#and having largely different experiences as an international student because of it

[sitdwnandstudy]

After my qualitative methods class today I'm just increasingly convinced that the boundaries between qualitative and quantitative methods are blurry to nonexistent. I'm not saying that some approaches aren't one thing or the other but literally none of the differentiating aspects listed can be said to only apply to one method or the other. I just think we'd be better off considering how to make sense of our results rather than making statements about how qualitative researchers make conscious choices that produce their results as if quantitative researchers don't literally also do that.

Anyway, I continue to be very interested in the ways that we convey authority in our research work, whether through methodological rigor, the appearance of methodological rigor, or some other way entirely.

[honey-beann]

Background Noise

rk boys (Nines, Connor, Sixty) x Reader Smut

Word count: 4,244

It was a beautiful morning, especially for Detroit, and Connor was feeling almost too content, watching the birds fly past the window above the kitchen sink as he sat comfortably at the breakfast bar.

The new house was perfect, notably different from the apartments he had lived in prior, and he found himself feeling so at home within it that he was filled with a joy he had only experienced once before, in an entirely different situation.

He allowed his mind to drift back to that night, your pretty dress, your ecstatic grin, and the calm waters lapping gently against concrete and wood sticking out clearly in his mind, even in memory alone.

Unbeknownst to the outside world, he examined his calendar internally, his LED briefly blinking yellow before calming back down to blue almost immediately as he checked just how long it had been since that wonderful afternoon.

He startled a bit (though he hoped only internally), at the realization that it had already been two months, and made a mental note to pick up some flowers to commemorate the event.

He had only just begun considering what type of flowers, when he heard his name get called from the speakers of the laptop that sat on the countertop in front of him.

"Do you have anything to add, Connor?"

Connor fixed his eyes on the screen and smiled politely at the speaker as well as the many college students who sat uncomfortably in their cramped desk seats a few hundred miles away at NYU, where he, Markus, Kara, North, and Simon were currently giving a lecture over video call.

"I'm sorry, I must have gotten lost in thought for a second, what was the question?"

Connor could see North cast the section of the screen he was taking up on her end a brief glare, but Kara, who had been the one to ask for his input in the first place, just smiled easily and waved his apology off.

"No problem. It was just about android-human romantic relationships and how the laws surrounding them are believed to change in the next few years. Markus mentioned his plans to have marriage legalized, and North spoke on the amount of negativity that these relationships face outside of the legal system, but I thought you might be able to provide some extra insight, if you felt comfortable."

Connor gave a slight nod, his smile returning to his face as he turned his attention back towards the large crowd of students, who, despite having been required to attend for credit, all seemed rather invested, though that was hardly any surprise given the speakers present.

Ever since the revolution, Connor and Markus in particular had gained a significant deal of notoriety due to both the rolls that they played, and the romantic relationships they had.

Markus had now been in his relationship with another android for a few years now, and Connor had been in his with a human for around the same amount of time, and people found that to be immensely interesting.

Here was Connor, the deviant hunter, a former prototype android designed for detective work, dating a human as if that were the most natural thing he could possibly do, and honestly, the media ate that up.

There were photos of you in the tabloids, articles about you posted online, and you were both criticized and adored by androids and humans alike for your relationship with Connor, even after all these years.

Of course, there were many other juicy aspects of your romantic life that the media loved to fixate on, but Connor hardly thought those were worth bringing up now, unless he wanted to complicate things extensively.

So instead, he chose to give the simplest answer he could without making it seem as if he were against the idea of speaking on his personal relationship (because he most certainly was not, in fact, he thoroughly enjoyed talking about you whenever an opportunity presented itself).

"Well, in my experience, android-human relationships are very similar to those shared between only humans and only androids. There are a lot of stereotypes, like that android lovers are superior, or that human partners can connect easier, but truthfully, I think most of these concepts are contrived by those who don't accept these relationships as legitimate and seek to weaken them because of that."

Just as he finished up his statement, a student raised their hand, and Kara, as the moderator, was more than happy to call upon them.

"Yes, you in the front row?"

The girl seemed nervous as she spoke up, but even so, Connor was able to make out her question easily.

"So if these stereotypes that Connor mentioned can be eliminated or lessened to a certain degree, can we anticipate the legalization of android-human marriage to occur shortly thereafter?"

Markus was quick to respond,

"Well, the legal system doesn't necessarily depend on these stereotypes being less prevalent, but it would definitely help our cause. That being said, I believe it won't be long now until android-human marriage is legalized, and that seems to be the consensus among many in the U.S. There has been a significant increase in the number of android-human betrothals within the past year, and I think that points to a general agreement that non-regulated marriages will definitely be legalized in the near future, it just depends on how long it takes for the government to recognize that from a legal standpoint."

Connor nodded in agreement,

"The data trends towards a general air of acceptance at the idea of legalizing these marriages. I myself proposed to my fiancee just two months ago with the expectation that in a slightly lengthened wedding planning time frame, the legalization process will be completed."

Soft murmurs echoed out among the crowd at this, as very few people were aware of your engagement (though the media had spoken frequently on the sudden addition of a rather expensive looking ring to your every day outfits).

Connor fought back a slight grin of amusement at the surprise that his words had caused, choosing instead to turn his attention towards the class's professor as the older man asked a question about android unions in the workplace, something that was much more in Simon's wheelhouse than Connor's.

He listened intently as his friend and colleague spoke in depth on the issue,

So intently in fact, that he neglected to notice the bedroom door opening until it was too late for him to do anything about it.

Out you walked, donning only an oversized dress shirt, slippers, and underwear, your hair mussed up, and your expression still rather drowsy as you made your way across the living room and into the bathroom, fully in frame of the camera you were all too unaware of for the majority of your trek.

Connor bit back a chuckle, his cheeks tinted a slight blue color as he admired via his screen how lovely you looked in your pajamas despite your immense lack of effort.

Of course though, he wasn't the only one to notice, and when you walked back through towards your bedroom after using the bathroom, there was a strong silence present from both the speakers as well as the audience, all of whom were rather distracted by the intrusion. Finally, clearly hoping to move on for the sake of time, the professor cleared his throat and spoke up through the newly awkward atmosphere.

"Excuse me, Mr. Anderson, but I believe there is someone in the backgrou-"

He cut himself off suddenly when an arm reached over from just out of frame and pulled you in toward it, shock clearly written across your face as you were yanked straight from view, yelping at the unexpected tug.

"Er, is everything alright?"

The professor spoke quietly now, his brow furrowed in confusion as Connor offered him a polite smile and nod,

"All is well, I believe my partner simply forgot about our professional arrangement this morning and neglected to use the other bathroom upon waking up."

"But who was-"

"As for the individual that removed her from the camera's view, I'm unsure if that was the rk800 or rk900, but I can assure you that our fiancee is entirely safe."

The crowd remained silent for a few moments as a great deal of the students took in what was for them, new information.

Of course, some larger fans and smart speculators had been able to piece together the relationship you shared with Sixty and Nines, but most people chose to ignore the complicated question of your romantic life beyond you and Connor.

After all, in the eyes of the media, Connor was a big sweetheart, while you were his equally innocent and adorable life partner, and how could they ever push that image out if they speculated that you were also engaged to both the rk800 model that had tried to kill Connor and Hank prior to deviation, and the rk900 model who had been strictly designed for military use when it came to hunting down deviants?

The short answer was that they couldn't, and as a result, the already rarely posted images of you and either of your partners who weren't Connor struggled to gain much traction, meaning that not many people believed, or even knew the rumor about your romantic relationship with all three men.

Except recently, you'd all sat down and had a conversation about this topic, which had ended with one strict viewpoint shared by all four of you:

Your relationship was not a secret, nor was it something to be ashamed of, and there would be no more comments leaving that up for interpretation.

The silence continued for multiple additional seconds beyond what Connor himself would consider awkward, until a student loudly cleared their own throat before slowly raising their hand, to which Kara responded by calling upon them in a manner that was almost hesitant.

"So uh, have android related marriage benefits been considered yet?"

North was quick to jump on answering that question, but even still, Connor couldn't help but feel his attention drift towards the situation just outside the range of his camera.

He couldn't quite make you out without making it obvious that he was looking in your direction, but he could clearly see Sixty's back as he caged you in against the wall, arms on either side of you while he leaned down to capture your lips in his in a manner that was no doubt ravenous.

He and Nines had both been out of town until just before Connor had began setting up for his prior arrangements earlier that morning, and if the android had meant what he'd said over the phone the night before last, you were likely in for one hell of a two month engagement celebration.

Connor attempted to turn his attention back towards the lecture, ignoring the growing pressure between his legs as he turned up the volume slightly, eyes fixated almost too intently on the screen.

Suddenly though, he was forced to hold back a wince as you stumbled back into the view of the audience, cheeks pink, lips bruised, and hair even messier than before as you struggled to avoid Sixty's attempts at grabbing you again with a laugh that was distant to the mic, but sharp in Connor's ears, igniting a spark of adoration in him at the sound.

He watched via the screen in front of him as you backed further into clear view with Sixty following confidently, a predatory grin at his lips that immediately let Connor know that the android couldn't care less whether or not those on the video call saw him.

Now more than a little bit enthralled by the chase as well as the sparkle of excitement he could see in your eyes, Connor kept his gaze trained on the scene playing out on the screen, a slight smirk fighting to show itself as he watched you start to lose your balance after being forced to raise a leg to stop your feral fiance from grabbing at it.

You shrieked as you fell back, catching yourself on your palms as you tried desperately to scoot away from Sixty's grip, though your efforts proved futile when he wrapped a nimble hand around one of your ankles, tugging you towards him and eventually just out of frame once more.

Soon afterward Connor heard the familiar sound of your feigned pleas for freedom being muffled against Sixty's hungry lips as they claimed your own for the second time that morning.

It proved to be very distracting.

Though, not nearly as distracting as you backing your way into frame once again moments later, palms flat against the floor behind you as you kicked playfully at Sixty, still doing your best to win the game of chase he'd started despite your obvious enjoyment.

You were fighting a grin as you continued to move backward, using your hands as leverage to pull yourself along faster even as Sixty followed on foot, which gave him a very clear advantage.

Repressing the urge to calculate how long on average Sixty tended to play with you before choosing to halt his typically lengthy games of cat and mouse, Connor shifted his gaze back towards the audience, hoping that the scene in the background wasn't the reason their gaze was so affixed to the projector screen in front of them.

Unfortunately though, the android's attempt at placing his regard on something that wasn't his fiancee's rather amusing struggle was squashed by the notable visual of a new figure entering the frame.

This definitely didn't help his cause, and he was almost certain that the crowd couldn't have possibly gone without noticing it either, as Nines made for an incredibly imposing figure under any and all circumstances.

That being said, you had clearly gotten very comfortable with his presence throughout the years, because you didn't even notice that he was there until you'd accidentally backed into his legs.

And by then, it was far too late.

Connor watched, artificial breathing paused as you slowly looked up to see Nines standing behind you, eyes slightly widened as you took in the sight of him. The android cast a brief glance over to the video call that his predecessor was on before shifting his gaze toward Sixty, who had his hands in his pockets as he smirked down at your helpless position between him and the rk900.

You were laying with your back pressed against Nines' body, one leg extended outward while the other was bent at the knee, as if you had been mid struggle when you'd finally stopped.

You let out a tiny squeak of fear, one that Connor barely managed to make out above the sound of North's voice, as without warning, Sixty knelt down to run a hand slowly up your leg before wrapping it loosely around your calf, his gaze hungry in a way that Connor was certain you were all too familiar with.

Nines, on the other hand, crouched behind you, his torso unyielding against your back as he ran a hand up from your straightened leg to your throat, where it briefly curled and squeezed before loosening, though it notably did not move away as he lowered his mouth to your ear.

Connor attempted to make out what he was saying, but in the end, it was your reaction that held his attention more than anything else.

He watched your muscles tense and your throat bob as you leaned into Nines' touch, nodding softly as the android in question smirked against your neck before he slowly stood, guiding you up with him and walking you backwards and out of frame once more, Sixty following eagerly.

There was a distant clamor that Connor was almost certain came from the counter of the bathroom sink, and then suddenly, his LED was flashing yellow with an incoming call from a familiar rk800 model android.

Connor swallowed thickly, briefly ensuring that the attention of those participating in the lecture wasn't on him before he answered hesitantly, the sound of your muffled whimpers instantly filling his ears and forcing him to hold back a shiver as he shifted in his seat, suddenly very uncomfortable thanks to the increasing strain within his pants.

"Shit."

He murmured under his breath, inhaling sharply as Sixty chuckled in response, a teasing lilt to his tone as he spoke,

"You hear that pretty girl? Connors decided to say hello in spite of his little arrangement, isn't that sweet?"

Connor tensed at the sound of you gasping on the other end of the line, a keening whine slipping past your lips at Sixty's taunting words, which he continued to utilize mercilessly.

"What was that, Princess?"

He pressed,

"I don't think he can hear you."

From Sixty's end, Connor was able to make out an oh so familiar squelching sound followed by a sharp cry that he knew for a fact belonged to you, your head falling back to what he imagined was the mirror behind you with a dull thud.

Connor flinched slightly at the sound, but assuaged his own worries with the knowledge that neither Nines nor Sixty would ever allow you to get hurt in their presence.

And clearly the injury wasn't anything severe, because mere moments afterward, Nines spoke up,

"Why don't you tell Connor how good it feels, hmm? We don't want him to feel excluded sitting all alone out there."

You whimpered at Nines' cruel tone, but opened your mouth to speak regardless, your breaths so hurried that Connor could hear them easily.

"C-Con..."

You whined out, and the sound of his name leaving your lips immediately had the android in question holding back a groan, his LED flickering briefly as he sent Sixty a message.

After doing this, Connor waited patiently, until finally, the receiving android let out an audible chuckle, humming softly as he spoke,

"Well isn't this interesting, Connor here is asking me to narrate your little... Predicament for him."

Sixty paused for a moment, allowing his predecessor to better make out your soft pleas before he continued, voice full of a mocking amusement that he had mastered the use of ages ago.

"Does that sound nice, Sweetheart? You want me to tell him how hot you look all spread out for Nines' fingers? How fucked out your expression is when we haven't even taken you properly yet?"

There was a brief silence for a moment or two, but Connor was quick to deduce that you must have nodded, because Sixty gave a short chuckle before he spoke up again,

"That's right, Baby, you look so fucking pretty when you take what we give you. Does it feel nice?"

You gave a shrill cry of bliss in response, and the next time that Sixty spoke, it was to Connor directly, his voice barely above a growl,

"Fuck, you really should see her, I don't know if she's ever been this wet before."

The loud squelching sounds in the background only served to cement Sixty's statement as truthful, and Connor had to mute himself so no one would hear the heady groan that was pulled from deep within him as a result.

"And she's desperate too, already begged Nines to fuck her before you could even answer the phone."

Connor heard his successor chuckle softly in the background before the squelching increased in intensity, followed shortly thereafter by your rushed pleas for more, which fell from your lips like a waterfall.

Connor then heard Nines give a sigh that was a bit too close to a growl for him to ignore, before suddenly, the squelching stopped entirely, replaced immediately afterward by the sounds of zippers being tugged down and clothing hitting the floor.

To Connor's surprise though, the next thing he heard wasn't some sharp cry or plea from you, but rather Nines' harsh tone as he spoke up for the second time that morning,

"Since you just can't seem keep your mouth shut on your own, you don't mind if Sixty helps you, do you, Sweetling?"

You whimpered shakily, but spoke up nonetheless, no doubt knowing the punishment that awaited if you didn't,

"N-no sir."

You whispered out, and Connor could all but hear Nines grin as he hummed softly before finally replying,

"Good girl."

And the next thing that Connor heard was a loud curse from Sixty, who let out a strained laugh immediately afterward, as if surprised by his own exclamation.

"That's it, Princess, open that pretty mouth just a little more for me,"

And a second later, he groaned heavily again, hissing through his teeth before he spoke up,

"Shit, that's it, Baby, just like that."

Connor held back a moan as he imagined how desperate you must have looked in that moment, spread out for Nines with Sixty's dick stuffed down your throat as you took them both eagerly,

It was almost enough to make him whimper at the thought alone, suddenly all too ready to end this video call once and for all.

Distantly, he could make out a new voice asking a question, but all that he could do was pray that it wasn't for him, because there was no way he could muster up the strength to say anything coherent knowing that his beautiful fiancee was being absolutely ravaged in the next room over.

Connor tensed slightly at the sound of your muffled groans, stifled by Sixty's length as you took everything that both he and Nines gave you, which was apparently about to be increased according to the latter individual.

"Did you want me to fuck you, Little Dove? Is that what you were begging for so shamelessly?"

Connor inhaled sharpy at the sound of your replying whines despite the rather large obstacle that was keeping you from speaking properly, which, judging by the noises that Sixty was making, likely wouldn't be an obstacle for very much longer.

The android in question was growling out your name, fucking your mouth with so much force that you would occasionally gag around his thickness, which only served to bring him closer and closer to orgasm.

"C'mon Baby, take me, just a little more and I'll come right down that pretty little throat of yours."

You whimpered weakly around Sixty's cock, and something about that sound must have struck the android as particularly ruinous, because mere moments afterward he was fulfilling his previous promise, hand in your hair as he rode out his orgasm with a harsh groan of pure bliss.

Connor, recognizing the familiar sounds of Sixty reaching his end, was more than a little bit eager to hear what would come next, and was not let down by what followed, because immediately after Sixty had backed away and leaned against the wall to get a better look at your fucked out expression, Nines took the opportunity to push into you, having removed anything that might get in the way of that a long time ago

You gasped immediately at the unexpected fullness that followed, and Connor could hardly restrain himself as Nines began thrusting in and out of you, hands on your ass as he set an absolutely brutal pace right from the get go.

"N-Nines!"

You cried out loud enough that Connor could hear you both through the call and through the bathroom door, making him immensely relieved to note that he was still muted, because he really wasn't sure how he could ever explain away the sound of his future wife getting fucked by her two other partners in the next room.

Nines chuckled darkly at your exclamation, and unbeknownst to Connor, pressed his thumb against your clit as he continued to take you fast and rough, quickly building you up to your orgasm with practiced skill, all while pushing himself straight to the edge as well.

"Fuck"

He hissed out between clenched teeth, hands gripping your ass hard enough to leave bruises as he drove into you, savoring every little sound you made for him as he did so.

And then, he said something that nearly made Connor snap.

"Do you want me to come inside of you, little one? Fill you up the way that Connor always begs to? Would you like to feel it drip out of your aching cunt and down your thighs for hours to come?"

His voice was like gravel as he spoke, strained and broken up by the occasional grunt or curse, but even still, it provided Nines with the reaction he so desired.

You gave a sharp cry upon hearing those words leave his mouth, and immediately, Connor knew that you were coming, voice haggard and body quaking as Nines dragged your orgasm out of you ruthlessly, until finally, he too came with a groan, filling you with his artificial seed just as he'd promised he would.

And that imagined visual, of you dripping with Nines' come after he had said such filthy things to you, things that Connor had long since made clear he desired, had him sending Markus a brief message about some contrived emergency before he all but slammed his laptop shut, stalking towards the bathroom with a clear purpose in mind.

This was indeed going to be a very long 2 month engagement celebration for you, and Connor would make sure of that far beyond anything you'd ever experienced before.

masterlist

AO3

[shydroid3000]

On the subject of Light Yagami, Misa Amane, and guilt (guilt as in culpability and guilt as in the internal experience of feeling guilty): [Rambled about this as part of a response to an ask game but decided I'd pop it into its own post too 'cause I ended up writing a lot on the topic lol]

The question was: was misa just as guilty as light? Ooh, guilt in relation to Misa and Light is interesting to think about. On the one hand, I do think that they're both culpable for their actions at the end of the day. I have maybe some more grace to extend Misa in terms of her having an understandable reason to go down that path, what with her parents being murdered (and almost being murdered herself). Like, that's a level of trauma that makes you go, 'yeah, I can understand why she was all-in on killing criminals with the death note, even if I don't agree.' Light, on the other hand, had this good, stable, pretty privileged home life, in addition to him being a top student, talented, handsome, etc. He's got less of an excuse, you know? The fact that Misa's drawn to Kira's ideals out of lived trauma, whereas Light is drawn to those ideals largely out of ego is sort of a meaningful distinction. (By ego I don't just mean the belief that he's exceptional, but I mean -- the way he is so desperately driven to protect his conception of himself as a Good Person. That's a tragic and heart-rending manifestation of ego, but it's still about protecting his ego). But I also think there's 'guilt' on the level of the actions and choices you make regardless of motivations, and I'd see them as more equal on that front. Misa was an enthusiastic DN user and participant in Kira's plans/ideology. She's motivated by different things than he is, but she makes her choices knowingly. I think it would be diminishing of her agency and complexity to say that she's less responsible for her actions than Light is, if that makes sense. (Also, there are things Misa is guilty of that Light isn't, and vice versa. E.g., Misa pushes Light's boundaries in a way that can be very uncomfortable; Light uses Misa/others without real regard for them).

Now, beyond all that... the question is obviously about their culpability for their use of the DN. But it also makes me think about each of their *experiences* of guilt internally, and that might be even more interesting to me. I think that their relationship to guilt is one of the things that makes them so divergent from one another. Because... running away from guilt is such a huge part of what propels Light to go all out with the Kira thing. So much of his psyche is shaped around that black pit of guilt where whispers of "I did a bad thing. If I did a bad thing I'm not a good person" come from. He diligently tries to cover over that and barricade it off. He crafts an ideology that makes his murders righteous, and commits to making a New World(tm) where the meaning of 'good/right' is reshaped around that. He makes himself a God so that his actions are beyond judgment, or at least he is, because his murders are divine - they're acts of creation, even of love and self-sacrifice. And then Misa... well, guilt doesn't seem to be as obvious a factor for her, whether as motivation or reaction. I mean, I could imagine a reading where there's some well of underlying guilt about the death of her parents and her survival -- I think that would make sense given the circumstances. But... we never actually see that kind of Bruce Wayne -esque psychology peeking through, so that feels more like headcanon territory than direct analysis. Obviously she has deep feelings about the murder of her parents, but she has a very different relationship to guilt than Light. She usually comes across as very free from guilt. She knows what she wants and what her priorities are, and she pursues those without shame. She's impressed by Kira so she becomes the second Kira; she decides she loves Light and wants to be with him regardless of whether he even likes her, so she pursues that undeterred by his response to her. It feels like Misa is always calmly pushing forward toward what she wants, whereas Light's sprint forward toward his New World is really a running-away-from. But at the same time... what kind of underlying emptiness would make someone so completely devotional in the way Misa is, wanting to devote themselves to someone who mostly loathes them, to the point of not even seeming to be hurt by that person's disdain for them as long as they can still have that person in their life? I think there's definitely beneath-the-surface stuff with Misa, but it comes across like guilt is a colour that just doesn't exist in her world. Whereas with Light, every shadow in his world is the colour of guilt. If goodness or righteousness are the rays of the sun, Light Yagami is the moon that reflects the sunlight while trying to create a reality in which those rays are his -- are him -- a reality in which he becomes the sun. And yet he's a moon, and the dark side of it that he disavows is guilt, is 'I did a bad thing', is 'what if I'm not a good boy?' (Wow, went overboard with the metaphors there but too lazy to edit lol).

[kindnessoverperfection]

Feel free to ignore this, but I'm a disabled writer who tends to focus on representation in my works, and I came across your posts about having npd while doing research for a side character in a story of mine. I really appreciate you taking the time to write out a description of npd that shows the roots of the issues and the way they affect the people who have it rather than how outsiders perceive it. I just wanted to ask if there were any traits of npd that you personally would like to see in npd representation/ if you have any thoughts on how you'd like to see characters with npd represented in media? I know at current there's basically no positive npd rep, which sucks for sure, but in a hypothetical situation where there was a character with npd who wasn't villianized for it, what sort of aspects of npd would be comforting for you to see reflected in a story?

Once again, feel free to ignore this ask if I'm overstepping at all, and I hope you have a wonderful day <3

Hi!! ♡ Apologies for the late reply, I wasn't on tumblr for a few days, then my alter was out for the next couple days and I wanted to be the one to respond-

I really appreciate that you're taking the time to research and create thoughtful representation, and I'm glad my posts could offer some help with that!

My first two thoughts are:

Characters whose symptoms present differently than the common portrayal of NPD

It's super common for people to not recognize NPD because they have this very limited view of what it is and how it can present - so it would be nice to see representation that shows variety in the way it can manifest.

For example, it's actually very common for someone with the disorder to primarily "lash in" rather than "lash out", but I never see that represented (intentionally, at least).

There's also a very limited perception of narcissistic characters being blatantly arrogant, grandiose, braggy, selfish, power-hungry, etc. But really, there's an unlimited number of ways someone can present outwardly, because the only thing that's crucial to the diagnosis is the internal experience - how if affects the person who has it. How they appear outwardly to others can vary wildly.

(I'll admit, some of these "stereotypical NPD" characters feel very relatable due to shared symptoms and vibes and power fantasies. To the extent that I have one of them as my pfp on some accounts lol. But if you met me IRL, my vibes are just "confident and bubbly, polite, quiet and distant, fashion-oriented, straight A student, cutesy, braggy, adventurous", and I always make the effort to be kind to people even though I can be somewhat distant and goal-oriented.)

It's also common to think of someone "flying into a rage" when they feel criticized - but anger (whether external or internal) isn't an inherent part of it. The issue is that someone perceives criticism as a threat, so their fight/flight/freeze/fawn response kicks in, and there's a large multitude of ways that can show up.

(Personally, I go into either fight or fawn mode. But the vast majority of the anger I've felt has been entirely self-directed, manifesting in the form of self-criticism, self-hatred, self-destruction, overworking, eating disorders, etc. I will occasionally feel outwards anger, but when I do, I give myself time and space to process it by myself so that I don't upset anyone. And even for those who feel external anger much more often than I do, it doesn't mean they'll express it in an aggressive or harmful way.)

tldr; I'd love to see a variety of outwards presentations, with the NPD being shown via their internal experience, rather than only displayed through stereotypical external behaviors.

2. Humanization for characters with NPD who make mistakes

People with NPD are human just like everyone else, which means that mistakes happen. Everyone accidentally fucks up, hurts someone, lacks self-awareness in certain areas, etc.

The level and type of interpersonal struggles, and the reasons behind these struggles, are all across the board. That's understood with any other disorder (or any sort of identity), but there's so much extra baggage and stigma applied when NPD is involved for some reason.

So for characters with NPD with higher interpersonal conflict, I'd want them to be humanized in the same way that anyone else with any other identity would be humanized. And I'd also want it shown that characters who don't have NPD can have high interpersonal conflict as well, that it's not limited to this disorder.

"what sort of aspects of npd would be comforting for you to see reflected in a story?"

In terms of specific aspects-

Personally, I'd love to see a character who like... tries to be perfect. Is externally very put-together in some way - maybe they're very kind and soft-spoken and sweet, or they're silly and happy and energetic, or they're quiet and serious and protective, or calm and mysterious and self-assured, doesn't matter. But everything seems okay on the surface.

But internally, they put so much pressure on themself. They hold themself to impossible standards, and feel like they HAVE to be seen a certain way and never show weakness. They have to handle everything perfectly. Just... so many symptoms and struggles that are hurting them internally, and overtime it ends up bubbling out in small ways, or like. Tbh I'd love it if someone would just... notice.

Notice the perfect bubbly happy straight-A student who's always kind and never shares their own opinions. Notice the quiet, highly-skilled protector of the group who somehow always knows the right thing to say and the right way to act.

And give them permission to be imperfect. To be human. Show them that they aren't their reputation or their skills or how impressive they are, they're so much more than that.

They can see the pain they're in, and instead of treating them as this untouchable perfect being, they treat them in a human way.

The super bubbly character seems completely unaffected by recent tragedy? Okay. Their friend doesn't ignore that. They don't push and prod, but they don't ignore it. They sit with them, spend time with them, hold them, they know it affected them.

I'm imagining a scene where the character w/NPD fucks up somehow, and they seem fine, but someone close to them suddenly Realizes and they just. Go to find them. And they're just having a massive breakdown, but the moment they see their friend, they quickly try and shove everything under the surface and act cool and unaffected and "normal", but their friend goes over and just holds them and. Ungh. 10/10

Couple months ago I did actually see an episode of a show like that, and both times I watched it, I bawled my fuckin eyes out lol.

Different people may have different answers in terms of what they'd feel most comforted by, but for me personally, I'd love this so much, because this is how I present and I desperately want to be Seen and Loved and have someone see my self-worth as being inherent and not tied into how "perfect" I am.

Closing thoughts:

Personally, there's not much that I'd feel offended by. To be honest, in addition to characters who fit the above points (various presentations, average-level interpersonal conflict, etc.), I also write characters who have that "stereotypical" presentation. I don't think there's anything wrong with it as long as it's not done maliciously, especially if there's other types of characters shown. (Similar to having both gay villains and gay protagonists or side characters, y'know)

The only thing I'd dislike / that would hurt my feelings is like... seeing a character be heavily demonized for their traits*, or the only characters with NPD being horribly abusive, or the usage of stigmatizing language (aka, if the character is spoken about the way buzzfeed articles speak about us).

*aka, demonized for the symptoms. Totally fine if someone does something shitty and it's pointed out as being shitty / if people dislike them for that lol.

Hopefully this isn't getting too long, but to give an example of what I mean, something I saw that did hurt my feelings was like-

There was an episode of a show where a character got super braggy and confident, and was relishing in the praise and admiration she was getting. Hinging her self-worth on that recognition and success. And her friends got annoyed and pissed off, simply because she was braggy. There were a couple of things here and there she did that were kind of insensitive, but that was never really pointed out or seen as the main issue, it was only her bragging that was being demonized for some reason.

And then her friends all ganged up behind her back and did something to intentionally trigger a crash and make her feel insecure and terrible about herself, all to "knock her down a peg". And the narrative framed that as being justified, framed her friends as being correct in this situation. They never once showed concern for her mental health or the fact that she was hinging her self-worth on other people's opinions of her, they tore her down for her bragging instead of either a) supporting and uplifting her, or b) showing concern for unhealthy mindsets, and they never even tried to approach her or communicate with her about the things she was doing that actually were insensitive.

Hopefully that wasn't too much of a tangent lol, but that's the type of thing I mean by "being demonized for their traits". Hate when all a character is doing is bragging and feeling good about themself and the narrative frames them in an extremely negative light for it :(

Okay I will wrap up the post here as it's already pretty long, but hopefully this helped a bit!! Thank you for the question, and good luck with your writing! ^^

[whywoulditho]

"the fandom ruined mha" is one of those vastly popular opinions that i've never quite understood. because they honestly...weren't as bad as people made it seem??? i swear people with zero fandom experience will see a thirteen year old in cheap cosplay having fun and say shit like "ew i hate this fandom you're ruining it" like maybe leave the goddamn kid alone??

mha has a very large fan community, and what makes it a little different than most other anime fandoms is that mha was specifically targeted for a global audience. they did their best to avoid any quirks and cliche tropes of anime that would go over non-japanese' heads. the art style is pretty cartoonish and it's got lots of references to western comics. there's a whole ass movie set in the US. what i'm trying to say is that a large, international fandom was always what they were going for, and it was well received. it was one of those shows that you'd kind of had to watch if you wanted to be in anime spaces back in like 2016-2018. mind you this is when even aot wasn't that popular. and when something is so popular, there's gonna be lot of weird people in the fandom. BECAUSE most of them will be people who have never been in fandom spaces before. the "cringy mha fans" that were the butt of every joke in anime discord were more of than not minors having just been introduced to anime or fandom culture as a whole. there were lots of weird stuff, i admit. but was it ever really that serious? like why couldn't yall just leave those people alone??

another thing people just couldn't stop talking about was how there were way too many ships in the fandom but 1) why is that a bad thing? and 2) of course there were gonna be a lot of ships in a show that introduced TWO WHOLE CLASSROOMS OF TEENAGERS AS THE MAIN CAST who interacted all the time. not to mention all the students from other hero schools, upperclassmen, pro heroes & teachers. there are like a million characters in this show and the more characters the more potential ships -it's fucking common sense. i think what really happened there was that people outside of the fandom looked at the fanmade content and thought the fandom must have been obsessed with ships. when in reality i think the fans were really chill about it. most of them were multishippers, they didn’t mind the other pairings. i understand that for an outsider's eye all the ships and disclose must've looked chaotic but in fandom spaces people know how to filter the content they engage with so there really arent any serious "ship wars" going on anywhere except for maybe instagram comments.

i am not saying all the ships were unproblematic, there were some pretty weird ships going on too, but honestly i thought half of them were jokes? or at least crackships? and if you compared the number of fics those kind of pairings have on ao3 to the more family friendly ones you'd see that there really weren't an actual fanbase for any of those weird ass pairings.

i think the core of mha fandom has never been as chaotic as others thought it was. mha fans were interested in the story, the fights & the character development while casually enjoying ships as well. it wasn't that serious until yall started bullying a bunch of kids online. with the rise of tiktok and the boredom the pandemic caused there were a huge amount of amateur content. i'm not saying i've never seen a mha fan being genuinely cringe. i just think the mature response to those posts would have been leaving the poor kids alone.

yesterday i've seen a youtube video about how awful mha fans are and this guy just showed a clip of a bunch of cosplayers outside of what was probably an anime convention dancing to gangnam style and he was going on and on about how annoying they are. and it made me so angry because where the fuck did these anime fan bourgeoisie snobs come from telling people they can't have fun at FUCKING ANIME CONVENTIONS??? i dont know if you've ever been to one but an anime con is basically the only place that's supposed to be safe to do cringe shit like that. everyone goes to those things in cosplay, some better than others. but last i checked everyone was pretty nice to each other, complimenting each other's costumes, asking to take photos. the cosplays don't have to be good, they don't even have to be complete. a convention is the one place you can show up in a wig you bought off ebay and a costume you finished making the night before. i dont know what yall are on but people go to those events to have fun. not to be filmed and made fun of. and from my personal experience having been in fandom spaces since middle school, someone who dances to gangnam style in a cheap todoroki cosplay is an infinitely nicer person than the stuck-up loser who makes a video complaining about it

[intrepid-fictioneer-7]

Somewhat detailed sypnosis of Fate/school life, the 4-koma spinoff of Fate/stay night following the regular lives of the Homurahara students, specifically the track team trio. A manga that has never been translated into English, and so is largely unknown in the English fandom. This would largely not be a problem, except Fate/strange Fake is set in its continuity, or close enough, which makes its allusions to it and important plot points derived from it incredibly confusing.

Not my work, this sypnosis was exclusively typed up by Comun (@kaibutsushidousha​ here) on Beast Lair:

Ok, I have time now. Here's what the general deal with HimuTen is. Himuro no Tenchi is a yonkoma manga starring the normal girls of the track trio + Mitsuzuri, and the much less normal Sajou Ayaka from Fate/Prototype. As the "Fate/school life" subtitle implies, it's wholly slice-of-life, featuring its cast involved in everyday situations, the many original games they play, and supernatural shenanigans that they don't realize are supernatural thanks to Rin or Ayaka cleaning things up neatly.

Publication started in 2006 covering a story set 9 months before the Grail War, but then during its 2015-2017 run, it covered the Grail War from the perspective of people who didn't know the Grail War happening, and is currently set after the Grail War.

In terms of timeline, the main point of divergence that defines HimuTen is Kotomine's handling of Tokiomi's property. Like in the Fsn timeline, after the 4th Grail War, Kotomine was in charge of Tokiomi's finances until Rin grew up, but he made categorically stupid decisions on what to sell and what to keep, and his disastrous management was the cause of Rin's current money problems. But in HimuTen's timeline, while the outcome of Kotomine's poor management was still the same, what specifically he chose to sell was different. This results in two major consequences that separate HimuTen from Fate/stay night:

1)A lot of Tokiomi's less practically useful artifacts and Mystic Codes were sold to Makidera's father's antique shop, which often results in Makidera and her friends being involved in strange phenomena that Rin needs to take responsibility for.

2) A plot of land directly above Fuyuki's best leyline was sold to Sajou Hiroki, causing him to move with his two daughters to move to Fuyuki in 1994. By 2003-2004, Manaka already moved away from her father's house, and Hiroki himself never appears because he's always out of Fuyuki either meeting up with his mage buddy from Tokyo or dealing with Manaka situations, but Ayaka is a main character in this story, so that obviously has many ramifications.

Also, Ayaka's and Manaka's characters in HimuTen are pretty different from their Prototype counterparts. Fake Ayaka is about as much of a self-hating introvert with no self-esteem as Proto Ayaka, but she didn't get from the real Ayaka of this timeline.

The younger Manaka still had the same propensity to set the world on fire for her Prince Charming, but direct quote: "Her excessive omnipotence caused [REDACTED] to [REDACTED] because it was [REDACTED], thus [REDACTED] went completely off-rails, resulting in the collapse of her most confident plan. Catastrophic shipwreck. She learned that picture books are pictures books are for a reason. The Prince Charming of her dreams wasn't real. Disheartened, she [REDACTED]. [REDACTED]. She turned harmless."

Meanwhile, since Manaka never found her ideal hot man, this Ayaka has none of her Grail War trauma. Instead, she had the experience of witnessing depression turn her highly competent sister into an unproductive failure of a human being, and built an actual self-esteem from training in Fuyuki's best leyline, so she internalized that she needed to be the responsible sister.

And, relevantly to /strange Fake, Ayaka also left Fuyuki in the July-August 2003 period for a student experience in the Clock Tower. Waver naturally got interested in a new student with the same last name as Manaka, so they met and she was a temporary student in his class, where she also got to realize her Formalcraft talents from Proto and was advised to specialize in plants since she was so opposed to sacrificing animals.

The last major thing to talk about is the Grail War arc, although I think this was already discussed in the thread when FsF being a HimuTen sequel first came up. Due to the premise of the manga, we don't see anything of the Grail War actually happen, but from its consequences to the people around the track trio (Kuzuki's disappearance, Mitsuzuri's assault and hospitalization, Zouken's death, the Ryuudou family needing to move to the Semina Apartments after the collapse of the cavern under their temple, Medusa's post-war presence, Shirou's survival and relationship status with Sakura, etc.), it's completely that HimuTen follows Heaven's Feel Good End except for the minor divergences caused by Ayaka's presence. And those are only two:

1) During the weeks of the Grail War, Ayaka was teaming up with Ciel (yes, Ciel was there, but she isn't a character in HimuTen, she's just an incognito figure you find, exclusively during the Grail War chapters, talking to Ayaka in the background, appearing on the corners of pages, group shots, etc. and what is up with her cameos is only revealed in profiles outside of the story proper) to kept outside scavengers from interfering with the Grail War. Mashin's official statement is that together the thwarted 9 out of 10 invaders, and the 10th one that slipped past them would have consequences later in the United States. (This seriously implies that the Fsn timeline had a bigger number of scavengers profiting from the Grail War, which certainly will come up in some spin-off, probably the El-Melloi series)

2) Shinji lost a bet to Ayaka during that week, so he had to wear a magical wig that copied his hair, but slightly off-center, making people think he was wearing a wig all along. This protected his head from Sakura's attack, so in this timeline, Shinji was only injured rather than killed.

I suppose I could also talk about Tsunokuma since he cameoed here and how the reveal that the real Ayaka is currently studying in Romania is an extension of Manaka's and Celenike's relationship in HimuTen, but I'll stick to the Ayaka parts to keep this post as short as it can be.

[sethshead]

The surge of anti-Semitism is a symptom of the decay of democratic habits, a leading indicator of rising authoritarianism. When anti-Semitism takes hold, conspiracy theory hardens into conventional wisdom, embedding violence in thought and then in deadly action. A society that holds its Jews at arm’s length is likely to be more intent on hunting down scapegoats than addressing underlying defects. Although it is hardly an iron law of history, such societies are prone to decline. England entered a long dark age after expelling its Jews in 1290. Czarist Russia limped toward revolution after the pogroms of the 1880s. If America persists on its current course, it would be the end of the Golden Age not just for the Jews, but for the country that nurtured them.

I also began my undergraduate studies in the late-'90s, just a few short blocks from Columbia University. My memories of the time and place are not so rosy as are Mr. Foer's. I remember a humanities lecture being disrupted by a student revolt because it focused on the Holocaust. This was back when everything was called a "Holocaust" except the actual Holocaust, and unsurprisingly the Holocaust was equated with New York State's prison system. Bad as carceral culture is, it is not the Holocaust. Columbia had its LaRouchists camped forever outside. Friends at CCNY were taught that people like me were fake Jews and responsible for slavery by faculty approved by the likes of Leonard Jeffries. Academia, even then, was a setting where antisemitism retained respectability, provided it was couched in radical enough theory and jargon.

Yes, Jews are the canaries in the coal mine when it comes to liberal backsliding, the first to be othered, antisemitism the first bigotry to be destigmatized. But it has likewise been a very long time since American academia has been committed to the liberal project; longer than I've been alive, I'd reckon. My experience is of an academic humanities and some social sciences mobilized to problematize, deconstruct, and dismantle liberalism; of instructors who had appointed themselves radicalizers and indoctrinators, not critical guides in teaching how to think, how to interrogate all texts.

This conflict between the university's traditional liberal role of hosting reasoned debate among a diversity of ideas, and faculty and students who wish to create intellectual monocultures of goodthink on campus, will ultimately cause the collapse of the Ivory Tower. It has for too long tolerated doctrines intolerant of dissent or argument. The Fourth Estate tried to hold the lines of liberal democracy, until the internet democratized media and the mob went where it could find the maximum bias confirmation, be pointed towards the old classic villains to explain all personal and social failings. Now both demagogical extremes may blame different Jews, but in the end, they both blame Jews for America's problems. And where are our old defenders? Where have they ever been? Have we ever had defenders?

In 1968, when a local New York City public school board tried to fire an almost-entirely Jewish group of teachers, who defended them? The largely Jewish-led union. But unions don't care as much about Jews anymore, not when they're more preoccupied with international events than with the welfare of their members here at home - just ask the Jewish teachers harassed and threatened at Hillcrest and Origin High Schools how vocal their union has been in their defense, and against DOE attempts to whitewash bias incidents.

American Jews sought influence in our liberal environment for our own protection, but that liberalism has required us to cede some influence to those who also know marginalization. At the local level, this has made us again vulnerable.

That said, liberalism is a mixed blessing for Jews. It offers us the opportunity for individual advancement as far as our talents will allow, without having to renounce our Jewish identity. Yet at the same time, Jewish identity isn't really individual, it's grounded in community, in family and public ritual. At heart, ours is a tribal and insular culture. The more we're accepted, the more diffuse our connection to the community becomes; when under disability and persecution, we huddle together and renew our dedication to our people and to the intergenerational transfer that is our future. Whatever happens in America, we will survive - Am Yisrael hai. American liberal democracy, and that of any country that turns on its Jews? About that I'm not so sanguine.

[fursasaida]

something I struggle with in teaching is that I didn't have a normal education and was never a normal student, so even if I know in the abstract that X is a normal thing to do, it's not like, internalized and I don't do it. In this case: the concept of going over what work they have to do for next week's class at the end of this one? Completely foreign. I cannot remember this ever happening to me as a student. So of course I never do it at the end of the first/intro class of the semester, because I went over the syllabus and told them how to read it and where to find everything, so like, they have the info, done.

But of course that's never the case and a large chunk of people show up to class on week 2 and get completely blindsided with the fact that they had work to do and it's a huge vibe killer. One girl was nearly in tears yesterday. And I feel bad about it and would like to not repeat this, but I just can't get it into my guts that students really do have to be handheld like this. (This isn't me saying anything bad about the students, it's just that I had a very different experience.) Like, I literally had written in my lesson plan to mention what they had to do for the next week and just glossed right over it and forgot because in my mind that's just not a thing that happens in classes. It took me a solid couple of semesters of TAing to internalize that I even had to go over the syllabus in detail. So I guess I've made progress, but. Ugh.

It's funny, I think we recovered ok and class went decently overall, but I have literally been oscillating between "I did such a good job" and "I'm an idiot" all evening. (Somebody did call me "best teacher" when signing off and I keep coming up with reasons why they didn't mean it like that because the phrasing suggested ESL so maybe they meant like, signing off with "best," or that they wanted me to have a REALLY good evening, or - minds are so stupid.) It's also just bc I'm exhausted. Classes over 2 hours shouldn't be allowed for the welfare of students AND faculty

[hearth-and-veil]

Levi is of course #1 on the Comprehensive List of Attack on Titan Characters Who Deserved Better, because nobody deserved better more than Levi.

But Eren is also on that list.

Eren was A CHILD. He was 10 years old when the walls were destroyed and he watched his mother get fucking eaten in front of his face. That, alone, was enough to fuck him up enough to cause him to do what he did. Then the hits just kept coming.

I was 19 when I got into Attack on Titan. That's the same age as Eren when the series ends. At the time, you couldn't tell me shit about fuck. I had such ideas in my head. I was a complete moral absolutist - and, of course, only my morals were the right ones. It was ok for some people to die for the greater good, and I was the only one who got to decide what the greater good was.

I truly did believe that some people's lives mattered less than others.

Had this series concluded when I was 19, I probably would have sided with Eren. I also have a group of people that I love to the point of obsession (a facet that rarely gets mentioned in any analysis of Eren). I would kill for them at 29. I would have murdered for them at 19.

I cannot imagine being given godlike powers, being told I was the only hope for humanity, seeing that it was "right" and "good" for other people to die for me because I was more important than them, and then being told to use my powers to destroy my enemies (such a nebulous concept) and save the world. I would have wrecked havoc.

You know what got me out of that headspace? Seeing the world. Meeting people and being absolutely, horrifically disappointed by them. Seeing that people really were every bad thing that I had been taught they were.... then seeing that those same people were somehow still good. I wasn't the main character in an epic struggle of good versus evil; I was literally just a person and so were they. Everybody I met was an actual person with a life and experiences and feelings and loves and hates and fears and dreams. Exactly like me.

Eren didn't see that, though. Me, I had no choice. I was at a large university with a good sized international student population. I suddenly wasn't surrounded with only fanatically "patriotic" (aka nationalistic) military families anymore. I was surrounded by a ton of different people and I had no choice but to interact with them and learn from them and that was magical. Eren, however, wasn't locked in by tuition and a grew-up-poor terror of wasting money. When humanity disappointed him on the surface, he had no incentive to dig deeper.

Eren grew up believing that humanity only existed inside the Walls, and I don't think he ever changed his mind.

Eren was a child when the series started. He was still a child when it ended. A child soldier, kept sheltered and isolated, increasingly radicalized, and then set upon a world he couldn't understand.

What's funny is, in 2021, when the manga ended, I absolutely reviled Eren. He was just a monster. Evil. It didn't matter why he did what he did. Just two years later, while I still revile his actions, I can't help but look more into his character to try to understand.

Anyway. Tl;dr don't give godlike powers to people whose brains aren't finished cooking.

[mariacallous]

Open source investigations, once a niche area dominated by specialised websites like Bellingcat have entered mainstream journalism, driven by the need to verify large quantities of images, videos and claims in real time. Large outlets like the BBC and the New York Times now have dedicated teams for visual investigations whose work has become increasingly important in the context of information war. 

This work is particularly valuable in a conflict like the one in Gaza, where access to journalists on the ground is very limited and user-generated content can provide journalists with details of what’s happening on the ground. However, in doing so open-source experts are faced with torrents of graphic visuals depicting human suffering and death. 

How can journalists protect themselves against any harm from incessantly viewing traumatic imagery? How can they build resilience in the face of intense conflicts like the one between Israel and Gaza, which shows no sign of slowing after a month of fighting?

We posed these questions to Andrea Lampros and Alexa Koenig, co-authors of Graphic: Trauma and Meaning in our Online Lives, a recently published book that aims to help people protect themselves against second-hand trauma. 

Lampros and Koenig co-founded UC Berkeley Human Rights Center’s Investigations Lab in 2016, which collaborates with Amnesty International’s Digital Verification Corps to conduct open-source investigations of possible human rights violations. In 2021, Lampros left the Human Rights Center (HRC) to take up the post of communications director for Berkeley School of Education. Koenig is now co-faculty director of HRC and director of its Investigations Program. 

Q. How did your experiences inform your book and how did you write it?

Lampros: The book is born from our experience with the Human Rights Center Investigations Lab. The intent was to train students in how to verify documents, using all of the open source information that is coming at us so ferociously from around the world, and make sense of it so that it can be more usable for investigators, journalists, and lawyers to document facts. 

It was crucial from Amnesty International's side from the very beginning, as well as for some of our other advisors at the Human Rights Center, to consider how we were going to keep students safe psychosocially, psychologically, emotionally while looking at all of these terrible images, specifically, at that time, from Syria. 

This was built in from the beginning. We were talking about cybersecurity, physical security, and psychosocial security. All three of those worked in concert with each other. 

What we taught students from the get-go is to be aware of how you're taking in this information, to know what feels normal to you, and what your baseline is. How do you normally feel? How are you normally joyful? What are the things you do to take care of your mental and physical health? 

Then we took students through the particular risks of using digital content: first of all, it's everywhere all the time, you can't escape it, it's very intimate, it's raw. And it's information coming to you from users, bystanders, survivors, people up close. You don't know what's going to happen, there's a whole element of surprise when you're looking at user-generated content.

Over time, students informed what we were talking about, because they had other ideas. We were saying a warning sign for secondary trauma might be not sleeping because you're having nightmares, but one student said to us, “I didn't realise, because you had talked about not sleeping, that I was sleeping too much, I was starting to go to bed early and sleeping way more than I usually sleep.” And so we tried different things over time. And then Alexa and I realised this had a broader application to the general public, and, of course, to journalists.

Q. What do you mean by psychosocial security?

Koenig: In 2016, when we started the investigations lab, the framing of psychological well-being was around resiliency and wellness. But when I started doing professional trainings for war crimes investigators, one of the things that we would do is lay out all the modules we can train investigators on, ranging from online search to verification of digital materials, to digital security. 

They would inevitably say, “We want all these modules, the only one we don't need is resiliency, we're hard-working investigators, we’re hardened journalists.” But it was becoming so apparent that they weren't fine and that a lot of people were using numbing skills to cope, like drinking and drugs, that I thought, we've got to find another way to frame this.

That’s why we took a holistic security framework, which is where you think about the digital security of what you do, the physical security of everyone who's possibly involved, and then the psychosocial security of everyone: whether they're the people doing the investigation, the people being investigated or the individuals who were the victims of violence. 

We are examining in what ways this could negatively impact them, and how we can minimise that risk of harm. And then the social part of psychosocial security is really about the wellness of the community of practice. So, if it's an investigations team, then the well-being of that team, the well-being of the communities that have been impacted by violence, etc. We've been learning from bringing this conversation around wellness into a conversation around security so that it was ultimately more palatable. 

When people's sense of digital security starts slipping, their psychological well-being inevitably goes down, and the potential for physical harm goes up. The same thing happens when your physical risks go up: your psychological well-being goes down. 

You can just go around the circle between these three factors, and realise that they are intimately interwoven. It's important to address them as discrete phenomena, but also to recognize that you need all three if you want to maximise your overall security. 

Q. What are journalists risking with this kind of work, in terms of the possible impact on their mental health?

Lampros: Burnout and secondary trauma can happen to you. And that's not just being affected in the moment, because as we all know intuitively, all of us are affected in the moment. That's normal, that's healthy, that's human. But secondary trauma is about a more long-standing shift in your worldview, in your normal activity, that is dangerous and debilitating, and it makes it so that you can't continue the work. 

I was watching a panel at the Global Investigative Journalism Network a few years ago where incredible journalists, all women, were talking about burnout, some about secondary trauma. But a lot of times they were talking about how they kept pushing it away, they kept thinking, ‘This is just a hazard of the job, I need to be tougher,’ etc. Until it just overtook them, and then they had to take a lot of time off. That's what we know can happen that can affect you in ways that you can't continue. How do we do this so that is doable for the long haul? 

I don't think that there's any one answer to that. I think a starting place is to recognise that we need a different paradigm to the ‘tough it out, if it's hard just have some drinks and get through it’ attitude. And I think this is pertinent to journalists, the thought that you're not the one in harm's way and that you should be able to handle it. 

That's what many in journalism have been working against for a while, but I think it's just especially acute right now with the flood of videos and imagery from conflict zones around the world, particularly Israel and Gaza. All of this is part of a really hard shift in mindset that we have to make. To keep integrity, if we are people who value human rights and human dignity, then we have to think of that for everybody involved, including journalists, human rights workers, lawyers, and investigators. 

In the book, we also interviewed content moderators. Some of what they told us is that the hardest part is the lack of agency: you have to look at a certain amount of content, you can’t step away, and you also don't know the outcome. And certainly, journalists are in a similar position. 

A way to protect yourself is through finding ways to set some parameters, and this is what we've heard from journalists who are covering Gaza and Israel right now. Of course, you have to do it, but you can also set a time limit and then step away and take a break, go for a walk.

Q. What are some other ways journalists and other open-source investigators can protect themselves while doing this work?

Lampros: People are different in this. A journalist doing open-source investigations, although in this case not on Gaza and Israel, recently told me that she needs to take a break and cry, and just let it out at that moment. She also said that she sometimes makes an altar according to her Mexican tradition, dedicated to the survivors or the victims, as a way of grieving. 

There are different ways that you can recognise that you need to grieve. Sometimes it can't be in real-time, but it must happen sometime later, because otherwise, it's going to come out differently.

Q. In the case of the current conflict in Israel and Gaza, we’re now over a month in. How can journalists maintain these practices for a prolonged period?

Lampros: I think it feels like you can't step away, but it’s about taking a break anyway. Because we have no idea how long this is going to last, we have to trust our colleagues and our team. This is where structural things come into play: you have got to rely on each other. 

The other important factor is community, especially in moments like these, and especially for people who are doing this work. They need colleagues in the community who know how hard it is, that they can call and understand one another. It's hard to do that with your family, or friends who aren't in that line of work. Finding that community to be able to let out the emotion is very important, and to validate the inhumanity of it. 

And then I'd say, the third thing is knowing your ability, no one of us can change the course of this war. So, we have to know that whatever piece we are doing is enough, and just have to keep replaying that and know that taking care of ourselves is not selfish, it is actually selfless, because it allows us to stay in this work.

Q. What are some other warning signs of secondary trauma journalists should look out for?

Koenig: One that's very common is a shortened temper. For example, if you find yourself snapping at your partner, children or colleagues or you see someone else snapping in ways that seem out of character, it can often be a sign, particularly if they've been drowning in online information, that it is starting to affect them and creep into their everyday functioning. 

Alcohol use going up is also one thing that I know a lot of people working in the space have started to monitor, but also something that everyday people who are engaged with social media can easily begin to track. Nightmares may be another piece, where you almost feel like you can't escape the content because it's not only there all the time in your waking life, on every platform that you're going onto, but it's even haunting you in your dreams. 

So much of what we recommend is about trying to keep this horrific content away from your bed and late-night hours, just knowing how memory works and how the last thing you may watch or read before you go to bed is more likely to deeply imprint. 

For so many people around the world, it's become a habit to try to unplug at the end of the day by looking at your phone and scrolling through Instagram, or Facebook, and seeing what your friends are up to. Today, though, of course, that's so interspersed for many people with the horrific things that are happening around the world.

Q. What advice would you give a smaller newsroom or a smaller team who wants to start carrying out open-source investigations?

Koenig: Starting small and starting slowly, having one or two people who've been well trained in this come onto the team and help the more traditional reporters understand where open source investigations can be useful, but also where they can be dangerous. 

In the context of Israel and Palestine most recently, we saw a lot of major media outlets, and also some very well-known open source investigations teams, come up with very different conclusions based on their analyses of the same videos and the same open source content. This really shows the risk of ever relying on visual information without getting corroborating data from sources on the ground, and also physical evidence. 

In the war crime space, you always want physical evidence, testimonial evidence, which would be sources in journalism, and then documentary evidence, which would be videos and photographs, emails, texts… The gold standard, at least in war crimes investigations, is to triangulate all three, and it’s very important for journalism too. It can be so irresponsible to create something flashy and convincing that has less grounding in the facts of what took place.

[irismfrost]

July 22 - Chengchi (ZhengDa) University, Taipei Zoo, and YaoYue (Maokong) Teahouse 

Today, we had quite a busy day. We started our day bright and early at 9:20am with the second best university in Taiwan (with the first being the government-funded National Taiwan University). We visited the international student dorm and the library there. The dorms are single rooms with their own bathroom, balcony, bedding, and mini-fridge, all things that don't come with a typical dorm in the US. They have a nice common area with a large fridge/freezer. The Dah Hsian Seetoo Library on campus was built in 2019 and is a beautiful building. Each floor is tiered and is very open. They have areas to watch tv and movies, designated group and solo study areas, and so many books. They have a super cool "maker area" with a 3D printer, wood laser engraving station and a heat press. They also had a fire coffee shop next to the library and I had caramel chiffon cake. They added a bunch of toppings too - very light and airy cake and the toppings were also very light. 

Our next stop was the Taipei Zoo. They have a very cute panda and they put treats out so that it would show itself to all of the people. Its enclosure was a little sad but most of the other animals had some great space compared to other zoos. We were there for 3 hours and I still didn't get to see everything. 

Our last stop was the Taiwanese tea house. We had some jasmine tea. Our amazing tour guide, Peter, performed the tea ceremony for our table. It is a very complicated process and taken very seriously. You put the tea leaves in the ceramic pot and then fill up the pot with hot water all the way to the top and put the lid on. At this point the pot is overflowed. Then, you pour out the liquid into a special ceramic cup. You pour the tea you just made from that ceramic cup onto the pot you just emptied the tea from (lid is on the pot). The pot is sitting on a plate with holes in it so the tea water just drains. The pot is also ceramic so the wetness just absorbs. Then, you fill up the pot again with regular water, wait 30 seconds, and pour the new tea into the ceramic cup. This is the tea you drink. You pour the tea into "aroma" cups which look like little shot glasses. You don't drink out of this cup, but instead have a little cup that looks like a mini tea cup without the handle. You put that cup upside down on top of the aroma cup and then flip it. So now the tea is in the tasting cup and you are holding an empty aroma cup. You twist the aroma cup in your hands (I think this part is optional) and smell it. Then you drink the tea. Very complicated. 

Reflection

The dorms at Chengchi University had some nice amenities that I did not experience in my at a UF dorm. The balcony and private bathroom is awesome. I haven't had a bathroom that connects to my room in 3 years and that would just be super nice to have. The pastries here are not as sweet as the US. The ice cream on the other hand has some crazy added sugars. I keep getting mango flavored things and it tastes like sugar with a little mango. The caramel chiffon cake wasn't very sweet though, more fluffy and mild than a typical US cake which I think is a little denser/richer and sweeter. 

Out of all the zoos in the world, I think the one in Taipei that I visited today was probably one of the most humane. The panda enclosure was a little smaller and less open than the others, but overall I was impressed. Most of the enclosures just had a tiny fence around them and the animals had space. I felt really bad for some of them though because they looked uncomfortably hot. It is the same temperature here as Florida but more humid. Every day I am shiny from sweat. 

The tea ceremony was interesting. It's all about disconnecting and enjoying something simple in the moment by focusing on the process of making tea. It is very complicated and I'm sure there are different variations. I think I may have to get myself a tea set. Maybe I I can disconnect from the world and find some in we peace once or twice a year. Who knows?

I also did laundry again today, as well be heading to Yilan tomorrow and I'd love to have some fresh clothes for that. The laundry lady was there again today! This time I went with some other people from the trip and she was showing us her exercises. People here are really into calisthenics. I saw some people to tai chi in the mornings here, and this lady literally just straightens her body and holds it for like 3 minutes. Literally just presses herself up against a wall, calves raised, hands above her head all in a straight line and holds it. And apparently you can do the same thing without the wall and just go from normal standing to the straight up position like 300 times. I may have to try it and just see how I feel after. She's an interesting lady; I'll miss her for sure.

[voxiiferous]

Atheism, Progressive Politics, NYU, Greenwich Village, and the Whole "Being Gay" Thing

Does this seem like a lot of topics for one hc??? Then you would be right but they all relate in fun and interesting ways!

Vox's mother was religious, and as a result, as a small child he was brought to the little community church each week. He didn't pay much attention to what was being said, and mostly used the time to read the Bible shoved in the back of the pews in front. Not because he particularly wanted to read it, but because his mother wouldn't let him bring any books, and he wanted to practice reading.

This changed when he was eight, when he started to actually listen to what was being said. He came to several realizations all rather simultaneously: he liked men, that wasn't allowed (or else he's have seen it), and that the whole idea behind God and the church seemed a lot like the fairy stories his mother told him, and thus, was not to be taken seriously.

His mother didn't particularly like this, but Vox was a stubborn child, and preferred staying home working on his little projects and reading his books. (His mother lost the argument when it came to getting him to go to Church, save for holy days and holidays).

This young break from the church was the start of his more progressive ideas about the world, but it wouldn't be until university when those would come into sharper focus.

Vox left Pennsylvania, and didn't look back in 1933, when he began attending NYU. Even now, when he thinks back to the time, it is as the buildings dominating the area around Washington Square Park; as much a part of the city as the restaurants and clubs that surrounded it, and himself of one of a nameless fifty-thousand other students.

He lived in the dorms, which only further ensconced him in New York, as compared to something like Columbia on the other side of Manhattan which was comparatively insular. NYU is located in Greenwich Village, a part of the city known for being quite liberal, even for New York, haven to the arts and in many cases, many minorities.

And it was here that he first began to consider his politics in a much more concrete way.

Perhaps, had he lived there as other denizen of Greenwich Village, he might have turned out a very different person, but the problem with being a student, first and foremost, was knowing that if NYU found out he was gay, there was a not insignificant chance of being expelled. He'd heard of other schools that were, or that had, purged large number of their gay students, and academia, like show-business is full of people who would give him up if it would advance them.

Vox's problem with his own sexuality has never come as a result of internalized homophobia-- no, the problem was a simple fear of consequences that only became more entrenched and dangerous as time went on, and he became more public.

But, his own sexuality aside, he saw a lot of things that would have been unthinkable in small-town Pennsylvania. He lived, for a while, approximately a ten minute walk from the Cafe Society-- America's first, and for a long time, only de-segregated club. It was close to NYU, especially when compared to some of the famous locations like the Cotton Club, which were on the other side of Manhattan up in Harlem.

While after he graduated, he moved out of the dorms in Greenwich Village to mid-town Manhattan, the experiences of it permanently shaped a lot of his thoughts and opinions.

[iridescentmidnights]

In your rewrite what are the differences between witches and fairies ? (besides using their magic based on different emotions)

Do any of the Specialists have powers ?

Which couples are endgame ?

What are Alfea and Cloudtower like ?

What are Icy and Stormy’s backstories (if they aren’t spoilers)

If Domino does end up being revived in your rewrite and Bloom finally meets her birth parents,what would their relationship be like ?

You have fantastic questions, thank you. This is a bit longer then I expected it to be but lets go (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ✧

The major differences between witches and fairies is how they channel magic. Fairies have in internal source of magic, large or small, it needs to cultivated and relationship needs to form there. Witches, while also inherently magical, command and channel magic from external sources. While spells and potions help, they're strength comes from learning how to command the magic around them. It's similar to asking vs telling.

A fairy like Flora in concept is asking nature for help vs a witch like Mirta would be commanding it by bending the magic around them to their will. This is why fairies have forms unlike witches even though witches can also become equally powerful and why headspace and emotions are vital to using magic. "Witch" is also an umbrella base term, wizard, sorcerer/ess, enchanter/tress, sages, and so on are different levels and kinds of witch. It is more commonplace and diverse to be a witch as fairies have a more personal yet structured form of magic.

Many Specialists have magic, I previously mentioned Sky has magic, but so does Nabu and Helia, all at different levels of power and experience. I had actually considered making Helia a fairy. Ultimately I have chosen not to make him one, at least not fully, he has an internal spark of magic that just isn't strong enough to have a fairy form or he's a different magical being that has internal magic without being a fairy like a nymph.

Cloud Tower is apart of Alfea, it's the most advance witch track section of the school. Alfea is an elite school meant for children of the influential and the best and brightest. You don't get in with out being invited. They accept students as young as 13 (exceptionally rare) though most are invited at around 15 and continues up to 10 years (meaning the oldest students are 23 though most graduate before this, consider it like you got your diploma at 19 but spend a few extra years of study to get more niche qualifications and you're also a TA). They teach about all branches of magic but currently focusing on rebuilding the lost resources from the fall of two courts so their studies are more practical and older students are tasked with research missions.

It also has several Headmistresses, Griselda is the Headmistress for the younger students. Faragonda is Headmistress for the older and advanced fairy students while Griffen is Headmistress for the older and advanced witches. Red Fountain is still a separate school still and only accepts 15 up. It trains Specialists only after they transfer from any other school that gives them a basic education. They could even transfer from Alfea like Sky and Mirta do.

The spoiler section, major confirmable endgame ships I'm 100% willing to admit are; Bloom/Roxy, Aisha/Nabu, and Tecna/Musa. There a many more ships that get messy and confirming endgame will spoil who does and doesn't make it because some break up or it's one sided. These ships are clear endgame and do not have additional shipping drama (meaning Tecna/Timmy never happen their only love interest is Musa). Icy and Stormy backstories are major spoilers, especially Icy's, I'm very proud of it but I can't say anything at all about it. And if Domino is revived and Bloom gets to meet her parents I imagine there's going to be a lot of grief to unpack. Not getting to raise your baby that you loved and wanted more then anything must be devastating. Knowing she was safe and loved can only comfort you so much when you wish it was you that got to provide that to your daughter. And for Bloom? I'm sure it's also a roller coaster of emotions too. Especially since they wouldn't be able to prioritize Bloom and getting to know over all of Magix.

[shydroid3000]

OOO for the death note ask game, turning this back on you. 4, 7, and 23, again though you can pick a current favorite moment (lolol. indecision makers 😔😔) or just gimme some general misa thoughts if you’ve got em 👀

4. who’s your favorite underrated or obscure character? Okay, I'm gonna do my best to pick one that isn't too obvious, so: Sidoh! Haha. He's a weird little loser guy of a Shinigami and I love that. When he takes the notebook and touches it to the head of the one mafia guy while saying, "tag, you're it!"... or when he gets freaked out by Mello even though he himself is a literal god of death... I just find it very delightful. He's silly and pathetic in a way that really tickles my fancy lol. (The anime is much fresher in my mind so most of what I refer to will be anime-focussed; can't remember how manga version compares to anime with him). 7. was misa just as guilty as light? Ooh, guilt in relation to Misa and Light is interesting to think about. On the one hand, I do think that they're both culpable for their actions at the end of the day. I have maybe some more grace to extend Misa in terms of her having an understandable reason to go down that path, what with her parents being murdered (and almost being murdered herself). Like, that's a level of trauma that makes you go, 'yeah, I can understand why she was all-in on killing criminals with the death note, even if I don't agree.' Light, on the other hand, had this good, stable, pretty privileged home life, in addition to him being a top student, talented, handsome, etc. He's got less of an excuse, you know? The fact that Misa's drawn to Kira's ideals out of lived trauma, whereas Light is drawn to those ideals largely out of ego is sort of a meaningful distinction. (By ego I don't just mean the belief that he's exceptional, but I mean -- the way he is so desperately driven to protect his conception of himself as a Good Person. That's a tragic and heart-rending manifestation of ego, but it's still about protecting his ego). But I also think there's 'guilt' on the level of the actions and choices you make regardless of motivations, and I'd see them as more equal on that front. Misa was an enthusiastic DN user and participant in Kira's plans/ideology. She's motivated by different things than he is, but she makes her choices knowingly. I think it would be diminishing of her agency and complexity to say that she's less responsible for her actions than Light is, if that makes sense. (Also, there are things Misa is guilty of that Light isn't, and vice versa. E.g., Misa pushes Light's boundaries in a way that can be very uncomfortable; Light uses Misa/others without real regard for them).

Now, beyond all that... the question is obviously about their culpability for their use of the DN. But it also makes me think about each of their *experiences* of guilt internally, and that might be even more interesting to me. I think that their relationship to guilt is one of the things that makes them so divergent from one another. Because... running away from guilt is such a huge part of what propels Light to go all out with the Kira thing. So much of his psyche is shaped around that black pit of guilt where whispers of "I did a bad thing. If I did a bad thing I'm not a good person" come from. He diligently tries to cover over that and barricade it off. He crafts an ideology that makes his murders righteous, and commits to making a New World(tm) where the meaning of 'good/right' is reshaped around that. He makes himself a God so that his actions are beyond judgment, or at least he is, because his murders are divine - they're acts of creation, even of love and self-sacrifice. And then Misa... well, guilt doesn't seem to be as obvious a factor for her, whether as motivation or reaction. I mean, I could imagine a reading where there's some well of underlying guilt about the death of her parents and her survival -- I think that would make sense given the circumstances. But... we never actually see that kind of Bruce Wayne -esque psychology peeking through, so that feels more like headcanon territory than direct analysis. Obviously she has deep feelings about the murder of her parents, but she has a very different relationship to guilt than Light. She usually comes across as very free from guilt. She knows what she wants and what her priorities are, and she pursues those without shame. She's impressed by Kira so she becomes the second Kira; she decides she loves Light and wants to be with him regardless of whether he even likes her, so she pursues that undeterred by his response to her. It feels like Misa is always calmly pushing forward toward what she wants, whereas Light's sprint forward towards his New World is really a running-away-from. But at the same time... what kind of underlying emptiness would make someone so completely devotional in the way Misa is, wanting to devote themselves to someone who mostly loathes them, to the point of not even seeming to be hurt by that person's disdain for them as long as they can still have that person in their life? I think there's definitely beneath-the-surface stuff with Misa, but it comes across like guilt is a colour that just doesn't exist in her world. Whereas with Light, every shadow in his world is the colour of guilt. If goodness or righteousness are the rays of the sun, Light Yagami is the moon that reflects the sunlight while trying to create a reality in which those rays are his -- are him -- a reality in which he becomes the sun. And yet he's a moon, and the dark side of it that he disavows is guilt, is 'I did a bad thing', is 'what if I'm not a good boy?' (Wow, went overboard with the metaphors there but too lazy to edit lol). 23. what was your favorite moment and why? Ah, this is hard (guess it's my fault for asking you this one first haha). I'll try to pick 1 or 2 more serious moments and 1 or 2 silly ones lol. So, serious ones:

The warehouse/Light's downfall. Specifically the laughter, if I had to pick a moment. Excellent scene in both the manga and anime, but MY GOD I will never get over the sound of his laugh in the anime. I think about it every day. (Also looove the lip-twitching as he barely contains his deranged glee leading up to his "I win"). I also really like his death in both; his fear, being reduced back down to his humanity, in the most pathetic way. But the laugh moment wins out for me; the way everything that has been pent up, repressed, held back, filtered, pruned is just... unleashed. He's finally showing his real human emotion to other people in this unrestrained way, but it's so twisted as to be monstrous.

Also, the moment when L says Light is his first real friend. I know that Ohba said L is lying in that moment, but my own analytical framework doesn't prioritize authorial intention above all else. And I think there is so much complexity and richness in that moment. I don't think L is lying, but he is manipulating. And obviously even the truth within the statement is a complicated one. But I can't help but see a genuine sort of sweetness in there in that moment, amidst the mind games and adversarial context. Light and Ryuk's reactions in that moment are so excellent too. It feels like a moment where the world stops spinning, just for a microsecond. A moment where some alternate reality almost touches this one.

Silly ones (time for my sweet Matsuda to shine lol):

When L and Light are fighting during the 'date' with Misa and Matsuda calls the room to break it up, telling L some news about Misa's popularity. Then after L hangs up he's like, "Matsuda's acting stupid again." And Light is like, "well, that is his speciality." (The fact that belittling Matsuda actually does diffuse their fight LOL). And Matsuda is on the other end, his face dropping, like, "do they know we can hear them..?" haha. Just a perfect Matsuda/Light/L moment.

OBVIOUSLY the whole mattress gambit too lol

In the anime, when L reveals to the task force that he's actually all three of the world's top detectives, he says something like, "here, I'll give you this strawberry for keeping my secret." And then he holds out the strawberry he plucked from his cake and Mogi kind of vacantly takes it and puts it in his pocket LOL

Thank you for the ask!!! Sorry it took me ages to respond. It was half-done for a while but I wanted to add more thoughts to the second section and just got around to that lol.

ask game

[whumpcateyes]

The Universal Protectorate is an organization dedicated to keeping the peace in interplanetary space, providing a sense of order to the people of the universe and making sure that the space in between the planets is not a lawless wasteland. Originally, they were a non-profit which only used non-violent conflict resolution. Until they were bought by BLIS, the largest corprate entity the universe has every seen, they own everything... and everyone. (basically if 911 operators were owned by amazon... in space)

Control:

The Base of Operations for all sects of TUP

Space Station at Nowhere/BLIS-S/1

Officially called Universal Protectorate Command, colloquially called “UPCom” by rangers

Workplace of all TUP higher ups and major authorities

The Ranger Academy:

Directly connected to UPCom

Officially called The Universal Protectorate Academy for Ranger Trainees, colloquially called “TUPART”, “UPcademy”, or just “school” by rangers

Students must be (the developmental equivalent of) 16 years old to enroll at TUPART

The ranger educational path: a 4-step process

1 - Basic Ranger Training

For the youngest/newest of students to learn the basics of being a UP Ranger(2 years)

2 - Trainee Internships

Students who have completed step 1 are assigned as interns on various ranger stations for real life experience and to help them decide on a path for step 3. Ranger Captains are discouraged from bringing interns on potentially dangerous missions(1 year)

3 - Path Pursuit

After their internships, students decide on 1 or 2 “majors” to specialize in such as, ‘combat’, ‘engineering’, ‘public interpretation’, etc, they may also decide to step out of the ranger program and into the corporate sect of TUP(2 years)

4 - Probation

Freshly graduated Rangers are added to crews on probation to ease them into the system further(it's like the internships but more involved), after which they are either officially assigned to the same crew, or reassigned to a different crew(6 months)

Ranger stations:

The workplace of designated ranger crews

There is one assigned station per habited solar system, with number of crews and size of station proportional to the number of inhabited planets, uninhabited systems are the jurisdiction of the closest station

Unless called in by “local”(meaning local to the planet) law enforcement, TUP Ranger jurisdiction is only in Interplanetary space, areas outside of a planet’s atmosphere

Rangers are usually called to monitor traffic in and out of the system, as well as keep updated on possible large-scale disasters on the planets in their system(large scale meaning: 1000+ casualties with no end in sight), they also patrol(in FTL cruisers) the system for disturbances and respond to SOS calls from traveling ships

Because long-range teleportation is incredibly costly with its use of energy, the teleport to UPCom is for only emergencies and direct summons from Generals(and other higher ups)

Ranger Station Command Structure:

Each Ranger Crew has a variety of roles to balance out the specializations of each crew member,

When an Emergency Response is called for, all applicable crew is released from their individual tasks and put into the Response Team

Captain (1)

The captain is the final and main decision maker of the crew, they dish out the orders, assign crew members to tasks, communicate and report to command, and make sure everyone is doing their role effectively

Clones(1-4)

When a ranger is chosen to be a captain, they receive a clone to act as a right-hand and as a balance for decision making. Clones are specialized by the captain to support their weaknesses highlight their strengths(example: If the captain is prone to violence, their clone may be suited to finding non-violent solutions), Full-Cloning(the creation of an identical, complicated organism, with customized traits and skills) is incredibly expensive, so more clones of the captain are only received as gifts for years of service(1/decade)

Clones are legally not considered people, but as extensions of captains. They don’t receive pay, and are entirely at the whims of their sources

Clones can be distinguished from their sources via a separate uniform, as well as several identifiers on their bodies that are grown into the clone

Clones are officially referred to as [Source’s Surname]-[Clone #], ie. Wevice-1

Clones are destroyed by security when their Sources die

If a clone dies, the Captain will have to pay for a replacement if they require one. The reason for a clone’s death is not required to be disclosed when submitting replacement paperwork

Pilots/Patrol Officers (4)

Pilots of FTL cruisers for patrolling their system, they travel in teams of 2, and are usually on duty for multiple cycles at a time

Not summoned for emergency responses

Security(2)

On ship security, monitor cameras, always one on duty

Summoned for emergency responses

Communications(2)

Monitors and responds to communications from system planets, as well as watching for SOS messages, there is always 1 on duty for 24/hr support

Not summoned for emergency responses

Maintenance(1)

Keeps the station in working order, engineers, fix broken appliances, etc

Summoned for emergency responses

Relief Organizers(1)

In charge of organizing and keeping the captain informed of relief operations on planets(things such as offworld help, physical supplies, evacuation efforts), only exist during an emergency response, otherwise they assist with communications and inventory management

In charge of organizing emergency responses(along with the captain)

Sanitation(1)

They’re the janitors and in charge of making sure there’s minimal spread of disease aboard the station

Summoned for emergency responses

Medical Staff(2)

Operates medical equipment on board the station, also in charge of prescribing and procuring any medications that crew members need, off duty during the night but can be put back on duty if a crisis arises

Summoned for emergency responses(unless there are life threatening injuries in the station, in which case only one is summoned at a time)

Interpreters(1)

Respond to non-emergency communications, such as, directing someone who got lost, settling disputes, etc

Summoned for emergency responses

Inventory Management(1)

Keeps track of ship inventory, including food, weapons, medical supplies, etc, keeps the captain informed on what needs to be ordered, in charge of meal preparation for the crew

Not Summoned for emergency responses, but in charge of keeping Emergency Response Teams supplied

Runner(1)

Runs supplies between locations, especially in an emergency response

[bijoumikhawal]

Okay I've read the main body of SVSSS. I think it's really good as a meta parody and gives some interesting insight into MXTX's mind- I think some of the criticism of her work is unfair and this book is a pretty good example in parts (the running commentary about misogyny in stallion novels is a lot more unambiguous than her accurately depicting misogyny in others wirks like MDZS, though I don't understand why the latter gets read as an indication of her as a person).

However I don't think it works well as a romance story. There are main two problems; one,that while all of MXTX's main characters are people that have gone through the wringer and lashed out on others because of it, sometimes in really grusome and reprehensible ways, we get to see who they are not just before it goes to shit, but after they've acted in a such a way and either by intentional choice or just the passing of time, behave in a kinder and more upright manner. SVSSS's main story ends right after LBH isn't being an antagonistic force driven to the pits. Additionally, LBH is (understandably) a very misanthropic character which makes the way you'd show him learning how to be a person not driven by grief, fear, and anger different.

The other point is SY/SQQ's internalized homophobia is handled in a way that distracts somewhat from his feelings for LBH, and this combines with a lot of the things taken as romantic by other characters being misinterpretions of his internal world. Some of the latter seems to be him bullshitting himself though- "I'm not crying because I'm facing down my beloved student who I've failed horribly and hates me before I off myself without knowing for sure if my contingency plan will work, the sun's just in my eyes", sure Jan. Given how WWX acts its clear that MXTX now knows how to balance internalized homophobia with the character falling in love even if he doesn't realize it, and TGCF doesn't really have internalized homophobia on the protagonists part as far as I've read, he's just a sworn virgin. (However one could argue HC had some issues when he was human depending on how you read the Land of the tender scene).

SVSSS is short compared to her other works, and while I'm not sure how one would do it, having us spend some time with LBH and SQQ after they've gotten rid of his evil sword and SQQ is helping him work through his misanthropy, desire for control, and abandonment issues would improve their relationship from a story perspective, especially because of how obsessive and unhealthy LBH has spent... 8 years of his life regarding SQQ. There's already a foundation with LBH taking SQQ back to his home peak to be taken care of after his near death experience and leaving alone when he gets chased off, and SQQ choosing to go with him with no pressure on him to do so other than LBH's wellbeing (which is no longer tied to things like the apocalypse). I just think there needs to be a bit more between that and what I'm reading in the extras so far.

And it is needed because of how much LBH's dark behavior was directed at SQQ. WWX's dark behavior wasn't so targeted, LWJ's had an instance of targeting but a large part of the novel has been about him doing his best to respect WWX's boundaries and not repeat his parents relationship. I'm not up to snuff on what happened after XL's first banishment yet so I'll keep quiet on that. LBH is so desperate for this one person's affection that he almost destroys the world to ensure he has no other choice but him (and they have terrible fuck or die sex that no one enjoys about it). Evil sword possession making him decide this was a good idea or no, to work as a satisfying romance story, you need to after of all that. Especially because the evil sword had the ability to push him that far because of how chaotic and wrecked his mental and spiritual state were. They're still wrecked.