#corporate design define

[robertreich]

Project 2025: The MAGA Plan to Take Your Freedom 

A second Trump term would be more dangerous than the first — in part because of something called Project 2025, a plan to extend Trump’s grip into every part of your life.

Trump’s gross incompetence in his first term wasn’t all bad. It kept some of his most extreme goals out of reach. That’s why his inner circle, including more than 20 officials from his first term, have written a step-by-step playbook to make a second term brutally efficient.

At nearly a thousand pages, it’s longer than most Stephen King novels, and a lot scarier. The Associated Press wasn’t kidding when they called it “a plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision,”

Project 2025 is a road map to ban abortion, give greedy corporate oligarchs everything they want, and strip Americans of our most basic freedoms — all without needing any support from Congress.

There’s more to it than I can get into, but here are three things I want you to know.

#1 How would Project 2025 work?

Every nonpartisan government agency would be turned into an arm of the MAGA agenda.

Some of the worst things Trump reportedly tried to do as president — like having the military  shoot protesters or seize voting machines to overturn the election  — were only stopped because sensible leaders in the military or the professional civil service refused to go along with it.

In a second term, there would be no sensible leaders in the military or professional civil service because Trump would fire anyone more loyal to the Constitution than to him.

Trump started the process in October 2020 with an executive order that would have let him fire tens of thousands of civil servants and replace them with MAGA henchmen. I’m talking about traditionally non-political positions, like scientists at scientific agencies and accountants at the IRS.

Trump could not act on the executive order then because he lost the election. If he wins now, he’s pledged to pick up where he left off and go further…

TRUMP: …making every executive branch employee fireable by the President of the United States.

#2 Project 2025 is about controlling Americans’ lives & bodies

Restricting abortion is such a big part of Project 2025 that the word “abortion” appears 198 times in the plan.

Trump largely made good on his campaign promise to ban abortion.

Thanks to Trump’s Supreme Court justices, 1 in 3 American women of childbearing age live in states with abortion bans. Project 2025 would make that even worse, without needing new laws from Congress.

Page 458 of the playbook calls for a MAGA-controlled FDA to reject medical science and reverse approval of the medications used in 63% of all abortions, effectively banning them.

Page 455 plans “abortion surveillance” and the creation of a registry that could put people who cross state lines to get an abortion at risk of prosecution.

Another way around Congress is to enforce arcane laws that are still technically on the books. Page 562 plans for a MAGA-controlled Justice Department to enforce the Comstock Act of 1873, which bans the mailing of “anything designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion.” This could be used to block the shipment of any medications or medical instruments needed for abortions.

But Project 2025’s control of American families goes even further. It plans for government agencies to define life as beginning at conception — a position at odds with the process used for in vitro fertilization.

Page 451 declares that “Families comprised of a married mother, father, and their children are the foundation of a well-ordered nation and healthy society,” thereby stigmatizing single parents, same-sex couples, unmarried coparents, and childless couples.

Project 2025 even takes a stand against adoption, declaring on p. 489 that “all children have a right to be raised by the men and women who conceived them.”

#3 Project 2025 would turn America into a police state.

Maybe you live in a blue city or state, where you think plans like arresting teachers and librarians over banned books (which is on p. 5) could never happen. Well, guess again.

Trump has said one of the big things he’d do differently in a second term is override mayors and governors to take over local law enforcement.

Page 553 lays out how to do this, and even plans for Trump’s Justice Department to prosecute district attorneys he disagrees with.

Immigration enforcement is to be conducted like a war, with the military deployed within the U.S., and millions of undocumented immigrants rounded up and placed into newly constructed holding camps. This is outlined starting on p. 139.

Members of the Project 2025 team also reportedly told the Washington Post about plans to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy the military against anti-Trump protests.

There is much more to Project 2025. There are more than a hundred pages of anti-environmental policies that would help Trump make good on what he reportedly promised to do for oil executives if they contribute a billion dollars to his reelection. It would make drilling and mining a top national priority while killing clean energy projects, barring the EPA from regulating carbon emissions, and replacing all government climate scientists with climate deniers.

There are even cartoonishly cruel plans like slaughtering wild horses. Yes, that’s really in there on p. 528.

I thought I understood the stakes of this election, but reading this plan… Well, it gave me chills. If Trump gets the chance to put this plan into place, he will. The country it would turn America into would be hard for any of us to recognize.

[blogport]

EPOXYSHİNE - DRAGON+ (5)

When it comes to enhancing the aesthetic and functional qualities of your floors, solid color epoxy flooring stands out as a top choice. Renowned for its durability and ease of maintenance, this sleek flooring option offers a seamless look that transforms any space into a modern haven. Beyond the allure of solid colors, the world of epoxy flooring also features exciting variations like the vibrant epoxy flake floors. These innovative surfaces blend color flakes into a clear resin, providing a unique texture and visual appeal that can suit any design vision. 

Solid Color Epoxy Floor

When it comes to flooring solutions, the solid color epoxy floor stands out for its durability and aesthetic appeal. This type of flooring is created by mixing epoxy resin with hardeners, resulting in a seamless, impermeable surface that can withstand heavy foot traffic and harsh conditions.

One of the significant advantages of solid color epoxy floors is their versatility. These floors can be customized to fit various color schemes and designs, making them an excellent choice for both residential and commercial spaces. Whether you prefer a bold and vibrant tone or a more subtle hue, there's a solid epoxy color to meet your needs.

Additionally, the maintenance of a solid color epoxy floor is relatively simple. Regular cleaning with mild soap and water is often sufficient to keep the floor looking new. This low-maintenance feature, combined with its long-lasting nature, makes it a cost-effective flooring solution in the long run.

Epoxy Flake Floor

If you're looking for a versatile and aesthetically pleasing flooring option, epoxy flake floor is an excellent choice. This type of flooring combines the durability of epoxy with the decorative flair of colored flakes, creating a unique surface that's both functional and attractive.

One of the main benefits of epoxy flake floors is their resilience. They are resistant to stains, impacts, and chemicals, making them perfect for high-traffic areas such as garages, basements, or commercial spaces. Additionally, the textured surface of flake flooring provides excellent slip resistance, which enhances safety in both residential and industrial environments.

Beyond their practicality, epoxy flake floors offer endless design possibilities. You can choose from a variety of colors and sizes for the flakes, allowing you to customize your flooring to match your personal style or brand image. Whether you prefer a subtle blend or a bold statement, flake flooring can transform your space into a visually stunning area that stands out.

Flake Flooring

Flake flooring is an innovative and versatile flooring solution that combines aesthetics with durability. One of the defining features of flake flooring is its unique blend of colorful chips or flakes that are embedded into a clear epoxy base. This method not only enhances the visual appeal of the floor but also provides a strong, long-lasting surface that can withstand heavy foot traffic and wear.

Another significant advantage of flake flooring is its customizable nature. Homeowners and business owners can choose from an array of colors, shapes, and sizes of flakes, allowing them to create a floor that perfectly matches their style or corporate branding. This customization makes flake flooring an excellent choice for various applications, from residential garages to commercial spaces.

Moreover, flake flooring is easy to maintain. The smooth surface of the epoxy prevents dirt and grime from becoming lodged in the seams, making clean-up a breeze. With proper maintenance, flake flooring can maintain its vibrant appearance for years, making it a practical and stylish flooring choice.

[vaspider]

Simply put, there is a ton of fascist-chic cosplay involved. Once an officer joins the Grays, they get a special uniform designed by their tech overlords. The Grays will also donate heavily to police charities and “merge the Gray and police social networks.” Then, in a show of force, they’ll march through the city together. “A huge win would be a Gray Pride parade with 50,000 Grays,” said Srinivasan. “That would start to say: ‘Whose streets? Our streets!’ You have the A.I. Flying Spaghetti Monster. You have the Bitcoin parade. You have the drones flying overhead in formation.... You have bubbling genetic experiments on beakers.… You have the police at the Gray Pride parade. They’re flying the Anduril drones …”

Everyone would be welcome at the Gray Pride march—everyone, that is, except the Blues. Srinivasan defines the Blue political tribe as the liberal voters he implies are responsible for the city’s problems. Blues will be banned from the Gray-controlled zones, said Balaji, unlike Republicans (“Reds”). “Reds should be welcomed there, and people should wear their tribal colors,” said Srinivasan, who compared his color-coded apartheid system to the Bloods vs. Crips gang rivalry. “No Blues should be welcomed there.”

While the Blues would be excluded, they would not be forgotten. Srinivasan imagines public screenings of anti-Blue propaganda films: “In addition to celebrating Gray and celebrating Red, you should have movies shown about Blue abuses.… There should be lots of stories about what Blues are doing that is bad.”

Balaji goes on—and on. The Grays will rename city streets after tech figures and erect public monuments to memorialize the alleged horrors of progressive Democratic governance. Corporate logos and signs will fill the skyline to signify Gray dominance of the city. “Ethnically cleanse,” he said at one point, summing up his idea for a city purged of Blues (this, he says, will prevent Blues from ethnically cleansing the Grays first).

[enlightenedrobot]

Other Characters you can legally use for your Mickey Mouse project

Mickey Mouse is in the public domain, as is Minnie Mouse and Peg-leg Pete. There's some caveats to that, and I talk about that more in this other post, but for now, let's talk about other characters who you can also use to fill out the cast.

These characters should all be in the public domain, though some characters still have treademarks. I'll get into how to use them safely as we go. Anyways, let's start.

Other Disney Characters

Disney obvciously doesn't advertise this, but there's actually quite a few Disney originals who've actually been in the public domain for a while.

The Mad Doctor never had it's copyright renewed, and so it's very technically the first Mickey Mouse cartoon to enter the public domain. Keep in mind, the version of Pluto featured in the short isn't in the domain just yet, but the Doctor himself is free to use.

What's funny is that Disney would later use a version of Doctor for Epic Mickey. Obviously don't use that version of the character.

Aside from the Mad Doctor, we also have Oswald and Ortensia

Yeah, as it turns out, Oswald's been in the public domain for quite a while, but he's still trademarked by Disney. Easy recommendation... use the original "fat" design of the character and have him go by Lucky.

But before Oswald, we have the Alice Comedies

Everything about the Alice Comedies is Public Domain for a long time, and the Disney corporation very rarely acknowlege these characters existence. Which is a shame because These shorts were some of the first shorts Walt ever produced, and they have the unique gimmick of featuring a live action girl in an animated world.

Everybody already knows about Oswald, but nobody talks about Oswald and Mickey's older brother from these shorts, Julius the Cat

Like... yeah no, it didn't all start with a mouse. Or a rabbit. It started with a cat.

Foxy and Milton Mouse

Both Foxy (top) and Milton (bottom, pictured with his girlfriend Rita Mouse) were characters created by Warner Brothers and Van Beuren respectively to cash in on Mickey's success, and both characters are also in the public domain.

In fact, all Van Beuren cartoons are apparently in the public domain, and I encourage you to find their cartoons and use them as you please.

Fleischer Characters

Betty Boop is probably in the Public Domain, but there's a few caveats with this. From what I can tell, the name Betty Boop is trademarked, but the character herself isn't. Most of the old Betty Cartoons are free to use, but newer incarnations, including the versions used in 1985's The Romance of Betty Boop and 1989's The Betty Boop Movie Mystery are still very much under copyright.

To avoid any legal trouble, I have two big recommendations. Although everybody remembers Betty as having Black hair, in one of the few early instances of Betty being shown in color, she's actually depicted as Redhead.

This is Betty Boop in 1934's Poor Cinderella, and her hair color is pretty clearly red.

The other option is to just make her black.

Though there's been some debate as to whether Betty Boop was intentionally modeled after Esther Lee Jones or not, there's still no denying the influence of Jazz on the character. Betty Boop is a Jazz singer and is often depicted dancing to Cab Calloway. Hell, the Betty Boop musical features Jasmine Amy Rogers as the titular character.

Betty Boop aside, there's an entire world of defunct Betty Boop characters who are definately public domain, including Bimbo and Koko the Clown.

Next year, Popeye's also gonna enter the Domain. So keep an eye out for him too.

Anyways, these are my picks, but obviously this list isn't meant to be comprehensive. There's a ton of old cartoon characters out there who can be freely reinterpreted into newer works. Feel free to add your own favorite public domain cartoon to the list.

[cavegirlpoems]

The Two D&Ds

I am going to make two statements:

I despise D&D, and consider it a parasitic drain on ttrpgs as an artform.

I love D&D and my fascination with it continually inspires me to create art using it.

These two statements might seem to be at odds, but in fact there is no conflict when one considers that the term 'D&D' is being used to refer to two completely different things. I hate one of those things and like the other. So let's unpack that. Firstly, there's D&D-as-a-lifestyle-brand. D&D as presented by critical role, by memes about horny bards and wholesome gay tiefling found families, and by the wider hasbro-sanctioned fandom. Where the actual design and mechanics of the game are a vague suggestion that exists homeopathically in the same vicinity as what you're doing. But really, you're inventing blorbos, collecting pretty dice, and speculating on events in an actual-play on twitch; the rules in that very pretty rulebook are an afterthought to the fandom.

Then there's D&D-as-a-family-of-ttrpg-mechanics. This covers the various editions of Dungeons & Dragons - from the white-box OD&D to 5th edition and everything in between - as well as various retroclones, hacks and spin-offs such as the OSR, Pathfinder, etc. This isn't defined as a cultural space; it's a set of game mechanics and design principles shared across the text of various games. And there's a lot of variation with the specifics, but like The Blues, if you know the basic structure it all makes sense.

The two D&Ds have very little to do with each other.

When indie people like myself criticise D&D, we are usually criticising the first one. We're generally outsiders to that fandom-space who are unhappy with the way that fandom encroches on, and ultimately stiffles, everything else in ttrpgs as an artistic medium. We tend also to dislike the very shallow interest in that fandom of the things we care about in ttrpgs - game design, gameplay, theory, criticism, etc.

Here's the thing. I am, personally, immensely critical of D&D-as-lifestyle-brand. I detest it, honestly. It strikes me as a corporate exploitation of the wider medium in pursuit of an easy profit, at the expense of catering to the lowest common denominator. Like invasive kudzu, it chokes out all ecological diversity in the art-form. Its a homogenising influence, and in my experience pretty anti-intillectual.

Because, at risk of sounding like a pseud, I consider ttrpg design to be an art-form that merits serious effort, discussion and appreciation.

However. D&D-as-a-set-of-games I actually quite like. I find myself fascinated by the way so many games take apart the starting framework of a given edition of D&D - like your 12-bar-blues structure - and adapt it and riff on it and fuse it with other genres. I find it interesting to track the way whole movements and genres mutate out from that starting position. Hell, I do that myself, a lot. A lot of my design work takes the very early editions of D&D as a starting point, gets into a groove, and riffs on it until it's seemingly unrecognisable.

To me, a work like Mork Borg is D&D (the second definition). It is, however, totally unrelated and unrecognisable to D&D (the first definition).

So I will talk about "D&D as the containment game for shit players" and I mean it, because I'm talking about type-1. And I'll do that while designing a paleolithic OSR game, because that's type-2. And by and large, all that happens when both those things intersect is people get upset.

[aronarchy]

Why we don’t like it when children hit us back

To all the children who have ever been told to “respect” someone that hated them.

March 21, 2023

Even those of us that are disturbed by the thought of how widespread corporal punishment still is in all ranks of society are uncomfortable at the idea of a child defending themself using violence against their oppressors and abusers. A child who hits back proves that the adults “were right all along,” that their violence was justified. Even as they would cheer an adult victim for defending themself fiercely.

Even those “child rights advocates” imagine the right child victim as one who takes it without ever stopping to love “its” owners. Tear-stained and afraid, the child is too innocent to be hit in a guilt-free manner. No one likes to imagine the Brat as Victim—the child who does, according to adultist logic, deserve being hit, because they follow their desires, because they walk the world with their head high, because they talk back, because they are loud, because they are unapologetically here, and resistant to being cast in the role of guest of a world that is just not made for them.

If we are against corporal punishment, the brat is our gotcha, the proof that it is actually not that much of an injustice. The brat unsettles us, so much that the “bad seed” is a stock character in horror, a genre that is much permeated by the adult gaze (defined as “the way children are viewed, represented and portrayed by adults; and finally society’s conception of children and the way this is perpetuated within institutions, and inherent in all interactions with children”), where the adult fear for the subversion of the structures that keep children under control is very much represented.

It might be very well true that the Brat has something unnatural and sinister about them in this world, as they are at constant war with everything that has ever been created, since everything that has been created has been built with the purpose of subjugating them. This is why it feels unnatural to watch a child hitting back instead of cowering. We feel like it’s not right. We feel like history is staring back at us, and all the horror we felt at any rebel and wayward child who has ever lived, we are feeling right now for that reject of the construct of “childhood innocence.” The child who hits back is at such clash with our construction of childhood because we defined violence in all of its forms as the province of the adult, especially the adult in authority.

The adult has an explicit sanction by the state to do violence to the child, while the child has both a social and legal prohibition to even think of defending themself with their fists. Legislation such as “parent-child tort immunity” makes this clear. The adult’s designed place is as the one who hits, and has a right and even an encouragement to do so, the one who acts, as the person. The child’s designed place is as the one who gets hit, and has an obligation to accept that, as the one who suffers acts, as the object. When a child forcibly breaks out of their place, they are reversing the supposed “natural order” in a radical way.

This is why, for the youth liberationist, there should be nothing more beautiful to witness that the child who snaps. We have an unique horror for parricide, and a terrible indifference at the 450 children murdered every year by their parents in just the USA, without even mentioning all the indirect suicides caused by parental abuse. As a Psychology Today article about so-called “parricide” puts it:

Unlike adults who kill their parents, teenagers become parricide offenders when conditions in the home are intolerable but their alternatives are limited. Unlike adults, kids cannot simply leave. The law has made it a crime for young people to run away. Juveniles who commit parricide usually do consider running away, but many do not know any place where they can seek refuge. Those who do run are generally picked up and returned home, or go back on their own: Surviving on the streets is hardly a realistic alternative for youths with meager financial resources, limited education, and few skills.

By far, the severely abused child is the most frequently encountered type of offender. According to Paul Mones, a Los Angeles attorney who specializes in defending adolescent parricide offenders, more than 90 percent have been abused by their parents. In-depth portraits of such youths have frequently shown that they killed because they could no longer tolerate conditions at home. These children were psychologically abused by one or both parents and often suffered physical, sexual, and verbal abuse as well—and witnessed it given to others in the household. They did not typically have histories of severe mental illness or of serious and extensive delinquent behavior. They were not criminally sophisticated. For them, the killings represented an act of desperation—the only way out of a family situation they could no longer endure.

- Heide, Why Kids Kill Parents, 1992.

Despite these being the most frequent conditions of “parricide,” it still brings unique disgust to think about it for most people. The sympathy extended to murdering parents is never extended even to the most desperate child, who chose to kill to not be killed. They chose to stop enduring silently, and that was their greatest crime; that is the crime of the child who hits back. Hell, children aren’t even supposed to talk back. They are not supposed to be anything but grateful for the miserable pieces of space that adults carve out in a world hostile to children for them to live following adult rules. It isn’t rare for children to notice the adult monopoly on violence and force when they interact with figures like teachers, and the way they use words like “respect.” In fact, this social dynamic has been noticed quite often:

Sometimes people use “respect” to mean “treating someone like a person” and sometimes they use “respect” to mean “treating someone like an authority” and sometimes people who are used to being treated like an authority say “if you won’t respect me I won’t respect you” and they mean “if you won’t treat me like an authority I won’t treat you like a person” and they think they’re being fair but they aren’t, and it’s not okay.

(https://soycrates.tumblr.com/post/115633137923/stimmyabby-sometimes-people-use-respect-to-mean)

But it has received almost no condemnation in the public eye. No voices have raised to contrast the adult monopoly on violence towards child bodies and child minds. No voices have raised to praise the child who hits back. Because they do deserve praise. Because the child who sets their foot down and says this belongs to me, even when it’s something like their own body that they are claiming, is committing one of the most serious crimes against adult society, who wants them dispossessed.

Sources:

“The Adult Gaze: a tool of control and oppression,” https://livingwithoutschool.com/2021/07/29/the-adult-gaze-a-tool-of-control-and-oppression

“Filicide,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filicide

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Heraldry

Heraldry - is about showing people who you are.

In England, it started in the later 1100s, when knights began to wear helmets, and they couldn't be recognised. So they began to paint unique combinations of colours, shapes and animals, called their 'arms', on their shields and banners. Only one person was allowed to use these arms. When people saw a knight wearing them in a battle or tournament, they could tell who he was.

It is the science and the art that deal with the use, display, and regulation of hereditary symbols employed to distinguish individuals, armies, institutions, and corporations. Those symbols, which originated as identification devices on flags and shields, are called armorial bearings.

Strictly defined, heraldry denotes that which pertains to the office and duty of a herald; that part of his work dealing with armorial bearings is properly termed armory. But in general usage heraldry has come to mean the same as armory.

The Colours of Heraldry

The 5 traditional colours are, with their heraldic names:

Red = Gules

Blue = Azure

Green = Vert

Black = Sable

Purple = Purpure

Plus the two 'metals':

Gold or yellow = Or

Silver or white = Argent

There are also 'furs', the most common being:

Ermine: representing the white winter fur of stoats, with their black tail tips.

Vair: representing squirrel skins, in blue and white.

If something (say a dog or badger) is shown in its natural colours, it's called proper.

Conventional representations of tinctures used when it is not possible to print the actual colors:

Heraldic Ordinaries

Ordinaries - the simple shapes used on heraldic shields, against a colour, metal or fur background. If you are making your own design, choose one of these main ordinaries:

Fess = horizontal stripe across the shield

Pale = vertical stripe down the shield

Bend = diagonal stripe

Chevron = like a house gable, pointing upwards

Cross = a plain cross

Saltire = a 'St. Andrew's cross'

Chief = bar across top edge of shield

Bordure = border round edges of shield

Pile = downward-pointing triangle

You can also divide your shield into two colours, either vertically or horizontally, or into four different-coloured quarters.

You don't have to use an ordinary, but if you do remember to never put a colour on colour or a metal on a metal. Try to remember this heraldic rule: colours don't show up well against colours, or metals against metals. This also applies to charges.

Heraldic Charges

Charges - emblems added to the shield, on the background, the 'ordinary', or both.

There can be one big charge, or several smaller repeated ones. Here are some of the common charges you could use:

Crosses - of many different types

Stars

Rings

Balls

Crescents

Diamonds

Flowers

They can be any colour, but remember never put colour on colour, for example a green star on blue, or metal on metal, for example a white flower on yellow.

Many knights also used animals as charges.

Animal Charges

Any animal - either one big one or several smaller - can be used as a charge. They can be shown in many different ways, for instance:

Rearing up (rampant) - like the lion and the hare in the pictures above

Standing (statant) - like the dog

For birds, with wings outstretched (displayed) - like the eagle

Walking along (passant) - like the other lion

If the animal is looking towards you, it is also guardant or 'on guard'. So the lion in the picture is passant guardant.

The ancient royal arms of England are 3 golden lions, one above the other, walking along on a red shield: or, in heraldic code, gules three lions passant guardant or.

Just to make things more complicated, lions passant guardant are also called leopards - but they don't have spots.

Choosing Your Animal

Animals symbolised different qualities. So for instance:

Lions = bravery

Dogs = faithfulness, reliability

Stags = wisdom and long life

Eagles = power and nobility

Badgers = endurance or 'hanging on'

You could also design your own animal charge.

For instance a cat, horse or other favourite pet.

Or you could choose a fabulous beast...

Fabulous Beasts

Though often used as 'charges', these fabulous beasts never really existed.

But some people believed they did, maybe because they'd heard about them in stories made up by travellers to distant lands, like crusading knights or merchant adventurers. Pictures of them also appeared in 'bestiaries', a popular kind of illustrated medieval story-book.

Here are some you could use:

Dragon: the earliest and most common fabulous beast, also used as a badge by Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Welsh. A brave and cunning defender of treasure.

Griffin: a combination of lion and eagle. Symbolises watchfulness and courage - and also guards treasure.

Cockatrice: a cross between a cockerel and a dragon, supposedly hatched from a cock's egg by a snake or toad. Could kill by looking at you, and symbolised protection.

Manticore or 'man-tiger': a fearsome man-eating creature with a lion's body, man's face, tusks, horns and a deafening trumpet-like voice.

Cadency

Cadency - the use of various devices designed to show a man’s position in a family, with the aforementioned basic aim of reserving the entire arms to the head of the family and to differentiate the arms of the rest, who are the cadets, or younger members.

Heraldic works in the 16th century refer to cadency marks as:

a label for the eldest son during his father’s lifetime;

a crescent for the second son;

a mullet (five-pointed star) for the third;

a martlet (a mythical bird), the fourth;

an annulet (a small ring), the fifth;

a fleur-de-lis, the sixth;

a rose, the seventh; and so forth.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 ⚜ More: Writing Notes & References

[sagistrology]

𝖕𝖑𝖚𝖙𝖔 𝖎𝖓 𝖆𝖖𝖚𝖆𝖗𝖎𝖚𝖘, 𝖕𝖆𝖗𝖙 𝖙𝖜𝖔 - 𝖕𝖑𝖚𝖙𝖔 𝖙𝖍𝖗𝖔𝖚𝖌𝖍 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖘𝖊𝖘, 𝖓𝖆𝖙𝖆𝖑 + 𝖙𝖗𝖆𝖓𝖘𝖎𝖙

(these observations are general and do not cover all aspects)

♏︎ pluto shows where we burn, toughen, and become resilient. reaping the fruits of this process can be strenuous, and might be seen better in hindsight.

♏︎ the energies can be raw and primal, given pluto's urgency and intensity. centring obsession, compulsion, paranoia, etc.

♏︎ it can feel as though you symbolically enter a wound, refracting its pain back to you upon contact. the energies can be vile, and gory.

♏︎ pluto compels us to confront our deepest wounds, and demands us to see where our perception is tainted by trauma. it is an undercurrent, nudging us to the edge to fall (confront) - and rise (heal).

pluto in the first house

♏︎ a dominating placement since it falls in the house of 'identity', creating a deep resonance with plutonian themes. there's frequent retreat due to an early disillusionment about people's intentions - leading to relying on oneself. can detach from people and be cautious, extremely observant. you can find a detailed description on pluto conjunct the ascendant here.

♏︎ during transit: change in appearance, often 'darkening'. can be a time of vitality, endurance, and determination. coming out of introspection - redefining oneself.

pluto in the second house

♏︎ compulsively chasing security and resourcefulness, focused on materialism and control, fear of scarcity and being dominated – dealing with cyclical loss, creating a fear of losing ones foundation. this loss can range from opportunities, careers, assets or wealth to the loss of an identity or person (core wound).

♏︎ during transit: reclaiming what's been taken from you, having firm boundaries, accumulation and loss of wealth, defining value, learning that abundance starts from within.

pluto in the third house

♏︎ sensual voices - talking oneself into positions of power, feared for their intellect and silenced by those less competent. often critical of institutions. requiring depth and versatility - jack of all trades. loving banter and debate. intrigued by intelligence, quick and instinctual.

♏︎ can be extremely critical of themselves, downplaying their achievements even if they are exceptional. longing to be heard and valued.

♏︎ during transit: intellectual obsessions, craving taboo or occult knowledge, communal differences - questioning one's belonging, focus on mental health and what doesn't serve you.

pluto in the fourth house

♏︎ giving birth to creations through their pain - ancestral and domestic wounds that happened secluded and privately, inflicted trauma. highly intuitive and enduring, healing themselves and those to come. breathing life into everything they touch.

♏︎ where does life grow? in the mother's womb. what is inherent to this process? its cyclical nature. what does it consist of? sacrifice, dependence, excruciating pain, loss. what does it lead to? birth.

♏︎ during transit: domestic affairs or betrayal being exposed, secrets being told or asked to be kept. can be about loss, sacrifice, or distance to a beloved. creating boundaries or having them crossed.

pluto in the fifth house

♏︎ wounded inner child, being unable to create, often by force - a suppression of light. urge to be centred. tend to be erratic, having tunnel vision while creating. the initial 'wound' can vary in cause and effect based on how pluto's aspected. while pluto aspected by jupiter can create a feeling of superiority and a certain blindness to flaws, saturn causes doubt and repression, amplifying critique and diminishing one's work. same blindness, just flipped.

♏︎ during transit: immersing oneself in a project or person, craving to be inspired, finding a muse, dealing with copycats. being plagiarized or robbed of your creation. think of ai generated art based on artist's models or corporations stealing designs. (having upper hand despite fraud)

pluto in the sixth house

♏︎ destructive humility where one’s identity can dissolve – people feeling entitled to both their autonomy and service. demand to 'function' to a state of paralysis while disregarding their condition. worth can feel synonymous to performance.

♏︎ during transit: confronted with criticism, obsessive and compulsive tendencies in the mundane, change in routines, purification, having no 'saviour', learning to sacrifice for oneself rather than others. new ventures, e.g. professionally.

pluto in the seventh house

♏︎ fearing control and dependence - often seeking complex and unavailable partners in the house of 'others', with them being centred. there can be themes of possession, manipulation, and dominance, being sovereign. private and protective. being criticised in the public eye, confronted with jealousy and projection.

♏︎ during transit: business ventures and deals that need to be analysed carefully, focus on social class and status, entrance of opposing energies challenging your identity, keeping bonds private. having eyes on you.

pluto in the eighth house

♏︎ sexually reserved, treating sex and intimacy as something sacred or ritualistic. casual sex and intimacy drains them and generally can't be sustained. once committed they are bound. can have obsessive tendencies and high stamina. desired and charismatic, however out of reach.

♏︎ can be calculated and sense opportunities to gain power. psychological affinity allowing them to recognize patterns and behaviours. deeply tied to wealth (currency of power), either born into influential families or striving to attain status.

♏︎ during transit: having power and losing it, being stripped of everything you thought was yours. letting go of conditioned shame. financial dependence, trauma being centred (actively or in hindsight). intimacy, few but significant connections.

pluto in the ninth house

♏︎ the occult, philosophical expansion and psychic abilities - abundant yet compromised by structure. seeing past division and aching over discrimination, hatred, and coldness. receptive to transcendence, deeply wounded by closed hearts.

♏︎ when restricted or bound to a place the jupiterian expansiveness turns inward (mental). they are curious, wise, artistic, philosophical, and energetic. attempting to compromise their nature makes them burst (and leave).

♏︎ during transit: desire to attain higher education or specialising in a field, craving intellectual depth and mental stimulation, change of perception (also ideologies and religion), experimenting despite resistance.

pluto in the tenth house

♏︎ stunted legacy - often hindered by authorities or outer circumstances to achieve greatness, putting them at a disadvantage despite their capabilities. opportunities can be disproportionate to their potential. think of an excellent communicator working in a call centre. having to work harder than the average person.

♏︎ during transit: focus on public sphere and reputation, facing scrutiny and striving to be respected, peaking. can be about inheritance, passed on legacies, scandals, and authority. be strategic of what you put out, esp. online with pluto in aquarius. defending one's principles.

pluto in the eleventh house

♏︎ intelligent and analytical, craving originality and detecting lies without trying. can appear vain due to their selectiveness, needing mental stimulation, bored by repetitive and constructed thoughts. can be isolated - principle above sympathy. detached when nothing piques their interest.

♏︎ during transit: focus on higher concepts - disconnect that brings awareness to societal structures, innovation, and the subconscious. peak social awareness and calling out misbehaviour. pioneering esp. in tech and humanitarianism. decentralizing status, prioritizing impact.

pluto in the twelfth house

♏︎ being intertwined with the world's suffering and consumed by agony that isn't theirs. pain can be unrestricted since it transcends the material. the veil, to both humans and the otherworldly, is thin. feeling out of place, or surreal.

♏︎ mesmerizing eyes, and an existence between the worlds. characterised by sensitivity and wisdom beyond their years. esp. dominating when pluto in the 12h is conjunct their ascendant.

♏︎ during transit: loss of unity with their pain concentrated inward, can feel cataclysmic and fated. confrontation and healing of trauma. fear over losing our cognitive abilities and originality due to advancements, esp. ai.

[david-talks-sw]

"The idea of it..."

This is obviously a reference to the ol' argument:

"The Jedi weren't bad but the Jedi Order as an institution needed to go."

So as a quick reminder I thought I'd point out:

1) George Lucas describes the Jedi's eradication as a sad thing, not something sad-but-necessary:

"[The] Jedi getting killed through the Order 66 of the clones is just done as one of those kind of inevitable pay offs in terms of getting rid of everybody, the Emperor is getting rid of all his enemies, but there’s a certain inevitability of it all and a sadness to it.  - Revenge of the Sith, Director’s Commentary, 2005

2) Out of 770 George Lucas quotes, I've never seen him refer to the Jedi Order as "an institution" once.

He does refer to the Republic itself as an institution.

"[In The Phantom Menace one of the many storylines is] the story of a young queen who's faced with the total annihilation of a people, and how she can get a sluggish political institution to pay attention to what's going on." - Premiere, 1999

He might be referring to the Senate instead of the Republic as a whole, but the point stands: he's not talking about the Jedi.

Which tracks with what Lucas defined as Dooku's reason for leaving the Order: his disenchantment with the Republic/Senate, not the Jedi themselves.

But let's go slightly further:

The Jedi Temple was designed as a place of worship that would contrast with the corporate coldness of the Senate.

Also, the Jedi were originally designed as a more organized police force. As the script evolved, they were turned into peacekeepers, diplomats.

Mace's room was redesigned so as to not convey that the Jedi were mired in bureaucracy and protocol.

And when describing the political situation of the Prequels, Lucas doesn't blame the Jedi, but rather the corporations and Senate:

"But as often happens when wealth and power grow beyond all reasonable proportion, an evil fueled by greed arose. The massive organs of commerce mushroomed in power, the Senate became corrupt, and an ambitious named Palpatine was voted Supreme Chancellor." - Shatterpoint, Prologue, 2004

Wow, it's looking like not only is the "Jedi Order as an institution needed to go" narrative not a thing per Lucas, but

3) Lucas went out of his way to make it clear that the Jedi aren't the issue, here, the Republic/Senate is.

So how did we get this narrative?

Well, it comes from a generation of fans and Star Wars creators who were not the target audience.

You know the type. It's the kind who, when asked if they like the Prequel Trilogy, will respond that they liked...

... but not the execution.

AKA they disliked the Prequels, but then EU books and The Clone Wars came out and provided them with enough material to form a headcanon justifying why they didn't like the Jedi, despite wanting to: it's because the Jedi are meant to be disliked! Totally!

The Jedi failed as an institution is an idea that comes from authors who wanted to engage with the material (it IS Star Wars, after all) but not the narrative that George Lucas had crafted, whose work then influenced older fans who preferred the author's retconned version of the story to the original one.

The rest is history.

As Prequels producer Rick McCallum put it:

"The myth begins on paper. During preproduction, filming, and postproduction, the myth becomes visible through the work of hundreds of dedicated people. Following the film's release, the myth becomes public and the public makes it its own." - Rick McCallum, Mythmaking: Behind the Scenes of Attack of the Clones, 2002

[lalunanymph]

𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐂𝐊, 𝐁𝐀𝐁𝐘 — m. reo

𓆩ᥫ᭡𓆪 saving the world, one coerced check at a time

tw. husband!reo, reader was an air stewardess, t!t job, deep throat, edging, riding, 1 slap (not towards reader), talks of climate change, both reader and reo are switches, coercion

tagging @katasstrophy riv it’s been way too long since we last talked about this but here’s the husband!reo piece i was being a menace with (like finally)

Reo Mikage was a lot of things. 

A husband. A philanthropist. A soccer player with a huge legacy. 

But, he also had a huge ego deep enough to rival the Marianas Trench. Good quality food, high class hotels and exceptional services at restaurants were something he would never compromise on. Another thing which he would never bend for? Shoddy charities.

“Always a new one popping up every damn time,” he grumbled next to you, scrolling through his phone. “You gotta wonder if the government is controlling them.”

You, on the other hand, were his exceptionally giving wife. Your days as an air stewardess filled you with grit and knowledge of different views—opened you up to worlds of possibilities where the idea of a better world was right within reach. You grew up with a sense of responsibility for the environment. What humans gave to mother nature, it would be returned back tenfold.

Reusing, recycling and reducing were important in your life. Sadly, Reo was not of the same opinion as you were.

He was brought up in a life of excess. Surplus flowed in his blood with the idea of more guiding his life. He strived to do more, see more, gain more. Always and every time without fail. 

“They’re trying to help save the planet, love,” you hummed, curling yourself onto his chest. Reo tutted and pushed his horn-rimmed glasses up the slope of his defined nose, curling one defined arm around your waist. 

“Fat load of help that would be. You should put your money where your mouth is if you want to achieve such a feat. Tch.”

Your stomach sank slightly at his words. You never expected him to spew such a fascinating statement. The text you had received from a long-time friend burned in your messages, and you had mulled over how to respond to it. How to respond to her desperate plea to help support her waning environmental lobbying agency.

Kira Ryosume was one of your oldest colleagues. She was a dear friend who offered you a lot of advice when you were just a novice air stewardess. She was a decent person who deserved to have her dreams come to life.

A dream of finally passing an environmental bill which would mandate large corporations to register for the Carbon-Neutral Treaty. As expected, none of these businesses wanted to take part in such an altruistic event unless their bottom line would be greatly boosted.

¥20 million. She needed that amount to even think about publishing the treaty.

You flattened your lips and eyed your husband. Mikage Reo’s defined abs and biceps pulsed in the half-light from the designer lampshades by your side table. After two years of marriage, Reo was still delectable to you—one of the finest men you ever had the pleasure of sleeping with. After all, he had made the impossible possible by getting you to commit to him for your entire life.

Slowly, your hands roamed down his torso, touching the notched scars of his body from those years he played pro on the soccer fields of the world. Grazing his rosy pink nipples, you heard his hitched breath exhaled in your hair, spurring you on. Counting the moles on his abdomen, you gently traced the burst of his lilac happy trail, leading straight to the sharp ‘V’ carved delicately above the band of his sweatpants.

“Sweetheart,” he grunted, unable to stop your caresses because why would he? 

Reo lived for any attention you gave him. 

The one thing you were intimately acquainted with about your beloved husband was that he hated anything which was not a challenge. Truly—a consequence from his upbringing which saw him getting everything he wanted anytime. Your lips curved upwards into a sinful smile. He was always so fun to ruin.

Achingly slow now, you tugged the expensive Calvin Klein band down, dipping your fingers beyond it to graze his stirring length. Reo’s hips started to tick when you massaged the flushed pink tip between your thumb and forefinger, though he tried to play it cool.

Unexpectedly, you tightened your fist around his length, drawing it up slowly, and your grin grew wider when you felt a spurt of wetness running down your wrist. 

Reo hissed and set his phone down onto the side table, removing his glasses. His abdomen tightened, and you felt his heart thump unevenly under your cheek. You perched your chin on his left pec, gazing deeply into his glassy lilac eyes. Judging from his flushed cheeks and slightly parted lips, he was already drunk on your touch, his will crumbling to leave him susceptible to your misdoing.

And you loved the rush of power it elicited in you. 

“What’s gotten into you?” 

His voice was a low, scratchy whimper. You pressed yourself closer to him, lips in the hollow of his neck, the teasing puffs of your hot breath raising goosebumps on his skin. 

“Can’t I pleasure my own husband?” you breathed, batting your lashes at him. Completely having him at your mercy. 

Reo grunted, his mid-length purple locks brushing your shoulder when he used one large hand to part your thighs, cupping your mound. In retaliation, you snapped your legs closed, trapping his hand there and giving him a grin in response to his confusion.

“Wanna focus on you, baby.”

He moaned in surprise when he felt your wrist twisting around his leaking cock head. “I—hah—w-wait…” You started to jerk him off faster now, and Reo’s chest took on such a pretty flush you couldn’t resist tonguing his pebbled nipple. 

Your husband was not an idiot. He had years of experience to sense that you were trying to get something out of him by riling him up. Though, Reo was drawing a blank as to what exactly you needed.

“You w-want something,” he tried to sound accusatory, but it came out as a breathless mewl instead. “S’that true? T-tell me.”

You unlatched your lips from his throbbing nipple, doe eyes wide on him as you slowed down your pace. Reo’s hips stuttered, that glassy look in his eye growing lucid at your little laugh.

“You got me.” Sitting up, you kept your palm loosely around his cock, shifting your hair out of the way to slip your nightgown straps down, revealing your perky nipples to the cool room. Reo groaned at the sight of you shifting in between his legs, that vixen-like smirk still on your face and his cock now in between your breasts.

The sight of a globe of spit falling from your mouth and onto his throbbing tip made him curse under his breath. Reo stopped you before you could put him in your mouth with a hand on your cheek, his expression flustered and brows knitted.

“Well? What is it? A new bag? More clothes? Tell me what you want, my love, and I’ll try to make it happen.”

It was remarkably easy to leave your husband in a bind with such simple actions, especially when you pretended to think his preposition through, letting him stew in his frustrated silence, the hand around his cock still leisurely pumping him up and down up and down base to tip base to tip until he shuddered lightly.  

“L-Love?” 

“¥20 million,” you murmured, and before he could react at the amount, you dragged your tongue slowly and seductively across his soaked head, lapping at the beads of precum staining down his length. Leaving him reeling from both the pleasure and the shock of such a demand. 

Reo jerked back like he had been electrocuted, hissing loudly. “Fuck! F-fuck… what do you need with that much money?” He fisted your hair in one hand, completely entranced by your plush lips wrapped around his cock.

You let him go with a soft pop, humming. “You said it earlier. Those damn environmental agencies. I want to donate some money to them to help them solve the pollution companies like yours cause.”

Reo’s eyes widened, and he sputtered indignantly; his fury lost in a moan when you started to deepthroat him.

“Shit,” he cussed, low and hoarse, watching you with heavy, lidded eyes when you need to bob your head up and down his cock. “S’all it is to it? You wanted to play a hero? Baby, you started to try harder than that.”

You hummed around his length, fully expecting his resistance. Drooling around his pulsing length, your eyes met his, framed by your determination, he could only fist the sheets as you took him down to the hilt. Reo groaned, loud and husky, when your nose touched his lilac pubic hair. 

“S-shit, baby… you know that’s not fair…”

Reo’s whine was adorable, and so was his cluelessness to the next ace you had up your sleeve. Keeping your teary eyes locked on his, you started to shallowly use your mouth as a makeshift sleeve to tighten and suck his cock for what it was worth. 

He could barely hold back a loud yelp when you played with his balls along with your maddening movements.

You sensed he was close from his heavy breathing. Reo was fisting your hair for dear life, his thighs trembling underneath your body.

Before his pleasure could culminate in one swooping orgasm, you pulled back, letting a weak stream of his cum hit your chin. Ruining his release with an angelic smile.

Reo sagged back against the pillows, huffing like he had just finished a game. “Fuck… you’re mean…” 

In answer to his astute observation, you licked your lips and gathered his cum slowly dripping down your jaw to suck it off your finger. His taste was clean and musky, and you made sure to show him how much you appreciated it.

“Mmm… you taste so good, baby.” 

Reo whimpered at the sight of you fully removing your nightgown, leaving you in the nude. 

You took the chance to straddle his lap, manicured nails wrapping around his cock again and tugging playfully. 

“Changed your mind yet, rich boy?” You had not used that taunt on him for years now since the both of you had gotten married. Reo’s nostrils flared, his blood rushing south once more to thicken his girth in your teasing hold. The number of times he had punished you for calling him that stupid term… and you were riling him back up, spreading your legs and circling his leaking tip around your soaked entrance. 

You were asking for it now.

Reo enjoyed knocking you down a peg or two when he flipped you onto your back, your wide eyes and tiny squeak sending his ego to the orbit.

“Yeah,” he mumbled, fisting his length and slowly easing into you, splitting you wide open with his thickness and determination. Your nails stabbed into his shoulders, and your cry of ecstasy was smothered by his palm over your mouth. “You drive quite the hard bargain there, missy and I’m interested.”

Your muffled wails soothed him; made a woozy smile appear on his face. Such a pretty little crybaby, Reo thought. Too bad you tried to take control of him. It was a shame. He was prepared to give you enough orgasms tonight to leave you bed bound tomorrow. He watched, entranced, as your eyes rolled back into your head, only the glimmering whites exposed.

All the teasing you did culminated in a slippery mess between your legs. It looks like Reo wasn’t the only one affected by your teasing. 

His smirk deepened when he moved one hand in between your sweaty, writhing bodies, thumbing your clit in greasy circles; holding you down as you tried to push him off from the overstimulation. 

Reo chuckled, low and deep, when your mewls reached his ears.

“Always have to put you back in your place, huh?” He breathed, cocking one perfect lilac brow up. “When will you learn? You’re mine. I own you. You can’t just pull this shit on me.”

Somehow, his fingers ended up in your mouth, choking you while pinning your tongue down to the base of your throat. 

Reo clicked his tongue, arrogance dripping from his faux grin of sympathy when you buckled and twisted in his hold. “Too much?” 

Your garbled rendition of his name had the monster in him feening for more of your submission. He clasped one hand around your neck, holding you down as he parted your lips with one sturdy thumb.

“Open wide. Wider.” 

You obediently unhinged your jaw, slowly unfurling your tongue out for his scrutiny. Reo wasted no time in gathering a globule of spit, letting it dangle teasingly from his lips before the taste of him smothered your tongue.

“Swallow.”

You do, your walls rippling around him in response to his dominance. 

“Fuck. S’a good girl.” His unexpected praise makes both your pussy and heart clench; leaving you yearning for more. 

Reo could play nice and let you take the lead on some days, but tonight, you had pushed his buttons hard enough.

His cock drilling into you was enough of an indication of his frustration, and the ex-pro player didn’t care for your high strung whines when he pulled out of your swollen depths, about to leave you unsatisfied and covered with his cum when you rolled him onto his back, swiftly gripping his wrist to impede his movement. 

Reo yelped, and before he could chastise you, your palm landed lightly across his cheek. The simmering orgasm you had started an hour ago fizzled in his veins, and he growled, jaw and cock smarting. “Why you—”

His words were cut off by your lithe fingers slipping him back into your heat. Reo was powerless to stop you from sensually grinding down his cock, your half-hooded eyes and quivering tits enough of a consolation for his wounded ego when you took back the power and control. Those large, veiny palms of his cupped the flesh of your ass, kneading surely, appreciatively. Enjoying the sight of his wife riding him to oblivion as his cock twitched and tightened once more.

The coil in his belly started to tighten, and before he could completely blow his load, you stopped all movement. 

It took every ounce of self-control he had to not jackhammer up into you like a mad dog, a snarl twisting his handsome features.

“Y/N—”

“Sign the check,” you murmured, leaning back slightly to give him a full view of his cock splitting apart your messy folds. It was strategic—this little seduction game of yours. You knew he couldn’t resist watching you play with yourself, his voyeuristic nature emerging to greedily drink in the sight of your curves contrasting with the hard planes of his abs. Reo gulped audibly when you traced one hand down your torso slowly, straight to your throbbing clit; rubbing yourself right in front of your stunned husband.

His purple eyes grew hazier, like he was close to dropping into a stupor. Unbidden, his mouth fell open and soft little pants emanated in choked exhales that were endearing.

“The check, Reo,” you mumbled firmly, picking up your pace, arching your back and using your knees to support you on the soft mattress while you flexed and bucked your hips around his aching length. The promise of his release hung like dew in the air, close enough for him to taste; to quench himself off the thirst. 

He snapped the same moment you gasped, hanging onto the cliffedge of your sanity; your pussy shivering and begging to cum around his girth.

“Fine!” he spat out like a curse, and as if his words were a dam, the explosive passion sprung forth, drowning the both of you in its currents. “I’ll sign the damn thing later. Now. Ride. Me.”

Reo’s punctuated command broke into a growl, and you spared no more time bracing your hands on his shoulder, swivelling and circling your hips like your life depended on it. Like your sanity relied on the feeling of his hot cum shooting straight into your womb.

His eyes rolled back into his head, and the bruising grip he had around your hips was unyielding. 

You screamed out his name, lost in the ecstatic stupor of both your bodies joining together; rejoicing for a release which was sorely denied for these past few agonising hours. You felt like you had turned into jelly; your body sagged forward, mind in a dizzying circle.

He brought you into the sanctuary of his chest, arms like steel ropes around you as he met your grinding with a few hard thrusts of his own; bringing the both of you down the edge and straight into blissful hellfire.

The flames licked at your abdomen, your throat, leaving you teary-eyed and whining his name.

Reo’s purple mane was a mess, bleeding across his pillow like an ink spill. His harsh breathing collided with your cheek, and you moaned his name, shifting lightly in his arms. Feeling his cock twitch and his cum drip out of you. 

“Reo…”

He hummed, kissing your temple—a sweet ending to such an intense session. “I’ll send the check to you tomorrow, my love.” Your beloved husband rested in the afterglow, stamping another soft kiss onto your forehead absentmindedly while your breathing evened out. “You know I can never refuse you. Consider it my late birthday present for you.”

“But, you already gifted me that Hermès bag, love,” you mumbled, trying hard to not droop off into sleep. “You spoil me too much…”

“Isn’t that what I promised you when we got married?” He huffed a laugh. “I told you—just ask me, baby.”

His words landed on the soft terrain of your unconsciousness, and Reo sensed more than saw you drifting off. His expression broke into a tender smile, and he smoothed his warm, rough palms down your bare back.

“Sleep well, Y/N.”

With your body fitted snugly against his like a jigsaw piece, Reo let himself drift off to join you in sleep, amused at your wily ways to get him to say yes. 

Why you did it, he would never know. 

After all, Reo meant what he said when he told you to just ask him next time. 

He meant it when he said he would do anything for you.

— feedback and rbs are appreciated <33

© all work belongs to lalunanymph. do not copy, repost or claim as your own.

[bikiniarmorbattledamage]

So Player Unknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), the game which inspired the Battle Royale mode that came to define Fortnite, is doing a Chinese New Year promo themed around Journey to the West. Specifically it's themed around the trio of divine guardians who served as the primary protectors.

So briefly, I would like to discuss depictions of Zhu Bajie in popular media... who I generally refer to as Pigsy since, like many westerners - my first exposure to the character was the Japanese TV series Monkey (1978 - 1980) - in my case dubbed into English.

That's him on the right, with the muck rake. I also use this name because it's pretty much an accurate translation of the character's core premise after he is cast down into the mortal realm. It's how he's very consistently depicted:

Honor of Kings (2015)

Monkie Kid (2020 - )

It's pretty much consistent to the point where the issue with googling for examples is finding the specific product they're linked to since he always looks like a pig man.... just like the PUBG unlockables above depict him as.

So you can imagine my surprise to discover that at some point in the development of this promotion, someone from the PUBG Corporation doubtlessly asked "Have we got the design for Pigsy ready yet?" and the reply was apparently "Yeah, made her real fucking sexy for you too! Just like you asked!"

This is also a rare PUBG outfit that look kind of different on a male model, than on the female model... turning into a full crop top rather than just a sexy bra.

It's also one where the chest design etc would probably get covered pretty quick the moment a player gets a vest... but I haven't had either the opportunity... or the burning desire to test that.

-wincenworks

[stupidsexymecha]

Horus Pegasus

The Pegasus pattern group first appeared following the start of hostilities between Union and the Aunic Ascendancy in Boundary Garden, a distant sector of distal space away from the Galactic Core. The timing of this outbreak may be related to the pattern group’s defining weapon, though skip-drone couriers from Union forces reported no encounters with the PG in Boundary Garden; instead, the Pegasus appeared in the Dawnline Shore, a stretch of colonial Armory space opposite Boundary Garden. The Pegasus appears to address HORUS’s need for a pattern group with extensive kinetic combat capabilities: by marrying the best targeting systems, subroutines, and weapons hardware in the HORUS codebase, collectivists have designed a PG that boasts a tremendously low identify/time-to-kill (ID/TTK) ratio in all theaters where kinetic weaponry is viable. As with many HORUS pattern groups, the Pegasus fields a signature weapon system: the Ushabti, a hostile impulse anti-corporeal weapon that operates with complete ignorance of even the most basic underpinnings of physics and thermodynamics. As such, it qualifies unambiguously as a paracausal weapon. The Ushabti’s precise function remains unknown to Union and Harrison Armory scientists, though radiological and gravitational signatures captured in the aftermath of the weapon’s use point toward a relationship with the Aunic Firmament. Studies are ongoing on Ras Shamra, the Armory’s chief research world, and in satellite campuses across the Dawnline Shore.

[quasi-normalcy]

So, I think that the problem is that the creation of facts is an inherently collective enterprise. Like, nature, broadly defined, will do whatever it does beyond human control; results can be obtained independently. But *facts* about nature (about history, about mathematics, about anything else) only come into being through collective action. You need enough people to run the experiment, to verify the proof, to consider the evidence and ensure that you're coming to the right conclusion. Science is only science because it's reproducible and facts are only facts if they've been reproduced; and scientists are, of necessity, the privileged class that you need to be able to trust--in the aggregate, not individually--to be able to make these judgements because they've spent their lifetimes learning all of the facts that have been previously established about these matters, and about experimental design and so on. The overwhelming majority of people will never conduct most experiments, because they can't; they're too expensive, they're too complicated, they can't be performed in public and laypeople wouldn't know whether they're being conducted fairly in any case. And so, matters of fact are not just collectively created, but for the overwhelming majority of people, necessitate a certain degree of trust in others, and in the institutions of science and academia. Trust that if *you* put in the years of study, and if *you* ran the experiment, *you* would probably get the same result. And the modernist view of the world is constituted from that.

But then you have neoliberalism, which is like an acid dissolving all forms of collective organisation; and you have denialism, bankrolled by powerful interest groups and corporations, contributing to a culture of conspiracy theories, where you trust no one, least of all collectives, least of all collectives that claim to know more than you. And so, not only does the authority of science suffer, but *facts*, as they've been constituted since the time that Robert Boyle managed to convince everyone that vacua existed in the 17th century, no longer *exist* in a very fundamental way. Nature continues to speak, but we, each to our own little pod, have become deaf to it. And that's why the world is burning and we refuse to do anything, and why an antivaxxer with a worm-eaten brain is about to be put in charge of the health of hundreds of millions of people.

[beguines]

Most commonly, critical scholars focus on one major reason for the current expansion in the numbers and categories of mental illness in western society—namely, the influence of pharmaceutical corporations (colloquially referred to as "big pharma") on the construction of new categories of disorder and the promotion of drug solutions for those disorders. The institution of psychiatry is the ultimate authority responsible for defining and treating mental pathologies, yet commentators argue that the profession has been steadily compromised by forming close relationships with big pharma, who are now effectively setting the mental health agenda. For example, critics point to the 69 per cent of psychiatrists responsible for the development of the latest edition of the DSM who have financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Research has also demonstrated the close involvement of big pharma in the development of current mental illness categories including social anxiety disorder and premenstrual dysphoric disorder. The more behaviour and experience that can be successfully medicalised—that is, reconceptualised as in need of medical intervention—through this medico-industrial partnership, the more drugs can be potentially sold to the public. Thus it is argued that the expansion of the mental illness discourse is the result of a market takeover of health care; corporations rather than medical practitioners are now designating what mental pathology is and, as a result, dictating treatment. The obvious solution to this situation involves the de-coupling of mental health services from the influence of big business. Tighter government regulation and oversight of pharmaceutical corporations is required, as is transparency within the relevant professional organisations.

While this critique of big pharma's intervention in the production and promotion of the contemporary psychiatric discourse is relevant, it is perhaps the least surprising aspect of the operation of the mental health system within capitalist society. Scholars of medical history such as Andrew Scull, for example, have profiled a continuing "trade in lunacy" which can be traced back to the beginnings of industrial society and witnessed throughout the development of modern mental health work. That the market is part of the workings of psychiatry and related professions should be self-evident to any scholar aware of the history of the mental health system in western society. Such critics would also acknowledge that while psychiatry legitimates the products of big pharma, pushing psychopharmaceuticals in turn helps legitimate the psychiatric profession. The prescribing of drugs is a key symbol of modern doctoring which serves to align psychiatric practice with other branches of medicine through a shared biomedical understanding of health and illness.

Bruce M.Z. Cohen, Psychiatric Hegemony: A Marxist Theory of Mental Illness

[chromaticleaf]

Can't get Murder Drones out of my head. Almost like some eldritch code has taken root inside my brain. It's probably fine.

Anyway, headcanons for what the murder trio were before Tessa got them:

J was almost certainly in some corporate position. I like to think she was involved in marketing, since she has all those buzzwords ingrained in her lexicon. Maybe they even had her working with graphic design with her art skills. I also imagine she kinda hates corporate structure. "Bootlicker J" jokes aside, I can't imagine even she would have fun as a (literal) corporate slave, and she definitely enjoys freely speaking her mind: not something that flies very well in corporate and marketing contexts. Maybe she got dumped during some convoluted office politics, maybe she was dumped due to random downsizing, who knows.

N's a bit trickier. We see a lot of dexterity and showmanship from him in the manor. He's quite flashy with the glassware at a few points. He also likes drawing, but is lacking in technical skill, especially compared to J. He's also quite personable and friendly, and also seems to truly admire J in some capacity. As a bonus, Cyn mimics a lot of N's mannerisms, and one of her defining traits is her acting, even specifically playing at "improv" while rebuilding J. Therefore, I think N was in theater/entertainment.

He wasn't necessarily an actor himself: still a robot slave after all. But he likely assisted with a lot of setup. Rehearsals, testing stunts, watching over pets/kids (whether those of actors or actors themselves), etc. He enjoys fancy costumes as well, and he's pretty genre aware. He's probably had his fair share of experience with horror movies/stories. Maybe he got dumped pissing off the wrong famous person, maybe some stunt went wrong and they didn't want to bother repairing him, maybe they just wanted the newest model.

V is tough to decide. She seems to enjoy fighting the most out of all of them, but none of them are really slouches in combat, so I don't think that says much about her past. We don't see much of her in the manor, but the impression she gives is a bit more shy and demure. We see her playing chess in the credits, but one hobby doesn't mean much on its own, especially since chess is a common game to put on computers: probably all of them have chess programs built-in.

With that little to go off of, and her tendency to both act out in outrageous ways and keep herself closed-off, I'm thinking she was probably a menial worker beforehand. Minimal freedom, in a position where she'd best keep her head down. Follow the rules closely in order to keep what little she has. "Do your job and I leave you and N alone" was probably a pretty good deal to V because it was as good or better than her previous work arrangements.

Could be a lot of jobs like that for a robo-slave. But let's have fun with it and extrapolate from her usage of "narc" and her apparent desensitization to violence: she was used by a criminal organization for clean-up duty, and got dumped after being confiscated by authorities.

[pain-indeed]

Let's talk about Mecha Knight

Well, well, well, would you look at the time. It's "me writing too much about Kirby" 'o clock ! And it seems like Mecha Knight will be the topic.

So, the reason I am writting this is that I see more and more people say that Mecha Knight is an overused subject and it doesn't deserve to have so much angsty fics, art, etc. I strongly disagree and I will explain why. I know people won't change their mind with a single, random rant, but I just want to share my opinion on the matter. With that in mind, here I go, describing how the whole Mecha Knight thing is indeed messed up.

First I want to objectively describe the situation. So the Haltman Company invades popstar, starts mechanising everything and everyone. Meta Knight has the Halberd blown up, and we don't hear about him untill world 4. We discover that he had tried to fight the corporation by himself, then failed and was captured. Then he was turned into a cyborg forced by mind control to work for the guys who are actively destroying what he was trying to save against his own will, and forced to try killing one of his friends/rival twice, before being freed and helping the heroes.

I think we can all agree that this a bad thing to happen to anyone. Kidnapping, enslaving and modifying someone without consent is pretty horrible, and there is no denying that. Everyone who has basic ethics and empathy would know that. So logically, people sympathise with Meta Knight, and they can show it by imagining what it must have felt like for him trough art.

So, why the heck would some people try arguing why it actually was'nt that bad and artists should stop "milking angst" out of this ?!

Here's their argument ; Some have said that Meta could'nt have been badly hurt, as he is seen seemingly fine after fighting Haltman. As if being fine physically means you are fine mentally. If you were mechanised, do you think you would'nt feel at least a little bad ? Is it wrong to think the victim of this situation may keep some scarring memories ? Or is it that you think Meta Knight having trauma is contradictory to his character and he should'nt be allowed to ?

Well, in fact, if you look back at his personality, having trauma out of being Mecha Knight make perfect sense as it goes against his most defining trait ; stenght.

Normally he is very powerfull, physically, mentally and politically. His character practically revolves around power ( he is often shown trying to be more powerfull ). So imagine what it must be like, having all that strenght completly taken away from you and used by his ennemies against his allies. How it must feel to go from leader to slave. Not being able to move an inch by yourself while your body moves on its own. And it's only made worse by how in every other instance of him being posessed, he was shown to have tryied resisting evil influence. Even in RoMK he was revolting against lazinness. Here, the only clue we have about him trying to resist was the title of his battle theme, commonly known as "inner struggle". But the fact you can't even see that in game prooves how powerless he was, how vain his resistance was.

Even if having been turned into a robot did'nt disturb him, not being able to do anything against it definitly could have made him question himself. It could have shattered his ego and confidance in his abilities. It make perfect sense.

And, well, being turned into a cyborg must have been terrifying anyways. We don't know how mechanisation actually worked, but according to the number of screws in the mechanised people's design, how we only see him after a while and Kumazaki's habit of impliying terrifying stuff going on behind the scenes, it's understandable to assume it was painfull. And it must also suck to be treated as an actual object.

So, yeah, the situation was indeed pretty fucking bad, and seeing people trying to say it’s not unnerves me. I think they either are Meta Knight fans who feel like him being allowed to feel the slightest of insecurities would make him weak, MetaSusie fans who are trying to defend her actions by minimilizing them or just fan that have enough to see it over so many other topics. Like, bro, feel free to make your own art instead of complaining. Or potentially write countless paragraphs to share your opinions like I do ( just kidding, it’s actually pretty anoying ).

Basically, it's normal to see angsty art and fics of an event that was objectively pretty horrible and complaining about it is weird.

Either way, if you’ve read trough all this, congratulation. Must have been long. Thank you for your time and patience, and I hope you have a wonderfull day.