instigating more conflict with them and has now actually harmed a civilian in the process (the man that ink5oul ripped apart).

- she claims that she doesnt want gwen to die, but her death would be simpler to manage than a dead bystander and 2 "uncontrolled" externals. here, she refers to both ink5oul and [error] as externals, despite them not working for the OIAR. this might be the tmagp-verse equivalent of avatars. she also puts emphasis on them being uncontrolled, implying that under the management of the OIAR, externals exhibit different behaviors, or are less likely to be disruptive. (im betting that externals without management are more likely to tip the balance of things)

- she doesnt seem concerned about gwen's blackmail, so either gwen doesnt have that evidence anymore, or lena doesnt think that gwen will go through with her threat

- she removes gwen from her duties as externals liaison, but allows her to still have the title, but also offere her the opportunity to quit. this is the first time quitting is brought up in this episode, still under the guise that it is possible, yet gwen denies the offer.

- references a "ministerial visit", so we'll finally be meeting lena's boss, potentially the man who colin would mention (the man who wants the OIAR to have a functional app, and colin suspects him of also supervising them)

- lena is married! (to me)

gwen:

- "i see what you're doing. you wont get rid of me that easily." she seems dead set on holding on to this position despite hating it and continuously complaining about it. i dont think she cares about the work that they do, shes moreso focused on climbing the ranks to earn respect, and not having respect from the externals or lena is deeply upsetting her

- instead of fighting harder to keep her role, gwen accepts her demotion (though she seems upset about it) and goes so far as to almost be polite to lena, "of course, mrs. kelley" after this interaction it feels like gwen might be intimidated by lena

incident:

narrated by augustus at sam's terminal

- letter from dr. berger detailing the results and descriptions of his recent experiments with the human mind and consciousness

- he was experimenting on a man with a skull deformity, which allowed him to measure pressure, cognition, and electricity shifts within the brain. he was inserting wires directly into the man's skull to take measurements

- after feedback from a fellow dr, he switched to using silver wires in the subject's skull. he measured the electrical output of the subject and received encouraging results.

- dr. berger read on the concept of the hemispherical bridge and the center of self, a collection of fibres near the middle of the grain, which can separate the left and right sphere and create differing consciousness within one body

- he inserted the silver wires directly into the subject's brain, positioned to find the hemispherical bridge.

- the subject was asked questions about himself, such as who he was and what he wants. this disrupted the normal electrical readings, though the subject seemed undisturbed.

- dr. berger experiences a dream where below him is a deep ocean full of "dark secrets", where above him flew radio signals that were "unknowable". he laments that these two things will never meet, emphasizing a separation and balance in their natures

- the dr created a new device to read the electrical signals from the subject's brain, which resulted in the telegraph mechanism clicking. each time he asked a question, the clicking would increase, though his verbal answers didn't change.

- while he was playing with the telegraph waiting for the rest of the equipment to be set up, he started asking the questions again. this time, there was a pause of silence before the clicking began again. the clicking responses increased in intensity

- his wife and assistant, ursula, dropped equipment and looked scared, asking if he could hear 'the sound'

- after this, the subject began to seize and scream in agony as the telegraph increased in intensity. the moment the subject died, the telegraph stopped

- upon reviewing the tapes and records of his experiment, discovering the ominous answers of the subjects split consciousness

- upon asking what the subject wants, it says "help, need, help out, we out" and as this response continues, augustus's narration rises in intensity.

glitches/lies:

- "its probably the horrendous porn you've been downloading." - alice, lying to sam about why his computer must be messed up

- "i can look after myself." -sam

extra comments:

- the biggest takeaway from this episode for me, is that jmj are likely conscious inside of the computer system, and are experiencing this consciousness in a disjointed and painful way. they seem to be speaking to the OIAR employees and audience with the answers to dr. berger's questions, pleading to be helped and let out.

- this statement also goes to support a small theory im working on, that most of the incidents we've heard pertain to balance and separation of self. excepting the incidents that resemble tma statements or provide character information, many of the cases we've heard revolve around forces finding balance or there being a separation of forces at play. i think this will tie in to the grand ritual that the magnus institute attempted, and how the ties to alchemy will be expressed, since finding balance seems to be the center of many operations within the tmagp universe.

- i fear that im biased, since ive kinda disliked celia from the beginning (and i do mean the very beginning, i never liked lynne hammond) but i feel like she's intentionally dragging sam into the investigation without considering if thats beneficial for him. and i dont trust her motives. i dont think this makes her evil or an unsympathetic character- shes been put into a very complicated situation where there likely isnt a simple good solution. but i dont trust her to be involving sam for any 'good' reasons, especially since we know shes hiding information from both him and the audience (im not referring to her being from a differebt universe, i mean that she knows more about the institute and alchemy than shes letting on).

- i think that the ministerial visit that lena references will be the major event in the season finale. it would make sense for there to be an incident during the visit that results in some sort of conflict (im betting that it will involve either colin interfering with the computers, an external that has poor relations with the OIAR (ink5oul, [error]), or gwen's blackmail coming to fruition)

- i also think that we may see/meet tmagp-verse jon and martin before the season ends (assuming they're alive), this would normally feel rushed, but this series has been decently fast paced in terms of revealing leads, so we may be getting a tease for that

[nobodysdaydreams]

What's going on with Daniel Jacobi and the ducks. does he have a duck for a nemesis like me and the turkey. please I need to know

Words cannot express how much this question delights me. I apologize in advance for the ensuing rant.

Let me give you the backstory.

So first off, a little about the man in question, Daniel Jacobi. (Disclaimer, I have not consumed all Wolf359 content so this is just based on what I got so far).

We don’t know much about his background except the following:

He specializes in making bombs, weapons, and in his words “things that hurt/break other things” especially humans. He feels little to no remorse for this

He at one point was in the army but never served and so far it’s been implied something happen there that he doesn’t want to talk about that might have involved blowing up a hospital and disappointing his Air Force father (he has severe daddy issues)

He agrees to work for an evil company that kills people knowing full well that they are an evil company that kills people (even and often their own employees). Not everyone working for the evil company knows that they are working for an evil company that kills people, but Jacobi does (because he does a lot of the killing). Like most who are in the know about this, he believes that the evil company would either A) never kill him or B) that if they did kill him, it would be okay because his work would be used for the greater good (though Jacobi is more option A here. Hilbert, who you may have seen me rant about before, falls more into the B category).

More facts about Jacobi later, but first, a word about the evil company and what he actually does for them. The evil company (Goddard Futuristics) focuses primarily on evil shady space exploration that involves killing all the crews they send up when they’re done using them (and for some reason, no one on earth seems to find this suspicious at all. I mean, they do choose people with criminal histories and/or people who don’t have a lot of friends or family who’d miss them, but still someone should have caught on by now). Goddard Futuristics also does a lot of AI development, where they create AI with fully human consciousnesses, personalities, and pain responses, only to enslave them to serve their evil purposes, even forcing them to torture the human crews they’ve come to consider their friends. The folks who run the company also seem to enjoy torturing the AI and their human employees for fun. For context, the company is run by an evil smooth talking business guy and his behind the scenes evil science girlfriend. Think Curtain and Garrison but if they were more evil, sadist, cruel, and the nature of their relationship was 50x more weird and confusing. They run the company like an evil pyramid scheme, with everyone thinking they’re essential personal who are in the “inner circle” and don’t have to worry about getting killed off (but that the people below them on the pyramid do) OR they understand that they are expendable but are in way too deep to back out now, so they keeping doing what their bosses want so they don’t get killed or because they delude themselves into believing their murderous bosses actually have good intentions that couldn’t be accomplished without all the murder.

Directly below evil business man and his evil science girlfriend in the pyramid of evil are Rachel, evil business man’s mean assistant back on earth who I don’t like, and Jacobi’s boss Kepler, who is somehow even worse. All he does is monologue about Whiskey and act like an ominous supervillain (even though it’s clear he doesn’t know what he’s talking about half the time and his bosses are intentionally keeping him out of the loop).

So by now you’re like: “okay Bods, so why does Jacobi kill people for this evil guy Kepler, who is also on his own level of this evil murder science business pyramid scheme? And what does any of this have to do with your passion for torturing Jacobi with ducks?” So glad you asked. After Kepler sweet talks Jacobi at a bar, he agrees to work for Kepler and the evil company he represents because Kepler entices him with an offer he can’t refuse: a chance to have a job where he gets to make things go boom! for a living. While at the company, Jacobi befriends someone on the same level of the evil pyramid scheme as him: Dr. Maxwell, who was enticed by Kepler into working for Goddard with a similar offer he gave Jacobi: a chance to have her dream job working on AI for a living. To Maxwell’s credit, unlike other characters, she treats the AI as human equals. Unfortunately, Maxwell doesn’t treat a lot of the human characters very well so this doesn’t mean much, and when some of the humans and AI turn on Kepler (for justifiable and obvious reasons), Maxwell and Jacobi don’t hesitate to betray, hurt, and enslave the AI and attempt to kill the humans.

This is where things get interesting. During this uprising, the rebels win and Jacobi and Kepler are taken hostage. Maxwell is killed. Jacobi does not take her death well. Jacobi starts freaking out and slowly puts together a ton of obvious stuff we already knew: Kepler is a bad leader who only looks out for his own self interest, he actually doesn’t know what he’s talking about 90% of the time, he was stupid enough to gamble the life of their AI expert and doesn’t care at all that she’s gone, and Jacobi and Maxwell were expendable the whole time just like everyone else at the evil company.

So he has a whole crisis about that, but I know you’re dying to know: what does any of this have to do with ducks?

Honestly, not that much.

You see, one day, the crew finds out that the evil company knows oddly detailed deeply personal embarrassing and incriminating information about all of them. One of these personal secrets is that Jacobi, Mr. Murder Man, Mr. Explosives, Mr. Bomb Expert, Mr. “I kill for a living and don’t lose a moment of sleep”, is highly afraid of ducks. They never explain why he has such an intense fear of ducks (to the point where he freaks out if people make quacking noises) and it’s never brought up again, at least not so far. So I have no idea if he has a specific duck nemesis like you do with your turkey because the show never addresses or explains it.

So then why do I mock him relentlessly for something mentioned so briefly that has little or no bearing on the plot? Well, I’ll tell you, Milk. You see, despite discovering the evil company is evil and losing faith in his horrible boss for letting his best friend get killed, Jacobi STILL doesn’t decide to join the good guys and even insists that Goddard has “done some good things too” and that there really is no good or bad just “progress” and that people like him are necessary so people like Maxwell can do their jobs. The redemption arc is right there for the taking, the bar is on the floor, but instead he decides to completely overlook the very obvious facts that no, actually, good science can in fact be done without murdering tons of people, and being okay with murder until it’s you and your friends that are getting murdered is hypocritical, and I don’t care how much good the evil science company did for the environment, if a successful environmental activist was found guilty of murder, they would still go to jail. You don’t need to do bad things to do good things, and doing some good things once doesn’t give you a free pass to kill whoever you want. In addition to this highly frustrating failure to see the obvious and conscious choice to bury his head in the sand (though to be fair, he’s not the only character that does this), Jacobi also followed his boss’s orders and murdered my favorite character: Blessie, aka The Blessed Eternal aka Specimen 34, aka The Plant Monster aka Percy the Plant aka a bunch of other names. He was iconic, a legend, likely the biological son of Commander Renee Minkowski (and we love that for him), and now he’s dead. He was born in the darkness of space and built himself a night light because he didn’t have any sunlight. 🥺 All he wanted was to go to earth so he could see the sun and plant himself in the soil, where he could live with the other plants. Now he can’t. 💔 Oh. And also, Blessie at one point took over the mind of a Russian scientist, named himself “The Blessed Eternal” and tried to enslave the entire crew, but that Russian scientist did some evil messed up stuff and also it’s okay that Blessie did that, because he was just scared and it was funny and he apologized for it later in his own way so we forgive him 💕 (also God forbid a mutant plant monster does anything 🙄).

The point is: For his crimes, most notably the execution of Blessie’s murder, his lack of remorse, relentless stupidity, and intentional rejection, suppression, and mockery of any feelings of empathy or compassion, Jacobi must pay. So I have decided that an appropriate punishment is to mock him and his fear of ducks relentlessly whenever the opportunity arises.

I hope this explanation is sufficient, sorry to rant so much about the evil murder science company’s pyramid scheme and backstory, but I hope you enjoyed it!

[lemissingmask]

[ID: Sketch of Redemption era Hardison and Eliot with Hardison driving the food truck and Eliot a little way behind him in front of the curtain to the back. Hardison is leaning over towards Eliot but looking to the road. Eliot had his left hand pressed to his left ribs, his thumb digging in on that side and his hair is wet and dishevelled. He has blood coming from his forehead, nose and lip. End ID]

-

Art prompt fill for: Broken Ribs

Ficlet below the cut

-

Their mark was exactly the kind of guy who really angered Eliot.

One of a depressingly high number of business owners who cut corners to save money, risked the health of his employees by not bothering to invest in proper protective equipment or safety measures. And, in doing so, had enough money to ensure that none of this ever came back to bite him.

He hired lawyers to dismantle any legal arguments, he blackmailed employees, he bribed officials. Basically all the things an bad bad guy could do to make sure he didn't suffer the consequences of his negligent actions.

After Eliot went undercover in one of the mark's warehouses and Hardison got access to the internal network, they found that most of the wealth that facilitated all of this came from betting massive amounts of money on cage fights between intentionally poorly matched fighters.

The mark found unsuspecting amateurs and pitted them against members of his own professional security, who would draw the fight out just long enough to make it convincing, earning themself a fraction of the pay out.

It was brutal, but it offered an impossibly perfect way to bankrupt the guy.

Their con had centred around positioning Eliot as an untrained fighter, and getting the mark to put him in a fight. Eliot would win, and the mark would lose a lot of money.

Even more money than usual thanks to some carefully applied legal pressure from Harry.

And, while Eliot was in the fight, Parker would break into the mark’s office and get all the documents needed to use as evidence for his breaches of safety standards, blackmail, and bribery.

Straightforward and the sort of thing they’d done in one variation or another hundreds of times before.

Except this time, someone had discovered that Eliot could fight. The crew didn’t know how, but by the time they’d found out, Eliot had already been deliberately hit by a car and left to die in the freezing downpour that had started earlier that day.

The hit and run had knocked Eliot out for no more than a few seconds, and by the time Hardison got to him in the food truck, he was on his feet, glaring at the approaching familiar vehicle, one arm around his torso.

Broken ribs.

Hardison had come to recognise the particular way Eliot held himself when his ribs were broken.

There was also blood tracking down one side of his face, from a cut on his forehead, which probably looked much worse than it was thanks to the rain. The split lip, bruises and bloody nose were so usual on Eliot that Hardison barely took note of them.

It was the ribs that worried him as the hitter joined him in the truck, growling at him to “Go!” when he didn’t immediately start driving, completely failing to comprehend the fact that the delay was caused by a very reasonable concern for his damn safety.

“You know you don’t hafta do this, man,” Hardison said even as he drove as fast as the truck would go towards the fight venue.

“We changing the plan?” Harry asked over the comms, the buzz of voices in the background. He was already in position at the fight.

“No, we’re not changin’ the plan,” Eliot shot back, grunting in pain as Hardison made a turn that forced the hitter to grab the dash for support.

“Didn’t you just get hit by a car?” Harry sounded concerned, which really was the only normal, reasonable reaction to someone being hit by a car.

Parker scoffed, but in the echo that told of the vent she was in, Hardison heard the concern she was either hiding or had yet to identify, “Eliot gets hit by cars all the time.”

Harry still didn't sound convinced, “Okay…so, you’re still fighting this guy? Because he looks pretty big.”

“Yeah, I’m still fightin’ ‘im.”

Hardison gave Eliot a sideways glance, taking note of the posture, the pain in his features.

Definitely more than one rib broken. Left side.

“Just try not to take any hits to the ribs, yeah?” Hardison returned his attention to the road, taking the penultimate junction in their route to the club, “‘Cus I’m telling you now, E. If you go getting a lung punctured and collapsed, I am not about to stick a tube into your chest. That’s nasty!”

“You watch too much TV,” Eliot muttered, nudging Hardison lightly with his nearest elbow.

That contact, albeit brief, said a hell of a lot more than any of the growled words Eliot had offered so far.

It was a reassurance. A promise that Eliot wasn’t being reckless. That he knew he could still win this fight and he could do it without getting himself killed.

“You don’t watch enough,” Hardison argued as the significance of the gesture sank in, and with it a salve to his anxiety.

“Yeah, well,” Eliot replied with an entirely false irritation, “Maybe if you get us to this fight on time, I’ll watch that damn vampire show you keep talkin’ about.”

Hardison threw him a sideways smile, “Promise?”

“What?”

“Promise to watch if we get there on time?” Hardison purposefully slowed the truck, prompting Eliot to growl and nudge him again.

“Fine! Now go!”

Hardison broke into a grin and sped the truck up again, already plotting how to orchestrate enforced recovery time for Eliot, aided by some very addictive classic television.

-

[mackerelsoup-fr]

The robbery turned murder that she has been tasked with cleaning up left a foul taste in Adelaidis’ mouth, but far be it from her to complain about such a rare opportunity.

Typically Aleaume thought her unsuitable for murder cleanups, as when she had been tasked with two particularly gory cases early on in her career, she had fainted. Despite her pointing out that those cases had been too much for an employee so wet around the ears to handle, her boss had disagreed, and the gleam in his eyes warned her not to push the matter any further.

And so, she was glad to be trusted again - if such a word could be used in relation to such a deeply paranoid dragon as Aleaume - to clean up the scene for the landlord to come and sell the house under false pretences to desperate dragons in need of a home.

It didn’t concern Adelaidis though. Her only thought, as she shoved her rickety cleaning cart down the narrow alleyway towards the looming house, was of the reward she could fetch for whatever items she could loot from the house. She had always reasoned to herself that the measly pay provided by Aleaume wouldn’t be enough for a hatchling to live on, let alone a dragon of her age. And so it didn’t bother her to root around a home, pointedly ignoring the ransacked scene she was meant to clean up and take what could be easily and anonymously sold in Wishbone Market before she got on with her job.

As long as she wasn’t caught in the act and her boss was left none the wiser, she could not have cared less.

Huffing and puffing, she dragged the wheel-less cart through the cluttered front yard and up the stairs. The house was nothing to write home about, with identical houses crammed next to and behind it. The streets were quiet, as most of the suburbs of Ichorstain were, and Adelaidis, seeing no sign of trouble or onlookers, pushed her way into the house, having used the key procured by Aleaume to enter.

Now inside, she sized up the dingy bungalow with narrowed eyes. The receiving room - if it could be called that, was one of two rooms in the house. There was a curtain hanging limply in the airless doorway which separated this room from what she presumed would be a kitchenette, seeing no sign of cooking tools. She had no interest in that however, the murder had been committed in the front room, and considering that there were smudged, but still visible paw prints leading to the door and back, she doubted that the kitchenette was why the robbers had come. No, they must have been looking for something in this room.

Her assessment done, she did a rudimentary search in the chest of drawers and underneath the moth-eaten couch that flanked adjacent walls. It was when she dropped the couch with a loud thud that she heard it.

The unmistakeable dull sound of a vibration passing through a thick glass bottle.

There was alcohol in this room. Adelaidis smiled, her lips curving up to reveal crooked and crowded teeth.

Carefully she began removing the blood-splattered pillows and throws on the couch. She had dismissed these as gaudy but now considered might have been intentionally placed to conceal alcohol, which was likely not purchased legally. It was the third throw that she lifted up that revealed what she had been looking for. A nearly full bottle of wine.

She uncorked it gingerly, and took a deep inhale to see if she could determine the kind. Her late mother had had quite the obsession with wines, and though it had been a long time since she had even seen an glass of wine, let alone smelt the aroma, she was certain it was a Clairet.

And it was definitely not legal.

Unfortunately, it being open and drank from would cause problems for her if she tried to sell it. She barely heard the creaking in the other room or the way that the curtain shifted slightly, as she frowned down at the bottle, deep in thought.

For one, Wishbone Market residents were suspicious to a fault, nearly as bad as Aleaume. Though Aleaume was unsubtle in his constant paranoia, if she tried to sell this the wrong way and was suspected to be part of a patrol, she might return to the place where the markets had last been and find that they had moved, and without any notice or warning. She would be unlikely to find them again, and her bones, after years of bending over to clean up after Ichorstain’s seediest residents, would not take kindly to a hunt for their new location.

And secondly, the open bottle would certainly fetch a lower price, perhaps as little as half of what a full, unopened bottle might have gotten her. But to top it up with water ran the risk of selling it to someone who knew their wines as well as she did, and she didn’t fancy winding up in the sewerage tunnels for her troubles.

And it was as she mulled this last thought that she turned around, still distracted, and came face to face with a spindly, bone-white dragon shrouded in a black hood. And then it opened its mouth, and started screaming.

[bithermal]

"anyways I’m gonna stop before I rant about how there is a fundamental misunderstanding of anarchy"

I for one would love to read your rant about it tho, if you don't mind. :]

Ohhhh man ok bare with me. I am responding to this while there are fire trucks outside because someone set their apartment on fire.

For the sake of ease I’m going to break this up into talking about what anarchy arcs can look like, and what I’d think one would look like on the QSMP specifically or at least how it would actually affect the server. For reference I am a legitimate anarchist so if you’re wondering why this stuff gets under my skin that’s why lol.

Now most anarchy arcs on SMPs usually spawn from someone having a problem with the current leadership, status quo, or societal structure of the server. They want to overthrow or disrupt things because, for whatever reason, they don’t like them. That is technically the textbook definition of anarchism. However, a common mistake is that there is no long term plan. Most creators focus so intently on the overthrowing the government part they don’t stop and think ‘ok what am I going to do after I’ve completed this goal?’ And I can’t exactly blame them. The aftermath isn’t exactly as fun as the overthrowing part, but it usually just results in a new ruling party stepping into the subsequent power vacuum. Let’s take Technoblade on the dsmp for example: as much as I loved his character, he never had a follow up plan once he overthrew governments, and that’s pretty much exactly why he got caught in a neverending struggle of destroying L’manberg only for it to be built back up again. This constant overlooking of a follow up plan often leads to viewers misinterpreting anarchy as just destroying any sort of governing body and leaving the citizens to clean up the mess. Now there are other contributing factors, namely the existence of anarchy servers. They tend to cause most to have a pretty negative reaction when ‘anarchy’ and ‘minecraft’ are in the same sentence lol, but the point im getting at is there is a difference between textbook anarchy and political anarchy and that’s often overlooked by creators and viewers when discussing anarchy arcs.

Now as for what an anarchy arc would look like on the QSMP? Honestly, not that different from what Bad has been attempting. Remember, anarchy is fighting back against a ruling party. Who is the island’s ruling party? The Federation. Now unfortunately Forever is going to get caught up in the mix since he won the presidency and seems to be intent on keeping that title, but you can’t make an omelet without cracking a few eggs. Most of the other islanders aren’t exactly actively upholding the Federation’s ideals. They all seem pretty vocal about their dislike of the Federation. Bad isn’t exactly advocating for going after the islanders. In fact he’s done a pretty good job setting up a long term plan by aiding in the island community so much. intentionally or not, he’s helped to mitigate any negative effects that could possibly come from overthrowing the Federation. I think a lot of people hear anarchy arc and automatically equate it to a villain arc, when in reality the only people that Bad might be antagonistic towards are Forever, since he is unfortunately upholding the governing body by remaining president, and possibly Cellbit, Jaiden, and Foolish (as they are Federation employees, but I trust Bad to recognize their situations.)

I hope this made at least a little sense lol I tried not to get too political on a post talking about… Minecraft politics

[morgenlich]

i've been having some thoughts about the way ppl use reddit as like, a last bastion of reliable product reviews recently, because i generally do agree that it's better than like, company websites, usually. but that's kind of a low bar.

first, i should point out a lot of people on reddit suspect that many positive product reviews are written by bots or undisclosed pr. i think this sometimes veers into paranoia, but it's....definitely a number higher than zero, of accounts that fit one or both of these categories. it's especially been a topic of conversation in light of the situation with blake lively, and i've seen people throw around quotes about companies taking advantage of the fact that people trust reddit reviews to plant the bot/undisclosed pr/advertising accounts....i cannot speak to the veracity of this. but i do know there are some accounts, if you look at their comment history, it's......suspicious in this regard. this goes both for positive pr for a company, and campaigns done to make rival companies look bad.

however i think even the real people reviews are...eh....should be viewed with a degree of skepticism, and you should probably make note of the context of them before taking them too much to heart.

broadly speaking, ime, brand-focused subreddits fall into three categories: a place for employees to kvetch amongst themselves (r/target, even if the sub rules technically say otherwise); fanclubs of people who really don't like to hear anything negative about the brand (r/mooncat has...gotten better over the past year but still generally fits in this i think); and a place for customers and former fans to get together and complain about how the company/products aren't as good as they used to be (r/glossier). obviously this is an oversimplification (thinking only of subreddits i hang out in, r/simplynailogical and r/ios both i think are a fifty-fifty mix of the latter two categories which. is fun. lmao) but i still think is broadly true

obviously the subs that will only accept the most glowing and positive of reviews aren't trustworthy, but i don't think the other two are either. both of these other types of communities, whether on reddit or otherwise, are fed largely by people complaining. now, complaining in moderation is fine, healthy for you even. but when you base (intentionally or not) a whole community on it, suddenly everything becomes a source of complaint. the negative posts are the ones that get the most attention, and suddenly everyone who ever had a negative experience will add to the conversation, and it's very easy for this to snowball into more drastic stories and complaints. people who think a product is good, actually, or even just fine can get downvoted to oblivion and accused of being pr or bootlickers (another issue i have with my first point lol)

there's also a lot to be said for reviews of things in general, which is that people are often way more likely to go out of their way to complain about something they think was bad than they are to praise something that's good, especially online and especially on a site like reddit that doesn't really like influencers or wannabe influencers, overall

this isn't to say don't ever trust reddit reviews or anything, but don't, like, blindly trust them. don't hold reddit up as some paragon of honesty in an otherwise bot-filled internet because there are bots and influencers on there too, they're just very unlikely to disclose that fact (which is honestly more insidious than people who are upfront about it!). skim through the rest of the subreddit, see if it's just overwhelming negativity to the point of just being a circlejerk (whether it's a cj sub or not!). you can check people's comment history if something seems off to you, and you can (and should!) look at multiple places for reviews of things, especially expensive things like tech or cars.

[bakurapika]

My boss has been awesome but I got in trouble for overlooking something several weeks ago that, real talk, I think is probably heavily due to how I've had some big memory issues lately which I think is related to my lack of med management. But I'm sure as hell not gonna say that for multiple reasons (1 of which being, I think she has similar issues herself and would think it's BS, and 2, if she DID believe me then she'd question my ability to do my job to a point where it'd be worse than believing I was intentionally a little negligent).

And right after that, I was late for a meeting because of 1) those same memory issues, and 2) some tech issues. Where it looked like I was being intentionally negligent again.

And I'd just recently asked if she would still be a good reference for me if I had to get another job becuase of financial issues she was already fully aware of (and she's been the kind of person who I trusted to be supportive with this information despite being a boss), so it's been pretty transparent that she thinks I'm slacking off on purpose.

I thought that all got settled but now she's been interpreting normal situations that would usually be like "oh yeah, we'll clean this up no problem" or even not have any identified issue at all, where it would just require a little paperwork on my end to fix - and seems to just be looking for evidence that I don't take my job seriously. I'm really on edge whenever she talks to me now, because this situation has played out before at the same job with a really bad boss, and things got reeeeally shitty right afterward.

I feel inclined to be like "lol! it's just my anxiety! i'm projecting!" but I genuinely don't think I am, and so far my instincts have been pretty spot on about this kind of thing.

And it fully sucks because she became my boss specifically to get me out of that situation of a sucky boss who interprets everything I do in the worst faith possible.

But anyway, so I've been having breakdowns at work whatever. But everyone gets a day off on the day of the week we normally have a private boss-employee meeting. I was really relieved about that. But literally last minute of today, she rescheduled it to be at the end of the day tomorrow, right before the long weekend, and it's gonna suck and I'm not sure if it's better to dread it all day or to have "gotten it over with" and have a sucky conversation that made the entire day awful again. Not that I have a choice.

So basically I need to go into this conversation and lie like a rug. Because being honest and taking accountability for my actions has gotten me treated with suspicion because she thought I was lying and admitting to anything that's "off" before it becomes a problem for other people (though it may not have been pointed out as an issue I caused - or a problem at all - if I let it lie) has itself become a chance to evaluate what I've done as laziness or doing bad work. Even if the actual thing being discussed took place ages before I was applying for other jobs.

Hence lying like a rug. I just need to be polite and accept any blame she gives me without taking it personally or letting it affect my actions (since yesterday at work, I got next to nothing done because I was crying all day, compared to today, where I decided Fuck It and chilled most of the day and was able to focus on my work like a normal person afterwards, without needing to text anyone for my own safety or anything at all). And basically I need to roleplay someone who's not emotionally invested in my job at all but is distantly professional.

But I'm really shitty at lying in that kind of situation so it'll probably take about 45 seconds to break me, and I'll wind up being like "I WAS SOBBING IN THE OFFICE ON WEDNESDAY BECAUSE OF AN OFFHAND REMARK YOU MADE" which would be taken as utter manipulative, lying horseshit. And it's a half hour meeting and she's definitely gonna confront me about stuff that, real talk? Was at least as much her fault as mine, if they're even situations that you feel like you need to identify anyone being at fault in at all - and again if I even hint at that being the truth, I'm f u c k e d.

God someone please like this post to tell me I'm not alone even if you just skimmed it because I'm struggling. Maybe send me a message about the worksona I need to develop and how I should be able to keep it together for like 2 full minutes.

Like if she hates me at a personal level now, she won't want to talk for long either, right??

[none-shall-caricature-me]

Goody - two - shoes discourse has reached the VTSOM fandom. Ugh.

Just finished Vincent : The Secret of Myers, SPOILERS and opinions on its fan discourse below -  ISTG if another person says ‘Vincent should've seen that bad end coming because he was going TOO much down a dark, vengeful, murderous path and EMOTIONALLY - DRIVEN REVENGE BAD 11!!!’ I’ll go berserk. Bruh, ALL THE CHARACTERS in this game are morally grey (less so for Draco, it seems). Vincent is brutally murdering the core members, and people’s issue with that is that he’s apparently also killing those sidepiece employees who were very selfish but not fully evil, just like he used to be. Now, regardless of whether or not he’s killing the less shady workers too (I personally think it’s not clarified so far, though sparing other pawns like him would make his revenge ethically sound), get out of your asses for once and see how convincing ‘BUT I WOULD NEVER SINK SO LOW IF I WERE HIM, I’D STEW IN MISERY OVER MY TORTURE LIKE A GOOD VICTIM INSTEAD OF GOING ON A BLOODY RAMPAGE TO TAKE BACK SOME SEMBLANCE OF CONTROL OVER MY SHITTY LIFE’ sounds.

 Dude, first of all, once you’re self - centred and socially desperate enough join a cutthroat MNC as their top dirty - dealing lawyer -- and then get fucked over horribly despite reluctantly licking the company’s boots -- you’re also self - centered enough to seek vengeance at all costs. And barring the whole corrupt lawyer thing, being self - centered isn’t necessarily bad. An ordinary person wouldn’t have the means to take on Myer Corp. and that’s why most ‘normal’ folks would just give up on revenge, willingly (if they’re of the insane ‘I will suffer in silence and simply expect to get over the horrible destruction of my self like a good girl’ variety) or unwillingly. But Vincent has the genius, the insider info and the wealth to fuck over Myer Corp.’s experimenters - SO WHY WOULDN’T HE ? 

Yes, his ostensible targeting of a probably memory - wiped Vanora is not at all a good move - in fact it was mostly quite dumb and could’ve been averted since altering memories can definitely change a person’s goals, loyalties, personality and philosophy (Vanora at the game’s start, before Vincent intentionally reminded her of her past, was harmless). But Myer Corp sent her to kill him, and maybe he was paranoid that she could be a sleeper agent, BUT most importantly his terrible experiences have understandably fucked him up psychologically and he’s NOT thinking straight at all. Therefore Vanora and those he killed may be brainwashed company pawns just like him, following callous orders for self - preservation or profit, but it’s hardly easy to empathise with that when you’re stewing in your own hell. That’s something smoothly said but rarely done, and very few of you morality hecklers would be saintly enough to pull it off if you were in his place. 

Do you seriously think that ANYBODY is such a dumb baby lamb that they’ll simply get over their life being ruined, having to eat humans to live, suffering long agony; perk up, fix a smile on their face, and try to live out the rest of their life like they’re fucking Jesus Christ a - okay with being crucified ? No, and whether they were a bad enough person to be called hypocritical for their obsession (like Vincent probably is) DOESN’T MATTER. Because the alternative is fucking unrealistic and oppressive (like Madoka Magica’s bird - brained ‘happier ending’ where the puella magi swallow their pain and straight up have to die so that their pain won’t make them lash out in the only way they can). 

Point is, Vincent’s mad fixation on gorily wiping out Myers IS, as far as we know, NOT good, yes. But given his realistically morally grey personality, his trauma and his circumstances, it makes sense. Similarly, his attempt to kill Vanora after HIMSELF ensuring she’d remember her past and calling her loyal to Myers at heart was SUPER DUMB and horrible - but it makes sense given the above. The world is full of Vincent Edgeworth, Self - Preserving Ex - Corrupt Lawyers. Unconditionally loving, naive, selfless Dracos are rare. 

And tbh, I personally find a fucked - up Vincent very interesting, realistic and poignant. I don’t care that he’s problematic because he’s super well - written.

[skylarmoon71]

Matt Murdock (Daredevil) - Chapter 17

You’ve gotten the hang of working at the firm.

The only issue you really have is with one of the senior reporters who’s obviously never learned how to talk to people. You thought it was just you, but Karen confirmed that the guy is a dick, so you feel much better.

You’re getting close to a few of the other employees, like Ben. He’s really nice and his wife has taken a liking to you. She came by to drop his lunch and spent the better part of that time gushing about how cute you were. Safe to say you’d been blushing the rest of the day.

The atmosphere is nice. You’ve worked in a lot of places, but this feels like a small family.

“My wife made some of those brownies, here.”

Ben handed you the tupperware and you smiled, taking it happily.

“Thank you Mr. Urich!”

You were basically skipping when it was time to leave with Karen. She was curious behind your smile, but the second she saw the bowl she didn’t even have to ask. She laughed, linking her arms with you as you both left.

It felt nice, being away from it. You knew it was impossible to just forget about him. You were trying to be strong, but you missed him.

Matt and Daredevil.

You weren’t sure why you were still separating them in your mind. It’s the same person, but it feels so different. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to grasp.

Sitting on the short staircase, you let out another sigh, watching the cars drive by. The door opening behind is what catches your attention. You glance over, smiling when Karen takes a seat.

“Are you ready to talk about it?”

She’s given you a lot of space, and you’re grateful, but you know she’s just worried. You can’t exactly tell her that your boyfriend is a vigilante that’s been running around New York. So maybe, maybe you just need to put a bit of truth in your words.

“Karen, what would you do if Frank kept a big secret from you? W-Would you be able to forgive him?”

She paused.

“It depends on the secret. For example if he told me he had a whole other family and I was a sidechick, you know I’d lose my shit.”

You smiled. That would be understandable. If it were that easy, maybe it would have been easier to just let him go.

Karen notices that you still appear distant, so she takes another approach.

“Has he ever done anything to hurt you? Physically, emotionally?”

You shake your head immediately.

Matt has always been there for you and Daredevil..he’d literally saved your life. In your heart you know that, but your mind won’t give you that peace. Because everytime you try, you just recall all the times he met with you and listened to you rant about your troubles that were usually about your feelings for him. It felt like he’d mocked you, and then exploited your trust pretending to be two different people.

“So aside from this secret, he’s never intentionally caused you pain.”

“Yeah..”

She nods.

“A year ago, Frank was shot in the head.”

Her statement makes your eyes widen.

“At the time I was in Alaska doing a piece. I’d left a week prior and I told him that for the two weeks that I was there the connection in certain areas would be a bit spotty. For a few days we didn’t have contact. I came back and everything seemed fine. It was all smooth sailing until I saw the bill from the hospital. I thought maybe it was a mistake, but then I read the injuries and I knew I had to confront him.”

You can’t imagine that. Knowing someone you care about has gone through that.

“The surgery was done in a day and in a span of a week he was released. Doctors couldn’t explain it. Everyone just thought it was some great miracle. This completely terrifying thing had happened to him and I had no idea. When I found out, Frank and I got into a fight. He kept saying that it wasn’t a big deal. He survived and he saw no need to worry me when the doctors confirmed that he had a clean bill of health, but I was pissed. I couldn’t understand why he would hide something like that from me. For two weeks, we barely spoke to each other.”

You can fully understand her point of view.

“I was angry with him. I kept trying to figure out why. Most people would have smiled and just thanked God for the miracle. But every time I looked at him I just got pissed and I realized I wasn’t really mad at him for not saying anything. I was terrified at the idea that in such a short space of time, I could have lost the man I loved. I was angry at myself for not being there even though I knew it was irrational. He was wrong to hide it, but I knew why he did it. He was just trying to protect me, even if he knew I would hate him for it. He just didn’t want to see me scared, sad or in pain. He didn’t do it out of spite, but love.”

You straightened and Karen took your hands in hers.

“I have no idea what your situation is, but from what you’ve said, Matt is someone who would do just about anything for you. This secret, you need to figure out whether it was out of love or not. When you have that answer, then you’ll know if you can forgive it.”

[voidingintotheshout]

How AI tells Israel who to bomb

OK, there is a lot here so this video has a huge amount of really intense stuff that is all fact checked. I didn’t know this, but the Israeli military is using AI and AI – driven algorithms to identify targets in Gaza for their bombing campaigns. It is much more dystopian than I was expecting.

First, I have always heard this, but since Hamas is the government of Gaza, anyone who works with the government is considered a high level or lower level terrorist. That would essentially be like in America, if you had ever worked in any kind of government job or government contract job, you would be considered a terrorist, possibly. So like if you worked at the DMV, or you worked for the census, you would be labeled as a high-level or low level terrorist.

Second, they target Hamas tunnels, Hamas residences, and likely Hamas hideouts with weapons and plans and things like that. They also will target things called “power targets“. That’s the one that makes me most sad and angry. That basically means anywhere that people congregate. They are intentionally blowing up apartment complexes and schools and mosques simply to put pressure on Hamas to give up. Like, they know there are no terrorists or suspects there, they are just blowing up civilians, but Israel is doing that as a tactical idea to get Hamas to fold.

Finally, the amount of acceptable losses to kill one high-level Hamas operative can be as high as 300 civilians per high-level operative. So that’s like they are OK killing the equivalent of your entire high school graduating class to get one high-level operative. And, just so you can put it into perspective, I don’t think I was unusual that I definitely went to school with at least one person who ended up going into extremism later in life. I have definitely worked in offices with at least that one creepy employee that was definitely an extremist. In this war that would mean my entire office building might get bombed because of that one person. Also, for low-level targets such as clerks or doctors or hospital administrators that would be working in government hospitals, the acceptable losses are 20 civilians for every target. Since Israel uses AI, they’ve already tracked that person and know their work and their home and for low level targets they are more likely to use “dumb bombs“ that are not guided so they are much more likely to miss and hit a neighbors house or a neighboring building that has nothing to do with it. This causes a lot of innocent deaths, but it also means they need to send another bomb and try again.

This is not even mentioning the fact that they are using surveillance of Palestinians as a way to figure out where the best targets are for their weapons.

Finally, if you didn’t happen to know, they have already admitted that for low level targets, they will use unguided weapons so they don’t even know if they are hitting what they are supposed to. Like the fact that they are attacking an area that can sometimes have a population density of New York with unguided missiles and if they don’t hit the target, they have blown up a house or another building killing other people, but they will need to send another rocket to try to hit the original target. Keeping in mind, that target may not even have any actual terrorists in it. Keeping in mind, the terrorist can be just anyone who has done any work in conjunction with the Hamas government over the last five years.

Now Israel has denied that they use AI exclusively to target people for bombings, and that all the targets are verified by humans. However, it was eventually leaked that what that means is that AI does all the targeting and a human just needs to verify that the target is male. That’s it. They’re disputing using AI to target bombings in this way only on the technicality that a human verifies the target is a man.

I don’t mean to seem like some idiot who hasn’t been paying attention, but this is so much worse than I thought it was. I wouldn’t be surprised if America is supporting this because this represents the future of warfare that America wants to have tested so they can use against other countries in the future. It makes me wonder if the American police force already has this technology to use against protesters domestically.