#arbitrary elite

[fandomsoda]

Probably gonna be a hot take, but- art competitions are anti-art.

Competition kills art. Inherently. The second you start comparing people’s works and labeling some as “winners” and “losers”, you trivialize it.

So many young or beginner artists completely give up or don’t even try because they don’t believe they’ll ever be “good enough”, and competitive attitudes reinforce ideas of what is “good enough”.

It’s just overall- really yikes, imo.

[magussanctorium-if]

The Magus Sanctorium. Pentagiim's elite and esteemed school for mages across the continent. Hard to get into with an advanced curriculum and hands-on experience, many would kill to be accepted into the fray. But behind shiny spells and gilded bookcases belies a lit powder keg of pent up tensions and small slights that threaten the whole continent with all out war. A single slip up will light the fuse, so be careful. And don't forget your 7 page essay is due next week!

The Magus Sanctorium is a highly ambitious WIP and new interactive CYOA pair of games. The focus is heavily on romance, relationships, and fantasy adventure with high-replayability value. It is inspired by JRPGs, romance visual novels, any media with a magical boarding school, and Dungeons and Dragons, among others. It will lean more towards a story-based focus, but will have stat-based mechanics.

You play as a new transfer student, having transferred to The Magus Sanctorium after moving continents. Being homeschooled to suddenly thrust into an elite boarding school is a culture shock. As you go about going to classes and making friends, your schooling is abruptly upheaved as war breaks out across the continent. Which house you decided to join determines how the war will affect you and how you can help or hinder your former classmates or lovers.

Note: Because this is still a WIP, some names of characters or places may change during development.

Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Adventure

Rating: 18+

Tracked Tag: #the magus sanctorium

Status: In Development (Outlining)

Demo || Character Introductions || House Introductions || FAQ || Ask Guidelines || Tag Navigation || World Lore || Current Anonymous Survey Form || Dev's Main Blog ||

Create and customize your character. Select their gender, pronouns, appearance, their proficiencies and deficits, and personality among others.

Choose between 5 different houses each with their own cast of characters. Each student is divided into houses by which nation they come from, not by arbitrary traits.

Decide how to build your stats by choosing which classes to attend and which skills to train in. Influence your house members to train or attend certain classes to boost group skills.

Romance any of the 15 romance options (5 male, 5 female, 5 nonbinary), or select any of the 10 poly routes instead. Choose for a softer romance by picking one of your house members or go for an angsty romance by romancing someone outside of your house.

Build your relationships with your classmates before you're turned against each other and get to know what makes them tick. It pays to have friends across house lines.

Explore and learn about a high fantasy world steeped in magic and years and years of conflict. Perhaps it takes an outsider's perspective to bring about peace...

Participate in a war and potentially reveal long kept secrets that could change the fate of Pentagiim.

Thalen Oakdane (they/them) - The proud and rigid Leader of the Fern Bears, the house from the Rasuaides Empire. They are strict with their rules.

Sumiel Tidewood (she/her) - The graceful and shy Leader of the Cobalt Snakes, the house from the Espersland Republic. She just wants the best for everyone.

Casithar Seedcloud (he/him) - The young but earnest Leader of the Maroon Rams, the house from the Iseadesh Alliance. He's trying his best.

Ariela Wyvernhair (she/her) - The prickly but well-meaning Leader of the Violet Foxes, the house from the Lupuv Caelait Territory. A rose wrapped in thorns.

Zanis Ironforce (he/him) - The charismatic and cunning Leader of the Sun Eagles, the house from the Quailax Kingdom. He is always 5 steps ahead.

Drelyth Hollymoon (she/her) - The vice-leader of the Fern Bears. She is kind and confident, always pushing herself to aim higher and higher.

Afthel Scalesun (they/them) - A member of the Cobalt Snakes. Quiet and introverted, they prefer the comfort of their books than that of their house members.

Anwyn Greenspear (he/him) - A member of the Maroon Rams. He is a known flirt and playboy, often earning him the ire of his house members.

Lamatri Glowillow (they/them) - The enigmatic and mysterious vice-leader of the Violet Foxes. You barely see them, but they seem to know everything about you.

Traki Goldreaver (they/them) - A member of the Sun Eagles. It's also their first year enrolling. Enthusiastic and energetic, but a work-in-progress.

Azaha Elmbasher (he/him) - A member of the Fern Bears. An idealistic and daydreamer artist who enjoys making life hard for his house leader.

Rumik Gullcaller (he/him) - A member of the Cobalt Snakes. Sumiel's childhood friend, he is protective and intimidating often scaring away most classmates.

Daeri Silkdream (she/her) - A member of the Maroon Rams. A bit ditzy and arrogant, her exaggerated personality belies her true strength.

Saevain Sageblossom (she/her) - A member of the Violet Foxes. Stuck-up and arrogant, she has a family legacy to fulfill as a Prime Magus. But is that what she wants?

Cyian Stonepelt (they/them) - The vice-leader of the Sun Eagles. Gloomy and apathetic, they'd much rather be doing anything else but this.

Poly Romance Options: Thalen & Azaha, Sumiel & Rumik, Casithar & Daeri, Ariela & Saevain, Zanis & Cyian, Drelyth & Saevain, Afthel & Traki, Daeri & Afthel, Ariela & Casithar, Traki & Drelyth

[alphajocklover]

Hey ! Recently, I've heard about a guy in my college, a young jock fresh from high school, that honestly acts very weirdly.

Apparently, his friends all went to local universities, while he moved all the way out to the capital, apparently in a bid to get some "elite" education. But that's not really weird, isn't it.

No, the weird thing starts at how he already acts like he's the king of uni, belittling everyone, including those like me who have been here for quite a few years, acting and even stating that he is the "alpha" of our department - as if such an outdated and so obviously false way of classifying people was even remotely correct. But then, he just goes around stating that he needs some "betas". Now, while I can imagine what they must be, those "yes-men" you see in movies accompanying the bully, I can't even begin to see how he wants to bring that to real life ! Especially since he's not in high school anymore !

Well, whatever. The real thing that creeps me out is how he seems to hang out near me weirdly often... Should that be cause for concern ?

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck. I’ve only just seen your message. Hopefully there's still enough time for me to warn you. What you’ve met isn’t human. Not exactly. He’s… more.

Most teenage boys go through puberty with drastic changes. They shoot up, gain a bit of hair and possibly some muscle. Their voice deepens, and of course they get some… urges. It’s all very natural. But some teenage boys undergo a… startling transformation. They don’t just shoot up, they tower. They don’t gain a bit of hair, they grow bushes of it. Some shave it so that they can better show off their muscles, but most don’t. Muscle isn’t just possible for them, it’s inevitable. They’re bodies become beefy and hard, even without exercise, though most still become obsessed with lifting weights and getting even bigger. But what sets these boys, or rather these men, apart from the rest most are their urges. They don’t just feel the need to cum like most guys. They get the urge to dominate. The urge to show their power. The urge to fuck.

These men are what’s known as Alphas. And no, that’s not just some arbitrary classification. This isn’t some guy calling himself an alpha male because he’s an insecure Andrew Tate obsessed bitch. What you are dealing with is a real fucking Alpha. Once they were normal people like you or me, but something… awakened in them at some point. Usually during puberty, as I showed before, but it’s not impossible to have an Alpha discover his true self later in life. These men, if they can be called mere men, are bigger, stronger, more dominant than the average man. Much more dominant. So much so that the world seems to… bend to their will. I don’t know how they do it. Maybe they have some sort of special pheromones, or magic powers. But what I do know is when they want something, it just happens. If they want to be good at something, they just are. If they want to win at something, they just do. If they want the world, it’s served up to them on a silver platter with a protein shake.

And if they want you to be their Beta, you will be their Beta.

I’m not kidding. They can just.. change people. You’ve probably already seen some symptoms, in you and your friends. A sudden interest in fitness, in sports, in ‘bro culture.’ A strange growth spurt, the kind that really shouldn’t happen after puberty. An increased libido, a simpler vocabulary. And most of all, a great admiration for your Alpha. Not just admiration, a deep love. A need to do what he says, be what he says. Once those feelings start it’ll be too late to save you. Soon you’ll be nothing more than his Beta. Everything about you will revolve around what they want.

It’s not the worst fate in the world. Most people think that if a horny Alpha could do whatever they want to you, you’d end up a brainless sex doll. But more often than not what they really want is a bro. Or, more accurately, they want bros. Alphas are so competitive that they rarely are able to spend extended periods of time together. It’s like having two leaders of a pack. Eventually they end up locking horns. So they find, or rather make, Beta bros for them to hang out with. Big, but not as big as their Alpha. Sexy, but not hot enough to take any pussy away from the Alpha. Cool but not cool enough to take any attention away from the Alpha. There are some differences based on what the Alpha wants. Some Betas are stoners, some are jocks, some are surfers and some are skaters. It all depends on the Alphas personal aesthetic and taste. But Betas are all muscular, horny, hung, and completely subservient to their Alphas.

If you’re lucky, you can get out. Move somewhere far away, and forget about all of this. If you’re lucky the Alpha won’t care enough to go after you. You can keep your identity and sense of self intact.

But if you’re not lucky? If you’re too far under his influence? If your Alpha has taken a liking to you and won’t let you go? Well…

… be grateful you’re his Beta bro and not his Beta bitch.

**3 post in 2 days! I feel like I’m on fire! Guess I’m just very motivated to write recently. Anyways I hope you guys liked this one! Hope mentioning Andrew Tate wasn’t too political. I hate to let irl politics ruin my online fun. Enjoy!**

[imviotrash]

The horror in the mundane, a Weston analysis:

So I've read (and heard) from a lot of people that the Weston arc was not their favourite, and surprisingly, the reasoning was always something along the lines of: it was very 'slice of life', nothing exciting really happened. The following arcs were so much more action packed.

Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinions and I absolutely agree that the Green Witch arc and other proceeding were objectively better and more action packed. This mini essay is not an attempt to change anyone's mind, but more of an exploration as to why I love this arc so much.

The slice of life, mundane school life seems boring at first. Everyone is in a uniform, it's a tightly confined space with a strict hierarchial and traditional structure that can and will drive you up the wall. It sticks very tightly to the sociocultural structure of public schools, with an amount of accuracy that left even me stunned. Overall, there is not much to look at (besides the absolutely jaw dropping scenery at the Gazebo)

The way public-schools are structured is far removed from actual society, allowing customs and behaviours to be normalized, that outside of normal society would not be seen as such and in the first few chapters we watch Ciel get integrated into them. It comes to a point where you kind of forget the main mission and also focus on the smaller, trivial missions, like meeting the prefects, getting into the team, getting an invite to the tea party. You root for Ciel to achieve these trivial conquests, to get closer to the main goal.

The reader gets drawn into this strange mini society, which leads to hints about the deep unsettling nature of it all to seem normal and only noticeable in hindsight, because everyone treats them as such. Below are some examples:

-Edgar's morbid curiosity and lacking concern for the Campania incident

-Arbitrary and nonsensical rules, such as locking the doors tightly, not stepping on the grass

-the fact that the principal is COMPLETELY ABSENT

-exclusive secretive events, which are only accessible to a selected elite

-the fact that NO ONE is concerned about Derrick's disappearance

-Hermans vow to never use violence again and still using violence to solve conflicts

-and so so much more...

It is all seen as part of the system, because it is simply the way it is and always has been. These systems are questioned by Ciel, but quickly disregarded until the end in order for him to continue blending in.

The normalisation and blind acceptance of terrible treatment, disappearances and absolute authority is what makes the arc so horrid. Unlike the other arcs, it's horror does not lie in the midnight tea party, but the events that lead up to it. It is woven into the culture of the school, and therefore barely visible, unless one distances themselves from its culture and looks at it from an objective lens.

The arc is not filled with chase scenes, dramatic battles and cool showoffs. It's rather tame, even in it's violent scenes. The horror makes itself known through normalisation, combined with the fact that these young men will be amongst the elite in the future. Generations of men have been brainwashed in such institutions and have come to blindly accept the conditions of life, because that's the way it has always been. And to a certain degree this can also be applied to reality.

[unoriginalfellow567]

Herbs n’ stuff

Getting high with Leon Kennedy after saving the President’s daughter

Leon Kennedy x genderneutral!reader

Crack fic

Dividers from: @cafekitsune

Idrk what this is, I didn’t have any inspo for a long time, but I wanted to write something with Leon. And, I thought of the meme of him making a joint, and this came about to be. I think it’s be one of my longest works yet (I apologise in advance for any possible erroneous spelling). Enjoy!

The meme:

The rain pattered against the grimy windows, thunder and lighting striking at arbitrary times, the pair a stark contrast against the soothing effects the rain had on yours, Leon and Ashley’s nerves after the events, the horrors, that had transpired just a few hours ago.

Leon and you were pretty bored, and extremely fatigued. You felt jealousy crawl its way out of the pit of your stomach and nearly escape your mouth through the means of pathetic whining at the sight of Ashely sleeping on one of the villagers’ bed, Leon’s leather jacket (which, quite frankly, you wanted one like it) splayed out under her in a poor attempt of protecting her from the filthy sheets.

You spun on your chair to face Leon, who was sat on the opposite side of the wooden table stationed near the window. “She’s out cold,” you stated the obvious, staring into his weary eyes, dark bags drooping. “Poor girl’s been through hell and back, she deserves some rest.” He replied, softy tapping his fingers on the table’s surface. “How’s your rib?” He asks, referring to the injury you had attained while fighting Saddler’s mutated form. “It’s.. still there, I think. So, that’s something,” you replied, shrugging slightly. “Don’t worry, Hunnigan said a chopper will get here soon,” he assured with a small smile, trying to alleviate the situation. “I’ll live.” Is your reply.

“Hey, you got any more of those green herbs?” You ask Leon, hopeful. “It won’t do anything for broken bones, y’know,” he stated. “That’s not an answer, ‘y’know’,” You mocked, rolling your eyes. “Yeah, I do have some left. Here,” he yielded, retrieving a variety of herbs from his attache case, rolling them up in a piece of paper and handing the combination to you. “Thanks.” You reply, not long before getting out a lighter from one of the pockets of your cargo pants, and lighting the rudimentary joint up.

“The hell are you doing?” Leon asks, seeing you inhale the smoke, then blow it out. “Look, different people have different coping mechanisms. This is the best I’ve got at the moment, take it or leave it,” You say, raising your eyebrows invitingly and holding the joint out to him.

He looked at the drug, then back at you, then at then back at the joint in you hand, and reluctantly accepted it. “Ok..” were his words before he took a drag of the reefer. “Weren’t you not a smoker?” You raised an eyebrow, teasing him. “People change.” He shut you down quickly.

It was amusing, really, two of the U.S.’s most elite agents, smoking healing herbs, high off their asses in a crumbling shed in the middle of a forest right in the Spanish ass-crack of nowhere, saying whatever came to their minds, lamenting about how ‘relationships are a waste of time, man’, as you had re-iterated several times, each more sober than the last, whilst simultaneously laughing (as little and quietly as you could, considering your broken rib and Ashley respite) at his stories of rejection.

‘No use calling yourself a one lady type of guy if there aren’t any women interested in you’, as he had quoted.

It had been a nice change of pace, seeing Leon in a more mellow state. His snark combined with the misanthropic attitude, which seemingly never faltered, cracked, allowing out a more vulnerable, exposed Leon. A more.. human Leon.

You couldn’t remember where you first heard the corny-ass saying, ‘laughter is the best medicine’, but this moment solidified it. Or maybe it was the green herb, mixed with some other leaves of which colours you couldn’t remember. Probably, both.

“And then she went to the bathroom and jumped outta the fucking window! And left me to pay for her meal! The nerve,” his words were bitter, yet you could see the amusement of the anecdote in his bloodshot eyes.

You couldn’t remember the last time you had went on a date. It was somewhat surprising that Leon had time to indulge in the romantic aspects of life, considering your own schedule working as an agent, but maybe he just manages his time better than you do. Who knows.

“Hey, times are tough, man,” You shrugged, taking another drag of the badly-rolled up joint, and slowly blowing out the fumes. “How long did Hunnigan say it was gonna take for a chopper to get here?” You asked for what seemed like the hundredth time that night. “It should be here in,” Leon took a look at his watch, squinting like he had some sort of visual impairment, then he looked up at you again, “15 minutes or so. Going by the storm outside, I’d triple that.” He replied nonchalantly. “I say 30 minutes, wanna bet?” You raise an eyebrow, staring him directly in his red eyes. “You sure you wanna? I’m right pretty much all the time,” he declared cockily, smirking. “Yeah, ‘right’ my ass, you’re just lucky as hell. I wouldn’t be surprised if you have a pot of gold at home.” I rolled my eyes. “And I wouldn’t be surprised if you have a cauldron.” He retorted, stumping out the joint you both were smoking by pressing it into the windowsill on his right.

“Devastating blow.” You deadpan, then return to the subject at hand. “10.. Hamiltons if I’m right, and vice-versa.” You established, and he nodded. There was a comforting silence which ensued, and you took the time to observe Ashley’s sleeping form, her features soft and peaceful. A contrast to the events that had transpired just a few hours prior.

“What do you think’ll happen to her? In the future, I mean,” you looked back at Leon. “Who knows?” He shrugged, “She’s got her whole life ahead of her. I remember when I was her age..” he replied, closing his eyes. “Okay, old man,” You joked, just an innocent jab, in your mind. “Raccoon City.. I was her age when I survived its horrors, back in 1998.” He revealed sombrely. “Shit, Leon, I didn’t mean to.. I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” You apologised instantly. “It’s all right, let’s forget it. Better that way.” You nodded understandingly.

A while later, after the tension had dissipated a little, you received a transmission from Hunnigan. You smirked at Leon, then looked at his watch, anticipation brewing in your core at the thought of 10 dollars, and more importantly, proving him wrong.

“Hey Hunnigan,” you greeted sweetly, waiting for her announcement. “It’s good to hear your voice, Y/N, is everyone all right?” She asked, her voice fuzzy. “We’re all.. alive. Baby Eagle is safe, but I have a broken rib. As for Leon, he’s all good.” I replied. “The chopper has just landed, at the pick-up point. Hunnigan out.” She finalised the announcement, and you looked at Leon.

“30 or 45?” You asked, confidently. He sighed, rubbing his temples. “30.” He begrudgingly admitted. “Pay up,” You smiled victoriously, holding your hand out. “My wallet’s in my jacket,” he replied. “Okay then, we’ll settle this later.”

[apollos-boyfriend]

this is like. all fully speculation. but i was rewatching some of jaiden’s nuzlocke videos, and them combined with a recent clip of hers i saw talking about how she’s not even sure why quackity chose her for the qsmp made me connect why he might’ve picked her. because like. i think nearly everyone was a bit shocked, if not confused, to see her on the lineup. despite having been in the scene for a while—her first public animations were for ihascupquake, after all—jaiden isn’t your first thought when you think of minecraft youtubers. as far as i’m aware, she was on one smp before the qsmp—epicsmp, and we all know how that ended.

no, jaiden isn’t who you’d think of when you think minecraft youtuber. but she is who you’d think of when you think storyteller. which, yeah, is kind of obvious. there’s a whole subcategory of youtube for animated storytellers, and jaiden’s been one of the front runners for years now. but the thing about jaiden specifically is that she doesn’t just tell stories. she shapes them. you can really see that the most with her animated nuzlockes. she’s given scenarios and events that are largely random and arbitrary, fully just game coding and out of her control, and she turns them into her story. her platinum nuzlocke specifically highlights this with the giratina, two jaidens storyline she creates to explain her resetting the run and attempting the elite four again.

live mcrp HEAVILY relies on having to go with the flow of the game, and learning to work around in-game mechanics and limitations to create a storyline out of. things that are story-important, like pets or npcs, are fragile and can be taken away at any moment, be it by a mob, glitch, or player error. you have to be able to think on your feet to not only work around it, but create a narrative to explain that decision fitting into the canon and story instead of just taking it at face-value. and that’s exactly what jaiden’s been doing for years now with a lot of her gaming-based content. quackity would need people accustomed versatile storytelling as much as he’d need people accustomed to survival minecraft itself, and jaiden is nothing short of an expert at her craft

[moralesmilesanhour]

Every time i think about atsv and its themes, my mind keeps going back to the scene with Miles and his parents in that college counselor’s office, and what its purpose is.

It establishes the strain that being Spider-Man has put on their relationship, yes - it also establishes that Miles feels trapped and limited, yes - but a lot of fandom discussion overlooks the important parallel that that scene sets in motion between racism in academia and Miles' rejection from Spider Society.

By now, everyone has already figured out that the issue with the 'Canon Event' theory is that it assumes that trauma - specifically experiencing the "right" traumatic events - is what makes a Spider-Man, and it is wrong for Miles to be required to accept this. It isn't enough that he had his uncle die, his father must die also because then he will have sacrificed "enough" to keep the canon intact. No one questions why arbitrary sacrifice is required at all.

The concept of the personal statement being required for college applications, I would like to argue, has the exact same issue.

Miles even says so in the beginning of the movie: "Having 'a story' in the first place sounds gross" (notice how Miles vocally critiques elite academia contantly and has been from the get-go. He is not an apolitical character like some might portray him to be).

It is not enough that Miles is an exceptional student with a variety of interests (art and science), he must have the appropriate traumatic "story" for white academic institutions to find him interesting enough as an applicant, even if the story they want him to tell is not actually his story (no, he is not from a "struggling immigrant family". They own an apartment floor and PR is in the United States). Just like the "Canon events" that Miguel describes are not Miles' story, and Miles does not want them to be because it requires the preventable deaths of innocent people.

In a similar way that has been touched upon more in wider fandom, Rio gives Miles a speech telling him not to let the people in these overwhelmingly-white spaces that he will be entering tell him that he doesn't belong. That speech, as we all know, ends up being a direct parallel to the way Spider Society treats him: he is simultaneously a charity case and a threat just by his mere presence. His very existence is disruptive to the canon: The spider wasn't "supposed" to bite him, he just got lucky. There is a reason why the visual of the ball with Miles' lottery number is constantly paired with the number on the spider that bit him; they are one and the same.

(Side note: this is also what makes Hobie's function as a character so interesting - The idea that you can just simply quit. You do not HAVE to be in these privileged spaces if they don't have your best interests in mind. You don't have to prove yourself to these people to be who you are. But that's a post for another day)

The reason I've been thinking about all this is because I feel like no one really touches upon why Miles' character exists. Like, on a thematic level. Yes, he's there to show that "anyone can wear the mask", but there's a lack of specificity in that statement that I wanted to address with this post.

Miles is a love letter to every black kid that's been told that they're only in the spaces they're in because they "got lucky". He's for every black kid that's ever looked at a college app and been told that they have to take their trauma and put it on display for some white admissions officer to shed a tear over. He's there to argue that you don't have to bend towards any of society's attempts to make a spectacle or a serviceable machine out of you, and that you can just be.

TL;DR: it was never just about the mask MWAH 🫶🏾

[apricitystudies]

what i read in nov. 2023:

(previous editions)

class, race, gender, & sexuality

'no way to live': amazon flex delivery drivers

how to be a model minority in an elite school (singapore)

new investigation casts doubt on a singapore-listed palm oil giant's green claims

when a guy you're seeing turns out to be a member of an obscene telegram channel

current affairs

sudanese women describe being gang-raped in ethnically targeted attacks by arab forces

sudan's cycle of violence: 'there is a genocide going on in west darfur'

world's largest 'baby exporter' confronts its painful past (south korea)

un votes to create 'historic' global tax convention despite eu, uk moves to 'kill' proposal

'systemic failures at every step': the indonesian children australia sent to adult jails for years

henry kissinger

henry kissinger, war criminal beloved by america's ruling class, finally dies

henry kissinger, america's most notorious war criminal, dies at 100

does henry kissinger have a conscience?

blood on his hands (cambodia)

culture & personal essays

flipping grief

the woman who rewrote me

the sound of history (greenland)

the protagonist is never in control

palestine

israeli authorities and the crimes of apartheid and persecution

horrifying cases of torture and degrading treatment of palestinian detainees amid spike in arbitrary arrests

the gaza i know is shrinking every day

damning evidence of war crimes as israeli attacks wipe out entire families in gaza

european governments donors’ discriminatory funding restrictions to palestinian civil society risk deepening human rights crisis

[afraidparade]

Are demons like Faust dangerous? Like, do they have any supernatural powers or are they just like humans just that they look different?(sorry if you already clarified this and I just didn’t see it)

they can become extremely dangerous, yes, especially if they're in a world/realm that is actually proportional to their own (unlike earth)

i made a chart a long time ago kind of messily explaining the ranks demons can achieve, but this can only be done so by harvesting life force (killing someone or lots of someones) which is why their whole thing is going to other worlds and laying waste to them:

(if this power scaling system sounds familiar it's because i kind of recycled the idea for how ghoststories lore works lolol)

higher ranks have a higher aptitude for magic, so yeah, they can have supernatural powers. that magic sort of uses their stolen life force as a fuel though, in the sense that it needs to be replenished for any given demon to operate effectively. using any sort of Big Magic will drain a lot of this power and can cause a demon to go down a rank or even draw from their own natural life force and potentially die, so that sort of stuff is usually reserved for elites who have a lot of energy to fall back on

if you want a sort of in-universe perspective of the social aspect of ranks i wrote this fic one time that ended up being way too long and doesn't even have faust in it but it's got some arbitrary lore stuff that may or may not be interesting

[the-way-astray]

what are your thoughts on the Vackers?

you know, i really do have too many thoughts on them. that's why this is like. months late. this has been stewing in my drafts for so long, it's about time i released it. also, this is more of a headcanons list than an analysis. sorry, anon

i won't talk about aldella here because i already have way too many posts about them. as for everything else . . .

general vacker stuff:

they are all so tired from the pressure but they hide it well

more than a few vackers are pressured into doing the elite levels and joining the nobility even when they don't want to

vacker family gatherings are like "so, what did you get on your level seven midterms? do you want to be a mentor or regent? do you want to be a councillor or just an emissary, which is also fine because then you can have kids! more vackers, yippee. oh, what's that? you want to do art? and stay single? oh."

there have definitely been vacker twins and triplets, their parents just hide it the way tam and linh's parents tried to, except successfully

there has been one (1) pyrokinetic vacker. one. they were wiped from the history books and nobody remembers them. they're ancient now, so they barely leave the home, so that helps them fly under the radar, as well. even most other vackers don't know of their existence

being a vacker is like. i was born with a crown on my head. but it forced me down a path that i may or may not want. while everyone looks on in jealousy because they think i have it easy. but it's not

the vacker accent isn't natural. it's taught and learned from a very young age. fallon vacker started the trend when he was a councillor, and ever since then vackers have mimicked it because they're scared of seeming fake, and because it makes them feel more close to their family, or rather, the glaring spotlight their family's under (this is sort of canon-compliant: della has a hint of the accent, even though she's not a vacker by birth)

marrying a vacker is giving up your privacy forever and ever. you will never not be talked about again (think what happened at alden and della's wedding. that was over thirty years ago. imagine if i was still gossiping about the end of the cold war to this day)

once you "become" a vacker through marriage, you're held to a strict, somewhat arbitrary standard, where it's just like. nothing is ever enough. ever. you have to be an emissary or a mentor. if you get there, then you have to be the best emissary or mentor. being married to a vacker is arguably worse than growing up a vacker in that regard

many a vacker have wanted to be in a relationship that would be considered a bad match. but they don't do it. they stay officially single, but they do continue to date the person behind society's back. this is not uncommon, regardless of what the general public wants to believe

(i have three vacker ocs. not going to talk about them here. if you want additional details, ask me)

some thoughts on the main vacker family:

alden manifested late. like really late. like sixteen. and he was terrified that he would end up not manifesting at all and kids were whispering about him and he had like. daily panic attacks

when he finally manifested, he swore that he would be better than everyone else, so he trained twice as hard and kept it up through adulthood, which is the real reason he's such a good telepath

his mom always told him that his ability manifested late because it was twice as powerful, which he tried to believe

he met quinlin on a noble assignment

della definitely has days where she feels weird about being a century younger than alden

also she felt like she had to "prove" that she was worthy of marrying a vacker, which is why she knows so much random trivia about them

also she constantly refers to herself as a vacker because she feels like it needs to be advertised. like she doesn't belong enough if she doesn't make it twice as clear. but in reality she feels insecure about it

once she started dating alden, she felt like she couldn't stop because then there would be gossip about them

biana always felt like she'd never match up to fitz because he was the perfect child

so when she manifested before him and also got her nexus off before him, it felt like a reminder that she was worthy, which is why she talked about it so much

alden and della are actually good parents despite their own crumbling relationship

they act more like co-parents than partners

before fitz manifested, when he was the weird kid, it bothered him so much because he was a vacker and he felt he should be better than that

so he tried hard to be cool. but it never really worked until he manifested. then suddenly everyone loved him. because of that, he clung to his early manifesting as a sign of his worth, which is why he talked about it so much

he met keefe when they were both ditching (shut up. fitz definitely ditched a few times. i know it in my soul)

he thought keefe was weird so they weren't immediately friends but they kept running into each other so it was like. oh, well

(MY OWN PERSONAL HEADCANON, NOT CANON) while fitz's crush on sophie was real and sweet, it was at least partly subconsciously because he felt like he could only have interest in girls with powerful abilities, not because he was ever explicitly told that but because the society he was raised in told him he was only good for making kids with powerful abilities

this wreaked havoc on his self-esteem and he went into a spiral at around age 11/12 where he tried to find a life for himself as a sort of childlike way of "proving" to himself that he was someone even without an ability (this was before he manifested)

this is when he started to bake. which he was taught by alvar. which is how they ended up so close

he loved baking and surprising absolutely nobody, it became his emotional crutch because whenever he went into a negative spiral, he remembered how when he was 11/12, his way of furiously proving he had worth was to bake. so he did

then he manifested at thirteen and he clung to it. because it proved he did have worth. so that's the other reason

biana and stina used to be friends. like, really, really close friends

this is why biana isn't weird about being a bad match. because she (and stina) knew deep down that stina should be the kid of a bad match, but they never talked about it

they fell out because biana didn't like the way stina took out her frustration on other bad match kids

this is why maruca went to stina after falling out with biana. it made the hurt double

that's it for now. may come back with a part two

[dzamie]

Detecting AI-generated research papers through "tortured phrases"

So, a recent paper found and discusses a new way to figure out if a "research paper" is, in fact, phony AI-generated nonsense. How, you may ask? The same way teachers and professors detect if you just copied your paper from online and threw a thesaurus at it!

It looks for “tortured phrases”; that is, phrases which resemble standard field-specific jargon, but seemingly mangled by a thesaurus. Here's some examples (transcript below the cut):

profound neural organization - deep neural network

(fake | counterfeit) neural organization - artificial neural network

versatile organization - mobile network

organization (ambush | assault) - network attack

organization association - network connection

(enormous | huge | immense | colossal) information - big data

information (stockroom | distribution center) - data warehouse

(counterfeit | human-made) consciousness - artificial intelligence (AI)

elite figuring - high performance computing

haze figuring - fog/mist/cloud computing

designs preparing unit - graphics processing unit (GPU)

focal preparing unit - central processing unit (CPU)

work process motor - workflow engine

facial acknowledgement - face recognition

discourse acknowledgement - voice recognition

mean square (mistake | blunder) - mean square error

mean (outright | supreme) (mistake | blunder) - mean absolute error

(motion | flag | indicator | sign | signal) to (clamor | commotion | noise) - signal to noise

worldwide parameters - global parameters

(arbitrary | irregular) get right of passage to - random access

(arbitrary | irregular) (backwoods | timberland | lush territory) - random forest

(arbitrary | irregular) esteem - random value

subterranean insect (state | province | area | region | settlement) - ant colony

underground creepy crawly (state | province | area | region | settlement) - ant colony

leftover vitality - remaining energy

territorial normal vitality - local average energy

motor vitality - kinetic energy

(credulous | innocent | gullible) Bayes - naïve Bayes

individual computerized collaborator - personal digital assistant (PDA)

[fancyfade]

The ending to robin war with Duke declaring were not robin seems kind of arbitrary and status quo inducing when like. Duke (part of the robin collective) talks damian down from hopelessness and letting himself be used by the court of owls. Riko finds the elite talon factory in Gotham academy. Everyone works together when escaping the cops, even if damian tim and jason carried most of the technical/ fighting skill aspect.

Like idk even if they don't have all the training that the main guys have they still clearly were helping and wanted to help

[rozamasu]

Dragon Ball Z/Super: Comparing and contrasting Goku and Zamasu— two sides of the same coin? (Long post full of yapping!)

The Goku Black arc consistently portrays Black/Zamasu to be ideological parallels to Trunks for obvious reasons (Hope vs Despair, Selfishness vs Selflessness, he's the protagonist of this arc, etc.), but I think it's an interesting exercise to compare Zamasu's journey to Goku's. In my opinion, it really hammers in why Zamasu failed to reach enlightenment and fell from grace besides "mortals = stupid and barbaric" and plain old narcissism.

Everyone knows Goku's story by now, but I want to hone in on the part that I believe Zamasu's own parallels.

The beginning of Z features Goku gradually being introduced to entirely new realms of power and scale. He has to team up with the guy he worked his ass off to defeat 5 years ago just to barely defeat Raditz, a mid class Saiyan, sacrificing his own life in the process.

He is informed constantly by Vegeta that he is nothing but low-class scum, born at the bottom of the interplanetary Saiyan "totem pole", compared to Vegeta's own super-elite-royalty-goodness.

Then, by Namek, he manages to surpass Vegeta, and even trounces the emperor of the universe who subjugated the entire Saiyan race. After Namek, Goku grows so much that the conceptions of "class" that he was blindsided by quickly become faint memories, only brief blips in his life's work to always get stronger.

Not to be the strongest, or even to become "the strongest Saiyan who ever lived", simply to get stronger. Goku's goal is forever ongoing; he will never feel as if his duty is complete. If it ever was, he'd be restless and unsatisfied.

The key thread throughout the Saiyan and Frieza Sagas is that Goku never uses the labels ascribed to him or his opponents as anything more than momentary benchmarks in service of his overarching, everlasting goal to achieve more and more strength. He does not hear Vegeta's boasts about his status and go "okay, guess I'll be good enough once I can beat Vegeta in a 1 on 1, since I'll basically be a super elite!". He hears King Kai's fervent warnings about Frieza's terrible strength and gets curious rather than demotivated.

He doesn't use either of these as an excuse to run away or quit training.

In fact, Goku never uses anything as an excuse. He is not married to any sort of arbitrary benchmark of strength (that honor goes to Chi Chi), even in Super as he gains power that rivals Gods of Destruction.

To treat a level of strength, or a class (God of Destruction, Angel, Super Elite, Emperor of the Universe) as a stopping point for Goku or some sort of ultimate goal would imply that Goku's desire for strength has a defined end. But it doesn't, and so Goku doesn't put much stock into those things. He never loses sight of his goal, and he literally doesn't even stop training when he's dead.

As for Zamasu, the beginning of his journey is why I thought to juxtapose him with Goku in the first place. He shares a surprising similarity with early Z Goku, in that both were able to achieve greater statuses than their birth would afford them.

Zamasu started off as a normal Kai, the guardian of a universal quadrant (the North, same as King Kai). In terms of Dragon Ball's divine hierarchy, this is actually quite the low standing. It is the second lowest known class of Gods, only ranking above planetary deities like Kami and Dende. If a Core Person (Kai race) is born from a rare, special golden fruit, only then will they be qualified enough to train to be a Supreme Kai.

Zamasu is the only known canon example of a normal Kai being selected to become a Supreme Kai, and so his exceptional ascension up the divine hierarchy is a natural parallel to Goku's own defiance of his low-class nature and his comparatively low power level at birth.

Unlike Goku, however, Zamasu is absolutely obsessed with and bound by certain labels, which ultimately leads to his ideological downfall.

Firstly, we can see his fixation on the idea of godhood when he speaks to Gowasu.

When Gowasu simply tells him to temper himself and observe mortals, he immediately begins focusing on and belittling the gods' philosophy, almost outright saying "what the gods think does NOT align with justice". The way he phrases these sentences in both the dub and sub is key: he says "I thought you'd teach me justice, but...", which creates a juxtaposition between "divinity" and "REAL justice".

He even begins to doubt that a god could be considered a god if they did not align with his definition of justice.

Zamasu is young and inexperienced for a Kai (especially considering regular Kais have far shorter biological lifespans than Supreme Kais), so the reactions he displays in this scene suggest that he had a very romanticized, linear view of both godhood and justice. When Gowasu's statement suggests to Zamasu that he can't reconcile the two, it basically calls out all that Zamasu currently stands for, and he doesn't take it well.

Gowasu ends the discussion by challenging Zamasu's narrowminded belief that gods are "absolute" and perfect, but by then the two are already unable to get through to one another.

If you look at the other gods in Dragon Ball, you'll see what Gowasu means here. For example, Beerus is lazy, temperamental, and childish; none of the other gods really like him. Elder Kai is a lecher. Champa is rather undignified and just as temperamental as Beerus.

Where Goku seeks strength, Zamasu seeks virtue. Yet, unlike Goku, Zamasu has an arbitrary benchmark at where his objective stops: the abstract concept of "godhood".

When Zamasu reaches that endpoint and finds that it's not all it's cracked up to be, he constantly contorts his definition of divinity to match it— or rather, to match himself— rather than accepting that being a god is not equivalent to having a "perfect" sense of justice, or being "perfect" in general. He commits barbaric, brutal, bloodthirsty, and wanton acts, all in the name of "divine justice", despite those things being less becoming of gods and more becoming of mortals.

The dilemma extends to the very end of the arc, where in the dub Corrupted Merged Zamasu says to Vegetto: "If one can't control a world, one can't be called a god of it", instantly justifying his hypocrisy, his sadism, his violence, and his arrogance instead of looking inward and asking himself what it meant to be a god.

Like Gowasu said, Zamasu was "obsessed with the contradictions of gods and mortals", and as Trunks said, "it isn't about gods or mortals". Zamasu was so enamored with the idea and label of godhood, yet did not question whether or not his values, the values of his future counterpart, or the values of the other gods aligned with it. And how could he have questioned it if he didn't truly know what godhood meant himself— if he just used the idea as a synonym for what he believed?

Where Goku saw arbitrary labels as inconsequential to his overarching quest, Zamasu saw his life be entirely dictated by them. Zamasu allowed himself to be entrenched in the god-mortal dichotomy, whereas Goku's nature would never allow him to lose his big-picture goal like that.

When Goku's reality is challenged, whether by the introduction of some groundless measure of value (power level, Saiyan class) or by a vastly stronger opponent, he doesn't flinch. He doesn't stop. He doesn't make excuses. His overall goal doesn't change.

When Zamasu's reality was challenged, he broke and became everything he hated. He bent and twisted the rules of what he considered "just", and shattered the natural divine order by doing away with all Gods of Destruction. His goal, by then, was unrecognizable compared to his previous goal to be a benevolent Supreme Kai.

Where Goku's triumphs led him to continue being diligent and humble, Zamasu's own led him to be stagnant and arrogant. Even though Zamasu was proactive and cunning, he was stagnant in the sense that none of what he did made him more moral or virtuous, or gave him a greater understanding of the universe, even though those were the things he originally sought when studying under Gowasu.

All he did was further embed himself (literally, with Future Zamasu) within his own radical beliefs; he never progressed towards his original goal because he replaced it with "I am THE God, no more gods are needed, I will exterminate all mortals personally". His arrogance and inability to see gods as flawed beings made him lose the plot.

Goku continued working hard and getting stronger after vanquishing Frieza, whereas Zamasu's entitlement made him become a complete shell of himself.

Goku saw his growth from low-class warrior to Legendary Super Saiyan to be a testament to everything he stood for; the desire to protect and avenge his friends, his inherited Saiyan pride from Vegeta, and most importantly, his neverending journey to get stronger. Zamasu saw his ascension from North Kai to Supreme Kai as an excuse. A stopping point. An "okay, I've reached the pinnacle of the virtue I seek", refusing to accept that there was more beyond the arbitrary value and moral standing he placed on the role of a god, refusing to think mortals could ever possibly learn, and refusing to think gods could ever need to learn.

Zamasu is a dark reflection of Goku— Son Goku is everything that Zamasu is not. Zamasu is the opposite of many reasons that Goku is such a distinct and unique character, and that makes both of them all the more compelling.

[sonics-atelier]

Addressing Overbearing Behavior in Fandom Communities : A Call for Respect and Boundaries .

( please stop acting like everyone's parents go adopt a rock or something )

1. Polarization : The ACOTAR fandom is deeply polarized, with distinct pro and anti sides that often clash in heated debates. This polarization creates an "us vs. them" mentality, leading to animosity and hostility between fans.

2. Harassment and Defamation : Both pro and anti factions engage in harassment and defamation tactics against those with opposing views. This includes personal attacks, spreading rumors, and even cyberbullying. Such behavior creates a toxic environment where fans feel unsafe expressing their opinions.

3. Plagiarism and Unauthorized Sharing : Some fans take it upon themselves to share others' writing without permission or proper credit, leading to instances of plagiarism and copyright infringement. This not only violates the rights of the original creators but also fosters an atmosphere of mistrust and disrespect within the fandom.

4. Overzealous Policing : Certain members of the fandom appoint themselves as "fandom police," aggressively enforcing their own interpretations of canon and attacking anyone who deviates from their standards. This behavior stifles creativity and discourages diverse perspectives within the community.

5. Gatekeeping and Elitism : A sense of gatekeeping and elitism pervades the ACOTAR fandom, with some fans asserting their superiority based on arbitrary criteria such as length of time in the fandom or level of devotion to the series. This exclusivity alienates newer or casual fans and fosters a toxic hierarchy within the community.

6. Cancel Culture : The ACOTAR fandom is not immune to cancel culture, where fans attempt to "cancel" creators or fellow fans for perceived transgressions. This can lead to witch hunts and mob mentality, where individuals are ostracized and vilified without due process.

7. Lack of Constructive Dialogue : Meaningful discussion and debate are often overshadowed by vitriol and aggression within the fandom. Instead of engaging in respectful discourse, fans resort to personal attacks and insults, hindering the potential for constructive dialogue and growth.

8. Impact on Mental Health : The toxicity within the ACOTAR fandom takes a toll on the mental health of fans, leading to stress, anxiety, and even depression. Constant exposure to negativity and conflict can be emotionally draining and detrimental to overall well-being.

Overall, the ACOTAR fandom's toxic dynamics stem from a combination of polarization, harassment, gatekeeping, and cancel culture. Addressing these issues requires a collective effort to promote empathy, respect, and inclusivity within the community.

[t00thpasteface]

[hands you two cents for an insane take of your choice]

pokemon needs to do away with the concept of isolated generations and kitchen-sink regions. they hamstring environment- and character-design by forcing a quota of Forest, Desert, Crag, Volcano, Snow, Cave, Beach, and River biomes to suit the highly specialized gym leaders/elite four structure. and besides making every region feel samey, the new cut dex structure is also really glaring and cumbersome in that formula, because ultimately it's pretty arbitrary what gets in and what doesn't.

it would be better to just make games that focus on one specific biome at a time, like an entire game set in just a mangrove swamp, and then pick the best-fitting pokemon for that biome and add a handful of new ones for it. then the cut dex would work to serve the story and immersion and not feel like a cost-cutting measure.

plus the hype train is getting diminishing returns and the spectacle creep of adding a hot new gimmick each gen is really starting to show, but that's not exactly unique to pokemon :p

[whoishotteranimepolls]

Isn't Komi currently 17?

Yes she is and so is Maomao. Thanks for trying to warn me. But if you read the rules which did change with the last round of requests, I now allow characters that are now 16 and above. It used to be 18 plus only. But all polls with characters 17 and under are marked with the tag #minor poll so you can block it if you don't like it and don't want to participate in these polls.

This because I realized just how arbitrary anime ages can be after watching an anime about a elite ninja assassin trying to complete one last mission so he can get back home to his wife only to find out he was 16. I swore he had to be at least 20 due to the whole. You know the wife thing. But again, sometimes anime ages don't make sense.