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mostlysignssomeportents · 2 months ago

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What the fuck is a PBM?

TOMORROW (Sept 24), I'll be speaking IN PERSON at the BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY!

Terminal-stage capitalism owes its long senescence to its many defensive mechanisms, and it's only by defeating these that we can put it out of its misery. "The Shield of Boringness" is one of the necrocapitalist's most effective defenses, so it behooves us to attack it head-on.

The Shield of Boringness is Dana Claire's extremely useful term for anything so dull that you simply can't hold any conception of it in your mind for any length of time. In the finance sector, they call this "MEGO," which stands for "My Eyes Glaze Over," a term of art for financial arrangements made so performatively complex that only the most exquisitely melted brain-geniuses can hope to unravel their spaghetti logic. The rest of us are meant to simply heft those thick, dense prospectuses in two hands, shrug, and assume, "a pile of shit this big must have a pony under it."

MEGO and its Shield of Boringness are key to all of terminal-stage capitalism's stupidest scams. Cloaking obvious swindles in a lot of complex language and Byzantine payment schemes can make them seem respectable just long enough for the scammers to relieve you of all your inconvenient cash and assets, though, eventually, you're bound to notice that something is missing.

If you spent the years leading up to the Great Financial Crisis baffled by "CDOs," "synthetic CDOs," "ARMs" and other swindler nonsense, you experienced the Shield of Boringness. If you bet your house and/or your retirement savings on these things, you experienced MEGO. If, after the bubble popped, you finally came to understand that these "exotic financial instruments" were just scams, you experienced Stein's Law ("anything that can't go forever eventually stops"). If today you no longer remember what a CDO is, you are once again experiencing the Shield of Boringness.

As bad as 2008 was, it wasn't even close to the end of terminal stage capitalism. The market has soldiered on, with complex swindles like carbon offset trading, metaverse, cryptocurrency, financialized solar installation, and (of course) AI. In addition to these new swindles, we're still playing the hits, finding new ways to make the worst scams of the 2000s even worse.

That brings me to the American health industry, and the absurdly complex, ridiculously corrupt Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), a pathology that has only metastasized since 2008.

On at least 20 separate occasions, I have taken it upon myself to figure out how the PBM swindle works, and nevertheless, every time they come up, I have to go back and figure it out again, because PBMs have the most powerful Shield of Boringness out of the whole Monster Manual of terminal-stage capitalism's trash mobs.

PBMs are back in the news because the FTC is now suing the largest of these for their role in ripping off diabetics with sky-high insulin prices. This has kicked off a fresh round of "what the fuck is a PBM, anyway?" explainers of extremely variable quality. Unsurprisingly, the best of these comes from Matt Stoller:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/monopoly-round-up-lina-khan-pharma

Stoller starts by pointing out that Americans have a proud tradition of getting phucked by pharma companies. As far back as the 1950s, Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver was holding hearings on the scams that pharma companies were using to ensure that Americans paid more for their pills than virtually anyone else in the world.

But since the 2010s, Americans have found themselves paying eye-popping, sky-high, ridiculous drug prices. Eli Lilly's Humolog insulin sold for $21 in 1999; by 2017, the price was $274 – a 1,200% increase! This isn't your grampa's price gouging!

Where do these absurd prices come from? The story starts in the 2000s, when the GW Bush administration encouraged health insurers to create "high deductible" plans, where patients were expected to pay out of pocket for receiving care, until they hit a multi-thousand-dollar threshold, and then their insurance would kick in. Along with "co-pays" and other junk fees, these deductibles were called "cost sharing," and they were sold as a way to prevent the "abuse" of the health care system.

The economists who crafted terminal-stage capitalism's intellectual rationalizations claimed the reason Americans paid so much more for health care than their socialized-medicine using cousins in the rest of the world had nothing to do with the fact that America treats health as a source of profits, while the rest of the world treats health as a human right.

No, the actual root of America's health industry's problems was the moral defects of Americans. Because insured Americans could just go see the doctor whenever they felt like it, they had no incentive to minimize their use of the system. Any time one of these unhinged hypochondriacs got a little sniffle, they could treat themselves to a doctor's visit, enjoying those waiting-room magazines and the pleasure of arranging a sick day with HR, without bearing any of the true costs:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/27/the-doctrine-of-moral-hazard/

"Cost sharing" was supposed to create "skin in the game" for every insured American, creating a little pain-point that stung you every time you thought about treating yourself to a luxurious doctor's visit. Now, these payments bit hardest on the poorest workers, because if you're making minimum wage, at $10 co-pay hurts a lot more than it does if you're making six figures. What's more, VPs and the C-suite were offered "gold-plated" plans with low/no deductibles or co-pays, because executives understand the value of a dollar in the way that mere working slobs can't ever hope to comprehend. They can be trusted to only use the doctor when it's truly warranted.

So now you have these high-deductible plans creeping into every workplace. Then along comes Obama and the Affordable Care Act, a compromise that maintains health care as a for-profit enterprise (still not a human right!) but seeks to create universal coverage by requiring every American to buy a plan, requiring insurers to offer plans to every American, and uses public money to subsidize the for-profit health industry to glue it together.

Predictably, the cheapest insurance offered on the Obamacare exchanges – and ultimately, by employers – had sky-high deductibles and co-pays. That way, insurers could pocket a fat public subsidy, offer an "insurance" plan that was cheap enough for even the most marginally employed people to afford, but still offer no coverage until their customers had spent thousands of dollars out-of-pocket in a given year.

That's the background: GWB created high-deductible plans, Obama supercharged them. Keep that in your mind as we go through the MEGO procedures of the PBM sector.

Your insurer has a list of drugs they'll cover, called the "formulary." The formulary also specifies how much the insurance company is willing to pay your pharmacist for these drugs. Creating the formulary and paying pharmacies for dispensing drugs is a lot of tedious work, and insurance outsources this to third parties, called – wait for it – Pharmacy Benefits Managers.

The prices in the formulary the PBM prepares for your insurance company are called the "list prices." These are meant to represent the "sticker price" of the drug, what a pharmacist would charge you if you wandered in off the street with no insurance, but somehow in possession of a valid prescription.

But, as Stoller writes, these "list prices" aren't actually ever charged to anyone. The list price is like the "full price" on the pricetags at a discount furniture place where everything is always "on sale" at 50% off – and whose semi-disposable sofas and balsa-wood dining room chairs are never actually sold at full price.

One theoretical advantage of a PBM is that it can get lower prices because it bargains for all the people in a given insurer's plan. If you're the pharma giant Sanofi and you want your Lantus insulin to be available to any of the people who must use OptumRX's formulary, you have to convince OptumRX to include you in that formulary.

OptumRX – like all PBMs – demands "rebates" from pharma companies if they want to be included in the formulary. On its face, this is similar to the practices of, say, NICE – the UK agency that bargains for medicine on behalf of the NHS, which also bargains with pharma companies for access to everyone in the UK and gets very good deals as a result.

But OptumRX doesn't bargain for a lower list price. They bargain for a bigger rebate. That means that the "price" is still very high, but OptumRX ends up paying a tiny fraction of it, thanks to that rebate. In the OptumRX formulary, Lantus insulin lists for $403. But Sanofi, who make Lantus, rebate $339 of that to OptumRX, leaving just $64 for Lantus.

Here's where the scam hits. Your insurer charges you a deductible based on the list price – $404 – not on the $64 that OptumRX actually pays for your insulin. If you're in a high-deductible plan and you haven't met your cap yet, you're going to pay $404 for your insulin, even though the actual price for it is $64.

Now, you'd think that your insurer would put a stop to this. They chose the PBM, the PBM is ripping off their customers, so it's their job to smack the PBM around and make it cut this shit out. So why would the insurers tolerate this nonsense?

Here's why: the PBMs are divisions of the big health insurance companies. Unitedhealth owns OptumRx; Aetna owns Caremark, and Cigna owns Expressscripts. So it's not the PBM that's ripping you off, it's your own insurance company. They're not just making you pay for drugs that you're supposedly covered for – they're pocketing the deductible you pay for those drugs.

Now, there's one more entity with power over the PBM that you'd hope would step in on your behalf: your boss. After all, your employer is the entity that actually chooses the insurer and negotiates with them on your behalf. Your boss is in the driver's seat; you're just along for the ride.

It would be pretty funny if the answer to this was that the health insurance company bought your employer, too, and so your boss, the PBM and the insurer were all the same guy, busily swapping hats, paying for a call center full of tormented drones who each have three phones on their desks: one labeled "insurer"; the second, "PBM" and the final one "HR."

But no, the insurers haven't bought out the company you work for (yet). Rather, they've bought off your boss – they're sharing kickbacks with your employer for all the deductibles and co-pays you're being suckered into paying. There's so much money (your money) sloshing around in the PBM scamoverse that anytime someone might get in the way of you being ripped off, they just get cut in for a share of the loot.

That is how the PBM scam works: they're fronts for health insurers who exploit the existence of high-deductible plans in order to get huge kickbacks from pharma makers, and massive fees from you. They split the loot with your boss, whose payout goes up when you get screwed harder.

But wait, there's more! After all, Big Pharma isn't some kind of easily pushed-around weakling. They're big. Why don't they push back against these massive rebates? Because they can afford to pay bribes and smaller companies making cheaper drugs can't. Whether it's a little biotech upstart with a cheaper molecule, or a generics maker who's producing drugs at a fraction of the list price, they just don't have the giant cash reserves it takes to buy their way into the PBMs' formularies. Doubtless, the Big Pharma companies would prefer to pay smaller kickbacks, but from Big Pharma's perspective, the optimum amount of bribes extracted by a PBM isn't zero – far from it. For Big Pharma, the optimal number is one cent higher than "the maximum amount of bribes that a smaller company can afford."

The purpose of a system is what it does. The PBM system makes sure that Americans only have access to the most expensive drugs, and that they pay the highest possible prices for them, and this enriches both insurance companies and employers, while protecting the Big Pharma cartel from upstarts.

Which is why the FTC is suing the PBMs for price-fixing. As Stoller points out, they're using their powers under Section 5 of the FTC Act here, which allows them to shut down "unfair methods of competition":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

The case will be adjudicated by an administrative law judge, in a process that's much faster than a federal court case. Once the FTC proves that the PBM scam is illegal when applied to insulin, they'll have a much easier time attacking the scam when it comes to every other drug (the insulin scam has just about run its course, with federally mandated $35 insulin coming online, just as a generation of post-insulin diabetes treatments hit the market).

Obviously the PBMs aren't taking this lying down. Cigna/Expressscripts has actually sued the FTC for libel over the market study it conducted, in which the agency described in pitiless, factual detail how Cigna was ripping us all off. The case is being fought by a low-level Reagan-era monster named Rick Rule, whom Stoller characterizes as a guy who "hangs around in bars and picks up lonely multi-national corporations" (!!).

The libel claim is a nonstarter, but it's still wild. It's like one of those movies where they want to show you how bad the cockroaches are, so there's a bit where the exterminator shows up and the roaches form a chorus line and do a kind of Busby Berkeley number:

https://www.46brooklyn.com/news/2024-09-20-the-carlton-report

So here we are: the FTC has set out to euthanize some rentiers, ridding the world of a layer of useless economic middlemen whose sole reason for existing is to make pharmaceuticals as expensive as possible, by colluding with the pharma cartel, the insurance cartel and your boss. This conspiracy exists in plain sight, hidden by the Shield of Boringness. If I've done my job, you now understand how this MEGO scam works – and if you forget all that ten minutes later (as is likely, given the nature of MEGO), that's OK: just remember that this thing is a giant fucking scam, and if you ever need to refresh yourself on the details, you can always re-read this post.

The paperback edition of The Lost Cause, my nationally bestselling, hopeful solarpunk novel is out this month!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/23/shield-of-boringness/#some-men-rob-you-with-a-fountain-pen

Image: Flying Logos (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Over_$1,000,000_dollars_in_USD_$100_bill_stacks.png

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

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probablyasocialecologist · 4 months ago

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Generative AI was always unsustainable, always dependent on reams of training data that necessitated stealing from millions of people, its utility vague and its ubiquity overstated. The media and the markets have tolerated a technology that, while not inherently bad, was implemented in a way so nefariously and wastefully that it necessitated theft, billions of dollars in cash, and double-digit percent increases in hyper scalers’ emissions. The desperation for the tech industry to “have something new” has led to such ruinous excess, and if this bubble collapses, it will be a result of a shared myopia in both big tech dimwits like Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai, and Silicon Valley power players like Reid Hoffman, Sam Altman, Brian Chesky, and Marc Andreessen. The people propping this bubble up no longer experience human problems, and thus can no longer be trusted to solve them. This is a story of waste, ignorance and greed. Of being so desperate to own the future but so disconnected from actually building anything. This arms race is a monument to the lack of curiosity rife in the highest ranks of the tech industry. They refuse to do the hard work — to create, to be curious, to be excited about the things you build and the people they serve — and so they spent billions to eliminate the risk they even might have to do any of those things. Had Sundar Pichai looked at Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI and said “no thanks” — as he did with the metaverse — it’s likely that none of this would’ve happened. But a combined hunger for growth and a lack of any natural predators means that big tech no longer knows how to make competitive, useful products, and thus can only see what their competitors are doing and say “uhhh, yeah! That’s what the big thing is!” Mark Zuckerberg was once so disconnected from Meta’s work on AI that he literally had no idea of the AI breakthrough Sundar Pichai complimented him about in a meeting mere months before Meta’s own obsession with AI truly began. None of these guys have any idea what’s going on! And why are they having these chummy meetings? These aren’t competitors! They’re co-conspirators! These companies are too large, too unwieldy, too disconnected, and do too much. They lack the focus that makes a truly competitive business, and lack a cohesive culture built on solving real human or business problems. These are not companies built for anything other than growth — and none of them, not even Apple, have built something truly innovative and life-changing in the best part of a decade, with the exception, perhaps, of contactless payments. These companies are run by rot economists and have disconnected, chaotic cultures full of petty fiefdoms where established technologists are ratfucked by management goons when they refuse to make their products worse for a profit. There is a world where these companies just make a billion dollars a quarter and they don't have to fire people every quarter, one where these companies actually solve real problems, and make incredibly large amounts of money for doing so. The problem is that they’re greedy, and addicted to growth, and incapable of doing anything other than following the last guy who had anything approaching a monetizable idea, the stench of Jack Welch wafting through every boardroom.

5 August 2024

#ai #artificial intelligence #silicon valley

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thatdisasterauthor · 1 year ago

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Delete your Threads account. You know what Meta as a company has done, you know the kind of person Mark Zuckerberg is. You've lived through Gamergate, the elections, covid, the fucking lot of it, and yet you're still willingly making an account on Threads. How can you possibly justify that?

Second ask: Scratch that, I hadn't read your most recent posts. Sorry for being so rude.

Third ask: "Still going to keep an eye on it" For what exactly? For it not to be as bad as it is? For it to get even worse before you decide it is wrong? You know who Mark Zuckerberg is. You know what Facebook is. Be up front: you don't actually care or stand for anything, you're only afraid of losing business. Have some dignity.

So you decided to be rude as fuck, "apologize," and then come back and be more rude?

I was incredibly clear in that post of why I am going to keep an eye on Threads, despite the concerns: Twitter was a valuable source of live news, especially during natural disasters, and Threads is the first potentially viable replacement for that. IDK if you actually follow me, but if you do you'll know I do a lot of work around natural disaster communication. Twitter was invaluable as a communication source during natural disasters. Full stop. It is not up for debate. But hey, if you want a source with more authority than a random tumblr blog, here, have a nice shiny research paper:

Mind you, that was written in 2010 and the importance of Twitter as a communications tool during natural disasters has only increased since then. There is no other tool out there, no other website--news or otherwise, that can provide such granular, specific updates when shit hits the fan as Twitter did. The only better, quicker source of information I have found during natural disasters is listening to actual radio chatter from the departments involved in whatever problem, and that can be very tricky to do if you don't know where to look or have the right equipment. There is no other site where I can go specifically follow so many of my local fire departments, my local emergency services, my local National Weather System stations, and get live pushed updates from them every single time they post.

When Twitter DDOSed itself last week and put a limit on the amount of tweets people could view and forced people to be logged in to view anything at all, the effect was immediate and BAD. People suddenly couldn't view things like missing person alerts, or weather alerts. I had people messaging me because they were trying to check the National Weather System autoalerts for their area on Twitter due to being caught in a sudden storm, but they couldn't get on to check.

Love it or hate it, Twitter had an immense amount of value and it got that value--at least in the case of natural disaster communication--because the stubborn ass government decided it was big enough to be trusted with official lines of information. Very, very few other social media sites have ever had that trust from the government. Look at how they banned TikTok on all government devices. But they DO trust Facebook, and Instagram, and Meta. Which means their chances of trusting Threads and migrating over there when Twitter finally takes its last breath are ASTRONOMICALLY higher than expecting them to go anywhere else.

We can debate the privacy and moral issues of the Metaverse and those involved until the cows come home, but it does not change the fact that if my mountain is on fire I'm gonna get information about where that fire is from wherever the fuck I can. I'm not going to wait around for it to maybe show up in a "live" updates news article from CNN from some reporter half a continent away in New York who doesn't know anything about where I live and gets the roads wrong because they just don't know. I'm going to go to the website full of my neighbors and local firefighters and see what's happening right that second.

Do we need to fix the privacy and moral issues? Yes. But we can't throw the baby out with the bathwater either. Not using Threads or any other Meta product isn't the answer here. Using them with extreme caution and only for very specific needs, for the time being, is. Long term, we need to be focusing on privacy based legislation that would finally put these companies in their place. But until then, again, I'm going to keep following my local fire departments wherever they go.

P.S.: If you're going to keep the shitty attitude, fuck right off and unfollow+block. You're not wanted here.

#Threads #I was honestly going to make this post anyway due to how some people are tagging the original post #So here #I could honestly debate this all day #lol #But I have shit to do today and right now that is breakfast #Natural Disaster Communication #Twitter #Death of Twitter

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inkhornism · 3 months ago

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DESPITE HIS FOOL DESIGNATION, AKIRA ISN’T STUPID BY ANY MEANS. He’s more than aware that coming to Mementos with only the crow for company can’t spell anything good, not with what he knows, but curiosity, little regard for himself and a constant bleeding heart are a too terrible combination hanging heavily on his already fractured soul for him to turn down such a request. They’ve explored just the two of them before, when they’d occasionally split into pairs in order to cover more ground a lot quicker, so he’s not worried about Shadows possibly getting the better of them – after all, there are safe rooms every five floors or so and he has a multitude of Personas he can call upon for any kind of situation ( as one does when running solo trips ).

A big, spacious room that until recently housed only a lonely Shadow and two chests is where all pretences are dropped similar to the way a chill suddenly turns the air around them frigid. Trickster senses are a lot sharper than even the other Thieves think they are, help him narrowly avoid being skewered by a bright lightsaber ironically bought by the raven himself. So long Goro is accompanying them, Akira is responsible for making sure that his gear is up to snuff ( though, always, the highest quality ) no matter how many times he tries to stop him from spending all that money on ‘things that aren’t necessary’. And always, always, Akira only shakes his head and just hands the stuff over, saying that the only way to repay him is to make good use of the items; no doubt pissing the other off considerably.

In the darkness only illuminated by the odd stray light and red wisps, the sparks flying off every time they cross weapons are the only way to reliably follow the fight. Two steps forward, a step backward, a long swipe that would normally leave him open, but he’s nimble and the gymnastics learnt from Kasumi have come in handy more times than not. His opponent moves to mirror his approach, elegantly avoiding even letting the knife graze him, quickly slashing at any opportunity should he catch the dancing shadow on the wrong foot. This back and forth of theirs feels wrong, feels right, feels strangely familiar in ways Akira doesn’t want to think about because thinking about it means inviting the scrapes he’s already acquired to end up as permanent marks on his heart instead.

( It’s far too late, a voice whispers bitterly at the back of his mind. )

But Akira started the fight already exhausted from a previous run through Mementos by himself and this confrontation is starting to wear what little energy ( and confidence to not let the pain he’s in show on his face ) wear thin. Equally matched by their temporary ally, blows traded almost one for one, he still finds himself somehow cornered in spite of the space chosen to be their one-off arena. Backed against the wall, this surely must be the end of their little scuffle – whatever it is that Goro wanted to test for himself, to see in opposing the Leader of the Phantom Thieves, he must have certainly gotten it by now.

Or not.

Definitely not.

It’s impossible to not feel his heart skip a beat, then, when the barrel of a gun is pressed against his chest. Goro is an excellent shot, he’d already known this from back when they played that game at the arcade for the first time and he wiped the floor with him flawlessly. He’d seen it in the Metaverse as well, how calmly he wields such a weapon, firing it with a precision that even he doesn’t quite have yet – and only makes up for by being as extra about it as possible.

Strangely enough, Akira doesn’t fear death. Or, rather, it would be more accurate to say that Joker doesn’t. Joker would gladly die for his friends if it meant that they escape alive. After all, it’s his own fault that they are in this situation to begin with, that they are risking their lives every day for something that may or may not work, for something that may fail them one day, for somebody who they fully believe in as if he were incapable of making any mistakes – why don’t they hate him? They have every reason to do so, to leave the team, to back out and never return. And he’d never blame them for any of it, would probably, quite honestly, quietly thank them for it.

Why is the boy currently pinning him against the wall, a gun they both know is fake, but not, pressed firmly in the center of his chest also listening to him? Because Akira Joker is the leader? Because Akira Joker can be trusted to make the right call no matter the situation?

( He wants to crumble to dust, but he feels as if he’s been affixed to the wall by a giant metal pin. )

He’s not sure when he finds his voice again, nor is he sure who is talking; ❝ This is not the most efficient way and you know it, darling. ❞ accompanied by a hand heavy as lead and yet moving as if it doesn’t belong to him reaching to correct the gun’s aim ❝ You know that the most vulnerable spot, especially in the Metaverse, is the heart. ❞ the Phantom Thieves’ heart, hisheart. Shoot him and watch everything fold onto itself akin to a house of cards that never stood a chance against the wind’s howl.

❝ Just pull the trigger, ❞ Crow Akechi ❝ Goro. ❞

#📜 my writing #Persona 5 Royal #Akira Kurusu #Goro Akechi #shuake #[ Akira has many Akechi thoughts paret two ]

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rabbiteclair · 1 year ago

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on one hand I feel like the internet would be a much better place if sites had to earn their money directly from users instead of ad revenue

on the other hand, a lot of tech companies effectively make a big chunk of their money by going to investors every few years with "we need another $2 billion in funding, but don't worry, we're gonna be profitable soon. as soon as we implement [looks at writing on hand] 'blockchain metaverse Internet Of Things'," so it barely matters what their actual business model is sometimes. and a lot of the extant sites that do try to get subscriptions out of users do it in such an irritating manner that I am committed to spiting them.

thus I am growing increasingly fond of option C, 'destroy the ad system anyway and if the internet can't stand without that, then let the cleansing fires return it to its primeval state: a bunch of goofy little passion projects made by profoundly weird people'

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queenhawke · 2 years ago

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ok here’s all my Thoughts about mq s3 and why it’s probably the weakest season so far.

tl;dr It just feels like they wrote themselves into a corner with how s2 ended and then didn’t know how to continue on from there. And it’s disappointing! It’s back to how it was in s1 where the only real strong character arc is Ian and Poppy’s, and the rest of the characters are just kinda… there to do funny stuff. And it’s not the worst thing in the world and they kiiiinda pull it together a little in the finale, but it’s disappointing because we know they can do good character arcs for all the characters simultaneously, because they did that in s2! Also fuck NFTs

Rest is under a read more bc I told y’all I’d write a novel

let’s compliment sandwich this so good things first:

The GrimPop storyline was good! Easily the strongest aspect of the season, tho I feel like Ian Winger-speeching himself out of the conflict was maybe a bit too easy? It was a good speech, I liked it, it fits their weird toxic codependent relationship well, but I would have liked to see him doing more for Poppy. Ah well, still good.

The bad is uhhh a lot. I don’t even know where to begin.

Actually let’s start with the metaverse/NFT shit, because it was shit and really soured me on the first half of the season. I get why these topics were included, it was a hot issue when they were writing the season, but it sucks how they were implemented. First off, it’s aged like milk, what with the multiple crypto crashes and NFTs kinda disappearing out of the collective consiousness (thank christ). Second, the fact that there’s no talk of the negative aspects of NFTs. Atrocious, especially concerning Rachel, who, being ostensibly the leftist of the group, should really at the very least have brought up the negative impact on the environment that NFTs/crypto has. Unfortunately, it does make sense why this happened. Ubisoft was one of the first game companies to use NFTs in their games, and Rob Mcelhenney owns one of those ugly fucking apes (I hope for his sake he’s sold it already), so he’s clearly invested in this shit. Obviously neither was gonna shittalk NFTs when they have such a big monetary stake in them. Hugely disappointing, but not surprising.

Now the characters... let’s start with Dana, because her “character development” was easily the most baffling to me. Like. Who is this? Where did this mini-Ian come from? This isn’t who Dana was. She had confidence, sure, but not Ian levels of delusional confidence. And like, what was the point of making her so much like Ian? How did that serve her character? Most she did was act like a kind of mediator between Ian and Poppy, but what did it do for her? The last ep kinda wrangles this into her being fed up with them and starting her own thing, but like, she was happy to hang out with Ian for most of the season. I dunno, I can kinda see what they were going for, but it doesn’t feel like there was a proper build-up to that final episode.

Let’s go to everyone’s favourite tumblr sexyman, Brad. Again, the last episode blatantly states his “arc” (working his way up to being in power again), but like. All the stuff inbetween doesn’t feel like it really adds up to anything. I mean, what did him being the janitor really... do. He acts like he’s up to something, but then he isn’t, and by ep 3 he’s already just doing HOMIE stuff again. I think it could have been so much more fun if he’d actually used his position as a janitor to weasel his way back into monetization. Like, digging up dirt on people and stuff. And again the build-up to the finale wasn’t really there. Oh, he wants a challenge now? He never talked about that. Where did that come from? Why not seed that more? Also, would have liked for his eating disorder to be addressed more. It’s so rare to see men with eating disorders on tv, it could’ve been something special. Maybe next season.

Rachel... I’m highly skeptical of her suddenly being “dumb”. Like sure, she was always shown to be a little airheaded, but it feels like they really turned it up to 11 and like... for what? It reminds me too much of how Britta was treated in later seasons of Community, and that was shitty then and is shitty now. It’s just wild to me that they’d have this whole arc in s2 about her finding her passion, and then they just throw it away. She could’ve been the new writer instead of the new HOMIE! Also, if she’s so dumb, how can she be made the new HOMIE at all. That’s a high fucking position, and you expect me to believe they just gave that to some rando ex-tester? I know MQ isn’t realistic, but I have my limits. And then they kinda lampshade that by having Brad be like “oh I engineered this” but that just feels lazy. Like my brother in christ you put her in this storyline, don’t act like it all meant nothing now. Also I know capitalism is a hell of a drug and I love me a corruption arc but could we for once have a leftist character on tv who like. Sticks to their guns and isn’t a massive hypocrite. Please.

THE LACK OF REAL STORYLINE BETWEEN BRAD AND JO. Hello he went to jail for her??? Hello?? Can we address this? Even a little? Maybe in the ep called TO CATCH A MOUSE?? It wasn’t even a mouse but you named it To Catch A Mouse and then you don’t have some sort of conversation between the mouse and the shark hello? Do I have to do everything myself around here??

Also, C.W. @kaitcake1289 already wrote a good post on this but I’d just like to reiterate what a disappointment it is that his death seemingly has zero impact on anyone. And it could have been such a good way to tie all the characters together, which I think was sorely needed with how divided they were between MQ and GrimPop. The grief they would all feel from losing the studio’s weirdo grandpa could have been such a nice overarching theme. And it could all impact them in different ways and drive their arcs this season! Just a missed opportunity, and frankly a weird way to treat the death of one of the major characters. Even Pierce’s death in Community was more impactful, and he left because there was major beef between the actor and the showrunner.

I’m a bit hmm about the idea of Dana/Jo/Brad in their own studio, bc I just don’t think splitting the characters up like this worked out this season, but we’ll see. I hope they have an actual plan this time lmao.

Okay other end of the compliment sandwich uhhhhh. I think David’s arc was decent. It was nice to see him get along with Jo and to see him stand up for himself. Um. The Christmas ep was very good. Sarian was another banger backstory ep. In general there were loads of jokes I liked! I’m just disappointed with how the characters that weren’t Ian or Poppy were treated.

#mythic quest #jo has thoughts #many thoughts #not sure it all makes sense #anyway #s2 > s1 > s3 u cannot change my mind

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cuprohastes · 11 months ago

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Things to Come

It is the year 2024: Amazon wants to have wholly owned company towns to persuade poor people to enter into indentured servitude. There is an election between an old guy who's quietly doing a generally good job, and a very loud serial rapist conman who's being taken to court for his many crimes including treason. Somehow there is still a debate as to who will win.

It is the year 2030: There are now four Amazon towns powered off grid by Tesla batteries. There is no news in or out. People are starting to notice this. Jeff Bezos and Elon musk are having a public fight over who owns Mars. Bezos brought up Twitter and Elon's announced X-Mart a direct competitor to Amazon. The Cybertruck's been recalled again, this time after the 50th person was cooked alive by the burning battery pack, which also locked all the doors.

It is 2040: Elon's died on Mars ina. 8ft cabin from every cancer known to man and three that are getting named after him. Apparently he declared that radiation shielding wasn't needed because Mars is too far from the sun for radiation to reach it. Jeff Bezos freeze dried corpse is still circling hte earth as of two years ago. The world watches with glee as Amazon is torn to shreds by ten thousand parties all of whom are laying claim to the 3 trillion dollars held by the company. Nobody is trying to take over Space-X or Teslas due to the historic 1.4 trillion dollars in fines and debt they collectively owe. Mark Zuckerberg is replacing all his organic parts with life support machines to keep his brain alive until a perfect way to upload himself to the metaverse is available. The metaverse is still shit and has only 1008 concurrent users.

Is tis 2042: Donald Trump has choked to death in his cell. The rumour is it was corpophilia: This will persist even after a FOIA reveals it was a cold two day old Big Mac smuggled in to him. The world rejoices. There is still a 24/7 video feed of Elon musk slowly mummifying in the remains of X-Mars. Questions regarding the rest of the colonists are answered when a Marsbot finally accesses the dome and finds that Elon turned off the oxygen after the twenty three women in the first wave of colonists refused to breed with him. There were twenty eight colonists and four of them had received vasectomies two months before liftoff. They had to take an axe to the thing Zuckerberg because it wouldn't stop screaming. In the UK, all politicians from the last 30 years have been placed in Wadsworth prison and are tried and guillotined daily. The Scottish won't stop laughing. The Irish have been drunk of their tits for the last six months. The Welsh have banned speaking English. This is not going well but they get much respect for taking a stand.

2050: Republicans are now legal to be hunted for food if you have a bow hunting license. Guns are finally restricted. Republicans state that this will result in a civil war. Gun crime and school shootings are down 1000%. The most popular book in the US is "Eating the Rich" a combination how-to on bow hunting, butchering and serving human flesh. The rest of the world is watching this with interest. The Russian federation is taking special notes. This year 80 clones of Vladimir Putin are euthanised in their tubes and eaten.

2055: There is no civil war and surprisingly few instances of Kuru. Texas has built a wall around the entire state to keep "the left" out. All jokes about marrying your cousin are now attributed to Texas, now known as the Lone Surname State. They have still managed not to secede.

2060: Gender is abolished, not through decree but by common agreement of the third generation brought up by Millenials, Gen Z and Gen Blue: The Green Generation. Cities are walkable. It is considered weird if you cannot walk to the shops in bare feet safely for at least half a year. Air quality has improved, winters are returning. Urban deer keep grasses down and provide local meat. Men and women wear dresses, biological sex can now be changed trivially with around 60 months of treatment. Marriage is now merely a fun tradition and churches all pay tax after the 2056 ruling that if they cannot provide evidence for their god that they have no more claim to universal truth than a social club. World hunger is solved by levying back taxes on jsut three megachurches. Summers are brutal but can be managed by passive cooling, and thermal gradient power generators for cooling.

2070: Everyone has UBI. Work is 4 hours a day, 4 days a week for most people. Many people have two or three jobs, not for money, but because they have diverse interests. Most companies are profit sharing or Co-operatives. The biggest global trauma is the English wearing socks with sandals. Global temperatures have dropped. The kids are kind and bemused by their aging relatives. Texas is still Republican and angrily making memes about "This is the future the left want" that are still really cool and fun looking suggestions. The southen US has replaced it's statues with Dolly Parton, who's revered as a saint. 40% of men have great tits. The President of the USA is catgirl. Things are going to be OK. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the day the last Boomer died and everyone's going to get their grill out. Life's good: We're going to to be OK.

#shitposting #the future

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cybergoth-damsel · 1 year ago

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Amazing how big companies pave the way for ever-worsening products. Fortnite's whole addiction strategy revolves around hoarding skins and yet every time their locker interface changes it gets more unwieldy to manage the heaps of garbage clogging up your inventory.

(For the duration of the following paragraphs, please keep in mind that fortnite is currently selling a $40 cosmetic car body)

As of writing, the knockoff-spotify ui only actually changes what you have selected when clicked about 80% of the time. Even when it does, there is noticeable half-minute lag between the selection changing and the detail-editing button actually applying to the selected object. The only reliable element of this interaction is the overjuiced button tweening. There are few useful hotkeys either, so every change is mouse-only as you click through god awful menus and scroll bars.

Even EA distributes more tools for navigating their overflow of microtransaction waste. The Sims 4 at least allows you to search items by color and style, as well as what "pack" it's from. Hell, if you'd at least allow the user to tag the items themselves you'd make an unfathomable leap in navigability. You can't even sort objects by whether or not they're cell shaded - something getting increasingly egregious as Fortnite churns out anime OCs by the minute.

And yet Epic is dead set on forcing Fortnite into the shape of a mEtAvErSe PlAtFoRm. Placing the successor to the Rock Band games behind the 5 minute Fortnite loading screen and ui all for the sake of selling SONGS on the Fortnite store. Rocket Race and Lego Fortnite are both surprisingly competent little games, so much so that you can tell the only reason they're stuck inside Fortnite is so that you have to participate in the same microtransaction ecosystem, with cross-compatibility further obscuring the actual worth of each purchase.

If Epic really wants people to fully buy in to their games-as-service sandbox (that makes VALVE look open source by comparison) I'd like to think they'd at least consider making the experience of booting up the game on modern hardware like... manageable? fine? At least not worse than it has been?

They have a lot of nerve is all I'm saying. Is that clear? Am I communicating that?

#lab grown media #research.txt #fortnite #long post #This is the kind of shit I write after horrible sleep apnea nights

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aspenwriter · 4 months ago

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SizeDates

(A comm for @AurumDistant on Twitter)

“An app that makes you change sizes?” asked Mark.

“Oh come on Mark, it doesn’t like ‘change’ your actual size, it just does so in a virtual room in the metaverse” said the tomboyish redhead in front of him, Sarah.

“My question is why, Sarah. Why not just a normal dating room in the metaverse?”

“Oh come ON Mark, it’s 2068! What’s even the point in just dating like your grandma did with their apps on their phones like some sort of caveman”

“I think grandma dated pretty nicely in the normal world, evidence being that I am uh, here, Sarah”

Both friends laughed. It was a faint sound, deafened by the unfathomably structure of the tower city they inhabited.

By this time in our history most cities looked like this one. Years of overpopulation and the destruction of our natural environments lead to the engineering of these megastructures. Self sufficient, towering metal spires that reached the clouds from the outside, with an industrial super complex that reached deep underground like roots. Sarah and Mark were idly chatting on the outside of their middle management office, still under the spires, still without seeing the sky.

It was no wonder most people didn’t like to meet and date outside the metaverse. Many companies had tried and failed to build one in the early 21th century. They had just recently successfully built one. Initially a platform for furries to chat in Virtual Reality, it quickñy expanded to the general public as a means to escape the quite frankly horrible reality they inhabited.

“You’re still not convincing me, Sarah, look at this point in the advertising”

Sarah leaned in to see Mark’s phone. He was pointing with his finger to a spot that proudly advertised “Let loose of control! Let the big one handle everything”

“Uhm, yeah, that’s the point, Mark” said Sarah.

“What does it exactly mean?” asked Mark.

“It means that if you log in as tiny and you match with someone they get to decide where you spawn, what your size is, and even what you’re wearing, as far as I know”

“Why, Sarah, would I let someone control that?”

“Oh, come ON AGAIN, it’s part of the fantasy, just the sweet release of control”

“I’m more concerned about the sweet release of death” Said Mark “what if I match with a total psycho and they crush me, eat me, or worse, Look, it says right here in the add”

He was pointing to a part indicating ‘TOTAL simulation, every sensation possible in every scale!”

“You know ‘every sensation possible’ doesn’t fill me up with confidence” said Mark.

“Look” said Sarah “that’s again just part of the fantasy”

“You know that if you get killed in one of these simulations-”

“Doesn’t work like this here” interrupted Sarah “SizeDates doesn’t allow for permadeath, if you get killed it logs you off right after the conscience gets to experience death, so it’s just like waking up from one of those dreams where you’re falling down”

“You sound *very* experienced in this topic” said Mark.

“Weeeeeell I *might* have teased a couple tiny boys a little too hard…” Said Sarah, hiding a blush.

“I KNEW IT!” exclaimed Mark “You just want to get me into this thing so I can match with you and you get to do everything you want with me right!?”

“Uh, I was just going to suggest exactly that, good job in figuring that out, smartass��

Mark sighed. It was true that he and Sarah had kind of a situationship by this point. And by situationship, it was mostly Sarah teasing him whenever she had the chance. Even being a little risqué at the office and all. Not that Mark minded it in the slightest.

“Alright, I’ll try your stupid app…” he said, slightly defeated.

“You won't be disappointed!” said Sarah “just make sure to match with *me*”

“Can’t promise that, what if someone is hotter than you huh?”

“Are you sure you want to risk it?” said Sarah, grinning.

“I probably will” said Mark, hiding a blush by turning from her. The whole conversation was a big tease. Mark was into size play a *lot*. This app was everything he had ever dreamed of. It was extremely difficult hiding it from Sarah.

“Well, see you soon little guy” said Sarah, smiling and turning away too. They, sadly, had to take the metro in opposite directions from one another.

The whole ride home, Mark thought only of the app.

Then finally, his apartment. Located on a megastructure within a megastructure. Tower 27. Almost a tower city within a tower city, it housed half a million souls and it had every amenity possible. Mark only wished they could move his office here.

Then, in his one room, one bathroom apartment, he jumped to his desk and put his headset on. He logged into the metaverse, then into the app, and made his account.

Surprisingly, for the barebones profile he had made, not one but *five* matches jumped right in within the hour.

The first was Alex. Brown skinned, and with short black hair. And damn, a gymnast with some *excellent* muscles. She could probably break Mark in half like a plank of wood in a kung fu movie, even without size changing shenanigans going.

Then there was Charlie. A brunette, beautiful girl. She looked like a princess out of a fairytale, with a delicate body and a face sculpted by the gods. In fact, just by the incredibly beautiful dress she was wearing, she might as well have been a princess.

Next to her on the list was Jessica. Old enough to be Mark’s mom. And yet the thought of being around tiny with that lady with the neon red coloured hair, probably to be ‘in with the youths’ really excited him

But after her came Angel and frankly he did look like an angel. He was a boy, still in college. With a blonde, long straight hair that reached his almost feminine waist in the skirt he was proudly wearing.

And finally, there was Sarah herself. The teasing co-worker, the one that got him into this, and his friend.

True, Sarah said that he should match with her… but he wasn’t expecting four other prospects.

Mark meditated on it for a while. Breathed in deeply. And made his choice.

—

Mark clicked on Alex’s profile.

He was instantly transported to an unknown, alien surface.

It was both hard and soft… difficult to describe. Soft to the touch but hard once you pressed on it.

And it was also wet, drops of an unknown, salty liquid the size of Mark’s head were all around him.

Just what was this place?

Oh, and he just noticed he was also completely naked.

“Hey shrimp!” said a booming voice from above”

Mark snapped back to reality and looked all around him. Behind him, and behind small breasts hidden by a sport’s bra, was the smiling face of the giant tomboy.

“Y-you’re A-alex?” asked Mark. Sure he was prepared for the shock of size changing. but not to get too personal right away.

“Y-y-y-y-y-you’re Alex?” mocked Alex “Of course I am, shrimp, on whose profile did you think you clicked, dumbass?”

“I-I-I-” started Mark, embarrassed beyond belief.

“Tch!” exclaimed Alex “a dozen or so boy toys wanted to match with me and I clicked on the profile of the one that couldn’t fucking talk, great choice Alex”

Mark slapped his cheeks with both of his hands, his way to get his shit together. This allowed him to finally notice he was standing on Alex bare, sweaty abs, and that they were in what he assumed was her room, or well, a simulation of it. It was a little smaller than his own. Alex must be a factory worker down some levels in the tower, he thought.

“Ugh, why are you standing around thinking so much, shrimp, get to work already!”

“Wor-” began Alex, before he was silenced by Alex’s massive hand coming down slamming him against her abs, pressing down. Muffling every sound that came from Mark’s mouth.

“Come on boy toy, lick” commanded Alex.

Mark protested. Frankly pathetic sounds that barely reached Alex, as Mark’s mouth was firmly pressed against her sweaty skin. But the sounds were audible enough to register in Alex’s brain as a protest.

“You upper level shrimps are always so, so fucking uppity, you’re not in control here shrimp, now be a good boy and get fucking licking” said Alex, sternly, and pressing Mark even harsher.

Mark swallowed his pride. After all this *was* a fantasy. He didn’t have to have any shame. Alex would play around with him a little, and then they would both have a good time and probably get along really well down the line. Hell, perhaps they would have a date in real life if he did well this time!

So he obeyed, and started licking. Alex's abs were salty, from all the sweating of course. But it didn’t prevent Mark from worshiping them. In fact, he was getting hard from it.

“Yeah… that’s right” said Alex “good boy!”

Mark’s hormones got wild with that praise. He licked even harder, putting a lot of effort into it. Kissing the abs. Soon Alex’s hand relaxed and let him do the thing on his own. He was getting a lot into it.

“Hmm, good start…” Said Alex “But you’re still very, very far away from your true prize shrimp…” she said, her hand now slowly pushing Mark downwards, to her briefs.

Mark crawled there, slowly, like an insect. He wanted to enjoy every second of it. And Alex was allowing him.

Under the briefs was a bush of her hair. Alex didn’t help him at all in this phase, gleefully enjoying Mark struggling to lift the fabric just to get in. He had to use both arms just to get his upper torso there, and he had to work a lot with his legs to crawl in.

The bush was unkempt. Musky. At this scale, roughly the size of a pinky finger, the whole place seemed like an alien cave. Above him, the fabric of Alex’s sports briefs pressed him hard against her skin, and further in, the bush of hair proved a tremendous obstacle for him.

“You’re way too slow, shrimp” said Alex, her booming voice muffled down here.

Mark heeded the implicit command and crawled faster, putting a lot more effort into it. Adrenaline was now coursing through his veins just by how aroused he was. Here, in Alex’s most private place at a gulliverian scale. Fuck, he hadn’t realized how much he wanted this.

“Lemme help you out there, boy toy” Said Alex. Pressing him down in a way that propelled him forward.

The smell of her juice was getting stronger. Alex was wet, as he was hard. Her hand was of great help. And then, finally at the end of that small forest, was the wet labia. Mark didn’t struggle here at all, as the place was wet enough to slip right in.

But he wasn't meant to get there.

Alex’s hand blocked him as she started playing with herself, roughly, just like she wanted. Mark was a spectator to all this, as Alex’s other hand pinned him down in her bush. A lot of hair got into his mouth in the process, making it hard to breath.

“Yeah.. yeah…” Alex said, to herself mostly, she didn’t care that much about Mark at this point.

She lifted her briefs, Mark could finally breathe again, but this was short lived. Alex started using his squirming body as a toy, pressing him, using him to massage the sensitive skin of her bush.

“Fuck… fuck.. FUCK!” exclaimed Alex, about to reach climax.

She hadn’t noticed, at all, that she played with Mark a little too roughly, and snapped his spine in two.

“Ah… AH!” she sighed in the pleasure of orgasm.

She was breathing heavily, Alex was nowhere to be seen, the poor bastard probably just re-spawned in his room.

“Fuck Alex…” she said, leaning back in her bed “you broke a perfectly good looking toy again…”

—-

Mark clicked on Charlie’s profile.

He was greeted by a wooden surface. He looked around. He was in a room of sorts. A giant room.

Mark was, by virtue of living in a megastructure, already accustomed to big spaces but this one was very different, as it was a cubic structure, where all things were completely in another scale. Mark noticed he was on what appeared to be the desk of the room, and far away he could see a bed, some posters from popular v-tubers, anime figures the size of statues in a shelf, and…

Charlie?

She didn’t look at all like in the picture. While the face was still like a princess out of a fairytale, and she had a delicate, elegant body, she had sharp features, her hair was short, boyishly so. Also, instead of the dress from the pic, she was just wearing a black t-shirt and some jeans.

“H-hey… there seems to be some kind of mistake here…” said Mark.

“Pfft” said Charlie, with a boyish tone “Nope, you just got catfished that’s all”

“Wha-” began Mark, being instantly cut off by Charlie’s hand grabbing him from the desk with little consideration for his safety or wellbeing.

“The app was stupidly easy to hack” said Charlie “They have like no countermeasures at all”

“Who the fuck are you” Said Mark, muffled by Charlie’s hand completely closed on him.

“Oh? I’m Charlie alright, I just used a pic I grabbed from the internet and said I was a girl, that’s the easiest way to nick some cute boys like you!” said Charlie, very proud of himself.

“Wha-? LET ME OUT IMMEDIATELY” exclaimed Mark.

“Ah, I love when you little ones beg, it’s soooo adorable” said Charlie “Let’s take a good look at you”

He opened his hand, and Mark immediately took the chance to jump off it, to the floor, to get killed in the app and re-spawn in the safety of his apartment. But as soon as he even got into a jumping off position, Charlie got uncomfortably close and whispered.

“Oh, just so you know, the hack also overrides the death inhibition, little one”

The words felt like iron nails nailing themselves on all his limbs, paralyzing him completely.

“Also” Charlie continued “Obviously the log off function is turned off, it was easy too, this way we can get *real* emotions flowing, won’t you agree?”

Mak didn’t know what to do. He just stood there, frozen on the twink’s hand, while his captor just grinned, rejoicing in his misery.

“Aw, what’s wrong little one?” he asked, in a mocking tone “cat got your tongue?”

“Th-this is *extremely* fucked up” said Mark “release me n-now” he said not noticing his voice was cracking and he was stuttering, all to Charlie’s delight.

“Say pretty please” said Charlie.

It was humiliating enough to be in this position, but fuck, anything to get rid of this psycho, Mark thought.

“P-pretty please” he said.

“Good start, now grovel” said Charlie.

The command felt cold on Mark’s skin. He was trembling. But the fear of what Charlie might do to him if he displeased him in some way was more terrifying than whatever humiliation he had to endure to get back at the safety of his house. He fell to his knees and said it again.

“P-pretty please…”

“Pretty please what?”

Whatever the fuck he meant, a title? Mark thought.

“Pretty please, sir-”

“Ugh why do they always go with fucking ‘sir’ goddamit!” exclaimed Charlie, exasperated.

“D-did I do something wrong” pleaded Mark, covering his face.

“I hate being called ‘sir’ FUCK!” he said “I’m not my fucking dad! I’m not that old!”

Mark was trying to hide his tears. He felt like picking the wrong dialogue option in a game, rolling a bad skill roll with his dice and all. Only a million times worse.

“Wh-what was I supposed to call you?!” Said a terrified little man.

Charlie was completely ignoring him. He was searching something in his room, that perfectly simulated replica of Charlie’s own room. He quickly found it.

A fleshlight.

Mark knew immediately what he was thinking. His head was working like an animalistic computer, checking for every possible alternative to what was about to happen.

“I just want to be called ‘princess’, like my boyfriend does, fuck!”

“H-how was I supposed to-” he was cut off by two giant lips. A long kiss, coming from Charlie that was impossible to resist.

“You’re a cute toy, if you survive I want to play a little more with you”

And then Mark noticed he was falling down.

Soon enough, he was swallowed up by the all encompassing rubber of the fleshlight. It was a dark, soft pit, no light entered that place. Mark tried to climb out of the rubber but the place was lubricated by some sort of oily substance. Mark just slipped, landing straight in the bottom.

Then, Charlie’s titanic dick pierced through the entrance of the cave. Thrusting violently against the rubber. Trapping Mark between it and the oily walls of the fleshlight.

Mark struggled, desperately trying to climb it, but for every little step his body made, Charlie’s dick pushed him further down, until he was fighting for his life against the tip of it. But it didn’t work. Mark’s feeble punches and pushes only made Charlie harder and harder and his thrusts more quick and passionate.

“N-no…” whispered an enfeebled Mark, bruised and with some broken bones already. “P-please…”

But he was too tired to fight anymore, and when Charlie finally came with a titanic moan, Mark’s lungs filled up almost instantly with his cum.

He coughed and twitched for some minutes, but it was already over.

Charlie removed the fleshlight, with the lifeless virtual avatar of Mark still stuck to his dick.

“Pfft” he said “What a waste of a cute boy”.

He removed the corpse uncaringly from his flesh and tossed it away, at least he hoped his boyfriend was having more fun with the hacked virtual room than he had.

—

Mark clicked on Jessica’s profile.

He was transported to a soft, hard to stand on surface, in fact, in the very instant he got there he lost his balance and fell on his back.

“Be careful there you silly boy” said a booming, deep, yet very feminine voice.

Mark looked around. The surface he was on was a mattress. In fact, he was on a bed. The biggest bed he had ever seen, in the biggest room he had ever seen. It was so big it could fit his entire Tower. But his astonishment was brief, he needed to know the source of that booming voice, and it took him next to no effort to find it.

In front of Mark was a woman. She was wearing a full office attire. Complete from pants to shirt to blazer and a tie. All of her screamed ‘your stuck up boss’ if it wasn’t for her hair dyed neon red. This kind of hair dyes were all the fashion now in 2068. That gave her the vibes of ‘divorcee trying dating again’.

Mark was lost looking at the massive woman. All to her own amusement.

“What’s wrong baby?” Said Jessica “Am I too much for you to handle?”

“N-n-not at all!” said Mark getting his bearings together “just impressed at the whole scale of things, that’s all”

“Mhmmm” purred Jessica “I find it sooo much better than hitting on young men like you on a bar, so much needless chatter cut don’t you think?”

“Hmm, uhh, yeah Miss”

Jessica laughed.

“Come on Mark, this is not a classroom, don’t call me ‘miss’”

“Oh, uh, in that case what should I call you?” asked Mark, awkwardly.

“You will call me Mistress from now on, pet” said Jessica, grabbing Mark by the waist “now let Mistress have a good look at you”

She snapped her fingers and suddenly Mark’s virtual avatar was completely naked. He remembered the bigs got all the control in this space.

“Y-y-yes Mistress!” squeaked Mark, not used to being handheld at all, and less to be naked around a woman so fast, and even less to enter into a dom/sub dynamic so quickly, but as Jessica, or well, Mistress had said before, the size difference really cut up a lot of needless chatter”

“You’re veeeeery handsome, pet” said Jessica, purring those words. Mark felt like being circled by a panther.

“T-than-” he began, before being cut by his Mistress.

“Good boys don’t speak” interrupted Jessica, not lifting her powerful stare from him “Good boys only say ‘woof’ and ‘yes Mistress’”

Jessica was still holding Mark by the waist, so she used the chance to shake him up a little, not to cause him any damage, but to firmly establish her dominion over him.

“Are you a good boy, pet?” She asked

“Yes Mistress” Mark said, obediently.

“Are you going to obey me?” she asked, again.

“Yes Mistress!” said an enthusiastic Mark.

“Good, because admittedly you’re too cute to have to discipline already” she said “Now let me have a taste of you”

Mark thought he misheard that final part but no, Jessica leaned in for a kiss at a titanic scale, that evolved quickly into her licking and savoring every part of Mark’s naked body. The simulation was perfect in every way. All the minute details of Mark’s virtual avatar felt handcrafted to Jessica’s tongue.

“Mistress had a veeeery tiring day at work today, pet…” she whispered into Mark’s ear, and even at this scale, the whisper came off as soft and stimulating to his mind “I want to unwind, you will help me…”

“Y-yes Mistress…” Said a Mark that was so horny he could barely think anymore.

“I want you…” said Jessica “to be a good boy for me… will you?”

“Yes Mistress!”

“Good, good…” Said Jessica, leaning back. With the saliva covered little man still in her hand, gently letting him down on her crotch.

“Go in” she commanded.

Mark was about to protest. You expect me to do all the work myself? To unzip your pants and just crawl in? but he kept those words to his mind. Good boys only said one thing.

“Y-yes Mistress” he half sighed, half exclaimed.

Then he got to work. She gently unzipped her Mistress’ pants, leaving an entrance into her most intimate places. Then he crawled in, fighting against the fabric of the pants. Each little move he made in his Mistress’ panties sent echoes of pleasure down her spine, causing her to moan and shift her position, changing the environment completely for Mark sometimes.

Then, he finally got under her panties, greeted by his Mistress’ titanic labia. He didn’t know what to do precisely at this moment. Nothing in your life prepares you to your first confrontation with pussy on the gulliverian scale. Luckily for him, his Mistress got to decide for him.

Her titanic hand came from under the fabric and pushed him inwards into the flesh cave. The walls covered already in his Mistress’ fluids made it easy for him to go in.

He was now against her fingers and her pussy, going in and out in a thrusting motion. He wanted to do the best. He wanted to be a good boy and serve. He let loose of himself, giving his body up to the currents of his Mistress’ whims and desires.

He should have been more careful. His Mistress was very rough. And he soon began to lose his consciousness, as he could barely breathe so deep in.

On her side of things, Jessica moaned, moaned and squirted. Mark was already logged off by the app automatically to prevent death. Just in time as she let go of all of her juices.

While on the other side the violent log off made Mark jump on his own desk. Jessica slept well that night, and made sure to bookmark Mark’s profile for another session, down the line.

—

Mark clicked on Angel’s profile.

He was greeted by a completely alien landscape. It was dark, moist, and the smell was weird. It was like a large cave, roughly two meters tall and about fifty centimeters wide. Mark had to walk on his side.

But as soon as he began to move. His whole world trembled and rumbled like an earthquake that plunged him even further down the cave. He could finally see there was light coming from far away, from a slit-like opening. Mark could barely breathe in the dank place.

And then, as he finally touched the walls, he noticed they were made of flesh.

Outside of the flesh walls, Angel was reading his notifications, realizing that the ant-sized boy he requested finally arrived inside his dick. To be honest, the sensation was weird as fuck, but he enjoyed it nonetheless. The simulation was perfect, and his dick flesh was so sensitive that he could feel the boy’s little limbs fighting and trying to climb out.

“Tough luck twerp” Angel said out loud, with a voice as beautiful as a melody, although to Mark it sounded like a confusing boom.

Back in Angel’s dick, Mark hadn’t the slightest idea of where he was and wondered if it was a bug in the system, that maybe he had logged into a horror game room of sorts. Groaning, he opened the user interface to log off.

Only, the log off button was nowhere to be found.

Angel giggled, the twerp was probably panicking, maybe he already realized the app had been hacked. He could tell by the little one’s ever increasing erratic movements.

His giggles made Mark’s world shake, and he plunged deeper into the monolithic dick he was trapped in, although he didn’t quite know it was a dick yet.

Angel, for his part, relaxed in his bed. His boyfriend was right, hacking the game and undoing the death inhibitions truly made the experience a whole lot better. Fantasy turned reality by just altering a few lines of code, and it was untraceable!

He checked on the profile that matched with him again, this Mark guy seemed really cute… perhaps in another time he would have been glad to date him. But right now he was just an ant trapped in his dick.

And fuck, the sole thought of it made him harder and harder.

Back in Angel’s dick, the soft surface grew rigid and stiff, and the temperature rose by at least a noticeable amount. Mark screamed for help. But with their size difference in mind, there was no way Angel could have heard him. Not that he was going to help him out anyway.

Angel’s breathing got heavier. The cute boy was squirming and probably begging for his life down there. Fuck that was it.

He turned on his back and put a pillow between him and his dick.

Mark felt like he was on the worst kind of roller coaster, as his whole world turned suddenly upside down and the hardened walls closed on themselves, pinning him between them. He could barely move now, barely even squirm.

Angel started masturbating from his prone position by grinding his dick on the pillow. Thinking of the delicious suffering of his small victim. The thought of little Mark completely surrendered to his skyscraper dick made him into a horny beast. Grinding hard against the pillow, going back and forth. Letting himself go wild.

Meanwhile, Mark was about to pass out. He was getting nauseous from all the movement. But now the position of the flesh cave, bizarre as it was, made it easier to climb out. He just needed to crawl forward, the slit opening was just there.

“Fuck… oh fuck… oh god…” said Angel in between thrusts “don’t… don’t tell me you’re trying to escape little ant… my cute little ant”

Mark braced against his circumstances, summoning all of his strength just to get out of there. Wherever he was he would rather not be there. Whatever was outside of the slit opening was better than going down in this hell pit.

Angel felt all of his little efforts… thoroughly. They made his dick twitch. They made his whole body twitch with little sparks of pleasure.

He couldn’t keep it in for much longer.

“You’re… almost… there.. little…one…” he said. Once again, Mark only heard nonsensical booming sounds.

But Angel was right. Mark was just a couple feet away from getting out. He crawled forward, with the little strength remaining, screaming from the effort, adrenaline shooting through his body.

He managed to get one hand out.

But it was too late.

Angel was just about to climax when he came up with a really funny idea.

Still in between thrusts, he opened the hacked interface his boyfriend gifted him, where Mark’s size was displayed as merely 2 millimeters.

Wouldn’t it be funny to set the parameter to the lowest?

What if instead of millimeters, he set the stature at micrometers?

“Bye…bye…Mark…” he said “nice…knowing…ya”

And with a swipe of his finger, Mark shrunk further from the size of an ant to the size of an average bacteria.

At that moment, Angel came all over his cute bed.

Mark couldn’t begin to describe the utter shock of his new world when an immense fluid current came from behind him, propelling him at an enormous speed outside of his captor’s dick. There were sperm cells swimming alongside him in the current. Only then Mark realized where he was, sadly, this realization only lasted for the final milliseconds of Mark’s life, as he was soon obliterated by the impact against an unknown surface..

Angel sighed, overriding the death prevention might have been an extreme choice by his boyfriend but, looking down on the cumstain that held the remains of that cute boy. Angel had already forgotten his name and didn’t bother to check the app again.

Still, he smiled, winked and blew a kiss to the cumstain, where the utterly liquidated remains of that cute boy were, somewhere.

“Bye bye cutie, nice knowing ya”

—

Mark was pretty flattered by getting five matches on the get go but he still had this thing going with Sarah, so he obviously clicked on her profile.

He was on the floor. He immediately knew it was the floor because well, the massive furniture all around him. While the environment was completely and utterly alien to him, he managed to recognize it as a room.

“S-Sarah…” he called, still shocked from the size change.

“Up here silly” came Sarah’s familiar voice.

He looked around and noticed that the enormous things that his brain registered as black pillars in front of him were actually legs, and when he looked up, he saw Sarah’s grinning face looking back.

“Well, what do you think huh?” said Sarah

“It’s uhhh… I mean… It’s a bit weird to live out a fantasy don’t you think”

“Oh come on, little guy!” Sarah said, the words ‘little guy’ sending some kind of weird vibes down Mark’s spine. Pleasurable vibes nonetheless.

“I mean, I uh, I just mean” Mark stuttered. Perhaps it was best to go with the other picks, a total stranger would have been a lot less awkward than this.

“OH!” exclaimed Sarah “I see, you’re still not sure about it right?”

“I mean-”

Sarah cut him off by motioning with her hand for him to shut up while she searched on her phone.

“So what was THIS then?” she said, leaning down so that the billboard sized phone was visible to Mark.

It was their chat from a few days ago, Sarah had sent a pic of a girl pinning down a shrunken guy underfoot, with the caption ‘us lmao’. Mark liked the pic, as he reacted with a heart.

“Uhmmm…” started Mark.

“Well, you won’t know if you like it until you try it silly!” She said as she took her shoes off.

“Sarah don’t be hast-” Mark couldn’t finish the phrase, as the shoes Sarah kicked landed on some far place in the room and it sent shockwaves, tiny shockwaves, but noticeable enough they made him flinch,

And as he flinched, he had no way of resisting what was to come.

Sarah’s foot came down on him, it was as if a mountain had gently set itself on top of him. A mountain in the shape of a giant foot clad in socks.

Mark went down on his back and tried, acting totally on impulse, to fight the giant foot. All of this rather pathetic struggle made Sarah giggle.

“Aw, I hoped you would at least retain some dignity while snack sized…” Said Sarah, amused by the little fight Mark was putting up.

“Come on Sarah, it's not like I don’t like this but aren’t you being a little-”

“Shush your mouth, eat some feet loser” she said, gently accommodating her foot so that her big toe was directly above Mark’s face.

Mark cursed the advance of technology itself. The simulation of Sarah’s feet was damn near perfect, right down to the weird moistness of a foot that has been all day trapped in an office shoe to the smell of it.

He uttered some muffled protests. But as he opened his mouth, he let Sarah’s foot come in. A bad choice. As he could taste now the damp fabric that covered her foot.

“What was that little dude? Can’t heeeeear you!” Sarah cooed, gently from above.

Mark somehow managed to push Sarah’s toe away from himself enough so that he could turn his head and speak on his side,

“S-Sarah…” he said “alright, you were right”

“Hm? what was that?” Said Sarah, with the genuine curiosity of a kitten.

“You were right… I’m into this” and Mark wasn’t lying, he was already hard, something that Sarah had already noticed of course.

“Hmm” said Sarah “Not quite, lil’ dude, getting hard on a footjob is pretty standard stuff in size play”

“What do you mean?” asked Mark.

“You’re close to getting it, but not quite”

“Meaning?” insisted Mark.

“Size play…” explained Sarah “is not just about the size difference, it’s also about letting go of control”

She lifted her foot, releasing Mark, who immediately crawled back to a sitting position.

“Control?” he asked.

“Uh huh!” nodded Sarah “here, like this!”

She snapped her fingers and in an instant Mark's clothes disappeared completely. He was totally naked in front of her friend, co-worker, and situationship. With his little boner all out in the air. Mark instantly covered himself.

“You have to surrender control completely to me… that’s a big part of the experience”

Mark nodded “surrender control… okay…”

“Hey, don’t worry little dude, it’s just a simulation, remember?” Sarah said, reassuring him “besides it’s not like I'm going to crush you or whatever, relax”

Mark nodded again. Carefully, he laid down on his back again, still very hard, still very into it. He surrendered briefly at that moment. He closed his eyes and surrendered to Sarah.

He felt a joyous release. In that moment there was nothing else. No work tomorrow, no daily chores, no relationship problems. It was just him, in his little naked body, at the mercy of Sarah, everything completely at the mercy of Sarah.

“That’s it lil’ guy” said Sarah “Size play is all about that release of responsibility, to put all your trust in your big”

Mark opened his eyes, only to find Sarah’s foot above him coming down at meteor speed.

“SARAH YOU-”

He didn’t finish that sentence, he was completely squatted down. Mark respawned back at his room, fresh off feeling the shock of being crushed, with his breathing still accelerated.

Sarah sat back in her virtual bed and stretched as she prepared to log off.

“Of course, another big part is the betrayal of that trust” she said to herself. He was going to be pissed off, maybe. But he was going to want to try again.

Sarah just knew it.

#g/t writing #g/t story #size difference #g/t art #giant/tiny #g/t community #g/t related

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frickin-sumi-from-persona-5 · 1 year ago

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i need to get p5r post-canon headcanons (some of these aren't really headcanons they're just me making my own b plots lmao) off my chest. i finished royal last night and i have so much i wanna talk about. its headcanon dump time i guess

(obviously huge spoilers for persona 5 royal)

fyi- these are all super unorganized and some of them don't make a lot of sense without the others. Sorry this is a mess lmao i just wanted to throw my thoughts out there.

also! i named my mc Ren

- akechi didn't die that's not canon. when the wish star thingy turned mona into a helicopter it did so because of ren wishing hard enough for all his friends to be safe. this extends to akechi & maruki and both of them made it out alive

- when he goes into the velvet room after grabbing maruki, ren thinks akechi geniunely did die and starts having a full on breakdown and then akechi just says something to the effect of "you never change" and ren turns around to see akechi leaning against the wall in the velvet room and ren is relieved

- meanwhile akechi is just like "well. i'm alive and i have to accept the consequences of my actions long term now. what the fuck. i hate this guy" but is secretely happy ren cared that much

(fwiw i ship ren/sumi/akechi as a poly trio but they aren't together as of the end of royal, just ren/sumi with akechi kinda third wheeling from time to time)

- after maruki's palace, he still has azathoth as his persona but decides to discontinue any further research.

- on that note, the metaverse wasn't erased. lavenza hand waved that well enough the first time. it takes a little bit for it to get back to normal though. the new path in mementos is still there and mementos just kinda changes gradually over time anyhow

- ren actually did let maruki go through with his plan originally, but lavenza was able to help him go back and make the right choice. because of this ren deeply wants to see a future where him and all his friends are alive and happy

- after the battle with maruki he begs sojiro to let him stay at leblanc and sojiro really does try but ultimately joker has to leave

- Akechi being revived after everything went to normal means he's basically homeless, ren makes sojiro reluctantly agree to let Akechi stay in the attic.

- Akechi has to work at the cafe at first but he can't make coffee for shit so Sojiro just lets him off the hook.

- Ren is heartbroken on his return to his hometown (somewhere close to but not specifically Inaba, maybe Okina?)

- Futaba and Sojiro make a good case for him to come back, and Shujin academy actually backs this up because of his performance last year (also Kawakami)

- after a few months away Ren moves back to youngen. The metaverse has kinda settled and it's back to normal, and the phantom theives resume business as usual

- im. basically just writing fanfic here lmao

- Haru and Makoto move in together to save on costs. Is this gay? time will tell

- Ryuji transfers to a different school due to the move but still hangs out with the gang

- Ann does study abroad after all, and she's sad to go but she wishes the theives luck from wherever she goes (maybe Los Angeles?)

- Haru keeping Okumura foods never happened either. She was able to mostly dissipate the company in an effort to try to distribute the wealth better. Of course, this didn't actually work completely and there are still many powerful ex-okumura foods executives out there, but Haru is happy she did her part.

- Around the time or Ren returning, the phantom theives go through a big transformation of trying to determine their values (as well as who they are).

- Ren makes Akechi stay around with the phantom theives and the entire team kinda hates him except Ren and Sumi, although eventually people start warming up to him.

- Ren convinces the Phantom Theives to let Akechi stay around because he thinks that the phantom theives of all people should believe in letting people change. They agree on the condition that they check if Akechi has a palace. He doesn't and so he stays around. He does come to geniunely regret his actions and tries and makes up for them.

- After spending YEARS not dare letting anyone see any flaws with him, Akechi becomes just kinda burnt out. He's just a pathetic little failboy now and he knows it and hates himself for it. He's not good at asking for help

- Also Akechi 100% has some kind of trauma disorder/personality disorder. I don't know too much about it but from what I know i wanna say i headcanon akechi with npd

- ren is transmasc. there's not much of an in-universe explanation that would make sense here but he's trans. he has tboy swag.

- ren is kinda fucked up but has grown used to the horrors(tm) and doesn't give a fuck anymore.

- there's no good headcanon i can make with ryuji. like he's just a guy and we love him for it

- ann absolutely has a crush on shiho and i ship them. ann thinks she's "just an ally lol" until one day it hits her and she's like. oh. i'm gay.

- yusuke is probably bi or something. you cannot tell me he doesn't like men in some capacity. actually wait maybe he's aro/ace spec. i don't even know with him i just think my man's funky.

- also yusuke is 100% autistic. i think most of the phantom theives are kinda neurodivergent in some way, but Yusuke & Futaba stand out as being the Autistics of the bunch(tm)

- Makoto wanted to be a police commissioner but kinda comes to the realisation that won't do anything so she kinda just has a crisis. Both hee and Haru spent their lives accepting oppressive systems and they're kinda just recoiling at what they'll do now.

- Futaba doesn't make any new friends in school but she's happy things are back to normal. She's in the same class as Sumire.

- Haru has no idea what to study in college and neither does Makoto. She ends up taking Psychology and Makoto ends up taking intro to law even though neither of them are sure what they want for the future.

- Akechi ultimately resigns from going to school but helps Ren & Sumi out with homework when they ask

- Sumire and Futaba get Kawakami's class as their homeroom. Futaba calls Kawakami a "milf" and it annoys Sumi. Futaba knows it annoys her and she does it on purpose.

- Sumire is trans. Kasumi isn't. Sumire looked up to her sister and wanted to be a girl so when she finally got the chance to be someone she looked up to and erase her guilt of course she took it. A big part of the reason why she didn't want to stop being Kasumi was gender dysphoria. Sumire wasn't her name prior to this I can only assume she had a deadname. Maybe she chooses Sumire to honor her sister.

- Hifumi becomes a phantom theif eventually. I've speculated about this too much and now I want it to be real.

- Akechi and Sumi have a showtime attack. I'm not sure exactly what It would entail but I can picture Akechi saying something like "I can be elegant when I want to"

- After Hereward forms, Akechi is no longer a wild card. As Akechi grows and recovers as a person, his metaverse outfit changes, and eventually it looks like something along the lines of his White Suit, but with a different color palette. The top mask part of his helmet/mask is the only part that sticks around, now my boy has his hair out and can breathe (and take off his mask dramatically like the theater kid he is)

- The Royal Trio probably become a proper trio like sometime in the early fall (after ren comes back to yongen). Akechi and Sumi are initially very jealous of the time they spend with Ren but come to realise that the time spent with the three of them is the time that matters most of all.

- The Phantom theives ultimately decide that because of the money and treasure they get from Infiltrating Mementos/Palaces, most of them don't need jobs. They spend their money cautiously so they don't like. Fuck up the economy and/or tip off law enforcement.

- Eventually members who were undecided with their lives ultimately resolve to be one of the phantom theives and just do that full time. Sumi, Yusuke, and Ann are exceptions right now, with Sumi chasing her dreams to be a Professional Gymnast. Somewhere much later down the road I think the phantom theives decide to follow these goals as a team. Sumi and Ann traveling for work could probably make a great cover for the Phantom Theives.

(although i'm not thinking about their characters beyond ren graduating high school. this is more their POV and what they aspire to do for the future)

- I imagine the phantom Theives kinda just become like Tokyo's superheroes in that they have threats come up from time to time and just kinda deal with it as necessary

- People can talk to their personas at any time, but can only summon them in the metaverse. A lot of Personas have things to say throughout the day that they make some commentary on. Most of them are fairly reliable for advice, but don't technically know any more than the person they're apart of.

- Joker is a bit of an exception to this rule, due to having more than one Persona. If he wants to talk to them he kinda has to tap into his mind and see them all. It's not particularly difficult it just requires a little bit of focus, and there's usually not much of a reason to do it.

- Also his personas manifest physically in the velvet room as well.

- At a certain point Mona just kinda comes into the velvet room too and just fucks around while joker is working his ass off to fuse the most overpowered persona

- i don't really know anything about strikers but quite frankly if i ever get around to playing it i'm gonna disregard half of it as not canon and then just take the most important story elements and also sophie and just incorporate it into my perception of persona 5

- Maruki considers teaming up with the Phantom Theives, and ultimately decides against it, although he helps them out every now and again.

- Personal favorite. Maruki was able to manipulate mementos to his will and create a whole new path, and The Phantom theives are curious in seeing if they can do the same thing. After a bit of work, they end up creating a safe room that takes on the appearance of theives den. This has the effect of the cognition believing the Phantom Theives are safe and out of the way, making it easier for them to slip by the radar.

- If Futaba is ever really busy Lavenza subs in for her and does the navigating.

It's kinda funny how canon-divergent all of this is. Because I'm normally someone who religiously sticks to canon and doesn't like it when fanworks stray too far from the established canon. That said, Persona 5's ending felt kinda sad and I want some copium. not me casually rewriting their reality in my mind the day after beating dr maruki

anyhow now i gotta play strikers :3

#persona 5 #persona 5 headcanons

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