#decadent society sans

[bunningchaos]

Don't ask why, just have some more plushified skeles.

Cable belongs to @createbellatheartist

Miramoonli belongs to @miramoonli

Misconduct belongs to @ask-misconduct / @sigsams

Sapho and Nyx belongs to @emjoyzhos-ej

Ichorverse (Cross, Nightmare, Horror) belongs to @ph0enix-themother

Decadent Society Sans belongs to D4niztic, on Tumblr

Thordis belongs to @a-furys-code (Or Snowdrop, but they requested NOT to be tagged)

Pollen belongs to the wonderful @neverniko101 / @ask-phantasmverse

[debossmoo]

Decadent Society Sans

[supper122]

DECADENT SOCIETY: Villan

(for @thelunarsystemwrites 's superhero/villan thingy)

gah! what a meanie....

Powers:

-Summoning Chains

-Wealth

-Intelligence

Weaknesses:

-Easily Angered

-Pretty Depressed

-Coughs Alot (due to smoking)

Villan Name(s)

-Shackles or Cuffs (he doesnt really care)

[landiosreal]

The rain pours like tears.

rare landios shaded sprite

also might make this have a bg idk

[mop-bino]

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Palantir’s NHS-stealing Big Lie

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in TUCSON (Mar 9-10), then SAN FRANCISCO (Mar 13), Anaheim, and more!

Capitalism's Big Lie in four words: "There is no alternative." Looters use this lie for cover, insisting that they're hard-nosed grownups living in the reality of human nature, incentives, and facts (which don't care about your feelings).

The point of "there is no alternative" is to extinguish the innovative imagination. "There is no alternative" is really "stop trying to think of alternatives, dammit." But there are always alternatives, and the only reason to demand that they be excluded from consideration is that these alternatives are manifestly superior to the looter's supposed inevitability.

Right now, there's an attempt underway to loot the NHS, the UK's single most beloved institution. The NHS has been under sustained assault for decades – budget cuts, overt and stealth privatisation, etc. But one of its crown jewels has been stubbournly resistant to being auctioned off: patient data. Not that HMG hasn't repeatedly tried to flog patient data – it's just that the public won't stand for it:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/21/nhs-data-platform-may-be-undermined-by-lack-of-public-trust-warn-campaigners

Patients – quite reasonably – do not trust the private sector to handle their sensitive medical records.

Now, this presents a real conundrum, because NHS patient data, taken as a whole, holds untold medical insights. The UK is a large and diverse country and those records in aggregate can help researchers understand the efficacy of various medicines and other interventions. Leaving that data inert and unanalysed will cost lives: in the UK, and all over the world.

For years, the stock answer to "how do we do science on NHS records without violating patient privacy?" has been "just anonymise the data." The claim is that if you replace patient names with random numbers, you can release the data to research partners without compromising patient privacy, because no one will be able to turn those numbers back into names.

It would be great if this were true, but it isn't. In theory and in practice, it is surprisingly easy to "re-identify" individuals in anonymous data-sets. To take an obvious example: we know which two dates former PM Tony Blair was given a specific treatment for a cardiac emergency, because this happened while he was in office. We also know Blair's date of birth. Check any trove of NHS data that records a person who matches those three facts and you've found Tony Blair – and all the private data contained alongside those public facts is now in the public domain, forever.

Not everyone has Tony Blair's reidentification hooks, but everyone has data in some kind of database, and those databases are continually being breached, leaked or intentionally released. A breach from a taxi service like Addison-Lee or Uber, or from Transport for London, will reveal the journeys that immediately preceded each prescription at each clinic or hospital in an "anonymous" NHS dataset, which can then be cross-referenced to databases of home addresses and workplaces. In an eyeblink, millions of Britons' records of receiving treatment for STIs or cancer can be connected with named individuals – again, forever.

Re-identification attacks are now considered inevitable; security researchers have made a sport out of seeing how little additional information they need to re-identify individuals in anonymised data-sets. A surprising number of people in any large data-set can be re-identified based on a single characteristic in the data-set.

Given all this, anonymous NHS data releases should have been ruled out years ago. Instead, NHS records are to be handed over to the US military surveillance company Palantir, a notorious human-rights abuser and supplier to the world's most disgusting authoritarian regimes. Palantir – founded by the far-right Trump bagman Peter Thiel – takes its name from the evil wizard Sauron's all-seeing orb in Lord of the Rings ("Sauron, are we the baddies?"):

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/01/the-palantir-will-see-you-now/#public-private-partnership

The argument for turning over Britons' most sensitive personal data to an offshore war-crimes company is "there is no alternative." The UK needs the medical insights in those NHS records, and this is the only way to get at them.

As with every instance of "there is no alternative," this turns out to be a lie. What's more, the alternative is vastly superior to this chumocratic sell-out, was Made in Britain, and is the envy of medical researchers the world 'round. That alternative is "trusted research environments." In a new article for the Good Law Project, I describe these nigh-miraculous tools for privacy-preserving, best-of-breed medical research:

https://goodlawproject.org/cory-doctorow-health-data-it-isnt-just-palantir-or-bust/

At the outset of the covid pandemic Oxford's Ben Goldacre and his colleagues set out to perform realtime analysis of the data flooding into NHS trusts up and down the country, in order to learn more about this new disease. To do so, they created Opensafely, an open-source database that was tied into each NHS trust's own patient record systems:

https://timharford.com/2022/07/how-to-save-more-lives-and-avoid-a-privacy-apocalypse/

Opensafely has its own database query language, built on SQL, but tailored to medical research. Researchers write programs in this language to extract aggregate data from each NHS trust's servers, posing medical questions of the data without ever directly touching it. These programs are published in advance on a git server, and are preflighted on synthetic NHS data on a test server. Once the program is approved, it is sent to the main Opensafely server, which then farms out parts of the query to each NHS trust, packages up the results, and publishes them to a public repository.

This is better than "the best of both worlds." This public scientific process, with peer review and disclosure built in, allows for frequent, complex analysis of NHS data without giving a single third party access to a a single patient record, ever. Opensafely was wildly successful: in just months, Opensafely collaborators published sixty blockbuster papers in Nature – science that shaped the world's response to the pandemic.

Opensafely was so successful that the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care commissioned a review of the programme with an eye to expanding it to serve as the nation's default way of conducting research on medical data:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/better-broader-safer-using-health-data-for-research-and-analysis/better-broader-safer-using-health-data-for-research-and-analysis

This approach is cheaper, safer, and more effective than handing hundreds of millions of pounds to Palantir and hoping they will manage the impossible: anonymising data well enough that it is never re-identified. Trusted Research Environments have been endorsed by national associations of doctors and researchers as the superior alternative to giving the NHS's data to Peter Thiel or any other sharp operator seeking a public contract.

As a lifelong privacy campaigner, I find this approach nothing short of inspiring. I would love for there to be a way for publishers and researchers to glean privacy-preserving insights from public library checkouts (such a system would prove an important counter to Amazon's proprietary god's-eye view of reading habits); or BBC podcasts or streaming video viewership.

You see, there is an alternative. We don't have to choose between science and privacy, or the public interest and private gain. There's always an alternative – if there wasn't, the other side wouldn't have to continuously repeat the lie that no alternative is possible.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

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/2024/03/08/the-fire-of-orodruin/#are-we-the-baddies

Image: Gage Skidmore (modified) https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peter_Thiel_(51876933345).jpg

CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

[thelunarsystemwrites]

Inviting other artists!

So I've just made a superhero AU for utmv. Right? Well, I really only wanted to design one guy, Lust. Sooo I'm opening the AU (WHICH LITERALLY HAS NO LORE YET SO NO WORRIES) for others to partake in!

Here's like, the basic lay out.

Choose one Sans AU to turn into superhero/villain. Please refrain from using a Sans someone else claimed.

Make them into a superhero/villain themed after something specific. (Example: A plant themed superhero, or even a cactus one!)

Keep powers balanced with weaknesses, please make them relate to their theme!

Give them a civilian identity! You don't have to draw this one, but make sure to mention their civil job and name!

Give them a Superhero/Villain name as well!

Wait, supervillain?

OH YES! You can choose the mortal alignment of your claimed Sans! Super hero, villain, neutral, vigilante? Just pick whatever you want!

Of course headcanons are welcome, it's Canon to YOUR design! Make them trans, gay, autistic, whatever! (Human designs are allowed too!)

Wait.. what do I (the artist reading this) Even get out of doing this?

Well I'll tell you! For one, its a fun artist challenge where you personalize and create a whole new hero/Villain to your preferences!

You also get to imagine their lore, and incorporate their personality into the story! They'd all be canon part of the AU. (Note: if someone claimed a sans first and you did it anyways, yours wouldn't be Canon unless issues occurred with the OG/they gave you permission.)

I dunno, I just wanna make an AU with a ton of people, ya know? I think it's be fun for us to work together on this.

CLAIMED LIST:

Lust: Hero. Complete. By @thelunarsystemwrites.

Reaper: Vigilante. Completed by @solusminds.

Outer: Vigilante. Complete by @dzasterdumpterfire

Ink: Retired Hero. Complete by @lix88888

Error: Supervillain. Complete by @its-paperd

Dust: Claimed by @billygoat26

Farmer: Claimed by @absurdumsid

Cross: Claimed by @weirdest-worlds

Geno: Claimed by @eldritchcats

Shattered: Claimed by @genderfluidyellowocto

Nightmare: Supervillain. Completed by @analexthatexists

Killer: Claimed by @a-menacetosociety

Dream (and core frisk): Claimed by @thenocturnenarrator

Blue: Superhero, complete by @createbellatheartist

Fell: Supervillain, complete @underrrtaleee-freakk

Quantum: Superhero. Completed by @nashdoesstuff (Also made an OC for the AU, Dreamshade! Superhero.)

Horror: Neutral Evil. Completed by @it-came-from-mount-ebott

Ccino: Claimed by @some-aroace-chaos

Fresh: Claimed by @nightmareishomophobic

Die sans: Claimed by @dustsansm1

Bill: Supervillain. Completed by @endless-emptyness (OC Nanno made by sane person!)

Epic: Claimed by @dtdrawz

Fatal error: Claimed by @spookyboris2

Swan: Claimed by @glitching-moon

Sci: Claimed by @joonebugg

Dance: Claimed by @dv-reblogs

Swad: Claimed by @shinanigans-art

Littletale: Claimed by @somehhuuuhh

Possession: Claimed by @b0nerific-individual

Alter: Claimed by @annabel184

Paperjam: Vigilante. Completed by @papple

Decadent society: Supervillain. Complete by @supper122

Green Sans: Claimed by @xxcross-is-a-helicopterxx

Roulette: Claimed by @ant1quarian

On the claimed list, if you claim a Sans (By commenting or reblogging saying "Dibs Blank!" Or "Can I do blank?" Etc! I'll add it on the List saying: "Sans: Claimed by User"

Once it's made, please tag me so I can see! Then I'll update it to "Sans: Moral alignment. By User." And link it on this post! [Please only claim one, we want enough to go around! However you can claim variations! So one person could make dream, another could make shattered!]

[Note I do not claim any ownership over your designs for the AU, nor will I use your design w/o permission.]

With all that said! Anyone interested? [And hey, if you're not interested? It's okay to just not join. Or ignore this!]

Asks! (Questions regarding the AU!)

Can we make our own lore woth other characters?

Secondary claims?

Only two grabs?

Can we have OCs?

Can we use our own AUs?

[letterful]

Romanticism is the primitive, the untutored, it is youth, life, the exuberant sense of life of the natural man, but it is also pallor, fever, disease, decadence, the maladie de siècle, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, the Dance of Death, indeed Death itself. It is Shelley's dome of many-coloured glass, and it is also his white radiance of eternity. It is the confused teeming fullness and richness of life, Fülle des Lebens, inexhaustible multiplicity, turbulence, violence, conflict, chaos, but also it is peace, oneness with the great `I Am', harmony with the natural order, the music of the spheres, dissolution in the eternal all-containing spirit. It is the strange, the exotic, the grotesque, the mysterious, the supernatural, ruins, moonlight, enchanted castles, hunting horns, elves, giants, griffins, falling water, the old mill on the Floss, darkness and the powers of darkness, phantoms, vampires, nameless terror, the irrational, the unutterable.

Also it is the familiar, the sense of one's unique tradition, joy in the smiling aspect of everyday nature, and the accustomed sights and sounds of contented, simple, rural folk — the sane and happy wisdom of rosy-checked sons of the soil. It is the ancient, the historic, it is Gothic cathedrals, mists of antiquity, ancient roots and the old order with its unanalysable qualities, its profound but inexpressible loyalties, the impalpable, the imponderable.

Also it is the pursuit of novelty, revolutionary change, concern with the fleeting present, desire to live in the moment, rejection of knowledge, past and future, the pastoral idyll of happy innocence, joy in the passing instant, a sense of timelessness. It is nostalgia, it is reverie, it is intoxicating dreams, it is sweet melancholy and bitter melancholy, solitude, the sufferings of exile, the sense of alienation, roaming in remote places, especially the East, and in remote times, especially the Middle Ages.

But also it is happy co-operation in a common creative effort, the sense of forming part of a Church, a class, a party, a tradition, a great and all-containing symmetrical hierarchy, knights and retainers, the ranks of the Church, organic social ties, mystic unity, one faith, one land, one blood, `la terre et les morts', as Barrès said, the great society of the dead and the living and the yet unborn. It is the Toryism of Scott and Southey and Wordsworth, and it is the radicalism of Shelley, Büchner and Stendhal. It is Chateaubriand's aesthetic medievalism, and it is Michelet's loathing of the Middle Ages. It is Carlyle's worship of authority, and Hugo's hatred of authority. It is extreme nature mysticism, and extreme anti-naturalist aestheticism. It is energy, force, will, youth, life, étalage du moi; it is also self-torture, self-annihilation, suicide. It is the primitive, the unsophisticated, the bosom of nature, green fields, cow-bells, murmuring brooks, the infinite blue sky.

No less, however, it is also dandyism, the desire to dress up, red waistcoats, green wigs, blue hair, which the followers of people like Gérard de Nerval wore in Paris at a certain period. It is the lobster which Nerval led about on a string in the streets of Paris. It is wild exhibitionism, eccentricity, it is the battle of Ernani, it is ennui, it is taedium vitae, it is the death of Sardanopolis, whether painted by Delacroix, or written about by Berlioz or Byron. It is the convulsion of great empires, wars, slaughter and the crashing of worlds. It is the romantic hero — the rebel, l'homme fatale, the damned soul, the Corsairs, Manfreds, Giaours, Laras, Cains, all the population of Byron's heroic poems. It is Melmoth, it is Jean Sbogar, all the outcasts and Ishmaels as well as the golden-hearted courtesans and the noble-hearted convicts of nineteenth-century fiction. It is drinking out of the human skull, it is Berlioz who said he wanted to climb Vesuvius in order to commune with a kindred soul. It is Satanic revels, cynical irony, diabolical laughter, black heroes, but also Blake's vision of God and his angels, the great Christian society, the eternal order, and `the starry heavens which can scarce express the infinite and eternal of the Christian soul'.

It is, in short, unity and multiplicity. It is fidelity to the particular, in the paintings of nature for example, and also mysterious tantalising vagueness of outline. It is beauty and ugliness. It is art for art's sake, and art as an instrument of social salvation. It is strength and weakness, individualism and collectivism, purity and corruption, revolution and reaction, peace and war, love of life and love of death.

— from Isaiah Berlin's The Roots of Romanticism.

[fandom]

Come on, Barbie, let's go party.

We're not saying Barbie is the cinematic masterpiece we as a society have been craving for decades, but, well...we'll let you draw your own conclusions. Combine it with the biopic Oppenheimer and you've got yourselves one explosive double feature. The WGA writers and SAG-AFTRA actors are striking against major studios and streaming companies after contract negotiations failed, and in a stunning surprise, the LA City Controller's office is investigating the unpermitted trimming of trees near the picket line. That's right, y'all: it's tree law time. San Diego Comic-Con gave us a slew of trailers, including ones for One Piece, Adventure Time: Fiona and Cake, and the second season of Interview with the Vampire. Finally, book 5 of The Dragon Prince is here—welcome back to Xadia, friends. This is Tumblr's Week in Review.

Barbie

The Writers Guild of America Strike

Tree Law

Twitter

Oppenheimer

Artists on Tumblr

Barbenheimer

One Piece

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Margot Robbie

Ryan Gosling

r/196

The Screen Actors Guild Strike

Adventure Time

Nimona

Interview with the Vampire

The Dragon Prince

The Welcome Home ARG

What We Do In The Shadows

Hobie Brown | Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

[akashis-waifu]

An Eternity of Mind Games with You (Aizen Sousuke x Reader)

Canon-divergence one-shot, set years after TBYW. Female reader is the Soul King, so is Aizen if you squint hard enough. Your first name is "Hana" for plot-purposes.

Tags: Domestic!Aizen with usual sass, wholesome, fluff, cringe but we embrace it. Immortal x immortal, enemies struggling with new established co-dependency. This might seem slightly out of character, but we've got Kyoka Suigetsu to blame. Contains spoilers on the ending of TBYW and CFYOW!

"Oh please, dear wife."

You raise an eyebrow at your self-proclaimed husband. The two of you have only been together for a decade as Lord and retainer — co-rulers, if you squint hard enough — after Aizen Sousuke tricked you into absorbing the Hougyoku, which apparently had long merged with his spirit. In effect, the man became a part of the Soul King and is now able to use your authority, as long as you agree to it.

In return, you get to wield one of the greatest Zanpakuto, Kyoka Suigetsu. You see it as an absolute win, the Central 46 doesn't.

As to why Aizen insists that you two are husband and wife, he argues that "A system where a man and a woman govern together is called monarchy. And it goes without saying that a King and a Queen are married." He seems to have put the cart before the horse, a very uncharacteristic blunder for the renowned war criminal. You simply guess that the fusion might have caused him brain damage.

"I swear, I haven't used Kyoka Suigetsu for a long time. There is literally no reason for you to act delusional."

He feigns to be hurt at your words. "You are the king, I am the queen. How can we not be married?"

"It's crazy how you easily admit to being the queen now." During your ascension, you had to repeatedly remind him that the Soul King was you. If he insisted on his god-complex-driven monarchy delusion, the Queen would be him.

Aizen shrugs. "As the human saying goes, let me cook."

Chills run down your spine. Something is wrong. "Maybe I'm the delusional one."

"Took you a long time to realize."

A shattering sound awakens you. After adjusting to reality, you glare at Aizen Sousuke who has successfully swiped the two Heavenly Tickets out of your hand.

"Please stop using Kyoka Suigetsu on me."

He chuckles mockingly. "You have a funny mind, I can't help it."

You try to take the tickets from him. Those are your mode of transportation to Seireitei! "It's Rukia's inauguration today. We really need to go!"

"You can go by yourself."

"I can't leave you here alone!"

Aizen smiles. He knows that it is a matter of distrust — that he might destroy the Soul Palace in your absence — but teases you nonetheless. "What a caring wife you are."

"Is the illusion not over yet?"

"My apologies. I'm simply not in the mood to head to Seireitei today," he explains briefly, before turning around. "Feel free to go without me."

You watch with curious eyes as Aizen leaves the room. He has undoubtedly mellowed out compared to 10 years ago. Memories flash through your mind.

At the end of the war, you were supposed to absorb Yhwach, become the Soul King, and be sacrificed as the new linchpin of the Three Realms. If Aizen hadn't given you the Hougyoku that granted your divinity as the Soul King, you wouldn't have gained the authority to banish Hyosube Ichibe.

If it weren't for Aizen, you would've been mutilated into a thoughtless doll. You may not express it, but you are eternally grateful to him.

Standing at the edge of the Soul Palace, you stare at the boundless sky below. It is almost time for your departure.

"He tells me to go by myself, but he knows I hate jumping all the way down to Soul Society. He could have at least returned my ticket to me." You sigh and jump anyway.

Upon arriving at Seireitei, you use Kyoka Suigetsu to disguise yourself as a white butterfly. You dispel the Shikai after reaching the 13th Division.

"Hana-san! Ah, I mean, Soul King!" Kuchiki Rukia hastily corrects herself. She then invites you to a celebratory dinner and you spend some time with the Thirteen Court Guard Squads.

The party ends late. Rukia offers the Kuchiki residence for you to spend the night in, but you decline, worried that someone might wreak havoc in your palace if left alone for too long.

She suggests to escort you to Shiba Kuukaku's hideout, aware that you would need the cannon to return to the Soul Palace. Still, you refuse, "No no! No need. It's already late, Rukia, go to sleep. I usually disguise myself as a harmless butterfly when I go around Seireitei to avoid unnecessary attention. Don't worry!"

On the way to the hideout, you feel that you're being followed. You instantly regret declining her offer.

When Aizen finds you in the middle of Seireitei, you are already bleeding from a large cut on your torso. He rushes to your side and activates the Hougyoku to accelerate your healing. As if to laud his effort, you soon regain consciousness.

"Aizen...?" you ask, vision still blurry. "What are you doing here? I... I thought you didn't want to go."

"You're not adept at using Kyoka Suigetsu yet. An incident like this is bound to happen."

"I see," you chuckle weakly. "No wonder she saw through my disguise."

His grip on your shoulder tightens. "Who was it?"

"Candace."

"Candace?"

You cough out blood multiple times and reach out to caress his cheek, as if ready to utter your last words — which would be if he doesn't take the joke lightly.

"Can deez nuts."

Aizen deadpans. A shattering sound takes him out of his reverie, and he looks over his shoulder to see you fiddling with the tickets that he had previously hidden in his sleeves.

Of course, the whole farce was an illusion. He should've known since the Hougyoku grants instant regeneration. He sighs in annoyance. "I'd like to take the Hougyoku back. You're too insufferable."

"Is that a request for divorce?"

He smirks. "So, you acknowledge our marriage."

"Hell no!" You click your tongue, frustrated that he always has the perfect comebacks. "Can't you act normal for once? What happened to Aizen Sousuke, the war criminal?"

"You prefer that version of me?" He pushes his hair back. You aren't used to that sight since he always has his hair down when you're alone together.

You visibly cringe. "Stop doing that. What would you do if people recognized you?"

"We're using Kyoka Suigetsu. From their perspective, we are nothing but butterflies attracted to beautiful flowers basking in the moonlight."

You frown at him. "We're literally walking on concrete. Not a single flower can be found here."

"There is."

Aizen raises your chin, staring directly into your eyes. "Hana."

Too stunned to speak, you allow yourself a moment to think.

You finally understand why Aizen was so popular when he was still with the Thirteen Court Guard Squads. His strength, intellect, charisma — the sultry voice and handsome features that you will never admit to his face — he used everything at his disposal to manipulate everyone.

It will never work on you, though. Not today, nor in a million years.

You are good, he is evil. You are yang, he is yin.

You are pure, he is corrupted.

The Soul King can never let Aizen Sousuke dye Her in his color, for that would mean the end of the Three Realms.

You give him a thin smile. "Would you like the Hougyoku back? I can hand it to you now."

"Oh, you jest." Aizen feels the sudden shift in mood and lets you go. That's enough teasing, he muses to himself.

With an eternity to look forward to, he doesn't mind biding his time. You are the Soul King, the strongest, most benevolent, and most dangerous being in the Three Realms. It goes without saying that you are the greatest challenge he will ever face. It could take hundreds or thousands of years — even millions — but he knows that you will submit to him one day.

It's not a matter of if, but when.

You extend a hand at him. "Let's go home, Sousuke."

But, he has to make sure you don't win him over first.

[feminist-space]

"After spending the past three decades of his life being totally unable and unwilling to engage in any meaningful way with the world around him, James Parker, a local guy who sucks at being a person, told reporters Thursday that he saw huge potential in AI. “While it’s still in its early phase, artificial intelligence will one day accomplish things that humans could have never even dreamed of doing,” said Parker, who, by all accounts, has never stretched himself to do something he found difficult; has never created anything truly original; and, deep down, has absolutely zero understanding of what makes things good, enjoyable, or rewarding.

“Just yesterday, I asked an AI program to write an entire sci-fi novel for me, and [as someone who will die an empty shell of a man who wasted his life doing nothing for the world and, perhaps, should never have been born] I was super impressed. Soon, humans won’t need to do anything at all! Awesome.” At press time, Parker added that as someone whose contributions to society would almost certainly be measured cumulatively as a net loss, he also saw great potential in the future of the metaverse."

[artbyblastweave]

Which superhero/cape, from any media, would be the most likely to be a force for genuine and lasting good if they were real?

So the cheating bastard answer to this question would be to go digging for one of the various deconstructive cape things where the setting very pointedly includes a superguy who does Solve Everything Forever, as a poke at the unrealized potential of all the big-two superscientists and reality warpers who're prevented from effecting lasting change by editorial fiat and nothing else. For example, the setting of Rising Stars contains a guy with the power of superintelligence who was smart enough to read the writing on the wall and go to ground throughout the bulk of the events of the comic while the more conventional capes were beating the shit out of each other, before finally popping up decades later with the solution to global warming and like twenty other things. See also Miracleman for the ol' "Utopia-at-the-barrel-of-a-gun" approach. Invincible also touches on this; with very light spoilers, by the end of the comic's run the setting is nearly unrecognizable as a superhero setting because a certain character just turbo-optimizes society for preventing and responding to both capeshit outbreaks and more mundane problems.

But if we stick to the more obvious targets of the aforementioned Big-two do-nothings, I'd put good money on Iron Man. In 2014 I'm pretty sure I remember him releasing airborne nanites over San Francisco that eliminated all human infirmities; however, this was after the Red Skull had blasted him with a psychic moral-alignment-changing ray, so he put the effects of the nanites behind a subscription paywall. I don't remember how they weaseled out of acknowledging that he'd created a no-strings cure for all infirmities once they wrapped that arc up. Maybe they pulled out the ol' "FDA concerns" fig leaf. But you get the point I'm gesturing at here. Swap in Reed Richards or Hank Pym as appropriate- basically anyone who really ought to just put their nose to the grindstone and start pumping out miracle fixes instead of getting hauled into the latest globe-shattering debacle or militarized supertech-backed corporate war or divorce hearing or what have you.

[debossmoo]

100 Sans Aus

I've spent soo long makin this

AU Credits:

Undertale: Tobyfox

Beta Sans: Tobyfox

Handplates: Zarla

Science Sans: ?

Green Sans: goinks

Underfresh: CrayonQueen/LoverOfPiggies

Epictale: Yugogeer

Circustale: maromp

Dancetale: Teandstars

Trainertale: FurryLord

Underswap: popcornpr1nce

TS!Underswap: Team Switched

Inverted Fate: Dorked

Storyshift: Voltra

Altertale: friisans

Dream Sans: Joku

Passive Nightmare: Joku

Nightmare: Joku

Shattered Dream: Drawingerror

SwapDream: Song_A

Underfell: victhefella

Flowerfell: Siviosanei

Hardtale: CedDrawsNear

Negativetale: ValenSealover

Decadent Society: ?

Decadent Society Redesign: d4niztic

Undertale Rusted: PootStaBlook

Afterglory: onezhazha

Negatale: ArtsyGum

Anxiety Sans: hheisa

Asylumtale: Furgemancs

Renewed InsanityTale: SoilingQuasar

Insanity Sans: Zero Danteero

Axetale: uhhbananafrappe

Purgatory: Lumpy Touch

Pick Me: Sour-Apple-Studios

Horrortale: Sour-Apple-Studios

Dusttale: Evan Streblow

Something New: Rahafwabas

XTale: Jael Peñaloza

Outertale: 2mi127

Birdtale: Greyscales (sablescales)

Frosttale: Ssgt Frost

Hypothermia: wiizp_ (idk this one)

Icebound: LuciiiDLL & __b

Flowey Possesion: Jitterz

Naturetale: Valavender

Undersail: MTT Brand Undertale

Oceantale: Forte

Underfell Stories from the Sea: Ozone2005

Reapertale: Ren

Aftertale: LoverofPiggies

Fatal_Error: Xedramon

Error: LoverofPiggies

Wiki Sans: Painted Hen

Ink Sans: Comyet

Steamtale: ?

Renewed InsanitySwap: debossmoo (me!)

Underdolls: debossmoo (also me!)

Tear Sans: EriScary

Sudden Changes: Spouting

Mafiatale: Cutthroat-Jutsu

Cowboy Sans: debossmoo (me)

Freedomtale: ?

Farmtale: GuinongTale_AU

Flufflytale: black-nyanko

Sugartale: ?

Candytale: BabyAbbieStar

Sweettale: hheisa

Smore Sans: debossmoo (me)

VHS Sans: Iamaboss0

Boneliest: Frakture

Echotale: Yoralim/Sansxs

Ultratale: AnimatedZorox

Toxixtale: Loruxsaart

Underlust: NSFWShamecave

Bill Sans: Hwamyong

Color Sans: superyoumna

Undertomb: Shorty

Underworld: CoulsArt

Snowy: SnowyB

UndeRewind: WishingStarInAJar

Mechanic (Sans): SaturnHere

Fargo: varigo

Park Sans: A_lotta_socks

Undertale Overgrown: _sploogezz

Pumpkin: roxies.rox

Bolt: @KevinZheChair

Webcore Sans: @KevinZheChair

Gummy: Lilmadshep (fren)

c0nfus!0n-tale: Satori (also fren)

Crookstale: Crooks (another fren)

Lupa: dusty_ccino (last fren)

DB!Dreamtale Selene: debossmoo

DB!Dreamtale Phobos: debossmoo

Anxietyfell: debossmoo

Sourtale: debossmoo

Outer Error: debossmoo

Horrorfell: debossmoo

and finaly Toxintale: debossmoo

I thried my best to credit everyone but i did miss a few so sry about that.

Hope u enjoy since this took like 2 hours to type…

[mariacallous]

It’s almost that magical time of year that the Humane Society of America likens to a “natural disaster.” Kitten season.

“The level of emotions for months on end is so draining,” said Ann Dunn, director of Oakland Animal Services, a city-run shelter in the San Francisco Bay Area. “And every year we just know it’s going to get harder.”

Across the United States, summer is the height of “kitten season,” typically defined as the warm-weather months between spring and fall during which a cat becomes most fertile. For over a decade, animal shelters across the country have noted kitten season starting earlier and lasting longer. Some experts say the effects of climate change, such as milder winters and an earlier start to spring, may be to blame for the uptick in feline birth rates.

This past February, Dunn’s shelter held a clinic for spaying and neutering outdoor cats. Although kitten season in Northern California doesn’t typically kick off until May, organizers found that over half of the female cats were already pregnant. “It’s terrifying,” Dunn said. “It just keeps getting earlier and going later.”

Cats reproduce when females begin estrus, more commonly known as “going into heat,” during which hormones and behavior changes signal she’s ready to mate. Cats can go into heat several times a year, with each cycle lasting up to two weeks. But births typically go up between the months of April and October. While it’s well established that lengthening daylight triggers a cat’s estrus, the effect of rising temperatures on kitten season isn’t yet understood.

One theory is that milder winters may mean cats have the resources to begin mating sooner. “No animal is going to breed unless they can survive,” said Christopher Lepczyk, an ecologist at Auburn University and prominent researcher of free-ranging cats. Outdoor cats’ food supply may also be increasing, as some prey, such as small rodents, may have population booms in warmer weather themselves. Kittens may also be more likely to survive as winters become less harsh. “I would argue that temperature really matters,” he said.

Others, like Peter J. Wolf, a senior strategist at the Best Friends Animal Society, think the increase comes down to visibility rather than anything biological. As the weather warms, Wolf says, people may be getting out more and noticing kittens earlier in the year than before. Then they bring them into shelters, resulting in rescue groups feeling like kitten season is starting earlier.

Regardless of the exact mechanism, having a large number of feral cats around means trouble for more than just animal shelters. Cats are apex predators that can wreak havoc on local biodiversity. Research shows that outdoor cats on islands have already caused or contributed to the extinction of an estimated 33 species. Wild cats pose an outsized threat to birds, which make up half their diet. In Hawaii, known as a bird extinction capital of the world, cats are the most devastating predators of wildlife. “We know that cats are an invasive, environmental threat,” said Lepczyk, who has published papers proposing management policies for outdoor cats.

Scientists, conservationists, and cat advocates all agree that unchecked outdoor cat populations are a problem, but they remain deeply divided on solutions. While some conservationists propose the targeted killing of cats, known as culling, cat populations have been observed to bounce back quickly, and a single female cat and her offspring can produce at least 100 descendants, if not thousands, in just seven years.

Although sterilization protocols such as “trap, neuter, and release” are favored by many cat rescue organizations, Lepczyk said it’s almost impossible to do it effectively, in part because of how freely the animals roam and how quickly they procreate. Without homes or sanctuaries after sterilization, returning cats outside means they may have a low quality of life, spread disease, and continue to harm wildlife. “No matter what technique you use, if you don’t stop the flow of new cats into the landscape, it’s not gonna matter,” said Lepczyk.

Rescue shelters, already under strain from resource and veterinary shortages, are scrambling to confront their new reality. While some release materials to help the community identify when outdoor kittens need intervention, others focus on recruiting for foster volunteer programs, which become essential caring for kittens who need around-the-clock care.

“As the population continues to explode, how do we address all these little lives that need our help?” Dunn said. “We’re giving this everything we have.”

[skzdust]

Arrange These to Spell Love

Chapter One: Lilac, Purple

Welcome to my new series, Arrange These to Spell Love! @felixs-voice-makes-me-wanna requested a San enemies to lovers fluffy smut, and I kind of took off in a completely different direction... but there will be enemies to lovers and there will be fluff and there will be smut, so I hope you enjoy it regardless! I even decided to include the Yeosang from one of my recent fics... Your Boyfriend, Yeosang. He isn't your boyfriend now, though, of course ;) Thank you for the request, it really kickstarted my creativity!

A few little notes: The flower language book I'm referencing is available through the internet archive here. It's pretty cool, you should check it out! Also, each chapter will be titled after a flower, with its meaning and associated poem at the beginning, to set a tone for and foreshadow the chapter.

Shoutout to Rem, @rems-writing, for the title and for beta reading, and of course my bestie @palindrome969 for beta reading as well!!

Summary: You run Beehive Flowers and Enchantments in your small beach town... and the attractive and infuriating Choi San runs the competition, Seaside Floral. When he calls you asking for help learning about Victorian flower language, you agree to help him. Little did you know what was to follow... involving your town's harvest festival, a wayward enchantment, and your best friend with benefits, Kang Yeosang.

Pairing: Kang Yeosang/Choi San/afab reader love triangle

This chapter includes: unexpected phone calls, "I hate him I swear", wine night with best friend with benefits Yeosang, a family spell book, and Victorian flower poetry

Word count: 1.8k

Taglist (Comment on a post/send an ask if you'd like to be added): @weirdowithaphone, @caught-in-the-afterglow, @palindrome969, @skzstan12345, @katsukis1wife,

@hyunjinsjeans, @somethingkindazainy, @silverstarburst

Network:@mirohs-aurora-society

Reblogs, likes, comments all appreciated!!!

Part 2

Masterlist

-----

LILAC, PURPLE: Too well-known to need description. Flowers purple and white.

FIRST EMOTIONS OF LOVE

"How sweet and rapturous 'tis to feel/ Ourselves exalted in a lovely soul!--/ To know our joys make glow another's cheek,/ Our fears do tremble in another's heart/ Our sufferings bedew another's eye!"

-SCHILLER

"As the little floweret hideth/ By the woodland stream,/ So in youthful hearts abideth/ Love's first witching dream."

-MISS J.A. FLETCHER

San and you were rivals. There was no other word for it.

You owned Beehive Flowers and Enchantments, a flower and spell shop which had been in your family for decades. Your grandmother had run it, then your dad, and now you had taken over. You were the only store that sold flowers or magic in your small beach town, and business was steady.

At least it had been, until Seaside Floral had opened last summer, run by the most attractive man you’d ever seen: Choi San. Unfortunately, he was also the most hateable. He was sweet to customers, but you saw him as smug and deeply competitive.

You’d seen it when you and your mom had brought him a bouquet, last summer, when San had first opened his store. It had been a beautiful arrangement, made of bright yellow, orange, and pink blooms. San had thanked you with a huge grin, but a couple of days later, you saw the flowers in their trash can.

Ever since then, San was number one on your ‘people I dislike’ list.

Sure, he didn’t sell everything you did. Your customers came to you for sleeping potions and home protection charms as much as they did for arrangements. But that didn’t mean he didn’t irk you endlessly.

The shop phone rang as you were removing the leaves from some lilies. You set down the flowers and picked it up. “Hello, Beehive Flowers and Enchantments, this is y/n speaking. How can I help you?”

“Hello, y/n, it’s Choi San, from Seaside Floral.”

You were immediately on the defensive. “Hi, San. What can I do for you?”

“I—” He sighed. “I want to ask you for a favor.”

You bristled. “Why do you think I owe you a favor?”

“You don’t, you don’t.” San rushed to say. “You don’t. I just think another florist is the only one who will really be able to help me.”

“What is it?”

“Can you come to my shop tonight? I think it’ll be easier just to explain in person.”

You sighed. “I’m… I don’t have anything going on. I’ll be there after we close, so probably around 6:30.”

“Perfect. I’ll see you then.”

“Okay.” You sighed. “Bye.”

“Goodbye.”

You set the receiver down and just stared into space for a moment. The Choi San you knew would never just call you for help for no reason. You wondered for a moment if there was some flower-related subterfuge going on, then banished the thought. That was silly. And San wasn’t that creative.

The day seemed to fly by, and soon enough you were locking up the store. You glanced at your phone. You’d get to San’s a bit early, but that was fine.

You walked through the town to Seaside Floral, trying to predict what San was going to want, but truly, you had no idea. You arrived at the shop at 6:20, and looked in through the front window, past their CLOSED sign.

San was standing behind the counter, his tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth as he snipped the bottom of a rose. He set it in a vase full of foliage and tilted his head at it, moving a few of the flowers and smiling at it.

He looked adorable, and your smiled before remembering that it was San and adjusting your expression to be stonier. You walked to the door and knocked.

San opened it a second later, wiping his hands on his apron, a stray leaf sticking to the front of him. “Y/n! Thank you so much for coming.”

“What do you want?” You raised your eyebrows, stepping into the shop. “I must say, I was a little surprised at your call.”

San laughed. “Yeah, I know we haven’t been very cooperative with each other, but I want to change that. I think if we did some events or promotions together it could be good for both of us.”

“So you want to plan something?”

“Maybe a flower stall or something at the harvest festival, we could both sell stems and you could have some fall themed enchantments or something… but no, not tonight.” San locked the door, and you followed him to the counter. “One of my customers wants to use Victorian flower language in the centerpieces of her wedding. She seemed pretty confident in my abilities to do something with it, but I’m… pretty clueless on that topic.” He smiled sheepishly. “Maybe that makes me a bad florist. I thought you might know, though. You seem like you’d be into meanings of flowers. So, I was wondering if you’d teach me.”

You blinked. You weren’t sure what you’d been expecting, but it certainly wasn’t this. “I do know about Victorian flower language.”

“So, you’ll teach me?” San’s smile was hopeful.

“Why don’t you just, like, google it?”

“I feel like this is something that should be taught, not googled.” San picked up a stem, twirling it between two fingers. “And I feel like you’d be a good teacher.”

You hesitated for a moment. “That’s white jasmine, which means, like… kind love, sweet love.”

San beamed. “I feel like I should be taking notes!”

“Don’t take notes.” You shook your head. “You should try to memorize them. It makes you look like more of an expert when a customer asks about it.”

“No notes, then.” San pulled out his phone. “Here, I’ll give you my number.”

You couldn’t believe it, but you typed San’s number into your phone.

He was acting so nice. You couldn’t let him fool you.

—

Your took another sip from your wine glass. “Yeah, and then he asked for my number.”

“Your number?” Yeosang lifted his eyebrows. “Really? Did he need that?”

“I don’t really think so.” You shook your head.

“Why are you helping him, anyway?” Yeosang asked. “I thought he was the competition.”

“He is.” You looked down.  “I’m… I don’t know, I’m accepting the olive branch.”

“Why?”

You shrugged. “He said he wants to do a flower stall come autumn, for the harvest festival, and maybe he’s right. It would be good for business.”

“That sounds like a lot of work.” Yeosang scooted a bit closer to you on the couch. “You’d have to be on your game to have something at that festival, it’s so popular.”

“It sounded like he’d thought a lot about it, even mentioned enchantments I could sell. I don’t know what he’s trying to do.” You mumbled, looking into your glass as if the wine would tell you San’s true intentions.

“I do think you should keep him at arm’s length. He’s kind of been a dick in the past.”

You nodded. “Oh, I have no plans to be best friends with the guy.”

Yeosang nudged your shoulder. “As your best friend, I’d hope not.”

You looked at him, smiling. “I could never replace you, Sangie.”

“You better not.” Yeosang winked.

Your heart jumped. Yeosang was your best friend with benefits, but you’d agreed that outside of occasional really hot sex, you couldn’t become more. You’d dated for a bit in college, when you’d lived together, but when you’d both moved back to your hometown, you’d broken up. Neither of you wanted to risk your relationship as best friends.

But you’d be lying if you said you didn’t want to wake up with him every morning, instead of just every so often.

—

You got unreasonably excited about your first flower language lesson with San as you flipped through the pages of the 1850s botanical book that your mother had given you, passed down from her family. It was one of your most valued possessions, and it was where you’d learned all you knew about Victorian flower language, as well as being the family spell book. It was reassuring to see all of your knowledge written out in old ink on old pages. It also soothed you to see the loopy handwriting along the edges of the pages, spells and recipes written out in the book. It was proof that generations of witches were on your side.

You didn’t bring the book with you as you got your things together to go to Seaside Floral that evening. It was too precious to risk something happening to it. Instead, you took some flowers from the shop that you wanted to tell San about. You would go into this lesson prepared.

You knocked at the door right at 6:30 this time.

“Stressed?” Your eyes flicked to San’s hair when he opened the door, which was messy, like he’d been running his hands through it repeatedly.

He gave a short laugh. “You could say. I’m just rushing for this wedding.”

“Then I guess I’ll start with flowers that represent love.” You carefully pulled a white flower with long petals out of your bag. “Lemon blossoms for fidelity in love.”

San picked up the bloom. “Lemon blossoms… I didn’t know that even flowers from fruits had meanings.”

“Oh, almost every plant has a meaning.” You held out a vine of ivy next. “Ivy is also fidelity, but it has a slightly different meaning… ‘I cling to thee’… which might sound bad, people think clinginess is bad, but it was actually quite a sweet and desirable The lemon blossom has the connotation of lemon, which means zest, so it’s a bit more enthusiastic in its commitment, whereas the ivy is more sentimental.”

San took the ivy from you, looking at it thoughtfully.

You went on. “Some of them have poems, too. I have this… this book that’s full of all of this information. It’s old, but the poems are nice.”

“Is there one for ivy?” San looked at you.

You cleared your throat. “Yes… it’s pretty… um… sappy. That’s how a lot of Victorian poetry is, I guess.”

“Do you know it?”

“Yeah.” You sighed. “Long have I sought, and vainly have I yearned to meet some spirit that could answer mine; then chide me not that I so soon have learned to talk with thine. Oh, thou wilt cherish what some hearts would spurn, so gentle and so full of soul thou art; and shrine my feelings in that holy urn— thine own true heart.”

San smiled. “It’s not great poetry, but it’s sweet.”

You shrugged. “Ivy often reflects matrimony, so it’s very lovey-dovey writing.”

“Ivy… matrimony.” He nodded. “Perfect for a wedding bouquet, then.’”

“Yeah, you’re getting it.”

“This is interesting.” San stared at the ivy. “I wonder if anyone will get it.”

“Probably not.” You grinned. “But you’ll get it, and I’ll get it, and I think it’s fun.”

“It is fun.” San looked back at you. “Show me another one.”

You left the shop wanting to hex San much less than usual.

[undertale-fic-librarby]

Recommend some Underswap Sans/Reader that's not part of a harem? I'm having a hard time finding some cute fics that's one on one 😭

Howdy, thanks for asking! Here are some fics that might fit what you're looking for!

We'll be Magnificent by EvergreenEmerald (Teen And Up, Complete)

“Welcome to Buttercup… Day… care….” Your smile drops from the smell of smoke. Your nose scrunches at the culprit, a cigarette in between white teeth… no, fangs? And the white doesn’t end there; his whole head is white, like real white. Wait… that is a skull, your eyes widened, taking the entire sight. There is a tall smoking skeleton in an orange hoodie at your door. The grim reaper wears a hoodie? Before your brain could fully process the hoodie wearing skeleton, a loud voice comes from below, startling you. “HELLO HUMAN, I AM THE MAGNIFICENT SANS AND THIS IS MY LAZY AWFUL PUN-LOVING BROTHER, PAPYRUS!!” You look down to a shorter skeleton, you are only a head taller than him, giving you a cheerful grin and wearing what seems to be armor and a blue scarf. He has a childlike cuteness atmosphere about him. You can’t help but find him adorable, especially with the stars spinning in his eyes. He poses as he made his and his brother’s grand introduction. A smile comes to your face as you giggle at him. What a sweetie

Throwing Dirty Confetti by BandieLove (Explicit, Incomplete)

You regret getting married. No, what you actually regret is getting married to a man you didn’t really know, too soon. Now, you hide your misery under a mask of fake happiness, pretending to be the ‘cheery wife’ he expects from you. You’ve gotten really good at hiding things, too. Like, your affair with Sans for example.

Strings Anonymous by Absent_Enigma (Teen And Up, Incomplete)

You’d purchased a house in the middle of nowhere for cheap. Too bad it was apparently haunted. No wonder the cost for the place had been low. The furniture moves. The food, particularly chocolate, vanishes at random. Clothes are mysteriously hung up, clutter tidied. Extra groceries or leftovers mysteriously appear in your fridge. Most curious of all, however, were the creepy blue strings that were strung up all over your new home’s half-finished basement, along with a cleverly concealed door on the wall that most certainly wasn't there before you moved in. What the heck.

I Taco About You [Underswap Sans x Reader] by Fandom_T2003 (General Audiences, Incomplete)

You are the older sister of Chara and the ambassador to monsters. It has been several months since monsters were released from the Underground and a certain small blue skeleton has started to develop feelings for none other than you! Will you accept his attraction or will the conflict between humans and monsters end up pushing you away? Taster: It wasn't that I didn't like Sans like that; he was always so caring and adorable that I couldn't help but feel at least some sort of affection for him. It was just that Chara kept running their mouth about it - even when the two of us were around Sans. I didn't want him to know about it! The whole point of having a crush is that it's meant to be a secret until either side cracks and ends up confessing!

Osteology by Rehlia (Mature, Incomplete)

Your first stint at university wasn't very successful. You had to drop out because you had no idea what you were doing with your life. Now, almost a decade later, you've finished an apprenticeship and are back to add a degree so you can get a better job. Older than everyone else and with a different perspective on life thanks to your experience, you feel a little isolated. Until you meet the one person who shares your age. Optimistic, cheerful, funny, kind - you could almost fall in love with this guy. Too bad he's a monster and society doesn't really accept that...

Here's a few more fics that are similar to what you're asking for!