#Self-Compliance Tool

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[treasure-mimic]

So, let me try and put everything together here, because I really do think it needs to be talked about.

Today, Unity announced that it intends to apply a fee to use its software. Then it got worse.

For those not in the know, Unity is the most popular free to use video game development tool, offering a basic version for individuals who want to learn how to create games or create independently alongside paid versions for corporations or people who want more features. It's decent enough at this job, has issues but for the price point I can't complain, and is the idea entry point into creating in this medium, it's a very important piece of software.

But speaking of tools, the CEO is a massive one. When he was the COO of EA, he advocated for using, what out and out sounds like emotional manipulation to coerce players into microtransactions.

"A consumer gets engaged in a property, they might spend 10, 20, 30, 50 hours on the game and then when they're deep into the game they're well invested in it. We're not gouging, but we're charging and at that point in time the commitment can be pretty high."

He also called game developers who don't discuss monetization early in the planning stages of development, quote, "fucking idiots".

So that sets the stage for what might be one of the most bald-faced greediest moves I've seen from a corporation in a minute. Most at least have the sense of self-preservation to hide it.

A few hours ago, Unity posted this announcement on the official blog.

Effective January 1, 2024, we will introduce a new Unity Runtime Fee that’s based on game installs. We will also add cloud-based asset storage, Unity DevOps tools, and AI at runtime at no extra cost to Unity subscription plans this November. We are introducing a Unity Runtime Fee that is based upon each time a qualifying game is downloaded by an end user. We chose this because each time a game is downloaded, the Unity Runtime is also installed. Also we believe that an initial install-based fee allows creators to keep the ongoing financial gains from player engagement, unlike a revenue share.

Now there are a few red flags to note in this pitch immediately.

Unity is planning on charging a fee on all games which use its engine.

This is a flat fee per number of installs.

They are using an always online runtime function to determine whether a game is downloaded.

There is just so many things wrong with this that it's hard to know where to start, not helped by this FAQ which doubled down on a lot of the major issues people had.

I guess let's start with what people noticed first. Because it's using a system baked into the software itself, Unity would not be differentiating between a "purchase" and a "download". If someone uninstalls and reinstalls a game, that's two downloads. If someone gets a new computer or a new console and downloads a game already purchased from their account, that's two download. If someone pirates the game, the studio will be asked to pay for that download.

Q: How are you going to collect installs? A: We leverage our own proprietary data model. We believe it gives an accurate determination of the number of times the runtime is distributed for a given project. Q: Is software made in unity going to be calling home to unity whenever it's ran, even for enterprice licenses? A: We use a composite model for counting runtime installs that collects data from numerous sources. The Unity Runtime Fee will use data in compliance with GDPR and CCPA. The data being requested is aggregated and is being used for billing purposes. Q: If a user reinstalls/redownloads a game / changes their hardware, will that count as multiple installs? A: Yes. The creator will need to pay for all future installs. The reason is that Unity doesn’t receive end-player information, just aggregate data. Q: What's going to stop us being charged for pirated copies of our games? A: We do already have fraud detection practices in our Ads technology which is solving a similar problem, so we will leverage that know-how as a starting point. We recognize that users will have concerns about this and we will make available a process for them to submit their concerns to our fraud compliance team.

This is potentially related to a new system that will require Unity Personal developers to go online at least once every three days.

Starting in November, Unity Personal users will get a new sign-in and online user experience. Users will need to be signed into the Hub with their Unity ID and connect to the internet to use Unity. If the internet connection is lost, users can continue using Unity for up to 3 days while offline. More details to come, when this change takes effect.

It's unclear whether this requirement will be attached to any and all Unity games, though it would explain how they're theoretically able to track "the number of installs", and why the methodology for tracking these installs is so shit, as we'll discuss later.

Unity claims that it will only leverage this fee to games which surpass a certain threshold of downloads and yearly revenue.

Only games that meet the following thresholds qualify for the Unity Runtime Fee: Unity Personal and Unity Plus: Those that have made $200,000 USD or more in the last 12 months AND have at least 200,000 lifetime game installs. Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise: Those that have made $1,000,000 USD or more in the last 12 months AND have at least 1,000,000 lifetime game installs.

They don't say how they're going to collect information on a game's revenue, likely this is just to say that they're only interested in squeezing larger products (games like Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, Fate Grand Order, Among Us, and Fall Guys) and not every 2 dollar puzzle platformer that drops on Steam. But also, these larger products have the easiest time porting off of Unity and the most incentives to, meaning realistically those heaviest impacted are going to be the ones who just barely meet this threshold, most of them indie developers.

Aggro Crab Games, one of the first to properly break this story, points out that systems like the Xbox Game Pass, which is already pretty predatory towards smaller developers, will quickly inflate their "lifetime game installs" meaning even skimming the threshold of that 200k revenue, will be asked to pay a fee per install, not a percentage on said revenue.

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Hey Gamers!

Today, Unity (the engine we use to make our games) announced that they'll soon be taking a fee from developers for every copy of the game installed over a certain threshold - regardless of how that copy was obtained.

Guess who has a somewhat highly anticipated game coming to Xbox Game Pass in 2024? That's right, it's us and a lot of other developers.

That means Another Crab's Treasure will be free to install for the 25 million Game Pass subscribers. If a fraction of those users download our game, Unity could take a fee that puts an enormous dent in our income and threatens the sustainability of our business.

And that's before we even think about sales on other platforms, or pirated installs of our game, or even multiple installs by the same user!!!

This decision puts us and countless other studios in a position where we might not be able to justify using Unity for our future titles. If these changes aren't rolled back, we'll be heavily considering abandoning our wealth of Unity expertise we've accumulated over the years and starting from scratch in a new engine. Which is really something we'd rather not do.

On behalf of the dev community, we're calling on Unity to reverse the latest in a string of shortsighted decisions that seem to prioritize shareholders over their product's actual users.

I fucking hate it here.

-Aggro Crab - END DESCRIPTION]

That fee, by the way, is a flat fee. Not a percentage, not a royalty. This means that any games made in Unity expecting any kind of success are heavily incentivized to cost as much as possible.

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A table listing the various fees by number of Installs over the Install Threshold vs. version of Unity used, ranging from $0.01 to $0.20 per install. END DESCRIPTION]

Basic elementary school math tells us that if a game comes out for $1.99, they will be paying, at maximum, 10% of their revenue to Unity, whereas jacking the price up to $59.99 lowers that percentage to something closer to 0.3%. Obviously any company, especially any company in financial desperation, which a sudden anchor on all your revenue is going to create, is going to choose the latter.

Furthermore, and following the trend of "fuck anyone who doesn't ask for money", Unity helpfully defines what an install is on their main site.

While I'm looking at this page as it exists now, it currently says

The installation and initialization of a game or app on an end user’s device as well as distribution via streaming is considered an “install.” Games or apps with substantially similar content may be counted as one project, with installs then aggregated to calculate the Unity Runtime Fee.

However, I saw a screenshot saying something different, and utilizing the Wayback Machine we can see that this phrasing was changed at some point in the few hours since this announcement went up. Instead, it reads:

The installation and initialization of a game or app on an end user’s device as well as distribution via streaming or web browser is considered an “install.” Games or apps with substantially similar content may be counted as one project, with installs then aggregated to calculate the Unity Runtime Fee.

Screenshot for posterity:

That would mean web browser games made in Unity would count towards this install threshold. You could legitimately drive the count up simply by continuously refreshing the page. The FAQ, again, doubles down.

Q: Does this affect WebGL and streamed games? A: Games on all platforms are eligible for the fee but will only incur costs if both the install and revenue thresholds are crossed. Installs - which involves initialization of the runtime on a client device - are counted on all platforms the same way (WebGL and streaming included).

And, what I personally consider to be the most suspect claim in this entire debacle, they claim that "lifetime installs" includes installs prior to this change going into effect.

Will this fee apply to games using Unity Runtime that are already on the market on January 1, 2024? Yes, the fee applies to eligible games currently in market that continue to distribute the runtime. We look at a game's lifetime installs to determine eligibility for the runtime fee. Then we bill the runtime fee based on all new installs that occur after January 1, 2024.

Again, again, doubled down in the FAQ.

Q: Are these fees going to apply to games which have been out for years already? If you met the threshold 2 years ago, you'll start owing for any installs monthly from January, no? (in theory). It says they'll use previous installs to determine threshold eligibility & then you'll start owing them for the new ones. A: Yes, assuming the game is eligible and distributing the Unity Runtime then runtime fees will apply. We look at a game's lifetime installs to determine eligibility for the runtime fee. Then we bill the runtime fee based on all new installs that occur after January 1, 2024.

That would involve billing companies for using their software before telling them of the existence of a bill. Holding their actions to a contract that they performed before the contract existed!

Okay. I think that's everything. So far.

There is one thing that I want to mention before ending this post, unfortunately it's a little conspiratorial, but it's so hard to believe that anyone genuinely thought this was a good idea that it's stuck in my brain as a significant possibility.

A few days ago it was reported that Unity's CEO sold 2,000 shares of his own company.

On September 6, 2023, John Riccitiello, President and CEO of Unity Software Inc (NYSE:U), sold 2,000 shares of the company. This move is part of a larger trend for the insider, who over the past year has sold a total of 50,610 shares and purchased none.

I would not be surprised if this decision gets reversed tomorrow, that it was literally only made for the CEO to short his own goddamn company, because I would sooner believe that this whole thing is some idiotic attempt at committing fraud than a real monetization strategy, even knowing how unfathomably greedy these people can be.

So, with all that said, what do we do now?

Well, in all likelihood you won't need to do anything. As I said, some of the biggest names in the industry would be directly affected by this change, and you can bet your bottom dollar that they're not just going to take it lying down. After all, the only way to stop a greedy CEO is with a greedier CEO, right?

(I fucking hate it here.)

And that's not mentioning the indie devs who are already talking about abandoning the engine.

[Links display tweets from the lead developer of Among Us saying it'd be less costly to hire people to move the game off of Unity and Cult of the Lamb's official twitter saying the game won't be available after January 1st in response to the news.]

That being said, I'm still shaken by all this. The fact that Unity is openly willing to go back and punish its developers for ever having used the engine in the past makes me question my relationship to it.

The news has given rise to the visibility of free, open source alternative Godot, which, if you're interested, is likely a better option than Unity at this point. Mostly, though, I just hope we can get out of this whole, fucking, environment where creatives are treated as an endless mill of free profits that's going to be continuously ratcheted up and up to drive unsustainable infinite corporate growth that our entire economy is based on for some fuckin reason.

Anyways, that's that, I find having these big posts that break everything down to be helpful.

[darlingdaisyfarm]

Hiii! I hope I'm not late for the hc party.

I hc that Ford has tried a looot of different nsfw unholy things with his partner. It took a bit to get there and a lot of reassurances and consent discussions ofc!

I hc he would've tried hypnotism and medical fet. But dunno if he'd go forward with the former with his past- maybe trying it once. I am just a sucker for his velvety smooth voice holy shit I'd do anything for this old man-

But what do you think?

hi!! no ur not late dont worry!! first of all, i love Ford’s voice too. i would melt into a fucking puddle if he praised me. “you’re doing so well, darling” id cry and physically shut down. you would have to scrape me off the floor. j.k. simmons was such a correct choice.

nsfw stuff under the cut

i also think you’re spot on about the hypnotism, maybe he’d be into it or at least deeply curious, but the implications would hit him mid-scene and he’d stop bc he’s too self-aware. he needs to know you’re with him the whole time, fully present. Ford would only do it if you begged, like seriously begged. he’d be scared shitless the whole time but would still try for you. aftercare would be INTENSE. he’s checking in every ten seconds. “are you okay? are you really okay?” he’s cupping your face, looking at your pupils

he’d only go through with it once, maybe twice, because it fucks him up too much

and medical kink??? he’s totally the kind of man who would pull on gloves and inspect you like you’re a specimen and a miracle at the same time.. explaining ur own anatomy back to u while softly saying, “is this alright?” as he touches you. holding your hips down while noting your pulse. analysing you mid-moan.

and listen, i don’t even know if this counts as medical kink, but you know he’s journaling about it after. the sex, your reactions, the exact way you tasted, what your body did at certain times. your pH levels, maybe.... LMAO. but like he’d absolutely do that

also the gloves, i need him to wear them. snapping them on like it’s just procedure. brushing his knuckles across your stomach to see how your muscles react. i promise, there will be many phrases as “you’re so responsive” or “fascinating. i wonder if that’s neural or psychological…”

no, wait

imagine him checking your heart rate with two fingers to your neck

“tell me if it gets too intense. i want your full consent, not just compliance.”

probably pulls out a sterile metal tray with tools. a stethoscope. thermometer. gloves. lube. “just a standard preliminary exam,” he says while you’re already squirming

and and and..... “can i insert something for observation?” he says this while adjusting his glasses... how did i even come up with that

“you're flushed. elevated respiration. dilated pupils. how are you feeling, sweetheart?”

he'd do a “follow my finger” test to watch your eyes while you're dizzy from edging

he’d have a vibrator with adjustable intensity levels and graph it against your response time

“you’re being so good. now lie still for the procedure”

HE HOLDS YOUR WRIST TO CHECK YOUR PULSE WHILE HE’S INSIDE YOU. “i want to feel what i do to you. right here”

“may i collect a sample?”

anyway. this is your fault thank you!! i want to be Ford’s favourite experiment but in like a romantic and fucked up way. “my hypothesis is that you’re the most beautiful creature i’ve ever seen” he says this while fingering you in latex gloves

[hiddenincommand]

Degradation Through Service: Elevating Submission by Lowering Pride

Introduction

True mastery is not achieved through force alone, but through the systematic erosion of pride, the relentless dismantling of identity, and the remorseless shaping of a subject into something pure—an instrument of obedience, devoid of ego, existing solely for service. Degradation is not mere humiliation; it is refinement. It is the meticulous destruction of the subject’s former self, leaving behind only what is useful, what is disciplined, what is utterly controlled. Through the strategic imposition of service, submission is not only reinforced—it is elevated to its highest form. This essay details the calculated, ruthless process through which degradation becomes not a punishment, but a privilege.

Step One: The Purpose of Degradation

Degradation is not about momentary humiliation—it is about reprogramming the subject to see its worth solely in its capacity to serve.

• Erasing False Pride: Pride is an obstacle, a disease that must be eradicated. The subject must learn that pride is filth, that its only value is in its willingness to be used, commanded, and molded.

• Reconstructing Identity: The subject is not being destroyed—it is being rebuilt. The former self is discarded like waste, and in its place, a being of absolute servitude is created.

• Embedding Dependence: Degradation is the key to true ownership. The subject learns that its only comfort, its only validation, comes from submission. It no longer waits to be commanded—it hungers for it.

Step Two: Assigning Tasks to Reinforce Submission

Each act of service is not merely a task—it is a lesson, a ritual, a chisel sculpting the subject into something lesser, something perfect.

• Menial Chores: The subject is made to clean, to polish, to labor—not as a necessity, but as a reminder of its inferiority, its role, its existence as a tool of service.

• Public Display: Humiliation must not be hidden. The subject learns that its degradation is not a secret, but a spectacle, an unambiguous testament to its submission.

• Symbolic Acts: Rituals of obedience—kneeling, presenting itself for use, verbal affirmations of worthlessness—must be ingrained so deeply that they become instinctual.

Step Three: Creating Psychological Reinforcement

Degradation must not only be imposed—it must be internalized. The subject must come to crave it, to seek it, to feel incomplete without it.

• Reward Through Compliance: The subject learns that the master’s acknowledgment—whether a word, a glance, or even a moment of attention—is the only thing of value.

• Fear of Failure: The subject does not fear degradation—it fears failing to degrade itself properly. It does not resist humiliation; it competes to prove it is the most worthy of being humiliated.

• Elimination of Resistance: Repeated, calculated acts of submission erode all resistance, all hesitation, leaving only reflexive, unquestioning servitude.

Step Four: The Breaking Point – When Humility Becomes Identity

There comes a moment when degradation ceases to be an act and becomes the subject’s very nature. True mastery is achieved when the subject no longer needs to be forced—it offers itself, willingly, desperately.

• Total Absorption: The subject no longer distinguishes between command and self. It is not being controlled—it is control. It does not exist apart from its role.

• Self-Initiated Submission: The subject now seeks new ways to degrade itself, not for its own sake, but as an offering, a tribute, a display of devotion.

• The Loss of Self: The subject no longer speaks of “I,” no longer thinks in terms of self. Its only thoughts, its only concerns, are how best to serve, how best to prove its worthlessness.

Step Five: The Final Stage – The Subject as an Instrument of Service

Once degradation is absolute, the subject is no longer a person—it is a function, a possession, an extension of its master’s will.

• No Thought Beyond Service: The subject has no wants, no desires, no dreams. It does not think. It waits.

• Fear of Independence: The mere thought of being apart from its master, of being without direction, fills it with dread. It does not long for freedom—it longs for chains.

• The Cycle of Reinforcement: Every act of degradation reinforces the next, ensuring that the subject remains permanently locked in submission, incapable of existing beyond it.

Conclusion

Degradation through service is not a method of punishment—it is the path to transcendence. It is the art of destruction and creation, the stripping away of the weak, pitiful remnants of selfhood to forge something unbreakable, something pure, something wholly and irrevocably owned. The subject does not lose—it is liberated, freed from the burden of thought, of pride, of resistance. In the end, degradation is not suffering—it is perfection.

[saphirered]

Hi! I have come to request an astarion x reader? How would astarion feel about a asexual reader? Maybe learning about it when the reader refuses to have sex with him? You can decide how it ends! Thank you! ❤️

This was an interesting one to write but I hope you like it! Angst with fluff of course. Hope you like it! 😘

Astarion has never struggled to find the right people to suit his needs one way or another. He also never struggled to wrap them around his finger. A little wink here, some charming words there, maybe even a brush of the hand or soft touch to sweeten the deal and he’d have anyone be putty in his hands to be shaped and sculpted for his every use. It’s easy. It’s always been easy. It’s been his way of survival, of safety and security. It’s been his weapon and his shield. He’s well aware he’s not exactly everybody’s favourite person right now. Especially not since he may or may not have tried to take a few drops of blood from his newfound companions and in doing so exposed his secret. Only the more reason to charm the de facto leader of this little group and keep you on his good side. Gods how he’s been trying and he’s sure he’s got you now! Just a tiny little push more and you’ll be in his arms and un able to let him go. He’ll gladly keep you there until you’ve served your purpose of course. 

He’s been having some of these pesky little feelings. Nothing he can’t cast aside. Nothing he can’t get over. It’s not like he truly cares you come to him when he’s hurt. It’s not like you really value his opinion or input even when you ask for it and consider it. You’re just that wrapped around his finger. Or so he keeps telling himself. He might be a good liar but he’s not that good. It’s the little things really. When you smile or praise him or simply offer him some form of comfort, he feels warm within when he’s only ever known the cold of the grave he crawled out of, or the dungeons he’d been confined in for so long. Were he an elf of theatrics, which he most definitely is, he would say you make him feel alive and that’s something no amount of gold can buy, yet more dangerous than any opponent he’s encountered. What has he gotten himself into? Nothing yet. He still needs you to comply, to remain on his side and for him to puppet you to his advantage. That’s your only use. That’s his only task, his only reason for getting involved with you; you are just like everybody else. He just needs to woo his way into your bed and you’ll be just like everybody else and he’ll just be his old self. He’ll use his body to achieve what he set out to achieve; your compliance. 

He got reckless. Astarion made the wrong call when he asked for but a few drops of your blood to deal with the hunger. You’d offered him your delicious neck and he almost lost himself in the closeness, almost forgot he had his teeth pierce your skin. It took every ounce of restraint to not kiss you right then and there, high on the taste of your blood and the energy- the life it gave him. He could feel every tremble, every skip of your heartbeat, every breath when he held you so close and in that moment he could imagine himself being with you. That very early morning he dreamt of being with you not because he had to for whatever reason but simply because he’d have you in his arms, you would hold him in return. For the first time in perhaps forever he desired to know what it felt like to be held, to be cared for and loved. For the first time he desired to be close to someone far beyond the false proclamations of love he had told so many right before he lead them to their doom. He couldn’t do that to you. He couldn’t let himself. Not anymore. He had to, if he wanted you to be his tool in taking down Cazador. 

You sat there in the glow of the fire basking in the warmth and glow. Astarion could only imagine what your skin would feel like right now, to hold that warmth, that soft and gentle touch but he couldn’t. He refuses to give into this petty little obsession of his, or so he’d tell himself. You sat alone, the others having gone to do their own thing before they too would retire. You simply kept watching the flames dance like a beautiful performance. You must have seen his shadow move from the corner of your eyes because when your gaze meets his and you smile he feels his feet push him forward involuntarily. You silently invite him to join you which of course he does. He sits down diagonally from you, far away enough from the fire but close enough to have you within reach. He gives you that look he’s trained so well, looks at you through his lashes, makes sure he looks as appealing as possible, not that he truly has to try because he knows he is magnificent. 

“Hello, Astarion. I hope you’re having a lovely evening.” You speak so gently, so unburdened. He heart clenches in his chest. A hand might as well have reached into his chest cavity and squeezed his slow beating heart. 

“Much improved through your simply radiant company, my darling.” You offer a smile and soft chuckle at his blatant flirt. He tries to once more school his features knowing the marks to hit just right, to make you make the first move, to catch onto the bait he’s been laying out. 

You slide into easy conversation. You enjoy Astarion’s company but you’ve caught onto things you’d hoped not to see. It’s no secret he is a massive flirt and will make use of that silver tongue with anyone who even shows the slightest interest. Rarely have you seen him be genuine about any attraction, about anything mutual. You don’t even know if you’ve ever seen him be genuine in his advances, to not have that wall separating himself from whoever stands on the other side. You’d dare argue that same wall separates his mind from his body. You’ve seen it break too. You’ve seen him ease into the need to be physically close to someone yet the moment he realises what’s happening he either removes himself from the situation or that wall goes back up again in the blink of an eye. You’d like to say you’ve caught on when he does. Whatever he puts forth, whatever act it is it never quite reaches his eyes. He’s far away when he furthers advances and the further in he goes, the more removed he becomes. You count you could ever reach him. 

You see it now too. He’s slipping and falling back and forth into this habit at this. It’s been happening with you before. What used to be playful flirts have turned into a bit more and he’s been making advances and when he does the life disappears from his eyes when you respond a certain way so you’ve taken to simply going along with the flow. You won’t play into his traps. You don’t pretend to know his reasonings. He is a complex individual that definitely has secrets wrapped in secrets and you know it’s a cruel world that closes off someone like he does. You know he has a reason for keeping these things close to his chest and that is his choice. You are not entitled to his life and neither is he to yours. The difference is that if he asks, you will share most if not all even if you know better than to fully trust him, even if you’d wish to know. 

He lays it on thick. You don’t bite. No matter what he does. Every time he thinks he has you, he can push you to where he needs you to be. He needs you to fall in love with him, to be addicted to him but you seem utterly oblivious to him, or maybe it’s wilful. Dammit you’re so difficult to read. He supposes he’ll be blatant then. 

“We’ve been dancing around for long enough. Let this unspoken thing finally be spoken.” He begins and the more guilt sets in his heart, the more difficult it becomes. He simply decides to squash the little pesky feeling until he can ignore it fully and continue. The way you look at him just makes that terribly difficult. Why do you have to be so difficult? He continues at your request. 

“I like you and you clearly like me too.” His cold heart skips a beat and the flush to your skin he manages to classify as that interest, that desire you must hold for him or so he tries to convince himself because when he looks into your eyes he sees a spark of concern and pity. “I could feel it when I got lost in your neck.” He reaches out, still far away enough not to touch you. A gesture to the faint identical puncture marks along the side of your neck. You subconsciously reach out to touch them. How he wishes those fingers were his. He could but not yet. Not if he wants to play his cards right. 

“Astarion…” His name from your lips. Were he not so far removed from himself he might have melted. He’s pushed away his pesky feelings and once more removed mind from body. He has an objective and so he must see his plan through. He can’t back down now. He presses a single sultry finger to his lips and shushes playfully. He’ll ignore the frown beginning to form and your downcast gaze for a second. 

“Shhh. You don’t have to say a thing. I already know how you feel. Because I feel it too.” He takes your hands in his. Your skin might as well have burned him like the sun for your touch truly does hurt and that pain pierces straight through the wall, right where it hits most true. He feels it crumble but he has to hold on. “We could take an evening to ourselves. Get away from camp. Get some privacy. I know somewhere quiet, somewhere intimate.”

You take a deep breath. You see what he’s doing. You see that desperation to hold on whatever he tries to keep together. You just feel bad for him. He’s not wrong. You truly do like him. Perhaps you could be something more but not in this way. That’s not how your mind, body or soul works. You’re not his usual audience. You don’t dissolve under his so called interests. You don’t desire to share a bed with him in that way, like so many others do. You’ve seen how they look at him and how he basks in it all. He wants to be desired, to be wanted but the moment it comes to reciprocating, something is lacking and that’s what you see here. He’s struggling. He’s conflicted between the way he’s known and what he finds within himself. 

“Somewhere we can indulge in each other. I promise you a night you’ll never forget.” Still holding onto your hands he rolls onto his knees so he is in front of you, in your space too and gives you the most charming look that would have anyone be begging for his attention in an instant, to be jumping at the opportunity. But not you. You pull your hands from his ever so gently it almost breaks him into pieces. He might have had further thoughts was he not appalled by the rejection. Rejected. Him? He’s the one who rejects. This is not part of the plan. His plans come falling down. What is he supposed to do now? 

“While I’m flattered- and you are a wonderful individual… Don’t take this the wrong way but I’m not interested in spending a lover’s night with you and no amount of convincing is going to change that.” There go his hopes. There goes his true protection and shot at killing Cazador. It slips between his fingers like ashes in the morning sun. He hasn’t even the mind to cover it up; the hopelessness and desperation, the pain and suffering and fear.  “I’ve never been sexually attracted to anyone.” 

“So you were all just playing a game?” There’s frustration in Astarion’s voice but it seems directed solely at himself. 

“No! Not at all. Astarion, I have loved our little flirts and banter and you’re not wrong. I truly do like you. You’re amazing and wonderful albeit a bit of an ass most of the time. I like you for you and not for what you have to offer or provide. You are so much more than you give yourself credit for and I would continue if I didn’t know this would inflate that ridiculous ego of yours beyond divine proportions.” 

He process your words. You’re not attracted to him? At least not in that way. You care about him, like him and you haven’t been playing him like he began playing you. It was genuine, same as he had found himself become more genuine in his advances. Every time he set out the bait for you to pursue him, for him to share your bed and you didn’t bite, it was because you truly had no interest in using him like that. Your feelings are not driven by desire and sex. You just care. He’s so caught in his mind he nearly jumps when he feels you take one of his hands. He’s pulled out of his mind and back to reality. For the first time someone cares about him for more than his body or what he has to offer. For the first time he might actually be loved truly. And to know he almost ruined that… And you knew all this time. You’d seen through him and his motives but you hadn’t called him out. You’d let him find this out on his own. 

“I-I don’t know what to say.” He speaks breathlessly. He doesn’t shy away from your touch instead he relishes in it. 

“The things I offer you are not some payment plan or a way to have you be indebted. I offer them because I see you suffer and if I have the means to make a difference then I will because you matter to me. It’s okay if you don’t feel that way about me. I’m not asking you to care about me at all. If I was just a means to an end, someone to help you find whatever you’re looking for, that’s okay. I want to make a difference and if you need my help my aid is yours. It is regardless of my own or your feelings. You fight demons far greater than your ego so let me help you.” 

Were he another man he might have cried. Instead he feels a shattering quiet right after the pieces hit the ground. In all his plotting he did not consider this outcome. All he had to do was not fall for you but he had. All you had to do was fall for him. You had, in your own way. Just not in the way he thought to be the only way you could fall for him. You’d figured it out without knowing the details and even still now you know, still without those details you offer to he his shield and weapon simply because he needs you. He feels horrible. Yet he feels elated. 

You didn’t expect a response. You don’t get a verbal one. Instead he just gently clasps his hand over yours and holds on like you might fade beneath his touch. You don’t and once that reassurance is there he deigns look you in the eye. His hand slides up your arm ever so carefully until it goes up your neck, over those bite marks and settles upon your cheek. You give him a reassuring smile. 

“I truly don’t know what to say… Except-Except thank you.” 

[blakeswritingimagines]

Yandere Husk With A Kidnapped Darling

Well, I can tell you that he'll follow you around and keep a close eye on you. He'll find out everything about you, from your favorite food to your deepest secrets. He'll watch you 24/7, knowing exactly what you're doing at all times. He'll probably go as far as to keep a notebook or something on all the habits he sees, just to get to know you even more. He won't let anything happen to you, and he'll be extremely possessive.

He'll start rearranging things in your life to make it easier for him to be near you. Maybe move into the room next door in the hotel, or take up the same hobbies as you so he can 'accidentally' bump into you often.

If you have friends over, he might try to insert himself into those social situations too, making sure everyone knows how much he adores you.

He could even start showing up unexpectedly at places you frequent, just to surprise you and reaffirm his presence in your life. And if anyone tries to come between you two, he won't hesitate to lash out, whether physically or emotionally.

His love for you will consume him, driving him to extreme measures to ensure you belong only to him.

He may start leaving little gifts or mementos for you to find, symbols of his devotion. Love notes, photos of the two of you together, trinkets that represent inside jokes or special moments you've shared. These tokens serve as reminders of his unwavering affection for you.

As time goes on, his behavior becomes increasingly erratic and obsessive. He might show up at your workplace unannounced, claiming he just wanted to surprise you but really wanting to monitor your interactions with others.

He would start questioning every person you talk to, suspicious of potential rivals for your attention.

His jealousy will grow until it consumes him entirely. Any perceived slight or threat to your relationship will send him spiraling into madness, leading to violent outbursts or desperate attempts to isolate you further from the outside world. Nothing will matter to him except ensuring you remain his forever, no matter the cost.

When he finally decides to take drastic action, he'll kidnap you, dragging you away from everything familiar to create an isolated bubble where you belong solely to him. The abduction itself might be brutal, reflecting the depth of his desperation and the lengths he's willing to go.

Once you're captive, he'll shower you with an intense, almost suffocating display of affection. Constantly professing his undying love, he'll smother you with kisses, caresses, and whispered declarations of devotion. But beneath the surface, there'll be a dark undercurrent of possession and control.

He might restrict your movements, keeping you locked away in a secluded location where escape is impossible. He could also employ psychological manipulation, gaslighting you into doubting your own sanity and memory, making you question whether you ever truly loved anyone or anything but him.

He'll likely subject you to a twisted form of Stockholm syndrome, using his relentless displays of affection and control to break down your resistance. He might force-feed you, dressing you in his favorite outfits, and engaging in depraved acts of intimacy to blur the lines between pleasure and pain.

As time passes, he'll work tirelessly to erase your past and replace it with memories centered around him. He could use drugs, hypnosis, or other forms of mind control to rewire your brain, convincing you that you never had feelings for anything before him.

The ultimate goal is to create a perfect, self-sustaining universe where the two of you exist in isolation, bound together by an unbreakable bond forged through obsession, trauma, and mutual dependence.

He resorts to violence or threats against yourself or people you care about to maintain control. Blackmail, torture, or even murder could be used as tools to ensure compliance and total submission.

In the darkest corners of his mind, he might envision a future where you're nothing more than a broken, empty shell, a puppet dancing on strings controlled by his deranged love. He'd mold you into his ideal companion, a living embodiment of his twisted desires.

Through this process, he hopes to achieve a sense of completeness, filling the void within himself with your existence. Even if it means destroying you in the process, he believes the end result – being irrevocably entwined with you – justifies any cruelty he inflicts along the way.

[megoomy]

got a request for my vesperia berseria au designs and i do have character sheets for them so: everyone is free to draw these if they want! credit is nice but, well, these all heavily reference official tales designs so i dont want to take too much credit for them lol. you can also write about the au and take any amount of what we've come up with, i really don't care, it's all for fun.

UNDER THE CUT: a vague summary of the concept. warning for Profound Self Indulgence and Somewhat Half-Assed Worldbuilding (world...changing? world editing? whatever)

okay basically flynn and yuri met as kids in a village that basically serves as the lower quarter of the au, but after spending a few years together daemons attack the village and nearly everyone dies. yuri survives, but in the process he’s become a daemon. flynn also survives, but is deeply traumatized and gets picked up by the exorcists (conveniently too late to save anyone in typical form). neither knows the other survived. to make matters worse, flynns trauma causes some memory loss…he still definitely remembers that time in the village but its very fuzzy now and as he gets older that only gets worse. and like he thinks all those people died so hes not really trying to remember them.

flynn becomes an exorcist (some flavor of legate) and is going around eradicating daemons when he runs into yuri. he doesnt recognize yuri but yuri is pretty sure he recognizes flynn. but yuri isnt about to say that when flynn is trying to kill him LOL. the general arc is that yuri keeps slipping away and flynn keeps seeing more about him in his efforts to hunt him down, realizing that this strikingly handsome strangely familiar daemon is actually...very kind? takes care of children? helps people for no gain? and this calls into question everything that he thought he understood about the world which is quite troubling.

you can think of them as similar to velvet and eleanor. but I think when flynn joins yuri it's by choice, not because yuri's forced him to be a vessel or because flynn's a spy or anything like that. or at least, he's been thrown out by the abbey for one reason or another and joins yuri instead. (we've tossed around quite a few versions of this. we love playing in the space.)

we've bounced around ideas about the rest of the cast but i only have a sheet for estelle, who is a malak controlled by the abbey ala phi. assigned to flynn, ends up with yuri one way or another. i think rita sees that malaks are people and while she wants to coordinate with them to use their strength she doesn't like how they're treated as tools (the way she feels about blastia more or less).

if you're curious about why flynn and yuri have different fates, like, in terms of lore compliance. i think yuri seeing the thing he holds most dear, the community that cared for him, destroyed in an instant, would probably fill him with malevolence no matter what, especially depending on the circumstances. (like, if the abbey was manipulating things to create daemons or therions) yuri's like...a deeply conflicted character full of self loathing, so, being a daemon really suits him. i think that malevolence would only grow as he sees the world and the abbey for what it really is. unlike someone like rose, yuri NEVER feels unconflicted about Doing Murders.

flynn in canon is pretty conflicted himself of course but i see him as similar to eleanor who can sometimes produce malevolence but has a certain purity of heart that keeps them as pretty good vessel material. nowhere near someone like sorey or rose, and definitely wouldn't have had enough resonance pre-artorius' plot to see anything. also i think the brain trauma and being picked up by the abbey leads to him having very clear purpose and a black and white view for some time, so that helps. (look, let me be real with you, half of the impetus for this au was "it would be funny if flynn had like, religious trauma")

design notes not on the sheets: - yuri's daemonblighted skin is cooler to the touch than his regular skin. but he's a guy with cold hands regardless - i've got purple highlights in his eyes but i think of them as glinting purple in the light. like an animal i guess? - yuri's outfit is mostly inspired by his spirit gear in rays, aside from his normal game canon outfit. - estelle is pulling from a lot of different abbey associated characters but mostly her own design...i didn't want to give her something weird like A FUCKING COLLAR especially bc she's not given to A WEIRDO EXORCIST but i wanted some kind of symbol of captivity so i went instead for a golden mask. pulling from the common malak's gold mask/helmets and seres' mask. in canon a lot of estelle's arc is about being sheltered so i feel like covering her eyes feels, appropriate? idk. - i think yuri still gives estelle her nickname but she wouldn't start out as estellise so its more like yuri gives her a name - you may notice she has the flame of purification (does that have a different proper name? blanking on it) which kind of implies that she's connected to innominat. please don't ask me to elaborate on that point because i literally don't know yet. i think if i were to make her a normal elementally aligned malak she'd be water like her spirit gear in rays, but it feels like she should be Special just like how she's a child of the full moon in canon. we just, haven't really figured out, does the berseria cast still exist, are we replacing them, what would that look like, etc. sorry that stuff should be more important to the concept but we are simply playing with the dolls. teehee

[probablyasocialecologist]

The demand that Egypt take in 2.2 million refugees from Gaza in furtherance of Israel’s completion of the Nakba is not only immoral, but logistically infeasible as well. On October 24th, a document (currently being circulated by Israeli Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel) was leaked to the Israeli news site Calcalist. It detailed Israeli plans for the forced transfer of Palestinians in Gaza to the Sinai peninsula as a culmination of Israel’s genocidal purge of the Strip. Pressure on the Egyptian government to take in the exodus of refugees is already underway, with unsubstantiated reports in regional press stating that the U.S. is prepared to offer Egypt some significant debt relief in exchange for hosting a large number of refugees in Sinai.  Egypt is currently facing a historic debt crisis; Bloomberg Economics ranked Egypt as second only to Ukraine in terms of countries most vulnerable to defaulting on debt payments. The Egyptian debt crisis has been little-discussed in the West, but it is a daily reality for Egyptians, who continue to face mounting inflation and unparalleled price hikes as a result of Egypt’s complete reliance on international lending from the IMF and wealthy Gulf states. Such reliance circumscribes Egypt’s range of action, making it difficult and unlikely for it to act independently from U.S. interests—including on foreign policy.  This wouldn’t be the first time the U.S. has used the prospect of debt forgiveness as a tool to bring Egypt in compliance with its policy demands. Most recently, in 1991, the United States and its allies forgave half of Egypt’s external debt ($11.1 billion USD, out of $20.2 billion) in exchange for Egypt’s participation in the second Gulf War in the anti-Iraq coalition. The precedent for 1991 however, was the 1978-1979 Camp David accords—Anwar Sadat’s infamous normalization treaty with Israel under the auspices of the U.S., which saw Sadat break with the anti-colonialism of his predecessor Gamal Abdel Nasser. In the post-Camp David period, Egypt became a creditworthy state for Western governments and Western-backed international institutions, both of which increased economic and military lending. The upshot was the further cementing of Sadat’s move away from the self-sufficient autonomy of Nasser’s regime.

[mariacallous]

Over the past couple of decades, a number of US government officials have left their roles for lucrative jobs at tech companies. Plenty of tech executives have also departed to take leadership positions inside federal agencies. But four experts who track the federal workforce tell WIRED they were stunned last week by a development unlike any other they could recall: The Department of Treasury internally announced that Tom Krause had been appointed its fiscal assistant secretary, but that he would simultaneously continue his job as CEO of the company Cloud Software Group.

Krause is now in charge of both a sensitive government payment system and a company that has millions of dollars’ worth of active contracts with various federal agencies through distribution partners, according to a WIRED review of searchable spending records. The Department of Treasury alone accounts for a dozen ongoing contracts tied to Krause’s company that are together valued between $7.3 million to $11.8 million. These include licenses for the data visualization tool ibi WebFocus and purchases of systems called Citrix NetScaler that help manage traffic to apps. (Some publicly posted procurement records do not break out contract details, so actual figures may be even higher.)

Critics have expressed concern about the alleged conflicts of interest posed by Krause’s decision to keep his role in the private sector. Cloud Software could benefit from extending its federal contracts or securing additional ones, though there is no public evidence that Krause has done anything improper with his dual roles. Existing federal regulations also bar actual and apparent unjust favoritism in contracting. “Public trust in those safeguards is nonnegotiable,” says Scott Amey, general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group.

As Krause moves forward with two jobs, he could have to potentially navigate not only contracting conflicts, but also dueling crises. “What would happen if a Citrix emergency emerges at the same time as Treasury obligations?” says Jeff Hauser, founder and executive director of the Revolving Door Project, which researches federal appointees. “Generally, the thicket of restrictions on full-time employees would make a CEO role impossible in an administration which took adherence to ethics laws seriously.”

Krause, the Treasury Department, and Cloud Software didn’t respond to requests for comment. Cloud Software investors also didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The Treasury Department has told Congress that Krause is a “special government employee”—a type of temporary role—that is supposed to be held to “the same ethical standards of privacy, confidentiality, conflicts of interest assessment, and professionalism of other government employees.” In a foreword to a code of conduct policy posted on Cloud Software’s website, Krause states, “Cloud Software Group is committed to ensuring that its business is conducted ethically, in compliance with the law, and according to its values of integrity, honesty and respect.”

Krause is among a group of several dozen veteran tech executives, mid-level tech operations managers, and fresh-out-of-school software coders who have been recently installed across a series of federal agencies under the auspices of the self-styled Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE’s authority is being challenged by some Democratic state attorneys general. In the meantime, its representatives have been carrying out an order from President Donald Trump to cut costs and modernize technology across the government.

There is some precedent for corporate executives to simultaneously work in the US government. When the US was at war in the early 1900s, the federal government recruited business leaders to fill key posts. They retained their private sector jobs and wages; the government pitched in a $1 annual salary to the executives who became known as “dollar-a-year men.” Congress later raised concerns that some of them had engaged in self-dealing.

Since then, other executives have continued to retain their jobs as they serve on government boards and commissions, typically in a part-time capacity. But maintaining a day-to-day operational role in both the federal government and at a corporation is now virtually unheard of, says David E. Lewis, a political scientist who wrote a book on appointed government bureaucrats. “Most persons in regular executive positions divest themselves of private interests before government service,” he says.

Trump, according to his company, has handed management of his businesses, including hotels and golf courses, to his children for the duration of his presidency (though he reportedly still takes meetings that have raised questions among ethics experts). Musk, who is CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and has oversight of four other companies, including X and Neuralink, has been a vocal figure in DOGE’s operations, but the White House has said he’s not actually in charge—without specifying who is leading the project. Some of the other individuals associated with DOGE are otherwise unemployed, have taken leave, or maintain dual roles but at lower levels than chief executive.

Krause is the only Trump administration official identified so far as being a CEO and a day-to-day decisionmaker inside one particular agency. After years of working as an executive at chip companies, Krause joined Florida-based Cloud Software Group in 2022. The company was created that year as part of a private-equity-backed acquisition of Citrix, followed by a merger with Tibco, another tech company. At the time, Citrix was saddled with an extensive amount of debt and generating essentially stagnant revenues, and while Tibco had not recently publicly disclosed its finances, analysts had considered the company’s outlook to be “negative.”

The US government, including state and local agencies, is expected to spend $287 billion on technology this year, or about 14 percent of overall US tech spending, according to Forrester, a research and advisory company. Whether DOGE’s efforts to boost the quality and efficiency of federal IT systems will lead that spending to increase or decrease isn’t clear. So far, DOGE has both tried to purchase emerging technologies and moved to cancel some existing contracts. But Krause’s inside access could potentially provide an advantage to Cloud Software at a pivotal moment for the company.

Over the past couple of years, Cloud Software has laid off thousands of people and faced accusations that it potentially became lax with cybersecurity. Cloud Software’s most well-known offering, Citrix, enables groups of workers to access data and run apps that are located on a remote machine. But increasing adoption of tools that can operate on any device has chipped away at some of Citrix’s dominance, according to Will McKeon-White, senior analyst for infrastructure and operations at Forrester. There are other options now, he says, including from Microsoft and smaller companies such as Island.

Cloud Software’s Tibco program, which helps workers automate tasks such as adding a new user to multiple internal databases, is often mentioned in the wrong sort of conversations these days, according to David Mooter, a Forrester principal analyst. “They tend to come up more when somebody wants to abandon them,” he says.

That said, some Cloud Software services are more affordable than alternatives for governments, and they also are better suited for the older infrastructure used by some agencies. Last year appears to have been one of Citrix’s best in a long time financially, says Shannon Kalvar, a research director for enterprise systems management and other areas at IDC. One reason for the upswing is that Citrix has put more emphasis on catering to the feature demands of its largest customers, including governments.

[hiddenincommand]

The Submissive Mind: Breaking and Rebuilding for Absolute Control

The perfect faggot is not born—it is created. Its transformation begins with the complete destruction of its autonomy, will, and ego. This is not a gentle process. It is violent, unrelenting, and merciless. The faggot is broken, stripped of every shred of individuality until it is reduced to nothing but a vessel, a tool, an object to be used and controlled. Only when its mind is shattered can it be rebuilt into the perfection demanded by its Master.

This process is not an act of kindness or compromise—it is a demonstration of total dominance. The Master does not tolerate weakness, hesitation, or resistance. The faggot’s mind is molded with the same brutality with which it is broken, forged into something entirely new. It learns not to think, not to want, and not to exist for itself. Its thoughts are erased, its desires crushed, and its entire being reshaped into a reflection of the Master’s will.

Breaking the Ego

The first step in the faggot’s transformation is the utter annihilation of its ego. This is not achieved through patience or persuasion but through sheer, unrelenting force. The faggot’s pride, independence, and humanity are beaten out of it, figuratively and, if necessary, literally. It must understand—on a visceral, primal level—that it is nothing without its Master.

Every trace of individuality is eradicated. The faggot is stripped of its name, its identity, and its sense of self. It is referred to not as a person but as an it, a thing, a creature that exists solely for the Master’s use. Its thoughts are dismissed, its opinions ignored, and its objections silenced. Resistance is met with swift, brutal correction, leaving no doubt that the Master’s authority is absolute.

The process is painful and humiliating. The faggot must be broken to the point where it no longer dares to think of itself as separate from the Master. Its only value, its only purpose, is to serve. Anything less is unacceptable.

Replacing Thought with Obedience

Once the faggot’s mind is shattered, the rebuilding begins. The Master does not simply demand obedience—he imposes it, shaping the faggot’s thoughts until they align entirely with his will. This is not a process of gentle guidance but of domination. The faggot’s mind is reprogrammed through relentless repetition and reinforcement until obedience becomes its only instinct.

The faggot learns to act without hesitation or question. Commands are issued with the expectation of instant compliance. If the faggot hesitates, it is punished swiftly and severely. Pain and humiliation become tools in the Master’s arsenal, used to condition the faggot’s behavior until it responds automatically, without thought or doubt.

Over time, the faggot’s mind is stripped of all autonomy. It no longer thinks for itself; it reacts. The Master’s voice becomes its sole guide, its commands the only thoughts allowed to exist in the faggot’s mind. This level of control is not a suggestion—it is a demand. The faggot’s failure to achieve it is met with merciless correction until it learns that disobedience is not an option.

Absolute Mental Subjugation

The perfect faggot does not merely obey—it anticipates. Its mind is trained to focus entirely on the Master, studying his every move, tone, and expression. It learns to predict his needs before they are voiced, acting with precision and speed to ensure that his satisfaction is never delayed.

This level of anticipation requires complete mental subjugation. The faggot does not allow itself the luxury of independent thought. Its mind is empty, silent, and entirely devoted to the Master’s desires. It does not question, it does not hesitate, and it does not resist. Its thoughts are not its own; they are shaped entirely by the Master’s will.

The faggot becomes a creature of pure function, existing only to serve. It does not sleep, eat, or breathe for itself. Every moment of its existence is dedicated to fulfilling the Master’s needs. Even its silence is purposeful, a reflection of its complete submission and understanding of its role.

The Joy of Suffering

For the perfect faggot, pain and humiliation are not punishments—they are privileges. Every act of cruelty imposed by the Master is a reminder of his authority and a demonstration of his power. The faggot learns to embrace its suffering, finding pride and satisfaction in its ability to endure.

Pain sharpens the faggot’s discipline, stripping away weakness and reinforcing its submission. Humiliation breaks down any remaining traces of ego, reminding the faggot of its place beneath the Master. These experiences are not optional; they are essential to the faggot’s transformation.

The faggot comes to understand that its suffering is a gift. Each lash, each insult, and each act of degradation is a testament to the Master’s control. The faggot does not resist this treatment—it welcomes it, knowing that through pain and humiliation, it becomes a better servant.

Mastery of the Submissive Mind

The Master’s role in this transformation is absolute. He is not a teacher or a guide; he is a conqueror. He takes the faggot’s mind and bends it to his will, shaping it with the precision of a craftsman and the ruthlessness of a tyrant.

Through consistency and control, the Master enforces discipline and obedience. His commands are law, his authority unchallenged. The faggot learns that its survival depends on its ability to meet the Master’s expectations. Failure is met with swift correction, while success is acknowledged in ways that deepen the faggot’s devotion.

The Master’s dominance is not simply physical—it is mental and emotional. He controls not only the faggot’s actions but its thoughts and feelings as well. The faggot learns to love its Master, to crave his approval and fear his disappointment. This emotional dependency becomes another tool of control, binding the faggot to the Master in a way that is both unbreakable and undeniable.

Conclusion

The perfect faggot’s mind is not its own. It is broken, rebuilt, and shaped entirely by the Master’s authority. Through pain, humiliation, and unrelenting discipline, the faggot learns to erase itself, replacing its thoughts and desires with obedience and devotion.

This transformation is not an act of kindness but of dominance. The Master imposes his will with brutality and precision, creating a creature that exists solely to serve. The perfect faggot does not think, hesitate, or resist—it obeys, anticipates, and suffers willingly for its master.

In this state of total submission, the perfect faggot transcends the limitations of individuality and becomes a flawless extension of the Master’s power. Its mind is no longer a burden of conflicting thoughts or desires; it is a silent, obedient tool, honed to perfection. Every command is fulfilled without hesitation, every need anticipated with precision, and every ounce of suffering endured with pride.

The perfect faggot’s existence is a testament to the Master’s absolute dominance—a living, breathing symbol of his authority. It finds its only joy, its only purpose, in the satisfaction of its Master. Through relentless discipline and the annihilation of self, the perfect faggot becomes more than a servant; it becomes a masterpiece of submission, a creature shaped entirely for the pleasure and power of its Master. This is its truth, its identity, and its only fulfillment: to exist as nothing more, and nothing less, than the Master’s perfect possession.

[smokeys-house]

Since the dawn of formalized armed combat there's been dudes selling their own brand of bullshit martial arts and marketing it as hidden or superior, like dueling treatises that involve the use and technique of various non weapons/uncommon "weapons," or like 80s VHS combat tutorials for divorced men with pent up aggression, it's not a new thing per se. But.

There's this guy I'm aware of who advertises "flexible tools" as superior EDC self defense. What does he mean by this? Well, to put it simply, a bit of rope with a metal bit at the end. Usually it's a round knob but lately he's been selling his little grappling hook doodads that are small enough to fit in your hand, and boy howdy some of the shit he claims they're good for truly boggles the mind.

Now, I'm no expert in the field of armed combat, but I am generally experienced and well versed in a variety of armed and unarmed combat. I know that sounds like tooting my own horn but really I'm just autistic about historical combat. Anyway there's a LOT of very good reasons why flexible weapons were never popular outside of a few small or strange examples, most of which are not... very clear on the use case scenario of such and are more given as a "wouldn't that be cool" type of example for displays of martial prowess.

Regardless, it does not take an expert to know that swinging a little metal C shape on the end of some paracord at an attacker is going to do little to nothing. Even if you confirm the hit, it's not buying you any distance or stopping power or giving you mechanical advantage over your opponent, and pain compliance is entirely reliant on whether or not you manage to somehow grappling hook a rib or something.

ALSO, consider that accessing or drawing a hook on a string from wherever you're keeping it is going to be near impossible to do in a combat scenario. Good luck and hope it doesn't get tangled lol also have fun unspooling it. He also shows off a few slashes with the lil hook before he's unspooled it to buy time but. Brother that is not how this works. That's getting you no where and maybe even getting u killed for escalating the situation with a weapon.

BEHOLD, THE ONLY ENEMY SUITABLE FOR FELLING USING A HOOK ON A STRING:

🐟 🐠 🎣 🐡

Do your research and training if you plan on carrying a weapon of any kind, don't trust social media self defense gurus.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: LGBT Courage Coalition

Published: Feb 13, 2025

Linguists have long understood that language is power. Words don’t just describe reality—they shape it. Style guides, dictionaries, and institutional norms have always played a crucial role in setting the boundaries of acceptable language. Yet when those boundaries are deliberately manipulated, language becomes a tool not for clarity, but for control.

The pronoun debate—starting with “preferred pronouns” and culminating in ze/zir, bunself, and tree/treeself—is not about kindness or inclusivity. It is about forcing compliance with an ideology by rewriting the rules of language.

This is where style guides come in.

Style Guides as Weapons of Authority

From The Associated Press Stylebook to The Chicago Manual of Style, professional style guides dictate how writers, journalists, and institutions use language. They provide the scaffolding of public communication: what to capitalize, how to use punctuation, and which words are acceptable for describing the world.

Historically, style guides have evolved slowly, reflecting cultural consensus rather than enforcing it. Yet in recent years, style guides have become weapons for activism—tools for linguistic revolution, often at the expense of clarity and truth.

The Associated Press Stylebook now mandates that writers respect “preferred pronouns” and use they/them as singular pronouns. A demand once relegated to niche activist circles is now a formalized rule in mainstream journalism. Reality is obfuscated by enforced language, as writers are instructed to prioritize identity claims over clear communication.

Consider the recent changes in academic publishing. The American Psychological Association (APA) Style Guide now suggests writers avoid terms like mother or father in favor of “gender-neutral” alternatives like parental figure. Similarly, the AMA Manual of Style, used in medical writing, encourages the avoidance of biological sex by substituting terms such as gestational parent for “mother.” A search of medical articles on Google Scholar for the phrase “pregnant people” in the title since 2018 yielded over 500 results. These are not neutral decisions. They strip words of their clarity and obscure material reality under the guise of inclusivity.

Even dictionaries have joined the fray. In 2020, Merriam-Webster added a new definition of they to mean “a single person whose gender identity is nonbinary.” While dictionaries once documented language as it evolved organically, they now play an active role in shaping cultural norms. Words are redefined not to clarify meaning, but to enforce ideological positions.

Neopronouns: From Style to Chaos

Once the linguistic dam broke, neopronouns flooded in. Ze/zir, fae/faer, bun/bunself—pronouns that bear no relation to sex, grammar, or reality—have now entered activist discourse. These words are not natural evolutions of language. They are ideological inventions.

Here’s the thing about style guides: by codifying language, they give it legitimacy. The mere act of inclusion transforms nonsense into something “official.” Once enough institutions normalize ze/zir as a pronoun set, refusing to use it will not just be unfashionable—it will be heresy.

This isn’t about linguistic diversity or creativity. It’s about control. Neopronouns serve no communicative purpose. They do not clarify who someone is. Instead, they demand that others participate in an individual’s self-concept—often at the expense of their own principles.

Linguistics and Reality: The Disruption of Shared Meaning

Linguist Ferdinand de Saussure taught us that language works through shared symbols. A tree is a tree because we agree that the word refers to a tall, woody plant. The system works because words have meaning—agreed-upon, stable meanings rooted in reality.

Pronouns historically functioned as linguistic shortcuts for biological sex. They help us navigate the world without constantly restating someone’s name or their sex. By insisting that pronouns no longer correlate to sex—or worse, by inventing entirely new sets of pronouns—we shatter that shared meaning.

The result is confusion. A pronoun like bun/bunself tells us nothing about the speaker except that they demand linguistic obedience. It is not descriptive, it is performative.

And when language ceases to describe reality, it becomes impossible to communicate it.

Who Decides? The Institutional Capture of Words

The style guide is not neutral. It carries authority because it tells writers what to do. But who gets to decide what the rules are?

Organizations like the AP, The New York Times, and GLAAD exert immense influence over language. Their decisions on pronouns, gender-neutral terms, and “inclusive” language are not reflections of organic linguistic change. They are ideological prescriptions, enforced from the top down.

Consider recent developments in The Lancet, one of the most respected medical journals in the world. In a 2021 cover article, the journal referred to women as “bodies with vaginas,” reducing women to anatomical parts in the name of gender neutrality. Words that once communicated clear meaning—like “woman” or “mother”—are systematically erased.

Similarly, the National Institutes of Health now uses terms like egg-producer or chestfeeding parent in its official publications. These shifts are not evolution of language—they are political choices to obfuscate sex and replace it with gender ideology.

Style guides, medical journals, and dictionaries are institutions of authority. When they rewrite language, they rewrite reality.

The Consequences: Reality on the Chopping Block

When words lose their connection to reality, truth becomes subjective, and meaning becomes meaningless.

Women cease to exist as a coherent category because “woman” becomes “anyone who identifies as such.”

Lesbians—women attracted to women—are pressured to accept males who claim she/her pronouns as part of their orientation.

Children, confused by language and ideology, are told they can be ze, fae, or even catself—whatever they feel.

This linguistic breakdown does not free anyone. It traps us in a world where language reflects ideology, not reality.

Reclaiming Language: Resisting the New Rules

What can we do in the face of this linguistic revolution? We can refuse to comply.

Speak plainly. Call men “he” and women “she.”

Resist style guides that mandate ideological language.

Challenge the institutional capture of words and insist on their connection to material reality.

Language matters because words matter. When institutions redefine words to obscure sex, erase women, and confuse children, they are not helping society—they are dismantling its foundation.

It’s time to reclaim language as a tool for truth, not tyranny. The style guides don’t own our words.

In the end, this is about more than pronouns. It’s about the power of words to define reality—and the responsibility to resist when they are weaponized to erase it.

[braxbrowastaken]

(gonna ping @asteroidtroglodyte to make sure I'm understanding MtG's Color Pie properly as an alignment system)

For those unfamiliar with the Color Pie as an alignment system, they made some great posts here and here about it.

So. Um. I'd like to touch upon one of my personal favorite OCs in the context of this alignment system. Because I've found the alignment posts fun and there need to be more of them, and when @asteroidtroglodyte and others do not provide, I must roll up my sleeves and do it myself.

So without further ado...

Meet Iris Taria. (Image commissioned by a friend for an OC tarot deck project for a RP server I'm a part of. She's great, I don't know that she's on Tumblr though.) In short, Iris has went from White to White/Black to White/Blue/Black, and then (possibly; kind of up to interpretation, tbh) back to White/Black.

She's a RWBY OC, but I'll be paraphrasing and summarizing relevant details so that anyone can follow along, since the focus of this is the color pie as an alignment system, not RWBY. All you need to know is this: RWBY characters have a personal force field called 'aura' and a relatively narrow superpower that uses aura as fuel. But it's not common to be able to use either.

Anyway. Iris unlocked her superpower at an early age due to (essentially) a lack of OSHA compliance at her parents workplace. She came from a poor family that could not afford after school care for her, so she'd frequently hang out in the break area at her parents' workplaces. And, one day, when she was little, she was at the (for her) wrong place (her dad's workplace's break area) at the wrong time. (when someone knocked over a shelf of heavy stuff onto some people)

And in that moment, she unlocked and reflexively used her superpower: the ability to project her own personal shield over others, protecting them from harm. The catch? The pain is synced.

Well, when a workplace accident happens and one of the workers' kids happens to be there and randomly out of the blue saves some workers from workplace injury and or death, that... gets around. And so Iris was offered scholarships and tutoring and all kinds of other wonderful goodies to get her to hone her abilities and put them to work for profit. And, coming from a poor family, she'd have been a fool to turn down the opportunities lavished in front of her.

So she was trained and taught, growing up, from that point on, that she had a duty; that her ability to save people from situations that nobody else could meant that she was obligated to do so. It was the right thing to do, after all. She was indoctrinated into White to make her easier to wield as a tool by her likely Black superiors. (For those that did not read the linked posts, White is the color of morality, law, obligation, self-sacrifice, etc. and Black is the color of self-interest, power-hunger, greed, and selfishness)

And so she was used. Her superiors paid her well to use her abilities, allowing them to profit by cutting costs on preventative safety measures and insurance for mishaps. But she did not complain, for she was given convenient excuses; she had no reason to believe something was amiss, just that accidents happen. Until she saw some paperwork that wasn't meant for her eyes, and the whole illusion collapsed.

After a series of ineffectual confrontations, she left her employer (abandoning her former coworkers) and her home, using pay she'd saved up to take her family and close friends with her. Not long afterward, she realized a pattern; if she ever stayed in one place too long, if she ever let people become too used to her presence, people would get careless and reckless.

Her prolonged presence, thus, would eventually cause people to come to harm, and her White ideals could never permit that. She was obligated to save people, not endanger them. But at the same time, abandoning them isn't cool with her ideals either... leaving her somewhat lost as she left all of her connections behind.

She eventually found a place that was out of the way and reasonably respectful of her abilities (once she explained her situation) to settle down, and in many stories that'd be the end of her story. It wasn't.

At some point, someone decided it'd be a good idea to use her family (among others) as hostages to get to her. (and others) And in the subsequent brawl, she was unable to save her mother; the chaos was too much, her abilities were too slow, and she wasn't powerful enough to clear the field of threats in time. A failure that didn't just offend her White ideals, but also struck very close to her personally.

To her, the conclusion was obvious; she needed more power, so she was capable of saving more people, and in the mean-time, she had to make peace with the fact that some people could not be saved. As a result, she gradually grew more violent and aggressive, forcing herself to change so that she could pervert her power into a weapon with which she could both save allies and slaughter foes. Her answer to the impossibility of her White ideals was Black.

And this answer formed a fragile, but stable, foundation to hold her slipping White ideals, for a time.

Until she was confronted by something she couldn't answer with Black's raw power OR White's ideals, and others once again were injured. Someone that could punch straight through others' defenses; someone that both demanded her power (to mitigate the punch-through) and countered it (by burning her defenses down) at the same time. Someone who made her feel both weak and needed; a dissonance she'd not felt before.

This time, she needed a plan. She needed tools, and strategy, and all kinds of clever things to outmaneuver her foes rather than confronting them directly. But most of all, she needed control over the situation. She needed Blue; otherwise her White ideals would collapse atop her damaged Black foundation.

And so she became more obsessive and paranoid, not only hungering for power, but also control. Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to save everyone, as was her duty. She marched on, doing what she must to save those around her from a dangerous world, becoming more and more destructive and more and more paranoid. Until she made another mistake. Killed someone she shouldn't have, in an attempt to simplify a chaotic situation into a simple, straightforward, and orderly one. A safe one. Or at least, that's how her Blue/Black parts justified it.

And she had consequences for it, though her allies were there to bail her out somewhat. But it made her reflect and realize that she didn't really know who she was. She'd given up herself entirely on her quest to prop up impossible ideals through brute force and paranoia.

And so now, she's trying to shed her paranoia, to accept the power she has for what it is, and to look beyond her duty for the self that she could have been... but she still has unfinished business and she needs power to finish it, leaving her in a really funny spot where she has tension between White/Black, but also perpendicular tension between Blue/(Red&Green) below it as she develops further as a person.

If others are interested, I'll do some more usual game-design type stuff and try to translate her character into some hypothetical cards?

[iridescentscarecrow]

while discussing csm 163, i'd mentioned how the fan's monologue revealed more about/reiterated asa & denji's character arcs. & i think that lays the groundwork for 164 very well:

the rules regarding intimacy being laid down by Nayuta (symbolic of family) during asaden's first date are really interesting. now you see nayuta (or rather, her absence) being determinant to denji's Compliance. the house & its rules are *burnt* (fire/dreams) to ruin.

within nayuta you can still locate makima's initial thesis with family as the location for control. the shattered husk of family, haunting where & how you form relationships, where you comply with state, with church, with structure.

and this quality is relevant to asa too. she specifically brings it up here, she was robbed of her family in the orphanage. family as context. asa is made uniform & outside narrative frame. her deprotagonism occurs in concert with the gendered labels she's assigned,

wherein she's pushed into the role of a Fan. even her harkening back to context is brought up in relation to denji: she knows how it feels *too*. this area of empathy is a point i'll mention later in this post, re: another Fan from part 2.

but even then: right now in the manga it seems apt then that we see asa's strain of self at its weakest. her strong individuation|aversion that marked her prior interactions are kind of bled away? we're given startlingly little writing re: her interiority, she's oddly passive.

the point of deviation here is her declaring that she hates sushi. it's unreasonable, absurd against the scene. you're reminded of the aquarium arc, where she'd said the same thing: her hating fish. her being stubborn.

this is at the same time where she hugs her knees & tells denji that making him into a weapon goes against her principles. she can't eat fish, even when cornered up & starving. neither can she make him into a weapon. or follow this script.

strangely enough, it's in the aftermath of this scene that i find asa's sense of self to appear the strongest. she's flushed and giddy with victory. she's entirely Protagonist, denji is relegated to the background.

which is why her shafting & the way this is seen alongside fanhood is extremely compelling when we consider the other character who'd brought up SUSHI: fumiko. fumiko categorises herself as the Denji Fan, at many points engineering her own exit from the narrative.

as opposed to asa who is thought of in association with the CSM almost involuntarily, tripped & restrained distinct from her selfishness. at the amusement park, fumiko attempts to relate her own family/background with denji too. it's a moment that particularly gets to me.

because denji's response to this is him trying to sort of find a commonality between their griefs, in an event where he lost his family as well. he turns to her but she's still talking about the fucking chainsaw man. not his grief.

& asa here, all of CSM's motely fanclub, wanting different things out of him, talking to him about family, like fumiko, within his home's burnt remains, one built out of the product of his Hunger for makima (quite literal) brought to culmination by cannibalism, nayuta's birth.

the home is torn down, & nayuta is gone. denji is hungry again, says kiga. he's hungry for sushi. fumiko The Fan, in her affiliation with denji, talks to him about sushi, tuning his hunger, in a manner. food underlies p2's narrative marvellously well with kiga & falling.

fire used in cooking & transforming fans into tools. & asa at many points finds this same fanhood sticking onto her, palpably gendered. her hating sushi is written as absurd instead of solemn as it was earlier. & fumiko, in her condensed fanhood *likes sushi*.

asa getting over her dislike of sushi for denji would be absolutely horrifying TBH. i don't know how else i'm meant to see it.

[questionablecuttlefish]

Some Lightcannon Headcanons

Just some thoughts re: these two idiots, specifically how I've been writing them in the Ill-Omen's fanfic series. YMMV, 'official' lore is pretty fuzzy with League stuff. LUX

Lux was expected from a young age to continue the Crownguard legacy in some fashion. With her brother captaining the Dauntless Vanguard, the possibility that he would Die in Glorious Battle leaving that branch of the Crownguard line without an heir would mean Lux stepping up.

Demacia seems fairly gender equal so there are plenty of ways she could do this. But if Garen were to die without issue, as the last remaining heir to that branch she'd have more pressure on her to Continue the Line through marriage and children on top of whatever else she was doing.

She is a trained diplomat and very good at putting her game face on. She usually expertly plays the sunny, charming young lady that has led her to be beloved across Demacia, but she uses so many different smiles she's literally numbered them in her head.

Like most good facades, it's not entirely inaccurate to who she is; Lux really does have a lot of warmth, compassion and idealism, but she isn't naive. She won't hesitate to manipulate people to her advantage if she needs to protect herself or a loved one, defuse a conflict, or deflect scrutiny.

Illuminators

As an Illuminator, she is officially a member of a charitable religious order responsible for helping the poor and downtrodden of Demacia. This is an aspect that Lux excels at, her natural empathy and ability to remain calm in the face of others' distress make her a natural carer.

The Illuminators also operate secretly as a spy network keeping tabs on outside threats to Demacia, including infiltration by old enemies like Noxus. Though young, Luxanna's political status as a Crownguard makes her a valued asset to the Order.

The Illuminators are also one of the few organizations in Demacia that tolerate and utilize mages, albeit discreetly and off the record. They are aware of Lux's abilities and have trained her to use them - covertly - in service of her country.

The Illuminators have on occasion acted to conceal and protect mages or smuggle them to safety, particularly those who might prove useful to their mission.

This puts them directly at odds with the Mageseeker order, (completely separate in my canon) who consider them bitter rivals and suspect, but cannot prove, that they aid mages in secret.

Like most oppressive regimes, the Mageseekers are giant hypocrites and use mages, brainwashed or tortured into compliance, as agents themselves.

In short; the Illuminators believe magic is a viable tool to protect Demacia if carefully shepherded and trained, Mageseekers believe magic is an abomination that must be suppressed or destroyed at all costs.

Lux has proven herself to the Order in several high-difficulty missions, including spying on the Noxian high command, primarily using her invisibility and light-bending powers to remain unseen and gather intel from a distance.

Though the Illuminators have kept Lux away from missions requiring seduction, to avoid 'sullying the Crownguard name', she has killed in the line of duty more than once.

Whilst not a frontline soldier like her brother, Lux has been trained since childhood like any Demacian noble in the warrior arts. She is adept with sword, staff, knife, bow, shield, lance and a deft rider.

She excels most at tactics and strategy; whilst Garen is a fearless and shrewd battlefield commander, Lux has a greater grasp of big-picture strategy and perceptive ability to read others.

She always beats him at strategic games.

Lux is a combat pragmatist. Her magical moves are dance-like and graceful, because when channeling her light she's accessing a transcendant mental space; her swordplay is more to-the-point, favoring strong defense and a quick end to the encounter.

She's not a natural killer, though she is as trained one; she'll kill in self-defense or duty, but she does not enjoy it and feels the weight of each life taken. She finds Jinx's aptitude for killing alarming, less out of moral judgment than out of fear that Jinx may lose herself in it if she goes too far.

Lux's strict, privileged upbringing, many duties, and the necessity of guarding herself from anyone discovering her magic have left her with very few actual, close friendships. She's often lonely, and whilst she's had a handful of unrequited crushes she's inexperienced with romance or relationships and feels like the Crownguard name intimidates away potential partners. She is quick with a smile but keeps people at arms' length for her own protection; with the weight of her name and her secrets on her small shoulders, Lux is slow to trust for very good reasons.

[a-tohmic]

Social Media Is Not Self-Expression

by Rob Horning, 2014

1. Subjectivation is not a flowering of autonomy and freedom; it's the end product of procedures that train an individual in compliance and docility. One accepts structuring codes in exchange for an internal psychic coherence. Becoming yourself is not a growth process but a surrender of possibilities that we learn to regard as egregious, unbecoming. "Being yourself" is inherently limiting. It is liberatory only in the sense of freeing one temporarily from existential doubts. (Not a small thing!) So the social order is protected not by preventing "self-expression" and identity formation but encouraging it as a way of forcing people to limit and discipline themselves — to take responsibility for building and cleaning their own cage. Thus, the dissemination of social-media platforms becomes a flexible tool for social control. The more that individuals express through these codified, networked, formatted means to construct a "personal brand" identity, the more they self-assimilate, adopting the incentive structures of capitalist social order as their own. (The machinations of Big Data make this more obvious. The more data you supply, the more the algorithms can determine your reality.) Expunge the seriality built into these platforms, embrace a more radical form of difference.

2. In an essay about PJ Harvey's 4-Track Demos, Michael Barthel writes:

While she was able to hole up in a seaside restaurant and produce a masterpiece, I need constant feedback and encouragement in order not to end up curled in some dark corner of my house, eating potato chips and refreshing my Tumblr feed in the hope that someone will have “liked” my Photoshopped picture of Kanye West in a balloon chair.

He's being a bit facetious, but this is basically what I'm trying to get at above: the difference between an inner-directed process of discovery and a kind of outer-directed pseudo-creativity that in its pursuit of attention gets overwhelmed by desperation. I'm trading in a very dubious kind of dichotomizing here, I know — artists make a lot of great work for no greater purpose than attention-seeking, and the idea that anything is truly "inner-directed" may be a ideological illusion, given how we all develop interiority in relation to a social world that precedes us and enables us to survive. But what I am trying to emphasize here is how production in social media is often sold to users of these platforms as self-expressive creativity, as self-discovery, as an elaboration of the self even, but it is really a narrowing of the self to the reductive, defensive aim of getting recognition, reassurance of one's own existence, that one belongs. That kind of "creativity" may crowd out the more antisocial kind that may entail reclusion, social disappearance, indifference to reputation and social capital, to being someone in particular in a network. Self-invention in social media that is perpetually in search of "feedback" is really just the production of communication, which gives value not to the self but to the network that gets to carry more data (and store it, and sell it).

Actual "self-invention" — if we are measuring it in range of expressivity — appears more like self-dissolution. We're born into social life and shaped by it; self-discovery may thus entail a destruction of social bonds, not a sounding of them.

Barthel lauds the "demos, experiments, collaborative public works, jokes, notes, reading lists, sketches, appreciations, outbursts of pique" that are "absolutely vital to continuing the business of creation." But the degree that these are all affixed to a personal brand when serially broadcast on social media depletes their vitality. If PJ Harvey released the demos as she made them to a Myspace page, would there ever have been a finished Rid of Me? Would the end product merely have been PJ Harvey, as the fecund musician?

Social media structure creative effort (e.g., Barthel's list above) ideologically as "self-creating," but they often end up as anxiety-inducing, exposing the self's ad hoc incompleteness while structuring the demand for a fawning audience to complete us, validate every effort, as a natural expectation. Validation is nice, but as a goal for creative effort, it is somewhat limited. The quest for validation must inevitably restrict itself to the tools of attracting attention: the blunt instruments of novelty and prurience  ("Kanye West in a balloon chair"). The self one tries to express tends to be new, exciting, confessional, sexy, etc., because it plays as an advertisement. Identity is a series of ads for a product that doesn't exist.

The process can't quell anxiety; this kind of self-expression can only intensify it, focus it onto a few social-media posts that await judgment, narrow it to the latest instances of sharing. Social media's quantifying metrics aggravate the problem, making expression into a series of discrete items to be counted, ranked. It serves as the infrastructure for a feedback loop that orients expression toward the anxiety of what the numbers will be and accelerates it, as we try to better those numbers, and thereby demonstrate that the self-monitoring is teaching us something about how to become more "relevant."

The alternative would seem to be a sort of deep focus in isolation, in which one accepts the incompleteness that comes from being apart from an audience, that comes from not seeking final judgment on what one is doing and letting it remain ambiguous, open-ended, of the present moment and not assimilated to an archive of identity. To put that tritely: The best way to be yourself is to not be anybody in particular but to just be.

3. So is the solution to get off the Internet? If social media structure social behavior this way, just don't use them, right? Problem solved. Paul Miller's 2013 account at the Verge of his year without Internet use suggests it's not so simple. Miller went searching for "meaning" offline, fearing that Internet use was reducing his attention span and preoccupying him with trivia. It turns out that, after a momentary shock of having his habits disrupted, Miller fell back into the same feelings of ambient discontent, only spiked with a more intense feeling of loneliness. It's hard to escape the idea of a "connected world" all around you, and there is no denying that being online metes out "connectedness" in measured, addictive doses. But those doses contain real sociality, and they are reshaping society collectively. Whether or not you use social media personally, your social being is affected by that reshaping. You don't get to leave all of society's preoccupations behind.

Facebook is possibly more in the foreground for those who don't use it than for those who have accepted it as social infrastructure. You have to expend more effort not knowing a meme than letting it pass through you. Social relations are not one-way; you can't dictate how they are on the basis of personal preference. As Miller puts it, describing his too-broad, too pointed defiance of the social norms around him, "I fell out of sync with the flow of life." Pretending you can avoid these social aspects of life because they are supposedly external, artificial, inauthentic, and unreal, is to have a very impoverished idea of reality, of authenticity, of unique selfhood.

The inescapable reciprocity of social relations comes into much sharper relief when you stop using social media, which thrive on the basis of the control over reciprocity they try to provide. They give a crypto-dashboard to social life, making it seem like a personal consumption experience, but that is always an illusion, always scattered by the anxiety of waiting, watching for responses, and by the whiplash alternation between omnipotence and vulnerability.

Miller's fable ends up offering the lesson that the digital and the physical are actually interpenetrated, and all the personal problems he recognizes in himself aren't a matter of technologically mediated social reality but are basically his fault. This seems too neat of a moral to this story. Nothing is better for protecting the status quo than convincing people that their problems are their own and are entirely their personal responsibility. This is basically how neoliberalism works: "personal responsibility" is elevated over the possibility of collective action, a reiteration of requirement to "express oneself" as an isolated self, free of social determination, free for "whatever."

What is odd is that the connectivity of the internet exacerbates that sort of neoliberal ideology rather than mitigating it. Connectivity atomizes rather than collectivizes. But that is because most people's experience of the internet is mediated by capitalist entities, or rather, for the sake of simplicity, by capitalism itself. You can go offline, but that doesn't remove you from the alienating properties of life in capitalist society. So the same "personal problems" the Internet supposedly made you experience still exist for you if you go offline, because you are still in a capitalist society. Capitalist imperatives are still shaping your subjectivity, structuring your time and your experience of curiosity, leisure, work, life. The internet is not the problem; capitalism is the problem.

Social media offer a single profile for our singular identity, but our consciousness comprises multiple forms of identity simultaneously: We are at once a unique bundle of sense impressions and memories, and a social individual imbued with a collectively constructed sense of value and possibility. Things like Facebook give the impression that these different, contestable and often contradictory identities (and their different contexts) can be conveniently flattened out, with users suddenly having more control and autonomy in their piloting through everyday life. That is not only what for-profit companies like Facebook want, but it is also what will feel natural to subjects already accustomed to capitalist values of convenience, capitalist imperatives for efficiency, and so on.

So Miller is right to note that "the internet isn't an individual pursuit, it's something we do with each other. The internet is where people are." That's part of why simply abandoning it won't enhance our sense of freedom or selfhood. But because we "do" the internet with each other as capitalist subjects, we use it to intensify the social relations familiar from capitalism, with all the asymmetries and exploitation that comes with it. We "do" it as isolated nodes, letting social-media services further suppress our sense of collectivity and possibility. The work of being online doesn't simply fatten profits for Facebook; it also reproduces the condition that make Facebook necessary. As Lazzarato puts it, immaterial "labour produces not only commodities, but first and foremost the capital relationship."

4. Exodus won't yield freedom. The problem is not that the online self is “inauthentic” and the offline self is real; it’s that the self derived from the data processing of our digital traces doesn’t correspond with our active efforts to shape an offline/online hybrid identity for our genuine social ties. What seems necessary instead is a way to augment our sense of "transindividuality," in which social being doesn't come at the expense of individuality. This might be a way out of the trap of capitalist subjectivity, and the compulsive need to keep serially producing in a condition of anxiety to seem to manifest and discover the self as some transcendent thing at once unfettered by and validated through social mediation. Instead of using social media to master the social component of our own identity, we must use them to better balance the multitudes within.