#as a member of the commission (at the time)

[dostoyevsky-official]

this a view of someone who's ignored european developments since 2007, opting for a rosy, outdated view of european politics, i.e. the exact type of american committing the exact type of mistake i'm warning about.

to address this point by point: not only has inflation been a global issue, but the US has consistently enjoyed the lowest inflation of any developed economy. american CPI has remained below the british, polish, and eurozone average numbers. european economies have to deal with fallout from the russian invasion of ukraine that the us can ignore: notably, in energy prices, as the US became self-sufficient in energy (and never imported any from russia to begin with, something squeezing the german economy). america is also not hosting millions of ukrainian refugees.

when discussing european instutions—and "europe" in general—one has to be more specific. do you mean the overarching institutions of the EU, criticized for a democratic deficit that many have pinpointed as one source for euro-skepticism and the rise of the far right? the EU Council, widely ignored and headed by charles michel, an incompetent, blatant nepobaby appointment whom everyone grinds their teeth over? the EU parliament, recently filled with a fresh batch of far-right hooligans, which functions more or less as a rubber stamp for the commission? the EU commission itself, headed by VdL, the latest in a string of failed local politician commissioners (who remembers the alcoholic swindler juncker?) masquerading as technocrats? the ECB, which smothers the monetary (and through the maastricht criteria, the fiscal) policy of eurozone members, thereby fueling resentment, far-right movements, and economic disparity? and all of this held hostage by the veto of one orban or fico, —or the german supreme court, when it decides it's had enough with public investment. those institutions, which remain so opaque that even educated americans—and europeans—aren't entirely aware of their function?

or do we mean the institutions of individual countries, ranging from undemocratic autocracies like hungary to the fief of the jupiter king, who called elections in june, lost them, refused to nominate a prime minister from the winning coalition, didn't name any for over a month, and then appointed a rightwing politician from a party that scored dead last, sidestepping his own centrist party? the UK, where sir keir is handing out five years in jail time to climate protesters, raising tuition fees, relying on private investment companies, and through rachel reeves' plan to fix the alleged budget hole left by hunt before further investment, again enacting austerity? this is all front-page headline news from the last half year.

european countries indeed have cheaper healthcare costs, better pensions, and other public goods that the united states does not. when considering "quality of life," remember, however, that most european countries have unemployment rates considered astronomic in america, especially for under-35s:

to focus again and again on european social democracy is to ignore that it has been steadily eroded since the end of the cold war and especially since the great recession by neoliberal political forces that crush the left and open the door for the far right. in the most blatant example, beside's macron's legislative politricks, the IMF-ECB-EC troika cut off euro cash liquidity flow to greece when syriza was trying to undo austerity under varoufakis. the greek collapse consigned a generation to economic failure, killed seniors, and curtailed possibilities for the youth. this erosion happened even in the nordic model, long imagined by americans as nothing short of a utopia:

In part due to the scrapping of wealth and inheritance taxes and a lower corporate tax than both the U.S. and European averages, Sweden has one of the most unequal distributions of wealth in the world today: on a level with Bahrain and Oman, and worse than the United States. Perhaps most dispiriting for Sanders, Sweden also now hosts the highest proportion of billionaires per capita in the world. Many of the country’s trademark social services are now provided by private firms. Its private schools even benefit from the same level of state subsidy as public schools—a voucher system far more radical than anything in the United States and that Democratic politicians would be crucified for advocating. Both here and there, right-leaning commentators in 2020 decried Sanders’s portrait as little more than what Johan Norberg, Swedish author of The Capitalist Manifesto, has called a 1970s “pipedream.” On this, Swedish observers on the left gloomily agree: despite official rhetoric, the “Nordic welfare model” is now more nostalgic myth than reality. (x)

to problematize further, there's an unadressed first world perspective: who's getting the good quality of life, why are the main economies of the EU so wealthy, and how does the EU continue to enrich itself? there are certainly many living outdoors today, drowning in the mediterranean, or dying of exposure in białowieża. fortress europe is a crime against humanity—and it doesn't beat back the far right. it weakens civic and human rights, undermines legal oversight, and criminalizes humanitarian engagement, allowing an authoritarian creep.

you shouldn't understand the political and the historical as a snapshot in time, but as a moving train. this is the state of europe today. all of the above is necessarily a simplification and an abbreviation, but there's a trajectory you can begin to trace out: given all of the above, where do you think europe is headed?

[darkmagenugget]

Hiya! I'm Ashe! One of the main fronters of the DarkMage Nugget System, runner of of this account, and main artist! Fennec kitsune/shapeshifter as well. (She/Her) Welcome to the DarkMage Nugget Tumblr!

Creator of Hyper City (With extra lore from friends and Aqua) where a lot of my friends stories are taking place. You can find my commission info here and are open! I do character art, emotes, and more!

System Intros after the break!

Allow me to introduce the rest of the system.

Iris- (She/Her)

Iris is the host of the system. She has her own blog here ( @iristhedarkwitch - 18+ only). She is the witch of our system, and also the current host. Specializing in transformation spells fictionally, and energy manipulation in practice. One of my girlfriends as well. And Aqua's girlfriend too.

Aqua - (She/They)

Aqua is the writer of our system. Also has a blog of their own over here ( @nuggetofthesea ). She is an elf with (currently) 3 forms. A base, a sea, and a shadow form. She is the one responsible for most of the lore in Hyper City, and is usually the calmest of us and just loves hanging out by vibing in the room. Also girlfriend. Also dating Iris.

Chaos- (She/Her)

Chaos is a gremlin. Is always interested in things that are high-energy and fast paced. She plays games on stream on fridays at 4:00 PM Pacific. She is also the most direct of us (Though speaks a little rough) and able to put things bluntly and deal with scenarios we wouldn't be able to otherwise. She can by hyper, but cares greatly for everyone in the system. Usually spending time with Aria.

Mira - (She/They)

Mira is the organizer of the headspace. A crystal fairy who is able to duplicate herself up to up to 30 of her at once, she manages the entire headspace and the thoughts and memories of system members. Keeping the memory archive as a collective reference for us to go back to. They do tend to be able to handle multitasking better than the rest of us, but tends to stay out of the front unless she is needed (or wants to troll us, because when she enters the front we all see what she sees. All 30 of what she sees at once). She keeps everything organized.

Aria - (She/Her)

Aria is a puppy. She's just a big strong puppy. She is the sweetest person in existence. She can't really communicate well verbally or over text. But can communicate through images, emotes, barking, and through me or Chaos. Would protect anyone physically if needed, but we try to not have that be needed. She is too sweet! If she shows up, give her headpats. She absolutely loves them. ^-^

Nova - (They/It/Fae)

A trickster fae that has found its way into our system. Rarely calls anyone by name, and speaking with a scottish Accent, they are playful and tricky. But likes to fly free. Bound to it's "Little Fox" (me) in terms of willing to listen her, but will chime in at any time it wants. So if I ever speak with a scottish accent, that's Nova.

And just some more examples of my character design work. These aren't part of the system (As far as I know) but are still characters I use often.

[mariacallous]

Cantor Jennifer Bern-Vogel was used to hearing her mother tell the story.

On the evening of Nov. 9, 1938, her mother, then Marianne Katzenstein, who was 16 at the time, was in her family’s synagogue in Bielefeld, Germany, practicing the organ. She finished up, used a key to lock the building and returned home. Later that night, the synagogue was burned to the ground by the Nazis in the Kristallnacht pogrom.

Only two items survived the fire: a Torah scroll and Katzenstein’s key.

“I just remember her talking about it, her voice would change and she was just kind of slower and softer and very nostalgic when she talked about the whole story,” Bern-Vogel, 67, said in an interview. “Whenever she told the story and then held up the key, people always — and I experienced it myself — there was always this kind of gasp.”

Bern-Vogel, who has been the cantor at Congregation Emanu El in Redlands, Calif., since 2009, said the story of the key was “legendary” in her family.

And on Saturday, 86 years after Kristallnacht, the key returned home.

Bern-Vogel spent the past week in Germany, where she had lived for more than a decade when she was younger, reconnecting with friends, family and the Jewish community of Bielefeld, where the synagogue was reestablished shortly after the Holocaust. It was her first trip to Bielefeld with her husband and daughter, and her brother and niece, as well as a cousin from Denmark, also flew in for the occasion.

On Friday night, Bern-Vogel and the cantor of the Bielefeld synagogue led Shabbat services together. Bern-Vogel sang a song that was adapted from a poem written by her grandfather, with music composed by a longtime friend from Germany.

And following Havdalah on Saturday, the town held a ceremony that began at the site of the destroyed synagogue before moving to City Hall, where the official hand-off was made. The key was added to the collection of the town’s history museum and will be on display at the current synagogue building.

According to Irith Michelsohn, the president of the town’s Jewish community and of Germany’s Progressive Jewish movement, Bielefeld’s Jewish community has 450 members. The synagogue the community uses now was renovated from an old Protestant church and was inaugurated in 2008.

Prior to the Holocaust, Bielefeld was home to almost 1,000 Jews, Michelsohn said. The community has been revitalized since Michelsohn took the helm on Jan. 1, 2000, at which point she said there were only 35 members.

Michelsohn said the key’s return is immensely meaningful to the community.

“I was so excited, because we only have one Torah scroll, and now the key, that’s all we have from our old synagogue,” Michelsohn said. “And now the key is back. That’s so great, you can’t imagine.”

Michelsohn said the key is especially important as a vehicle to educate the current community about its past. She explained that like many German Jewish communities, Bielefeld’s Jews are almost all originally from the former Soviet Union.

“You don’t have many people who are originally from Germany,” she said. “Some of them converted to Judaism, some immigrated from Israel or other countries or are working in Bielefeld with a university, but most of the members in all of our 120 Jewish communities in Germany are from the former Soviet Union.”

The key, Michelsohn said, represents an opportunity to “teach them something about history, about the past, what we lost.”

It also returns a physical reminder of the old synagogue building, which had been built in 1905 and was commissioned by the Katzenstein family. Bern-Vogel’s maternal grandfather had been the head of the Jewish community, and helped hundreds of families escape Germany.

“It symbolizes a connection to the old and very, very nice building which we had,” Michelsohn said, adding that the destroyed synagogue was “such a marvelous building.”

Like the key she kept, the remarkable story of Bern-Vogel’s mother did not end in 1938. The following year, she and her younger sister escaped to England on the Kindertransport. Years later, she was at a Shabbat dinner in Israel when she met Julian Bernstein (later shortened to Bern), Bern-Vogel’s father, who also survived the Holocaust.

Julian was one of six children from a Lithuanian family, but only he and one brother survived the Holocaust. That brother, Leon Bernstein, and Bern-Vogel’s mother were both working for the World Jewish Congress; Leon hosted the Shabbat dinner where Julian and Marianne met.

The two were engaged within a week, and eventually settled in Iowa, where Bern-Vogel and her brother were raised.

In the later years of her mother’s life, Bern-Vogel said there had been efforts to bring the key to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. But a contact her mother had at the museum passed away, and in 2017, so did she, at 94 years old.

“It just held a very deep connection,” Bern-Vogel said, referring to the key, a copy of which she still has. “I don’t think I thought about, when we were growing up, that the key would be anywhere else but with us. It kind of belonged to us.”

But as her mother aged, Bern-Vogel said her family wanted to determine where the key should go to be best taken care of and hold the most meaning. After a couple recent trips to Germany, Bern-Vogel said the answer crystallized.

“It just became clearer over the last couple of years, and especially after I went there last summer to meet with them at the synagogue and the museum, that it would really mean the most for everyone and future generations for it to be there,” she said.

Bern-Vogel said that even though her mother had a fraught relationship with Germany because of how her family’s time there ended, Bielefeld will always be their home. And she knows her mother would appreciate knowing that the key has made it back.

“I think that she would be incredibly moved by the reception that the key is going to have, and the people that are involved in the city,” Bern-Vogel said. “I think she would be very honored and happy, and I think grateful.”

[bucchi-boo]

Commissions? Sales?

I have been asked many times if I'll do commissions

An idea I have had, is rather than commissions as of yet. In the new year I may make some of the remaining team members to then sell. Then possibly after do commissions?? (The explanation is whenever I've had commissioned stuff in the past I stress myself out over it lmao)

The thing is custom nendolls aren't cheap once everything is added together 🤣 Just materials it's about £85 as an approximation. Each one I have made has varied somewhat depending on parts. (For someone like Renee it may be different as there is extra painting involved)

They would be put together and I would put them in the fox onesie (as it's just, perfect. Though if i do a Jeremy i'd do something else onesie wise.) and then the receiver can decide clothing from there. I love making them so if I can ill add in mini props ect.(Postage would be a seperate thing)

Is this something people would be interested in?

I plan to do some research over the holidays to make sure I have options for each of the remaining team members. Especially in regards to skin tones and the correct hair types I want to make sure I'm doing justice.

I would love to get opinions and thoughts, if this is something people would want at some point or if you don't think it's worth doing. I'm absolutely open to any and all thoughts. (And suggestions ofc!)

Who would people want most? The remaining foxes are: Aaron, Renee, Allison, Nicky,Dan and Matt. Otherwise I may do Jeremy or Katelyn

If its something people don't want or don't think is worth me doing I'm absolutely open for that opinion too!

I can be messaged via anon on here or via dms or reply here! I read everything.

I'm just gathering ideas for the moment and seeing how it goes.

And have some comfy cozy Andrew as a gift for reading this. Also he watched ghost hunting videos with me

[interstellarchaosss]

Merlin, the local weird harpy guy, sneaking around in the kitchen during early morning hours. Likely looking for snacks.

Please do not use our art without our permission. Feel free to ask to use for icons and similar things, but we have the right to say no.

Program: Firealpaca Approx. Time: 2h 30m Original Date: 10.11.24 Commission/Trade/Collab status in bio/pinned! Art Of: Merlin [Headmate] (System Member Artist: Vince)

[sinnabum45]

Donate to Fundraisers for Gaza, Sudan, DR Congo, and more to get FREE art commissions (links below)!

As long as you have proof that you've donated, then you can get commissions from me. Just send your proof to my email at sinnabum4545@gmail.com if you are interested! Please only email me regarding commissions. I will not respond to any other emails.

I've limited it to 5 slots at a time, but you can be on a waiting list if you still want a commission!

Pricing info:

If you donate $5 USD+ = chibi/baby/kid sketch

If you donate $10 USD+ = chibi/baby/kid colored sketch

If you donate $20 USD+ = adult (bust) sketch

If you donate $40 USD+ = adult (bust) colored sketch

If you donate $60 USD+ = sketched black/white comic

If you donate $120 USD+ = sketched colored comic

Or you can get any assortment you want as long as it adds up to how much you donated. For example, you can get four separate, colored chibi/baby art pieces if you donated $40 USD! If you want multiple characters for one piece, then each additional character(s) prices are 75% of the original price. For example, 1 adult color sketch ($40 USD) + an additional adult character ($30 USD) would equal to $70 USD. The comic is for one page, additional pages are again 75% of the price. Check out my ko - fi page here for more info on pricing.

I am also occasionally streaming to hopefully bring more eyes onto the campaigns! More info here!

If you donate at least $1 USD, you can ask me to doodle/sketch anything on stream! (Please keep it appropriate, my TOS still applies)

Here are some fundraisers you can donate to:

@siiraj2024 and @siraj2024 $96,300 CAD / $150k CAD - Siraj has his entire family of 23 people depending on him to survive. They are in need of supplies and necessities to survive the coming winter. Here is a link to their GFM! Vetted here (Line #219)

@amalashuor €54,900 / €75K - Amal has a young infant daughter and 20 family members depending on her. Necessities are already expensive and hard to come by, but even more so with baby products and formula. Here is a link to their GFM! Vetted here (Line #175)

@nesmamomen $147,345 / $170K - Nesma is only 23 years old and has been working very hard to help get funds to save her family of 12 people. Here is a link to their GFM! Vetted here and here

@fahedshehab-new $479 CAD / 100k CAD - Fahed has been campaigning for his family of 8 people, but their fundraiser was shut down due to an issue with the bank. They were very close to meeting their goal and now they have to raise that amount all over again. Here is a link to their new GFM! Vetted here

This has been linked above, but here are more vetted campaigns you can donate to!

Masterpost of more fundraisers!

[jweekgoji]

I love your platonic hcs with five!! Can you make more please?:33

Yandere!Five/Reader [platonic/hcs]

tw: very soft yan!dad!five, reader described as child here, mentions of Five/Dolores romantic relationship, brief mentions of Five's past trauma, hints on eating disorders, overprotective behavior word count: ~900. a/n: Thank you for your request, Anon. It was good to write something about my old interest after quite a break. I made this is mostly based on information I had read months ago from some book. Tiny sequel for this.

Kinda sad that tua fics aren't as popular as before and slowly dying.

Let's ignore the ending and other moments we shouldn't talk and pretend like...everything ended well for the Hargreeves family! All the siblings mostly live separately from each other, but they still care for one another and meet on birthdays and other holidays.

Five meets a young, pretty lady during one of his undercover missions, and after that «love at first sight» trope, their relationship grows strong, leading to Five finally abandoning his job as an agent (honestly, good for him).

I really like the idea of Five having a quiet, peaceful life somewhere far away with his family. His wife is a popular fashion model and earns enough money for the family, while Five is the one who stays at the house, keeping you safe and raising the way he wished he was.

Five is scared to repeat the past mistakes his family members made; that's why I see him being extra overprotective with you. He wants to give you everything he never had in his childhood, and it often leads to you growing into some spoiled brat.

I can see him pausing for a moment and having that «wait...WHAT?» look when you reply with a sassy remark, and that's the moment he sees that you're basically becoming the tiny version of his young self. Part of him is proud, he knows that you will be able to stand up for yourself in the future, but the other part...he's not really happy to deal with someone who uses his own methods against him, as we can tell from the show (points at the other versions of Five).

Five is that parent who wakes up early in the morning to prepare breakfast for you. He has a sweet tooth, but he avoids giving you too much sugar, like I mentioned before. By the moment you wake up, you see a plate of eggs and bacon carefully formed into a smiley face with a glass of juice next to it.

I see Five spending a lot of time reading about parenting. He is well-educated enough in many fields, but it's just something he likes to do when he is free from house chores. Sitting in the chair with glasses on and a warm blanket laid on his lap, it's a heartwarming sight. Dolores will return from work later this day, only to see her husband having a nap in their little library and their child eeping next to him.

Five is especially careful with the food he prepares for you. After decades of loneliness in the apocalypse, he had few food choices. Every day felt like a constant survival, and the idea of you experiencing the same at such a young age terrifies him. He unconsciously gives you a little too much food, constantly asking “you need more?” just to make sure you're well-fed. Five might pay less attention to himself, but you're getting the best meal ever.

Five gives me the idea of that dad who will hold you close next to him 24/7. Yandere Five just can't bear the idea of you being somewhere away from home for more than an hour. There's a deep conflict in his heart, and his wife always tells him that it's fine. You're growing up, it's natural for you to try and separate from your parents, but this bothers him to insanity.

There's no more apocalypse, no more The Commission; the world is quiet now; there's no need for him to worry about. He never argues with you about it, the moment you leave your home to meet with a friend, your phone will cry from constant messages like “are you okay?”, “where are you now?”, “when will you go back?”. He needs to know it in case, well...just something happens, he's responsible adult, after all.

For most parents, Five seems like the ideal father figure, but he gets a little overbearing sometimes. When you snap at him, giving something like “just leave me alone!”, he would get quiet immediately. It is a significant difference between him now and in the past.

Usually he never lets people to dismiss him like that, he would have dragged you back and lectured you about disrespecting him, but now he's just sad. He will let you cool down, just to think what he has done wrong.

Five loves spending time with you, mainly because he never had the chance to spend some time with his own family. There were missions, there were trainings, there were constant fighting, etc., and after his retirement he plans to give his full attention to you. He knows a lot, from how to solve some difficult equations under 15 minutes to how to kill a person with a pencil, but it's not the same when the person whom you trust the most teacher you everything.

Reginald never bothered to spend a simple father and son moments, how to be a man and deal with various situations in his life, that's why he wants to teach you of something simple. He knows it's not as impressive, but it's quality time that matters.

[myokk]

commission for @versailles-black ✨💘

THANK YOU SO SO SO MUCH !!!!

[shannonsketches]

ngl gang I finished both my dissociation fixation games and got a rejection letter for a job I was a shoe-in for after a month-long, three-pronged review/interview process and I am not having a great time

[arcadewonder]

the tartosa garden society.

[quarklynx]

Casually flirting with the idea of fucking around and getting a master's degree. The time will pass anyway, right?

[faerileee]

A wonderful tattoo commission from @iwannabeyourdog2 ! I had so much fun drawing and designing these tattoos for @iwannabeyourdog2 of his partner's CYBERPUNK RED OC! Her name is The Architect, she is the spiritual equivalent to an angry, poofy, kitten, and she is a tech in the TRRPG

[frenchy-and-the-sea]

Besides figuring out that I unintentionally made Wyn a wannabe TLT girlie, my Curse of Strahd game is slowly becoming the "clown on the wizard" show. He's got this INCREDIBLE tendency to act very kind and proper and respectable to strangers while being secretly a tiny bit morally bankrupt, and Wyn has clocked him for it multiple times, so she spends a lot of her "former mischievous little sister" energy on taking the piss out of him. So when an NPC quite innocently noted that he wasn't like a lot of the wizards in the books that she read - who were all wizened men of great power and even greater beards - she suggested that maybe when he becomes a powerful wizard, he'll be able to grow one.

Which is to say, I'm 100% going to have Wyn paint a portrait of our wizard with a long, magnificent beard to "show him what he'll look like when he's a real wizard one day."

[interstellarchaosss]

Merlin, the local weird harpy guy, sneaking around in the kitchen during early morning hours. Likely looking for snacks. Hopefully.

(Spookier version of previous post)

Please do not use our art without our permission. Feel free to ask to use for icons and similar things, but we have the right to say no.

Program: Firealpaca Approx. Time: 2h 30m Original Date: 10.11.24 Commission/Trade/Collab status in bio/pinned! Art Of: Merlin [Headmate] (System Member Artist: Vince)

[theartsyjuicebox]

A gift I made for my self-proclaimed “vigil-auntie” (the one who got me the introvert candle)

Yup, just Love bein anemic.. so fun

[passion8alot]

My queer disabled group I joined in order to try to reduce my isolation and increase my confidence has been shut down with a weeks notice.

They have communicated issues with funding for a while now but did not provide good level of heads up about severity or timelines and we have just been told today that we will only be allowed one more session before its ended forever.

We were told back in january that there was funding issues, the group offered to email ministers and help with looking for grants or even organise fundraising ourselves, and many of the members are well known for being strong advocates in the community. We lost our facilitator who was such an awesome person, they did an awesome job at making sure everyones needs where met and everyones voices where heard, and had the hard job of navigating conflicting needs.

We put together an amazing art exibition where many exibitionists were able to sell their work! And there was a plan to do another expo next year! Just last week we were planning a end of year event!

And now next week will be our last week.

So now I guess I will go back to being isolated in my regional town where these services just don't exist. The program was run in the city. Over 2 hours away from me. And now its gonna be gone.

This sucks man.

sucks hard