#and the fact that the user that made the doc showed evidence of this person scamming people with their 30+ blogs

[loser-brain]

Was gonna make a long post. Maybe later, but anyway, avoid Stais-World.

They are a scammer and trace art. Constantly begging people to commission them and guilt them into giving or tipping them money.

I'm so glad I stayed strong and didn't give them money. I honestly felt bad turning them down and was thinking of a way to help them but OH BOY am I glad to found posts saying not only do they scam people but would go out of their way to guilt trip them too and then block them if those people don't back down from having rights to be suspicious.

They changed their username from Spo-kaka because many people would alert others of them. But they still watermark/leave a signature of there old username on their work and commissions.

Just an fyi, their old username on other's posts and in replies will redirect to their new username until someone takes the name.

[xxisxxisxxis]

Gateway Drug | Part Eighty

Words: 3.1K

Warning(s): Explicit language, substance abuse, verbal abuse

Tag List: @unknownoblivion  @edwardtriggerhandzz  @haileynicoleseavey17  @cierrasixx19  @oskea93  @mgkobsessed  @sharon6713  @itsametaphorbriansblog  @miriampraez  @allie-mcginn @xpoisonousrosesx  @rebeccaphillips14  @nicholeh7 @lilmou5ie  @tamedhearts  @divaanya  @6ixx6ixx  @ratedrkohardychick91  @floregrohlssard  @oldschoolimagineblog  @thanks2pete  @abaldboi  @liith-ium  @jd-johndeacon-or-jackdaniels  @ytwahsog  @scarecrowmax  @random-internet-user-4471  @solohqrry  @sparxx27  @kaitieskidmore1  @cruecifymesixx    @meetthesixxter   @sublimeprincesswasteland  @arianareirg  @girlnight-terror

@fancywasmyname1  @teller258316  @ggorehorror  @blowinmeupwithherlove  @xrosegoldwolfx  @mylifeisjustafeverdream  @redlipscrystalskies14 @str4nge-haze @reigns420 @sixxseconds2love @leatherandheels @dogmom2014 @allyouneedislove-mp3 @n0-self-c0ntro1 @viinceneil

LET ME KNOW IF YOU WANT TO BE TAGGED

My dad always used to tell me, "wisdom is being young enough to get away with doing something stupid, but still knowing better."

I never paid any attention to it because I didn't have any stupid decisions lined up at the age of eight. Or thirteen. Or sixteen...I guess because I never experienced the art of bad decision making and their damnable consequences, all of that pent up stupidity broke loose when I was seventeen and didn't slow down until I was in my thirties.

Young enough to get away with doing something stupid…

"What the hell are you thinking, Duff?" His older brother yells.

I'm listening with my ear pressed to the door, waiting in the hallway outside of Duff's apartment...trying not to be too mortifiedly embarrassed. 

"Matt, it's—"

"—You're fooling around with a married woman, Duff, I know exactly what it is!" He yells. 

"They're getting divorced, Matt, alright? It's not like I'm-I'm just sleeping with her for the hell of it!"

"She's getting out of a six year relationship and getting a divorce at twenty-three, Duff, don't you fucking think the reasonable thing for you to do is back off and let her actually process that before having sex with her?!" 

"It's not like I'm taking advantage of her! I'm not! She loves me—"

"—She's lost! She's vulnerable! She's confused! She'd fall in love with any bone head that was a good guy right now!" He shouts at him. "What are you thinking, Duff? I mean, honestly, what the hell are you fucking thinking?" 

"I-I don't know!"

"What the fuck happens if the media gets ahold of this? If mom finds out that her son is getting hot n' heavy in cars in dark parking lots with a married girl!"

It's quiet for a second.

"I would explain that they're getting divorced, and—"

"—Bullshit. You know what she'd say? 'Married is married until divorce is finalized'." He states. 

"I think mom would be pretty understanding, Matt. I don't think she'd judge me like you are or try to talk me out of it."

"You sound like dad right now, you know that? Just fucking like him." He cuts. "And it's bullshit because I know you aren't anything like dad which is why I'm so stumped right now." 

"It's not that big of a deal." Duff argues. 

"Has she filed yet?" Matt asks next, not skipping a beat. 

"W-What?" 

"Has he filed yet? Have they filed yet?" 

"I don't know—it's not my fucking business." 

"So you're just sleeping with her and you don't even know if they're even splitting up at this point? Of course not because she probably doesn't even know what she wants!" 

"She told me she's gonna divorce him." Duff tells him, certainty in his tone. 

"Well, actions speak a hell of a lot louder than words, don't they?" Matt fires at him.  

...but still knowing better.

The door opens quickly and I pretend I wasn't listening, taking a few steps back as Matt storms out, giving me a second glance before walking down the hallway to the stairs.

I peek into the apartment to see Duff pacing, not paying any attention to me still being out here. 

I take a breath before heading after him. 

"Matt," I say when I get to the parking lot as he goes to his car, "wait."

"You don't owe me an explanation about it, sweetheart, it's between me and my brother." He tells me calmly, getting into his car. 

"Do you have a girlfriend?" I ask him, catching my breath, before he can close the door. 

He looks at me for a second. 

"Do you? Or a wife or a boyfriend or something?" 

"I have a girlfriend." He tells me. 

"How long have you been with your girlfriend?"

"Like, almost a year, now." He replies, not seeing the point of telling me this. 

"I bet you're really good to your girlfriend, Matt." I say, and he slowly catches on, sighing a little. 

"I try to be."

"Nikki wasn't good to me. For years. While he was killing himself with drugs, he was killing me with how he treated me and how he acted and when you really love somebody you sit and make excuses for them to make however they're killing you seem justified, and it's not. It never is." I explain, a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. "And you don't realize it until one day you're watching a woman you loved and trusted tell the world she's been having an affair with your husband. And then those rose lenses shatter and it's clear. You've spent years of your life giving everything to someone who would probably trade you for an ounce of smack if he ran out." I sniffle. "I really loved him, and you're right, I do still love him. I do. But I also know I'd rather die than willingly throw myself back into that hell. I haven't filed yet, but I am going to when he gets back from Japan. And I do love Duff, and he's a very, very good man. I don't know the situation with you guys' father and it's not my business, but whoever and whatever your dad is...your brother is the farthest thing from it. And I know you are, too, just from the way Duff's always spoke of you and your siblings. I'm sorry for the trouble, and I know you're just trying to look out for him, but you need to be proud of him. Not for what you saw earlier, but just for the fact he's a really great person in a city filled with selfish pricks. You need to be proud of him, and he needs to hear that you're proud of him." 

He lets out another breath, processing what I'm saying, nodding again. 

"Have a good night." He mumbles to me, shutting the door, and I let out a breath and head back upstairs, seeing Duff stopped pacing and eventually just plopped onto the couch. 

He looks at me when I come back in, his eyes sad, a solemn look on his face. 

"I'm sorry if you heard any of that." He says to me and I sit down on the couch beside him. 

"It's okay. He's just trying to look out for you, you know?" 

"I know but he doesn't even know the half of it." He sighs. "And I'm not acting like my dad because if I were I'd be sleeping with anything in a skirt and leaving my wife to deal with my eight kids. 

He tells me lowly, hurt in his voice. 

I try to find the humor in it, nudging his side. 

"You have a wife and eight kids?" I ask, smiling a little and he looks at me, his lips tugging at the corners. 

"No," his lips crack the smallest of smiles for a moment, "but even if I did I wouldn't treat them like shit." He adds. 

My hand comes up to discreetly brush against my stomach. 

"Your brother just wants the best for you." I tell him.

"Who cares? It's not his or anybody else's business." He replies, leaning back, rubbing his forehead. 

"I love you." I offer, hoping the words make him relax a little. 

He huffs out a breath, finally looking at me, his hand grabbing mine, pressing it to his lips.  

I did love him, just not the way I thought I did. I mean, when I was in love with Nikki, it was evident to everybody. I looked at him like I worshipped the ground he walked on—because I nearly did. With Duff, people had to ask me whether I really loved him or not. I always thought it was because we were moving so fast that it seemed abnormal, but in photos when Duff and I were together it was obvious he and I had no fucking clue what we were doing. We were happy with each other, and loved each other, but it was like we both subconsciously knew we weren't going to workout. At least we eventually accepted it. 

I could've divorced Nikki, eventually married Duff, anyway, and made the same bizarre decision that Tansy and Axl made to divorce twice before finally getting married a third time, years later, when their shit was together—because even if Duff and I did get married, we wouldn't have made it through the early 90s.

A couple mornings later, I'm going back to my house since the coast is clear from Nikki since he left for Japan. 

Checking the mail, I furrow my brows as I'm sorting through the bills, randomly seeing an envelope with my name on it. 

I take the mail inside and open my letter.

"What the hell?" I mumble, looking at a couple hundred dollar bills.

Then it hits me. 

"Hello?" Karen's voice on the other end of the phone, chipper as ever. 

"Why the hell am I getting sketchy money from Elektra?" I ask. 

"It's from 'Wild Side', Viv." She explains. "Because Nikki credited you as one of the writers, remember? They couldn't write you a check because it's under the table." She adds. 

"Under the table?" 

"To avoid—"

"—Well, I don't want it." I state. 

"Viv, you're getting a divorce. I'd keep every dime I could, honestly." She advises. 

"Karen, that's no…" I trail off, my mind running a mile a minute, piecing it together. "What time is it in Japan?" 

"Uhm, like, 2:00a.m. maybe?"

"Where are they staying?" 

"Vivian—"

"—I need to talk to Doc. Where are they staying?" 

I didn't want to talk to Doc. Don't ask me how I managed to harass my estranged husband from 16 time zones away, but, I did.

"You knew you were gonna divorce me, you piece of shit, that's why you credited me so I'd get money to cover divorce court!" I accuse viciously. 

"I don't fuckin' know what you've been smoking, Vivian, but you sound insane right now!" He fires back. 

"What I've been smoking? What the fuck have you been smoking, Nikki?! Huh?!"

"Have you been sleeping, Vivian?! You're being fucking psychotic!"

"I'll get on a flight and show you fucking psychotic, asshole, you set me up and then left the fucking country!"

"I credited you as a joke—I didn't think they'd actually take it serious and send you part of the royalties!" 

"Bullshit! You and Vanity planned for her to tell everybody about your bullshit with each other, knowing I'd leave you and file for divorce so you could be together!" 

"If I was that fucking mean, Vivian, I wouldn't have credited you so you wouldn't have gotten paid shit, you crazy bitch!" He insists. "And take your goddamn medication!" 

He hangs up and I roll my jaw before throwing the phone.  

I could've killed him had I felt like flying to Japan.

"Then he tells me I'm being psychotic!" I vent to Izzy over the sound of the vacuum. 

"Well, were you?!" He asks me and I cut the vacuum off. 

"No, I wasn't. I just called him out on his bullshit because he loves to think I'm stupid."

"What exactly did you say to him?" 

"That he credited me so I'd get money, that I'd probably put toward paying for a divorce."

"That's not too bad." He furrows his brows a little. 

"Exactly. Not to mention the fact I know he's still seeing Vanity and the whole plan was to tell the world they were engaged, knowing I'd leave him, so they could finally publicly be together." 

He looks at me funny, before asking, "d-did you tell him that?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, you lost me, Viv."

"What?"

"That's complete bullshit." He states. 

"How?" 

"How? Viv, the man is on a horse-sized dose of heroin on a daily basis—and the crack he would smoke with Vanity—do you think either of them had the energy or mental compacity to conduct a plan like that?" 

"They had the energy to fuck each other, so, my perception of how much they were able to do under the influence has no limits at this point." I argue. 

"I think pregnancy has you cuckoo  for cocoa puffs." He mumbles. 

"Izzy, I'm being serious." I hiss. 

"I am, too, Viv." He tells me. "I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be a complete asshole, but I just don't see Nikki high as a fucking kite coming up with this elaborate plan to leave you so he can be with his side piece while simultaneously deciding he wants you to be financially stable enough to withstand a divorce. He's a mean fucker. If he wanted to leave you, he would tell you to fuck off and file the same day without giving a flat fuck if you could afford it or not." He says. "And he's not seeing Vanity. There's no way she'd keep her mouth shut if they were still together." 

"She managed to keep her mouth shut about it for over a year." I grumble. 

"Yeah, because she was probably hoping he'd leave you for her." 

I stop what I'm doing and look at him. 

"Do you think he would've if she didn't tell everybody about it?" I ask next. 

"I don't know, Viv." He answers honestly. 

"Would you?" 

He glances at me, serious for a moment, before the hint of a smile tugs at his lips. 

"Never in a million years." He says and I smile a little. "Would you leave me for Duff?"

I pretend to think for a second. 

"Depends on who's better in bed." I reply with the response I expected from him and he just blinks at me. 

"Fuck you." He says and I laugh, eventually getting quiet, really thinking about what I said the last time we spoke. 

"I'm not gonna do that to Duff." I say to him and he just looks off for a second. 

"What made you change your mind?" 

"He really loves me, Izzy." 

"Yeah, he does." He shifts on his feet. 

"Do you think...like, if him and me stay together…" I don't have to finish it, he already knows where I'm going. 

"I think it'll be great for the first several months because it always is." Izzy replies. "But once the new wears off and things get more clear…" 

"...Yeah."

NIKKI 

"Jesus fucking Christ."

I beat the phone against the wall so the crazy bitch can't call here again. 

"Two o'clock in the morning and she's making a long distance call just to gnaw my balls over something I didn't even fucking do? And bringing Vanity back up? What the fuck's her problem? 

So, she got money for her credit, oh well. Plenty of people wouldn't necessarily mind seeing a couple hundred dollars for them in their mailbox but of course her ungrateful ass can't even be thankful for it." I hiss to myself pacing my room. "Cunt." I add, grabbing my bottle of wine from the TV stand, taking a big swig of it. 

"Fuck her." I state next. "Fuck her. Fuck her. Fuck her...fuck," I take my wedding band off and throw it at hard at I can at the mirror in the corner of the room, on the wall, "her!" I yell when it makes impact, taking a step back, and another, falling flat on my ass. 

I don't have the energy to get up, laying on my back and staring at the ceiling. 

Just like my dad. 

Just like my mom.

She just fucking left me...and I made her. 

"Fuck her." I refuse to admit aloud it's my fault because it's not.

Sure, I fucked Vanity, I cheated on her first, but that doesn't give her the excuse to do the same to me. 

"Fuck her." I repeat again.

I kept trying to convince myself I hated her. The truth was I hated myself, and was just trying to get that frustration out by turning on her. 

It was easy to do when I imagined her under Duff while I was across the world, suffering, telling myself repeatedly she didn't give a shit about me.

She was probably thinking of me under a random groupie the entire time I was gone, and I don't blame her. I stayed under random groupies any other time, so why would Japan be any different? Especially after she and I were separated and had no obligations to each other.

I didn't have sex in Japan, honestly. I couldn't. I was too fucked up. I would try to, but it just wouldn't go over too well. My body was give out from abuse, my hands were scabbed from picking, my skin ate up with track marks, my face was sallow. 

Fans would tell me they were worried I had the flu and I'd laugh it off and promise I was okay, then go to my room and stay locked in there until I absolutely had to leave. 

I was on smack, constantly, to the point I wasn't even high but just shooting smack as maintenance, which served as a good excuse when a big magazine reporter came to Japan to talk to me and the guys about the tour and when the topic of Vanity came up…

I try to keep from rolling my jaw as the loser starts his question cautiously, testing the waters to see if I'm going to cut him off and tell him to ask another question or fuck off, or if I'm okay with it. 

I remember Vivian's bullshit idea about me and Vanity wanting her to find out about the affair so she'd leave and we could be together. 

Why the fuck would I go through that much shit just to be with someone like Vanity? 

Leaving Vivian to be with Vanity is like leaving the frying pan to hop into the fire dick-first. 

With this in mind as, "so, who is she to you?" finally leaves his mouth in reference to Vanity, pen in hand, ready to jot my answer and spread it around America the second it leave my lips, I pretend to think for a moment, and finally reply, "she was my fiancée." 

[weaselbeaselpants]

Hazbin/Helluva are hated for the exact same reason they’re loved:

Before I begin I need to repeat something and that’s that you please, kindly, DO NOT BOTHER ANYONE WORKING ON THE SHOW WITH THIS POST. I don’t care if you’re a fan looking for their opinion or a “critic” looking for their response. THESE PEOPLE ARE WORKING HARD, THIS IS NOT A CALL OUT POST IT’S JUST FAN DRIVEL LEAVE PEOPLE ALONE OKAY?!?!?

okey

Here are the facts of the matter:

Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss are independently produced cartoons made by a bunch of people juuuuust breaking in on the animation market, and/or internet famous artists having fun with the world they’re producing. The creator, like her style or not, is inspired and VERY passionate about what she likes and what she wants. Everyone working on the show is really into it and their work. It’s such a self-made fandom it was technically a fandom first and a product second. Fans feel like they (and technically do) have a say in how the show should be run and what the characters should be.

It is popular enough to attract attention online but not overblown by the mainstream media.

On the positive side all those things mean:

It’s crew is tight-nit and very passionate + stick up for each other and their projects. It’s basically a giant colab. Whether they were preexisting fans/friends of Viv, the people working on it got to work on something they liked and with people they liked.

The animation community is super pumped and excited for them be they fans of the animators or just people who like cartoons and monsters and stuff. They’re positively skeptical and in on the hype cause they want to see more fluid adult animation and more indie projects take off (also 2D)!

It’s fandom LOVES the characters, concept, and story. They are more invested in what the characters could be rather than what they actually are, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing; to love something based on the concepts presented and use it to make AUs, hypotheticals and what not. Cringe all you want at the Onceler fandom (you can) but it is impressive to make all that material from so little!

They’re both edgy and insensitive based on their subject matter alone. And yet, the creators and fans DO intend for the show to be a net-positive: there IS supposed to a be representational aspect to it’s design and it’s audience. Brandon Rogers, the modern John Waters, is a pure shock-humor artist; an example of the sincere but not TOO serious risque nature these shows should have, and BOTH attract a pretty happy and excitable LGBTQ fanbase who hate bigotry.

The creators directly talking with fans means there’s again a sense of togetherness to the whole production. That the creators tell people to ship what they want BUT NOT TO BULLY is really cool + important.

As an aside, they can only say so much and Viv is at this point not 100% of Hazbin or Helluva’s creation. It’s other people speaking for or with it now. Neither pilot is a singular idea and musing of one person anymore, they are stand alone products and they are not immune from critique or favoritism.

Buuuuuuut, there’s a flipside to these things as well:

Beyond NDAs (as an aside, a lot of productions have these I don’t think it’s amoral that Viv had this) the crew is tight. When they hear how a site that they’ve heard through the grabevine hosted the guy who sent Viv rape porn*, even if the critique is from a user who hates that guy, THEY AREN’T GONNA HEAR THEM OUT. And they shouldn’t. They are tired and don’t want to be involved, at best (or want to move on from past drama) and biased towards Viv, at worst. They stick out for each other in the business and also who are you gonna stan if you were in their shoes? A person you don’t know on a forum you’ve seen post creepy shit OR your friend who paid you, promos you, talks to you and you like to work with?

Ask yourself honestly what you would do if someone said:

“hey I’m from [4chan/Kiwi, ED, Tapatalk, Reddit, ect]. I’m sorry for what happened but just so you know-”

I so get the crew just straight up blocking on sight. I don’t CONDONE it, but in a postGamerGate world I understand it.

AND when it comes to accusations made against the VAs, a producer, or one of the artists, and ESPECIALLY the creator - people are gonna just handwave it away convinced, it’s just whining or has alterier motives + again, friends stick together and choose sides...like Brock Baker’s :B

It’s popular so it’s gonna get love and hate. I know critics are not gonna like to hear the later, but it is true. It feels cathartic to dunk on a property when fans are crazy and you feel it’s overrated/bad. People feel good dunking on this mishandled, problematic clusterfugg cause they know not as many people are watching and unironically liking, say, Alfred Alfer ----- (please don’t look that or Emily Youcis up. Here’s the tvtropes page. Do not look beyond this point PLEASE)

Likewise, the clout surrounding the show is biased and detracted form being too mean as well. Everyone can tell there’s a kind of toxic mess under the covers but no one wants to deep dive or prod the details of something people are working on and liking so much, especially not when the loudest detractors are asshats like P.K. Russel.

A lot of merch has been sold and produced WELL BEFORE the rest of the shows or the finalized series/designs have been laid out. If nothing comes of either show it will be bad having all this merch hyping something that doesn’t exist. If it does but is so radically different than the vision in Viv’s and fan’s heads (these are both PILOTS, I’ll remind you) it’s gonna disappoint. I just know it.

People were writing Hazbin fanfics and AUs before the pilot was dropped and have made sequels to both before we have even a clear picture of what the ending is gonna be. People are in love and writing for a franchise they don’t know. They know the idea of it and the version of it in their head, but they don’t really know it.

The fandom can not take criticism. This is bad. Everyone is a critic and inside every critic is a nerdooo ~ ((critics do have fandoms and everyone will like something problematic for reasons)) Fans want to criticize but they’re scared of being ostracized from the fandom and kicked off of forums/servers, which has happened to two underage fans already. **

The fandom feels entitled to their ideas and to the creators’ attention. If it were any other fandom it is sooper cool that creators allow people to ship as they please, but not one that’s currently still in development and whose finalized characters haven’t been figured out. The babies have been sent into the battle field at only a few months old alongside veteran ship/canon/entitled cartoon fandoms like Steven Universe and Rick and Morty. It’s like the scene from mother! where the crowd dismembers and eats the baby.

Viv and has a serious influence on these people so even when her and a bunch of fans/artists are just gabbing about stupid memes on twitter, this invites a slew of onlookers to attack these people***. Despite the influence you can have or say to stop this behavior, it’s waaaay harder to put a stop to it than just saying “hey guys be nice” (Anyone else remember the inner-drama of Brony fandom? Like chuds would even take the word of the AskMolestiaMod to heart when their one goal was to take down the dreaded Essjaydoublewes that threatened their rape jokes).

Fans also have no boundaries. Sea also; Lincar Rox.

Being a netpositive doesn’t mean everything you say or do is devoid of critique. If you make vulgar/shocking adult content it will have fans and it will have detractors regardless of the positive intent. As I’ve said earlier, the problem with Viv’s works isn’t really the content but the context and the presentation. You can say Angel Dust is an inspiring character all you want. To some people that’s absolutely true but that does NOT absolve the fact that the it’s a cis woman writing and glamorizing an abused crossdressing gay man. People are gonna be offended and the creator needs tougher skin about this be it satire, parody, or drama.

*back when they were fixated on Zoophobia, there was a guy on Bad Webcomics Wiki/Tapatalk for the comic who posted art of Viv’s decapitated head getting raped by Angel Dust as a “joke”. Oh! and he also took the complaints the wiki had and made Viv and ED page. The rest of the forum was not happy but yeah that happened. The forum itself is the same as any reddit thread and NOT a hate site, but yeah um Viv has every right to quit after that, sorry.

The evidence is linked here in this google doc, which is why I linked it. (tbh I sympathize with the author but I don’t think it’s their place to say when Viv should have let the world known about the harassment porn )

**the underage fans who were bullied/blocked/demonized by creators are frootrollup1, for doing redesigned fan art, and StarVader from the Tapatalk/BWW forums, who was targeted and blamed by fans for Lincar’s shit. I’m not linking them for fear of their safety.

***The meme and twitter thread that went off the rails is one you’ll have to scroll down a bit through @gamergirluprising‘s post to see.

Okay that’s all.

---

[elizabethsharmon]

Hello and welcome to the next episode of the Clowneries! Today we will focus on the role of the coloc in s5 and on the future of Eliott and Lucas. Since instagram users srodulv and lucallemant couldn’t chill for one more day and already spoiled our clowning yesterday smh at least they already confirmed two of three theories for today:

1. Lucas moves in with Eliott and Arthur takes his room in the flatshare

2. Eliott works in a video rental shop

3. Lucas becomes Arthur’s guru

1. Lucas moving out and Arhtur moving in

If you’ve read our theory that the principal is Arthur’s father, you already know that his home situation is not peachy. The next theory was inspired by the bts photos from night shoot on 31.10/01.11:

first of all we have skamfrance.live’s story from the end of filming of a very tired Robin:

and his post with Alienor and Edouard which means they were most likely on set as well that day:

finally, we have David’s post

Yesterday evening was without doubt one of the most strong and incredible night shoots of all 6 seasons combined. And in this kind of night, when the narrative stakes are so high, every single detail matters. The organization, including the plans of the day before to catch up on, the energy of everyone halfway through the filming, the ability of our electro / machino team to install an incredible structure at 4 am as the faculty of our camera team tries to install a camera + large optics in a box not necessarily made for that.

So what we know is this: night shoot was incredible, Robin was on set and most likely Alienor and Edouard were as well. Those three things combined gave me chills as my brain cell provided me with this theory:

Other circles/parallels that were already in the show: (1) in 1x06 Emma says to Lucas “you’re a good person” and then Lucas says it to Imane in 4x08; (2) in 2x13 Manon says to Lucas “you’re not alone”, then obviously he passes it on to Eliott in 3x09, then in 4x10 Imane says “someone who will understand you and makes you feel like you will never be alone.” (on the sidenote if anyone talented wants to gif those, then please do, i’ve been waiting for this for ages ajsksjd)

So if my theory is right, we would get another two parallels to the circle: (1) another person in the flatshare who needs help because they’re struggling (Manon -> Lucas -> Arthur) making the room in the coloc a Safe Place which is quite poetic if you ask me and (2) Imane telling Lucas (and Eliott) in 4x10 “it’s time for you to get your room back” and Elu moving in together.

Now almost two weeks after I came up with this, Axel leaks a story from the filming that basically confirms that Elu are living together in a new appartment now. Obviously at that time we could assume that they’re hanging out at Basile’s or Arthur’s or Yann’s BUT there were too many things that suggested it’s Elu’s place like (1) the matching polka dot robe and pyjama pants, (2) blue walls (they scream Lucas), (3) drawings on the walls (Eliott). Also twitter user @indriee27 spotted that the art on the wall seems to be the same Maxence once posted on his instagram (it’s no longer there now):

Conclusion: those sappy bastards moved in together and honestly? love that for them :’) (they even have a fireplace!!!)

Either way, the story makes me think that we might get a saturday/sunday morning clip from their new appartment at some point in s5 🤞

A month later and thanks to instagram users srodulv and lucallemant, we already got the confirmation that they are moving in together :’)

2. Eliott works in the video rental shop

What they also confirmed is that Eliott works in the video rental shop... which is actually something I’ve been talking about for weeks now because I had a gut feeling about this. But first things first, we have to jump to the first time we got a glimpse of the store - on the 10.06 David posted a photo with Maxence there:

(Clown Doc, p. 2)

Now originally the theory was a little bit far fetched and it was inspired by these photos - exclusive sneak peak of the Clown Doc, section Theories, p. 211:

We didn’t have any other evidence at this point so we let it be until we found this and our interest in the theory resurfaced again:

One night, one cellar, one video club...

And now we obviously know that we were right about this, thanks to Eliott himself :’) At the same time some new bts from the filming were found which you can see here and here’s another exclusive sneak peak we found:

3. Lucas becomes Arthur’s guru

Final theory for today was inspired by skamlaserie photo of Assa and Edouard:

When you know that the torch is in the right hands.

Obviously, we know that it implies passing the ‘main’ title from Assa to Robin, but what if the fact that Edouard is in the photo as well is not accidental? What if Lucas takes over from Mika and becomes the next guru for Arthur? For example we have this photo:

Robin (Arthur?) looks completely broken, like he knows his life is hell and he accepted it because he doesn’t think anything can change for the better: Well this photo may as well be just a bts but what if we get an actual clip with bro talk by the tree trunk?

So that would be all for today! As you can see, thanks to Eliott’s post and Lucas’ comment two of our theories were already confirmed and the season haven’t even started yet! Which is why we ask you again to trust us - we know we’re right 😊

On Friday (27.12) we’re flying to the moon 🚀 on Iza’s blog @arthurbrousard​ and meanwhile MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

[condemnthem]

LUDO (MARS, PETER, ARNOLD, DAMIEN, WHATEVER ELSE ALT YOU’VE WHIPPED UP LATELY), THE OWNER OF ONE OF US:

it’s been a long time coming, and you know why it’s all come down to this. you’ve manipulated enough people during your time on roleplayer.me that i’m sure you thought you’d get away with it forever. well, it doesn’t work that way. you get what you give, and you’ve given enough grief to last a lifetime.

you’ve put people who once called you friend through hell, and now you get a taste of it. and i want to make this point very clear: i do not care about your sob story. i do not care about how much you’ve been hurt. i do not care about how you got to where you are today. none of what you can say excuses the absolute hell you’ve put others through. take accountability. apologize. do what you can to right your wrongs. the pain you’ve caused is YOUR responsibility. you can’t put this on anyone but yourself. you can’t expect to hurt so many people and not be held accountable for it.

this case was rather personal to me because ludo likes to use his personality disorder as a crutch and an excuse to get away with his nasty abuse. i have the same disorder. by using your personality disorder as an excuse, ludo, you are glorifying it because you are making it your escape route. this disorder is NOT to be used as a crutch. no disorder is. you use it as a crutch as if you aren’t in crutches because of this debilitating disorder. you’re the reason our disorder is looked upon with suspicion instead of understanding. you cannot use your disorder as any type of “please forgive me” card unless you are actively trying to get better. and you aren’t. because you think therapy is a farce.

before i go into the evidence i wanted to ask for testimonies from those who were hurt. i was given this:

“There are a few things that should be said before you take your time reading all this. This is a place of roleplay and to escape. Unfortunately, some people use the hobby incorrectly. You ruin and sabotage the experience for others. A good amount of the users on this site may have a lot going on away from the screen, some don’t. Those who struggle are the victims of these narcissistic tendencies. Their emotions get involved without their control. They try to be there for someone despite their own issues. Sometimes they even try to put that other person first, which causes them to break. Then, there are some of us that cannot be emotionally manipulated and that is when these mind games go wrong. That is when the manipulator becomes so little and they try to blame other issues in life for their shit behaviour.

This place does not, and I repeat - it does not give anyone the permission to attack and belittle others because you have difficulty having a voice in your real life. It does not give you the right to attack someone's real life, because you said it yourself that you feel like you have not done anything great in yours. Your real life problems, your conditions, there are no excuse for those who have been degraded by you. There are a lot of them, by the way. Those people you still accuse of having abandoned you despite you being convinced that you were good to them? None of these people have abandoned you. They cared. They had to leave because you tried to show some sort of superiority and belittled them as a person. You tried to control them in and out of roleplay. They got tired of your negativity and your toxic attitude towards life.

A penny for your thought - have a muse, be honest, but don’t ruin it for others. You cannot attack people and  then expect them to be there for you. This place does not give you the right to manipulate others into a friendship that it is not wanted nor needed either. You cannot and should not hurt people's experiences by deceiving them. Something you still actively still do with the active alt in your own group who you introduced as your real life friend.  Think about it - if you punch a stranger in the middle of the street would you expect them to reciprocate with an embrace or punch you right back?

You cannot excuse behaviour you have radiated off yourself for months, targeted people with disturbing words, with lies, deceived multiple people that would have stuck up for you, all because of what you may be going through in real life. All you did was show who you really are. There is roleplay, and there is real life. If that line between those two worlds are so thin and so blurry for you - then perhaps this is something for you to reconsider.”

now for the evidence.

i made an imgur album of all the evidence as well as my commentary, so if you want to read it on imgur, there it is. i’m going to post the evidence directly onto here as well, however, just in case.

to start out we have an e-mail sent to roleplayer.me admins (basic rundown of ludo's offenses:

(roleplayer.me admins have done nothing so if that doesn't tell you they don't give a single shit idk what would)

here is the member who was reportedly “kicked” from one of us peacefully pulling their role:

the other member reportedly “kicked” peacefully pulling their role:

and here is ludo manipulating the situation to make it sound non-peaceful:

and ludo lying in a bulletin saying said members were “kicked out”:

now we have ludo speaking about his alts. here he is admitting to having a freelance (non-affiliated account):

ludo admitting to being another “member” of one of us, mars:

ludo admitting to using mars just to lure another member into shipping with them:

one of ludo's alts:

ludo posting one of us promos on his alt:

proof of one of us promo:

another one of ludo’s alts:

now lets get into his harassment and toxic behavior. here we have him harassing another member (18 YEARS OLD) through instagram dms:

(his instagram is rather well known with many members and he likes to post his music to make his members listen to which is connected to his instagram)

this shows ludo mixing ooc with ic and straight up lying about another member:

here one of his targets of harassment expresses their fear of him possibly stalking them:

the group owner from another group ludo was in countering ludo’s claims to peacefully leaving said group (reminder, ludo is damien):

a conversation between the owner of said group above and ludo about his harassment and stalking, as well as him shittalking to manipulate other people into believing his narrative:

here ludo tries to act like the victim and gaslight the owner:

here is proof ludo makes his “enemies” into villains for one of us and portrays them in a negative light (the name he used is their real name, making this 10x worse):

explanation from an rp ex of ludo’s about the harassment they suffered:

the screenshot shown above:

ludo harassing an rp ex over instagram dms and displaying classic abusive behavior (reminder, he has his instagram rather public to his members):

"i can genuinely admit when i am wrong" implying their ex cannot. also gaslighting because he can't admit when he's wrong. this will be further highlighted through these instagram messages.  "this does not mean that i take back anything i've said before, about how you've hurt me" contradicting himself when he said he can genuinely admit when he is wrong. "i thought our friendship was real... but evidently it wasn't the same for you" guilt trips. the rest i'm sure you can pick out on your own. it's all very obvious. 

"we're no good for one another. you hurt me a lot and i hurt you a lot." not taking responsibility and instead pulling the "we are the same, you and i" trope to minimize his responsibility. also further guilting them by writing a song about how they "abused" them. description: "Emotional abuse is just as bad as physical. Ask for help." (fun fact, i discovered this song before my birthday and related to it so much. it brought me to tears. fucked up it was used against someone in a moment of manipulation to make his target feel bad. peep the suicidal ideations in the lyrics)

ludo using an incident in their life against them:

"i miss you. also not like that matters" passive aggression and guilt trips.

gaslighting about spies.  guilt trips. also admitting to using exes' names in his storylines.

more guilt trips. more gaslighting. more excuses for exhausting his partner.

projection: "you just have this mentality where you constantly deny that you've hurt people so you can feel better about yourself." gaslighting by trying to make their ex's friend sound like they would "throw [them] under the bus in a heart beat")

here ludo is guilting their ex friend from above on line for not spending enough time with them:

self deprecation used to manipulate them.

here is a diagram shown to me by one of ludo’s ex friends:

they further detail their testimony in this google doc   and the text messages (between ludo and one of the members who pulled their role peacefully while ludo tried to say they were kicked) below will show you exactly what they mean:

using other peoples’ feelings to manipulate them:

dismissing the stress they are under with real life, gaslighting by saying they haven't done the effort when they are clearly burnt out. aggression:

guilt trips:

pushing them away. guilt trips. using others feelings to manipulate them. gaslighting by asking a clearly passive aggressive question and saying it's "genuine":

"i'm just relaying my personal frustrations" when he already has time and time again. let it go, damn. give them a break. stop being overbearing.

passive aggression. implying he means less to them when they are saying their friend put it into words they could understand.

blaming them coping with his abuse on them. that's like telling someone shouldn't retaliate to abuse because their retaliation is "hurtful" YOU DON'T GET TO TELL THE PEOPLE YOU ABUSE TO NOT RETALIATE AGAINST YOUR ABUSE.

twisting words. not taking responsibility for his lack of understanding and instead saying "what you said came off the wrong way". not their fault that you didn't get it.

this. THIS is what sent me. how DARE you use your mutual disorder as a way to guilt and manipulate. i have the same exact disorder as well and guess what? all THREE of us are different people. and don't say "change who i am" as if it's a BAD THING. YOU are the reason everyone leaves you. YOU are the reason no one wants to be around you. YOU are the reason you can't keep stable friendships. YOU DON'T GET TO FUCKING PULL THAT BULLSHIT. if you care for someone you will work on your goddamn self. you expect everyone else to change for you, but you can't do the same goddamn thing? IF YOU GAVE A SHIT YOU'D STOP THE BEHAVIOR THAT IS HURTING THE PEOPLE YOU CLAIM TO CARE ABOUT. FULL. FUCKING. STOP.

guilt trips. pity.

condescension. lose lose situation.

"IT WAS A JOOOOOOOOOKE" excuse. "but whatever. i hope whatever has you in a bad mood gets better and you feel better" passive aggression. pretending to care. fake comradery.

"you gaslight me" is a form of gaslighting, especially when there IS NO GASLIGHTING. this is also an example of projection. making them walk on eggshells.

"i'm willing to sort it out of you stop being defensive" punishment and reward. "i'm sorry IF..." not taking responsibility. "this was my response" ie: this is your fault i'm acting this way, when he is the abusive one. "you constantly use my natural reaction as your excuse for not being around..." YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR REACTIONS WHEN YOU ARE THE ABUSER. STOP HAVING THIS "this is me take it or leave it" ATTITUDE AND THEN WONDER WHY EVERYONE FUCKING LEAVES YOU.

gaslighting. trying to say they were not coming around BEFORE he started calling them a shit friend.

"we both act some type of way when we're hurt and you know it" gaslighting, using their mutual disorder against them. AGAIN. YOU (ludo), ME AND THEM ARE THREE DIFFERENT PEOPLE WITH THE SAME DISORDER. stop acting like y'all the same goddamn PERSON. stop PROJECTING YOUR SHITTY ACTIONS ONTO OTHERS. "not even saying this to be a bitch" the "NO OFFENSE, BUUUUT" tactic to "lessen the blow" of the shitty thing he's about to say. USING OTHER PEOPLE AGAINST THEM, AGAIN.

"it's the only way i know how to be" THEN CHANGE IT. GET HELP. STOP USING YOUR DISORDER AS A WAY TO GET AWAY WITH SHIT. therapy isn't a con, you are.

and then, after he knows he has no control over people, he pesters. 

an ex friend requested this be used at the end. i feel it sums up the feelings of everyone ludo has wronged quite well.

[nullwork]

I'm not trying to demonize, nor am I defending Kane, but the fact that "Kane did bad shit and has to deal with it" is your justification really shows that this callout wasn't made WITHOUT malicious intent either. This is a minor we're talking about. A minor who has done terrible things, granted, but a minor nonetheless. Can it really be called demonizing if it's an irrefutable fact that you might be endangering them with this? I'm not skewing it out of your favor, I'm just calling it like it is.

As I’ve said, it’s understandable about your concern, but we have no reason to believe Kane IS even a minor. They have not been able to give us proof that anything they offer is actually coming from them because they’ve lied about literally everything in their life for years. I understand the need to protect their safety, but I am telling you they were not doxxed. Your experiences on a video game with an entirely different type of online users is not the same as getting a callout on tumblr. We did not dox Kane and that is not our intention, but it is relevant to show that they are the same person as Kane said they were entirely unaffiliated with Miles. The evidence compiled is things Kane publicly has said and felt comfortable sharing in a server with over 300+ people, I highly doubt they care that someone reading their callout about the abuse they caused knows they live in Washington state, Spokane, again, an area with over 200 thousand people. Kane still abused people, but I can assure you no one’s gonna figure out where they live in the state of Washington because there’s literally. Millions of people with the same physical description of Kane. Video games can directly link your IP and everything, Tumblr sends all IPs typically through a server, leaving there no chance of anyone even narrowing it down, and if they could, they could dox Kane with or without knowing they live in Washington. If someone is capable of doxxing them based on a selfie and location out of 200,000 people, they’re capable of doing it without the minimal info. 

And even along those lines, I’m not the one who included that in the doc. We can remove it since Kane already admitted to being Miles, but the whole point of including it in the first place was to help solidify that they were the same. But I am not the only author on the doc. 

[argentdandelion]

SOUL of Fear: Always Afraid? Part 2

See series tag for previous posts. Best viewed on desktop.

--

Screencapture of Betty, from Camila Cuevas's Undertale fan animation, GlitchTale.

While the previous post in the series covered indirect evidence for Bete Noire (“Betty”) being defined by her fear, the direct evidence is more persuasive. Betty seems to have a natural tendency for fear. When she first gained consciousness, she was a blank slate, but acted very frightened of Kumu. While Betty did quickly recover from her panic, the fact she responded with fear, and not fascination, bafflement, or just a neutral expression, may say something about her natural tendencies.

She didn’t exist by herself for long, though: Agate soon regained power or consciousness, and influenced Betty. At some point, Agate told her that monsters were dangerous and humans could not be trusted, and that the two races living together was just a “time bomb” waiting to go off. Betty may have accepted Agate’s claim unquestioningly because she was a blank slate, naturally prone to paranoia, or both.

Later experiences “proved” Agate right. Betty (as shown in supplementary material) was able to see into the memories of others by looking into their eyes, and concluded Asgore, Asriel, and Sans were a bunch of untrustworthy murderers.1 Most likely because of this memory-viewing, she kept believing monsters were a threat despite harmless or even positive interactions with Toriel, Sans, Asriel and Papyrus in “My Sunshine” and “Dust”. She still distrusts humans: seeing Frisk’s many genocide routes in their memories proved Frisk untrustworthy to her. (Oddly, despite her anti-monster beliefs, she didn’t ally herself with Frisk, someone with a history of killing monsters.)2 If she saw more than just Frisk’s Genocide Route memories, then perhaps she discarded memories of their kindness and the Pacifist Route because it didn’t fit with her paranoia.

Deeper Fears, Anxieties, and Insecurities

If Betty was a blank slate prone to fear, easily persuaded to listen to no one else, then she was the perfect pawn for Agate. Agate told her Kumu (who’s really just part of Betty) is and would be her only friend. In Season 2, Episode 1 (1:00), Betty is hanging around the door of Toriel’s classroom, and looks anxious. Later, she tells Frisk that kids were sorted into classes based on SOUL color, but, with her unique SOUL color, she didn’t fit in. She says this in an anxious or sad way.3

Betty manipulated Jessica Grey very effectively, so it’s not out of the question posing as a mildly-anxious girl as just an act to deflect suspicion or make others reluctant to harm her. Yet, it seems unlikely. Her dialogue to herself and Kumu in supplementary material suggests anxiety and/or uncertainty with its frequent ellipses, as well as suggesting Betty is lonely because she’s the only one of her kind and can trust no one but Kumu (and presumably Agate).

What am I?…  Something made to be hated?… … Looks like it…  I never asked to be made… I didn’t ask to be this way…  But it’s what I am. And here we are trying to fulfill our purpose despite our doubts… 

This shows how her problems go deeper than just having no friends but Kumu. She seems conflicted over something about herself, whether it's the fact she is neither a human nor a monster or the effects of having a SOUL of Fear. Indeed, "something made to be hated" does match the series' dictionary definition of "Bête noire": "A person or thing strongly detested or avoided". Making a horrible abomination may have been the whole point of the Bête Noire spell, by which Betty was created and named after. Apparently, Betty feels she has no choice but to execute her purpose and cannot turn back, despite her (unspecified) doubts.

Worse, in "Do or Die", Gaster says there can be only one pink SOUL of Fear existing at one time. If Betty also knows this, it removes the possibility of ever befriending anyone like her. Perhaps Betty’s starry-eyed interest in Mettaton in "Dust", comes from the belief he was neither human nor monster, but a magic robot with a SOUL, and so a potential friend.

While she’s been very afraid when fighting monsters before (e.g., Gaster, and especially Undyne the Undying), it seems she's most afraid (or simply not confident) when she cannot physically attack her problems. For example, she cannot simply attack her uncertainties about her purpose and her isolation, nor can she physically attack the HATE substance threatening to take over her.

If Betty’s power increases the more afraid she is, then one wonders whether Agate deliberately isolated Betty so her fear (and thus power) would increase. Betty might execute her mother's will without question simply because she's not close to anybody else, and hasn't experienced anything that would prove her mother's beliefs wrong. Indeed, Betty trusts Agate so much that she varies between calling Agate her mother and seeming to conflate Agate with her own identity. To be specific, when she saw Agate's remains in supplementary material, it's impossible to tell whether she was going to say "my mother" or "my body".

While Frisk, too, feels similar despair or anxiety at various points in the series, Frisk quickly recovers. Perhaps it is from Frisk's tendency for determination, the comforting words of others, observing their friends' close bonds with each other, or some combination. Betty, however, has no friends (unless Kumu counts), receives little comfort, and believes she has no choice but to live a fearful, friendless, murderous life.

If you enjoyed this article, please consider looking at the Ko-Fi or Patreon of the article's author, ArgentDandelion. (The pages are fairly photogenic.)

In her defense, she might not have had training to properly evaluate others’ claims, and if she was naturally fear-prone, it would be very tempting to pin it all on something specific and possible to fight. ↩︎

It's plausible Agate wanted to kill off monsters because they could gain godlike power with seven human SOULs, and she would logically tell Betty about that. Yet, in GlitchTale, the barrier wasn’t broken after Frisk defeated the God of Hyperdeath. It’s weird, though...if Betty can see Frisk’s memories, surely she’d see Asriel with seven human SOULs wasn’t some unstoppable, bloodthirsty threat. Can she only see some memories? ↩︎

Betty is aware she is neither human nor monster. She may very well have wanted to attend Toriel’s school just because it was strategic for her evil plans. Still, the fact she was set apart even when she was disguising herself as a human must have hurt. ↩︎

[welcometothepenumbra]

JUNO STEEL AND THE MONSTER’S REFLECTION (PART ONE)

SOUND: RAIN. TRAIN ARRIVES, CREAKS TO A STOP. DOOR CLANKS OPEN.

CONDUCTOR: Ah, good evening, Traveler. And welcome… to The Penumbra.

SOUND: DOOR CLANKS SHUT.

Take your seat, please, take your seat.

MUSIC: STARTS.

The junction lies ahead, so if you’ll allow me just a moment.

SOUND: TRAIN WHISTLE.

Pay no mind to our train’s backwards motion, dear Traveler. We are now passing through decades of the past.

SOUND: TRAIN BRAKES.

Our next stop? Juno Steel and the Monster’s Reflection.

SOUND: DOOR CLANKS OPEN, RAIN.

ALL SOUNDS: FADE OUT.

***

SOUND: ELECTRIC BEEPS, MACHINES HUMMING. DOOR CREAKS OPEN, WIND BLOWING.

JUNO: (COUGHING)

JACKET: Inside. Quickly.

SOUND: DOOR CREAKS SHUT.

JUNO: (COUGHING) Aren’t you supposed to be saving my life, like, theoretically? (COUGHS) I think I got more sandstorm in my lungs than air.

JACKET: A sandstorm is mostly air, Juno—

JUNO: Yeah, yeah, I know. This place have lights, or are we doin’ this blindfolded?

JACKET: I will activate the generator.

SOUND: FOOTSTEPS DEPARTING.

JUNO: Some service this doctor’s got. Makes you wander out into the middle of the desert, leaves all the lights off… where the hell is she, anyway?

(CALLING) Hello? Doc? Paging doctor Hanataba!

SOUND: BZZT, ELECTRIC HUM.

(WINCES) Jeez, that’s bright!

JACKET: You have many complaints, and I do not know how to satisfy them all.

JUNO: At least we have that in common. (COUGHING) Where the hell is she?

JACKET: She is not here.

JUNO: I can see that—

JACKET: And I have no evidence that she exists.

JUNO: You what?

JACKET: And I have no evidence that she exists.

JUNO: Yeah, I heard you the first time. I-I-I’m sorry, you waited until payday to tell me that the pay doesn’t exist?

JACKET: We will be performing the procedure ourselves.

These are your directions.

SOUND: PAPER RUSTLING.

JUNO: This dinky little piece of paper? That’s all we need?

“Step one: treat yourself to some Jovian tea from the cabinet above the sink, and have a seat in the waiting room.” What the hell?

JACKET: Would you like to make the tea, or should I?

JUNO: (GROWLS)

“Step two: ensure your partner has read their list start to finish. Communication is key to a swift recovery.”

JACKET: That is complete.

JUNO: “Note: it is recommended that you enjoy the tea with two sugars and long, calm breaths between each sip.” Are you kidding me, big guy? What is this, a recipe?

SOUND: WATER BOILING.

JACKET: Would you like to see my directions?

JUNO: If it’s not too much trouble, I’d kind of like to know what’s gonna happen to me before you rip my eye out!

JACKET: (STRAINING) Then… here!

SOUND: PAPER FLUTTERING, HEAVY THUD.

JUNO: Y’know, on second thought, I’ll stick with my directions.

JACKET: That would be best.

SOUND: DING. BOILING STOPS.

I have done this before. You have no cause for concern, other than the great danger your life is in.

JUNO: Good. Good, glad that’s everything, then.

JACKET: It isn’t. There are, in fact, many other things that could go wrong, but Buddy has told me that patients often find the truth unsettling.

JUNO: She seems pretty smart. Let’s listen to her, huh? Starting now.

SOUND: LIQUID POURING.

JACKET: Alright.

SOUND: CLUNK.

Your tea.

JUNO: I’d really rather just get this over with.

JACKET: First we will have some light conversation, and you will drink your tea.

JUNO: Listen, I really don’t want to wait—

JACKET: We will follow the directions.

JUNO: Fine. Let’s chat.

JACKET: Let’s.

JUNO: (AFTER A PAUSE) So how do you know this place, anyway? Out in the middle of nowhere, door hidden underneath a foot of sand, and… if you’ve read that manual you must’ve been here before.

JACKET: You are not the first person I’ve brought to Hanataba’s.

JUNO: So what, are you a doctor?

JACKET: No. I am a driver.

JUNO: Then how—

JACKET: Hanataba’s machine will perform the actual surgery. My role is less medical and more like driving a car into your head.

JUNO: But less dangerous than the car, right?

Uhhh… right?

Great. A doctor that doesn’t show, might not even exist, builds deathtraps for amateur surgery—what the hell is Hanataba, anyway?

JACKET: I had a friend with a device like yours – a leg, not an eye. No doctor would help him. Then he came to the Cerberus Province and was told to ask for Hanataba. And so I brought him here.

With tech growing at the rate it has, accepted medical cures for the problems humans cause can no longer keep up. Yet I have been told there are clinics like this across the galaxy for many man-made ailments. All of them, free of charge. All of them built, supposedly, by Hanataba.

JUNO: Yeah, okay, she doesn’t exist.

JACKET: On this we do not agree.

JUNO: What? But, you just said—

JACKET: I said that I have no evidence that she exists. But, I choose to believe it.

JUNO: Don’t be a moron. Nobody’s that generous.

JACKET: I believe that she is.

JUNO: And Hanataba… that’s a joke. You get that, right? A bad one, but still.

That’s an old Earth language. I had to learn it for a museum con a few years back. It means “bouquet of flowers.” As in, if you have some deadly illness that’s gonna kill you, ask for a bouquet of flowers. For my funeral. ‘Cause I’m gonna die.

JACKET: That is one interpretation.

JUNO: It’s the only interpretation! Those are the facts!

JACKET: I find that the way I think of the world often affects how it really is.

JUNO: Oh, whatever. So you think if you imagine this Hanataba-saint-doctor she’ll just poof into existence?

JACKET: No. But, if I believe there is a Hanataba in the galaxy, it affects how I act. And if my actions affect the galaxy, then that which affects my actions affects the galaxy. Juno, I recommend you believe that you will survive this. For yourself.

JUNO: That was pretty smart, actually.

JACKET: That was step five.

JUNO: What?

“Step five: take a deep breath and believe that you will survive this.”

…Huh.

JACKET: Please, drink your tea.

JUNO: Listen, these are good instructions and everything, but I’m just really not into tea—

JACKET: No. You must drink your tea because it is a powerful sedative, and without it this operation will be more painful than you can imagine.

JUNO: Yeah okay that’s a good reason.

SOUND: SIP.

(PAINED GASP)

SOUND: ALARM WAIL STARTS.

JACKET: Hm?

THEIA: Caution: this course of action is dangerous. Unnecessary. And cruel. Would you like me to vomit that tea for you?

JUNO: No, I— (PAINED GROAN)

THEIA: You are nothing without the Theia Spectrum.

JACKET: It is your eye.

JUNO: Shut up! Both of you!

THEIA: What good will you do. Blinded. And helpless?

JUNO: (PAINED GROAN)

JACKET: Juno, I am going to give you a medical capsule. You must take it immediately, no matter how it tastes. Understood?

JUNO: (PAINED) Uh-huh…

THEIA: You will never shoot again. It was the one thing you were good for. Little monster.

JACKET: Here.

JUNO: (COUGHING) God damn it, what is that? It burns, it tastes like… like…

THEIA: Poison. Poison. Poison. Trust no one. Doing good. That’s what you’re for—

JACKET: Take the pill!

THEIA: —activate and. Escape.

SOUND: GRUNTS.

Is here. User little monster—

JACKET: Swallow it, Juno! Quickly!

THEIA: —do not give away. (SLOWING DOWN) Give away. Give away. Our liffffffffe—

SOUND: ALARM STOPS.

JACKET: (AFTER A PAUSE) How do you feel?

JUNO: (COUGHING) Sugar.

JACKET: I do not know this emotion.

JUNO: The pill, it was… just sugar, wasn’t it?

JACKET: And a finely-tuned electromagnetic pulse. The Theia should be quiet, now… for a moment.

JUNO: It tasted like… like…

JACKET: Like I was trying to kill you.

JUNO: …Yeah, that.

JACKET: That follows. But it is not you we are trying to kill, Juno. Remember that.

JUNO: So, I… guess that means we’re gonna start the operation soon.

Do I get to know what you’re gonna do to me?

JACKET: Do you want to?

JUNO: …No. But I want to die not knowing even less.

JACKET: If you insist.

SOUND: PAGES FLIPPING.

Cybernetics like the Theia Spectrum operate like certain weeds: they grow into the roots of their hosts until the two are nearly inseparable, then feed off what they make.

JUNO: So… what, like, I’m the root?

JACKET: You are the tree. Your brain is the root. Metaphorically.

JUNO: Not a bad metaphor, for a giant, talking block of stone.

JACKET: I did not get it from a stone. I constructed it after giving this description several times.

JUNO: Sure. My mistake. You were saying about the Theia?

JACKET: The path such cybernetics take when growing into the brain is never the same twice. My friend reported hallucinations of smell: an orange grove, dried lilies, the fogged breath of the Plutonian Yak. Have you experienced such things?

JUNO: Nothing like that. But…

I’ve been… hearing things, I guess. And having weird dreams about…

JACKET: About?

JUNO: Things I’d rather not remember, okay?

JACKET: Memory. Hm.

Once you fall asleep I will bring you into the next room and connect you to Hanataba’s machine. There I will pilot biodegradable nanomachines into your brain to remove the Theia entirely. The nanomachines’ firing will cause some hallucinations. Then it will be finished.

JUNO: So, what? I just… sit back and enjoy the show while you do all the work?

JACKET: Would you like the answer I have evidence for, or the answer I think is true?

JUNO: I’ll take whatever you’ve got, honestly.

JACKET: There is no scientific reason that your actions should affect the process.

JUNO: But?

JACKET: (AFTER A PAUSE) I have brought several people to this place now, Juno. All of the ones who survived described their hallucinations as… a story. A task that they succeeded in.

JUNO: So, you think whatever that is, I have to succeed to survive.

JACKET: That is what I choose to believe.

JUNO: But… but, come on. How do you know everybody doesn’t have some dream about slaying a dragon, or whatever?

MUSIC: STARTS.

It’s not like the ones who died could tell you.

JACKET: My friend with the cybernetic leg survived his operation. And he described to me his hallucinations: a nightmare in which his childhood farm was ablaze, and he failed to save it. He spoke of it at length: the cries of the yaks as they burned, the sweet orange ashes in the air.

JUNO: But he survived. You just said—

JACKET: He survived the operation. Three days later, he died in his sleep.

He was a good man. I choose to believe he had some control over his fate because it reassures me. As does telling you his story.

JUNO: I… think I get what you mean.

(GAGS)

JACKET: Is something the matter?

JUNO: Just… dizzy. The tea must be kicking in.

JACKET: It is about that time, yes. Are you ready, Juno?

JUNO (NARRATOR): I didn’t know how to answer the big guy’s question. I didn’t think I had a choice. All I wanted was to run away, leave the past far behind me, but, I knew I couldn’t do it dead and I couldn’t do it with this anchor to Ramses O’Flaherty in me.

My name’s Juno Steel. I’ve been a private eye, a criminal conspirator, a cop, a punk, and who knows how many other things. And I don’t know what the hell I’m gonna be next, but… God, I wanna know. I have to.

JACKET: Juno?

JUNO: (ECHOING STRANGELY) Ready.

JACKET: (ECHOING STRANGELY) Good. I am going to bring you to the device now. And remember: you will survive this. You will.

ALL SOUNDS: FADE OUT.

***

SOUND: CLOCK TICKING. FABRIC RUSTLING.

JUNO: (GROANS) Big guy? Is it over, or…

Oh no.

SOUND: STATIC BUZZING.

(GASPS)

SOUND: RADIO TUNING.

Get it together, Steel. Got to calm down.

MUSIC: FROM RADIO.

The facts, the facts. This… is my old bedroom, and that’s Ma’s old radio, and that song is what Ma was listening to when she…

But… this isn’t even the right bedroom. This isn’t Oldtown, this is from before that, it’s…

(YELPS)

SOUND: SPED-UP GLITCHY NOISES.

(YELLS)

MUSIC: QUIETER, IN BACKGROUND.

JUNO: (PANTING)

SARAH STEEL: (MUFFLED) You took your sweet time getting here. What’s the matter? Had somethin’ better to do?

JUNO: No. No way, Steel.

Gotta get out of here, right back—

SOUND: FOOTSTEPS.

My legs! I… can’t stop walking! (GASPS)

SOUND: DOOR OPENS.

JUNO (YOUNG): Where is he?

JUNO: Where is he?

SARAH: It’s been months since you’ve seen old Ma, and I don’t even get a hello?

JUNO (YOUNG): Tell me where—

JUNO: Tell me… where…

SARAH: So you can do what, exactly? Think for a second. You never. Think.

Or if you can’t manage that, why don’t you just sit down and shut up. You talk too much. It’s my turn, little monster.

JUNO: No… no, no, no, no…

SARAH: You think you’ve got it all figured out now, don’t you? Fancy badge, fancy gun. Like a uniform’s gonna cage what’s in you. What’s in both of us. So today, I’m giving you a gift. A reality check. Complete the transformation: it’s alive! And it wishes it was dead. Just like you gave me.

JUNO & YOUNG JUNO: What the hell are you—

SARAH: Because having any control over your life, that’s always like paddling upstream, and for people like you, like me, those waters are choppy. But you try. You row ‘til your arms wanna fall off and nobody cares, but you try, and some days you even row harder than the current. Gain a few feet. Nothing you won’t lose tomorrow, but… you’re proud of it anyway.

And then? Something happens. Your idiot kid takes your oar from your tired, tired hands… and he smashes it. (BITTER LAUGH) And then? You’ve got nothing.

JUNO & YOUNG JUNO: Ben? Benten, are you in there?

SARAH: You did it in one day. One choice. When you let him in, when you let the hero rob us blind without taking a thing.

JUNO & YOUNG JUNO: Benten!

SARAH: Why are you shouting?

YOUNG JUNO: Give me the key.

JUNO: Don’t… don’t.

SARAH: Why? You know what’s in there. I smashed your oar like you smashed mine, so flail all you want, ‘cause it’s not gonna make a difference!

JUNO & YOUNG JUNO: Why?

SARAH: You know I didn’t even mean to do it? I thought he was you. He stole my pills, and when I told him off, he said, he didn’t know what I meant, gave me attitude, like you, not him, like—

JUNO & YOUNG JUNO: Why!

SARAH: —and for just a second I thought he was you, and I did the only thing I had left.

I found the pills at the bottom of my bag a few minutes ago, by the way. Checked that bag a thousand times before that. Proves my point.

YOUNG JUNO: Ben! Benten, open this door!

JUNO: Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop—

SARAH: I couldn’t even do this right. No control left. Nothing.

I’ve been thinking about it though, and I think this is better. Much better.

Go see him, then. And see how fast the current takes you.

SOUND: KEYS CLINKING.

JUNO (YOUNG): (PANTING, CRYING)

JUNO: No… stop… stop…

JUNO (YOUNG): Ben!

JUNO: Stop!

VOICE 1: Okay.

SOUND: SPED-UP GLITCHY NOISES. MUSIC CUTS OUT.

JUNO: (PANTING)

SOUND: CLOCK TICKING. RADIO JINGLE.

VOICE 1: I love this tune, don’t you? Really got a beat you can dance to.

VOICE 2 (FROM RADIO): At the sound of the tone, the time will be—

JUNO: Ben?

VOICE 2 [RADIO VOICE]: —eleven thirty PM.

VOICE 1 [BEN]: It’s been a while, Juno. You miss me?

SOUND: TONE. RADIO CLICKS OFF.

JUNO: Benzaiten?!

SOUND: RUSTLING.

BEN: Hey there, easy on the spine, alright? Backups aren’t cheap.

JUNO: Benten, I never thought I’d see you again, or hear you, or– it’s really you, isn’t it?

BEN: Always suspicious. Fine. Test me.

JUNO: Where was the best spot to eat lunch at Oldtown Elementary?

BEN: Inside the fake tree behind the basketball court, obviously. Come on, that’s the best you’ve got?

JUNO: I was just getting started. What about—

BEN: Oldtown Junior High? The roof, until your friend got us busted up there. Oldtown High? At least a mile away from the building, just in case.

JUNO: That’s right.

BEN: Ask me a hard one, come on. Deep cuts only.

JUNO: What was the best episode of The New Adventures of Andromeda?

BEN: ‘By Captain Cancer’s Claws.’ That’s supposed to be hard?

JUNO: Ha! No! No it wasn’t, it was ‘The Cold-Eyed Cops of the Frozen City’ and you know it, but you always said it was ‘Cancer’s Claws,’ always, always…

SOUND: RUSTLING.

BEN: Oof! Well, there goes the reserve spine. You turned into a real toucher since I’ve been gone, huh?

JUNO: I’ve missed you, Benten, it’s been so, so hard.

BEN: I know, Juno. Trust me. I know better than anybody.

So, are you just gonna spend this whole reunion irrigating my shoulder, or…?

JUNO: I’m not crying!

I just… still had a lot of questions. Then you checked out. It was frustrating, is all.

BEN: Questions? Like what?

JUNO: Things you never answered before, like—

SOUND: RADIO TURNS ON, MUSIC.

BEN: I’ll get that.

SOUND: RADIO CLICKS OFF.

Keep going.

JUNO: Her.

BEN: Mom?

JUNO: Yeah. Like… Sarah.

I’ve always wanted to know, Ben… why did you stay with her? You could’ve left when I did, and then you wouldn’t’ve…

BEN: You want to know why, Juno? Really why?

JUNO: I do. I always did.

BEN: Fine. I’ll tell you.

The truth, Juno? The reason that I stayed with Mom… is… (WHISPERING) blackmail.

JUNO: What.

BEN: It’s true. She had pictures of me from seventh grade – you remember? The weird contacts? The hair? If those got out into the world, hell, I’d never get another date again.

JUNO: No, come on. Enough jokes. Why—

BEN: Hidden treasure. Old lady’s got it under the floorboards, I’m sure of it.

JUNO: Just tell me—

BEN: Would you believe me if I said I just really liked waking up to something breaking every morning?

JUNO: Knock it off! You always do this!

BEN: (LAUGHING) Oh, come on, Juno. Lighten up, willya?

JUNO: Just answer me. Now. Please. I have to know.

BEN: Hey. So… I guess we’re not joking anymore, huh?

Listen, Super-Steel, I don’t want to make you upset, but… I couldn’t answer that if I wanted to. I don’t even know what the answer is.

JUNO: No. You expect me to buy that you threw your life out without even knowing why? No.

BEN: It’s the truth, alright? If you don’t know why I did it, then… that means I don’t know, either.

JUNO: What the hell is that supposed t—

Oh.

BEN: Oh.

JUNO: You aren’t Benten. You’re just… a hallucination, or something.

BEN: Hey, come on. I’m a bigger deal than that. I come with this room, here, and… everything in it.

JUNO: Our old bedroom? And that radio, that brought me to—

SOUND: RADIO TURNS ON. STORM NOISES, DRAMATIC MUSIC.

VOICE 3 (FROM RADIO): Andromeda!! The rigging’s snapped in the wizard’s storm!

ANDROMEDA (FROM RADIO): Steer us to safety, Captain, and I’ll use my chainmail to keep us afloat! Chain whip!

SOUND: WHIP CRACKS. RADIO CLICKS OFF.

JUNO: That’s ‘By Captain Cancer’s Claws.’ I haven’t thought about that in years.

Memories. This room is for memories.

BEN: Ehhh… kinda.

Do you know how memory works, Juno?

JUNO: I thought so, but haunted radio in your childhood bedroom didn’t exactly figure in.

BEN: People think memory’s like a bucket with a hole in it: just a big container that we pour information into and some trickles out – but, that’s not right. Memory’s associative. We remember things in relation to other things. It’s like… our minds are always sorting memories, right? Like a filing cabinet, kinda. This one’s tagged under ‘mom’, and ‘happy’. This one’s tagged under ‘times I punched someone who deserved it’, and ‘second grade’, and ‘teachers whose noses I’ve broken’.

JUNO: Mr. Lowell. Yeah, well, he had it comin’.

BEN: The main difference between memory and a filing cabinet is that memories get stronger the more you think about them, and if you don’t, they start to fade. They lose tags, one by one, until you’ve got no way to find them. Doesn’t mean they’re gone. Just means that… you can’t access them anymore. Like you’ve lost not just a file, but the whole cabinet.

JUNO: Or like you’re trying to tune into a station with barely any signal.

SOUND: RADIO TURNS ON.

VOICE 4 (FROM RADIO): Juno! Gimme your nose and we’ll see what I do with it, you nasty little—!

SOUND: RADIO CLICKS OFF.

BEN: Wow, he really did deserve that, didn’t he?

JUNO: Told ya.

Alright, so. Brown jacket says people who go under for this operation start to… see things. Said there’d be some kind of job I’d have to do.

BEN: He also said that there was no scientific evidence for that, but hey, who’s counting?

JUNO: How did you—

Right. You’re me.

BEN: Got it in one. Keep going. Always wanted to watch you work a case.

JUNO: Wait a minute. Wait a minute, I think I get this! You, and this room, and that memory with Mom, and… I’m here to solve your murder.

BEN: Uhh… what about it?

JUNO: What about it? Wht the hell are you talking about? There’s obviously—

Mom’s pills! They went missing and that’s why she killed you, right? Where’d they go?

BEN: She said—

JUNO: And! Who planted them back in her bag, huh?

Don’t look at me like that.

BEN: Like what?

JUNO: Whatever. Why the hell are you asking me all this, anyway? You run this whole… whatever it is! You tell me why I’m here!

BEN: I said it already: I don’t know anything you don’t.

JUNO: Then what the hell are you doing here? I don’t need you, alright? So just buzz off. I don’t like this. I don’t like people or ghosts or whatever pretending to be things they aren’t, so if this is all you’ve got for me, you can go.

BEN: Hey, I’m… sorry, man. I… I should’ve seen this coming, I guess… right now probably wasn’t the time for me to—

JUNO: Stop.

BEN: Stop what?

JUNO: Looking like him, sounding like him, knowing what he knew – just stop. Please.

BEN: That makes… a lot of sense.

SOUND: WIND BLOWS.

SARAH: Do I make this easier on you, little monster?

JUNO: What… what– what are you…

SARAH: What’s the matter, Juno? Did you think you’d get away with never seeing me again? Ha. Figures. You’re tough as tissues, aren’t you?

JUNO: Mom…? Ben, where’s Ben?

SARAH: You’re scared. I can smell it on you, little monster.

JUNO: You can’t do anything to me. You’re dead. This is all in my head, and—

SARAH: And so am I.

So am I, Juno. I’m in your head, and you’ll never get me out.

JUNO: Stop.

SARAH: I’m just waiting, and I’m patient, little monster. You won’t even notice it happening at first, but I’ll get you in the end. First, you’ll just start snapping at people, and you’ll always have excuses. Head hurts. Tired.

JUNO: Stop!

SARAH: And you’ll hate yourself for snapping, but it’s just going to get harder, and harder, and you’re going to get more and more tired, and one day you’ll just give up, just like I—

JUNO: Ben!

SOUND: WIND BLOWS.

BEN: (AFTER A PAUSE) It… gets pretty bad in here, doesn’t it?

JUNO: Just… don’t do that again, okay?

BEN: I didn’t. You’re the one who’s in control, so—

JUNO: I know. I know.

Please. I just need you… here. Okay? I always felt like… like part of my mind was just gone, whenever we weren’t together.

BEN: I know that feeling.

Okay, Super-Steel. Mr. Cop Academy himself. You can do this: what’s another cold case, eh?

JUNO: Ice cold. Been in the freezer thirty years.

BEN: Come on, I can’t do this on my own. While you were acing Detective 101 I was just teaching people the box step. So, expert, tell me how this goes. You have what you’re pretty sure is a case. All the evidence you’re gonna get is here. So? Where do we start?

JUNO: Step one. Right. We… figure out what doesn’t make sense. There’s always somethin’, in every case. Even if it’s small… that’s the thread you have to pull on to get the big stuff.

BEN: And what doesn’t make sense here?

JUNO: The pills.

BEN: Really? Those make the least sense to you, really?

JUNO: Ehhh… the motive.

SOUND: RADIO TURNS ON.

MUSIC: STARTS.

SARAH (FROM RADIO): You did it in one day. One choice. When you let him in, when you let the hero rob us blind without taking a thing.

SOUND: RADIO CLICKS OFF.

JUNO: That. What the hell does that even mean?

BEN: You’re saying you don’t remember the day she’s talking about?

JUNO: No, I remember it, but… it’s stupid.

BEN: (CHUCKLES) I bet a lot of leads are.

JUNO: That’s true.

(SIGHS) Short version: we were four years old and she decided it was a good idea to leave us home alone for the day. Some burglar broke in, I didn’t stop them, they didn’t even take anything, but Mom flipped out over it anyway. She blew a gasket at work, lost her job, and blamed me for it forever, the end. Okay? I’m telling you, she was just—

BEN: And that’s all you remember?

JUNO: Who cares what I remember? I was a kid! It doesn’t matter!

SOUND: RADIO TURNS ON.

VOICE 5 (FROM RADIO): Here comes Turbo! The Man of the Future!

BEN: Doesn’t matter, huh?

VOICE 5 [TURBO] (FROM RADIO): Have you helped anyone today?

JUNO: (GROWLS)

TURBO (FROM RADIO): Just remember, Juno: it’s a fact!

SOUND: RADIO CLICKS OFF.

BEN: What was the first step to detecting, again?

JUNO: Shut up.

BEN: Find something that doesn’t make sense, right? Because that right there definitely—

JUNO: Just drop it, alright? I forgot how smug you were.

BEN: (LAUGHS)

So. You ready to solve a mystery? And don’t lie. Remember, I’m basically just you, so I know—

JUNO: Everything I’m thinking, sure. So why do I have to say it?

BEN: Because I’m still just me and I think it’s fun to watch you admit when you’re wrong.

JUNO: (GROWLS, THROUGH GRITTED TEETH) I’m ready to solve a mystery.

MUSIC: ENDS.

BEN: Ha ha, that’s more like it! Let’s go!

SOUND: SPED-UP GLITCHY NOISES.

***

SOUND: TRAIN MOVING, MUSIC.

CONDUCTOR: If you’ve enjoyed this tale, please consider donating to The Penumbra on Patreon. Our artists work tirelessly to bring you these stories, and if you have the means, we hope you will support our efforts. Every dollar helps. You can find that page at patreon.com/thepenumbrapodcast. If you support us on Patreon at the $10 level or higher, you’ll receive access to commentary tracks like this one, from co-creators Kevin Vibert and Sophie Kaner:

SOUND: TRAIN STOPS, DOOR SLIDES OPEN, RAIN.

SOPHIE: …where are we gonna go with this, like, where are we gonna find a kid who can like really really act.

KEVIN: Right.

SOPHIE: And if they’re not going to, then like what does that leave us with? And then we… considered having him be the same age as Juno because theyre twins, and just like, okay, even though he’s dead, Juno imagines him as if he were… as if he had grown up with him, but then we were like… are we gonna have Joshua—

KEVIN: Right.

SOPHIE: —voice Ben.

KEVIN: Right.

SOPHIE: And…

SOUND: DOOR SLIDES SHUT.

CONDUCTOR: You can also support The Penumbra by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter @thepenumbrapod, following us on Tumblr @thepenumbrapodcast, telling your friends about us, telling your friends to tell their friends about us, and especially by rating and reviewing our podcast on iTunes. Every rating, comment, and kind word spreads our stories further and inspires us to keep creating more and better tales to come.

We would like to give special thanks to all who support us on Patreon, but especially to Camille Blanton, Canteloupe, Fiona Parker, Ota Arcana, Regan, Ko, KC, Kim Zeugin, Atha Lang, Vron, Charlie Spiegel, Minchowski, and Jaimie Gunter for their incredibly generous contributions per episode. Thank you.

Did you know that The Penumbra has merchandise for sale? It’s true! The Penumbra has partnered with DFTBA to bring you the posters, shirts, and pins your heart desires. Just go to dftba.com and search for The Penumbra Podcast.

This tale, Juno Steel and the Monster’s Reflection, was told by the following people: Joshua Ilon as Juno Steel, Alexander Stravinski as the Man in the Brown Jacket, Kiki Samko as Sarah Steel, Marc Pierre as Benzaiten Steel, and Bob Mussett as the ensemble.

The Penumbra is created and produced by Sophie Kaner and Kevin Vibert. If you wish to know more about our ever-expanding, infinitely-creative team of artists, musicians, editors, designers, and managers, you can read about them in the show notes of this episode.

I’m afraid this is the end of the line for today, dear Traveler. We hope you will ride with The Penumbra again soon.

ALL SOUNDS: FADE OUT.

[segadores-y-soldados]

Have Some Mercy

Anon: “I don't know if you've mentioned this, but what do you think the odds are of Mercy being evil? I see a lot of theories about that, but I don't know if they can be backed up or not. I'm sorry if you've already discussed this” Hey, no worries, Anon - a lot of my Mercy stuff is spread out through like...five separate posts, so here’s one that’s got it all collected.  I moved this to a regular tumblr post so that I could also provide a cut and pics and whatnot.

I think Mercy’s personality is basically how she’s presented in the game - a healer who is passionate about her work, but also gets rather tired of the responsibilities she feels.  She appears to have some level of guilt or frustration over Overwatch’s fall, indicated by the line:

Overwatch was shut down for a reason. Maybe it's best it stay that way.

So in short, no, I don’t think Mercy is “evil” - I’ve seen a lot of similar theories and almost none of them have real evidence to back them up.  

To start with, we’ll get the “biggest one” out of the way:

Mercy is the one who incorrectly resurrected Gabriel Reyes/Reaper.

This is not true.

More under the cut

https://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20747844983#post-16

Chu: “I'm not sure where it came from (maybe there is another line that sounds similar to it), but the "this is not what I intended for you, Reyes" line/exchange does not actually exist in the game.”

For a long time, many fans seemed to believe that there was a voiceline or interaction between Mercy and Reaper that went something along the lines of:

Reaper: you’re the one responsible for all this. Mercy: this was not my intention for you, Reyes.

Now, there is an unused Reaper voiceline that goes:

Reaper:  Don't forget, you're the one responsible for this.

But because it’s unused, he never actually says it.

We also need to remember that the game itself isn’t “canon” - what is happening with the game is a huge series of “what if’s”.  “What if” these six heroes got together and defended a payload in Numbani from another six heroes?  “What if” Reaper and Ana ended up working together again after the events of the Old Soldiers comic?  “What if” Genji and Hanzo had to work together in Hanamura after “Dragons”?  That sort of thing.

The game is basically a massive reference system for each character’s personalities and interactions, but are not actually 100% canon.  Each voiceline is meant to give you an indicator on 1) who this character is, 2) what their relationships with the other characters are, and 3) their relationships within the larger world of Overwatch (e.g. when a character comments about a specific map).

The “exception” to this are the series of interactions between Reaper, Sombra, Soldier: 76, and Ana.  While these still fall in the category of “what if” (these four characters interacted post-Old Soldiers), these four are the only characters who currently know that Reaper is Gabriel Reyes.  It is debatable how much Doomfist/Akande Ogundimu and Widowmaker/Amélie Lacroix know about Reaper.

Getting back to Mercy, she certainly has some Strange Techno-magic Shit going on, that Blizzard has put under their category of “firm science fiction” by describing her Caduceus staff as “nanobot technology,” but basically the majority of her interactions in-game are “Not Canon” in the sense of being firm, specific events we can point to and stamp as “This is canon proof about Mercy’s life.”

Mercy forced Genji to become a cyborg.

I spoke with a user privately not too long ago about the nature of Genji becoming a cyborg - the short answer is “we just don’t really know enough details about his fight with Hanzo and ‘the deal’ he made with Overwatch/Blackwatch to argue who is morally right or wrong here.”  And the longer answer is basically an expanded version of that.

We don’t actually know what level of involvement Mercy specifically had in terms of rescuing Genji and the Overwatch/Blackwatch operation against the Shimada clan.  Presumably, Overwatch/Blackwatch had been investigating the Shimadas for some time, which is why they were “close by” when the fight between Genji and Hanzo occurred and could rescue Genji before his death.  My assumption is that Mercy is still a doctor who genuinely believes in doing good, and so she wanted to help save Genji and create a new body for him.  Her level of involvement in making him “a human weapon” for Overwatch is not known.  In Uprising we see her monitoring his training, but I would assume by that point the person who is actually in charge of him is Commander Reyes.

Mercy has connections to Oasis/the group governing Oasis.

This is one I actually believe.

If you’re not aware, there’s a lot of interesting little lore bits floating around about Oasis.  The “City of Science” is governed by eight ministries, each one “ruling” over the city’s different scientific disciplines (e.g. Geology, Biology, etc).  We are specifically told that there is, in fact, a Ministry of Biology.

https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/blog/20457295

Mercy is a preeminent doctor in biotic nanotechnology.  Her last known location as of Recall is somewhere in the Arabian Desert.  Oasis, meanwhile, has been confirmed to be in Iraq.

Fortunately, the game has actually provided us with a handy little map showing Oasis’ location.

And yes, that is Oasis’ location because it is the only map currently found on the Arabian peninsula.

This map is pulled from the computer on Necropolis, where Ana and Soldier: 76 are tracking Reaper’s locations.  These locations are:

St. Petersburg, Russia (Volskaya Industries - Infiltration)

Watchpoint: Gibraltar (Recall)

Numbani, Nigeria (Museum Heist)

Los Angeles, California (Reflections?)

Oasis, Iraq

(Not shown: Giza, Egypt - Old Soldiers)

Oasis is particularly interesting because it’s hypothetically the only location we haven’t seen Reaper appear at in “actual canon materials” (aka comics and shorts, or lore events like Uprising), which means we need to sit down and scrutinized why it’s being referenced alongside “canon appearances.”

Reaper has a very specific, “semi-canon” interaction when he is selected alongside another character in Oasis:

Sombra: So what are we doing here boss? Reaper: I need to pay a visit to a friend.

Remember, Reaper’s interactions with Sombra are “canon” in the sense that she knows who he is, and presumably knows about his “condition” too.

A number of theories argue that Reaper is going there to “off” Mercy... but considering their only “what if they encountered each other” interaction is this:

Mercy: What happened to you? Reaper: You tell me, Doc.

It legitimately sounds like Reaper is actually going in for a doctor’s appointment with the doctor who may have the ability to resurrect the dead.

Mercy is not exactly what she seems to be.

This one I also believe, and this ties into the last “theory.”

http://segadores-y-soldados.tumblr.com/post/159665523340/overwatch-apocalypse-now

I have a long essay talking about some of the “dead/undead” mofits in Overwatch, and Mercy is basically top of the list - yes, arguably beating out Reaper.  The issue, as is the issue for like 70% of the Overwatch cast, is that we simply do not have enough lore/story/plot for Mercy to determine what exactly is “off” about her.

Just that she kinda is off.

In the essay I linked to, I talk a lot about how the symbolism and mythologies that Mercy’s different skins reference should give us some pause.  They’re not canon (well, the “Witch” is canon as a Halloween costume she wore at some point before Overwatch fell), but they’re not...exactly... “isolated” either.

I sum it up like this:

What the Overwatch team is building here is a series of “range of canon” background mythologies (some that are “non-canon but merely background white noise that colors how the players view the world,” to “these are kinda sorta canon and you should be paying attention to how we use these references,” to “these are outright canon and we will be using them blatantly for whatever we want”) that develop the world in a set of unique ways.  Even for the stuff that “isn’t canon,” it still exists in the game and it still tints how players interact with the characters, their personalities, and their story arcs.

So yes, I know that like half of this essay or whatever “isn’t canon.”  But if Mercy’s Witch skin has impacted how you view her, or knowledge of Watchmen has impacted how you understand Overwatch as a whole, or hearing Orisa’s voiceline about the Iris has changed your perception of it, then does it matter “how canon” it is?

If it has impacted how you see it

Then it has already influenced how you interpret it.  

I wrote this essay like, right after Uprising came out.  Since then, we’ve received a few more indications on how this reading is not inaccurate:

This doesn’t even cover backstories like Reaper or Mei or D.va, that latter of whom straight up has Godzilla/Evangelion references in her background.  And this doesn’t even cover stuff like the battle of Eichenwalde, or Deadlock, or “HAL-fred Glitchbot” (who is literally a reference to HAL and Alfred Hitchcock, both elements of “Hollywood horror”), or even the issues around Los Muertos.  There’s a ton here that shows that the Overwatch devs are dropping apocalyptic and/or horror references as varied as Mad Max to Apocalypse Now to 2001: A Space Odyssey to Neon Genesis Evangelion to The Headless Horseman to “the grandfather of all sci-fi” Frankenstein to “the grandfather of American macabre Romanticism” Edgar Allan Poe.  

The “background mythos” of Overwatch is filled with horror story references - everything from The Raven, to Thriller, to Psycho.  Behind the bright colors and beautiful maps are canon stories that imply something darker - a God Program being contained against its will, a yakuza clan that “needs to be reigned in,” a city “building the tallest tower in the world,” an arms-dealing gang “coming back into power,” an EMP being delivered to “hostile Omincs” - and a whole slew of “non-canon references” that display something even deeper, “even darker” that lurks beneath them all.

And what did we receive for our patience?

More

http://segadores-y-soldados.tumblr.com/post/164048891205/chateau-guillard-details

Evidence.

http://segadores-y-soldados.tumblr.com/post/163200042035/death-becomes-you

And what’s coming next?

Athena: Welcome to Junkertown.

The mother of all Overwatch apocalypse maps is going to “hook” us in soon.

So what exactly is “going on” with Mercy?

“You tell me, doc.”

I’m not certain, but I’m super excited to see where her lore goes.  I suspect that if Reaper is actually visiting her to “get a consultation,” then Mercy contains a lot of the “answers” we’ve been missing - what happened to Overwatch after the fall?  What is going on with Reaper’s condition?  Can she actually resurrect people from the dead?

And if heroes never die

Then why do they appear to be losing “the war” against evil?

[porcelaindagger]

since this won’t show in the tags from the actual blog

After speaking with some people privately, I had been under the impression that I had been doing a good enough job keeping my head down, minding my own business, and not making a fuss, but it’s evident that this is not the case. I have been back in the community for about a year now as Elle, and since then I have made every effort to use this new alias as an opportunity to turn over a new leaf, make a new start, and be an unobtrusive and altogether quiet presence in the community. I came back simply to write – not to make a fuss or make waves, and I was open and honest about my identity and my past mistakes with those who came to me to ask, and have a small group of people who know that I am Beth, who have known for quite some time now. It was not my intention to “fool” anyone by returning under a different alias, but to exercise the change that I’d implemented in my own life and to show both myself and those who I’d so horribly hurt in the past that I have changed, and that it is possible for people to change for the better. I think the fact that I’ve flown under the radar until now is decent proof that I am not the person I was a year ago; a year ago, I would have gone absolutely nuts in the face of the PSA that’s floating around, and I would have lashed out with irreparable damage – we all saw it happen last time, and it’s because of that that I was so determined not to do it this time. I understand completely why people would not want to be close to me given what I’ve done in the past; I lied, I talked about people behind their back, I pretended to be someone else to hide from what I’d done, I spread slanderous lies about someone who had been nothing but a dear friend to me, and I kept that same friend’s group from receiving the love and praise it deserved simply because I was bitter, paranoid, and malicious in my mindset. I was in a horrid place and going through a downward spiral in which I could not recover from – and though I knew I could not recover, I lashed out and pulled people down with me simply because it was the only option my toxic mindset gave me. I wrecked people who I’d considered family, who’d followed me through hell, high water, and two roleplay groups which ended with my complete meltdown. It was all building up from mistakes I’d made, even before that – in 2013, I copied things from a drabble someone had written; in 2015, I encouraged a friend to write a PSA about another friend simply because I felt that they were drifting from me, and I was so selfish and paranoid that I just couldn’t handle it. I was immature, and felt as if I didn’t have to own up to my mistakes, but as I see the error of hiding from this all and hoping that it’ll just blow over, I think that it’s time for me to put it out there. I was Wesley, I was Beth, and this blog was supposed to be Elle – the new leaf. Elle would never start a positivity blog, only to filter the messages; Elle would never send nasty messages; Elle would never vague blog; Elle would never strongarm someone out of playing the same character; and Elle would certainly never steal, though Beth once thought she could get away with it, and owned up to it.

In my personal life, the last semester has been an absolute trainwreck, and this blog, in my own corner with a small collective of people who I’d told, and in the roleplay groups that I’d chosen to join, was an oasis, and I am incredibly proud of the progress and of the changes that I’ve made in my life, as reflected by my unobtrusive and quiet presence in the RPC. I’ve done my best to be nothing but positive – and those who I’ve found myself close to can attest to that. I never thought of this attempt at a positive new start as an attempt to “trick” anyone with friendship and kindness, and I am so sorry that it’s come across as that, or as anything even remotely underhanded. I hoped that by being Elle and by starting over I could somewhat start to make right the wrong I’d done when I was Beth, and by being kind to those I’d wronged in any way I could, I thought that I was. I never intended for any of this to become a question of lies, victim shaming, or anything of the sort – I was just trying to keep my head down, and mind my own business. I’d even become close friends with one of the people I’d wronged in the past, proving to them that I’d changed before they even knew who I was, and I spoke to another, leaving things on what I assumed was a peaceful note. Perhaps it was a mistake to apply for a character that I’d played so often while I was using my old alias – but I never thought that it would start the wildfire that it did, since I’d been nothing but supportive in doing it. If anyone would like to message me privately, and not anonymously, to discuss the things that I have done, I would be more than willing to do so openly and frankly at my new url, which was created not to hide but to post fandom content rather than rp content without clogging up anyone’s dash.

I do, however, wish to address the claims of plagiarism that have been floating around, as this may be the only chance I have to do so. I understand that everyone’s concerns have merit; I have been a horribly sketchy person in the past, but the claims that are going around now are ones I hold issue with, and I’d like to address them here. Firstly, I’ll start with the claim that I plagiarized an OC from the group I used to run, Fidite Nemini. The character in question is named Holly – I don’t even remember the OC’s last name. A wonderful OC, written by a wonderful person; perhaps the best OC I ever had the pleasure of writing with. But the fact that I also have two characters named Holly is now being called plagiarism, and with this I take issue. First, I have Holly Blanchard, named as such for Holly Golightly. I’ll link her biography HERE. Second is a character in another roleplay that I ran named Holly Gilmore, who was named as such for the plant reference, and because I was going through a heavy Gilmore Girls phase at the time of writing her. Her bio is HERE. I cannot link you to the bio of the OC simply because I deleted the Fidite Nemini main and have no way of finding it. I don’t know where it is, I don’t know what her last name is; the only similarities between these characters is the fact that they’re named Holly and that they’re generally nice, sweet people. I can see how, upon first glance, having a character named Holly might raise some eyebrows, but upon actually reading the bios, it is quite clear that there is no other overlap.

I was also accused of stealing things from the person who played Bellatrix in my group – I cannot link anything here since the Fidite Nemini main has been deleted, but I used, in applying for a Marauders group recently, the bio that I, as an admin, had written as a jumping off point for an application. I’d gone through the old player’s blog to find the biography that I’d written since the main was deleted and I hadn’t saved anything for my own use, and I understand how that must have looked, but had I not deleted everything I could when I left Tumblr the first time. I’d be happy to dig through my google docs and link the application that I’d written up in this post, but I regrettably cannot access the Fidite Nemini bio anymore, or I would. The person who played Bellatrix at Fidite Nemini is, without question, one of the greatest writers I’ve ever had the pleasure of collaborating with, and I must say that it would be very obvious had I stolen from them, as their writing truly stands alone.

I would now like to address the claims that I stole a fair bit of characterization from the user who wrote the PSA about me. I’ll start by saying that yes, I did pin a few of their pins on Pinterest (but I went to a lot of Pinterest boards to create my own), and we have reblogged some of the same things – were I to remain a large presence in the RPC, I would make a point not to reblog musing from anywhere but inspo blogs to avoid this. But I must raise some issue with the claim that I stole a headcanon about sunflowers, a headcanon about running/athleticism, and a FC. I use flower symbolism in a fair number of my applications and characters, and this particular headcanon was written when I read the ProFlowers description of what sunflowers meant (in fact, at the time I was buying flowers for my grandmother, whose birthday I had forgotten, and thought sunflowers might be nice according to the description). I’ll link the headcanon HEREas it includes a link to the article. The running/athleticism headcanon is twofold – the graphic linked HERE is from a quiz which many people in the tag were using, and was therefore not my own doing. But I had put some stock in the character’s athleticism, since it’s both canon that she’d have to be athletic, and because the character is suffering, in the plot, from severe PTSD. It is often recommended to sufferers of PTSD, like myself, and like my combat veteran father, to put much of their anxiety into athleticism, as linked in the headcanon HERE. I put a lot of myself into my characters, and I thought that, as I am dealing with my own battle with PTSD, it would be appropriate to make a point of expanding upon it in the development of a character who very clearly has it. This is not copied and pasted from any blog, nor was it written in an attempt to mimic anyone else’s portrayal. And to insinuate that I am stealing simply because there is overlap in the usage of two face claims is also up for question – I will admit that I did take an interest in Lindsey Morgan as the character because the author of the PSA used her, and I commend you for your excellent FC choice. But the second mentioned, Deborah Ann Woll, is merely a coincidence, and I must take issue with the idea that face claims are exclusive.

In the PSA, it linked things from my old Alice blog that I’d recycled because I am who you all now know I am – were I trying to hide, I wouldn’t have done that. I’d have never been so obvious. I was too optimistic, I suppose, in that I’d kept my head down enough to play this character again, and I truly am so sorry for making you all uncomfortable, and for making you all feel as if I was trying to be devious by going under another alias. All I was doing was trying to mind my own business – and that is what I’m doing now, by turning my writing blog into a simple fandom blog. I’m even further in my corner now, and though I have no intention of leaving my corner, I thought it appropriate to leave this here as both an admittance of everything I’ve done, and a defense of the new character that I’ve built for myself. I understand that the PSA was made to warn people about someone horrible – but I’m not that person anymore. I have nothing but remorse for what I’ve done to those I’ve hurt, and I will never stop regretting the friendships that I destroyed. I considered so many of you my family, and I hurt you. It’s irreparable, and I will never ever stop trying to be a better person because of it. All I wanted was to turn over a new leaf, and to have fun writing with those I could reconnect with, and I apologize from the bottom of my heart for drudging up old hurts. I never want to hurt any of you again, and I never plan to. If anyone wishes to come talk to me about this, so I can explain and own up further, or if you would like a direct apology, I’m now at arhwen. I hope you’re all well, and finish out 2017 well, too.

[mysydneymemories-blog]

New show The Spanish Princess: not quite accurate, but certainly exciting

That would have been a neat trick, considering that Muslims had been there less than 800 years.

A scene from Stan's The Spanish Princess.Credit:Stan Loading However accurate the rest of it is, it's certainly exciting. Escorting Catherine down to the docks, Isabella finds herself confronted by a small army of Muslim rebels, so she rides into battle in a crowned helmet, laying about her with a great big sword before returning to her daughter triumphantly spattered in blood. It's all a bit Game of Thrones-y, and the resemblances keep piling up once Catherine lands in England. Arthur (Angus Imrie) proves a damp squib who's scared of girls, and it turns out the letters from him that had got Catherine so steamed up were in fact a catfishing exercise by the dastardly Henry (Ruairi O'Connor) who, with his tousled red hair and devilish good looks, styles himself as "Prince Harry". Where Game of Thrones' Margaery Tyrell came from far away to marry first the monstrous Joffrey and then his gentle, gormless brother, Tommen, it looks as though Catherine is going to do things the other way around. [embedded content] But, as in Game of Thrones, it's the older women who are the best value. Harriet Walter is an absolute treat as Henry's pompous grandmother, Margaret Beaufort, a woman appalled to learn that Catherine takes daily baths rather than weekly ones. Henry's mother, Queen Elizabeth (Alexandra Moen), reveals a Cersei-like ruthless streak while Henry VII (Elliot Cowan) frets about the threat posed by France and Scotland. The major figures are attended by good-looking minor ones, most of whom seem rather keen to drop trouser and lift petticoat. Like The White Princess and The White Queen (which are also on Stan), it's well cast, handsomely produced and based on novels by Philippa Gregory (The Other Boleyn Girl). Good popcorn-munching fun. Time Traveling Bong comedycentral.com.au Ilana Glazer is in fine, filthy form in this all-too-brief, oh-so-wrong comedy series she created with her Broad City producer-director Lucia Aniello and castmate Paul W. Downs.

Broad City's Ilana Glazer stars in Time Traveling Bong. Credit:comedycentral.com.au Dirtbag cousins Sharee and Jeff (Glazer and Downs) come into possession of a high-tech bong that transports the user to random places in the past and future. In terms of sheer madness it's hard to get a struck match between Sharee's embrace of caveman sex culture and her attempt to save 1960s Michael Jackson from his monstrous father. [embedded content] Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile Netflix Director Joe Berlinger made his name with documentaries revealing miscarriages of American justice. This drama, based on the memoir of Elizabeth Kendall, the unwitting girlfriend of serial killer Ted Bundy, reveals the kind of bizarre circus American justice can become.

This image released by Netflix shows Zac Efron, left, and Lily Collins, right, in a scene from Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile. Credit:Brian Douglas/Netflix via AP Zac Efron is suitably creepy as the manipulative Bundy, and the estimable Lily Collins hugely sympathetic as Kendall. But it's Bundy's televised trial in Florida - with John Malkovich as the idiosyncratic presiding judge - that will leave the most lasting impression. Loading Docs 2018 Docplay, loadingdocs.net The latest crop of three-minute documentaries from New Zealand offers intriguing and often frustratingly brief glimpses of interesting people and scenes across the Tasman.

A still from one of Loading Docs 2018's shorts. Credit:Docplay From a deaf MP working to help other people with disabilities take part in politics to a scientist turning invasive algae into biodegradable plastic, a nomadic barber starting conversations about mental health, and a program that helps troubled Maori youth engage with their cultural heritage, there's a lot going on. Both Docplay and loadingdocs.net have earlier seasons as well. Fleabag Amazon Prime Video If the first season of Phoebe Waller-Bridge's sticky, tar-black comedy was a bit of a masterpiece, the second elevates its creator, writer and star to greatness.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge is sheer magic in season two of Fleabag. Credit:Amazon Prime Video Exquisitely crafted in every line and shot, it's unflinchingly mordant in its heightened depiction of everyday awfulness, but it retains at its core a vulnerable, longing sweetness you mightn't think capable of coexisting. It is, perhaps, a bit like chocolate and sea salt, or one of those other trendy combinations that sound repulsive but are evidently sublime. Similarly impressive is the sight of the eponymous character (Waller-Bridge) trying in earnest to become a better person in circumstances largely unconducive. With her emotionally unavailable father (Bill Paterson) and slightly monstrous godmother (Olivia Colman) planning to marry, Fleabag finds herself unexpectedly falling for the "cool, sweary priest" who will conduct the ceremony. Waller-Bridge delivers a virtuoso double performance as Fleabag rapidly, seamlessly transitions back and forth between interacting with her fellow characters and with the audience down the barrel of the camera. The meta situation that arises from this makes it doubly priceless. Sheer magic. Remastered: Devil at the Crossroads Netflix The latest instalment of Netflix's fine music documentary series has the likes of Keith Richards and Taj Mahal queueing up to pay tribute to Robert Johnson, the Mississippi bluesman whose slim but extraordinary body of work has been an inspiration to blues and rock musicians for more than 80 years. [embedded content] What's more interesting is the way that historians and academics here are able to illuminate some of Johnson's oblique, haunting lyrics in the context of contemporary belief in hoodoo and terror of lynching. *Stan is owned by Nine, the publisher of this website. Most Viewed in Entertainment Loading https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/new-show-the-spanish-princess-not-quite-accurate-but-certainly-exciting-20190514-p51nd2.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

[brendankuffner]

Revised Skeletal Draft – Person B HBO Social Media Audit Research Report

Abstract

This report will analyze HBO’s presence on a variety of social networks via a social media audit. The audit will examine factors such as consistency across platforms, quality of content, consumer feedback, competitor comparison, and platform compatibility. HBO’s overall social media presence is broad, but is lacking in several departments. These departments will be presented and criticized throughout the report.

Introduction

The chosen brand, HBO, was analyzed and audited due to glaring deficiencies in the organization’s online presence. The lack of consistency across all channels is reason to take a deeper look into the overall synchronicity of their social media platforms. As a beloved brand, known for their subscription based model, and incredible exclusive programming, there is significant potential for a revamped, or updated social media strategy.

HBO has become a beloved platform in Mass Media/Television. By analyzing their current social media strategy, and developing their online presence via a social media audit, there is significant progress to be made for the platform.

Literature Review

The majority of the literature gathered was used to explore strong social media strategy that companies are using at this point in time. This report will be guided by previous online literature such as a great article by Ben Davis illustrates 30 brand with excellent social media strategies, “How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy for 2019 and Beyond” from buffer.com, and “Creating Social Media Strategy” from moz.com.

Methodology

The methodology employed in order to analyze HBO’s social media strategy was a comprehensive social media audit. The audit analyzes HBO’s online platforms individually and weighs their pros and cons. This method gives great structure to the research report. The main platforms that will be analyzed are the HBO Canada’s Website, HBO Canada’s Facebook, and HBO Canada’s Twitter. In addition of the main prompts of pros, and cons, there will be evidence provided for the claims in screenshot form just in case posts are altered, or removed from the platforms.

Results

HBO Canada’s Website

The Pros of HBO Canada’s Website:

• Access to a large variety of ad-free and original content.

• No commercials, pop-up menus, or redirects on the website

• The website is easy to use, consistent and caters to Canadian users by providing relevant and intriguing content. 

• Popular titles are prominently featured on the site, and easily navigable for users.

• The first prompt on the site mentions that HBO Canada has transitioned to CRAVE in Canada. This provides users with upfront information essential to the user’s subscription needs.

The Cons of HBO Canada’s Website:

• Blocked content seems to occur depending on your region/ provider.

• Additional costs added to exclusive content, which encourages users to switch to Netflix

• The website can experience lagging at times and the large images/ font size make it difficult to properly utilize all website functions on a smartphone or iPad. 

• Confusing prices (ex. “Starz” package which is not clearly explained by Crave.ca website)

• HBO Canada has transitioned from “HBO Canada” to “CRAVE” which may confuse users. The social media links provided on the homepage of the HBO Canada site directly link to CRAVE social media platforms. This is confusing to users and will lead to less successful Search Engine Optimization

HBO Canada’s Facebook

The Pros of HBO Canada’s Facebook:

• HBO Canada has an extensive following of 24,148 people. The Facebook page is well organized and consists of an in-depth description of the site, quality graphics, external links, posts, videos, and a strong community following. Additional pros to HBO Canada’s Facebook page include: easy to access and diverse content, consistent and high-quality video, no ads and no interruptions. 

• Engagement on the page is extremely high as Facebook users consistently like, and comment on content posted. This is a great sign for HBO in Canada. Users are interested and use the HBO Facebook page to communicate interest with friends.  

The Cons of HBO Canada’s Facebook:

• Although HBO Canada seems to be strong and well managed, the page doesn’t compare to the official HBO Facebook page, which has far more extensive content and is liked by over 12 Million users. Upon analyzing both pages, it seems as though HBO Canada shares pictures, videos, and posts a few hours after the official HBO Facebook page. This is problematic due to the fact that many users want the most up-to-date and timely posts – which makes them more inclined to follow official HBO rather than HBO Canada.  Additional cons of HBO Canada’s Facebook page include: infrequent posting, poorly timed posts, fails to consistently use hashtags and external links. The Facebook page also fails to explain how much the service costs + any additional costs such as the Movies + HBO option or the Starz package. 

• The content on the HBO Canada Facebook page is very game of thrones centered. This may leave fans of other titles disenchanted with the page. 

HBO Canada’s Twitter:

The Pros of HBO Canada’s Twitter:

• HBO Canada’s Twitter account posts frequent, up-to-date content and is well managed by the sites social media team. 

• Consistently uses Twitter hashtags to encourage users to keep up with shows, content and news ex. #GoTPremiereNYC

• HBO Canada boast a following of 63.7K and receives consistent engagement from their followers.

The Cons of HBO Canada’s Twitter:

• HBO Canada’s Twitter account is not consistent with the Facebook page, thus proving that HBO Canada struggles to maintain consistency with their content across all media platforms. 

• News will often be posted to the Twitter account and not the Facebook page

• Tweets from this account can sometimes be irrelevant and unnecessary, which media companies want to avoid due to the frequent posting and un-wanted spam complaints from users

• In the biography of the page, a link re-directs you to a page that wants you to sign up for Crave – failing to accurately explain what the service has to offer. 

• Re-direct links can be confusing for less “tech savvy” users – this could create confusion and lead them to believe that other services are superior (ex. Netflix – which is incredibly user friendly). 

Discussion

Relevance of your results: 

Changes as a result of the preliminary findings in the social media audit have the potential to create more buzz for upcoming release of Season 8 of HBO’s most notable title, Game of Thrones.

In the off chance you have missed the teasers for the new season, check these out:

GAME OF THRONES Season 8 Trailer 'Fire & Ice'

Game of Thrones | Season 8 | Official Tease: Crypts of Winterfell (HBO)How results fit with other findings:

The results of the social media audit are very positive, but point to current issues with HBO’s current social media strategy. 

With many companies/organizations having such a negative or controversial presence online, all findings shown in the audit are much less dramatic than the following:

BIGGEST Social Media Fails By Companies

Conclusion

In summary, HBO Canada’s social media pages are well managed and active. Their Twitter and Facebook pages have been proven to post frequent, up-to-date and relevant content. Although high quality content is evident, there lacks consistency across platforms. HBO Canada also fails to keep up with the competition – which was proven by comparing the user friendliness, feedback and compatibility of Netflix up against Crave TV. In order to surpass competition from a business standpoint, HBO Canada will have to improve upon their social media strategy, potentially by reading this very report.

Recommendations

What needs to be done as a result of findings: HBO Canada needs to improve on consistency across platforms. In multiple cases, the Twitter account and Facebook account fail to post at the same time and the content is often varied slightly. In order to reach their target market effectively and consistently, Twitter posts should match Facebook posts and they should both utilize hashtags and external links. It was concluded that the webpage was user friendly, well managed and effective, but image/font size does impact mobile users. So, with this suggestion, HBO Canada needs to improve on their overall appearance and aesthetic while still maintaining consistent, well linked content throughout all three platforms. If this is effectively done, users across all platforms will avoid being confused and gain consistent, up-to-date knowledge on TV series, movies and docs.

HBO Canada is also faced with a difficult rebranding process with the incorporation of CRAVE into their social media and streaming platforms. For this reason, HBO Canada should consistently link CRAVE social media platforms across their existing HBO Canada platforms. This will aide users in finding the information they need to be fully immersed in HBO Canada’s content.

References

https://econsultancy.com/30-brands-with-excellent-social-media-strategies/

http://www.hbocanada.com/

https://www.facebook.com/HBOCanada/

https://twitter.com/HBOCanada

BIGGEST Social Media Fails By Companies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7QQb8oMG8k

Social Media Marketing Explained in 11 Minutes - Gary Vaynerchuk | Business Talk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rSWdW2GQI4

GAME OF THRONES Season 8 Trailer 'Fire & Ice' 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYWjB0kWNXk

Game of Thrones | Season 8 | Official Tease: Crypts of Winterfell (HBO)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA38GCX4Tb0

How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy for 2019 and Beyond

https://buffer.com/library/social-media-marketing-strategy

Creating Social Media Strategy

https://moz.com/learn/seo/social-media-strategy-video

[militant-holy-knight]

Using Tragedy For Political Gain For the Nth Time.

I am torn as to whether or not I should have written a personal take on this so soon. When I woke up in Friday morning to see the news about the Christchurch terrorist attack I was alarmed. Yes, I saw the footage and yes, I read his manifesto - it was nothing short of absolutely grotesque and degenerate. Plain and simple. Make no mistake, this was an racist attack whose perpetrator is indeed a terrorist. In fact, I won’t even dignify him by referring to his name - he will simply be called henceforth the NZ terrorist. On Tumblr I shared a few articles and reblogged a few posts calling for moderation. But as I see the events further develop I can’t help but address this situation which I believe will make things worse unless if we talk about them anyway.

We don’t often get the luxury of having a mass murderer explain himself such as the Las Vegas shooter (whose motivations are still a mystery to this day and will never be explained). And while the NZ wrote an extensive manifesto and made it clear what his positions are. I’ve struggled (and I still do) on whether or not saying his manifesto should be read by people so that people can draw their own conclusions, but I’ve questioned how much he is a point he would have when the doc is filled with so much misdirection, shitposting and trolling. I’ve questioned if he really is world-traveled as he claims he is since his manifesto drips with the words of someone who never left his parents’ home and decided to go on a shooting because of death... Until I saw there is evidence he visited at least Pakistan, with video and passport to confirm it.

As far as we know, his manifesto was made to misdirect with only one thing for certain that we can assess: he wants to further cause division between the left and right and escalate the culture war. Unfortunately, many individuals have either mindlessly fallen into his trap and started heaping the blame on the wrong kind of individuals for allegedly “radicalizing” this criminal or even more insidiously, forming some sort of unholy ideological alliance with the terrorist because he knows his crimes will play into a certain course of action that he hopes they will take and they are grateful that someone did actually did it so he could use the tragedy as an convenient excuse.

A good example that comes to mind is the dictator of Turkey, Reccep Tayip Erdogan, (who is name dropped in the manifesto and who the terrorist calls for his death) blamed the attack on the “rise of Islamophobia” and went on to say the Hagia Sophia will never be a church again so long as there are Turkish people. Very typical behavior from him and to say so no surprise, but this time he is surely alarmed because the terrorist dared to paint a target on him. He is in pure hostility mode because that is how he operates. He is overly emotional, engages in divide and conquer tactics like the terrorist and makes no bones about how much he hates not just his political rivals, but also his allies too. He earns to revive the Ottoman caliphate so that he can take over the West and the Arab world. He is an absolute PR nightmare for anyone who wants to show an example of a liberal Muslim government, which Turkey used to be held up as the example the MENA countries should follow, but now is hardly any better. The only time I remembered he tried to present himself as a paragon compared - which is hard to do when you are jailing journalists and critics - except during the Jamal Khashoggi affair. For one, trying to pretend like you are a better human rights example than Saudi Arabia really isn’t that hard to achieve since they are just Islamic North Korea. For another, people have rightfully pointed out that he is full of shit and he was merely using that for personal agenda.

But Erdogan is a dictator so of course he wants his critics silenced and his opinions don’t earn any serious merit in the discussion. What really is concerning is the kind of discourse we will see in the Western world. Journalists have either consciously or not laid the blame at the feet of Donald Trump, Candace Owens, Pewdiepie, Christians, Jews, memelords, guns and others for supposedly radicalizing this individual. It’s ironic he said denounces Trump and conservatism in his manifesto, but since the public will be discouraged from reading it out of fear of radicalizing themselves, it creates an convenient opportunity they can paint a monster that must be put down.

This is dangerous not only because it validates the far-right’s concerns but also helps no one but further alienate those outside of the fight politically. Lets consider who will be marginalized if the far-left engages in a literal crusade to defend Islam by any means necessary. The first ones to get silenced would be the online memelords that post harmless memes simply because the terrorist used a lot of memes like the Remove Kebab song in his massacre footage, which has been deleted from Youtube as we speak.

Then there are historians like Iniciativa Condor, Real Crusades History and myself that are personally fascinated by the Crusades, the Reconquista and the Great Turkish War. Because the terrorist now used several references like the Battle of Tours, the Battle of Vienna, Skanderbeg, the Russo-Turkish War and many others (though ironically not Vlad the Impaler), I imagined we will be ostracized when discussing such subjects in the open out of fear of another Christchurch. In fact, I’ve been warned by personal relatives that I shouldn’t be vocal about it anymore.

And then on a more serious scale... There are critics of Islam as a religion, specially of Muslim background. Regardless if atheistic or religious, these people were already under enough scrutiny in their home countries who do everything to suppress criticism of Islam even secular societies like Indonesia and Turkey, the former in particular exploits its law Article 301 about “insulting Turkishness” which is misused to arrest dissidents. There is a former Muslim Youtuber I am subscribed, the Apostate Prophet who while deeply denouncing the attack, received messages asking if he was happy about Muslims being killed. What kind of fucked up perspective is this where criticism of Islam is equated with sanctioning the death of Muslims?

Now on the worst case of all. Consider that there is an actual epidemic of rape that liberals have turned an blind eye on Europe because it means tackling a very uncomfortable topic which goes contrary to what works in their agenda.

If what happens on Europe is bad, then its infinitely worse what is happening around the world, specially in the Middle-East where Christians are facing an actual genocide by jihadists and fundamentalists which has been going on for years now, but we have only started paying attention now that the Middle-East began to spill into the West. Furthermore, this attack will certainly result in retaliation since they have found less excuse for. Remember the Regensburg lecture by Pope Benedict when he quoted the Byzantine Emperor Manuel Palailogos for criticizing Muhammed and the entire Islamic world went apeshit with Iraq in particular killing Assyrians in retaliation as if they had anything to do with it. Just because of an controversial statement by the Pope.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not leaving the alt-righters celebrating this atrocity in their echo chambers off the hook either. I’ve seen how static /pol/ users were at seeing the footage of him shooting up innocents, advocating for more terrorist attacks to be called out, trolling users who said innocents shouldn’t be targeted or those accusing the terrorist of being a Mossad agent or a Shia Muslim. Its somewhat surprising you see: /pol/ hates Muslims too they think Jewish people are much, much worse (something which the shooter didn’t do). Hell I heard the Saudi Royal Family is in fact Jewish behind close doors. Consider these are the kind of people who are also in love with Bashar al Assad who portrays himself as the secular side of the Syrian Civil War that protects minorities when in fact this is also a ruse.

Similarly, for all their bitching about Western civilization falling, they are unsympathetic to the plight of Christians around the world because they are non-white and follow a “Semitic religion”. Not a single word about Asia Bibi being on death row, the persecution of Copts in Egypt or explosion of churches in  They have trivialized the word of genocide by comparing low birth-rates with actual fucking persecution, exiling, destruction of heritage that minorities suffer in the Middle-East. Also speaking as a Brazilian even one fascinated with Western heritage, they’d still advocate my death because I am non-white (I hate using the term “POC” because its patronizing) and they’d want us to stay in their shitty lane.

Its frustrating enough that the far-left has a monopoly on social media and journalism (this isn’t up for debate, the purge of NPC memes is evidence of that) and the internet is basically owned by them. Now imagine if they push down even harder? Or Erdogan’s comments will end up pushing someone to actually try to assassinate him (unlikely considering Kurds haven’t been pushed hard enough to consider assassinating him despite all the things they have done to their people, a foreigner will likely have even less motivation for doing so), but I don’t think that man will go down peacefully as he expects. The whole point of this massacre was to literally divide the world into left-wing and right-wing, with the shooter expecting that whites begin genociding foreigners regardless of religion (he simply chose a mosque because it was too obvious, he denounces Latinos and Indians who are majority Catholic and Hindu respectively). I’d argue that in addition to being a national socialist and a fascist, I think he is an anarchist too - because for a guy committed to such a cause, he did a lot of harm to it by killing children and filming it. Nobody sane will advocate for this, only the tiny, tiny minority in /pol/ that agree with his actions, and even they don’t have a back bone to follow his footsteps.

Everything the terrorist wanted he is getting because of the emotionally driven responses that people are making as such I call for moderation, quit the dick measuring game that you call a culture war and try to find a common ground before anything else. 

[zombiepineapple]

Answering a few questions about Free Speech online

Free Speech and Exceptions

Originally a Greek ideology, freedom of speech is extremely important to our culture and legislation (History.com Editors, 2018). The United States first amendment promising the freedom of speech without government censorship helps people share information, communicate, protest, make symbolic statements and more. The supreme court has had considerable cases to draw lines in the sand, showing us what we can and can’t say. Generally, speech that promotes hatred, violence, or slander are denied the freedom to circulate (History.com Editors, 2018). This can be very interpretive, however, as one person’s truth can be another’s lie, and opinions can be perceived as strength by one person, and violent by another.

Internet Censorship: What keeps Platforms from Censoring Properly? Does Internet censorship deny the right to free speech?

The internet tends to follow the same rules as the US legal system, but grey areas make things difficult. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, YouTube content creators would have their videos demonetized if they said the word “covid” in their videos (Stokel-Walker, 2020). This was a choice the platform made in order to give priority to authoritative sources and deter the spread of misinformation. YouTube had good intentions, but ended up censoring too strictly, inspiring people to find loopholes in order to subvert the rule completely. One example was that people began saying “CV” phonetically instead of the word “covid”, which was enough to get around the censorship checks (Stokel-Walker, 2020). A famous phrase “first coined by internet pioneer John Gilmore [states] ‘The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.’ (Chander, 2015)"

Another issue of internet censorship is that some types of illegal speech are made egregiously simple with the internet, like plagiarism or child pornography. Large platforms can have difficulty sifting through their users to stop these types of situations, especially when there’s so much blatant violence to regulate (Marantz, 2020). Violations flying under-the-radar or actively trying to remain hidden can elude law enforcement by hiding behind overwhelmed internet platforms with little or non-specific monitoring and censorship.

Online platforms must worry about political and public sway as well, not just legality. Whether it’s “flag burning, cross burning, public display of profanities, violent video games, lies about having military honors, depictions of animal cruelty, non-obscene sexual expression, [or an] offensive protests outside a private funeral trigger[ing] the concerns that animate the Free Speech Clause... free speech controversies repeatedly find themselves intertwined with contemporary political and public policy battles. (Chen, 2020)” This can mean that the most popular or controversial examples are given the most attention, resulting in more extreme censorship, rather than any agreed consensus or enforcement. This also leads to platforms that knowingly exchange less censorship for more users and financial gain.

Corporate Free Speech: How can a company incorporate free speech issues into their best practices and code of conduct? Does the ACM Code of Ethics cover this issue?

The best way for a company to incorporate free speech in their codes of conduct is to consider scenario-specific intent and consequences. If an intent or result of speech breaks a principle of the ACM Code of Ethics, that speech cannot be considered included in the person’s first amendment's right. For example, discriminatory speech in the workplace, harassment, or bullying, all which can lead to harm (Code of Ethics, 2016). A person cannot speak in an unethical and dishonorable manner and expect to be protected. A metaphor for this is that a person cannot fire shots from behind a shield. So, though the ACM Code of Ethics doesn’t explicitly touch on first amendment rights, ethical standards including freedom of speech can still be formed.

Does Fake News Equate to Free Speech?

Incorrect information can cause real damage. “One day in 2013, a false rumor, circulated on Twitter, caused the stock market to lose $200 billion in value. Someone hijacking the Associated Press Twitter account had falsely reported injury to the President, sending the market into a swoon. Lawsuits for damages would have spelled the death of Twitter” but no lawsuits were filed because the first amendment protected the media platform (Chander, 2015). While some types of Fake News can be considered libel, some types are simply too hard to pinpoint blame, and may result in questionable harm. For example, there are too many hands at fault for the internet rumor claiming the coronavirus vaccine had miniscule microchips in them because of a mass surveillance conspiracy theory led by Bill Gates (Carmichael, 2020).

Censorship can keep false facts from spreading, but rumors snowball into online groups and communities spreading the information as if it’s sensible public opinion requiring discourse. fake news connects like-minded people and “promote(s) expressive experiential autonomy” (Chen, 2020). This means that Fake News has “Free Speech Value”. The fact that this type of speech is useful to some people, aligning with an original intent for the first amendment’s encouragement of democracy, means that all fake news must count as protected free speech. Fake News can only be removed if there is proven harm resulting from the story, causing the right to be revoked (Chen, 2020).

Conclusion

As the concept of Free Speech has formed the internet, the quandaries of the evolving technology have brought more and more questions in how to further define Free Speech. Most decisions tend to be based on evidence of injury after-the-fact. As legislation catches up to today’s cyber world, new boundaries will be set. Until then, Free Speech online remains a type of wild west, where the rules depend on where you happen to be.

References

Carmichael, J. G. and F. (2020, May 30). The Bill Gates “microchip” claim fact-checked. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/52847648

Chander, A., & Le, U. P. (2015). Free speech. Iowa Law Review, 100(2), 501+. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A398524041/PPCJ?u=lirn55593&sid=bookmark-PPCJ&xid=f302009e

Chen, A. K. (2020). FREE SPEECH, RATIONAL DELIBERATION, AND SOME TRUTHS ABOUT LIES. William and Mary Law Review, 62(2), 357+. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A650781945/PPCJ?u=lirn55593&sid=bookmark-PPCJ&xid=d1397461

Code of Ethics. (2016, June 7). ACM Ethics. https://ethics.acm.org/code-of-ethics/

History.com Editors. (2018, August 21). Freedom of Speech. HISTORY; A&E Television Networks. https://www.history.com/topics/united-states-constitution/freedom-of-speech

‌ Stokel-Walker, C. (2020, March 30). YouTube’s Independent Creators Are Mad That They Can’t Say “Coronavirus.” Medium. https://onezero.medium.com/youtubes-independent-creators-are-mad-that-they-can-t-say-coronavirus-e7b16ae844fa

Tavani, H. T. (2012). Ethics and technology : controversies, questions, and strategies for ethical computing. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Marantz, A. (2020, October 12). Why Facebook Can’t Fix Itself. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/19/why-facebook-cant-fix-itself

[endenogatai]

Seized cache of Facebook docs raise competition and consent questions

A UK parliamentary committee has published the cache of Facebook documents it dramatically seized last week.

The documents were obtained by a legal discovery process by a startup that’s suing the social network in a California court in a case related to Facebook changing data access permissions back in 2014/15.

The court had sealed the documents but the DCMS committee used rarely deployed parliamentary powers to obtain them from the Six4Three founder, during a business trip to London.

You can read the redacted documents here — all 250 pages of them.

In a series of tweets regarding the publication, committee chair Damian Collins says he believes there is “considerable public interest” in releasing them.

“They raise important questions about how Facebook treats users data, their policies for working with app developers, and how they exercise their dominant position in the social media market,” he writes.

“We don’t feel we have had straight answers from Facebook on these important issues, which is why we are releasing the documents. We need a more public debate about the rights of social media users and the smaller businesses who are required to work with the tech giants. I hope that our committee investigation can stand up for them.”

The committee has been investigating online disinformation and election interference for the best part of this year, and has been repeatedly frustrated in its attempts to extract answers from Facebook.

But it is protected by parliamentary privilege — hence it’s now published the Six4Three files, having waited a week in order to redact certain pieces of personal information.

Collins has included a summary of key issues, as the committee sees them after reviewing the documents, in which he draws attention to six issues.

Here is his summary of the key issues:

White Lists Facebook have clearly entered into whitelisting agreements with certain companies, which meant that after the platform changes in 2014/15 they maintained full access to friends data. It is not clear that there was any user consent for this, nor how Facebook decided which companies should be whitelisted or not.

Value of friends data It is clear that increasing revenues from major app developers was one of the key drivers behind the Platform 3.0 changes at Facebook. The idea of linking access to friends data to the financial value of the developers relationship with Facebook is a recurring feature of the documents.

Reciprocity Data reciprocity between Facebook and app developers was a central feature in the discussions about the launch of Platform 3.0.

Android Facebook knew that the changes to its policies on the Android mobile phone system, which enabled the Facebook app to collect a record of calls and texts sent by the user would be controversial. To mitigate any bad PR, Facebook planned to make it as hard of possible for users to know that this was one of the underlying features of the upgrade of their app.

Onavo Facebook used Onavo to conduct global surveys of the usage of mobile apps by customers, and apparently without their knowledge. They used this data to assess not just how many people had downloaded apps, but how often they used them. This knowledge helped them to decide which companies to acquire, and which to treat as a threat.

Targeting competitor Apps The files show evidence of Facebook taking aggressive positions against apps, with the consequence that denying them access to data led to the failure of that business

The publication of the files comes at an awkward moment for Facebook — which remains on the back foot after a string of data and security scandals, and has just announced a major policy change — ending a long-running ban on apps copying its own platform features.

Albeit the timing of Facebook’s policy shift announcement hardly looks incidental — given Collins said last week the committee would publish the files this week.

The policy in question has been used by Facebook to close down competitors in the past, such as — two years ago — when it cut off style transfer app Prisma’s access to its live-streaming Live API when the startup tried to launch a livestreaming art filter (Facebook subsequently launched its own style transfer filters for Live).

So its policy reversal now looks intended to diffuse regulatory scrutiny around potential antitrust concerns.

But emails in the Six4Three files suggesting that Facebook took “aggressive positions” against competing apps could spark fresh competition concerns.

In one email dated January 24, 2013, a Facebook staffer, Justin Osofsky, discusses Twitter’s launch of its short video clip app, Vine, and says Facebook’s response will be to close off its API access.

“As part of their NUX, you can find friends via FB. Unless anyone raises objections, we will shut down their friends API access today. We’ve prepared reactive PR, and I will let Jana know our decision,” he writes. 

Osofsky’s email is followed by what looks like a big thumbs up from Zuckerberg, who replies: “Yup, go for it.”

Also of concern on the competition front is Facebook’s use of a VPN startup it acquired, Onavo, to gather intelligence on competing apps — either for acquisition purposes or to target as a threat to its business.

The files show various Onavo industry charts detailing reach and usage of mobile apps and social networks — with each of these graphs stamped ‘highly confidential’.

Facebook bought Onavo back in October 2013. Shortly after it shelled out $19BN to acquire rival messaging app WhatsApp — which one Onavo chart in the cache indicates was beasting Facebook on mobile, accounting for well over double the daily message sends at that time.

Onavo charts are quite an insight into facebook’s commanding view of the app-based attention marketplace pic.twitter.com/Ezdaxk6ffC

— David Carroll

(@profcarroll) December 5, 2018

The files also spotlight several issues of concern relating to privacy and data protection law, with internal documents raising fresh questions over how or even whether (in the case of Facebook’s whitelisting agreements with certain developers) it obtained consent from users to process their personal data.

The company is already facing a number of privacy complaints under the EU’s GDPR framework over its use of ‘forced consent‘, given that it does not offer users an opt-out from targeted advertising.

But the Six4Three files look set to pour fresh fuel on the consent fire.

Collins’ fourth line item — related to an Android upgrade — also speaks loudly to consent complaints.

Earlier this year Facebook was forced to deny that it collects calls and SMS data from users of its Android apps without permission. But, as we wrote at the time, it had used privacy-hostile design tricks to sneak expansive data-gobbling permissions past users. So, put simple, people clicked ‘agree’ without knowing exactly what they were agreeing to.

The Six4Three files back up the notion that Facebook was intentionally trying to mislead users.

In one email dated November 15, 2013, from Matt Scutari, manager privacy and public policy, suggests ways to prevent users from choosing to set a higher level of privacy protection, writing: “Matt is providing policy feedback on a Mark Z request that Product explore the possibility of making the Only Me audience setting unsticky. The goal of this change would be to help users avoid inadvertently posting to the Only Me audience. We are encouraging Product to explore other alternatives, such as more aggressive user education or removing stickiness for all audience settings.”

Another awkward trust issue for Facebook which the documents could stir up afresh relates to its repeat claim — including under questions from lawmakers — that it does not sell user data.

In one email from the cache — sent by Mark Zuckerberg, dated October 7, 2012 — the Facebook founder appears to be entertaining the idea of charging developers for “reading anything, including friends”.

Yet earlier this year, when he was asked by a US lawmaker how Facebook makes money, Zuckerberg replied: “Senator, we sell ads.”

He did not include a caveat that he had apparently personally entertained the idea of liberally selling access to user data.

Responding to the publication of the Six4Three documents, a Facebook spokesperson told us:

As we’ve said many times, the documents Six4Three gathered for their baseless case are only part of the story and are presented in a way that is very misleading without additional context. We stand by the platform changes we made in 2015 to stop a person from sharing their friends’ data with developers. Like any business, we had many of internal conversations about the various ways we could build a sustainable business model for our platform. But the facts are clear: we’ve never sold people’s data.

Zuckerberg has repeatedly refused to testify in person to the DCMS committee.

At its last public hearing — which was held in the form of a grand committee comprising representatives from nine international parliaments, all with burning questions for Facebook — the company sent its policy VP, Richard Allan, leaving an empty chair where Zuckerberg’s bum should be.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8204425 https://ift.tt/2Sxd8wh via IFTTT

[technicalsolutions88]

A UK parliamentary committee has published the cache of Facebook documents it dramatically seized last week.

The documents were obtained by a legal discovery process by a startup that’s suing the social network in a California court in a case related to Facebook changing data access permissions back in 2014/15.

The court had sealed the documents but the DCMS committee used rarely deployed parliamentary powers to obtain them from the Six4Three founder, during a business trip to London.

You can read the redacted documents here — all 250 pages of them.

In a series of tweets regarding the publication, committee chair Damian Collins says he believes there is “considerable public interest” in releasing them.

“They raise important questions about how Facebook treats users data, their policies for working with app developers, and how they exercise their dominant position in the social media market,” he writes.

“We don’t feel we have had straight answers from Facebook on these important issues, which is why we are releasing the documents. We need a more public debate about the rights of social media users and the smaller businesses who are required to work with the tech giants. I hope that our committee investigation can stand up for them.”

The committee has been investigating online disinformation and election interference for the best part of this year, and has been repeatedly frustrated in its attempts to extract answers from Facebook.

But it is protected by parliamentary privilege — hence it’s now published the Six4Three files, having waited a week in order to redact certain pieces of personal information.

Collins has included a summary of key issues, as the committee sees them after reviewing the documents, in which he draws attention to six issues.

Here is his summary of the key issues:

White Lists Facebook have clearly entered into whitelisting agreements with certain companies, which meant that after the platform changes in 2014/15 they maintained full access to friends data. It is not clear that there was any user consent for this, nor how Facebook decided which companies should be whitelisted or not.

Value of friends data It is clear that increasing revenues from major app developers was one of the key drivers behind the Platform 3.0 changes at Facebook. The idea of linking access to friends data to the financial value of the developers relationship with Facebook is a recurring feature of the documents.

Reciprocity Data reciprocity between Facebook and app developers was a central feature in the discussions about the launch of Platform 3.0.

Android Facebook knew that the changes to its policies on the Android mobile phone system, which enabled the Facebook app to collect a record of calls and texts sent by the user would be controversial. To mitigate any bad PR, Facebook planned to make it as hard of possible for users to know that this was one of the underlying features of the upgrade of their app.

Onavo Facebook used Onavo to conduct global surveys of the usage of mobile apps by customers, and apparently without their knowledge. They used this data to assess not just how many people had downloaded apps, but how often they used them. This knowledge helped them to decide which companies to acquire, and which to treat as a threat.

Targeting competitor Apps The files show evidence of Facebook taking aggressive positions against apps, with the consequence that denying them access to data led to the failure of that business

The publication of the files comes at an awkward moment for Facebook — which remains on the back foot after a string of data and security scandals, and has just announced a major policy change — ending a long-running ban on apps copying its own platform features.

Albeit the timing of Facebook’s policy shift announcement hardly looks incidental — given Collins said last week the committee would publish the files this week.

The policy in question has been used by Facebook to close down competitors in the past, such as — two years ago — when it cut off style transfer app Prisma’s access to its live-streaming Live API when the startup tried to launch a livestreaming art filter (Facebook subsequently launched its own style transfer filters for Live).

So its policy reversal now looks intended to diffuse regulatory scrutiny around potential antitrust concerns.

But emails in the Six4Three files suggesting that Facebook took “aggressive positions” against competing apps could spark fresh competition concerns.

In one email dated January 24, 2013, a Facebook staffer, Justin Osofsky, discusses Twitter’s launch of its short video clip app, Vine, and says Facebook’s response will be to close off its API access.

“As part of their NUX, you can find friends via FB. Unless anyone raises objections, we will shut down their friends API access today. We’ve prepared reactive PR, and I will let Jana know our decision,” he writes. 

Osofsky’s email is followed by what looks like a big thumbs up from Zuckerberg, who replies: “Yup, go for it.”

Also of concern on the competition front is Facebook’s use of a VPN startup it acquired, Onavo, to gather intelligence on competing apps — either for acquisition purposes or to target as a threat to its business.

The files show various Onavo industry charts detailing reach and usage of mobile apps and social networks — with each of these graphs stamped ‘highly confidential’.

Facebook bought Onavo back in October 2013. Shortly after it shelled out $19BN to acquire rival messaging app WhatsApp — which one Onavo chart in the cache indicates was beasting Facebook on mobile, accounting for well over double the daily message sends at that time.

Onavo charts are quite an insight into facebook’s commanding view of the app-based attention marketplace pic.twitter.com/Ezdaxk6ffC

— David Carroll

(@profcarroll) December 5, 2018

The files also spotlight several issues of concern relating to privacy and data protection law, with internal documents raising fresh questions over how or even whether (in the case of Facebook���s whitelisting agreements with certain developers) it obtained consent from users to process their personal data.

The company is already facing a number of privacy complaints under the EU’s GDPR framework over its use of ‘forced consent‘, given that it does not offer users an opt-out from targeted advertising.

But the Six4Three files look set to pour fresh fuel on the consent fire.

Collins’ fourth line item — related to an Android upgrade — also speaks loudly to consent complaints.

Earlier this year Facebook was forced to deny that it collects calls and SMS data from users of its Android apps without permission. But, as we wrote at the time, it had used privacy-hostile design tricks to sneak expansive data-gobbling permissions past users. So, put simple, people clicked ‘agree’ without knowing exactly what they were agreeing to.

The Six4Three files back up the notion that Facebook was intentionally trying to mislead users.

In one email dated November 15, 2013, from Matt Scutari, manager privacy and public policy, suggests ways to prevent users from choosing to set a higher level of privacy protection, writing: “Matt is providing policy feedback on a Mark Z request that Product explore the possibility of making the Only Me audience setting unsticky. The goal of this change would be to help users avoid inadvertently posting to the Only Me audience. We are encouraging Product to explore other alternatives, such as more aggressive user education or removing stickiness for all audience settings.”

Another awkward trust issue for Facebook which the documents could stir up afresh relates to its repeat claim — including under questions from lawmakers — that it does not sell user data.

In one email from the cache — sent by Mark Zuckerberg, dated October 7, 2012 — the Facebook founder appears to be entertaining the idea of charging developers for “reading anything, including friends”.

Yet earlier this year, when he was asked by a US lawmaker how Facebook makes money, Zuckerberg replied: “Senator, we sell ads.”

He did not include a caveat that he had apparently personally entertained the idea of liberally selling access to user data.

Responding to the publication of the Six4Three documents, a Facebook spokesperson told us:

As we’ve said many times, the documents Six4Three gathered for their baseless case are only part of the story and are presented in a way that is very misleading without additional context. We stand by the platform changes we made in 2015 to stop a person from sharing their friends’ data with developers. Like any business, we had many of internal conversations about the various ways we could build a sustainable business model for our platform. But the facts are clear: we’ve never sold people’s data.

Zuckerberg has repeatedly refused to testify in person to the DCMS committee.

At its last public hearing — which was held in the form of a grand committee comprising representatives from nine international parliaments, all with burning questions for Facebook — the company sent its policy VP, Richard Allan, leaving an empty chair where Zuckerberg’s bum should be.

from Social – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2Sxd8wh Original Content From: https://techcrunch.com