#Like as bad as money as I allegedly am (and I'm not bad I'm just no finance wiz) my parents are both worse in their ways

[smegmafactory2024]

I guess i just always lived very much within my means (perks of communist parents who never explained to me what money is or how much of it we do or don't have atm) but I also got older, realized I need more than i currently have and even if it was something I could save for I have ZERO money saved (downside of having communist parents who never thought me what money is)....

[charmre]

Going through a tiny existential crisis rn bc what if I don't get out of my master's program with a job??? 🙃🙃🙃

[herblay]

Cocktails I would make for class 1A (with Shinsou, minus Mineta bc I simply wouldn't, and with Monoma because I love him)

Sorry that's a particularly deranged concept, I mean this later in their teens/adulthood in that 8 year gap where they're putting up w Bakugou's begging them for money to make Deku a hero. Not when they're the baby age of like. 15. Don't drink kids. Idc really but like it's apparently not good for u. Then again what they went thru would drive me to drink even more. I was originally going to make all the cocktails in this post but I do not have all that liquor on hand and I don't love you guys enough to buy allat. (also psst I hate some of the cocktails on this list)

Iida: You may think the answer is nothing but I beg to fucking differ. He is a distinguished gentleman of society (cough cough rich bitch) and therefore I would make him a very classy Negroni. I personally do not care for vermouth and therefore am not super fond of them, but I feel like this is the level of distinguished cocktail suitable for Mr. President.

Yaoyorozu: No cocktail, a glass of dry white wine yes though. Probably a nice Sauv Blanc (my wine of choice). Classy, crisp, and wonderful. I originally had her as a red wine gal but I think a dry white suits better.

Todoroki: Dark n Stormy. This is one of my personal old standbys, and Todoroki seems like he'd be a rum guy. Ginger beer has the nice kick to it, and the layered effect jives with him. I think this is a great cocktail.

Midoriya: Tokyo Tea. Come on. Had to use Midori for his. It's only right. I actually don't really like this cocktail, it's too sweet for my tastes, but it's an incredibly sweet cocktail that packs one hell of a punch in bright green– tell me I'm wrong about this. I dare you.

Kirishima: I love him too much to give him a Bloody Mary. He'd have a Cosmo. Because much like that cocktail he was unfairly forgotten about by Horikoshi HORIKOSHI WHERE IS MY SON Infinitely fun to drink, fun to make, and always looks wonderful. Peak.

Kaminari: Carbonation is the name of the game. Kaminari seems like he'd enjoy something a little fizzy a little bubbly. And I thought about a Moscow Mule for him, but a limoncello spritz is the far better option. It's bright yellow, very summery, and very fun to drink (allegedly. Idk. I don't like sweet cocktails, as established. But I'm a good host and I think he'd like em.)

Mina: CLOVER CLUB BECAUSE IT'S PINK AND DELIGHTFUL (seriously if you make any cocktail in this list. It's a fucking delight. And it is pink and has a nice foam and a great touch of acidity. Perfect for Mina).

Sero: A Penicillin. Idk why. The vibe came to me and I think it's correct I just don't know why. It's smoky and gingery and is a great vibe for a rainy day. I like this for him.

Jirou: Espresso martini. I literally hate making these but it really suits her. They're also, much as it pains me to admit, a wonderful cocktail. But I made them once for my friends and now it's the request 24/7 and uh. Bestie they're not exactly a quick and easy drink to make. Anyway. She'd like one. I promise.

Satou: He's a sugar guy, so a piña colada would be right up his alley. Not a super quick drink to make if you're just making one, but a super easy drink to prep if you're making a batch of em, and rum is THE sugar liquor. Not a super fancy and sophisticated cocktail, but that's hardly a bad thing. It's friendly and accessible and always welcome (like his baking).

Shinsou: THE Corpse Reviver No. 2. I was saving this one for Aizawa but objectively this is correct. Absinthe rinse MANDATORY. I like using Cocci Americano Blanco instead of Lillet Blanc for this, but really both are great, I just balance out the Lillet's added sweetness with more lemon. But yes.

Monoma: Cocaine.

Tsuyu: Queens Park Swizzle. It's like a more whimsical mojito, it's light, refreshing, and literally impossible to dislike. Got a touch more depth than a mojito as well (which is fitting for Tsuyu, she's best girl, I love her dearly).

Ojirou: I am not gonna lie the extras are hard to nail down. He seems like I would give him a vodka cran and forget about him. (Even as an adult. Idk man I really don't care about him) (Sorry to the like. 2 Ojirou fans out there. I just. Do not get him very much)

Aoyama: I am NOT giving him a French 75. 1 because that's too easy and 2 because this boy is a Mai Tai if I ever saw one. Fruity and camp. And also because I made a sparkly Mai Tai (with a rim I set on fire) for my friend's birthday and I think that was the most Aoyama drink ever.

Koda: Okay so I think Koda would not be a big drinker but I would share my edibles with him. A weed gummy or two. We could make it work.

Shoji: Mezcal Paloma. Packs a punch but it's got more depth and nuance upon the second sip. Mezcal in general is a very Shoji spirit icl. Got that slightly intimidating front to it but has a lot of texture and depth beneath the surface. We love you Shoji <3

Tokoyami: I wanted to give him a Jungle Bird just because. Funny. But let's be real he's a Death in the Afternoon type of guy. And pssst here's a secret I fucking love that cocktail. Absinthe, champagne, and that's about it. The other option is the Necromancer, which is my actual favorite cocktail ever, but it's a touch too floral.

Hagakure: Capirinha. A mostly clear cocktail that genuinely is nearly impossible to screw up. Tastes lovely, is surprisingly distinct for a lime + liquor cocktail, and is an all around vibe on a hot summer day. Felt right for Hagakure, she's one of the lighter characters.

Uraraka: Tbh I'd just share a beer with her, she seems like the type to be down to chill with a beer and some bar snacks, but if ANYONE deserves the honor of getting a French 75, it's her. Friendly and bubbly, but packs one HELL of a punch. I love you Ochako. You deserved SO MUCH BETTER (I'm still so fucken distraught at what happened with her and Toga man. Her as a quirk counselor was the only good bit in the epilogue.)

All Might: is probably getting a glass of warm milk at the bar lbr but he seems like a Long Island Iced Tea type of guy (and that fits with Midoriya's in a very cute way now that I think about it. Damn. Didn't even do that on purpose but I'm happy abt it now).

Aizawa: Sazerac! The licorice notes are really strong in the ones I make, and an absinthe cocktail fits for him.

Bakugou: Is getting water. He would simply never do any drug and would probably freak at the concept of caffeine (I do not care about canon if it contradicts me) (He went to bed at 8pm as a teen that boy is probably never setting foot in a bar much less getting drunk bless him) (He has important things to do) (And money to save to finance his sugar baby I mean rival)

[n0v4t33z]

The Syndicate - Chapter 1: Misfortune of a Prodigy

Pairings: Choi San X Female Reader, Park Seonghwa X Female Reader, Ateez X Female Reader, Bangchan X Female Reader

Summary: Y/N is a Detective with a promising future in the police department until she's kidnapped by the infamous mafia boss Choi San and from him, she learns the dark secrets her superior has been hiding the whole time so she teams up with him in order to put a stop to it.

Genre: Lots of angst, Romance, Crime Fiction, Psychological Drama

Word Count: 2.9k

Tags/Warnings: For Mature Audiences, Language, Graphic Violence, Mentions of Illegal activities (i.e Kidnapping, extortion, assassination etc.), y/n gets roughed up by Wooyoung in the beginning , Slow Burn, Fluff sometimes, Work In Progress, Non-Idol AU, Mafia AU, Very suggestive at times, y/n cries alot, y/n having inner turmoil, Ateez being bad boys, Wooyoung and Yeosang are a little mean in this story tbh, Guns, Gunshot wounds, Assassination attempt(s)

I'll update tags as the story progresses

MINORS DO NOT INTERACT!!

Spotify Playlist🎵 | Series Masterlist 📝

Author's Note: Hi guys! This is the very first story that I grew courage to post on here, so please be kind! I would also like to just kind of let you know that this is a work in progress so updates may not be as quick and they will be pretty slow as I am quite busy with work although I'm quite a bit ahead in the story writing wise so in the mean time I have enough chapters to be able to post. I really hope you guys enjoy the story! 💜

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After being called into a crime scene, I finally arrive to my destination and notice a couple of bystanders and a few journalists outside the hotel, I show my police shield to the officer guarding the crime scene and I head inside. I look around and notice the beautiful crystal chandelier on the ceiling and the beautiful marble floor of the lobby. I’m assuming it’s another one of Aurora Syndicate’s rival gang member’s death. I head over to the presidential suite of the hotel and there he was, a man who was around his 50’s bludgeoned to death, judging by his clothes he had a lot of money too. While my mind was focused on the crime scene I feel a hand on my shoulder interrupt my thoughts then I turn and realize it’s my partner Detective Christopher Bang “ Hey, I genuinely thought you weren’t going to come since it’s past the time you get off” He gives me a smug smirk judging from the tone of his voice. I shrug keeping my eyes focused on the victim’s position.

“Well, duty calls. Besides it has to do with AS so you know I’m up for this. So, whose this guy? He looks like he’s loaded" Chris takes out his notepad and hands it to me for me to read “Well, the guy’s name is Shiro Ito judging from his bank cards and identification used to get this room. He was allegedly involved in laundering money for The Aurora Syndicate, my guess he might have been stealing or giving out information which is why they probably killed him.” I slowly nod then I hand Chris his notepad back “Makes sense why they would have killed him, were his records clean?” He nods “Yep, clean as a whistle. The receptionist downstairs told me he was the owner of a few clothing stores which makes sense and is probably how he was able to launder money for so long without being questioned.” I get a little closer to the body and I look at the impact wounds. The wounds looked very deep, something very personal was the reason this man was killed. The suspect is definitely not a female, judging by the severity of the wounds it was definitely a male. I shift my gaze over to the man’s hands whom was holding on to something tightly.

With my gloved hands I pry open the victim’s right hand to reveal a cuff link with a beautiful iridescent stone. My face instantly lights up and I put it in an evidence bag. “Chris, this was not a woman who killed him. Look, a cufflink with an Aurora Borealis stone and it doesn't belong to Mr. Ito, he took it off of the attacker while he was trying to fight him off. If we find who this cufflink belongs to we've got our guy.” Chris’ eyebrows slightly raise while crossing his arms in front of him “Narrowing it down won’t be too hard, I’m positive it’s someone in the AS’ inner circle hence the name of the stone.” I turn and hand it over to a crime scene technician “Put this in evidence please this one is very important.” the technician nods and marks the evidence, I look back over to my partner who was engrossed looking at his notebook and I let out a small yawn “I’m heading home now, I’m exhausted. You mind finishing up here? I'm also almost finished with the police report from the last case so I'll turn it in first thing tomorrow cool?” He nods while he puts away his notepad in his back pocket and looks to me with a small smile “Yeah for sure, see you tomorrow.” I wave goodbye and I head back to my car and drive home for the night.

While I driving home I begin to think about that cuff link. Whose is it? And why was Mr. Ito killed? Hopefully we’re able to get the suspect’s print off of the cuff link but I highly doubt that since it’s probably covered in Mr. Ito’s prints.

When I arrive at my apartment complex, the lights to the parking lot are busted so it was kind of dark but not enough to where I couldn’t make things out. While I carefully get out of my car and I start to walk to my apartment. While I look through my purse to find my house keys I hear the cocking of a gun behind me “Take one more step In that direction and I will kill you.” I jump up and I turn around dropping my purse on the ground. I focus on both figures both dressed in black one was average height with jet black hair framing his face, and a tall one with blonde-brown hair. I raise my hands slightly to show I have nothing in my hand then the tall one removes my gun from my holster. The guy with the black hair grumbles “Mingi hurry up, I have a feeling someone saw us.” The dark haired male grabs me and points a gun to my lower back while his hand covers my mouth and nose with a cloth “If you scream things will get much worse from here, you wanted to be the hero so now’s your chance to take the fall.” Mingi the tall one, walks up to me and injects something into my neck, zip ties my hands and slings me over his shoulders like a rag doll. I have to fight to stay awake. I have to at least see the vehicle. I force my eyes open trying to stay awake whilst trying to free myself from Mingi's strong grip but my eyelids become unbearably heavy and I fall unconscious before I’m able to see the vehicle.

A few hours later, I wake up in a lowly lit room and quickly realize I'm tied up to a chair. Slightly groggy, I look around and see no one was in here. This empty room, is practically a near empty room with a crudely made empty bookcase behind me which looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years along with a mix of bunch of random debris on the ground and dried blood. I sigh then I yell out “Hello?! Let me out of here please!?” After yelling for what seemed like a little while I hear footsteps fast approaching, and soon the door clicks open. It was the dark haired guy who abducted me again. “So you finally woke up, it took you long enough.” He stands in front of me and stares me down all while I look up at him trying to show him I wasn’t scared of him which was an obvious lie considering how I was manhandled earlier so easily. “Why am I here? Who are you?” Completely ignoring my question he reaches over and squeezes my cheeks really hard to the point where I jerk my head back in pain unable to escape his grip “You know, I hate cops. I hate how they try to dig up your business.” I glare at him “Well, maybe you shouldn’t be getting rich off of illegal businesses and death. ” He lets out a mocking laugh and lets go of my cheeks slightly throwing my head back with force that was pretty aggressive “Wow, Detective you’re funny. You know not everyone grew up with the same stupid sense of right and wrong as you right? We do what we can to survive.” I shake my head “No, you and your stupid mafia sheep are just a bunch of idiots who will eventually fall victim to natural selection.” He grabs a fistful of my hair “Oh, we’ll see about that.” He leans in close to my face “I need the rest of the names of the cops who are working on the Ito case, you pigs have something that belongs to San.”

Oh god, is he talking about Choi San? So it was his cufflink, I should have known. I shake my head “No, I won’t tell you anything...” He mutters under his breath “You little- I seriously don’t have patience for you...” he grabs me by the collar of my shirt and punches me in the jaw. A sharp pain shoots through my jaw and the taste of blood fills my mouth, for a few seconds I look at him slightly dazed while I mumble “I’m not telling you.” He shakes me violently pulling me from the rope I'm tied to “Talk! I need those names now!” he pushes me back and I fall on my back and on my arms letting out a pained cry “No! I’m not going to tell you anything!” The male walks over to me and kicks me several times in the stomach causing me to let out pained screams and cough up blood. Slowly I start feeling like I was losing my consciousness again but before it happens he grabs me by the rope I was tied up with again and pulls the chair back up “Hey, are you passing out? Come on, tell me names and It’ll all stop. I promise.” He spits out mockingly. I shake my head while I look at the floor trying to dissociate myself from the situation I’m in. Blood profusely drips from my mouth onto my white collared shirt soaking through the shirt and feeling the dull drops of blood fall onto the fabric. One, two, three..

The dark haired man walks over to the corner of the room and grabs a crop whip and hits me so hard I could hear the whip crack. I let out a cry of pain and suddenly a thin, tall, dark haired man dressed all in black wearing a leather jacket comes in and grabs his shoulder “I think she’s had enough. You can stop hitting her now Wooyoung, she’s not going to talk.” Right after he comes in another man enters the room, he wore a wine colored dress shirt and some fitted dress pants with his dark hair slicked back and black rimmed glasses. It’s Choi San, the current leader of Aurora Syndicate. He looks exactly the way people described him to be. Handsome, cat like eyes with a jawline sharp enough to cut diamonds, and a very intimidating prescence. Wooyoung, slighty nervous knowing he messed up looks over at both guys and says “Seonghwa, San, I tried being nice but she was being so rude I didn’t have a choice.” San looks over at Wooyoung quite irritated and says “Can’t you ever follow orders? We need her alive. I never asked you to do this.” Wooyoung raises both of his hands and nods “Alright, alright fine. I’m sorry. I just thought that because you usually-” San turns to Seonghwa and cuts him off “ Seonghwa, please take her to the infirmary and ask Jongho to clean up Wooyoung’s stupid mess” San then makes his way over to me and kneels down, looks at me for a few seconds and lifts my chin up with his finger to meet his gaze all while wiping the blood off my chin with his thumb “I’ll talk to you later Detective, we have some things I wan to discuss.” he gets up and wipes the blood he wiped off of my chin onto Wooyoung's shirt. Slightly annoyed by this action, Wooyoung scrunches up his face in distaste and follows behind him leaving me alone with Seonghwa.

The man quietly walks over to me and uncuffs me from the chair. “That’s a lot of blood, I hope Wooyoung didn’t do too much damage.” His soft voice had some calming effect to where I was slowly coming back from my dissociation and felt a bit more grounded. He kneels next to me and for a few seconds he lets me recollect myself “Let’s go to the infirmary, hopefully you can get rest there.” Slowly tears well up in my eyes making my vision blurry. He lets out a soft sigh and gently pats my back “It’s okay, don’t cry. I can’t guarantee that nothing will happen to you but I suggest you just listen and answer the questions you’re asked.” I shake my head “No, I’d rather die than throw my whole squad under the bus.” He fixes my disheveled hair and says “I know, but trust me the faster you fess up the faster you’ll be able to leave. Just think about it, please.” He slowly helps me up and picks me bridal style in his arms.

While we head over towards the infirmary I break the silence by saying “Why are you being so nice?” For a few seconds he stays quiet until he finally responds “Well, I believe in treating people with kindness despite whether or not I dislike something about them. For instance, I don’t like the feds but that won’t stop me from being a decent human being.” I look up at him in sheer confusion “But you’re a literal criminal. You steal and kill people for a living.” A small smile appears on his face and he says “Criminal or not i’m still human. Remember, we all have reasons as to why we do things even if sometimes those things aren’t good.” He’s right, even the people on the other side of justice have their reasons for being criminals. Not everyone decides to do it because they want to be evil, most of the time it’s the lack of money, or a cry for help. Everyone is different.

When we finally enter the infirmary it smelled exactly like a hospital, intoxicatingly sterile. Jongho was at his desk on the computer but as soon as he sees me in Seonghwa’s arms he quickly gets up and walks over to us. Seonghwa gently sets me down on the examining table. Jongho looks at me for a brief second in horror then looks over at Seonghwa “What the hell happened? Why does she look like this?” Seonghwa looks at Jongho and says “It was Wooyoung, San got pretty upset about it too.” Jongho looks over at me and glances at the police badge around my neck making a very uncomfortable face and huffs under his breath “That bastard..” He uncomfortably smiles “ Seonghwa, I’ll take it from here thank you.” He nods and walks out the door closing the door behind him. Leaving Jongho and I alone.

Jongho puts on some latex gloves and he grabs his stethoscope from a drawer near his desk. He gently places the chest piece on my chest and does a whole routine check up listening to my breathing and what not, shortly after he finishes he puts his stethoscope around his neck and clears his throat “I listened to your organs and everything sounds fine, no broken ribs which is good. I see that your arms are quite red, so you might get bruises but no broken bones which is good news too. I also see that you coughed up blood but you’ll be okay you’ll just be sore for a couple of days the internal bleeding will heal on its own as it's not severe. I'm going to give you some pain killers, they’ll help for a couple of hours.”

After taking the medicine he proceeds to clean my busted lip “Thank you, but I have a question.” His eyebrows slightly raise “Oh, sure what is it?” I give him a pleading look and I say “Why am I here?” his face grows a little serious and he goes back to cleaning my wound “Oh, well you’re here because San Is looking for a family Heirloom he lost... That heirloom is so important to him because it was a gift from his father and to get it back he decided he was going to hold you for ransom until the police hands it over.” I sit there trying to process everything for a few moments then I respond “Isn’t that a little overboard for a cufflink?” Jongho shrugs “It is, but knowing how San is since he really treasures everything his father gave him. I’m sure he really doesn’t want to replace it and it’s understandable.”

San’s father, Junseo “The Phantom” Choi. He was killed in a shootout last winter at a restaurant he frequented. I look down at my police badge then I look over at Jongho “San could have just asked me to give it to him. It's really that simple.” Jongho shakes his head “I wish it was that easy but it’s complicated, let’s just say that your Captain and San’s family aren’t on great terms so in a way this is payback .This is as much as I can tell you because to begin with I wasn’t even supposed to tell you any of this so please just act like it’s the first time you’ve heard about it when San questions you.” I nod “Of course no worries. By the way thank you for not trying to kill me.” Jongho’s small smile comes back and he says “Of course, none of this is your fault to begin with.” Suddenly a guy with light grey hair that almost looks white comes in and says “Hey, I’m taking her from you San wants to talk to her. Is she clear for interrogation?” I give Jongho a worried look and he gives me a small reassuring smile, helps me get off the examining table and walks me over to the guy at the doorway “Yes Hongjoong, she's clear.”

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[angellic-critique]

Hey, I want to ask something: why Is using a drag queen's persona to create a female character a bad thing?/genq

The implication of cissification/forced gender norms is what I take issue with.

You're okay anon. I am going to clarify that this is a queer person critiquing upon a poorly mishandled drag persona of an animated Italian mobster spider that is named after cocaine. I am aware of the extremities here but I cannot stress enough how harmful viv's surface level writing for only her character designs is genuinely harmful and hurtful to me, as a queer person.

I see the themes she attempted to write but having angel dust only centered purely around sex, sexual advantages from the porn industry [without substance[, the pimp abuse and nearly racist depictions of Italians [Gold tooth mobster who only likes guns, violence, sex, drugs, money, alcohol etc,]-

I could go on and on and on as to why Angel Dust despite seeming to come from some level of apathy to drag kings/queens is nothing but surface level tripe. I do not care if the show releases and all it is focused upon is Valentino's abuse and misdeeds towards angel, IS THERE ANYTHING TO THIS CHARACTER BESIDES BEING ABUSED.

there is a difference of wanting to design a drag persona and having the gender be ambiguous but it is an entirely different level of tripe bullshittery to have a character that is allegedly surrounded around drag performing and openly being himself, is supposedly forced under a guise of abuse to undergo the said drag performing...????

Having a AMAB crossdressing to be a drag persona but then take that empowerment away from him, as if he was never allowed to be feminine in the first place. Angel Dust screams tryhard sexy appeal. I do not understand his, alastor, or Stolas for that matters' 'sex' appeal if they are not written well nor with any care for that regard about the communities they are representing.

Viv just wants to write the themes of addiction, gay trauma and industry abuse? That's perfectly fine as long as there is nuance and reasoning and justification for those characters turning to those types of aliments for aid. What do I meaaan????

Alastor has no asexual/aromantic representation, if anything the fandom has proven that it is APHOBIC !!!

Stolas takes pills and it never going to be brought up until Octavia finds out and then SHE is casted to be the villain over calling out the fact that her dad is a POS that only cares about Blitzo! GENUINELY WHAT?

Blitz is an alcoholic stalker SEXUAL HARRASSER that has NO REPRECUSSIONS WHATSOVER FOR SAID DRINKING, IF ANYTHING THE SERIES PRAISES HIM TO BE ONE!!!!

Husk is also a surface level alcoholic that doesn't get called into question! I'm sorry I'm not talking about the main point you asked anon but genuinely please look at the larger scope over why viv just depicts abuse and substance use as 'haha comically funny' while attempting to 'humanize' her Demons. It seems that the show is just pro-abuse and of they genuinely actually have Valentino try to be threatening or a well written pimp ill laugh and delete my blogs honestly since I have no hope from script leaks revolving around him comparing guns to cocks. Viv really loves writing about industry abuse with no nuance here.

I did not bring up Molly whatsoever because unlike Viv I actually love the drag performer community and empowering culture they represent. It's the same reason I believe that Brandon Rodgers is anti-drag despite constantly crossdressing/displaying it within his videos. It's harmful because his drag didn't NEED to be a separate person angel dust should BE the DRAG PERFORMING NAME.

HELLUVA BOSS HAS PROVEN THAT ALL VIV CARES ABOUT IS EXCUSING AND MARKETTING ABUSERS RATHER THEN CALLING INTO QUESTION WHY ABUSE IS HAPPENING IN THE FIRST PLACE.

[montied]

Omg pleaseee tell me about your ocs, listening to people talk about their characters is my fave thing ever

AH hiiii

so. theres uhhh... lots. too many. nevermind its only like. nine. its perhaps an issue. whatever.

SO there is:

Francis

Yvonne

Irene

Anne

Robert

James

Audrey

Vivian

Nelson

I'll just do three main things about each of them so i'm not here for literally ever

Francis (last name is either Harcourt or Beaufort. i'm indecisive)

killed her husband because honestly he sucked

catches the tram which yvonne is often working on to her job at the ford factory

basically kidnapped as a child bc she's indigenous and that was the government's "strategy". that's a whole thing.

Yvonne Kennedy

tram conductress

about as normal as trams as i am about trains

she's chill unless you commit fare evasion. in which case she is Significantly Less Chill. this is partly due to not wanting to lose her job and partly due to her stringent following of rules

Sergeant Irene Lau (my belovedddd)

flight rigger with the waaaf

basically every new acw is terrified of her. not for any logical reason tbh. shes just strict.

the sort of person to get incredibly excited every time she sees a plane (despite literally working on an air base)

Anne Lau

Irene's 14-y/o sister

wants to be a journalist so badly

thinks vivian is So Cool and will do anything to help her

Robert

american marine currently stationed in australia

himbo, but you didnt hear that from me

he and nelson are very good friends

James

ran away from home to trans his gender. as you do

"helps out at the docks" allegedly. no-one has proof of this. what does helping out even entail.

weirdly mysterious + one of the only sensible ones here. well. occasionally.

Audrey!!!!!!!!

i love her but her character is literally entirely based off of vibes atm

loves a good trenchcoat (or a bad trenchcoat. any trenchcoat. hell, any coat)

Vivian Boivin

seems like she should be in a hollywood film.

doesnt have a "proper war job" because her parents think its not Ladylike. she is very salty about this. so she volunteers at the usmc canteen as a civilian and helps out on the same farm nelson works at despite not being meant to do either of these things. like. probably legally.

to describe her in one word? glamorous

Nelson (or Nellie or Addie, depending on who you ask)

land girl. part of the awla.

her family Has Money but differently to vivian's and irene + anne's. her father did Inventing and eventually that went well for him

chaotic mess tbh

anyway thank you for asking and uhh sorry for the really long reply lmao

also @dilfsuzanneyk here you go :3

[zoobus]

Not a lot of boy centered otome mobile games out there in English, which means recommendations are usually bad because within that limited pool, none of them are actually alike beyond being a probable attraction to men. Here's what I played in the desperate hope of fulfilling the same hole Obey Me did for me.

Love and Deepspace: the new girl on the block. Allegedly breaking ground by being for girls and you beat up aliens. Extremely well made, tons of money poured into it, boring. Lots of reviews in that "I'm giving it 5 stars because I want to prove women are worth this kind of investment and/or are interested in action dating sims!" vein.

If I'm honest, I've realized no brown skinned dateables = no interest, so there was no chance I would care about this game. I tried though!

Twisted Wonderland: Despite how often I heard "if you liked OM, you should play Twisted Wonderland," the two aren't alike beyond surface level. It's an all right time passer, especially the vignettes. I have more fun mentally comparing them than anything - I could probably write a whole post about how despite similar premises, they're clearly not even after the same demographic, plus all the things each excel at, PLUS all the things I wish OM had copied. Why the hell does the Disney property understand the importance of deranged anime boy diversity, but the fucking 7 deadly sin dating simulator does not?

I also enjoyed watching my character tier-list change in real time. It starts off like I think these guys are the hottest, so I'll probably like them the most (Leona, Jamil, Malleus, Professor Male!Cruella) -> Okay, seeing this guy in action made me realize how cute he is (Azul) -> hahaha holy shit, this guy rocks (Rook, Azul, Jade) -> Your good looks will not save you from dropping tiers after that stupid story (Leona) ->...but a horny-coded vignette might (Leona and Vil)

Also, the story is kind of terrible, so I've been ignoring it. "What if we gave all of our hot guys tragic backstories that contradict the premise of the game (Disney villains won in this universe and are idolized for their actions) and were just kind of. Needlessly pathetic. In an embarrassing way."

Lovebrush Chronicles: Tried to care. Could not. Sorry.

Nu Carnivale: Love how it jumps straight into you getting a blowjob from demons but the second they pulled that card based battle system out, I was done. I'm sorry, I can't do this.

What in Hell is Bad: I'm not done with this. I will try again. But I am truly baffled by their battle system. No idea what was happening or how I won. Also, the one sex scene I read was cringe and bad.

Mystic Messenger: I saw my own review for the game timestamped to 2016 and withered up. I did love it though.

[exeggcute]

there's a developing story in Australian media about Tiktok pixels collecting unauthorised data in an aggressive manner via their ads on thrid party websites, and I was wondering what a Professional like yourself made of it

ooh reading into this now... full disclosure that (1) until/unless I get another job in adtech I am technically not a Professional anymore lol and (2) pixel tags weren't a big component of my last role so I only have a fairly basic understanding of how they work. but from what I'm seeing here it sounds like the main issue with tiktok rn isn't the data collection per se, since these pixel tags are functionally identical to the ones employed by facebook and others, just that tiktok isn't obtaining user consent the way other companies are ostensibly do. although even that seems like a convenient lead-in for the whole Oh My God A But Chinese Company Is Doing It thing.

and tbf I kinda can pull that in both directions—on one hand facebook in particular has gotten in a lot of trouble before for bad data collection practices and putting that data in the hands of people who used it to (maybe, allegedly) sway public opinion, so the general fear underpinning this thing is like, not unfounded right. (even though I don't think the issue behind the cambridge analytica scandal was centered around tracking pixels specifically?) on the other hand the very nature of facebook's rocky history re. data and privacy proves that western companies can and will spy on their users and it's for sure disingenuous to act like ~shady foreign governments~ are the only ones with any incentive to do so lol.

I guess you could argue that facebook's incentive for all the spying was simply Making Money, even if they took money from people who did use that spy data to spread propaganda; like, to the parent company, the propaganda wasn't the goal. whereas many will obviously argue that with tiktok data some undefined form of propaganda is the goal. but seeing that tiktok ads are a multi-billion dollar enterprise(!) I'm way more inclined to believe that tiktok is also spying for the sake of Making Money. clearly a whole fucking lot of money!

this is something I've for sure said before but I also wholeheartedly believe (and to some extent, know, although again pixel tracking isn't my exact wheelhouse) that advertising data is a lot less granular and therefore less useful than most people imagine it to be, which severely limits the kind of compromising shit you can pull under normal circumstances.

even in the article I linked, where they talk about tiktok pixels being able to track the shopping/browsing habits of users, basic device info, and occasionally some PII like phone numbers and email addresses... like, okay, so let's say tiktok knows that junglejim4322@yahoo.com used an iphone to look at a website that sells orthopedic shoe inserts. or even maybe something more salacious like, idk, questionably legal gas station dick pills. from a "let's use tiktok to spread propaganda" perspective I really struggle how that information would be valuable or what you'd do with it other than emailing that person outright to taunt them about their fucked up feet and/or dick? (if the goal is to show people certain kinds of content in tiktok's app then certainly you have both the means to do so and plenty of behavioral data to draw up on in the app itself. it's a literal video platform lol.) otoh from a "let's use this data to create advertising segments" perspective then you can easily monetize this info by telling advertisers that you know a guy who's a prime target for ads about podiatry treatments or whatever, in which case advertisers are more eager to spend money on ads because they think they're talking to a relevant audience. and in that case advertisers don't really care what the guy's name or email is, just that he ticks certain boxes that make him a worthwhile use of ad dollars. and even in cases where bad actors do want more specific data for shady purposes, it's pretty difficult to collect it and even harder to propagate it across different platforms; one thing I think gets overlooked a lot with cambridge analytica in particular is that it happened on a platform where users willingly share their full name, birthday, gender, relationship status, political leanings, job title, etc. outright, and then create connections between other people who also willingly share all that info. in some ways I don't think it could've happened anywhere but facebook, because this is a situation where you really didn't have to squeeze anything out of users—they just came out and told you! (it's also part of why non-shady facebook ads are so lucrative; you don't have to guesstimate audience data when you can literally just specify that certain ads should only be shown to people whose profile says they're between the ages of 35 and 55.) and as far as I'm aware tiktok just does not have anything remotely approaching that kind of profile data.

anyway lol. as far as I can tell I think this is a GDPR-y consent issue first and foremost, which will probably turn into a thorny battle over whether tiktok can/will be held to EU data standards or similar statues with a good helping of Chinese Company Bad mixed in for good measure. also side note but remember the whole thing about tiktok data transparency but the american company they put in charge of it is fucking oracle?

[cornucopiawrites]

(Image Source: https://x.com/Asaki_illust/status/1746331831774130671?s=20)

You've been going to this other coffee house ever since your usual spot got shut down. There was a devil attack — Bat Devil, allegedly — that blew through the place, tearing massive holes in opposite walls, completely messing up the kitchen. It was shut down for repairs, and never went back in business. Thing is: you knew the owner. And they were getting up-there in age, so more than likely they managed to swindle the insurance money and call it a career. Not a bad ending for them, but you were forced to find a new spot. And this one just wasn't the same. It wasn't just the pastries and drinks you missed. Weird as it sounds, you missed the waiting. In line. At the counter. With others. The coffee house crowd. It was the same people every day, getting their morning coffee and snack. Much like you, sure, but with their own lives. You never knew them, obviously — you all just talked about the weather, latest headlines, the seasonal flu, and other benign things. The familiarity ran so deep, you knew several of their every-day orders by heart. Not a single one of you ever exchanged names, business cards, or anything. And at this new spot, you found yourself deeply regretting your time at the old spot. You vividly remember so many faces, and they may as well be dead now. Well, lately, there's been a new lady at the new spot. She's got pasty skin, is dressed in a suit, and basically looks like everyone else. You just know her because you're so often beside her, for roughly seven minutes each day. You deduce your commutes are somehow in-sync, since you always wind up adjacent to one-another in line. Occasionally — occasionally — you wind up a person or two apart. Or one of you doesn't show. Oh, there are a few things you noticed about her: her hair's usually in this braided ponytail kind of thing, she likes to wear bulky suit coats, she tends to miss a spot of dog hair on the back of those coats, and she never gets coffee, just tea. It's usually one of the shop's herbal blends. Oh, and you couldn't help but notice her eyes. Bright, yellow, unusual. Hard to get a decent look — you don't want to get caught staring. Again, you're standing beside one another. Walking together as the queue moves, but obviously separate. She senses you glancing at her, but doesn't look. You sense her side-eye, but pretend not to notice at all. You shuffle forward. Then again. Finally, you've had enough. "What're you going to get?" You see her flinch, as though you yelled in her ear. Frankly, you have no idea why you asked that anyway. You already know what she gets. Everyday. It's the same thing: tea and—

"Sorry, were you talking to me?"

"Yeah." It worked in your school days, at lunch. Why wouldn't it work today? "I said: what're you going to get?"

The lady blinks. "Me? What am I going to get?"

"Yeah." And after an odd pause: "I get a coffee, with espresso and lots of cream. And a bagel with jam." You need the big caffeine hit, and the calories to offset the shakes you'd get.

"Oh," she says, "um, green tea and a raspberry scone?"

(Why'd she phrase it like a question?)

"Tea? No coffee for you?"

She shakes her head and offers a smile. "My stomach doesn't like it. Too much caffeine, maybe."

"Maybe."

You're not sure what to say next. And neither is she, but she really hopes you do. Her eyes are kinda freaky, looking at you with such attention. Like she's eagerly waiting for something. It's like — anticipation, but tired?

Damn, you're almost at the counter.

"I'm Jun." (You're not Jun.)

"And I am Izumi." (And she is not Izumi. You can tell because she had to think about it.)

"Izumi" takes her order. She gestures for you to come forward. But—

"Oh, no. You don't need to do that for me."

"Maybe," she offers, "you can get mine next time?"

That's fair. And it makes you smile. And she's smiling.

Now what?

"Have you been coming here long?"

Oh, she's taken the lead! You're not complaining.

"About a month, maybe two. I notice you've started becoming a regular here."

She nods, looking outside. "The place I always went to was destroyed." Back at you. "It was a devil attack. I think it was on the news."

From the counter, you both hear, "Izumi? Jun?"

You're both heading outside now. She's looking down at the sidewalk. You say, "that's a coincidence."

"What is?"

"The place I went to was also taken down by a devil."

She nearly sighs. "That's not a very big coincidence these days, though. Is it?"

You shrug and gloomily admit, "that's true. That's true."

It would be a bummer if your first conversation with "Izumi" ended on this note, so you quickly ask, "are the scones any good?"

"I like them, yes. Raspberry's my favorite."

She takes a bite of the fresh pastry, and takes a sip from her disposable cup. Lifting her finger off the cup sleeve, she points to your breakfast.

"You know, I don't think I have had any of their bagels yet."

"Really? They're alright."

The two of you look at one another, then at the other's food, then at your own food. You tear half your bagel off. She does the same to her scone. You take one another's offerings. And you both have a stupid smile on your faces.

"I'll let you know what I think, Jun," Izumi promises, turning to walk away. "I have to get going now."

"I'll see you tomorrow," you answer, "right, Izumi?"

For whatever reason, you don't look to see her nod. She's a fleeting thought, quickly replaced by matters of the day ahead. And you know that for her, you're no different.

The raspberry scone is alright. Not as filling as the bagel.

Yet you're aware that, later this evening, as you're readying yourself for bed, you'll feel that tempered eagerness about the following morning.

It might even keep you up, for just a bit.

Maybe — it'll keep her up, too?

[poeticpains]

Alright. I've been chewing on the ETN movie news all day, and I think my thoughts are finally coherent enough to follow. I'll put it under a read more, mostly because it's probably going to be pretty negative and I don't wish to yuck anyone's yum.

First of all, I'll just say outright that I think including fans in the production of the movie is a bad idea. Allowing them to have cameos is, while still a little too close for comfort for me personally, one thing, but fully allowing fans to have directorial input on the season itself does not sound like it will end well in any way, shape, or form. What if they insist on a decision that Joey hates, but he does it anyways because they paid? Or what if Joey insists on a decision that they hate, and they wasted all that money?

I will be completely honest: do I want to be a part of the movie? Yes. Yes, 100%. I would love that. But that is not the question. The question is: would having me, a random 20-something with no professional film or writing experience, be involved with a movie be a good idea? And the answer to that is no.

(And I really don't want to hear about how this allows for us fans to have so-called representation. People with $350/$2,500/$3,000 just laying around do not represent me, and I'm sure that many of you feel the same way.)

Second of all, I am wary of anything that asks for funding with this little planning having gone into it. There is no cast list, no filming location, and contradictory statements on the nature of the movie itself. Is there even a script written? Is there even a story laid out? Joey has had four years to figure this out. And yeah, I know that I'm one to be talking about slow story writing, but the difference is that I'm not asking for $250,000 (at minimum!).

This is especially relevant when you consider the $3,000 donation tier and the promise of being in the movie as an extra. It says on the IGG account that it will be in the US, and yet the Twitter account says this:

I don't think I need to be the one to tell people that if you're US based and they end up filming in the UK, you're going to end up spending a lot more than $3,000 to simply get what you paid for.

This isn't me saying that I won't back it — I do plan to at one of the lower tiers, just to get the perks (I would be especially interested in the script). I'm just saying, as a friendly reminder, that it's basically akin to gambling, at this stage. Don't give them any amount of money that you're not prepared to lose entirely.

I know that a similar thing to this happened with the board game, and look how that turned out, in terms of fandom satisfaction. I don't know many people who actually enjoy that game; even I house rule a lot of it just to make playing it somewhat fun.

And finally, I really wish the Escape the Night Twitter account would get someone better suited to PR to handle their social media. It is wholly unprofessional and a terrible look for an organization that is allegedly trying to seek a place on one of the "traditional" streaming services to be getting into slapfights with people on their official account.

I realize that this post was pretty scathing, but I feel like it's deserved. I try not to be super negative on this blog, and avoid the worst of the drama, because I want my account to be a place of community. I just didn't want to ignore this.

I do have hope for the movie. I want it to happen, and I want it to be good. I want everyone to get what they paid for and be satisfied. I want to be able to get closure for Joey's story. (I want to see a 20 minute makeout scene between him and Matthew. With tongue! I'd give $350 for that!)

It seems that, at least for now, all we can do is hope.

[sweetfirebird]

I have a messy rant about some historical docs that I needed to get out. It's incomplete and not well-written, but, yeah, I had to get it out of my head. So it's going behind a cut. Free free to ignore it.

It's amazing how many documentaries about notorious historical figures will do their best to avoid any thought or commentary about the systems these people lived in (and sometimes ruled over). They might do a passing mention of something terrible in the person's childhood or something. But it's only ever in passing and it's not even a guarantee that it will get mentioned at all. (Maybe it's the shitty documentaries and I need some better books on the subjects.)

And I am not excusing any of the things these people did if they did do them. It's just incredible to me, though I shouldn't be surprised because we don't even really do this now for our current notorious figures.

As one example, though, I've watched/listened to a lot of things about Richard III and not one has really gone into any depth about the warring all throughout his formative years or how that was pretty normal? for the ruling class of that time and place? His brother had his other brother executed (for reasons but nonetheless he did it). His brother also (more than likely) had the previous king murdered. This was the procedure. This is a system that encouraged this and allowed this--as long as you held the throne once you had it and gave your supporters their cash money and honors.

Is (allegedly) killing your tween nephews bad? Yeah obviously but it also... is the logical outcome of that system. It was as close to perfectly normal as a system that allows taking leadership of a country by force and bloodline can be. He just failed at holding the throne but he wasn't like... unusual.

But they don't want to talk about that because, I assume, it sort of reflects badly on the entire still going monarchy business. (And yeah yeah Tudor propaganda but I'm not talking about that right now. I'm talking about the lens with which we are examining these people now.) Probably no one wants to talk about that but my annoying nerdy ass, i know.

Or, okay. Let's say you have people accused of Bad Things ranging from general debauchery and reckless behavior to... possible devil worship... to serial killing with a frankly ridiculous number of victims. Or let's say you are discussing a few cases of "mad" kings. Or de Sade or someone like him. If you set aside the validity of many of the charges against these people (it's easy to accuse someone who is already behaving badly of behaving VERY badly in order to get what you want) and acknowledge the difficulty of diagnosing anyone hundreds or thousands of years later, you have... people being punished for being, like, too obviously the logical outcome of their time and place and then failing instead of succeeding. That's it. These monsters (to us) could only exist in those places. They are products of those places. But these specials never go into that. They just popped up out of nowhere! Amazing! A mystery!

Like, these people were just embarrassingly too much of the thing they were supposed to be and it was making the rest of those in their stations look bad, which set their peers against them and made them easy targets (for land grabs or whatever).

Or when they did succeed (while being horrible), the docs try to excuse it, and maybe this is why you get modern historians trying desperately to say that Henry VIII must have had a head injury or madness from syphilis to explain his behavior and not just....

he was never told no, guys. No one ever told him no. There was no way TO tell him no (if you wanted to keep your head). Henry is what happens when you do that. Henry is what happens when the world says women do not really have value outside of childbirth and fucking anyway. Henry is what happens when you say kings are divine--and he's also what happens when you come from a violent class and culture and you've recently had a long civil war that killed off most of the other possible claimants to the throne so there is no one to really oppose or stand up to you.

Or the slutty slutty drunken Earl of Rochester having no known childhood behavioral problems being carted off to school at thirteen and then suddenly becoming reckless and violent and lecherous? I wonder if the set up for abuse of all kinds at those schools had anything to do with that, and then also the general world for noble men of that time which allowed them to do whatever they wanted, particularly with (lower class) women with little to no repercussions. hmm a mystery where he came from.

He's not actually that unusual, he just wrote slutty slutty poems about it so he gets remembered. There were tons of dudes like him who probably did worse. They just also did enough of the things they were supposed to do that no one cared about the rest. He's not really an outlier. He is representative of the time and place.

These are ruling class people, and it's Europe, so there is also the Church to consider in all of these things, like, intricately tied up with the misogyny and classism and everything else is the Church. It is also a thing with beliefs that these docs do not want to get into. And I'm not going to go into it either right now. It's just a pattern I've noticed and it's irking me.

Heroes and horrors are created by their times. I mean... no. NO. I'm going to stop there before this gets any longer or more rambly. They still do this now, I know. But I guess I expect historians to have the distance to really look.

But as I said, maybe I just need to watch better docs.

... You can see now where Larin came from though, I bet.

[elizabethplaid]

daily notes - april 16, 2024

Got up fine today, though I still didn't quite feel "on my game". How bad was I spaced out? Didn't realize I forgot my nose ring until I was already at the library. Remembered my other jewelry, though!

LL-J wasn't there, so it was an "indulgent" day. Since joined me again, too. I played phone games the whole time, until there was like an hour left. Then I read badly-edited romance novels and kept having to stop and cringe, pedantically.

"Why am I reading this?" I asked myself. It's the smut, truly. But a lot of the stories on the app are fantasies: eg werewolves, billionaires, mafia, fated mates, etc. So the lead-up romance scenes aren't always smooth.

I had just finished a really nice story set in a bakery with a hard-of-hearing FL and an ML with burn scars on his leg. (It's "Wrong Number" by Laura Brown, on the Readict app, if you're inclined.)

There was another recent one with some cursed pirate-ghost situation. Seemed to be set in my area of Maine, though they only mentioned nearby towns. They also spelled Eastport as two separate words and misspelled the name of my college's town. Other than those details, it was pretty nice. ("Salvation" by Jacqueline Paige)

I haven't been reading on the app as much since mid-January, when my phone-friend got in contact with me again. Between our conversations and rereading my own writing, it's a lot harder to turn off my brain for these stories.

The hyper-empathy is also a challenge, as I envision how I'd react in those situations. In particular, it's the rich guy buying expensive things for the woman without consulting her. (In contrast, those shopping-spree montages in movies are a fantasy I know I want but can't achieve. More because of what sizes stores offer, than the fictional budget. Guess it's about control and my opinion mattering.)

My mom used to do that a lot, with her ebay purchases, and her bad spending habits were a big source of tension in the family. But she'd buy these things with me in mind, allegedly. Sometimes it was something I wanted to show her to say "hey this is neat"; other times, it was something of interest that I hadn't seen. But they were unwanted. After all, if money is finite (mom always ran up her credit cards to the limit), I should make what I get count - pick out something -really- good, that I won't regret getting.

I've mentioned this to phone-friend before. When thinking of trinkets as gifts, I said I wanted something practical yet meaningful, preferably not expensive. And they gave me a Saint Sebastian key chain, which I adore. My side of the exchange was our friendship bracelets.

Over time, I've learned -and am still learning- just how much my mom mucked with how I perceive relationships. It's tough to accept being appreciated for just being myself - that I don't have to do some service in order to be "worth keeping around". (It was easier to accept that my body type can be seen as attractive, and that's already a hurdle for many people.) Accepting gifts makes me feel guilty sometimes, reliving those memories. I'm getting better about asking for allowance, but I don't like spending money often.

It's funny that mom was the one who introduced me to romance novels, including the smutty ones. Now I'm noticing my struggles with enjoying them, because of her affect on me. Then again, I keep thinking of what I would do in these situations. Basically, it's food-for-thought as to developing my own stories.

[gaykarstaagforever]

I missed the fine details of the Linus Tech Tips implosion back when it happened, because I was starting a new job and dealing with workplace bullshit of my own (fortunately nothing quite so serious as what happened here).

But I'm nothing if not a little slut for other people's drama, so I watched Austin Green's 2 hour discussion of the LTT car going off a cliff.

Being 40 and not interested in Call of Duty, I am no longer always shopping for new overpriced hardware and so was never a huge Linus fan. Some of the little side channels were interesting enough background noise. Filled with bad data and lazy tests, apparently.

Like, you had one job, dude. And it wasn't to turn into a daily content farm with an accuracy rate rivaling what you would have gotten if you'd just had AI do it. You chucklehead.

I don't mean to be trite. This guy is a man-baby piece-of-shit, and ruined how many people's lives and livelihoods because he thought he was Steve Jobs or something? And Steve Jobs was also a huge asshole with emotional problems who treated people like necessary evils. But at least the company he worked for had a barebones functional corporate structure to smooth over all the internal fallout from his shenanigans.

It isn't like Linus didn't have the money to pay qualified people to handle his chaos. If he wanted to personally step back and do his dumb podcast - which he obviously did, or he wouldn't have hired 120 people to churn out bad videos in the first place - why didn't he turn management over to people who could just quietly run things for him? Instead he let whatever managers he had seemingly hired from the darkest recesses of Twitter yell at and grope whomever they wanted, so then he had to personally whine and threaten people to deal with the consequences.

Like...that's MORE work, not less, you weiner. And it immediately puts all your brand deals and corporate relationships in trouble, because real companies run by grown-ups aren't going to want to be associated with you and your egg carton of incel turds. I don't understand the math. Except that he just didn't give a single fuck so long as someone was handing him money, and he never figured it out beyond that.

Which is believable. I mean, who is he? Just some YouTuber who got big. That doesn't immediately qualify you to be good at anything besides whatever batch of skills that is. But that's why so many people in his position hire qualified corporate people to run their businesses, or at least agents and PR people and lawyers to deal with the boring day-to-day slog of contracts and paying bills and making sure people show up to work and stuff.

He didn't do that. He never learned that? He's out of Vancouver, and he didn't know he could do this any better?

Or is he just so greedy that any dollar spent on something not immediately generating 2 dollars wasn't appealing to him? That's such bad business. Like, his entire brand and career was always doomed the moment all the behind-the-scenes shit he refused to be a man about inevitably went public. And that is exactly what happened.

Businesses are inherently evil and exploitative. Sure. But they also pay all those people and have all those rules because they NEED TO. To follow the law, to not get sued, to stay solvent. How did a 35+ year old man, presumably with a mortgage and family, not ever learn this? I'm not much older than him, I don't even have a YouTube channel, and I knew this. Come on, dude.

...Also, LTT OnlyFans? Where you allegedly made at least one female employee flirt with guys sending her cock pics?? What kind of exploding clown car shit is that?? Where in Steve Jobs's biography did he sell iPhones by making his PA do topless conference calls? That sounds like something I would sarcastically suggest a failing company try. And I'm an idiot who has to remind myself that wrestling isn't real at least 4 times a week.

I hope Linus and the other Reddit trolls he hired go to jail or at least get fined for all the obviously illegal things they did. And Lord give the rest of us the strength to cancel them for all the other nonsense they pulled that didn't actually break Canadian law.

And if you still need product reviews to help you shop for graphics cards, watch Gamers Nexus, the guys who stood up to call LTT out in an unimpeachable way, back when they got nothing but flack for it. I can't vouch for their accuracy, but they at least seem to care about more than just pimping the Algorithm for money they can then ill-advisedly invest in doomed little tech startups no one cares about. Another thing Linus does.

Say what you will about Jimmy Donaldson, but at least he just rebranded crappy chocolate bars. Which was also a confusing and stupid thing to do, but at least no one got groped. Allegedly. That we know of. Yet.

...People may have gotten injured during his Squid Game thing. I can't remember the details. And I can't google MrBeast facts without YouTube peeing the very worst content all over my recommendations for the next month.

I think we can all just agree that Google deciding to do revenue sharing with content creators was probably one of the worst decisions they ever made; that we, as a global society, have ever made. These are the people who after 20+ years still haven't come up with a user-friendly interface for Gmail, and we put them in charge of Earth's television?

Linus is terrible, and we made him into what he is today. It would be great if we could all learn from this sort of thing.

We won't, but wouldn't it be great?

[galvanizedfriend]

I'm scared about all the AI stuff that's been going on. I don't want to lose my work or my characters. Is there anything that we can do to make sure we still keep our works?

So am I. :( In my line of work we're already starting to see the use of AI being seriously discussed to replace certain tasks - and not because it'll make workers' lives easier, or even be necessarily more efficient, since it'll be utter chaos not to have real humans in certain position. It's purely to save money, both by replacing people and by creating more unemployment, which will then lower overall wages.

If you're a writer (I assume you are, since you mentioned you don't want to lose your characters), I don't think it's so much about losing rights over what you create, but having machines being trained on existing content (maybe even yours) in order to do your job. Publishing a single book is work that involves an entire chain of people. The writer is just one part. You have at least one editor, you have someone who prepares the text, you have someone who does formatting, you have sometimes a proof-reader, or sensitivity readers depending on what kind of story you write, then you have artists who create the covers and other related illustrations, and that's not even to mention people such as agents, who perform a very important role identifying good manuscripts, finding new writers, and then representing them.

What AI is already doing is using existing works in order to train a machine in specific styles so that a computer might churn out an entire novel in the space of an hour. They're using someone's work for machine-learning, but they're no longer having to pay any of these people in the chain of creation any money for it. In my country, there are big publishing houses already using AI created illustrations for books. But computers don't have artistry, it doesn't have coloring or drawing styles. They are stealing the work of illustrators to allegedly create something "new", making money off of this thing, and not paying the original creators a dime.

This is a particularly dire situation for independent writers/creators, or writers/creators who publish their work through small, lesser-known publishing houses. There's always going to be a hefty countract for the J.K. Rowlings and the Stephen Kings and other big name authors. It's for the little ones and the ones just starting that things are going to be very complicated if widespread AI use is allowed to continue like this. And then imagine the consequences of this in the long run in terms of authenticity, originality, creativity, diversity. Imagine the consequences of this for entire careers. How many people are actually going to be able to make a living in the publishing industry?

I'm obviously painting a very bad picture here that might seem like an exaggeration right now, but it's certainly the path things are starting to take (like with the book covers I mentioned). And I honestly don't know what we can do. I don't know if there is anything any one person can do to stop it. For so many years, particularly for artists and creators in general (but noy only) we've been told that the internet was where we should be. Showcasing our writing, photography, illustrations, paintings, and so on. It's how people publicize their work and get noticed. If you're not on the internet, you don't exist. You need to have portfolio online, preferably with a built audience. And suddenly, having that kind of thing out there now just means that everything we create can (and probably will) be used to train an AI that will make these very same creations not necessary to the industry anymore. It doesn't stop us from writing, painting, or what have you, but it means we might not be able to make a living out of it anymore.

It's not really about banning the use of AI, it's about establishing rules both about how it is trained, and about whether or not whatever an AI creates should be copyrightable. Honestly, if it's decided that AI-created content, whatever kind of content it might be, cannot be used for profit or protected by intellectual rights, then it's already a very big step, because then it will just not be financially interesting anymore to these industries to replace artists and writers and actors for AI, since anyone will then be able to just steal whatever they create out of that. If Disney have a show where scripts are made by AI, then it can't be copyrighted. Anyone can take it and do their own thing, make a new show, whatever. What are the chances that Disney will then start using solely AI for their scripts (like they want to)?

That's the discussion that needs to happen in the next few years in many, many areas. It's already happening in many countries, within many industries, unions and sectors of society in general. AI can be a very useful, helpful tool, but it cannot be used for exploitation and to create massive unemployment.

I'm not the most politically engaged person in that aspect, but what I can say is if you're ever in a position to have your voice heard, do it. If you know that discussions are happening close to you, or online, see if there's a way for you to take part in it. or just spread the word, make sure more people are aware of it. Discuss it with your friends or your social groups. And if there's a way for you to protect your creations from AI-mining, do it as well. As individual people with very little power, we can often only rely on our representatives to make the right decisions (which doesn't always happen, sadly, especially in certain countries), but there are serious people and unions fighting the good fight out there. We can show our support.

[bondsmagii]

I remember that a while back you were researching your family n all. As a coincidence, I found out this week that a grand-aunt of mine did that, with records n stuff. Like, it's three big log books long. Anyway, through that I found out something that made me glad she had the same initiative I did, but much more ability.

For many many years, decades actually, it was thought that my grand-grandpa had embezzled some money and once caught, killed himself in a farm. Through her research, my aunt was able to prove that was fake. He never stole anything. In fact, he was framed and took his own life out of anguish due to no one believing him. His name was dirty for DECADES after his death. To this day some people believe he did it.

I am glad that what was simply a search for my family's roots made it so his memory was regarded in truth once again. I hope that me knowing it, other family members knowing it, will let his spirit rest.

I just wanted to share this because no matter how many people think this kind of research is pointless, it isn't.

I'm so glad that this was discovered! I cannot imagine what that poor man went through, knowing the truth and having nobody believe him. I hope that wherever he is, he knows his name has been cleared and he can put it to rest. it just goes to show that in history, the lives of even the most allegedly ordinary folk can often contain stories you wouldn't believe.

I don't get why people think that family history is pointless. I think they get the idea that it's just something you idly do to pass the time in retirement, or because you've got nothing better to do. I'm baffled by how many people are just completely disinterested in their own family's history. as a historian, I obviously appreciate history and what it can teach us, and I find great value in the knowing and preserving of it. it's no different when it comes to my own personal history. there are thousands of people who came before me, in strange times that were so much tougher than now; they survived and they had children and they lived their lives and they were people, just like me, who thought and felt and worried and cried and laughed and were good and bad and all measure of things in between. all of them eventually led to me, now -- how could I not be interested in them? I owe them my existence.

I'm still very early into my research, as far as things go, doing the basics of outlining the family tree. but so far I've traced back to the mid-1700s; I've found photographs of great-great grandparents and spotted the blueprints of my face and my uncle's face and my dad's face in them; I've found some surprises of heritage, such as there's a lot of Welsh in me (a whole branch of the family is from Wales!) and there might be a branch of the family in America; I've confirmed that my great-grandmother was born in Hong Kong and my grandmother in Singapore; and there's been some potential confirmation, too, such as the likelihood that a branch of my mother's side is Romani -- something we've long thought but had never proven. each tiny bit of progress, each hint, each new name, is another piece of my own personal history, and it's awesome. it's humbling. this kind of thing is a reminder that you didn't just spontaneously appear; that your roots on the planet do not stop just past your great-grandparents. there is a whole world behind each and every one of us, and that is something I would hardly call pointless.

[practicalmagicintuitions]

Regarding the anon about the author, he said he's seen better and he's seen worse. The Netflix show and game are not the first or last adaptations of the story. Lauren contacted him about the show and said he didn't want to be a part of it and that he believed in artists freedom of expression. I stopped supporting all of Cavill's work personally. Stopped watching after season 1. Can't lie though I found that comment on matching the reading tantalizing! Spill the tea anon! 🤣

As for the Jonah Hill thing, my first thought was that old adage when someone tells you who they are, you should listen. I don't agree with all his personal boundaries but he spelled it out right there on the kind of person he was. He's free to have boundries. And the girl was free to walk if they didn't fit her life. I don't care if someone uses therapy speak. If what they said is an ultimatum that doesn't match my needs/wants/life etc. Then I'm out. It is that simple but us humans love to complicate it for one reason or another. Obviously I have no inside knowledge but I bet she thought if she sticks around for awhile and shows him some loyalty he'll change. He'll get more secure in himself and in the relationship and it will get better. Nope! You need to look and accept that person for who they are in that moment. Not what they could be, should be, would be.

“Obviously I have no inside knowledge but I bet she thought if she sticks around for awhile and shows him some loyalty he'll change. He'll get more secure in himself and in the relationship and it will get better. Nope! You need to look and accept that person for who they are in that moment. Not what they could be, should be, would be.“

I SO agree with this.

For the record I think Jonah Hill is extremely insecure, that’s why he needed to rely on therapy talk aka others thoughts but at least that means he is willing to go to a therapy and thy to improve himself, be more aware. Being in a relationship with an insecure person is extremely daunting but this alone doesn’t make the relationship abusive or even toxic. I think his biggest mistake was ( and I never understand this) the need to keep a friendship with his ex. No. This is not a possibility especially if the main disagreement was having/not having a family. The way he said “look, maybe I am not for you, go on separate ways if our needs don’t align etc” for me is super grown up and adult thinking and shows he didn’t want to tie the girl to himself or didn’t blackmailed her emotionally. The girl’s responses and actions are super immature though. She definitely thought she will got the ring if she sticks. And this is a perfect example for you ladies. Never date or invest time into a potential. So I think they were not compatible, but she is butthurt and posting those screenshots is just effin low.

About Sapkowskij: I think he just loves money and sold the rights and doesn’t care that much until he gets his share. Which is okay if he is okay with it. But this still doesn’t legitimize Lauren’s unbelievably bad writing. Wattpad is nobel prize worthy compare to her storytelling.

About the anon an rhe tea. Maybe I was just too careful not to share this, idk. Anon said it seems HC indeed bought his house throughout a company which can be in fact reduce costs like taxes. Allegedly! Which is totally align with my reading on the matter. So we will see if anything will be more clear or specific on this subject. I obviously didn’t see any document or anything so it could be just a rumor. But I don’t think this is only a gossip.