#actually no the distribution system struck

[transandrobroism]

notes/replies on that last post (about Florida moving to ban all HRT for adults) suggest it was struck down by a judge, which is a relief obviously. but i do wanna pick up on the response being "set up DIY networks for HRT! organise and help each other!" which is cool and all but... as the latest reblog comment points out, T is a controlled drug.

some quick and dirty googling confirms testosterone is a Schedule III controlled drug in the USA, with most legal sources suggesting possession and/or distribution of Schedule III drugs is a 3rd degree felony. conviction can mean up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. crucially, in Florida (where this law was intended to come into force), selling or distributing a Schedule III drug to minors pushes it up to a 2nd degree felony with a harsher fine/sentence.

i make this point because the response to HRT being restricted is often some variation of "mutual aid DIY network" or just flat suggesting DIY to people as the solution. which is cool if you're on estrogen, but possessing testosterone without a prescription is a literal felony in the USA. T is also a controlled drug in the UK, where trans people face long waiting lists for HRT - it's not illegal to possess T for personal use, but it is illegal to get them sent to you from abroad (importing a controlled drug) and to give them to other people (supply). to legally get T you need a prescription from a doctor.

in a hostile transphobic environment there is no guarantee that prosecuters will decide not to charge trans people for DIYing HRT. "set up DIY networks" for transmascs basically translates to "set up an illegal drug ring".

this is a form of transphobia that affects transmascs but does not affect transfems. it also affects nonbinary and intersex folks seeking or using testosterone HRT. in fact it could potentially impact some nonbinary trans folks worse because the medical gatekeeping around trying to transition as nonbinary is already an uphill struggle.

it is not easy for those of us on T to just DIY it and fuck the system. without a valid prescription our HRT becomes a banned illegal steroid that can land us in serious legal trouble if we get caught, especially if we're distributing it to other people as part of a mutual aid setup. i know we're all very "be gay do crime" for the memes but we are talking about an actual factual go-to-jail-irl crime here.

the fact that our HRT is an illegal drug unless prescribed by a doctor is a form of transandrophobia that affects trans men, transmascs, nonbinary people on masculinising HRT, and intersex people who want or need testosterone. it means that:

we cannot DIY transition without committing a crime, and have to weigh up that risk when considering DIY as an option

setting up a mutual aid testosterone DIY network is even more of a crime, especially if you want to use it to help trans teens

we are thus more dependent on placating medical practitioners and convincing them to prescribe us HRT

we will always be more impacted by any moves to restrict or delay access to HRT because we don't have an easy, legal DIY option

when access to HRT is limited for transphobic reasons, the DIY option comes at much higher risk

where access to HRT is severely delayed (as it is in the UK by years-long waiting lists), it is easier for transfems to start DIYing while they wait than it is for transmascs to do the same thing. in fact in the UK they've started selling estrogen HRT over the counter for menopause, so here if you want to start estrogen DIY all you have to do is get a cis lady friend to ask a pharmacist for menopause treatments. if you wanna start T you have to go on the fucking dark web (I'm exaggerating but... not a lot)

none of this is intended to suggest that transfems don't experience medical transphobia or gatekeeping and this isn't a "trans men have it worse universally across the board" post. there are undoubtedly some areas where it's harder to be transfem. however, this is one area where it is clearly and demonstrably harder to be a trans man. i am pointing this out because i keep seeing people saying that transmascs have it easier or there's no systemic or structural transphobia targeting trans men or we only ever experience misdirected misogyny or whatever. here is your proof that that is not true. this is a form of structural and systemic transphobia that impacts trans men and not trans women. and there is no possible world in which you can argue that testosterone being a controlled drug is somehow misogyny.

[churchofthecomet]

one thing about Hardison in Leverage is, you can't convince me this man would be using Microsoft Windows Fucking 7 as his daily driver operating system:

all the real-life hackers, infosec people, and computer enthusiasts I know are running Linux. the only computer folks I know running Windows are establishment SWE types or those who do IT for Windows-centric organizations. Hardison is neither of those archetypes, and he should care enough about defensive privacy-mindedness to not let Microsoft telemetrize his shit. plus Linux is just... easier to hack from. and it has severe nerd cred, even more so in 2008-2013 when the show was made.

honestly with what we see of Hardison, i headcanon him as someone who either

runs Arch, won't stop letting you know the extent to which he runs Arch, switches desktop environments every two weeks (which means that nobody but him can keep up with his constantly-changing keybindings), types in Dvorak

runs something completely wacky like resurrected Plan 9, wrote a modern browser for it in a weekend, claims it's the "OS of the future" despite being one of five people currently using it, won't shut up about "distributed computing" and "new architecture for the 21st century" on programming forums

built the world's first big quantum computer (this is how he effortlessly hacks into securely encrypted systems!) and wrote his own OS for it. every time they abandon their HQ in a hurry, he has to build another one. he sinks 90% of his income into this project, but it's worth it because it ups his effectiveness as a hacker by like 100x

and to go along with that headcanon, I think they aren't showing us the OS that he's really using because it would "be too confusing" or "burn out our eyes" or something. like a mixture of "actually they weren't speaking English in Lord of the Rings, Tolkien translated it so we could understand" and "the angel does not appear to you in its true form because you would be struck down by its sublime beauty"

basically my ideal show is Leverage but the hacking and computer stuff is more accurate. with a little leeway for badassery of course! but please god not Windows... don't do my man Hardison like this please

[haveyouseenthisskeleton]

*appears*

howdy! :3

*vanishes, leaving a tray of birthday cupcakes in my wake*

-(youve been struck by the cupcake distribution system)

Thank you!

I actually love cupcakes but in France they somehow all taste bad and chimic when they're not homemade (which is like 90% of all the French cupcakes sadly).

Unfortunately, living in a small city, it's so hard to find some original shops here x-x

[mariacallous]

On Nov. 20 and 21, everyone in Iraq stayed home, waiting for a knock on their door. Crowded highways were empty, bazaar shops shuttered. A team of around 120,000 specially trained census-takers fanned across the country for Iraq’s first national census in four decades. The last national census was held in 1987; the one held in 1997 excluded the Kurdish region.

The census results will shift the balance of power in the Iraqi Parliament, alter the distribution of crucial funding to provinces, and could aggravate long-standing territorial disputes between the federal government in Baghdad and the autonomous region of Kurdistan. For the international community, the census offers a chance to help Iraq improve its government’s performance and capture a potentially transformative demographic gift.

Censuses get less fanfare than elections, yet they are enormous feats. A census requires what sociologist Michael Mann calls infrastructural power, a state’s ability to administer and manage, not just coerce. Teams must be capable of reaching the length and breadth of the national territory, having accurate knowledge of where to find people and the ability to tabulate and compilate. Most importantly, a census requires convincing people to comply in answering the questionnaires.

In deeply divided societies, a census can be the site of considerable mobilization and contestation. Lebanon still relies on its 1932 census, out of concern that updated results would further upset the delicate balance of power struck between Christians and Muslims in the country. And Iraq’s censuses, too, have been long delayed. What does this census—more than 25 years in the making—reveal about the country’s population after a period of seismic change?

Censuses do more than offer an accurate picture of a country’s demographics. They also shape nations. This is because census rosters become the building blocks for other governmental powers—monitoring movement, taxing revenue, and finding potential soldiers. Censuses can also cause social disruption. The U.S. census of 2020 was riled by controversy after the Trump administration tried—unsuccessfully—to add a question on citizenship status that many feared would bias results and lead to undercounting.

Iraq’s 1997 census, conducted by Saddam Hussein’s government, was about as credible as the 1995 Iraqi presidential referendum granting Hussein over 99 percent of the vote. It also pointedly excluded the three northern provinces that make up the semi-autonomous Kurdish region within Iraq; the region was established in 1992, after the 1991 uprisings attempted to topple Hussein’s regime. The U.S. occupation authority in Iraq was able to hold elections in 2005 but abandoned plans to run a census. Indeed, for much of the 2000s and 2010s, Iraq seemed too unstable and the violence too severe to dispatch government census-takers to the streets.

Concerns about staff safety overlapped with political reluctance. After Hussein was overthrown, Iraqi politics evolved into an unwritten power-sharing pact between factions representing the primary ethnolinguistic groups of Sunnis, Shias, and Kurds. Few Iraqi leaders were eager to go forward with actually counting their numbers. Elections occurred regularly every three to five years. But Iraqi elites were simply too afraid of finding more reasons for conflict to confirm the demographic assumptions upon which their entire political system was based. As a Shia Islamist party leader said in 2014, “the lack of accurate census will not affect the social reality of the parliament that reflects the demography in Iraq.” It was better not to know.

Getting the 2024 census going in Iraq was a major undertaking outside of the historical setbacks. Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani had to convince his fractious parliamentary coalition to agree to proceed. Sudani bet big on the census, declaring beforehand, “The census is not merely a collection of numbers. It serves as a dividing line between predictions and reality, and acts as a decisive tool for determining important and influential decisions.” U.S. officials and other foreign powers touted it as a major step forward. The United Nations Population Fund provided technical assistance and training. Chinese technology firm TrustKernel and other foreign companies were hired to assemble the tablets, design the software, and operate the data center and communication networks.

The census survey had 70 questions, focusing on basic information like sex, age, education level, and family status. Equally as important, the census did not ask questions about ethnicity. Many had feared that the census could be used to alter ethnic demographic balances in Iraq’s internally disputed territories.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has long maintained that the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, along with slivers of Nineveh, Diyala, and other provinces, are part of the Kurdish homeland. However, from the 1960s to 1980s, the Iraqi government sought to ethnically cleanse Kurds from these disputed areas and encouraged Arab transmigration to shift the demographic balance. Iraq’s 2005 constitution stipulates that a referendum would be held to allow residents to decide on whether to join the Kurdistan region, but the measure has been postponed indefinitely. While KRG forces seized the territory during the Islamic State 2013-2017 war, Iraqi troops and Iranian-backed militias retook the disputed areas shortly after.

The KRG fears that the census could set the stage for a government-run referendum in areas where Kurdish residents have fled. The federal government acknowledged that fear by writing the census to rely on people’s place of origin rather than their current residence, in an attempt to assuage concern and the potential for sectarian violence. It used information from the Iraqi migration ministry and the 1950s census for reference in the disputed areas. Still, this did not allay fears. KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani was guarded at best when discussing the census, emphasizing that it needed to remain neutral and free of political motivations, especially regarding the disputed territory. Alternatively, local leaders from the Kurdish, Arab, and Turkoman communities urged their supporters to participate in the census, including encouraging families that had relocated to return. At the same time, each faction accused their rival of defrauding the census-takers or falsely registering occupants.

After all that, and although full findings will take months to calculate, the initial census results affirm what many have long suspected. Iraq remains the largest Arab country by population east of the Nile River. But the census also confirmed that Iraq’s population (including foreigners) is over 45 million. The growth is striking considering the human toll of war and sanctions on the country over the last quarter century. Iraq, like many countries exiting long periods of strife, experienced a post-conflict baby boom that propelled a demographic recovery. Even so, the new figures exceed many expectations.

The census also underscored that Iraq has received a rare demographic gift. Over 60 percent of the Iraqi population is of working age (15 to 64). There are, in other words, a relatively small number of dependent children or older adults in the Iraq economy. A similar demographic dividend helped spur the so-called East Asian economic miracle and the rise of Asian tigers in the 1990s. If Iraq can turn its surfeit of labor into productive employment, the country could become a regional economic powerhouse.

The follow-on consequences could also be substantial. The Iraqi Parliament will have to add more seats in order to maintain the mandated ratio of representatives to citizens. With fertility rates highest in the primarily Shia provinces of the south, it was expected that Sunni Arab and Kurdish areas in the north and center of Iraq would lose demographic weight and relative political power. Government and international agencies like the World Bank will likewise have to revise how they allocate funding to provinces based on proportions of the population. Many expect that the census results will be crosschecked against government payroll rosters, curbing so-called “ghost employees” who kicked back most of their salaries to their political patrons.

The census is not the end, but rather the beginning of Iraq’s administrative and political reform. Whether the census enhances Iraq’s state capacity and leads to an improved economy depends on how Iraqi’s political elites respond to the results. Disregarding or delegitimizing the census results will further weaken Iraq’s state institutions, erode trust, and produce even more instability. It is important for the United States and its international partners to help Iraq build the momentum that the census has provided. This includes assisting Iraq to make the most of its demographic benefit and build a basis for productive employment. Reducing Iraq’s singular reliance on oil and associated public sector employment is critical. Public-private partnership and targeted foreign investment in agriculture, food processing, and the transportation sectors can help absorb Iraqi labor and diversify its economy.

Economic reforms must go hand in hand with the fight against corruption that has stunted labor productivity and siphoned off billions in government spending. The Sudani government, like its predecessors, has recognized the need for economic diversification and fiscal transparency but struggled to put reform into action. Each measure has faced pronounced resistance from within its own coalition. Consequently, Iraq’s demographic gift is already in danger of being squandered. Still, outside powers can help mediate and broker agreements to adjust the balance of power to account for the demographic realities and seize advantage of the new opportunities that the census underscores. Just as the international community can support democratic transitions by recognizing an election as free and fair, foreign powers can enhance the legitimacy of a census by urging all the actors to accept its outcomes and capitalize on its promises.

[glasskey]

Justice THT Style - Part 1

When is Justice not actually justice? When it’s the wrong type. There are several types of justice: Procedural, Distributive, Retributive and Restorative. Each one of these will feel reasonable and justified depending solely on their context. Characters also by their nature will tend to have a taste per se for one or the other and it takes a definitive catalyst to change it. Over the next week I'll be taking a look at which ones our favorites prefer and what that means for them. I'm doing this in parts - Today its June and Luke, but coming up we have Nick, Serena and Tuello. Stay tuned. First up June.

JUNE

Vengeance, thy name is June. “Before embarking on the journey of revenge, first dig two graves”- Confucius. Season 4 and 5 made me think that either June hadn’t read a lot of Confucius or by that point just didn’t give a fuck about his wise, ancient musings. I’d like to think that it had taken quite some time before June turned into someone capable of the brutal salvaging of Fred, but then I remember that she did exactly that in Season 1 when she learnt of Moira’s supposed demise. At the end of season 4 June chased Fred down and tore him apart and in season 5 we saw her kneeling before a grave like mound. Laurence had tempted her with the offer of Nick and Hannah and in response she’d furiously ripped up the garden that symbolized the burgeoning home she was trying to nurture. 5 10 is drenched in an aura of darkness and horror, something has died but as June lies wounded, ironically she only gathers more power. She is becoming a leader and Nick even FINALLY crosses the border to pledge his allegiance (and didn’t we all cheer our brains out over that one?). It struck me that as she lay in that hospital bed, she was metaphorically buried until Nick came to kiss her forehead handsome prince style, figuratively raising her from the dead. Like the phoenix she is reborn just in time for season 6 to rain down the pain.... It’s worth remembering that June chose to ignore a blatant warning about the nature of retributive justice, but honestly who could blame her? “It will never be enough for you” Lawrence says when she bargains Fred for a group of female POWs. Love him or hate him, Lawrence seems to be able to make observations of her character with pinpoint accuracy.

I find it interesting that this bloody act of retribution comes the episode directly after she meets with Nick, she’s absolutely devastated that their family is being separated and someone is going to pay. Fred’s more than earnt her vengeance by now and Canada has failed to deliver. She’s fucking angry and no one except Nick and a bunch of fellow handmaids will ever understand why the only fit ending for him is a brutal salvaging. At the end of the day the scales of justice in this scenario were never going to be fully balanced by Fred enduring some sort comparatively cushy Canadian procedural justice. However it’s still necessary in the majority of story lines that conventional justice avenues be cut off to allow the protagonist to “take the law into their own hands” and exact old fashioned retribution. Writers were so clever ultimately giving Fred a double dose, he was involved in an official prisoner exchange for women no less (an act of procedural justice), and hand delivered to June to pay for his crimes Gilead style. Luke is horrified when she gleefully boasts about her murderous act of retribution. Dear me what possessed his sweet loving wife to do such a thing? Time to wake up Lukey, June pre Gilead is gone, welcome to June 2.0.

LUKE

Luke wants to believe in a procedural sense of justice but nothing’s ever that simple or fair. When societal systems begin to crumble we see June’s access to money and freedom slowly stripped but Luke feels somewhat empowered as it means he now holds the reins. Luke believes in the system so long as it serves him, but later when he actually loses something valuable and attempts to seek justice for June and Hannah, he can’t believe it actually fails him. Fred’s a wealthy, powerful, educated, white man. He’s just who the justice system is designed for and he gives Luke a small taste of utter helplessness in the face of a prejudiced system, much like what June endured. When first given the opportunity to get some answers out of Fred and some well-deserved vengeance, Luke chooses to show up with a binder expecting reason and logic from an extremist. When Fred manipulates Canada’s justice system, he is naïve enough to believe that Fred will be given a trial and then jailed in Gilead. I’m still not quite sure how Luke would have come to this conclusion, having witnessed an entire church full of hanging bodies. As of season 5 Luke seems somewhat ignorant to the brutality of the Gilead justice system and the savagery of what his wife was subjected to at its hands, even after witnessing her testimony. He can’t believe his wife would tear apart a man with her bare hands and cut his finger off as a trophy, meanwhile Nick didn’t bat an eyelid and Tuello wished her well. Goes to show there’s a difference between actually witnessing Gilead and hearing about it 2nd hand. S5 Ep10 shows us Luke's finally about to get a taste. Luke can be emotional when things don’t quite go his way, he screams at his ex, he punches Fred in the face, he shoves Nick when he approaches him with news about June and he yells at June when he learns about Fred. He’s a guy who wants to make rational decisions, he wants to follow the system but quickly bottoms out and becomes erratic when he doesn’t get his way. He’s a character study in casual misogyny and part of this is the undercurrent for the potential for violence in even the “nicest guy”. Luke is often dismissed as “boring” but this deeply underestimates how skillfully he’s been crafted and the amount of subtext his character contains. Throughout season 5 I witnessed Luke becoming increasing violent. Baited by Serena he warns her “next time I see you I’ll fucking kill you myself” his eyes filling with tears, his hands trembling with barely contained rage. In ep 10 he beats a man to death and is shown carrying a gun in their home, dismissing Junes concerns about having a gun near Nicole. In S 5 we also saw Luke attempting to secure his wife’s love with an act of ill-conceived vengeance: arranging for Serena’s baby to be taken from her, gloating with satisfaction while instead his wife looks on in horror. Throughout the seasons we’ve seen him be fairly even tempered, but in S5 there seemed to be increasing incidences of overt alpha physical violence that spoke loudly of outdated societal expectations of male roles and his personal insecurities. I believe Luke has had enough of procedural justice, he’s now blatantly dabbling in retribution and all these incidences are revving up to create a much more vengeful Luke.

Stay tuned. Tomorrow we have Nick Blaine....

[ask-de-writer]

WIND MEETS THE ROM : Part 16 of 27 :

MLP Fan Fiction

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WIND MEETS THE ROM

Part 16 of 27

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

Cover art by @wind-the-mama-cat

54212 words

© 2023 by Glen Ten-Eyck

Writing begun 06/01/18

All rights reserved. This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights. They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact. They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions.

All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

///////////////////////

New to the story? Read from Part 1, here!

///////////////////////

The pony narrowed his eyes a tiny bit and asked, “Why would she do it for free? Rose is a Rom and they don't do much for free at a fair.”

Wind chuckled as she replied, “Oh, I expect that Charley will spend his coin with us! I am just hoping that Rose will let him know that both his good and impulsive sides are actually good. My Mama Dragon raised me that way too.”

Music struck up from the Sky Dancer stage and the others saw the difference at once as Wind went to high alert, scanning the crowd. Charley unobtrusively moved out of her path if she should need to spring into action.

Charley and Sarie's dad asked quietly, “Mama Dragon? You were raised by a dragon? I heard that you lost your foreleg and sword to a dragon. How did that happen?”

Never taking her eyes from the crowd, Wind replied, “Yes, I was raised by Mama Dragon on my home world after I was orphaned by a dark beast. Dragons from other worlds, like this one for instance, are mostly not as nice as she is.”

He mulled that over for a bit and offered, “Sorry. Been rude. Name's Plowin, Plowin Furrows. Happens to also be my talent. Thanks for takin' care of my foals.”

The act over, Wind shifted her attention back to Mister Furrows. “No problem, Sir. Such good foals deserve the best.”

Sarie asked quietly, “Miss Wind, don't you miss having your foreleg and sword?”

Rose's voice filled in, “Not all wounds show, Sarie. Wind is healing but not ready for weapons yet.”

She held out the bonnet, now perfect. “I did have an iron that would do the job but had to take it over to Myest for heating in his forge fire. Now you two go and enjoy the fair.”

Mister Furrows spoke up, “Thank you, Mrs Rose. I was headed this way anyhow. Ma is poorly today and couldn't make the Fair. Wanted to get her something to perk up her spirits. Got anything with compartments for rings and such jewelry?”

Wind, seeing that Rose was back to business, retreated back to Hanar's booth.

The day devolved to measuring and cutting Hanar's many sorts of fabrics, trims and other sewing supplies.

By the day's closing bell, Wind was both totally familiar with Hanar's stock and tired in a different way than from a hard day in harness. As she and Hanar headed over to Marchhare's encampment for dinner, Wind noticed that her friend was happily humming to herself and actually doing a skippy little dance, including some of Wind's new slides and sway steps!

Hanar noticed Wind watching her and explained, “Being in a booth all day confines you and makes you feel tired, but that is really just because your body is sluggish from lack of stretching. Some music and dancing or other exercises will perk you right up! We Rom have a lot of experience in this sort of thing.”

Wind nodded understanding and began to do some stretches. They did help. However there was a serious issue preventing any further action. Specifically, the serving line for dinner! Wind happily took her place behind the table and began to pour ladles of hot Rom black tea and serve out sweet buns. Hanar joined her in a few moments. She just said, “Had to put away the cash box first.”

After all were served, Wind and Hanar found a quiet place to sit and eat. Old Marchhare quietly joined them. He looked Wind in the eye and inquired, “What you did for that town colt and filly is pretty much all over the camp. Stopping him so his sister could get her bonnet back we all understand. Why did you have Rose fix her bonnet for free?”

Wind considered her answer and replied, “I thought that it was the right thing to do, like when Hoof Dancer and Black Lotus fixed Candy Cane's leg. It was just a playtime accident caused by not thinking. When Charley realized that he had damaged Sarie's bonnet, he took full responsibility for it and offered all that he had to help her replace it.

“I wanted him to know two things from the incident. First, that he was responsible for the damage and second, that the Rom are more than greedy horses after every bit to be had.

“Later, I saw him buying Sarie a goodie from Midnight's Munchies, so we still got his coins. I saw it as win all around.”

Marchhare sipped his tea and offered, “As it happens, you were right all around. I knew about the events themselves but I wanted to know what your thoughts were that guided them. You are a true credit to both your Mama Dragon and to my Rom. Thank you.”

Shortly, the evening music and dancing began! Rom that had been booth bound all day started cutting loose! Wind was bemused to see that Rom from two other bands that were also at the fair saw the new sways and slides that even Tia and Midnight were using and quickly began to follow suite. Their musicians were picking up Wind's Wings, too.

Some of the younger ones from all three bands were working together on setting words to the new tune. Wind shook her head at that. They were creating both Gyptian and Equestrian words for the developing song.

Hanar cheerfully dragged Wind into the maelstrom of dancing horses! She chortled, “Let's show them what real slides and sways are, Wind!”

Her magic that guided without ruling helped Wind to learn how to use her Rom sashes to spectacular effect in the dance! Wind noticed that others, including ones from the other two band present, were watching closely and copying the moves and flourishes.

In very little time, the newcomers were no longer copying the new dance steps. They were eagerly creating their own variations and alterations of the slides and sways!

Hanar was cheerfully keeping Wind at the center of the vortex of dancing horses. Wind, having no trouble in keeping up, asked, “Isn't it getting late? We have to tend booths tomorrow.”

Rose looked up from her dancing with Myest to reply, “Nonsense! We have new dance steps to play with! A whole new tune for them, too! This is IMPORTANT.”

Hanar got close enough to actually nuzzle Wind and whispered, “I thought that I had warned you about Rom and dancing.”

“You did, Hanar. It is just a bit awe inspiring to see the reality of it.”

It was late before the dancing Rom finally broke and returned to their camps. Hanar quietly invited, “You are healed now, Wind. Would you like to sleep outside with me?”

Wind gave her friend a troubled look. “Hanar, I will only be here less than a month now. From what I have been hearing, that was a sort of marriage proposal. I could not do that.”

Hanar smiled sort of sadly, “I would not mind marrying you, Wind, but I know how you feel about Penny and that your Mama Dragon will be taking you back in a month. What I want is whatever good that we can share until you need to leave.”

Shaking her head, she added, “After you have gone, I will find some good stallion or mare to mate with. Any time that you return, you will be welcome in my camp and a part of my family. I suspect that you will always have place in Marchhare's band, too. I know that his family likes you too.”

Wind nuzzled Hanar behind the ear and whispered, “As long as we understand that, Hanar, I would love to try sleeping beside you. I have slept alone nearly all my life, so I am not sure how it will go, but for you, I will try.”

Hanar gave Wind a sideways look and asked softly, “Try? Why? Would it not be safe?”

Wind considered her answer carefully. “I am afraid that I might have bad dreams and strike out. I don't want to hurt you, my friend.”

After a long pause, Wind added, “That is one of the reasons that I have held back from asking Penny to share my life. She is quite a bit bigger than I am and really strong.” She shook her head sadly, “But not as strong as I am. I really don't want to risk hurting her.”

Hanar nodded her agreement while her horn's magic combed the soft grass beside her. “This will make a perfect test of the matter, dear Wind. If you do start to strike or flail about, my magic can have you held safely away.”

Wind nodded and curled up in the soft grass, feeling the warmth and soft fur of her friend next to her.

The next morning, Hanar awoke to an empty place beside her. Looking about, she saw Wind over on the dancing green. Dance was not what Wind was doing! She was working through an array of what appeared to be swift combat exercises.

The Royal Guard were looking on. So were both Midnight and Tia. Shortly the local constables joined the watchers. Hanar decided that she would too.

She was close enough that she used her magic to stir up the smoored fire and started getting breakfast on. Black Lotus' magic joined hers and, with grins, seeing what they were up to, so did Midnight's and Tia's. Besides watching Wind's workout, breakfast was on the way in a uniquely Rom way!

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[francostrider]

Random Encounters in RPGs

Every once in a blue moon, I want to play a Japanese style of RPG. It is kind of hard to explain why, considering the hit or miss history I’ve had with the genre. Final Fantasy VII was not only my introduction to JRPGs, but to a lot of terms in RPGs in general, from leveling up to turned based systems and so on. But after hearing about the more western styles of RPGs, and how you could create a character and backstory and so on, I remember one night playing FFX thinking to myself “I really wish I was playing that.” But then games like Chrono Trigger, the Fire Emblem series, Golden Sun, Tales of Vesperia, and some of the Dragon Quest games have become some of my favorites.

But there is one aspect that I have been wanting to accept, but never really could: Random Encounters. Come to think of it, many of the above examples do not have them (even the versions of Dragon Quests VII and VIII do not have them). There is something kind of pure about them, as the combat runs on dice rolls and it would only make sense for encounters to follow suit. It can also be a good test of resource management, having enough potions and recovery items and deciding whether or not to use any right now. Yet, it tests my patience more than the actual combat system itself. I am fine with a standard turn based system. It’s kind of like how Doom is still very playable despite its age; it’s standard, but easy to pick up and play and still fun. But when I am barraged by them endlessly, it starts to get numbing after a while. The ultimate goal is to make these fights easier with leveling up, but that does not make it any less dull. I am here for challenge as well as story, after all.

And this is a shame, because this is a barrier to a lot of highly regarded games. Breath of Fire, Phantasy Star, most Dragon Quest games, have random encounters, and I want to play them, but I am growing more and more impatient with them. And it can be anxiety inducing, running through a maze, just trying to pick up an ite-- BAM THE 70TH SLIME IS OUT TO GET YOU. This one dungeon seems to have an infinite number of these creatures.

And that last point is really what opened up the true issue I have with these random encounters. You are given no context to why they are in that spot. A lot of this has to do with graphical limitations and there is only so much you could put on a map back in the day. But a lot of JRPGs still hold onto this tradition. Big empty room, and suddenly this 20 foot behemoth comes out of the blue.

The big counter point for this is the Tales series, namely the ones I’ve played through, Vesperia and Arise. I have given Arise grief, but it does encounters well. Now, we are not talking about whether it is turned based or not, merely the way you enter these combat encounters. The enemies you see in the exploration map will be the ones you face.

Now, Dragon Quest has also played around with enemies on the map in recent years. Often they appear and disappear at random, and wander around in random directions before they run at you. While this is preferable to the classic method, what Arise does better is take it another step. They’re not just milling about, there are set encounters placed on the map (reappearing when you leave and enter the area) and have some context. Giant wolves around an overturned wagon, Airborne monsters in a high place, bonus bosses in their given lairs.

The way they are distributed in Tales of Arise serves a couple of purposes. One, as noted, giving them context. Two, giving you a feeling that you cleared an area for the moment, that defeating the monsters has made the place (albeit temporarily) safe. Three, it makes the hunt for monsters in a given side quest into a search and not just bumbling around waiting to be struck.

Lastly, it also makes entering an encounter into a decision making process. Do you destroy every single one again for the exp, and possibly lose precious resources? Or have you done this room already and would like to take the path of least resistance to find your way to other treasures or a boss? This makes the interaction with these encounters more engaging.

While this is subjective, I stand by my statement that this is a more fun method. As for the supposed “purity” I am looking for, it probably is not what I think it is. On a tabletop, most DMs won’t have you barraged with fight after fight, since there isn’t enough time for that in a given session. And usually, an encounter is made for a story reason, not just to throw more goons at you. Simply put there is a lot more potential in having set up encounters on the map than random encounters. In my personal opinion, it is perhaps one of the many grandfathered systems (like gear grinding and constant number inflation) that needs a thorough re-evaluation.

[21st-century-minutiae]

Misleading headlines are a common problem in the early twenty-first century. In the war for attention, headlines (one line summaries that serve as links to articles) are often written in a way that fascinates or titillates readers, especially by stating a charged viewpoint that the reader either agrees with or disagrees with. Misleading headlines leave an implication that the reader can emotionally react to and engage with, even if it is contradicted by the article itself. The headlines get shared and engagement occurs, even without the article being read.

In the case of the above article, with direct allusion to the ongoing hollywood strike, the implication is that attempting to replace human writers will mean that studios will no longer be able to copyright their works, screwing them over. Because many readers want Hollywood to be screwed over, they distribute the article without actually reading it, spreading indirect misinformation. This is especially true for paywalled articles.

In truth, this particular event has to do with the creator of an AI system trying to assign a copyright of a procedurally generated image to the AI system. The government refused to award the copyright to the system, so the system's creator appealed, and a judge struck down that appeal, claiming that copyrights are for human creations. This is similar to a previous case where a monkey got a hold of a camera and took a picture of itself and an animal rights group sued to try to give the monkey the copyright, which was dismissed by the courts.

Notably, as explained by the judge and detailed in the article. there would have been no issue if the human who used the AI system to make the image claimed copyright over the image. Arrangements and tool-assisted products are considered copyrightable, just like how the owner of the camera stolen by the monkey was able to claim copyright over the picture. If the AI System Creator had won their case, then the legal implication would be that the Creator would have a potential avenue to gain rights to everything created by the tool by anyone.

The implications of this ruling, with regards to the ongoing Hollywood strikes, are twofold. First, if a studio uses AI to generate most, if not all, of their production, they will need at least one human to own the copyright. Second, if a studio uses an AI tool to produce a show, the creator of the tool won't be able to claim they own the work. This particular case is not a matter of protecting writers from scummy Hollywood, rather it protects Hollywood from scummy patent trolls.

This is a good example of a misleading reporting as, while the headline itself is true, and the article does not misreport, it implies a connection that is misleading. Implying "Hollywood is screwed in the strike" was able to successfully get a lot more circulation on the internet than an alternative and more accurate "case law about AI copyright is getting more defined, which protects studios in some cases but prevents other potential abuses to and by studios."

This really makes the Studios costing themselves even more money (and getting more unions involved) by prolonging the strike for the promise of free ai labor even more fucking funny. you dumb fucking bastards lol

[salamatire]

Understand when your Car Needs wheel Balancing and Alignment Services

Erroneous wheel alignment or wheel balancing can have detrimental effects on your safety and tire life, as well as unnecessary expenses. We'll go into great detail on wheel alignment and wheel balancing services in this post, including when it should be done. We'll also examine the effects of improper wheel alignment and how to remedy them.

Wheel balancing: what is it?

The tire and rim assembly is what we really mean when we discuss wheel balancing. When one part of the tire or rim is heavier or lighter than the others, the wheel may become unbalanced. This unequal distribution of mass is what leads to an imbalance.

The goal of wheel balancing services is to provide the wheel with a mass to compensate for its imbalance and enable the best possible rotation. You can choose SalamaTire for Wheel balancing services in KSA for your car.

What makes wheel balance crucial?

At certain speeds, vibrations in the suspension and vehicle structure can be produced by a significant imbalance in the wheel and tire assembly. In addition to making driving uncomfortable, these vibrations can hasten the deterioration of your tires' tread and other suspension parts. Increased expenses result from premature wear when tires must be replaced before their time.

Wheel balancing guarantees that you won't have to deal with the hassle of unpleasant car vibrations or have to replace your unevenly worn tires too soon.

When should I have my wheels balanced?

When a tire is installed, balancing is always required. Your wheel could need to be rebalanced if it has been struck by something, like a curb, as the rim might have been damaged. Have it checked by a specialist if you are unsure.

Wheel alignment: what is it?

In contrast to balancing, which often concerns the wheel and tire assembly, alignment actually pertains to the suspension system of the car. To align the suspension of your car, you must change the wheel angles to match the recommendations made by the manufacturer. This entails modifying the alignment and camber of the car, as will be covered in more depth later.

This is a complicated procedure that needs to be completed by an expert.

When should I get the alignment of my wheels checked?

When you see uneven tire wear, notice any changes in handling or steering, or when new tires are installed, it is advised that you have your wheel alignment examined and seek for Wheel Alignment services.

Why is adjusting the wheel alignment important?

Wheel alignment that has been properly corrected enhances both tire life and vehicle handling.

You also save money because: you consume less fuel; your tires last longer

SalamaTire, a leading car repair service provider in KSA provides affordable services for your car. Along with wheel balancing, wheel alignment, it also provides Battery replacement services to its customers. You can check it out if your car needs any service regarding its tires, engine or battery.

[arbitrarygreay]

I am now at a point in my life where novelty value is actually forcing itself to be a pertinent factor in why I enjoy what I watch. I want stories to have a vision of the utopia they desire, and to explore the reasons it does not yet exist, and what kind of steps move the world closer or further away from it. How this manifests is that if I watch stories that merely explore the human condition, but don't really offer any new insight, it doesn't matter how "powerful" a well executed piece of narrative craft is, I will not be that moved. 101 or even 201 level themes just don't do it for me anymore. (This part is bypassed when the characters and relationships are to my taste. Unfortunately, as I've said in some previous post, world-building and themes are a major part of not fucking those things up. Luckily, FUN TRAIN!!! also supercedes this. ) Anyways, I've alluded in the previous comparison posts to how Sanctuary is uniquely appealing to me as a genre show on the strength of its plot content (instead of the usual character/relationship hooks per above). Its thematic approach is a part of this, as well, offering some novel longform choices I haven't seen before, and appreciate a lot. Per the Dr. Who comparison post, I like a lot that this show cares about infrastructure and logistics in its world-building, which is then directly portrayed as things its central protagonist cares about and cultivates in her world. How is it that it's so unusual for a genre show to take society-building seriously? What inspired this post specifically, though, is how I was struck that the show doesn't have "researching the ancient texts" as a standard part of its formula, the way most other "supernatural creatures" shows do (e.g. Buffy, Legacies). Sanctuary is the first western genre show that answers my critique from this post. Sure, the show does indulge in some "ancient ruins and trap puzzles" in the earlier seasons, but those are the exception rather than the rule, and there is never a sense that modern humanity cannot surpass them. The past is not sacred power. In other shows, the information about creatures and artifacts alike begins and ends with legends and myths from the past. There is no innovation or evolution. Even in shows like The Librarians and Warehouse 13, which feature modern day artifact creation, the end result is those items being archived for eternity, never to be revised /refined for future distributed usage. Sanctuary ultimately sneers at that way of thinking. It bridges the gap between "the world is older/deeper than you know" and "scientific study of superhumans can only be benevolent starting from the present". It's far from the only show to claim "an adventure of endless wonder", but it does seem to be uniquely about wanting to let others in on it instead of hording it away. Even when the show has cases where the mad scientists have gone too far and Helen plays a more conservative position, the show doesn't leave the plea for progress by said mad scientists unanswered. It will circle back around to dismantle those flawed systems anyways.

[gregg-reuben]

Evenly distributed

Evenly distributed https://seths.blog/2023/10/evenly-distributed/ For the first time, the only time, everyone on Earth was in the same boat at the same time. We’ve long been divided by privilege, by caste, by accidents of birth or by organized hierarchies. Sure, there have been events that struck us all at once. Landing on the moon caused us all to gasp simultaneously. But this time was different. Regardless of class or age or nationality, the situation was right there, in front of our face. And it didn’t go away in a few news cycles. But the responses, of course, were not the same. Some profiteered and hoarded, cutting the line and seeking a profit, regardless of the cost to others. Some embraced panic while others sought to fan it. Some showed up asking for help while others decided to see who needed help. And that’s the first lesson of our pandemic. While events might be evenly distributed, responses and reactions rarely are. We are able to choose to see possibility. We are able to lead. We’re able to see beyond a day or a week into the future. Not simply a few of us. Any of us. That choice wasn’t dictated by class or station or race. It was a new decision, made each day, by people who chose to care. Volunteer firemen who showed up for the next alarm. Parents who sat with a kid instead of parking them in front of a device. Doctors who quieted their fears in order to save others. This leads to the second lesson, which is the choice that is in front of each of us. Just as the pandemic created the opportunity to lead and to contribute, the future is knocking on our doors asking us to make a new decision. For millennia, we’ve been using our resources to insulate ourselves from the weather. Some are luckier than others in their ability to find a safe haven. We learned the hard way that our fragile industrial ecosystem isn’t quite as resilient as we hoped. We discovered that we aren’t actually as insulated from nature (and each other) as we might have expected. And we learned (perhaps) that compared to the alternative, preparation is quite cheap. There will be other flu pandemics, and each time, if history is a guide, we’ll be better at fighting them. But fighting a virus is very different than fighting the weather. The weather, the inexorable rise of the sea, is going to get harder and harder to ignore. The effects are unevenly distributed now, often exposing the most vulnerable, but as we saw with a global pandemic, we won’t be able to buy ourselves peace of mind for long. The fork in the road is plain to see. Who will lead? Who will see possibility and opportunity and decide to show up now, when we can, to do something about tomorrow? And who will decide to push to go back to business as usual? Just as air travel and cruise ships spread the virus, our industrial might has planted the seeds of our destruction. At the same time, the modern world has created a system with enough leverage to save itself. While the system has leverage, the system is not resilient and the system doesn’t lead itself. The best time to begin is now. Start where you are. Don’t wait for authority or a manual. Change will come, as it always does, from us. Each of us. If we care enough to lead. The opportunity to care is evenly distributed.

[bearkunin]

Some are actually very incredibly explicit in their Georgism:

Sun Yat-Sen:

“The teaching of Henry George will be the basis of our program of reform…The (land tax) as the only means of supporting the government is an infinitely just, reasonable and equitably distributed tax, and on it we will found our new system. The centuries of heavy and irregular taxation for the benefit of the Manchus have shown China the injustice of any other system of taxation.”

Tolstoy:

I have been acquainted with Henry George since the appearance of his Social Problems. I read that book, and was struck by the correctness of his main idea, and by the unique clearness and power of his argument, which is unlike anything in scientific literature, and especially by the Christian spirit which pervades the book, making it also stand alone in the literature of science... To humanity the indispensableness of this reform is demonstrated, and its feasibleness is proved (emendations, alterations in the single tax system may be required, but the fundamental idea is a possibility); and therefore humanity cannot but do that which reason demands.

Mumia Abu-Jamal actually wrote for a Georgist journal and worked with the Henry George Institute directly, and taught Georgist concepts, so I think he is very safely included.

Some are explicitly pro-Henry George, but calling them "Georgists" may be a stretch:

Einstein:

I have already read Henry George's great book and really learnt a great deal from it. Yesterday evening I read with admiration the address about Moses. Men like Henry George are are rare unfortunately. One cannot imagine a more beautiful combination of intellectual keenness, artistic form and fervent love of justice. Every line is written as if for our generation. The spreading of these works is a really deserving cause, for our generation especially has many and important things to learn from Henry George.

Some referenced Henry George positively, but I think extrapolating from that is definitely a stretch (MLK in his “Where do we go from here?” speech)

William F. Buckley was familiar with Henry George, and was influenced by some Georgists. This includes being tutored by the explictly Georgist Frank Chodorov and having Albert Nock as a family friend. But as far as I know was never really a stalwart advocate of either Land Value Taxation or Georgism more broadly. It seems quite possible to me he would have considered a LVT "the least bad tax" ala Milton Friedman, but I'm not that familiar with him to be honest.

I'm not sure what the Ida B. Wells connection is, so would have to dig. Edit: The Ida B. Wells connection seems incredibly tenuous. She attended a Single Tax Conference in the early 1900s. Definitely running in some Georgist circles, but I'm not familiar with her enough to extrapolate how much that actually influenced her own ideas.

the list of people claimed as Georgists on the wikipedia page is pretty funny, and i’m not a little skeptical. but i’d love to use it for propaganda purposes. “Hi, we’re the Geolibertarian Party. Our inspirations include Sun Yat-Sen, Albert Einstein, Tolstoy, Ida B. Wells, MLK, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and William F. Buckley. We promise we are not insane.”

[mariacallous]

In their first act of legislative business, the new House Republican majority voted to cut funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The vote was a symbolic effort to repeal the $80 billion increase in funding the revenue agency received last year as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. Cutting IRS funding is a terrible idea. A well-funded IRS can distribute emergency aid quickly, serve taxpayers efficiently, and help ensure that millionaires have to follow the tax laws just like everyone else. It’s an essential investment in good government.

The IRS has been persistently underfunded for decades, but the years since 2010 have been particularly tough. Tax law expert Chye-Ching Huang notes that the enforcement budget of the IRS dropped by nearly a quarter in less than ten years. In 2017, the IRS employed less than 10,000 revenue agents—the last time that was true was 1953: the Brooklyn Dodgers were in the World Series, the median housing price was about $8,000, and the IRS was handling over 100 million fewer individual income tax returns a year. The IRS is also “overwhelmingly reliant” on antiquated technology, the U.S. Taxpayer Advocate notes, “systems that are at least 25 years old, use obsolete programming languages (e.g., COBOL), or lack vendor support, training, or resources to maintain.”

It is worth noting how much the IRS has managed to achieve despite its perpetually inadequate resources. When COVID struck, for example, only the IRS had the capacity to send millions of emergency checks to keep American households afloat. As my Tax Policy Center colleague Howard Gleckman has said, the IRS “did an extraordinary job in getting these checks out in very difficult circumstances.”

But the budgetary toll of persistent underfunding is unmistakable. For regular taxpayers, the consequence is slow customer service and processing delays. Some politicians have irresponsibly suggested that every new IRS employee will be a gun-toting enforcement agent. Actually, the IRS desperately needs employees to process refunds and answer tax filers’ phone calls. Out of the 282 million phone calls the IRS received in 2021, only 11% or 32 million were actually answered. Nearly half the new IRS money is going to taxpayer services and modernization, which will make the agency more responsive and efficient for taxpayers.

About $45 billion of the $80 billion in new funding is going to enforcement, and that is great news. For the wealthiest and most sophisticated tax filers, a cash-strapped IRS has meant a tax evasion free-for-all. Currently, the tax gap, which is the amount in taxes that are owed but not paid, comes to nearly $7 trillion over a decade. Three fifths of the tax gap is due to underreporting of income by the top 10% of taxpayers, and more than a quarter comes from the top 1%.

But the IRS has been left without the resources to hire and support the kind of tax experts who can catch wealthy tax cheats. The lack of staff was highlighted recently when it was revealed that the audit of former president Donald Trump was staffed by exactly one revenue agent. But Trump wasn’t the only one whose taxes were going without thorough examination. Audits of millionaires have dropped 61% in less than a decade. For those making more than $5 million, the audit rate has dropped 87%.

At the same time, responding to a push from Congress, the IRS has focused instead on a much cheaper form of audit, targeting recipients of the Earned Income Tax Credit—i.e. low-income, working families. As a result, the EITC recipients are audited at the same rate as the top 1% of earners. As law professor Dorothy Brown explains, the consequence of high levels of EITC audits is a serious racial disparity in tax policing.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has insisted that the new funding not be used to increase audit rates on those earning less than $400,000 a year. So, the new funding will help rebuild the capacity of the IRS to audit the wealthy, making the tax system far fairer. And, of course, closing the tax gap raises revenues—it’s a policy that more than pays for itself. The IRS investments are expected to raise $124 billion.

The Republican effort to repeal the IRS’s $80 billion funding increase will not move forward in the Democrat-controlled Senate. But the IRS might yet see its funding decline, if the House Republicans negotiate a cut in the budget fights later this year. If that happens, it is bad news for the millions of American households who pay their taxes honestly, and great news for the country’s richest tax evaders. Funding the IRS will shore up an essential government service, making tax filing easier and tax enforcement fairer.

[rustyvolumedial3-archive]

Dust to Rust

Rusty, Dusty, Rustpaw/Dustpaw... last of a cohort of ten, but are the others truly dead, or merely scattered?

The cassette can't recall.

When the War first got fully underway, their host - he was tall, with orange plating so dark it seemed brown in dim light - made a grim decision. He took Volume, his one and only independent creation, barely half a vorn old, and stuck the kid inside a stasis pod to hide away in their home's basement. A temporary measure, he reassured everyone. Volume's fuel requirements equaled that of all of the cassettes put together, and with so little in the way of life skills to compensate, it made sense to tuck the kid away, safely waiting for the violence to die down and energon to become more affordable once again.

The violence did not die down.

They all did their best to maintain the illusion of normalcy, of course, but then- a warning delivered to the whole city. Decepticons incoming. Mandatory evacuation. Pack only the essentials, nothing too heavy for subspace, certainly not the stasis pod still sitting downstairs. They left the kid behind - not that any of them wanted to, but what else could they do, in so little time?

Their shuttle departed second to last from the city's public launch pads. The one behind them sustained damage from the initial bombing sweep. It went down in flames.

Eventually, all refugees were disbursed, distributed to neutral zones and neat encampments. Refugees. Their cohort's host scoffed at the word. 'Refugees' were poor, dirty, underfed beings - he merely needed to find steady work, and they'd all be back in a comfortable house in no time.

Work did come, but not steady, and certainly not the intellectual sort he was used to. Instead, they found themselves laboring as extra hands at construction zones, shipyards, supply depots. Their credits dwindled - the bribes to get regular time allotments in the washracks were first abandoned. Then the actual payments for any scheduled allotments at all. 'Dirty' became a good description for all of them, and as the camp's supply lines came under attack, 'underfed' was added to the list.

A minor virus spread through the camp's inhabitants. Three of their number caught it, suffered the rust creeping across their plating and into their joints. Two recovered. One did not.

Even their host, finally, could no longer deny the sorry state their cohort had descended to. He didn't move for a full day, sitting on the floor of their assigned hab tent, a silent avian frame resting in his servos.

The attack came not long after.

Out of a camp that sheltered thousands, only a few hundred refugees escaped in a ramshackle convoy defended by the first Autobots to respond. Decepticon Seekers continued to harry them all the way out of 'neutral' territory, which was soon swallowed up by the growing Empire. All of Cybertron, it seemed, was going to be dragged into one side or the other.

So. They left.

Off-world entirely, on a ship bound for the next solar system over. Some refugees disembarked there, hoping to be able to return home swiftly once the War ended. Others continued grimly onward, certain such an end would be a long time coming.

(Yet even to them, millions of years of conflict seemed incomprehensibly unlikely.)

The ship found its wandering way to an inhabited comet, which followed a regular path through and around six star systems, the merchants living upon it trading with every civilization they encountered. For a time, the cohort remained there, eking out a small living, stockpiling as much energon as they could collect.

When another two of their number died, killed by a mugger seeking that energon, the rest of them decided to move on a second time.

And so it went - finding a place to stay, taking on whatever work was available, enduring until tragedy struck... An awful pattern. All of them bound to a broken mech, who stood hunched instead of tall, armor that used to shine long since turned dull and grimy.

Until he, too, perished.

Not long after, the turbo-wolf formerly known as Dustpaw began to pick and choose what information qualified as vital to survival, and purged less important pieces of data to make room. How the cohort's former host died? Unnecessary. He was gone- nothing more to be said. Any other remaining members of the cohort? Equally useless information. Discarded.

Four. Four of them yet lived, when their host became One with the Allspark. They voluntarily went their separate ways, the better to avoid being hunted down. Data-specializing robots, particularly ones small enough to feasibly be captured and enslaved, were targeted far too often to risk sticking together.

Dustpaw ceased to exist.

Rust-paw, so called for the external plating that still bore obvious signs of the old rust infection, became a master of sorting what details needed to remain, and what could safely be forgotten. Siblings? Gone, but for a face and what data they liked to collect. Harmless, sentimental, small enough not to take up too much storage space. Vital for identification, if any of them ever met again.

Credits went towards energon, as always, but also small upgrades: new claws that could extend to greater length. Two serrated teeth on each jaw, which could detach one at a time and remain embedded in a target to act as tracking devices. Injectors kept in hidden compartments, filled with poisons and neural inhibitors, extra long needles capable of piercing even a frontliner's exposed cables.

In short, all the sorts of things that made Rustpaw a highly sought after asset, hired by the worst sorts of beings for dark work on darker nights. And the cassette became good at that work. Years, centuries, multiple millennia passed. Memories continued to be analyzed and deleted to maintain room for necessary job-related data. Another reason Rustpaw remained so highly respected - literally, no information about a particular assignment would be saved and potentially sold to interested parties. Even if captured by authorities, the wolf could be relied upon not to spill secrets.

Of course, no authorities ever caught Rusty. Not even when they tried.

This might have gone on for all eternity, a lone cassette existing in perpetual cycles of knowledge acquisition and deletion, if not for some unexpected news that shook half the cosmos.

The 'Great' Cybertronian Civil War- over.

Ended.

Done.

Faint data pinged from tertiary storage, suddenly granted new importance. A face surfaced, a name: Volume.

The only one Rusty never purged. Couldn't purge, not for anything. The only one that might truly matter, when it belonged to a kid who'd be so very lost when released from stasis.

Rustpaw went home.

[cheri-translates]

[CN] Concepts and Events in S2

🍒 Warning: This post contains detailed spoilers for S2 content 🍒

Original writer: 被文案组逼疯的剧情分析

Source: here

This serves as a companion to the official S2 plot review. Contains information known till S2 Ch 17.

Contents:

The Orphanage Kidnapping Incident

Small Syringes in MC’s company

Evol assassination incidents

Assassination attempts on Victor

LFG acquiring drug manufacturing companies

The Hunter Game

Evolver Assassination Namelist 1.0

The ruins

EVOL Research Report

A. The Orphanage Kidnapping Incident

1. Mastermind 

Black Swan

2. When MC woke up in S2, she realised that she returned to her five-year-old state, and is back in the orphanage

3. Her father appeared to have become one of the researchers in Black Swan

4. Regarding MC’s father:

S1: MC didn’t see her father in the orphanage

S2: MC saw her father by her side once she woke up

S1: MC’s father exposed the kidnapping incident

S2: MC’s father was averse to seeing anything related to the incident

5. Regarding the victims:

S1 Kiro: Key left, and the organisation allowed Key to train a successor. Key selected and adopted Kiro

S2 Kiro: MC’s intervention resulted in Key taking Kiro away at an earlier stage

S1 Victor: His attempt to escape failed. In order to protect him, MC was struck by lightning. Afterwards, Victor spent 17 years looking for MC

S2 Victor: His attempt to escape succeeded, but MC chose to return to the orphanage. The promise they made before they parted was that Victor would make pudding for MC in the future

S1 Lucien: Met MC under a camphor tree. 9-year-old Lucien assisted in BS Evol modification experiments. After the orphanage kidnapping incident, he reunited with MC in his adulthood

S2 Lucien: After parting at the camphor tree, they met again in the orphanage. 9-year-old Lucien was still a genius youth in BS. MC gave Lucien a peace knot, and Lucien cherished it till his adulthood

S1 Gavin: He was not a victim in the orphanage kidnapping incident

S1 MC: BS stimulated memories of her being a victim in the orphanage kidnapping incident

S2 MC: She completely remembered everything related to the incident 

Other nameless victims

6. NW’s involvement

In S1, NW was not involved in the orphanage kidnapping incident

7. Discovering that CORE was a key to evolution

In S1, Queen was the key to evolution

8. The week after

The kidnapping at Twin Leaf Orphanage was publicly exposed. This became the first odious incident since Evol was revealed

STF stated that it had no relation to the experiments, and that it was determined to investigate Black Swan’s responsibility

In the end, a few members from BS shouldered the responsibility of the experiment. They left the organisation and vanished

However, this became a spark which ignited societal discussion and opposition towards the existence of Evol in the next decade

B. Small Syringes in MC’s Company

1. How it started

MC reported her company to the STF

2. Objectives

To investigate how the illegal Small Syringes were being circulated

To drop hints to Gavin that there were spies in STF

3. Process

MC stored syringes filled with saltwater in the storeroom of the company, then arranged for someone to report this to STF

In front of the media, MC was taken away by STF on the grounds of suspected illegal drug trafficking. This was meant to draw out the mastermind behind the Small Syringes or any middlemen

However, some of the saltwater ended up getting replaced by real Small Syringes. Gray Rhino wanted to use this opportunity to conceal the actual traffickers

MC and Gavin discovered that there were two spies from Gray Rhino in the STF

F-45, who had the Evol of swapping objects, swaps the fake Small Syringes in MC’s company with real Small Syringes

U-2 had an explosion Evol

While reading F-45′s memories, MC saw Grey Rhino’s large warehouse and a man with ink gray eyes

F-45 and U-2 died, bringing this matter to an end

MC cleared her company’s name regarding drug trafficking

C. EVOLVER ASSASSINATION INCIDENTS

1st Incident

Victim: Unknown

2nd Incident

Victim: A player in the Hunter Game. He was killed because he disclosed information regarding the Hunter Game

3rd Incident

Victim: Unknown

Old Pi witnessed the murder but the plot did not provide a detailed account of this. His leads cleared MC of suspicion regarding the Evolver assassinations

4th Incident

 Victim: Unknown

5th Incident

Victim: Unknown

6th Incident:

Victim: A player in the Hunter Game

Lu Kang witnessed the murder

Before the Hunter Game ended, the victim fled from the venue and was killed by someone clothed in black with the Evol to change his hand into a blade in Qianzhou Street

7th Incident: 

Victim: Sun Zi Nan

Perpetrator: Gray Rhino

This murder was meant to lure MC

Note: Based on the published Evolver Assassination Namelist, it appears that there are more than 7 victims

D. ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS ON VICTOR

1st Incident

Location: Viaduct. While Victor was driving, his car was deliberately bumped against. The assassination attempt was unsuccessful. The boot of Victor’s car was hit, and the perpetrator’s car crashed through the railing

The perpetrator sustained severe injuries, and was admitted into the ICU. Victor was unscathed

Victor waited for the mastermind in the hospital. When the perpetrator woke up, MC used her Evol to read his memories and learnt that his name was Lu Kang

Lu Kang was killed by a black clothed man with an Evol which turns his hand into a blade. This man resembles the profile of the killer in the Hunter Game in Lu Kang’s memories

Based on investigations, Lu Kang was attempting to exact revenge on Victor due to a financial struggle between their companies

2nd Incident

Location: Roof of LFG

Method: Sniper

Perpetrator: Unknown

Only a shell case was left on the scene

Through Victor’s investigations, he discovered that Gray Rhino purchased these weapons

But this did not eliminate the possibility that someone deliberately left the clues in an attempt to frame Gray Rhino

3rd Incident

On the evening after the Evolver Assassination Namelist was disclosed, Victor realised that the brakes of his car were not functioning

Victor noted that the person who meddled with the car is very familiar with the workings of vehicles

Fortunately, the incident was not dangerous, and no one was hurt

After conducting an investigation, it was discovered that the perpetrator came from a background of wealth, and was also the boss of a secret club which modifies vehicles

The wealthy boss was murdered. The media surmised that this was yet another new Evolver assassination incident, but Victor said that this was unlikely

Victor guessed that the wealthy boss was silenced in order to hide the identities of those in the Hunter Game

E. LFG ACQUIRING DRUG MANUFACTURING COMPANIES

Motives

To lure out the mastermind behind the Small Syringes. As of now, we know that the organisations and people related to the Small Syringes are: (a) people who transact with Small Syringes in the dark web; (b) a group of old fogeys in BS; (c) Joker; (d) Gray Rhino; and (e) NW

To search for CORE

What Happened

Drugs related to Evol must be approved by the Drug Administration or the R&D Department of the STF

However, Evol-related drugs were being traded in secret

Victor assigned the task of investigating this matter to MC and Duan Jun Jie

MC was responsible for investigating the distribution line of the Small Syringes

Duan Jun Die was responsible for handling the acquisition of drug companies, using this as a bait

As the acquisition damaged the interests of the mastermind behind the Small Syringes, Victor faced multiple assassination attempts

Victor intended to find someone to divulge how LFG was acquiring drug companies in order to gain the attention of the mastermind. Shocked and worried, MC recommended herself, thinking that using her company was the most beneficial choice

Under VIctor’s direction, MC’s media company announced the news that LFG was maliciously acquiring a large number of drug companies

The news received massive uproar. Online commentators criticised LFG’s takeovers, and LFG’s share price plummeted

In the eyes of the outside world, the relationship between MC and Victor had broken down

F. THE SMALL SYRINGES

People / Organisations that have acquired Small Syringes

The black market. However, the Small Syringes disseminated in the black market are of an inferior quality

Someone with ink gray eyes supplied some to Gray Rhino

Utilised in the Hunter Game - the Small Syringes have a strengthening effect

MC stole ten cartons when the STF was investigating the Small Syringes, and they were sent to BS

Old fogeys in BS appear to have invested in the Small Syringes

NW managed to acquire Small Syringes with modification effects from an unknown source

A drug which stimulates / strengthens Evol

There is a 0.0002% chance of stimulating Evol

It has mild traces of CORE

Its specific source is unknown. However, we know that Victor’s acquisition of the drug companies caused a reduced distribution in the market and the Hunter Game.

Side-effects

Memory loss

Might lead to Evol going out of control

G. THE HUNTER GAME

Main organiser: 

Joker + A group of young lackeys

Motives for organising it: 

To open the ruins

To test the Small Syringes

Introduction to the Hunter Game

This game started three years ago. Initially, it was rumoured to be a small-scale game. However, it gradually increased in scale, and there aren’t detailed information available regarding the organisers

There are two ways to participate in the game

(1) The first way is by being a participant. Through participating in the game, you accumulate points. The three top-ranking players can choose to proceed to the next round in order to obtain even more points. Alternatively, they can exchange points for huge rewards. The only way to obtain points is by attacking others. According to the severity and consequences of the attack, the system will assess players and award a proportionate point. The most points are awarded for killing. As such, participants would choose to kill their opponents most of the time. The mastermind has a way of letting these acts remain undiscovered

(2) The second way is by placing bets. All participants in the game will be documented with hidden cameras in their metal neckbands. Different people observe them through the screen and can place bets. Punters can obtain privileges, and can increase their bets while watching the game through the surveillance cameras. If their bets are successful, they will win money

The game is split according to “zones” and “levels”. People in the same level will participate in the game in various parts of the world

Rules of the Hunter Game

Participants will begin their fight in various areas. The top three players can progress to the next level of the game and also obtain rewards from the first level. They can also choose to leave. Those who manage to live but fail to progress to the next stage can choose to participate in the challenge again or abandon it

Those who place bets can win money if their bets are successful

After leaving the game, those who divulge information about the Hunter Game will be killed

Those who flee from the venue of the game before the round ends will be killed

Victor

Using a fake identity, he placed a bet and participated in the Hunter Game in Zone 9, Level 2

His bet was successful

Southern Hemisphere - Zone 8, Level 1

Lucien received an invitation to the Hunter Game and was roped into it. Lucien saved himself using a gravity Evol. Since then, no one has attempted to kill him

Suburbs of Loveland City, Zone 9, Level 1

While investigating the game, Kiro came across MC’s name in the list. He removed MC’s name from it

However, MC ended up receiving an invitation and was forced to participate in the game

After realising this, Kiro entered the game to search for MC

Ah Liu brought MC out of the Hunter Game, but was stopped by Joker

Kiro replaced MC and continued the game. He successfully progressed to the next level

During his archaeological studies, Shaw appeared in the vicinity of the Hunter Game. Shaw didn’t have the game’s neckband, and he didn’t seem to be a participant of the Hunter Game. During MC’s conversation with him, Shaw didn’t seem to know about the existence of the Hunter Game

Desert, Zone 10, Level 1

For some reason, Gavin was roped into the competition and progressed to the next level successfully. He met the main organiser Joker, and managed to test that Joker’s ability is to negate Evol

Underwater Museum

While strolling outside the Underwater Museum, MC and Lucien inadvertently stepped into a venue of the Hunter Game and became “special players”

If any hunter attacked them, they would be awarded ten times the amount of points

MC and Lucien surmised that the organiser’s plan was to use the Hunter Game to simulate the orphanage experiments from 17 years ago

Through their tacit understanding and a battle, MC and Lucien successfully escaped from other players and left the venue

Joker’s lackey invited MC and Lucien to continue participating in the Hunter Game under normal conditions, but MC and Lucien declined

A large dock in the suburbs meant for shipbuilding, Zone 3, Level 2

To further investigate the relationship between the ruins and the game, MC, with Helios’ help, participated in the Hunter’s Game as punters

LFG’s acquisition of drug companies severely affected the quantity of Small Syringes in the Hunter Game

After the Evolver Assassination Namelist was released to the public, many people no longer dared to place bets. This in turn lowered the threshold of who could participate as a punter. The mastermind gradually cared less and less about the confidentiality of the Hunter Game

This time, Shaw has a Hunter Game neckband around his neck. He passed the first level

MC and Shaw exchanged information, and Shaw surmised that the organiser wanted to use the Hunter Game to open the ruins with Evol. However, the MC stated that she could enter the ruins with ease

Shaw successfully progressed to the next level. However, he lost consciousness due to an overuse of his Evol

Shaw was sent to the hospital by a youth with the Evol of teleportation. MC was taken away because she broke the rules of the game

Loveland City, the final Hunter Game

Joker released a poisonous gas, leaving everyone in Loveland City with only 6 hours left to live

Those who are dealt “Joker” cards have to catch “Humans” and steal their air supply in order to lengthen their survival time in the fog. “Jokers” who manage to catch “Humans” will be awarded points

Those who are “Human” can use the map on their phones to search for air supply in order to lengthen their survival. If a “Human” manages to kill a “Joker”, they will be awarded points

“Humans” who are caught by “Jokers” will be transported to the underground of a small island

During the game, Joker and his accomplices took Lucien away to prevent the latter’s research of the fog from ruining the game

In order to lengthen MC’s survival, Shaw volunteered to get caught by MC, and ended up transported to another place which wasn’t the small island

Through the system, Helios installed new rules of the game: If anyone continues to fight, the air supply they obtain will lose its effectiveness. Those who offer assistance to other players will earn more points.

Joker revealed himself, and Helios engaged in a negotiation with him - Helios will take Joker to open the Lighthouse, while Joker has to send MC to a safe place and disperse the fog

MC sought assistance from STF to rescue those trapped in the underground island, only to discover that Gavin was there since a long time ago

Joker was actually holding another round of the Hunter Game in the underground island, but things returned to a state of order because of Gavin

At this point, the fog in Loveland City came back once again. Gavin returned to Loveland City and “retrieved” the fog with his Evol

Gavin’s fingers started to turn transparent due to an overuse of Evol

H. Evolver Assassination Namelist 1.0

Note: This is not the only namelist

People in the list

The victims in the seven publicly announced Evolver assassination incidents. They were also confirmed to be the ones who went missing recently

Participants of the Hunter Game

Names of people whose locations can’t be identified

The 40 year old man whom MC met in the Hunte Game has been marked with a red “lost contact”

Possible identities of the people in the list

Those who participated in the Hunter Game multiple times

Those who placed bets in the Hunter Game

Organisers of the Hunter Game - Joker and his accomplices have been confirmed

Pros and cons of disclosing the list

Pros: Doing so would clear MC’s name in the Evolver assassinations, as well as cause the mastermind behind the assassination incidents to panic

Cons: It might lead to the mastermind taking revenge e.g. assassination attempts on Victor

Why the list needed to be given to MC

(1) MC had participated in the Hunter Game and can confirm the veracity of the list. At the same time, she had the ability to disclose it to the public

(2) The other party seemed to want to collaborate with MC

Motive of the person who sent the namelist

(1) To drag LFG down

(2) To use MC and the public to search for information for him

I. The ruins

Ruins left behind by a prehistoric civilisation

The “Lighthouse” is within it

It documents a prehistoric civilisation and its technology, culture, societal appearance and its unyielding struggle against the end of the world

Although this isn’t the only prehistoric civilisation which was annihilated, only the Lighthouse Civilisation has been opened

J. EVOL Research Report

Evol gene may be related to organic illnesses

Overuse of Evol may lead to a deterioration according to the unique nature of the Evol e.g. Shaw had a fever, Gavin started to disappear, an Evolver who could control water developed a fear of water

The Evol gene could be a virus itself

Evolvers recover less easily when they fall sick or are injured

[ Permission to translate ]

被文案组逼疯的剧情分析: You can, but I need to mention some things upfront. 

被文案组逼疯的剧情分析: Sometimes, MLQC players will quarrel because of the discussion on whether Gavin and Shaw are brothers. Personally, I do not think Gavin and Shaw are brothers, and such analysis will not appear here. Even if I have no choice but to put them together, I do not wish for this to have any relation to them being brothers. I hope you wouldn’t add things that I originally didn’t mention into your translations.

[silyabeeodess]

FusionFall Headcanons: Fire Hydras

Fire Hydras are one of the most disturbing monsters to appear in Fuse’s army, distinguished by their giant, red eyes stuck in the heart of a mess of writhing tentacles. They are capable of acting both alone and in large groups, so fusion fighters can easily get caught unawares and struck from behind by a surprise enemy. In short, never run toward them without knowing exactly how many are in the area or without a plan of attack.  

Follow the game’s model and concept art, the Fire Hydras tend to have six “tentacles” made up from the thick hoses tangled around their bodies. While they can attack from any direction because of this, they can also use all six nozzles in-sync to launch concentrated blasts of fusion matter at their enemies.      

Its evolved cousin, the Dire Hydra, is noted to have gotten its name from the mythical creature despite this type of monster not matching it. Meanwhile, the Hydras do seem to fit with the real-life invertebrate of the same name. These tentacled creatures are predators that “use their stinging cells to stun, entangle, or kill their prey before eating it,” which fits with the Fire Hydra’s ability to stun its own victims. This likely isn’t the only similarity: While they tend to hover through the air, the latter could also use its own tentacles to move around and grab onto surfaces.       

The description for the Fire Hydras explains that they start fires rather than putting them out. Nevertheless, I don’t think this is to be taken entirely literally and is instead meant to reference their destructive capabilities. In the mission “Getting Dizzy with It (Part 3 of 3),” Fusion Ace uses the Fire Hydras to help him with his plans to burn down the Dizzy World Amusement Park; however, the mission specifically says that Fusion Ace is the one actually starting fires while the Hydras’ job was to steal water from fire hydrants so no one could stop them from spreading.

The implication that they “steal water,” as stated in the mission though, is really interesting. Fire hydrants are connected to a water line, so attacking them means that the Hydra’s are likely attacking a city’s main water distribution system. (I did read examples though where sea water is used, so this appears to vary by location.) To “steal water,” it’s not that just the fire hydrants are destroyed, but also the underground pipes connected to them. This opens up to even grimmer possibilities of the monsters working to block the flow of water throughout all of an area and/or contaminating the water supply with fusion matter.    

A Fire Hydra’s weakest spot is their large, solitary eye located at the core of their bodies. For however much metal and tubbing may surround them, their eyes are still large targets that are easily penetrated. These monsters will often lash out with their tentacles in order to defend them and, once they are blinded, will only become more erratic.

Dire Hydras seem to have perfected the ability to “attack from all directions at once.” Another note of the difference in strength between them and the Fire Hydra is that the former’s boss is the only one of their type of monster to have a unique name, the Alpha Hydra--only further pointing to their superiority.