#Iterative methodologies

[procurement-insights]

The Links Between Agentic AI, Strand Commonality, Similarity Heuristics, Iterative Methodologies And Why It is Important to Procurement

Why are the links between Agentic AI, Strand Commonality, Similarity Heuristics, Iterative Methodologies critical to ProcureTech Success?

My First Procurement Insights Post on Strand Commonality (Excerpt) – Optimization Modeling and the Modern Supply Chain (A PI Q and A) by Jon Hansen (March 2008) Numerous studies and reports have been published on the various methods (e.g., Monte Carlo) used to determine supply chain optimization. I would have to say that my preferred method has been to use the heuristic approach under an…

[poolvision]

https://thepoolvision.com/mvp/

Mastering Project Management with MVP: Building Successful Software

In the fast-paced world of software development, where innovation drives success, the concept of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) has emerged as a game-changer. MVP project management has revolutionized how startups and entrepreneurs approach software development, allowing them to validate ideas, minimize risks, and maximize outcomes.

We'll delve into the depths of MVP software development, exploring its lifecycle, methodologies, benefits, and real-world success stories.

[osterby]

So the flavour of the day is Bad Fandom Stats, and it turns out that not only is centreoftheselights using a wildly inaccurate method of counting ship popularity during a given year for the Year In Review fandom stats, but also that nearly every column on the chart is a lie. @5ummit exploded the whole methodology issue last year, so I'll just link their post and dive into other stuff.

One would think, looking at a list of popular ships with their fandoms listed next to them, that the named fandom is simply the one within which the ship exists.

The ship at the top of that list is "Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)" and the fandom is listed as "9-1-1 (TV)"; that's pretty straightforward, there's only the one TV show and those characters are from that show.

But then we get down to ships with characters that exist in multiple versions or subsections of a canon which have their own fandom tags on AO3, and things start getting janky

One of the first things I noticed was weird about this year's chart (aside from the numbers themselves being just straight up wrong) was that the fandom for Kirk/Spock was listed as "Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)", the AO3 tag for the reboot movies. That felt wrong, because while I know the reboot movies are big on AO3, most of the K/S stuff I've seen recently has either been expressly original cast or not specific to any one cast or iteration of canon.

I thought that the list might have been saying that Reboot Kirk/Spock alone was big enough to make the list while Generic and Original Kirk/Spock were separate fandoms that hadn't gotten onto the list. That would be absurd for new fic count, but there are stranger things on this list and the methodology favours newer ships, so I went digging.

A search for Kirk/Spock fic posted in 2024 and a glance at the sidebar gives us this, out of 2,255 total fics

Searching for Kirk/Spock fics updated, rather than newly posted, in 2024 also puts the All Media Types and Original Series tags above the Reboot Movies.

But searching the entire unfiltered ship tag gets us this, out of 22,426 fics

This means two things.

1.) Despite the listed fandom on the year end chart, Kirk/Spock (and by extension, all the other ships from fandoms with more than one iteration of canon [and some Batman ships are on there, so we've got far more complex things than simply reboot movies and TV/anime adaptions of novels/manga]) is a generic ship tag.

2.) the fandom listed was taken from the unfiltered tag, not from this year's data.

And centreoftheselights confirms that this is indeed her methodology.

The fandoms are, quite simply, wrong.

--

Since we do not have access to her data and her methods are not replicable, we can't check how many of the ships might have been struck with a mismatch between which version of their canon is most popular overall vs this year.

I can't even be certain that there is a mismatch for Kirk/Spock. It's possible that the fics that actually make up her numbers have more reboot movie fic than otherwise. No one will ever know.

--

It is interesting to dig into the differences. I find it utterly fascinating that Kirk/Spock had a period that pushed the reboot movies to the top of the list overall and has since settled into Original Cast being more popular, all while the ships remained consistently popular enough to regularily end up on Top Ship Lists.

Centreoftheselights' data does not allow us to dig into those differences, or even to meaningfully speculate about them.

--

And yet more! As I explained in this reblog, the "type" column is not harvested from the data itself, but is a subjective interpretation of what centreoftheselights believes the characters' genders is or could or might be. So not only are all the columns wrong, they aren't even wrong in the same ways.

Over the whole sheet, the columns are: ⚠️Rank: Well, it accurately lists the order of the inaccurate counts, so I guess the column technically isn't inaccurate ⚠️Change: This is indeed the change in rank from last year's chart. It accurately lists the difference between two different inaccurate ranks ✔️ Relationship: accurate! This is the ship tag on AO3 ❌ Fandom: Inaccurate. Actually a top tag within the ship tag, not the fandom the ship is from ❌Works Gained: Inaccurate. see @5ummit's debunk ✔️Total Works: accurate! this is indeed the size of the tag on AO3 ❌Type: Inaccurate. OP's best guess, subjective interpretation, or headcanon ❌Race: Inaccurate. Same as above.

--

Tagging @olderthannetfic and @5ummit since you two have kind of been doing the heavy lifting on this one :)

Also plugging the more accurate chart by Randomist1031, which, in addition to having accurate fic counts, also lists fandoms by generic names rather than top tag, which increaes both accuracy and readability. https://archiveofourown.org/chapters/158271001

[the-real-rain-world-confessions]

I love Five Pebbles. He's like, the best and most developed character of the entire game. His growth happens across the entire timeline, yet they manage to write him consistently and I can't help but love that.

He used to have a 'young and reticent mentality in the past.' But he grew past that. He's fully-fledged iterator with his own real struggles spurted by the trauma of his situation. He even is embarassed of his younger self's clumsiness. He criticizes his old "poorly-done work" even when he was just young and he didn't knew much things anyway. (Viridian Pearl from Garbage Wastes; FP's reading) I like to think he probably made a lot of technical goofs in the past?

Anyway, his own creation sparked a huge controversy which left him, unfortunately, stuck in the middle of it. The citizens that were against him coming into being walked all over him as if he didn't have work to do. But some others loved him and brought him gifts. He unironically preferred more the citizens that despised him because they brought him puzzles for him to solve and, even when they probably did it out of spite because they underestimated his intelligence, atleast he wasn't dealing with "the endless rituals and pleasantries of the monks of his own Houses which he found to be the most wearisome of all." (Pale Green pearl in The Exterior; FP's reading)

And he used to argue about old methodologies for global ascension, which he realizes now that they had a lot of holes. This kind of defiant and young mentality stuck to him for a while because, even when you are born with the knowledge of the world at your fingertips, it wouldn't make you good at your job if you are young and unexperienced, which Pebbles was. Also NSH went through that "phase" as well, as he describes: it seems to take "many iterations for our worldviews to change" (Source from one of The Spearmaster's broadcasts)

It's not until he meets Suns that he started to change. He learns about SoS, which became a huge part of Pebble's life and influenced a lot of his theories. (Viridian Pearl from GW again; FP's reading) Which, funnily enough, Moon herself doesn't quite agree with these type of theories about SoS's fate and she thinks she should be allowed to rest in one of her essays. (Pale Yellow pearl from Shoreline; Moon's reading)

He joins anonymous groups under the pseudonym EP: "Erratic Pulse" which is literally one replaced word away from "FP". He begins to shed his resilient mentality in order to learn and grow, and he ends up throwing most of his old theories out of the window. And new ones develop too.

He thinks death is the solution. That they only had to surpass the taboos to achieve ascension, which he believes is what SoS did. However most, if all, iterators didn't believe ascension was possible for them because they are not built to ascend like their creators. But he believed they had to shed that perception of reality. But they were 'too deep in theory and tradition' to believe him. This made him massively misunderstood in those groups and perhaps even in the local. Because nobody, not even his local group apparently, understood his theories. And the only iterator that seems to think equally the same as him, seems to have gone off their rocker. Which makes him look bad. It's not a good look at all. (Read Dark Purple pearl and Dark Blue pearl both from Sky Islands; FP's reading. Very important for the next points.)

Case and point; this whole broadcast (Dark Blue pearl: Moon's reading, by the way)

"NGI: SLIVER OF STRAW WAS A TRAITOR TO THE CAUSE

NGI: SLIVER OF STRAW BROKE THE SELF-DESTRUCTION TABOO

UU: How did this idiot get in here? Kick them out ~

NGI: <Forcefully removed from group>

EP: I think they had a point.

UU: Hahaha really? Elaborate!"

He only had… Suns, who eventually becomes a close friend and a mentor to him. He really looked up to them because he knew they trusted him. It's not like he says Suns understood his theories, now pointing out this very specific wording in the Dark Green pearl of Sky Islands: "None of them understood my theories, but Suns, they trusted me." Makes me thinks Suns was the only one who seemed to support him.

It seems like, to me, he may have some issues with trusting others. One broadcast I think empathizes my past point a little more clearly is this one: The Dark Purple pearl from Sky Islands. Which should also be read fully to understand where I come from. It's only when you bring this pearl to him as The Artificer, when he goes into a full blown mini-rant. (He was right to blow some steam off about THAT) He feels awfully disappointed they couldn't understand. Because it's very interesting to me… how he doesn't say anything else in that broadcast. His only comment is a, probably worried, "where did you hear this?". Then he's overshadowed by NSH's open mocking of his anonymous persona. Then it's at the end lf the rant when he… deflates because he realises you might not even understand what he even is saying to you.

I still think it's pretty damaging to hear the blatant disrespect and distrust, especially from nearby leers. Because it seemed to be that, as Chasing Wind mentioned, that he only listened to Suns and a 'few others'. And we know that Suns is the only one who trusted him with his theories.

Also, their friendship/mentorship makes me so sad. Because Seven Red Suns, as much as they tried to push Pebbles away (because too bad this is the kind of love Pebbles is used to), eventually also came to appreciate how Five Pebbles still stayed with them until the end: "The fact is, he really looked up to me. As much as I gave him a hard time, that's not something I took lightly."

Because really, SRS was lightly teasing in their, sadly, only canon conversation. (That isn't via pearl) althought it's probably Suns making friendly teasing something trivial to further their self-hate , I think I'll take it at face value. I'd like highlight it here:

"FP: I'm tired of trying and trying. And angry that they left us here. The anger makes me even less inclined to solve their puzzle for them. Why do we do this?

SRS: Yes, I'll spell this out - not because you're stupid or naive… Also, not saying that you're not ~

FP: Please, I'm coming to you for guidance."

On another point, he is also frustrated about the iterator's pointless work and he wishes to escape this 'maze' as much as he wants others to find their way out eventually. And because there was nothing to do to convince them, he attempted to self-destruct to try and prove a point, because it seemed the only way to get them to understand. Because it seemed the only way to convince them was by proving himself. Not only that, but it was also a mix between his own frustration and desperation and desire to help himself. AND the others aswell.

Then he tries with the methods given from the pearl by Suns. He ends up speeding the process out of desperation, and eventually came the forced broadcast at that almost fated moment. He fumbled it so hard it gave him some sort brain Rot.

Either way, He says he hates the "benevolent gift" he received from Suns but that's not true. He knows, and appreciates the efforts and risks they took to give him the pearl. He lashed out at them because they were the least iterator he wanted to confront him about his mistakes. "And I hurt them" I really cannot take that as anything other than than raw, extreme guilt. (Dark Green pearl from Sky Islands; FP's transcript)

Because he couldn't even understand why he got so angry. He regrets deeply what he has said, and he wishes to speak to them again. But for all he has said and done, he cannot imagine Suns would want to talk to him anymore. What makes this even more tragic is that SRS didn't exactly gave up either, they wanted to try and make another messenger, to reach out to him again. But they felt unable too. Now, in The Artificer campaign, he's trying his best to fix his mistakes, and he wants to recover. (Same pearl from above) But he never recovered. Take into account this is all said in The Artificer's campaign, which is very on par with The Spearmaster's timeline. So it didn't took him long for him to understand.

And for Moon, even when he us upset for her interruption, he does care deeply for her. And he regrets what he has done, but since he can't go back after everything, the irrepearable damage… Because in his attempts to fix himself was also done to fix her aswell. Because they knew they would be both doomed if he didn't try to reverse the rot's effects. Desperation made him think it was the only way and that he could do it himself. (Olive Green pearl from Sky Islands; FP's reading) Now he hopes the collapse of the bridges between them managed to stop The Rot spreading to her.

Because he doesn't wish for her to face the consequences of his actions, he doesn't want her to rot. He does not hate her. Nor he seems to push the blame on her because he knows these are HIS mistakes to endure. The sad thing is that this sort of martydom is not helping him... (Deep Green pearl from Metropolis; FP's reading)

And after Moon's collapse, he says he has tried for ways to help Moon. But since The Rot is impending him to do so, he can only find ways for that very big problem for now. An attempt to try to reverse, or even slow it. But he knows Moon needs all the help she can get. It is why he is determined to help The Hunter, and encourages them on their quest and even praise them for their nobility. Now citing, FP's direct dialogue with The Hunter:

"I am not without responsibility for her situation. It would only be suiting that I aided in this... rescue mission. As other endeavors have proven futile, I'm not ashamed to admit I've become more invested in day to day matters."

I was not a medical facility even when the equipment was functioning, but I will attempt to do something to buy you a little time.

You do not have much time. It is admirable what you choose to do with it.

Send my regards."

"In the latter case, I hope it was of some help to her. Not that I can imagine what one of you could be able to do for one of us, but she needs all the help she can get."

Now, the only sort of 'companions' he has are the random wild slugcats that somehow manage to make their way into his facility. He is curious about how they communicate, but he wants them out and away from his work. Because it is not exactly pleasant to 'have a rodent run over your desk as you work'... Although, he still wishes to help you and gives you the unimaginable gift. Iterators are supposed to help the collective, so he might have been bending the rules a bit, even for a temporary solution for you. He painfully knows everything won't matter at the end but he still wishes to help you. He wants to help himself too.

He says he is god-like to the lesser beings yet he mentions he feels as trapped as they do. He relates and sympathizes with The Hunter and even goes his way to give them extra cycles for them to make their way to The Void Sea so they can escape their sickness, and even when he is persistent of wanting Hunter to leave, he is only worried because he knows they do not have unlimited time.

He helps The Gourmand reunite with their colony by opening the exterior gates for them. He helped both Survivor and Monk by indirectly causing their reunion at the end of the base game or DLC, wherever at the tree in Outer Expanse or by ascending. He is okay with playing pretend with The Artificer as if they were his citizen, and he gives them a place to stay. He put his trust, for the very first time, on a stray slugcat to help him tend to his structure. He gives Rivulet instructions on how to get the rarefaction cell to give it to Moon. He had put his fate on the hands of small beasts atleast two times. (And he doesn't even realize it with Artificer).

And for the fun traits: He is a nerd for his now-gone citizen's history, music and art. And although he mentions his kind doesn't focus on those aspects, he stills decides to have a fondness for them anyway. He's sarcastic but it comes across as funny. If he had a mouth and he could eat he would like cup ramen and hot pockets. He likes the light of his chamber shining through the diamond sphere you can bring to him. He is angry at the scavengers for destroying ancient history for the sake of 'shiny trinkets'. He is a little hater to a crude art from a child. He thinks the ancients rituals were silly. If you bring him a picture of monks doing odd poses he will say he thinks it's funny. He has many of ancient farmer-poet Pel's works archived. He relates to a silly little painting of five bottles of water standing upon a surface of filter feeding plants. He thinks Twenty-One Spokes of a Stone Wheel was a "true visionary". He misses the old days. He misses his citizens. He misses Suns and Moon, but he thinks he can't be forgiven for what he did.

It's only at the end of everything, where he is at the last of his generators, that he realizes that he did not have to go through this alone. But it's already too late. Then there is Moon, the person he has tried to avoid all the time. And they both had changed so much, that they find solace in eachother. Alone, at the end of the world.

And all of this development happened in one single game and one DLC. And he is not even the protagonist, because you play as a small animal! In the game, he is portrayed as this distant, powerful being that you need to visit to allow you to progress. New players would never know that this guy has single-handedly the most fucked up lore in the game. Love him.

...It is impossible to agree with everything I just said. But, please, if you think FP is as stuck-up as people think, please read his own reading's on the pearls. I beg you…

.

[iteratorsex]

An analysis on Pebbles's writing from the Garbage Wastes pearl

I've never seen people talk about the GW pearl, likely because people regarded it as meaningless technobabble, but I do think there is meaning behind what Pebbles attempts to say, and what that could also infer about the landscape of Iterator discussions

This is written in internal thought, so it may not be entirely accurate, as Moon is doing her best to try and translate it

"...considering the eight and the twenty sixth amendments to the Capricious Dogma, we are apparently supposed to take for granted that a meaning collector point inversion is the only way to approach what has later become referred to as 'noise milking' (or occasionally 'rock swatting'). I will argue my disagreement with this, not in regards to kind but in regards to..."

The Capricious Dogma is something mentioned, and considering its capitalized and Pebbles talks about amendments made to it it might be a real thing.

Whether it's something made by the ancients or agreed upon by iterators isn't clear

The definition of Capricious: "Governed or characterized by caprice; apt to change suddenly; freakish; whimsical; changeable." The definition of Dogma: "A principle or statement of ideas, or a group of such principles or statements, especially when considered to be authoritative or accepted uncritically."

So either the dogma is a set of principles regarding sudden changes in... something or whether the dogma itself constantly changes is also not clear, but it may be the former

This is also meant to be a methodology for global ascension. I do not think that it's referring to the mass public ascension the ancients did before they left, but rather methodology on what should be done AFTER the solution is found, and how it can be implemented to ascend everything

Back to the Capricious Dogma though, Pebbles then goes on to say how we "take for granted" how a "meaning collector point inversion" is the only way to go about noise milking or rock swatting

Noise milking/rock swatting may be a concept related to global ascension, but not the solution itself

He doesn't criticize these ideas, but rather the idea that there's only one way to go about them

Whatever the hell a "meaning collector point inversion" is though I don't know

[gaywarcriminals]

How prevalent are hetswaps in the Scum Villain fandom?

Aka, Fish spent time counting things by hand and refuses to let it go to waste

As there are over 20,000 fics in the SVSSS tag on AO3, I decided to just stick to bingqiu. At time of writing, there are 6961 bingqiu fics. 261 have been tagged M/F. After realizing that the vast majority of the cross-overs did not prevalently feature bingqiu, I excluded those from the search, leaving 145. I could have missed a few fics because of that. Additionally, I had to rely on google translate to categorize fics in other languages, so that's another point of in possible inaccuracy in my methodology. Because everyone uses different tags to denote hetswaps, I just went through and counted + categorized the remaining 145 by hand. Oh, also, I included transfemmine non-binary iterations of the characters because are there any trans SQQs who aren'y genderweird. The results:

Cis woman SQQ - 10 Transfemme or nonbinary SQQ - 8 Cis woman Binghe - 10 Transfemme or nonbinary Binghe - 1

29 total, or 0.00417% of all bingqiu fics on AO3 are hetswaps.

9 of these are obviously not cishet, and although I did not make a datapoint for it, it's worth nothing that many of these fics allude to characters being bisexual, or otherwise attracted to Binghe/SQQ respectively regardless of gender. Less than 0.00287% of bingqiu fics depict a cishet relationship.

Edit: I realized that excluding crossovers also excluded fics tagged with both SVSSS and scumbag system, so I went back to double check those: of the 19 new works, there is one hetswapped bingqiu (of the transfemme binghe variety), bringing the new percentage up to 0.00431%.

[rustedleopard]

What are your thoughts on Chujin? Your posts don't really paint him in the best light (for understandable reasons)

I think he is a FASCINATING character. The living embodiment of the proverb "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

The man loves his family, so much so that it inspires him to go out into the Underground and do volunteer work to make the world a better place for his child to grow up in. Yet, he also kills himself over his commitment to crafting a serum that would protect his daughter/monsterkind from humans and leaves his wife a widow and his daughter fatherless. According to Ceroba, he wanted to raise a big family with her, so he poured his all into building a massive, elaborate house for his family to grow up in. But that also blew through all of his savings leftover from his former job at the Steamworks and instead of taking up another job to support his family financially, that task fell solely onto Ceroba.

He also has quite a bit of an ego as well. He doesn't want Ceroba to think poorly of him for being fired, so he lies and says he retired. That ego blinds him to the fact that he isn't always right. He was the only engineer in the Steamworks who wanted to build guard robots. Fair enough since monsterkind did declare war on humanity and it would be good to have extra troops when the time came to break the barrier and start fighting. But as the failures piled up and each of the Axis models malfunctioned in front of Asgore -- sometimes in ways that were a danger to others -- he kept insisting that he would get it right. Asgore gave him eight chances (if we go by the idea that each iteration of Axis would be presented before the King before being rejected). Eight is an extremely generous number of chances to prove that Axis would be worth something, and when his final attempt lit Asgore's child's grave on fire, instead of reflecting on if his Axis idea was misguided or sympathizing with Asgore (since Chujin is a father himself, he should know how much that hurt), he asks for yet another chance. Then after he gets fired, he keeps working on Axis iterations in private because he's certain that he's right and everyone else is wrong. Did he eventually make a successful guard robot? Yes. Axis Model 014 works debatably well. But it cost him the respect of his colleagues and his job, which at the time was his family's only source of income.

And then there's the Boss Monster serum that he crafted. He was working solely off a theory, and when his experiments on himself started to kill him, instead of stepping back and reflecting on if making a serum that could turn any monster into a Boss Monster is feasible/questioning his methodology, he blamed the problems on the SOUL that he used being impure (with no evidence/explanation as to why "SOUL purity" was the problem, which to me feels more grasping at straws more than a well-founded conclusion). He gave his grieving wife the impossible task of:

Finding a "pure" human SOUL (humans rarely fall into the Underground, there's no guarantee that a human wouldn't dust some monsters while navigating the Underground, there is no guarantee that she'd be able to get close to them with the Royal Guard patrolling/attempting to capture them, what does it even mean to be "pure"? A human could fight their way through the Underground and spare monsters when they're weakened instead of outright killing them, would that still count as being "pure"?)

Killing that human (humans are notorious for being difficult to kill yet can easily kill monsters so reaping their SOUL is incredibly risky business. She would also have to take the life of an innocent person.)

Having a Boss Monster nearby to work with (Boss Monsters are incredibly rare, the only known ones are Asgore, Toriel, Asriel (who is dead), himself (who is dying), and Kanako. Also, even if Ceroba knew another Boss Monster, why would they be willing to be subjected to a science experiment?)

And she also has to craft the serum as well (Ceroba has no experience with SOUL science, she doesn't know what she's doing).

It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that Clover came into the Underground, ended up in the Wild East and remained a pacifist (in a Pacifist Run), and decided to travel with her. It was more likely that Ceroba would've spent the rest of her life unable to make progress on the serum and feeling like she failed her husband. As unintentional as it was, Chujin set his wife up to fail.

He also resents and fears humankind and that influences a lot of his actions and decisions. Chujin kept building Axis models, even when they would fail/be a danger to others, because he wanted a way to give monsters a fighting chance in the war. He crafts the serum because he wants to make monsterkind strong enough to stand up to humans. He leaves Kanako and Dalv behind to go fetch Axis and sicc him on Integrity instead of being there for a very sensitive time in her life (I assume that he only did that after it was assured that Kanako wasn't in any physical danger, but still. That's just an assumption. Also, that was a time when he should've stuck around and have been a comforting presence for her, not run off with his own agenda). While he was taken aback by how violently Axis killed Integrity and seemed somewhat remorseful, he still experiments on the SOUL of a human child. Instead of being proud of Martlet for getting a job as a Royal Guard and putting the carpentry he taught her to good use, he disapproves and is wholly unsupportive (I can understand him having reservations about his friend joining the Royal Guard as the job can be dangerous, but he could've at least been proud of her for accomplishing that/had some faith in Martlet's abilities). He calls humans incapable of decency in any form, yet hypocritically he acknowledges that it's possible for a human SOUL to be "pure."

What do I think of Chujin Ketsukane? He is complex and morally grey, and to call him entirely evil or entirely good does a massive disservice to his character. He did some really bad things but those bad things were done with good intentions. He did some good things (building Martlet's deck, the Honeydew Resort heater, likely the bridge between Starlo's farm and the Wild East, his family home, probably some other things, was working on methods to protect monsterkind) but that work came at the expense of his family. He never intended for things to go horribly wrong the way they did but he also didn't know when to back down. He was a kind individual and well respected by Martlet, Ceroba, Axis, even Starlo -- who doesn't like the man -- for a reason. He only ever wanted the best for his family, for Monsterkind. But at the end of the day, it's the actions that are judged. Knowing all I do about him, he is not someone I would call a good person.

There's another version of the proverb I dropped earlier that I feel suits him a bit better: "Hell is full of good meanings, but heaven is full of good works."

[orbital-inclination]

What does Molten think of the Classic Undertale? Its story and alll the characters, I wonder if he sees himself as Sans and his brother as Papyrus or the opposite.

How Molt and Rem understand the Multiverse and all its branching iterations can explained by using a tree. "Classic Undertale" is the root system. The trunk is the branching-timeline-like AUs. (eg. "What if this happened in the classic timeline?" scenarios.) The branches are the worlds that fall adjacently, but do not necessarily share enough traits to fall into the "Trunk" category. The further and higher you get on the tree, the farther removed the AU is from the Root system. Molt views his own world as being a distant lonely leaf on that cosmic tree.

Molt and Rem view the multiverse very organically. There was no one around to teach them so they came to their own conclusions. Long story short, Molt views most Sans coded characters not in those terms but as individuals occupying a strange and kinda abstract cosmic role.

A quick note: its hard for Molt to distinguish others based on their AU because the distinction is often superficial and emotions are felt the same way. One monster's joy feels the same as another's. The difference is not the feeling itself, but how individuals react to situations. So unless Molt knows someone really well, and gets to know their voice, it's hard for him to tell them apart. As for Classic characters specifically:

Sans and Papyrus: surprisingly, Molt doesn't see himself and Rem in Sans and Papyrus as much as you would think he would. But out of the two, Molt would find himself relating to Papyrus more. Papyrus, who feels with his whole heart. Papyrus's relentless optimism and unshakable faith is infectious and inspiring, and like Molt, Papyrus knows how to keep secrets. (also, Papyrus is a significantly larger source of positivity than, pretty much, everyone else in UT. Of course, Molt would be drawn to him, but this is more a secondary reason.)

Toriel, the mother he never had: Molt likes Toriel the most. She is kind. She is loving. And though her love may blind her, she's an incredibly strong person. Privately, Molt wishes Nim could've been like her, both in the "physically there" sense and also "emotionally there" sense. It's possible that if Molt had met Toriel when he was younger, he would have accepted her as a mother figure. Now that he's older and wiser, he refuses to accept any parental/mentor figure, at all, in his life.

Asgore: the depths of his sadness and grief is intimidating. Asgore's one saving grace is that he regrets the things he's done. As a rule, Molt doesn't judge others on their past actions, but on their current actions/methodology. So how he feels on Asgore, depends on WHEN he meets Asgore. On another parental subject note: Molt has never had a father figure in his life: its an entirely new concept to him. So Asgore MIGHT get away with fatherly advice and support, as long as Molt isn't aware that's what Asgore is doing.

Fun fact! while i was writing "What I never told you" i considered the possibility of Molt meeting Asgore, Chara, and Asriel while the three were on a camping trip, instead of meeting Noelle and her mother. But this was a possibility i considered late in the game, so i ended up not using it. i think i still have a draft of it, somewhere.

Alphys: Alphys and his brother are a lot like. They both lie. They are both burdened by guilt, and that guilt governs what they do. Molt knows he should be more sympathetic, but the lies and the guilt leave a sour taste in his mouth. In saying that, if the two met, Molt would never be intentionally rude or mean to Alphys. He would keep his misgivings to himself, and keep his distance.

Undyne: a surprisingly positive influence. Undyne is a source of positivity that you would not expect if you weren't paying attention. Undyne inspires others, she gives hope to so many monsters of the underground! That being said, she is too boisterous, loud and aggressive for Molt to feel comfortable interacting with. Her loud personality is overwhelming! He prefers to appreciate her warmth from a distance.

Mettaton: Molt unironically enjoys listening to Mettaton's Movies and TV appearances, but more over, he enjoys the reaction Mettaton's corny over the top performances get from his brother and the team. Groans of dismay. Half concealed snickering. The "this movie is so bad its good" to the equally amazing "Actually I genuinely loved it but i can't admit it or everyone will laugh at me." its all so good.

When Mettaton inspires so much positivity, how could Molt not like him?

Flowey: the link to the post on flowey here!

W.D Gaster: Who is that? Never heard of him.

PS: originally I wanted to include Frisk in this post, but than i realized that i really needed to think about it more. Get back to me on Frisk later. (general statement, directed to anyone)

[megamuscle885-blog]

Big thanks to @tgirlblogger who reminded me with a like to post this today this morning like I planned.

TORTUGA

Tinker 8 - All-in-one Mech, redundancy/life support tinker.

Citadel Architect, or Conglomerate Architect from the weaverdice document fit best here. Everything she makes feeds into her Mech, her magnum opus, a career spanning megaproject that is constantly 'unfinished' but still capable of combat. Much of her tinker methodology is inventing something and then discovering how it fits into the design of her machine. She believes her power is 'alive' and whispering the secrets of the universe to her, but she alternates between truly treating her power like it's alive and thinking it's just her subconscious needing a rubber duck to let itself out. (It's both, her shard is exactly like her only with a blue-orange mentality from being a giant space world-machine.)

She also has some extremely sophisticated parahuman scanning equipment built into her sensors and her quasi-AI computer co-pilot she's built to handle the automatic functions of her Mech. Her best work is made this way; scan parahumans (more in-depth scans are better but she's still taking passive scans of everyone she comes in contact with), create equipment inspired by parahumans, plug that component into the machine, the machine's secrets are revealed a little more and the puzzle is growing complete, iterate on new inspirations driven from the new tech's installation to upgrade previous tech until new well of inspiration is expended, repeat.

The consequence of this is that though her Mech is one of the most intensely iterated pieces of tinkertech in the world, she herself doesn't have much in the way of portable technology.

Glasses that record what she sees and hears with rear view cameras built into the frames that hang over her ears.

A pilot's plugsuit that is durable and temperature controlled and wicks away sweat and grime so she can wear it indefinitely.

A helmet much like a fighter pilot's that allows her to have a HUD and aim/control the mech manually via remote.

All of these things are mundane enough that they could be made without tinkertech, but customized to work with her Mech in a way no mundane tech could.

I'm not too sure on her trauma or how to make it fit. It could be that we simply don't cover it in the scope of the story. I feel like her self induced isolation within her Mech is part of it. She can't sleep comfortably outside of it, and even then for barely an hour. She'll start to become restless and hyper-vigilant while outside of it for any extended period of time. It's her safe space in a thousand different little ways. She's lost her Mech once before and had to rebuild it from damaged parts, almost from scratch, though she hasn't lost anything in terms of progress or discoveries. Tortuga Mk2 is a much more successful version of her initial machine.

Her specialty as a redundancy and life support tinker is best shown in how many backups she has for her technology. Chemical thrusters as backup for her anti-grav. Viewports as backup for cameras which are interchangeable with lidar, sonar, radar and gravity sensors to detect strangers, all within a camera drone net. Anti-thinker tech. Multiple shielding barriers, some based on slowing projectiles, others based on resisting them as hard as possible, then reactive armor behind them, then ceramics, soft armor, hard armor, etc. while a point defense system watches over all of it. The idea is that her Mech should resemble some of the most intense combined arms technology possible, while her inner sanctum exists to keep the VIP (her) as alive as possible. I may have to read up a little more on Lancer to get more inspiration. Hyper reflex mode, the deck-sweeper automatic shotgun (I intend to have it as a belt-fed gatling shotgun), Watchdog Co-pilot, all awesome things that inspired the character.

This didn't end up being the character bio I hoped for, but it's the one I'm posting. I'll probably end up expanding here later. Her history in central america will require some research I think, and some extrapolation on the kind of conflicts around Eidolon's zone of influence in Texas down towards Mexico and South America. Earth Bet's USA feels a bit isolationist in foreign policy to me, especially as Endbringers started cropping up, and Leviathan started crippling international shipping, and the Simurgh makes air travel daunting. I wonder what kind of influence Earth Bet's USA holds over Haiti, the Dominican Republic, or Mexico, all historically within the USA's zone of influence.

I also haven't yet thought of a name for her since I also don't know in my mind where she's from. There's this murky idea of a shaved head and pale skin and sunken eyes with bags under them, but an overall chipper attitude in private (within the comfort of her mech) and a terse mercenary facade when she puts on for her client or 'co-workers' whoever they end up being. I'm thinking something voiced by Jennifer Hale in that icy renegade Sheppard style. She's constantly got her tinker on a leash anytime she speaks to people, but would rapidly open up and turn into a motormouth if she's being encouraged and feels safe to unleash her thoughts and interests on others. Turtles are a big non-tinker special interest I think. I may have to do research on Turtles. Fuck.

[bengiyo]

Hi Sarge, Not sure if you have answered something similar and I missed it but this is a bit inspired by the posts you made about Sailom and Nuea in Wedding Plan (I couldn’t understand why Sailom was behaving that way and really disliked him before I read your posts).

Who are the most misunderstood characters in BL? - doesn’t have to be from just 2023 shows. Thanks!

I've really struggled with answering this question, and have been sitting on it for months, because I don't generally like to create a strawman and then beat up on it. I think what I'll do is express appreciation for characters in a way I don't think I've done publicly on my blog.

Kurosawa Musashi (Ossan's Love)

This man is incredible and I love him. When I originally avoided Ossan's Love in 2018, it was primarily because commenters complained that this man's attraction to Haruta was the butt of the joke. Having watched it this year, I understand why we would have read it that way in 2018. However, in 2024, I see the primary comedy in how out of step is approach to courtship is more than the fact that he has a crush on Haruta.

I have loved every iteration of this character from Ossan's Love, to the In the Sky AU, to the current season in Ossan's Love Returns. I love how much his affection for Haruta makes him show up to support him, and I love the unhinged fights he has with Maki about it every time.

The show treats his feelings seriously, even if they laugh about his methodology. Everyone who has worked with him adores him, and I am eagerly hoping that he gets a positive resolution for his complex feelings for Haruta this season.

I'm also never getting over DISPATCH 👍.

Pharm (Until We Meet Again)

Much has been written about this scene as an example of blushing maiden, but I don't think it is. I think there's a level of Intouch trauma coupled with this being Pharm's first kiss. However, we spent about twenty minutes of this show leading up tot his with Pharm publicly telling Alex to fuck off because he's with Dean, and Pharm presenting Dean with desserts about commitment and sweet love. He also moves his arms to deepen the kiss.

I think sometimes the read that Pharm is a blushing maiden undercuts how genuinely assured he is about himself and his place in the world. He wasn't afraid to tell his neighbors to quiet down when they were loud as hell on a Sunday, and he wasn't afraid to tell Dean that he overstepped in the kitchen around sex.

I've been rewatching the show lately and am noting how explicitly these two are into each other and say so the entire time.

Seo Lee Jun (Love Mate)

I'm gonna be real: This guys sucks! We begin the show with him getting people out onto dates, disappointing those dates with false expectations, and then blocking them. He was so salty about his breakup that he was going to inflict that nonsense onto a whole dating app. Folks struggled with Ha Ram determinedly pursuing this man, but I think he did the rest of us a favor by giving this man a much needed dicking to reset his engagement with romance.

Vee (You're My Sky)

I don't think this character was misunderstood. I just think it was really cool of a show to have one of the side couples not make it because they started an ill-advised romance. I like that what started as flirting and teasing got way too serious and stressed Vee out so much that he had a whole panic attack over it. In a genre about people getting together, I like the complicated, uncertain place they left these two. Vee understood the seriousness of messing around with his sister's boyfriend and the impossibility of that situation.

[positivelybeastly]

X-Men #5

Late, but who cares? Let's go.

So, I've made no secret that I thought Kwannon wasn't really being given enough to do, these last few issues of X-Men, and it's for the same reason I'm happy to see Greycrow here - Zeb Wells' Hellions was amazing. It was one of the few Krakoa era titles that actually bothered to examine the moral double standards of the era, that really took advantage of its unique status quo, that looked at mutant resurrection and thought, okay, how can we mine this, not for obscure background cameos that will make a person on Twitter happy, but for actual drama? It was a truly great series, and I was hoping it would be followed up, if only in small ways.

I do like that Kwannon and John have a cabin together. With how they left off, it felt very personal and intimate between them, like they truly didn't need anything else to be content with one another, and neither of them struck me as people who need action to be fulfilled - or, rather, they don't see action as a means for enjoyment. As Kwannon says here, it merely gives them purpose. So far, so good.

Wasn't expecting an Amelia Voght callback, of all characters. Then again, this is a Jed MacKay joint.

Psychics and death, name a more iconic X-Men duo.

It is interesting that we get kinda sort of confirmation that Quentin remembers being a head, since I would've figured that the Cerebro cradles were down and he'd have lost those memories, but I suppose it's also possible he could have just heard about it second-hand and been like, wow, I got turned into a head in a box? Weird.

Yeah, no, you don't get to call Scott Slim, Quentin. Only Hank, Bobby or Warren get to do that. And Jean, if she's feeling quirky.

Can I also say something? I actually dig Quentin's fit? I don't know if that says something about my fashion sense or what, but I actually like this look for him more than . . . pretty much any other look he's had. Granted, that's not saying much, given his other uniforms were black blazer with t-shirt, the 60s retro-futuristic mutant fascist attire, or the bland melange that was his X-Force uniform, but I do actually like it. Purple and checker pattern work.

So, this whole issue is an homage to New X-Men #121, which was part of Marvel's Nuff Said initiative, and it, along with all the other issues published that month, had pretty much no dialogue in it, it was all told purely through art. It's not a direct homage, of course, since dialogue is happening, but I appreciate the lampshade being hung on it here, with Quentin both pointing out that this isn't like the other homage, and then not-so-subtly pointing out why it isn't like them.

Because Quentin can't shut the fuck up.

Honestly, that's a fun spin on it. That's how you iterate on something you've seen before.

I'm a sucker for mental landscapes. Always have been, always will. I just like getting to grapple with a character's psyche in a tangible way, it's why I like series like Silent Hill or Star Trek's many telepathic episodes. And if I had to break down why I like them?

Well.

Pretty much.

You really could've just called this New X-Men volume 3, Jed, and I don't think anyone would've objected. That being said - I couldn't have given less of a shit what happened in Marauders volume 2, so seeing that Cassandra Nova is back and wasn't consigned to the dustbin because of that series is a win in my book. She's a top tier villain, tbh, one of the best new X-villains of the last 20 years, and her particular incisive methodology for breaking down heroes' psyches feels like it's perfectly suited for the team of this book.

As she demonstrates.

Ahhhh, good foreshadowing earlier, good stuff. And I have to say, Stegman's Sabretooth is fucking top tier. Excellent rendition of the big man himself (whom I already miss, even if he does have a miniseries coming up very soon).

This is a great sequence, tbh. Like, poor Quentin - this is actually the most anyone has made me feel for Quentin since Aaron, about ten years ago - but in terms of threat and character exposition, it's very good, with some excellent art and very Nova-esque deconstruction. I also particularly like this panel composition.

His head is in a smaller panel. His head is literally in a box.

Good stuff, tbh. Again, this is the most useful Quentin feels like he's been in a while, because if he did anything of real worth in X-Force other than die, I'll freely admit that I do not remember it.

Hank, Scott, do you . . . wanna get them some paper towels, or . . ?

Overall, not a bad issue - definitely not as memorable as the original psychic rescue, though.

Now, originally, I was gonna say, you can't hold that against it, it's not easy to match Morrison, that's just common sense, but then again, most writers don't directly invite the comparison, so, I really hope Jed is cooking up something long term and satisfying, because constantly referencing Morrison is all fine and dandy, but it needs to go somewhere.

Still, I'd say the title has been squarely good thus far, and it still has room to get better and better, so I'm gonna give it time to breathe.

Also?

Our expert panel of judges have concluded that Hank McCoy once again wins the title of Original X-Man with the Dumpiest of Dump Truck Asses. Thanks for trying, Scott, but, uh. Your nickname is Slim for a reason.

Conner, you and I are gonna fight.

Damn right. It's not Hank's fault comics readers don't read anything from before 2010 . . .

[cinderswife]

so um. did you know rose red ocs are fun to design and come up with lore for??? rose reds are insane i am having so much fun !!! a history of rose red generations and info on these poor bastards in particular under the cut <3

(oh, and the ages are at the end of the war for reference)

there are 5 distinct generations of rose reds created over the 32 years of war (not including briar, generation 0). the first three were separately developed from rose's base, but four and five were iterated from generation three.

also for the record i've decided to take a steven universe quartz soldier take on the way rose reds relate to each other in that they have 0 innate concept of family with each other. most rose reds have like. a co-workerly relationship with some Sisters In Arms although some elect to become Besties or Family or That Really Annoying Guy Who I Hate And Can't Get Rid Of, or in rare occasions, fall in love. this will be relevant to rusty and sparkler

generation 0

[not pictured, born/deployed 1 year after the wedding]

briar is gen 0. although there were years of R&D about clone soldiers prior to the rose reds' existence (cole had this idea in mind for a while), briar was the first actual example of one. she is the only clone to be rose's height; she was meant to be like. a baseline control group for the rest of 'em. she was a bit rushed in the memory department; miscommunications among the scientists meant that they kinda. assumed that porting original flavor rose's memories would suffice since this is a control group. also cole had really strict deadlines for the project for some ungodly reason so even though the timeline between rose's capture and briar's "birth" was a year and she was pretty good, she would've been better off with two or three or more.

generation 1

[rusty and sparkler deployed 2 years after the wedding]

gen 1 was even more of a rushed project; they had half finished notes and a year deadline for deployment. no wonder rusty, the prototype and the next briar, was so janky; they didn't have enough time to sort out all the issues, particularly in the memory department. she's got half of rose's memories and the ability to lie and they screwed up spaying her and there are bits of her body that aren't quite right from scaling up rose from 4'10" to 6'2". however, she passed muster well enough so generation 1 rose reds were made and deployed (with a few tweaks from rusty's base).

the gen 1 rose reds were very prone to nervous and/or violent and/or suicidal breakdowns. later waves of gen 1 were slightly better tweaked, but the methodology + technology used to handle the brain stuff did not take into account uh. rose's severe ptsd. they made the poor bastards with ptsd right out the gate unknowingly. this is the shortest average generation with an average height of about 6'3". gen 1 roses were good enough to tide over while more time was allocated to gen 2 research, but they weren't deployed in the same amounts as they would be in the future. general white's revolution was still in its infancy so it wasn't like. a huge deal. they just had to be super careful

rusty started life very confused but fully capable of Lying to the people who made her and expected her to be a placid soldier. as the prototype, she was often used as the control group for experiments on later prototype models while they worked out what worked and what didn't. while rusty was being like. tested and prodded and stuff, original flavor rose was in suspension so that they could get more samples from her. also og rose was kind of a lava lamp decoration

when rusty wasn't being watched, she was assumed to be still and unmoving. she actually started talking to rose-in-suspension to try and make sense of the half memories in her head and started developing her own conclusions. like what love was and what the wind felt like and extreme opinions about niche comics (for the record my rose + snow are closet nerds - rose has a collection of nichevintage superhero comics and snow is a huge film snob). the story she spun in her head about who rose was was a mess of red string and blurry images. ultimately, she came to the conclusion that she hated holding a gun, actually and that all this sucked but she didn't have enough life experience to have a good idea of how to go about it

rusty's salvation came in the form of another rose red, this time in the form of RR G10072 (later named sparkler). sparkler was one of those being prepared to be deployed on beaumont and was rapidly developing a personality trait, that being a desire for Arson. she wasn't as good of a liar as rusty but in the quiet secret times rusty would school her. they would develop something that was probably love based on half memories and "you and i are going to survive this together." sparkler was terrified of being found out as she'd watched others in her batch be terminated for other things

rusty and sparkler become the first known "rouge reds" though their existence is kept hidden from most. it wouldn't due to have people know that his majesty's new weapons are unstable after all (though what did they expect? rose was not an obedient soldier, she was a weapon you pointed in the direction of the kingdom you wanted gone and ducked for cover). sparkler begins to develop more personality in the form of Autism Flat Affect, a surprising love for both organizing and gambling, and. honestly more arson. someone gets on her case for her collection of fireworks and is like "hey sparkler girl" (rose reds aren't like. A Huge Thing Yet) and she's like. ah. a name.

rusty and sparkler are married and have a kid together named remi (not picture). she's one of the very few offspring from a rose red mostly because most rose reds are sterilized. they fucked it up for rusty cuz she's a janky prototype, something she only discovered when trying out "hm what is this man thing and what is romance with one." turns out she, like 95% of rose reds, is a whole lesbian lol but there were Unexpected Side Effects in the form of A Kid. which. now they had to figure what to do about that and ended up joining with the revolution for protection and also sparkler's arson/rusty's ship repair specialties. it. it sure went for them :) rusty recognized snow and that was Weird and Fucked Up and Bad. luckily she picked up snow's new name of "general mercymourn white" pretty quickly

generation 2

[piper and persephone, deployed 5 years after the wedding]

gen 2 was given decent time for r&d. these rose reds' dna was remade from scratch because generation 1 was so janky. because the production methods were good, they didn't have to waste so much time on those. they spent three years developing a decent prototype, known as prototype 0003. 0003 was not allowed to exist very long; once they ascertaind that she was functional and not janky like rusty they put her down. briar was a whisper myth and rusty was a known quantity. prototypes were too much of a risk.

gen 2 was far more functional. though they weren't nearly as brainwiped as later gens (particularly 4 and 5) they were loyal, obedient soldiers (for the most part). the average height rose to about 6'7" as they were figuring out better ways to improve the size and stature from rose's original Short As Hell. these are the ones that the rebellion first started engaging in combat in earnest, though they were still not a proper supplement to or replacement of the main army just yet. the big con that made them have to be redesigned over the next 8 years (though not one that was initially discovered) is that these poor saps were very malleable. just because they were brainwiped didn't mean they were loyal to the king for any reason other than they were told. if they were isolated it was easy to make them switch loyalties. the rebellion didn't cotton on to this fact until it was too late because general white refused to hear it.

piper got her nickname while still in the army. she was always singing which really, really annoyed her superior officer so they left her for dead after a battle. shockingly, she did not die! instead a pair of conmen overheard her singing herself to sleep (er. death but y'know) and were like "a rose red that sings??? we could make a killing off of this." they patched her up and rehabilitated her (aka. made her loyal to them and do everything they say) and marketed her as a travelling carnival exhibit. they also used her for free protection from the law and also other criminals. however she developed more of a personality and a feeling of "this sucks actually" so when a passing casino owner looking for a new entertainment draw and offered her a job she jumped on the chance

unfortunately, she's still being screwed over. he's the only guy who knows she's a rose red (she gained weight and curves and generally styles herself very femininely which throws most people off the track) so he uses it against her as blackmail. he pays her less than everyone else, witholds vital (if forged) documents from her, and generally makes her life a living hell. she picked up a second job as a bouncer for a nearby divebar which helps cover rent. she's very pretty but perpetually paranoid that someone will find out that she's a rose red and either kills her or turns her in or drives her out. she's slowly losing her mind

persephone is. well. so not her superior officer (jupiter) but her superior officer's coworker (pluto) fell in love with her, specifically. something about how she survived a lightning cannon and just her general personality quirks. she used to be sweet y'know, even despite the horrors. so with jupiter's permission, pluto kidnapped persephone and took her deep, deep underground.

she basically was plutos personal attack dog/trophy wife while they built up an underground criminal empire. it was Bad. she did learn a lot of things about brutal leadership and being in a shit situtation. eventually she snapped and killed pluto, taking their place as the new Big Name Crime Lord on the block. she rules the undercity with an iron fist, although her favorite venture is her collection of illicit speakeasies. she is very proud of being a rose red and sometimes wishes she could go back to that life. however, she's got a really good gig going and she refuses to let it slip through her hands. real queen of hearts energy tbh

her theme song is "our lady of the underground" from hadestown :3

generation 3

[old rosie (canon/not pictured) and rosenrot, deployed 13 years after the wedding]

after the fatal flaw in gen 2 was discovered they had to start from scratch /again/. this time however, they had plenty of time to work it out. they went through prototypes 004 - 011 until they had one that was perfect in every way. they put her down after she was done being useful of course. at this point it was mostly superstition not to keep the prototypes around even though these ones were perfectly loyal. gen 3 is considered the golden generation from the ones designed directly from rose's dna + brain scans : a perfect balance of loyalty and competence.

gen 3 is the longest lasting generation as it lasted for 10 years. they'd tweak the dna over the years as new breakthrough came to light, but they didn't need to remake them. this is the gen where the rose reds got the nickname giants as they now averaged about 7 feet. they're extremely effective soldiers and are very difficult to get to change loyalties due to being Poor Brainwashed Bastards. hardcore programming wouldn't fully show up until the later waves. this is when rose reds got made in their hundreds of thousands. the rebellion was actively a threat now and they needed to defend the empire.

old rosie was from an earlier wave of gen 3 and lasted for a very, very long time compared to all the others. as for rosenrot, well...

rosenrot is a patchwork rose red. she wasn't at first, but she was the best of her batch and kept surviving. every time she lost something, it would be taken from one of her squad and put on her. skin, ears, eyes, hair, even entire limbs. it got to the point where she couldn't tell where she ended and her sisters began. they started referring to themselves in the plural and got what could only be described as "a little touched in the head." that being said, they still fought well so they were kept around. when they were the last rose red in the squad left and were due to be reassigned, they fucked off into the woods never to be seen again

to this day, no one knows what happened to them. there's lots of local urban legends and rumors and whatnot; some claim to see them at the river, others at the full moon, but no concrete evidence. the nice ending is that a lesbian in a cottage found them and took them in. the realistic ending is that they died in the woods. the most likely ending is that they're still out there, surviving in the woods, never able to escape being a patchwork of all her sisters but unwilling to die.

also the name rosenrot came about from a misunderstanding; they were stationed on a germanic planet and all the rose reds were called that because it's a literal translation of rose red. as the only one left, rosenrot kinda assumed that was their name. it's also what the locals call them as a cryptid. just kind of a weirdo

generation 4

[buck, deployed 23 years after the wedding]

considered to be the best generation; they still had plenty of resources to make millions of 'em and were an improvement on generation 3. the best part was that they found a clone who was perfect to iterate off of (unnamed but not old rosie, she was missing a few vital tweaks) so they didn't have to start from scratch again. they went through a couple dozen prototypes in the process of creating them (012-042) but by this time prototyping + putting them down was rote.

gen 4 was involved in the long, drawn out part of the war. they remained at an average of 7 feet tall though they had some proportional tweaks to make them more functional. these rose reds had very little chance at free will, only fighting. only ever fighting. the pop culture image of a rose red post-war is a gen 4 one considering how many were made compared to the first three generations. poor suckers, they never had a chance.

as for buck poor thing got sold to a redbaiting (illegal rose red dogfighting) ring by her superior officers for a bit of cash for booze and gambling. they didn't like her anyways lol she didn't get along with the rest of her squad. turns out they should've asked for way more $$$ because buck's tenacity and nimbleness kept her from losing which basically meant she kept winning. she's been doing this for about 7 years and shows no sign of stopping. all of her scars come from her time in the ring and were inflicted by other rose reds. she has... a very high level of aggression towards other rose reds (slightly innate but also beaten into her)

however, he's the prize champion! this comes with things like an entire showdog style name (QIC Heirloom Bucksin Jacket), he/him pronouns, and some extra special treatment. he's very chill around civilians (if afraid of her handlers) so he's often like. put on display in the top box like a dog. he's very, very dehumanized. he's gonna need hella therapy to be a normal person. what a guy.

generation 5

[farrier. deployed 27 years after the wedding]

this generation is unique as their differences come not from new base dna but from a sudden lack of resources. the rebels finally got the intel on what resources were needed to make rose reds (previously they'd only been destroying factories which made 2 more pop up in its place) and were able to control/destroy it. the crown was forced to make do with less and worse resources and were desparately trying to keep up with how massive the rebellion was as over the past decade or so they'd been relying pretty heavily on rose reds instead of enlisted/drafted forces. rose reds were just. better at being soldiers. they went through a handful of prototypes (043-051) but those were mostly "all right what's the best we can do with the resources on hand."

gen 5 roses are as functional as they can be. they're basically worse versions of gen 4; though equally brainwashed and technically capable, their bodies and minds tend to degrade pretty quickly. this is especially so the more combat they face. they're fast and cheap and hardly the quality they used to be made at. very few gen 5 rose reds survived to see the end of the war because of how badly they were made.

farrier is a gen 5 rose red! she's one of the extremely few who never saw combat because she was a guard model stationed at a super remote outpost so she degraded a lot more slowly. there were a lot of wild horses around so she developed the single trait of "i like horses :)" after the war, she was given the opportunity to be like. a test subject for "can we like. make gen 5 rose reds more stable so we can rehabilitate them?" she said yes because. she'd get to see more horses. she has a very limited view of the world she may have been made for war but what war is there when. Creatures.

she does succeed in having a somewhat more normal lifespan, though still shortened compared to the others. she gets really involved in like. horse things when being rehabilitated. in particular she takes up smithing so she can become a farrier (guy who forges horseshoes). she is just. horse girl rose red extraordinaire the other rose reds Do Not Relate. At All.

she accidentally becomes the gold standard of rose red rehabilitation cuz. honestly she becomes a relatively functioning member of society. but also she only had the trauma of the inherent horror of being made a rose red she's like. vibing??? she has rose's very blase attitude to a lot of things and although she can hold her own in a fight she doesn't seek it out at all. gentle giant. her minders love her so so much

i think she winds up in a weird small rural town somewhere. she's not good with the other rose reds ("damn that sucks" is not an appropriate reaction to the other rose reds talking about the horrors of war and she just. she's not like them. it's not her fault of course she's just. different) and most of the people around her during her rehabilitation period are very politically opinionated and farrier just cannot bring herself to care. however. although its a bit of a weird transition at first she gets along really well with the people of the town she moves into. they needed a farrier anyways and even if it's a bit odd that its her name instead of just her job she's chill. she's vibing. the kids love her. she gets her own horse <3

there's some intense debate in the beginning about whether to accept her because she's a rose red, though this town never... saw the war? like it happened around them but not in their town y'know? but she proves herself when she rescues the mayor's kid from being lost in the woods and almost eaten by a wild animal. she's socially awkward but learning what friendliness is. occasionally she has weird nightmares that are og rose's memories or just. the horrors of being a rose red. but she takes out her frustration with those by swinging a hammer really hard at hot metal. she's got coping mechanisms <3

[dipperdesperado]

The city is where it’s at. Most of the human world lives in cities. Even so, it doesn’t feel like cities are necessarily made for their citizens. From low walkability to hostile architecture to prolonged development, the design isn’t very human. This isn’t even getting into how this impacts the environment and animals. This comes from bureaucracy-laden planning and design, being imparted from the top down. Approaching the creation of spaces for people without those people being involved leads to a focus on capital holders and what they want. If the conversation is between corporations/developers, municipalities, and citizens, citizens are the most important but least considered group in this conversation. That’s why we have shitty cities, rampant with inequity, unsustainability, and destitution.

That all probably sounds pretty bad. Thankfully, the citizen group has the power to come together and make changes with the resources they have available, creating a more liberatory, solarpunk future. This is where tactical urbanism comes in.

“Tactical Urbanism?”

Simply put, tactical urbanism is a grassroots-driven urban planning methodology that centers on DIY solutions and interventions. Instead of waiting for the city to act on a project, the community uses available resources to improve their community’s livability. This bottom-up orientation allows for iteration and experimentation to solve traffic issues, low numbers of green spaces, or general safety. These low-cost, DIY approaches can show interest in certain types of developments, encouraging long-lasting positive developments for the community.

Tactical urbanism can manifest as parklets, extending sidewalks and crosswalks, bike lanes, public art installations, seed bombing, outdoor seating, or more. It’s people imagining what they wish their city/community had and just going out and making it happen. These can be quick to implement, and even quicker to remove or modify as needed. This essentially allows for live pilots/prototypes of initiatives, where people can actually use the emergent infrastructure, encouraging longer-term solutions.

Tactical Urbanism x Solarpunk x Liberation

This methodology fits in well with the DIY ethos and grassroots-centric focus of solarpunk and liberatory movements. Solarpunk is all about imagining the futures that we want to see, full of equity, love, and harmony. Liberatory practices are the approaches that can bring the imagined into reality. As you can probably gather, tactical urbanism is a way to take action toward these goals, creating community-driven change. This allows for community resilience to be built and gives people a sense of ownership over the commons, creating a new world in the current one. It’s like a tiny revolution in the hearts and minds of those who participate.

With a tactical urbanism lens, a community could create community gardens or food forests on vacant/underutilized land. This space could allow for building relationships with each other and the land, grow collective self-sufficiencies, and inspire more change in the community. Not to mention the benefits this provides to the local food system.

How to Start Participating in Tactical Urbanism?

Participating in tactical urbanism can be as simple as identifying a problem in your local community and coming up with a creative solution. Here are some steps to get started:

Hopefully, after reading this you’re jazzed about the little changes that lead to big changes you can make in your own community. If you’re looking to start something, here is a very simple overview for you to think about:

Inspiration → Look for an issue that you could solve using tactical urbanism. Some examples could be a lack of sidewalks, poor access to food, or the myriad of other issues your area has. Figure out the one you’re interested in and start doing research. Find out of similar issues have been solved through tactical urbanism and try to understand what community members think and want as possible responses to the issue.

Ideation → Synthesize what you’ve learned into more concrete ideas on how to respond to the issue. Here you’ll ideate with the community and decide what directions to move forward in.

Implementation → Create a full plan for the project, including what will be needed (budget, resources, timelines etc). Get a team together and implement the project. Celebrate.

Postmortem → Track the success of the project as it continues to be out in the real world. Always gather feedback from the community and compile findings into digestible formats, so you can present them to people if necessary.

Tactical urbanism is cool because it gives us a powerful tool for creating more equitable and sustainable cities. By empowering communities to take action and make changes in their own neighborhoods, we can begin to build a better world, one DIY project at a time. While the challenges facing urban areas are significant, tactical urbanism offers a way forward that is accessible, inclusive, and empowering. You can literally start now. Identify an issue in your community, gather some friends, and begin creating the future you want to see. Together, we can build a more livable, equitable, and solarpunk world.

[dumb-cdc]

Putting a P-value on Pain

"I've had this thought for a while now."

I wrote this line in a draft from October 2024. And four months later, I can still say that I've had this thought for a while now.

In grad school, a visiting lecturer candidly said to my class --all of us queer public health students-- that "no one will believe your pain until it has a p-value."

It was a sobering reflection on the state of medicine and public health back in 2022. It has been a sobering lesson in my personal and professional life since. And it is a truth we face more than ever in 2025.

No one will believe your pain until it has a p-value.

For my master's thesis, I assessed the state of the literature on cardiometabolic risk in LGBT populations, with a specific focus on diabetes. In my final semester, I changed faculty advisors because I was tired of being told to care less about my research because I'm "not going to win a Nobel Prize for it." His words, from a man who could barely remember that I was his advisee for 2.5 years. The advisor I settled on was similarly uninterested in my research, forcing me to painstakingly explain what the hell I was even doing-- such as explaining that the theoretical concept of stress (a concept the entire LGBT Health department ran on) and cortisol are two different things. In 2025, the only faculty member who gave a shit doesn't even work there anymore.

Real cool stuff.

And a pretty status quo implementation of DEI that everyone against identity politics is so afraid of. AKA virtue signaling DEI practices that end up being incredibly useless and/or nonexistent, and carried out by people who are deeply inept and/or nonexistent.

All that said, I eked out a paper that I was proud of. And the findings are relevant to the current presidential administration's destruction of DEI in science. A trojan horse for the true end-goal: destroying America's scientific pursuits in the health and wellness of marginalized populations.

Destroying p-values.

Which brings us back to the truth handed down to me by a Black trans scientist: No one will believe your pain until it has a p-value.

When researchers observe health disparities and terrible outcomes in marginalized groups of people —but did not or could not measure the reason why— researchers end up positing that the reason is Minority Stress™️. This concept is defined as the stress burden of minority status, or the chronic stress of being positioned as a marginalized person in America. Stress makes you sick; stress takes a toll on the body. Stress kills.

In the LGBT Health literature, we love pointing to Minority Stress™️ as a possible confound, bitching and moaning about it in the discussion section of our papers, and then going ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ rather than devising a real, tangible way to measure Minority Stress™️. We'd rather leave it as a confound and kick the can down the road for someone else to deal with. And the joke is that no one wants to deal with it.

The few people who are trying to measure Minority Stress™️ are doing so within the framework of Stigma, asking: How do these stressors play out in the real world and how do they impact real people? Real people in real communities? Real people living inside real bodies?

It's a monumental task, but a necessary one to move the literature forward out of its current trappings of circular logic and poor research methodology.

So let's talk about 3 things that together would move the literature forward:

Minority Stress

Experienced Intersectional Stigma (EIS)

Allostatic Load

I'm going to copy/paste from my paper in the spirit of not being redundant in my labor outside of streamlining the jargon and citations. If you don't want to read academic text, skip ahead. My advisors already told me that no one cares, so you won't hurt my feelings.

1. Minority Stress

The minority stress model is heavily employed in the LGBT Health literature and continues to be developed and iterated upon [1][2]. Minority stress is a framework for understanding how anticipated, perceived, and experienced discrimination and victimization negatively impact the health of LGBT persons, driving health disparities and poor health outcomes [2][3]. In the LGBT physical health literature, the minority stress model positions the stress burden of minority status as both an exposure and a mediating variable on pathways producing observed physical health disparities in LGBT persons [3]. Minority stress can be conceptualized as a multilevel contributor to health disparities, impacting LGBT persons through proximal minority stressors (e.g. internalized homophobia, concealing LGBT status) and distal minority stressors (e.g. harassment, rejection) [3][4]. In a population health framework, minority stressors are created within and interact with “downstream” intermediate determinants of health (e.g. neighborhood- or community- level physical environment, healthcare service access) and “upstream” distal determinants of health (e.g. poverty, structural stigma, policy bias) [5]. Of the 19 articles included in this review, 10 referenced minority stress as a possible explanation for cardiometabolic health disparities observed in LGBT samples [4][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Of these studies, 8 posited that minority stress was an unmeasured covariate when traditional risk factors could not fully explain significant health differences between LGBT and non-LGBT persons for: diabetes [7][9][11][12], overweight and obesity [8][14], cardiovascular disease [8], myocardial infarction [6][8], and stroke [8][10]. The 2 remaining studies directly measured minority stress as an exposure in samples of sexual minority (LGB) cisgender men.

2. Experienced Intersectional Stigma (EIS)

In the first study, Mereish & Goldstein (2020) conducted an online survey among sexual minorities and found that proximal minority stressors were directly associated with higher odds of diabetes (p<0.01) and hypertension (p<0.05), as well as lower odds of physical activity (p<0.05); proximal stress was measured with the 5-item Revised Internalized Homophobia Scale. ** Note: All findings are statistically significant. (n = 670). ** The second study builds upon the minority stress model, investigating associations between experienced intersectional stigma (EIS) and multiple health outcomes in a cohort of sexual minority (LGB) cisgender men. Friedman et al., (2022) defined EIS as incidents having ≥2 identity-related attributions to the stigma and measured EIS to investigate differential types of stigma experienced by multiply marginalized persons (e.g. Black and gay or gay and HIV positive). EIS was measured using the 2-stage version of the Major Experiences of Discrimination Scale. Sexual minority status was significantly associated with experienced stigma: sexuality was the top identity targeted for stigmatization (35.2% of all incidents), with 71% of all stigma experienced in adulthood attributed to sexuality. Of those reporting EIS, 58.3% reported sexuality and another identity. EIS had major consequences on cardiometabolic health: those who reported EIS had significantly higher odds of diabetes (AOR = 1.40, 95% CI, 1.27-1.53), dyslipidemia (AOR = 1.11, 95% CI, 1.03-1.19), hypertension (AOR = 1.30, 95% CI, 1.23-1.38), and health care underutilization (AOR = 1.76, 95% CI, 1.61-1.93) [15]. ** Note: All findings are statistically significant. (n = 1,806). Compared to LGB cisgender men who did NOT report EIS, LGB cisgender men who reported EIS had: 40% higher odds of diabetes (projected range: 27-53%), 11% higher odds of dyslipidemia (projected range: 3-19%), 30% higher odds of hypertension (projected range: 23-38%), 76% higher odds of engaging healthcare at a lower rate/level than needed (projected range: 61-93%). ** Mereish & Goldstein (2020) and Friedman et al. (2022) demonstrate that, when measured in the study design, minority stress can be located in the body’s physiology and statistically associated with health disparities in LGBT persons. Such studies tangibly move the LGBT physical health literature forward in grounding minority stress in the empirical evidence of allostatic load, “the cumulative wear and tear on the body resulting from chronic exposure to stress” [9]. Allostatic load is rich ground for exploring cardiometabolic health in LGBT populations and bridging gaps in the literature between psychosocial and biological phenomena.

3. Allostatic Load

** Note: […] continued from the last paragraph above. ** Of the articles included in this review, three discussed minority stress and allostatic load as connected factors in cardiometabolic health [9][10][11]. Allostatic load is the cumulative result of bodily dysregulation in response to stressors; a high allostatic load will induce biological responses and physiologic pathways that increase disease risk [5]. In the context of type 2 diabetes and cardiometabolic health, high allostatic load has detrimental consequences: dysregulated biological pathways increase insulin resistance [9]; stress hormones inhibit insulin production and trigger the body to metabolize glucose in a heightened “flight or fight” mode [11]; epigenetic changes increase type 2 diabetes risk and worsen cardiometabolic risk factors [10]; and maladaptive coping behaviors increase the prevalence of behavioral cardiometabolic risk factors [9]. Establishing an empirical understanding of the association between bodily dysregulation and minority stress would advance the LGBT physical health literature in explaining disease burden in LGBT persons through a biopsychosocial framework; that is, elucidating the interactions of biological, psychological, and social factors and their resulting health impact.

tl;dr being positioned as a minority in America is a silent killer unto itself-- the experience of being marginalized 24/7 dysregulates the body and degrades it in statistically significant ways. In the medical sense, the body becomes more fragile.

Imagine that the body is a gearbox: a series of circular wheels that are different sizes, move in different directions, move at different rates, require/exert different amounts of force, and are aligned so that they interconnect, functioning as a cohesive unit. Varying levels of bodily dysregulation is akin to altering any of these elements in the gearbox. The whole system will degrade over time, more acutely and significantly based on the accrued damage-- the cumulative wear and tear on the system.

Let's move this metaphor into the human body through the concept of epigenetics, which is often used to describe the empirical ways in which the external factors (environmental, behavioral, psychological, etc.) change our physiology all the way down to the molecular level.

Real cool stuff.

Stress dysregulates the body and changes us in foundational ways, literally changing the building blocks of what keeps us alive: DNA. One aspect of epigenetics is the concept of DNA methylation. Stress changes the patterns by which methyl groups (small carbon molecules) attach to our DNA. DNA hangs out in our cells wrapped around balls of proteins-- until it is time to unwind into the recognizable double-helix strand that can be unzipped and duplicated. Methyl groups keep DNA compressed around these proteins, wound up tight and inaccessible. This effectively turns OFF spans of DNA that were previously ON (able to be unzipped and duplicated).

Disrupting DNA through methylation can have devastating consequences. For example, there are stretches of DNA that downstream turn ON/OFF genes that slow down the growth of cancer cells or instead turn ON/OFF genes that dramatically speed up this growth. From an epigenetics angle alone, we can observe some far-reaching consequences of chronic stress-- from the cellular level to tissues to organs to organ systems. The wear and tear on the body compounds until it kills the entire organism ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

On a more macro level, where we investigate community and population -level outcomes, the health consequences of bodily dysregulation start to confront us in perplexing ways: How come healthy LGBT people are having strokes when less healthy cis- and straight- people aren't? Why do queer women have a 40% higher risk of breast cancer at younger ages when cancer risk traditionally increases with age? Why do LGBT people with diabetes have completely different risk profiles than what we've come to expect after decades of treatment and research?

Dr. Rupa Marya and Raj Patel released a fascinating book in April 2024 titled "Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice." Dr. Marya discusses her book on this podcast episode of New Books in Medicine. She is someone deeply involved in movement work and interested in locating stress in the body-- specifically seeking to locate chronic stress caused by marginalization in oppressed bodies. And explaining why and how we are dying from it.

I wish for this work to be integrated into the field of LGBT Health more broadly: To take together the scientific evidence of allostatic load in the medical sciences and the growing body of literature around stigma in the behavioral health sciences, and combine the two.

Why?

Because no one will believe your pain until it has a p-value.

Citations

[1] Meyer, I. H. (1995). Minority stress and mental health in gay men. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 38-56.

[2] Meyer, I. H. (2003). Prejudice, social stress, and mental health in lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations: conceptual issues and research evidence. Psychological bulletin, 129(5), 674.

[3] Flentje, A., Clark, K. D., Cicero, E., Capriotti, M. R., Lubensky, M. E., Sauceda, J., Neilands, T. B., Lunn, M. R., & Obedin-Maliver, J. (2022). Minority Stress, Structural Stigma, and Physical Health Among Sexual and Gender Minority Individuals: Examining the Relative Strength of the Relationships. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 56(6), 573-591. https://doi.org/10.1093/abm/kaab051

[4] Mereish, E. H., & Goldstein, C. M. (2020). Minority Stress and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Among Sexual Minorities: Mediating Effects of Sense of Mastery. Int J Behav Med, 27(6), 726-736. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-020-09919-z

[5] Diaz-Thomas, A. M., Golden, S. H., Dabelea, D. M., Grimberg, A., Magge, S. N., Safer, J. D., Shumer, D. E., & Stanford, F. C. (2023). Endocrine Health and Health Care Disparities in the Pediatric and Sexual and Gender Minority Populations: An Endocrine Society Scientific Statement. J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 108(7), 1533-1584. https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgad124

[6] Alzahrani, T., Nguyen, T., Ryan, A., Dwairy, A., McCaffrey, J., Yunus, R., Forgione, J., Krepp, J., Nagy, C., Mazhari, R., & Reiner, J. (2019). Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors and Myocardial Infarction in the Transgender Population. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes, 12(4), e005597. https://doi.org/10.1161/circoutcomes.119.005597

[7] Beach, L. B., Elasy, T. A., & Gonzales, G. (2018). Prevalence of Self-Reported Diabetes by Sexual Orientation: Results from the 2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. LGBT Health, 5(2), 121-130. https://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2017.0091

[8] Caceres, B. A., Jackman, K. B., Edmondson, D., & Bockting, W. O. (2020). Assessing gender identity differences in cardiovascular disease in US adults: an analysis of data from the 2014–2017 BRFSS. Journal of behavioral medicine, 43(2), 329-338. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-019-00102-8

[9] Corliss, H. L., VanKim, N. A., Jun, H. J., Austin, S. B., Hong, B., Wang, M., & Hu, F. B. (2018). Risk of type 2 diabetes among lesbian, bisexual, and heterosexual women: Findings from the nurses’ health study II [Article]. Diabetes Care, 41(7), 1448-1454. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc17-2656

[10] Diaz, M. A., & Rosendale, N. (2023). Exploring Stroke Risk Factors and Outcomes in Sexual and Gender Minority People [Article]. Neurology: Clinical Practice, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1212/CPJ.0000000000200106

[11] Liu, H., Chen, I. C., Wilkinson, L., Pearson, J., & Zhang, Y. (2019). Sexual Orientation and Diabetes During the Transition to Adulthood. LGBT Health, 6(5), 227-234. https://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2018.0153

[12] Newlin Lew, K., Dorsen, C., & Long, T. (2018). Prevalence of Obesity, Prediabetes, and Diabetes in Sexual Minority Men: Results From the 2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Diabetes Educ, 44(1), 83-93. https://doi.org/10.1177/0145721717749943

[13] Rivera, A. S., Plank, M., Davis, A., Feinstein, M. J., Rusie, L. K., & Beach, L. B. (2022). Assessing widening disparities in HbA1c and systolic blood pressure retesting during the COVID-19 pandemic in an LGBTQ+-focused federally qualified health center in Chicago: a retrospective cohort study using electronic health records. BMJ Open Diabetes Res Care, 10(6). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjdrc-2022-002990

[14] Stupplebeen, D. A., Eliason, M. J., LeBlanc, A. J., & Sanchez-Vaznaugh, E. V. (2019). Differential Influence of Weight Status on Chronic Diseases by Reported Sexual Orientation Identity in Men. LGBT Health, 6(3), 126-133. https://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2018.0167

[15] Friedman, M. R., Liu, Q., Meanley, S., Haberlen, S. A., Brown, A. L., Turan, B., Turan, J. M., Brennan-Ing, M., Stosor, V., Mimiaga, M. J., Ware, D., Egan, J. E., & Plankey, M. W. (2022). Biopsychosocial Health Outcomes and Experienced Intersectional Stigma in a Mixed HIV Serostatus Longitudinal Cohort of Aging Sexual Minority Men, United States, 2008‒2019. American journal of public health, 112, S452-S462.

[asraralmajid]

Author name: Allan Peters

Book title: Logos That Last: How to 

Create Iconic Visual Branding

Pages: 208 pages

Year of Publication: 2023

Publisher: Rockport Publishers

About the Author: 

Allan Peters is a notable designer and author, recognized for his work in graphic design, branding, and typography. He has a strong presence in the design community, particularly known for his contributions to visual identity and user experience design. Peters has worked with various high-profile brands and has a distinct style that often blends modern aesthetics with a touch of retro influence.

About the Book: 

"Logos That Last: How to Create Iconic Visual Branding" by Allan Peters is a comprehensive guide focused on the principles and practices of effective logo design. The book aims to equip designers with the tools and insights necessary to create memorable and enduring brand identities.

Introduction

In the introduction, Allan Peters shares his journey as a designer and the motivations behind writing the book. He emphasizes that a successful design career relies on dedication, passion, and continuous learning, rather than just innate talent. Peters illustrates how each project enriches a designer's understanding of branding, highlighting the iterative nature of the design process.

He advocates for lifelong learning and engaging with diverse disciplines to enhance creativity and problem-solving. By merging personal experiences with industry insights, Peters inspires both novice and seasoned designers to embrace their craft. Ultimately, he asserts that dedication and a commitment to growth can lead to the creation of logos that resonate with audiences and stand the test of time, fostering iconic visual branding.

Chapter 1: What Makes a Logo Last?

This chapter explores the essential elements that contribute to the longevity of iconic logos. Peters identifies three factors beyond the designer's control—timeline, marketing budget, and product quality—and seven controllable elements: personal passion, visual beauty, originality, functionality, colour, memorability, and simplicity. He explains how these factors come together to create logos that stand the test of time.

Chapter 2: Brand Mark Process

Peters outlines his unique and meticulous six-week logo design process. He emphasizes the importance of client education and a clear methodology to ensure successful outcomes. This process includes thorough research, brainstorming, sketching, and refinement, culminating in a logo that is both effective and enduring.

Chapter 3: Inspiration Hunting

In this chapter, Peters advocates for sourcing inspiration beyond digital platforms. He encourages designers to explore antique stores, estate sales, and small-town museums to discover timeless and unique designs. This approach enriches a designer's work and helps avoid the homogenization often seen in the design community.

Chapter 4: Badge Design Process

Peters challenges the conventional dismissal of badge designs, arguing for their versatility and rich storytelling potential. He explains how to create modular brand systems that include badges, enhancing a brand's identity and making it more memorable.

Chapter 5: Brand Extensions

Peters discusses the importance of integrating brand elements across all design aspects. By incorporating the core elements of a brand mark into patterns, icons, custom typography, and illustrations, designers can maintain strong branding without needing overly prominent logos.

Chapter 6: Brand Evolution

Rather than starting from scratch, Peters highlights the strategic benefits of evolving existing logos to retain brand equity. He provides examples of how subtle refinements can enhance a logo's design while preserving its familiarity and recognition.

Chapter 7: The Shop

During the 2020 pandemic, Peters leveraged his passion for design by creating an online shop. He shares insights into merchandise design and the creative process behind his products, demonstrating adaptability and entrepreneurial spirit.

Chapter 8: Case Studies

Peters presents real-life projects to illustrate how his principles and processes can be applied to various clients' needs and budgets. Each case study showcases the creation of enduring brand identity systems, providing practical examples for readers.

Chapter 9: Passion Projects

Emphasizing the importance of passion in graphic design, Peters encourages designers to pursue passion projects to refine their skills and fuel their creativity. He shares personal anecdotes and underscores the value of doing work that truly inspires and motivates.

Conclusion

Allan Peters skillfully combines theoretical insights with practical advice in **"Logos That Last", providing a valuable guide for designers seeking to create impactful and enduring visual branding. He emphasizes the connection between design theory and practice, illustrating how a strong grasp of fundamental principles enhances the creative process.

Peters advocates for dedication and a systematic approach, essential for crafting logos that engage audiences and foster lasting connections. He also encourages reflective practice, urging designers to consider the cultural and historical contexts of their work. Ultimately, **"Logos That Last"** serves as both a practical resource and an inspiring guide, equipping designers to create logos that resonate through time and contribute meaningfully to the contemporary branding landscape.

@uob-funoon

[orangedoorhingeinstorage]

Rambly post about RW Qualia and mostly Five Pebbles

Old thing I wrote on a Padlet board of mine that I'm semi proud of, warning: rambly asf, also only took the base game as a basis. Enjoy!

The Ancient civilization and their descendants held their memories as something valuable, using pearls to archive them, those type being memory construct pearls. The concept of memories is closely tied to qualia: A personal experience, something that can’t be comprehended by another person completely other than the individual itself. They are sensations that are hard to convey through written language.

Five Pebble’s Pearl dialogue:

It's qualia, or a moment - a very short one. Someone is holding a black stone and twisting it slightly as they drag their finger across the rough surface. The entire sequence is shorter than a heartbeat, but the resolution is extraordinary.

A memory... but not really visual, or even concrete, in its character. It reminds of the feeling of a warm wind, but not the physical feeling but the... inner feeling. I don't think it has much utility unless you are doing some very fringe Regeneraist research.

With the advancement of bioengineering, they would take a step further and preserve raw memories and qualia of an individual in cabinet beasts at the memory crypts.

Shaded Citadel pearl:

“The assorted memories and qualia include:

Watching dust suspended in a ray of sun (Old age). Eating a very tasty meal (Young child). Defeating an opponent in a debate contest and being applauded by fellow team members (Late childhood/Early adulthood).”

Survivor and Monk’s campaign begin with memories of their time reunited with their family. Memories can also be seen in their dreams. And their journey consist of moving on from the past and those memories that hold them in the carnal plane and to enter into the spiritual one, as the many others who left their memories to be cherished by the carnal plane did, drawn to the void again and again, an endless drip drip drip

In Rain World, the previous civilization studied thoroughly the nature of the void, but for a time that was just restricted to only theory, and they only could understand the nature of transcendence after experiencing it themselves. To grasp the boundless infinite of the cosmic void.

Qualia also heavily influenced the naming convention of the descendants of the ancients and the iterators. With the benefactors names being more "ornate and lavish" due to their ego, great ambition and various titles. That being true to most of public figures.

As seen in 5P pearl dialogue, the iterators themselves share the concept of qualia, with Moon commenting on the Garbage Wastes pearl being hard to translate to you due to it being his personal experience.

Garbage Wastes pearl:“It’s written in internal language, or thoughts, so it is hard for me to translate so you would understand. It's a methodology for global ascension of course - quite good, although the Peripherists or the Slab Mongers certainly wouldn't agree!”.

It’s also seen in one Five Pebbles pearls that he tries to “experience” what is it being like a lower creature, to research the solution of the Great Problem, ascending the world. But even as an Iterator, he struggles to do so as he is godlike comparison, with his experience being different from the average creature. The Iterators know a lot, but they’re restrained due the taboo and their somewhat limited worldview.

Five Pebbles pearl dialogue: “It is the impression of being a small creature, like a wall climbing lizard, and looking up into the branches of a big tree. The last third is partly overwritten with a number series I vaguely recognize, but without my memory…”

Moon Survivor/Monk dialogue:“He's sick, you know. Being corrupted from the inside by his own experiments. Maybe they all are by now, who knows. We weren't designed to transcend, and it drives us mad.”

Moon receiving her first neuron:

We were supposed to help everyone, you know. Everything. That was our purpose: a great gift to the lesser beings of the world. When facing our inability to do so, we all reacted differently. Many with madness.

Outskirts Pearl:

This is true for all living things, but some actually break the cycle. That doesn't apply to you or me though, you are too entangled in your animal struggles, and for me not breaking that cycle is an integral part of the design. Our mantras keep repeating.

The best Five Pebbles can do is granting you the gift of communication, the mark of enligthment and lead you to the old path, as a definitive solution hasn't been found, and it is uncertain if SOS actually ever found one.

The bad news is that no definitive solution has been found. And every moment the equipment erodes to a new state of decay. I can't help you collectively, or individually. I can't even help myself.

Everyone had a theory. Some said that she did have a solution, but that the solution itself was somehow dangerous. These later became known as the Triangulators, who think that a solution should be inferred without being directly discovered. Some said she never had a solution, she just died. And when the systems broke down an erroneous signal was sent. One camp claimed that dying was the solution.

And that frustration of trying to comprehend the individual experience of everything in the World and solve the puzzle of The Great Problem leads him into trying to find a way out himself, not caring about others around him. Posing risk into himself and others.

FP: I'm tired of trying and trying. And angry that they left us here. The anger makes me even less inclined to solve their puzzle for them. Why do we do this?

EP: It is not a new idea, but it needs to be vented occasionally. What if there is no universal solution? What if perception is in fact existence, and when Sliver of Straw sent the triple positive it was not a mistake? What if crossing oneself out, or even just death, is the way? We need to consider the possibility.