#do other governments attempt to replicate them?

[la-horrorosa]

magical girls anime except they've already finished their magical mission as teenagers and now they're adults still grappling with physical and mental trauma from what they went through while they navigate a world that has commodified their identities as magical girls.

[ozzgin]

Yandere! Android x Reader (I)

It is the future and you have been tasked to solve a mysterious murder that could jeopardize political ties. Your assigned partner is the newest android model meant to assimilate human customs. You must keep his identity a secret and teach him the ways of earthlings, although his curiosity seems to be reaching inappropriate extents.

Yes, this is based on Asimov’s “Caves of Steel” because Daneel Olivaw was my first ever robot crush. I also wanted a protagonist that embraces technology. :)

Content: female reader, AI yandere, 50's futurism

[Part 2] | [More original works]

You follow after the little assistant robot, a rudimentary machine invested with basic dialogue and spatial navigation. It had caused quite the ruckus when first introduced. One intern - well liked despite being somewhat clumsy at his job - was sadly let go as a result. Not even the Police is safe from the threat of AI, is what they chanted outside the premises.

"The Commissioner has summoned you, (Y/N)." 

That's how it greeted you earlier, clacking its appendage against the open door in an attempt to simulate a knock. 

"Do you know why my presence is needed?" You inquire and wait for the miniature AI to scan the audio message. 

"I am not allowed to mention anything right now." It finally responds after agonizing seconds.

 It's an alright performance. You might've been more impressed by it, had you not witnessed first hand the Spacer technology that could put any modern invention here on Earth to shame. Sadly the people down here are very much against artificial intelligence. There have been multiple protests recently, like the one in front of your building, condemning the latest government suggestion regarding automation. People fear for their jobs and safety and you don't necessarily blame them for having self preservation. On the other hand, you've always been a supporter of progress. As a child you devoured any science fiction book you could get your hands on, and now, as a high ranked police detective you still manage to sneak away and scan over articles and news involving the race for a most efficient computer.

You close the door behind you and the Commissioner puts his fat cigarette out, twisting the remains into the ashtray with monotonous movements as if searching for the right words.

 "There's been a murder." Is all he settles on saying, throwing a heavy folder in your direction. A hologram or tablet might've been easier to catch, but the man, like many of his coworkers, shares a deep nostalgia for the old days. 

 You flip through the pages and eventually furrow your eyebrows. 

"This would be a disaster if it made it to the news." You mumble and look up at the older man. "Shouldn't this go to someone more experienced?" 

He twiddles with his grey mustache and glances out the fake window. 

"It's a sensitive case. The Spacers are sending their own agent to collaborate with us. What stands out to you?" 

You narrow your eyes and focus on the personnel sheet. What's there to cause such controversy? Right before giving up, departing from the page, you finally notice it: next to the Spacer officer's name, printed clearly in black ink, is a little "R." which is a commonly used abbreviation to indicate something is a robot. The chief must've noticed your startled reaction and continues, satisfied: 

"You understand, yes? They're sending an android. Supposedly it replicates a human perfectly in terms of appearance, but it does not possess enough observational data. Their request is that whoever partners up with him will also house him and let him follow along for the entirety of the mission. You're the only one here openly supporting those tin boxes. I can't possibly ask one of your higher ups, men with wives and children, to...you know...bring that thing in their house."

You're still not sure whether to be offended by the fact that your comfort seems to be of less priority compared to other officers. Regardless of the semantics, you're presently standing at the border between Earth and the Spacer colony, awaiting your case partner. A man emerges from behind a security gate. He's tall, with handsome features and an elegant walk. He approaches you and you reach for a handshake. 

"Is the android with you?" You ask, a little confused. 

"Is this your first time seeing a Spacer model?" He responds, relaxed. "I am the agent in your care. There is no one else." 

You take a moment to process the information, similar to the primitive machine back at your office. Could it be? You've always known that Spacer technology is years ahead, but this surpasses your wildest dreams. There is not a single detail hinting at his mechanical fundament. The movement is fluid, the speech is natural, the design is impenetrable. He lifts the warm hand he'd used for the handshake and gently presses a finger against your chin in an upwards motion. You find yourself involuntarily blushing. 

"Your mouth was open. I assumed you'd want it discreetly corrected." He states, factually, with a faint smile on his lips. Is he amused? Is such a feeling even possible? You try your best to regain some composure, adjusting the collar of your shirt and clearing your throat. 

"Thank you and please excuse my rudeness. I was not expecting such a flawless replica. Our assistants are...easily recognizable as AI."

"So I've been told." His smile widens and he checks his watch. You follow his gesture, still mesmerized, trying to find a single indicator that the man standing before you is indeed a machine, a synthetic product.

Nothing.

"Shall we?" He eyes the exit path and you quickly lead him outside and towards public transport. 

He patiently waits for your fingerprint scan to be complete. You almost turn around and apologize for the old, lagging device. As a senior detective, you have the privilege of living in the more spacious, secured quarters of the city. And, since you don't have a family, the apartment intended for multiple people looks more like a luxury adobe. Still, compared to the advanced way of the Spacers, this must feel like poverty to the android.

At last, the scanner beeps and the door unlocks. 

"Heh...It's a finicky model." You mumble and invite him in.

"Yes, I'm familiar with these systems." He agrees with you and steps inside, unbuttoning his coat.

"Oh, you've seen this before?"

"In history books."

You scratch your cheek and laugh awkwardly, wondering how much of his knowledge about the current life on Earth is presented as a museum exhibit when compared to Spacer society. 

"I'm going to need a coffee. I guess you don't...?" Your words trail as you await confirmation. 

"I would enjoy one as well, if it is not too much to ask. I've been told it's a social custom to 'get coffee' as a way to have small talk." The synthetic straightens his shirt and looks at you expectantly. 

"Of course. I somehow assumed you can't drink, but if you're meant to blend in with humans...it does make sense you'd have all the obvious requirements built in."

He drags a chair out and sits at the small table, legs crossed.

"Indeed. I have been constructed to have all the functions of a human, down to every detail." 

You chuckle lightly. Well, not like you can verify it firsthand. The engineers back at the Spacer colony most likely didn't prepare him for matters considered unnecessary. 

"I do mean every detail." He adds, as if reading your mind. "You are free to see for yourself."

You nearly drop the cup in your flustered state. You hurry to wipe the coffee that spilled onto the counter and glance back at the android, noticing a smirk on his face. What the hell? Are they playing a prank on you and this is actually a regular guy? Some sort of social experiment? 

"I can see they included a sense of humor." You manage to blurt out, glaring at him suspiciously. 

"I apologize if I offended you in any way. I'm still adjusting to different contexts." The android concludes, a hint of mischief remaining on his face. "Aren't rowdy jokes common in your field of work?"

"Uh huh. Spot on." You hesitantly place the hot drink before him.

Robots on Earth have always been built for the purpose of efficiency. Whether or not a computer passes the Turing Test is irrelevant as long as it performs its task in the most optimal, rational way. There have been attempts, naturally, to create something indistinguishable from a human, but utility has always taken precedence. It seems that Spacers think differently. Or perhaps they have reached their desired level of performance a long time ago, and all that was left was fiddling with aesthetics. Whatever the case is, you're struggling not to gawk in amazement at the man sitting in your kitchen, stirring his coffee with a bored expression.

"I always thought - if you don't mind my honesty - that human emotions would be something to avoid when building AI. Hard to implement, even harder to control and it doesn't bring much use."

"I can understand your concerns. However, let me reassure you, I have a strict code of ethics installed in my neural networks and thus my emotions will never lead to any destructive behavior. All safety concerns have been taken into consideration.

As for why...How familiar are you with our colony?" The android takes a sip of his coffee and nods, expressing his satisfaction. "Perhaps you might be aware, Spacers have a declining population. Automated assistants have been part of our society for a long time now. What's lacking is humans. If the issue isn't fixed, artificial humans will have to do."

You scoff.

"What, us Earth men aren't good enough to fix the birth rates? They need robots?"

You suddenly remember the recipient of your complaint and mutter an apology. 

"Well, I'm sure you'd make a fine contender. Sadly I can't speak for everyone else on Earth." The man smiles in amusement upon seeing the pale red that's now dusting your cheeks, then continues: "But the issue lies somewhere else. Spacers have left Earth a long time ago and lived in isolation until now. Once an organism has lost its immune responses to otherwise common pathogens, it cannot be reintegrated."

True. Very few Earth citizens are allowed to enter the colony, and only do so after thorough disinfection stages, proving they are disease free as to not endanger the fragile health of the Spacers living in a sterile environment. You can only imagine the disastrous outcome if the two species were to abruptly mingle. In that case, equally sterile machinery might be their only hope.

Your mind wanders to the idea. Dating a robot...How's that? You sheepishly gaze at the android and study his features. His neatly combed copper hair, the washed out blue eyes, the pale skin. Probably meant to resemble the Spacers. You shake your head.

"A-anyways, I'll go and gather all the case files I have. Then we can discuss our first steps. Do feel at home."

You rush out and head for your office. Focus, you tell yourself mildly annoyed.

While you search for the required paperwork - what a funny thing to say in this day and age - he will certainly take up on your generous offer to make himself comfortable. The redhaired man enters the living room, scanning everything with curious eyes. He stops in front of a digital frame and slides through the photos. Ah, this must be your Police Academy graduation. The year matches with the data he's received on you. Data files he might've read one too many times in his unexplained enthusiasm. This should be you and the Commissioner; Doesn't match the description of your father, and he seems too old to be a spouse or boyfriend. Additionally, the android distinctly recalls the empty 'Relationship' field.

"Old photos are always a tad embarrassing. I suppose you skipped that stage."

He jolts almost imperceptibly and faces you. You have returned with a thin stack of papers and a hologram projector.

"I've digitalized most files I received, so you don't have to shuffle a bunch of paper around." You explain.

"That is very useful, thank you." He gently retrieves the small device from your hand, but takes a moment before removing his fingers from yours. "I predict this will be a successful partnership."

You flash him a friendly smile and gesture towards the seating area.

"Let's get to work, then. Unless you want to go through more boring albums." You joke as you lower yourself onto the plush sofa. 

The synthetic human joins you at an unexpectedly close proximity. You wonder if proper distance differs among Spacers or if he has received slightly erroneous information about what makes a comfortable rapport. 

"Nothing boring about it. In fact, I'd say you and I are very similar from this point of view." He tells you, placing the projector on the table.

"Oh?"

"Your interest in technology and artificial intelligence is rather easy to infer." The man continues, pointing vaguely towards the opposing library. "Aside from the briefing I've already received about you, that is."

"And that is similar to...the interest in humans you've been programmed to have?" You interject, unsure where this conversation is meant to lead. 

"Almost."

His head turns fully towards you and you stare back into his eyes. From this distance you can finally discern the first hints of his nature: the thin disks shading the iris - possibly CCD sensors - are moving in a jagged, mechanical manner. Actively analyzing and processing the environment. 

"I wouldn't go as far as to generalize it to all humans. 

Just you."

[diabolocracy]

"Problematique media bad because it harms people because mentally ill people or children might read it and try to do it :("

Let's ban Superman, then, since there are many kids who have leapt from high heights trying to fly because they saw him do it in comics or on the teevee. (Fun fact, dunno if it's national, but at least one Canadian province already technically has a ban on all comics/stories of that nature for the reasoning of "someone blamed these stories for their own chosen actions". Not that anyone enforces it, buuuut...)

Let's also ban anime. Remember that (unsupervised, might I say) kid that buried his head in the sand and died because he wanted to be like Gaara from the Narutos? No? Well now you know about it.

Oh, what's that? You like Superman? You like anime...? You don't want these things banned because some people are stupid and failed to give their children the "don't try to replicate what you see/read in fiction" talk? Too bad! Blanket ban!! For the good of the people who clearly cannot be trusted to teach their kids or take care of their mentally ill family!!!

While I'm on this rant,

"Problematique media bad because people can use it to groom others :("

As many people have pointed out time and time again, people who groom kiddies IRL use candy, cute animals, and other small gifts (if they don't just grab Little Timmy and pull him into their car in a drive-by abduction).

Let's ban candy! Let's ban cute animals! Let's ban plush toys, comic books, and all other little nick-knacks because again, people cannot be trusted to supervise or otherwise look after their own children or even provide their brats the most basic safety talks!

"But when I was a kid I thought [thing] was okay because I read about it in a fanfic :("

Well, buttercup, sorry to tell you this, but your parents and teachers all failed you! :) Perhaps this blame can even extend to the government, because when I was growing up there were PSAs on the television about NOT REPLICATING THINGS YOU SEE ON TV OR READ ABOUT IN FICTIONAL STORIES.

EDUCATION IS SUPERIOR TO BANNING.

EDUCATION IS SUPERIOR TO MAKING STRANGERS OR THE GOVERNMENT BABYSIT YOU OVER MOTHERFUCKIN' STORIES.

And that doesn't even stop at all this bullshit about problematique fiction! Unfortunately, rational human beings with a brain have to co-exist with idiots too uncurious and too stupid to learn about anything that makes them personally uncomfortable (like republicans and conservatives and TERFs and neo-nazis and, yes, fanpol, you too--I'd go so far as to call you guys "useful idiots" like fellow queers who fell for the "LGB drop the T" attempt to divide and conquer the queer community bullshit perpetrated by the Christian right and no that is not a bullshit conspiracy theory)!

🙂Anyway, back to making cookies run. Bye

[theavaricesystem]

You know what, y'all are getting this essay now.

Metroid Fusion is a game about being transgender and being haunted by the idea of who you could have been/who you were, and Metroid Dread is about abusive and neglectful family and being prosecuted for factors outside of one's control.

This will have spoilers for Metroid Fusion and Metroid Dread.

In the intro to Fusion, Samus Aran is working with a part of the galactic government, as a sort of freelancer. While on a mission, she is attacked by an amorphous alien lifeform which suddenly disappears after invading her suit. Later, while in transit, she suddenly loses motor functions and crashes her ship into an asteroid.

The lifeform, known as an X, had fused to her body, slowly killing her and destroying her from within. It was so deeply connected to her at that point that the doctors and scientists trying to save Samus were at a loss. They had removed parts of her suit hoping to quarantine the X and reverse the process, but it was deep in her central nervous system at this point.

As Samus' narration puts it:

By taking a sample of Metroid DNA and splicing it with Samus', her body was able to adapt and absorb the X. This was only possible because the X are describes as being of "nearly pure energy", and Metroid being creatures that absorb energy, are one of their only predators.

Now, what does that have to do with an allegory for being trans? Well.

Being Part Metroid is not a reversible process. And it's not without its problems. Metroids are naturally vulnerable to cold, and while Samus used to be able to handle at least close to arctic temperatures without her Varia Suit, she is now barely able to even handle research facilities in said areas. On top of that, her suit is now more deeply connected to her than it ever has been before. It saved her, kept her alive while the X tried to ravage her body, but now it is an inescapable part of her.

But, she had been given the ability to consume X parasites. Her body was now, in part, Metroid in nature. She had won against the X that sought to kill her.

This is the image that really cements it in my brain. Samus has become a different person. She was reborn as a hybrid of Human, Chozo, and Metroid. Samus, for her part, accepts this pretty quickly, even reflecting that her life up to this point was leading up to this. The Metroid DNA that saved her came from the infant Metroid that saved her way back in Super Metroid, after all.

(I could go into how the change has caused her suit to become softer, and slightly weaker, and how much of the outer plating of her suit has been lost, and how that plays into the theme of transition, but that feels a bit more tenuous of a connection.)

Now, let's move to the antagonist of Fusion.

Samus' old suit, the parts removed by the scientists to get to her, was quarantined on a space station. However, the X inside began to replicate Samus herself, until they had become a copy of her at the peak of her power, but devoid of any humanity. A killing machine.

This is referred to as SA-X.

(that reveal scene gave me nightmares as a kid)

Throughout Fusion, you're attempting to basically get Samus back to the level of power that she had, in order to contend with and defeat the SA-X. A lot of other things happen in this game, including the personhood of Adam(who needs his own essay tbh). But, the crux of the conflict is between the SA-X, who is imitating a previous version of Samus, and Samus herself, who is desperately trying to become the person she once was, again.

The final boss of Fusion is a Metroid, not any X imitation. Despite the conflict between them, the SA-X attempts to fight this Metroid, it's natural predator, but fails. With the SA-X's death, Samus reclaims some of power that she lost, by consuming what was left of it. But, she doesn't just become the person that she was. She is permanently changed, permanently A Metroid by any standards. There is no going back.

She has taken the remnants of who she was, accepted them, and become something new, something greater.

Then, we come to Metroid Dread. In it, Samus is tasked with figuring out if the reports of X existing on a planet. A series of robots were sent to take samples and figure out if this information was true, the Extraplanetary Multiform Mobile Identifier, or E.M.M.I. units. Of course, all of them disappeared shortly after reaching the planet, and couldn't be reached. So, they sent Samus, whose unique biology made her the only living thing in the galaxy capable of surviving an attack from the X.

Samus is, in this game, the last Metroid in existence.

In the end, it is revealed that the EMMI units were taken over and controlled by a Chozo called Raven Beak. This Chozo was one of the several who gave their DNA to Samus, and he calls her Daughter throughout the ending sequence of the game.

Raven Beak's goal is to take the Metroid DNA from Samus to create a new form of bioweapon using it. Which is, for those familiar to the series, the same thing that the government has done, like, three times. Hell, it happens in Fusion, too. (The Metroids in that portion aren't even hostile to Samus, as they recognize her as one of their own.) Raven Beak was also the cause of a major schism within the Chozo, between those who wanted to exist in harmony with the universe, and those who saw it as theirs by right of their power.

Despite calling her "daughter", Raven Beak sees Samus as a tool. A source of power that he has every right to harvest. He manipulates her and pushes her to near-death to bring out her Metroid instincts, which are to Consume and Kill. He helps her become stronger, but only to make her a more complete Metroid. In his mind, her destiny is to pave the path for his dominion and control over the galaxy.

Despite never being there for her, Raven expects Samus to give her life so that he can become all-powerful. He calls it "her destiny". The process that saved her from the X in Fusion ultimately endangered her, and it is only through accepting her nature as a Metroid that she is able to survive and triumph.

Because she was a Metroid, a change that she did not choose to make but that was needed for her to survive, she became a target for Raven Beak. She was hunted by the EMMIs for her DNA, and became a monster to survive.

(it did give us the Coolest suit Samus has ever had, but still. Traumatizing for her)

In the end, Samus is of course not sacrificed upon the altar of Raven Beak's power. She escapes, and narrowly so, thanks to another Chozo who had been taken over by the X but retained his lucidity, named Quiet Robe. By willingly giving himself to Samus, she is able to regain a more normal form, but it is clear that the events of Dread have changed Samus irrevocably.

If you're still reading, I'd like to thank you for sticking with this rambling mess. And for coming to my ted talk. Lol.

[xannador]

Have you considered going to Pillowfort?

Long answer down below:

I have been to the Sheezys, the Buzzlys, the Mastodons, etc. These platforms all saw a surge of new activity whenever big sites did something unpopular. But they always quickly died because of mismanagement or users going back to their old haunts due to lack of activity or digital Stockholm syndrome.

From what I have personally seen, a website that was purely created as an alternative to another has little chance of taking off. It it's going to work, it needs to be developed naturally and must fill a different niche. I mean look at Zuckerberg's Threads; died as fast as it blew up. Will Pillowford be any different?

The only alternative that I found with potential was the fediverse (mastodon) because of its decentralized nature. So people could make their own rules. If Jack Dorsey's new dating app Bluesky gets integrated into this system, it might have a chance. Although decentralized communities will be faced with unique challenges of their own (egos being one of the biggest, I think).

Trying to build a new platform right now might be a waste of time anyway because AI is going to completely reshape the Internet as we know it. This new technology is going to send shockwaves across the world akin to those caused by the invention of the Internet itself over 40 years ago. I'm sure most people here are aware of the damage it is doing to artists and writers. You have also likely seen the other insidious applications. Social media is being bombarded with a flood of fake war footage/other AI-generated disinformation. If you posted a video of your own voice online, criminals can feed it into an AI to replicate it and contact your bank in an attempt to get your financial info. You can make anyone who has recorded themselves say and do whatever you want. Children are using AI to make revenge porn of their classmates as a new form of bullying. Politicians are saying things they never said in their lives. Google searches are being poisoned by people who use AI to data scrape news sites to generate nonsensical articles and clickbait. Soon video evidence will no longer be used in court because we won't be able to tell real footage from deep fakes.

50% of the Internet's traffic is now bots. In some cases, websites and forums have been reduced to nothing more than different chatbots talking to each other, with no humans in sight.

I don't think we have to count on government intervention to solve this problem. The Western world could ban all AI tomorrow and other countries that are under no obligation to follow our laws or just don't care would continue to use it to poison the Internet. Pandora's box is open, and there's no closing it now.

Yet I cannot stand an Internet where I post a drawing or comic and the only interactions I get are from bots that are so convincing that I won't be able to tell the difference between them and real people anymore. When all that remains of art platforms are waterfalls of AI sludge where my work is drowned out by a virtually infinite amount of pictures that are generated in a fraction of a second. While I had to spend +40 hours for a visually inferior result.

If that is what I can expect to look forward to, I might as well delete what remains of my Internet presence today. I don't know what to do and I don't know where to go. This is a depressing post. I wish, after the countless hours I spent looking into this problem, I would be able to offer a solution.

All I know for sure is that artists should not remain on "Art/Creative" platforms that deliberately steal their work to feed it to their own AI or sell their data to companies that will. I left Artstation and DeviantArt for those reasons and I want to do the same with Tumblr. It's one thing when social media like Xitter, Tik Tok or Instagram do it, because I expect nothing less from the filth that runs those. But creative platforms have the obligation to, if not protect, at least not sell out their users.

But good luck convincing the entire collective of Tumblr, Artstation, and DeviantArt to leave. Especially when there is no good alternative. The Internet has never been more centralized into a handful of platforms, yet also never been more lonely and scattered. I miss the sense of community we artists used to have.

The truth is that there is nowhere left to run. Because everywhere is the same. You can try using Glaze or Nightshade to protect your work. But I don't know if I trust either of them. I don't trust anything that offers solutions that are 'too good to be true'. And even if take those preemptive measures, what is to stop the tech bros from updating their scrapers to work around Glaze and steal your work anyway? I will admit I don't entirely understand how the technology works so I don't know if this is a legitimate concern. But I'm just wondering if this is going to become some kind of digital arms race between tech bros and artists? Because that is a battle where the artists lose.

[magnolia-sunrise]

idk if you've ever discussed this before, but are there such things as humans with android-sort of augmentations (idk if that would be considered a cyborg or not exactly), or are things clean cut between being human and android? probably obvious question from me of all people but

thank you mintt for being the frontline soldier of keeping the inbox and this blog alive somewhat even when im busy with non-OC stuff 💖 !!

prefacing this with the ol "any of this might change if and when i flesh out this part of the world more or i decide it doesn't serve the story" you know how it is

short answer first: to general public knowledge, there aren't any human - android hybrids

long answer: there are humans who have performance augmentations, cybernetic implants, advanced prosthetics, which does classify them as cyborgs but its actually different tech than androids. (for example Bastien has subdermal implant for HRT that he refills every 3 months, Élise has a couple chip implants to make interfacing with their computers faster and smoother)

there are also humans who try to reverse engineer android bodies (this is again something Bastien and Élise try to do at the clinic). android bodies are really advanced, they can 'heal' small cuts, mimic bruising et cetera with remarkable accuracy, in that way some of the models are nigh organic, but all attempts to integrate them with human bodies - to general public knowledge - have failed in the long term

since the government (and other interested parties) keeps a very tight lid on the secrets of android tech in general, going as far as collecting any and all of their dead bodies and allegedly incinerating them, the grassroots progress of reverse engineering their parts has been really slow and dangerously illegal. the process of applying for a new limb, body part or skin etc takes years of wait time and bureaucratic loops for any android that's trying to fix an issue with their body via the authorized routes.

there are of course rumors - without any damning proof, that dysfunct android bodies are not destroyed but recycled as new advanced tech, tools, weapons and prosthetics for black ops sectors and the richest of the rich. there are also vague conspiracies about the lack of human knowledge about android tech trying to make the argument that even the government doesn't actually know how to replicate whole androids and that there is a lot more to that secret than just lost knowledge. but yknow none of that is the kind of information any normal person really thinks about much or could verify, and life goes on.

[olderthannetfic]

One thing that's been bugging me about EOTWR ist that one of their bigger supporters has a post up with over 6k reblogs, where they claim that AO3's elections are rigged and that people should stop voting in them and instead "get angry" and give them "noisy, angry hell on every single fucking platform you can find.", which is pretty much a HUGE red flag. Why? For one, they present zero evidence on OTW's elections "being rigged" and that's an incredibly serious allegation to make. And as we can see with Trump and the GOP, it's an allegation that can be very well used to undermine liberal, democratic institutions and processes, so it should never be used without having serious evidence or at least a solid argument to support it. Nevermind that "don't vote" because "voting doesn't achieve anything" has been a hugely popular propaganda tactic and narrative that neo-fascist, authoritarian governments like Russia have spread via troll-farms in an attempt to sabotage western democracies and as a means of hybrid warfare, so I'm going to give anybody a major side-eye who replicates that kind of narrative, even in a different context. Also, this whole appeal to "get angry and give people hell" appeal? All withouth any kind of recourse to...you know....TALKING with each other and finding a way forward together? That's not something that shows interest in building better policies, that's instigating a harassment campaign against anybody who doesn't fall into line and agrees 100% with you. Which, given the diversity of the fandom community, with a wealth of people from different countries, different cultures, faiths and personal experiences? Also NOT a good idea. So overall....would be more anti-racist action a good thing? Yes. For now though, EOTWR looks to be a poster-child for "the way to hell is paved with good intentions" and has a higher probability of doing harm to fandom rather than good.

--

It's foolish to think OTW elections are rigged when everything about them is entirely predictable from basic popularity contest dynamics that afflict literally all parts of human existence.

Also, it's hard to even get anyone to run, and most candidates are functionally identical to an outside observer in most election cycles. What the hell is the rigging supposed to have done?

[andarthas-web]

The way to hell....

[EOTWR edition]

One thing that's been bugging me about EOTWR ist that one of their bigger supporters has a post up with over 6k reblogs, where they claim that AO3's elections are rigged and that people should stop voting in them and instead "get angry" and give them "noisy, angry hell on every single fucking platform you can find.", which is pretty much a HUGE red flag. Why? For one, they present zero evidence on OTW's elections "being rigged" and that's an incredibly serious allegation to make. And as we can see with Trump and the GOP, it's an allegation that can be very well used to undermine liberal, democratic institutions and processes, so it should never be used without having serious evidence or at least a solid argument to support it. Nevermind that "don't vote" because "voting doesn't achieve anything" has been a hugely popular propaganda tactic and narrative that neo-fascist, authoritarian governments like Russia have spread via troll-farms in an attempt to sabotage western democracies and as a means of hybrid warfare, so I'm going to give anybody a major side-eye who replicates that kind of narrative, even in a different context. Also, this whole appeal to "get angry and give people hell" appeal? All without any kind of recourse to...you know....TALKING with each other and finding a way forward together? In a “my way or the highway” kind of sense? That's not something that shows interest in building better policies, that's instigating a harassment campaign against anybody who doesn't fall into line and agrees 100% with you. Which, given the diversity of the fandom community, with a wealth of people from different countries, different cultures, faiths and personal experiences? Also NOT a good idea. So overall....would be more anti-racist action a good thing? Yes. For now though, EOTWR looks to be a poster-child for "the way to hell is paved with good intentions" and has a higher probability of doing harm to fandom rather than good in a very orwellian sense.

[granulesofsand]

Respectability Politics in CDDs

🗝️🏷️ OEA flavored syscourse

I know that fawning is a survival mode, but survival modes have never been an excuse to cause harm. By trying to appease and fit into a social group that doesn’t want us, we are intentionally discarding our most vulnerable peers.

If you’ve been around long enough, you’ll have seen some of these themes thrown around in every wider community a subgroup belongs to:

In medicine, psychology is often considered a soft science. Practitioners don’t have to believe in any of the theories or evidence to do their jobs, so they discount the whole field as less than or a pseudoscience

In psychology, trauma care is often considered a specialty. Clinicians can find clients without building safe relationships for disclosure, so they don’t know about and don’t treat trauma. People with trauma disorders are passed off as too complex or volatile for most support people

In trauma care, dissociation is a niche that clinicians don’t need to know about. Many people, caregivers and patients alike, don’t believe in repressed (dissociated) memories.

If a caregiver is informed about dissociation, that doesn’t guarantee they know about DID. They can find clients without validating or believing in any CDD, and can be downright venomous towards clients with those disorders (or CD structures in general)

In CDD treatment, OEA is an often considered conspiracy theory. Regardless of the actual story, clinicians will pass by OEA survivors as too much, or simply delusional.

In OEA circles, not everyone believes in mind control. They treat it as a buzz word, denying its possibility while describing it in practice with slightly different words. Even OEA circles might not believe in dissociation or CDSs, let alone programmed CDDs

In programming survivor circles, any survivor whose group wore cloaks, used candles, had fancy machines, or called themselves a secret society or government (by name or not) is discounted in an attempt to gain wider recognition

We all throw each other under the bus in an attempt to board ourselves, and that bus does not want us as passengers. It’s almost always a means of looking more believable to the people who don’t care to believe us, to present ourselves as respectable so one part of our collective narrative can be heard.

And it doesn’t work. If you can gain recognition by climbing a pile of bait, you can only hope nobody else tries to climb up you. Sometimes the group you are trying to squeeze into notices on their own that you look a little too different from them, or a little too similar to the people you stand on.

If we can get a piece of our community recognized by research we can replicate and arguments we can reuse, that’s a good thing. But if you were lucky enough to be included in that piece, turning your back on the people who were you is nothing short of hypocrisy and betrayal.

The rest of us don’t go away because you got lucky. And it is luck; as much as I love a good essay, what we need to get the rest of us to that level is evidence. Evidence that requires brain scans and chemical linkage, because we aren’t believed when we testify ourselves. Do you see how this a resource problem? Do you see how it isn’t?

People with degrees are qualified to record our experiences because they have access to education, the academic formats and vocabulary, the multifocal background. If you aren’t using those same tools, you have no reason to require them of others. This is why community isn’t reliant on academia, and why the cultural group is different than the medicalized group. We were the same, and then we weren’t. Subgroups exist because you left us behind.

[mariacallous]

Although considered a relatively minor ballot, Czechia’s upcoming regional elections will set the clock ticking for the next parliamentary elections scheduled in a year.

“Vineyards are a symbol of hard work. And that’s exactly what awaits us after the regional elections, if we win,” mused ANO vice-president Alena Schillerova as the main opposition party kicked off its campaign in the wine country of South Moravia, where she hails from.

Hard work perhaps, but from a strong position, as the latest polls put her ANO party led by the former prime minister Andrej Babis ahead of any those of the ruling coalition, just months after Babis’s movement emerged victorious from the European Parliament elections.

“All national polls show ANO as the strongest party by far, with very stable voting preferences of around one-third of the electorate,” confirms Martin Buchtik, director of the STEM polling agency.

An expected win?

Four years after the last ballot, Czechs will once more head to the polls on Friday and Saturday to elect the 675 members of the country’s 13 regional councils – except for Prague – who will then elect their governor based on post-election negotiations and alliances.

Despite receiving the most votes in 10 out of 13 regions in 2020, ANO only managed to take control of the three governorships of Usti nad Labem, Zlin and Moravia-Silesia.

This year’s ballot might not prove all that different, with Babis himself suggesting that replicating the results of four years ago would be considered a “success”, while hinting that one or two extra seats of governors would be welcome after three years in opposition to an unpopular government.

But due to the intermingling of regional issues with national politics, the importance of individual personalities – some of them well established – and of local dynamics, nation-wide electoral preferences, or lack thereof, do not automatically translate to the level of regional councils.

“In the Czech conditions, post-elections negotiations matter a lot, and in the past, it often happened that other parties agreed without ANO,” explains Lubomir Kopecek from Masaryk University in Brno, hinting at Babis’s own “personality and populism” as a red line keeping many potential partners away.

“It very much depends on how significant ANO victories will be in specific regions,” he tells BIRN. “In general, however, it is not the case that victory automatically means ANO will rule in the regions.”

More than 8,000 candidates hailing from over 80 political parties and movements are vying for regional council posts this year. And the patchwork of local alliances, ad-hoc cooperations or coalition red-lines may look very different region to region, making it sometimes “even quite difficult for voters to understand what’s going on”, according to STEM’s Buchtik.

‘Racist’ billboards

The far-right SPD party of Tomio Okamura, for instance, has confirmed its cooperation with the Trikolora movement in three regions, while both parties will also campaign alongside the PRO party of rabble-rouser Jindrich Rajchl in six other constituencies, and Svobodni in four of them.

The SPD’s widening network of alliances with extra-parliamentary parties – like PRO – it was bluntly attacking just a few months ago testifies to Okamura’s movement weakening following disappointing EU election results as well as its further radicalisation, analysts believe.

Hence the SPD’s attempt to be even “more extreme, more shocking”, according to Karel Kominek from the Institute of Political Marketing, exemplified by its provocative billboard campaign which has caused shock and outrage across Prague.

On one of the posters, a dark-skinned man with a bloodied knife and clothing is shown with the caption: “The shortcomings in the healthcare sector cannot be solved by imported surgeons”, quickly leading to accusations of racism and disinformation. A criminal complaint has been filed against Okamura’s party, which – presumably unbothered by the extra publicity – focused on the technological merits of their campaign.

“The SPD is the first Czech party that uses the most modern technologies,” Okamura proudly declared as he confirmed the visuals were created with the help of artificial intelligence.

“I think this is really a typical example of how controversial and polarised the upcoming parliamentary campaign will be, which has already technically started with the upcoming regional and Senate elections,” Pavel Havlicek, an analyst at the Association for International Affairs, told Czech Radio.

“This is a good example of how most of the limits of the past are now broken, and most things will unfortunately be possible to say in the public space,” he added.

Nonetheless, Buchtik from the STEM agency does not expect a strong rise of support for extremist parties like the SPD “that traditionally do not fare too well in regional elections” and currently hold a total of 35 seats in nine different regions. “It’s not going to be like in Germany”, he predicts in reference to the regional gains of the far-right AfD party a few weeks ago just across the border.

Polarisation ahead

True to form, the main opposition parties – including Babis’s ANO and Okamura’s SPD – have resorted to turning the upcoming ballot into a referendum on the current five-party coalition of Prime Minister Petr Fiala, which remains unpopular 12 months before the end of its term.

“The main topic of the campaign is whether you’re for or against the government,” Buchtik tells BIRN, nonetheless adding that regional considerations also come into play.

Socio-economic problems are high on the agenda in the poorer regions of Usti nad Labem or Karlovy Vary, he says, fertile ground for ANO and other opposition parties, while analysts expect regions that are better off – like Central Bohemia and South Moravia – to remain in the current centre-right government’s fold.

“Suggesting this is some kind of referendum on the government simply does not work,” Interior Minister Vit Rakusan argued. “This is a referendum on life in individual regions, whether governors have proven themselves or not. Our people are not stupid, they will not be deceived or fooled.”

While the opposition tries to capitalise on low public trust in the ruling coalition and their tainted track-record at the national level, government parties in turn put the “emphasis on regional issues and typically also take advantage of the fact that they have filled most of the positions of governors,” analyses Kopecek from Masaryk University

Coalition-backed governors, on the other hand, are aware of the need to distance themselves from national party affiliation, often choosing to personalise their election bid, like South Bohemia governor Martin Kuba who has launched his campaign without the ruling ODS or SPOLU branding.

Considering the unpopularity of the government, “it makes sense for him to build the campaign around himself”, assesses Otto Eibl from Masaryk University in Brno, while ANO, on the other hand, has proven much less shy in giving centre stage to its national leadership in order to give a boost to the campaign of sometimes lesser-known local figures.

In general, however, many Czechs express little interest in regional elections – the last turnout in 2020 stood at just 38 per cent – and a similarly low level of awareness as to who their governor is or what kind of competence regional councils have in terms of policymaking.

“People identify more with mayors, who often deal with them directly, or with national politicians who appear daily on television,” assessed Milan Skolnik, a political scientist from the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague.

At the same time as regional councils, Czechs will go to the polls to elect a third of the 81-member Senate, currently dominated by the five-party government coalition.

“No big changes are expected,” Buchtik tells BIRN, nevertheless adding that the performance of ANO, which has never fared too well in senatorial elections, is worth keeping an eye on.

“It will also be interesting to see whether Prisaha leader Robert Slachta will manage to win a seat in the Senate,” he adds, as his potential victory or defeat could be instrumental in determining the future or unravelling of the Prisaha-Motorista coalition – the surprise breakthrough of June’s European ballot – ahead of the 2025 legislative elections.

Another example showing that while neither regional nor senatorial elections are expected to bring dramatic changes to Czechia’s political landscape, both will be indicative of the 12 months that lie ahead, giving a picture of where voter preferences lie, how public debate will be shaped over the coming year, and whether political alliances – old and new – will hold in an increasingly polarised climate.

[circlejourney]

When I was 24, I decided to get assessed for autism. At that point, I was in the midst of moving my life to a different country, and while it was not easy, and still isn't, it was also the first time I ever got to live "as a full adult."

Up till that point, my parents had made most of my life decisions on my behalf, including controlling my bank account until I became an adult, taking the prize money I won at competitions, deciding I wasn't allowed to apply to universities overseas for my bachelor's, and generally systematically convincing me I could not survive living on my own.

Anyway, for the first time in my life, I could make my own life decisions. And so I came home one summer, and told them about my wish to get assessed. And they told me something to the effect of:

When you were 13, your secondary school teacher asked us if you were autistic and thought you should get assessed. But we decided we didn't want you to have that label.

[cw self injury and physical abuse, also generally very personal outpouring here]

And you know...after hearing about my friends' horrible experiences with mental health diagnoses and suicide attempts "staining" their record for the rest of their lives...I kind of get it.

They were doing it for my safety. In Singapore, unlike in Australia, having mental illness on your record genuinely affects your chances at employment and access to other freedoms. Disability rights are awful there. And worse than the rights is the stigma.

My parents made the judgment call not to get me checked, because it was seemingly not affecting my functioning. I was studying at "top schools" all my life because my grades and extracurriculars qualified me to be there. I was doing well even in a school where exams were tuned and benchmarked so that only a certain fraction of the students scored an A (because 90% of the students would score an A otherwise). In my parents' eyes, there was not a problem big enough to warrant something so life-changing as a diagnosis.

Still, I don't think I needed a label to receive the stigma, but that's beside the point here. The point is that the diagnosis could have been dangerous in Singapore, and we were in a double bind, where they could not let me seek help, or I risked losing full personhood in the eyes of the State.

After moving to Australia, a lot of other things became clear. Beginning from the fact that my Master's degree course load in Australia was half that of my bachelor's in Singapore. Relatively speaking, I sailed by on my Master's, partly because the hours were so relaxed, and I had the time to live my life in the midst of it. And my bachelor's was easier, again, than high school.

I found out that learning someone was regularly beating their kid was grounds to call Child Protection Services. Haha, what? You mean that thing my parents did so much that I started to avoid coming home from school, is a crime in some countries?

Earlier this year, I heard from my sister that she's working 30-hour shifts on-site as a doctor. She doesn't get any sort of break for sleep in the middle of it, and she does this weekly. 70-hour work weeks, and this isn't even abnormal in Singapore - it's expected of doctors in their first years. And my parents went through that too, and have been telling my sister to suck it up.

What I think is that the Singapore government likes to keep us all in a bubble. It feeds us the lie that this is how all humans live, under the guise of knowing what's best for us. And you really don't know how different life could be - the constant pressure, and the lack of regard for our personhood, is like water to a fish.

And it gets replicated within the household - to align with the State, the Family then must re-enact its authoritarianism. I can't get diagnosed and seek help, I will stop being seen as human if I do. Why do you keep yelling at teachers and throwing things at your classmates? Why do you keep having meltdowns? You need to learn anger management. And I do my exams and I get my A's, and all is well, because see, the grades prove that you're more than functional.

Anyway I started self-harming when I was 10 years old. I thought about committing suicide all the time. As a child. I couldn't understand why the world felt like it was on the other side of a glass wall, through which no one could hear me. Why I never felt like a part of the picture. Why no one seemed to trust me to do anything right.

It makes infinitely more sense now, but I still feel like I'm on the other side of a glass wall, and sometimes I wonder if it's simply too late for me to develop a fundamental sense of security in myself. I have seen my therapist for 5 years and we've made a small amount of headway. But it probably takes more than 5 years to undo, uh, all that.

[thebestpartofwakingup]

God asteroid city is such a beautiful movie on its own but it’s even more meaningful if you’re familiar with Wes Anderson’s other work it really feels like this culmination of ideas and motifs from his earlier works, its a shame it came out in the midst of Barbenheimer

Anderson’s works are often centered in or particularly interested in eccentric personalities and this feels like one of his first attempts to de-abstract and tie it to a specific history. The story of Asteroid City is framed as a play written by an older gay man in the 1950s, with his director also heavily suggested to be queer and the cast close knit through this world, that the world of stage theater is understood and respected as a refuge for queer artists even if not all members themselves are queer.

But the play itself is distinctly about heterosexual characters, a man mourning the death of his wife, two teenagers falling in love at a summer extracurricular program, an affair between a widower and a high profile actress too busy to have a typical domestic relationship with her daughter (that is both directly addressed but not demonized, that despite it the daughter is still ok and no weirder for it than anyone else)

There’s even a sex scene between minor characters of a cowboy and school teacher, arguably the pillars of American heterosexual bachelor and bacholette caricatures.

There’s also notably a head female scientist and black military commander, neither of which is commented upon as unusual for the time period or whom seem particularly mistreated by anyone else.

And, as is rare for Wes Anderson, all the relationships more or less end happily. At least in the run WE see, which is markedly distinct from the original script as Jones walks off stage, misses a scene, and is implied to have also later fallen asleep on stage, causing the director to improvise and cut additional scenes and dialogues and conclude all the side stories peacefully,

And then Tom Hank’s (the father in law of Auggie) tells him that even though he’s never personally liked him that he’s still going to accept and love him as family because that’s what his daughter did and he loved her enough to trust her judgement but more directly, because the personal hang ups he has over Auggie just aren’t as important to him as his relationship with his son-in-law and his grandchildren, that it really isn’t worth the drama to not just suck it up and love his son-in-law flaws and all. This in parallel with their decision to bury part of his daughter’s ashes in a Tupperware container at the insistence of his young granddaughters in Asteroid City before they leave forever — remarking again that it isn’t something he ever wanted for his daughter, isn’t something he’s happy about doing, but he loves his granddaughters and wants to do whatever he can to help the passing of their mother easier for them.

And with Jones playing Auggie every night he gets to perform and express and explore the grief he feels for the death of the play’s writer and his gay lover in a way that is not only socially acceptable (he’s an actor playing a man sad his wife died! Whose gonna question that?) but is also potentially financially viable and career supportive. But it’s not just about him, even if Auggie’s grief is central to the play, because the other actors and stagehands and director knew the writer too and presumable thought well of him, and so now they get to dedicate their time to not only promoting his creative work but in replicating a fictionalized environment he envisioned to support and facilitate a story of grief. They are working on de constructing and facilitating and performance grief in parallel to their own feelings on the writer’s death

And the alien doesn’t just represent death in that it comes and goes at random, taking and giving at random — but that it is something that the 1950s US GOVERNMENT has quarantine off all discussion of, that does not officially recognize and even denies the existence of, and threatens to shoot those who leave their quarantine.

And it’s that experience, of going through something so profound and unexpected, while being a random amalgamation of people with no prior relationships, and then corralled off by the US government and forbidden to leave or communicate with anyone on the outside

While in the background the US government also tests nuclear bombs in proximity to the quarantine, that at the time nobody believes is dangerous, but will surely cause cancer and health problems for all present decades down the road…

[pure-garbage]

Apologize Or Be Shunned! The Chill Of A Woman's Scorn

Chapter Warnings: Light Language

Even after the straw hats were all reunited, Lana couldn't bring herself to speak to Zoro. She gave Chopper his sword to return and stolidly refused to interact with the swordsman.

'He's the one who messed up. If he wants to apologize, he knows where to find me,' she reasoned.

The ride on the sea train to Enies Lobby would already have been the longest journey of her life, but the tension between her and Zoro only made the wait that much less bearable. Lana filled the time with training.

'I've trained so hard this past year, gotten so much stronger than I used to be. I can't be that far behind these government agents,' she thought stubbornly. 'I just have to move faster. I never tried moving that fast before because it never occurred to me it was even possible. Now that I've seen it done, I won't rest until I can replicate it.'

"You're wasting your time."

Lana dashed from one end of the train car to the other, moving with impressive speed, but it still wasn't enough. Zoro's voice was an unwelcome intrusion on her focus. She clenched her teeth and kept going, racing in a tight, stammering circuit that didn't leave her much room to build speed over time. That was better, as far as she was concerned. She hadn't seen the government agents building speed. They were too fast to follow with the naked eye from the first step.

The rest of the crew were crowded a train car over with the Franky family and Zoro had been with them until a minute ago.

"You won't pick the trick up in the course of a few hours," Zoro informed her as she sped past. "Anyway, it's just a gimmick. It's no substitute for raw fighting ability. I can give you a list of over a hundred more productive things you could be doing with the time we have before we arrive at Enies Lobby."

"Sure, I could sleep the entire train ride there, like you," she snapped in passing. If Zoro was hurt by the jab, he didn't let it show.

"You could. It'd be more productive than all this glorified pacing."

Lana ignored him and kept at it.

'Trip?'

She sensed he would kick his leg out to interrupt her rhythm and hopped over it, rolling her eyes as she carried on, hiding the fact that his presence was starting to bother her. He retracted his leg out of respect for her reaction time, crossing his arms over his exposed chest as he considered what he would say next.

"You know, you've barely said five words to me the entire time since we dropped anchor in this damned waterlogged city," he grumbled. "Except to yell at me, that is."

"I have nothing to say to you," she replied, words strained past the exertion of her training.

"Come on, Lana, stop being childish," he chided.

"I don't hear you apologizing."

"You're not still stuck on that? I'm here, aren't I? We're going to get Robin back, together. I don't know what more you want from me."

"I want you to apologize for what you said back at Iceburg's mansion."

"I'm not sorry for what I said! For all we know, I could still be right!"

"You're not!"

"Damn it, Lana!"

'Grab!'

Lana evaded his attempts to capture her, rocking the train car as they danced savagely in the confined space. Frustrated as he was with her behavior, Zoro couldn't help but grudgingly admit that she did seem to have gotten drastically faster since the last time they'd sparred.

"Stop wasting my time!" Lana yelled, taking the offensive as her anger reached its climax. They traded a few blows before Lana's intuition warned her of something odd.

'He's not gonna block!'

Her fist flew at him unhindered and she just barely managed to stop short of punching him full in the face. She panted for breath in the wake of their struggle while Zoro remained still, except for the smirk that spread over his features.

"Good control."

"You jerk! Could you be any more condescending?!"

"What, I can't even compliment you?"

"I won't accept a pulled punch in place of an actual apology!" she hissed, realizing his intentions. "What you said was uncalled for and out of line and I still want you to take it back!"

"Which part? Robin never being your friend? Her not caring about you? For all we know I could be right about all that," Zoro pointed out, still calm in the face of her wrath. "Can't you get out of your feelings long enough to think it through and even consider the possibility?"

"I could tell you the same thing!" she shot back vehemently. "You say you avoid tying yourself to any one line of thinking, but you're awfully convinced that Robin's lost to us!"

"She said it herself! What more do you want from me?!"

"Luffy didn't accept it, so it doesn't count!"

"What the hell kind of logic is that anyway?!"

"Don't act dense! You know the captain as well as I do, maybe better! He's got his heart set on confronting Robin about this, set on getting her to come back with us! You know damn well he'll move heaven and earth to make it happen! From where I'm standing, you're the idiot this time around, Zoro!"

"Tch!"

Zoro could offer no argument. On this, at least, Lana was painfully right.

"Luffy doesn't take no for an answer. I don't see why you think Robin would be the exception to his track record," Lana pointed out. "Now if you're not gonna apologize for upsetting me-"

"Huh?!"

"- You can get out of my way so I can keep practicing."

"What do you want me to apologize for?" Zoro demanded, taken aback by her phrasing.

"How many times do I have to say it anyway?!"

"That's the first time you put it like that."

It was Lana's turn to be confused.

"What... what the hell did you think I wanted from you anyway?!" she demanded.

"To admit I'm wrong about Robin. Which I'm not," Zoro grumbled.

"You are wrong, but I'm not going to ask you for something I know you'd never give," Lana frowned. "We can see this through to the end and if you're wrong about Robin, you can apologize to her too for being such a stubborn jerk and a crappy friend... but I'm just mad because you yelled at me. I was sticking up for my friend and you hurt my feelings."

"I hurt your... that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life!" Zoro raged. "That's why you haven't spoken to me since Iceburg's mansion?!"

"Go on then, genius, keep digging the hole deeper!" Lana fumed. "They're my feelings and it's up to me whether they're hurt or not! I could give less of a damn whether you think it's dumb or warranted or not!"

"Well what about my feelings?! You yelled at me first!"

"Well did I hurt your feelings?!"

"NO!"

"Then I guess I don't have anything to apologize for, unlike you!"

Zoro pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut while Lana resumed her frenzied racing.

'What a hassle.'

"Lana, I'm sorry I hurt your feelings."

His flat tone and snugly crossed arms didn't impress her.

"That's the worst apology I've ever gotten in my life," she scoffed.

"Well what do you want from me?!" he demanded for what he was well aware was the third time in under ten minutes, eyebrows furrowed so starkly Lana considered the possibility that they might never straighten out again.

"How about a little sincerity?!" she snapped, flashing past him in a blur.

"How about just forget it!" he stormed, stomping back to the car he'd come from. "I'm not groveling to satisfy your spiteful little grudge!"

"I don't want you to grovel, but that apology was garbage!" Lana shouted at his retreating back. "That's right, just leave so I can focus on practicing! Put a damn shirt on why don't you!"

"Spiteful hag!" Zoro muttered under his breath as he slammed the door shut connecting the train cars.

"Trouble with the ladies, huh?" Usopp asked from behind his flamboyant mask. "Where I come from, we have a special method of issuing formal apologies to appease the lasses."

"Where you're from?" Zoro scoffed snidely.

"Yeah Zoro, Sniper Island!" Chopper cut in excitedly. "Please, oh please, Sniperking, tell us about the way you apologize in your homeland!"

"Well, it's tried and true, time tested, infallible and guaranteed to earn a man forgiveness," Usopp began.

Zoro couldn't have been less interested in hearing his yarn. He made his way to the back of the car and settled down, closing his eyes grumpily.

'Idiots. I'm surrounded. By. Idiots.'

________________________________________________

<== Previous Chapter

Next Chapter ==>

== First Chapter

[chiffonlime643]

Renfield and How it Handles Toxic Relationships and Trauma

// TWS: continuous mentions of manipulation, toxic/abusive relationships, trauma, etc. Please be careful!

!!! Disclaimer !!!

I am NOT a licensed professional; this is all from either personal experience or research/knowledge I have previously had. Please do not take things in this essay too seriously. (also yes i know it's a dark comedy but comedic movies can have serious undertones in them too)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Renfield is a movie that was released on April 14th, 2023. It follows Count Dracula’s (played by Nicolas Cage) assistant/servant, Renfield (Nicholas Hoult), and his efforts to escape his current lifestyle.

The movie has significant undertones, ranging from toxic, co-dependent relationships to extreme corruption of government. While the ‘undertones’ are more prevalent, they are still sometimes put in a more comedic light, to replicate the movie itself, as a dark comedy.

If you remove the comedic points, you’ll find a relatively serious movie with genuine character development and story.

Beginning with Renfield’s journey.

He was turned to Dracula’s assistant centuries before, going off of the original Dracula movie. Since then, he has been caring for Dracula and bringing him humans to feed off of. You can tell he’s sacrificed a lot in the process, essentially tossing away his own wants and needs for Dracula; and while it isn’t completely focused on, it leaves him with a sense of longing and apathy. 

He realises this after going to many anonymous meetings about toxic relationships, which is portrayed primarily as a way to find victims, but in reality is a scapegoat to listen to people talk about similar experiences to his. 

So when he saves many innocent people and gets called a ‘hero’ by someone, something changes in him. He truly comes to terms with the way he is treated; has been treated for many years. He goes to one more of those meetings, and begins his new life. Almost instantly, you can see genuine happiness and content, both with the way he acts, and his actions, in turn. 

It leaves a connection with the viewer and Renfield- a want for him to stay safe and happy, away from Dracula.

The events of the story play out, with Rebecca’s (Awkwafina) story being especially fleshed out.

Later, Dracula learns of Renfield’s disobeyment.

He arrives at Renfield’s apartment, acting nonchalant and almost kind. Renfield lies to him, saying that he had retrieved many bodies to feed Dracula. Of course, due to previous information and context clues, it was expected that Dracula knew the real actions Renfield had taken.

What was a silly, comedic, yet slightly anxiety-inducing moment turned to pure dread. Dracula becomes increasingly angered, to which Renfield attempts to stand up to him.

This is one of the most serious parts of the underlying message.

Many people in toxic/co-dependent relationships take a long time to realise their situation, and even longer to stand up to their abuser. This is typically due to the extreme emotional manipulation the other may use.

While it did take Renfield quite a while to fully realise and come to terms with his situation (a few centuries at least), he is portrayed to almost instantly stand up to Dracula- which is fantastic! To be that prepared to stand up to someone like that is very hard. 

Which is why the viewer’s heart breaks when Renfield eventually closes in on himself. When he is cornered, and clearly afraid.

This can be seen as him being afraid of a vampire with God-like powers- which does make sense.

But it hits even harder when you see it as just Renfield and Dracula; how Renfield is so fearful of what Dracula could do, despite Renfield’s vampire-like powers. He could defend himself.

So why does he nearly break down?

People who are/have been in abusive relationships like this, between friends, partners, positions of power, etc. can understand this reaction.

You get scared of what the other is going to do.

When viewing this scene of Renfield and Dracula through a lens of a realistic toxic relationship, instead of one between a human and vampire, you feel Renfield’s experience differently.

Obviously, he is scared due to Dracula’s vampiristic abilities. But, there’s something else there. Earlier, he was attacked, nearly killed, due to making a mistake with the bodies he brought to Dracula. Then, he was healed.

This brings us to another part of the toxic relationship.

Renfield is constantly revived/healed by Dracula. Yes, Renfield does technically do this for Dracula as well, but much less, and in different circumstances.

And, judging by the previous scene where Renfield’s scar was reopened by Dracula, then healed, a significant amount of these injuries followed by healing could be caused by Dracula himself.

This is one of the main building blocks of a co-dependent relationship. What people in co-dependent relationships are often manipulated into believing are statements similar to this: “I am keeping you safe. I am keeping you alive. I am helping you. You cannot survive without me. You will not survive without me. You need me.”

Through this action, Dracula is essentially telling Renfield that he needs him. That Renfield would die without Dracula.

This is reinforced when Dracula directly says this to Renfield.

The previous time Dracula was ‘killed’, Renfield was being told by the Church that he would be free from Dracula, saved.

To this, Dracula instead implanted the thought that Renfield would be killed by the Church, that he wouldn’t survive. Not without Dracula.

This co-dependency built on emotional manipulation is what toxic relationships thrive on. Renfield feels he cannot leave because Dracula is the one keeping him alive. 

So, bring this back to the scene where Renfield first stands up to Dracula. All the previous events of pain, of manipulation, slowly being stacked back onto him as Dracula continues his angered yelling. 

The scene gets significantly harder to watch, as time goes on. It begins with Dracula first having an outburst towards Renfield, then consistently berating him. 

I have yet to watch the original movie (no idea where to find it), so I have no clue whether or not the claims made by Dracula about Renfield’s greed/abandonment of his family is true, but if they are not, Dracula is also gaslighting him- a commonly used form of manipulation, especially in co-dependent relationships.

Renfield makes an effort to stand up to Dracula, to stop him, to which Dracula laughs at his efforts, then tells him that he isn’t worthy of love- another way for people to keep a hold on their victims- slowly backing him into a both literal and metaphorical corner. 

He threatens others that Renfield is in contact with. Keeping victims away from other outside people is a common practice for abusers to keep a hold on them as well.

After Dracula figures out who he needs to kill, he throws Renfield’s book at him, before disappearing. After Renfield is hit, he goes into a really defensive position, trying to shield himself from other possible attacks. He is clearly surprised when Dracula is gone instead, which implies that this may be common, and that Dracula suddenly disappearing is not the usual.

He realises, almost instantly after glancing at the logo on his book, that Dracula was going to kill his friends.

The carnage that ensues after is, obviously, terrifying for Renfield.

However, after Dracula confirms that after what Renfield did, he would be destroying the entirety of the human race, just because Renfield wanted to be a part of it again, Renfield is left on the edge of a panic attack- just sitting there, holding the meeting leader’s hand, despite him being a corpse.

At the scene of the crime, he goes with the police with no attempt at escaping their grasp despite him being framed, which matters especially since his friend was the one to find him there. His face throughout the scenes prominently don a solemn, given up look.

Rebecca is cornered after putting Renfield in the car, by both corrupt policemen, and the crime family who is linked to their corruption.

This movie has a significant part of its story driven by the town having a severely corrupt police force- most people dislike the cops in this movie, and I completely agree. However, they can't really be removed from the story, as they are important to show the severe corruption. I feel a better course of action would be to have Rebecca's character stop being a cop by the end of the movie, but that is just my opinion.

Corruption is like this in real life, and it affects many people and places. While I am most definitely not the person to talk about it, the movie’s plot including the way government corruption works and how anyone in power can go mad with it soon enough, actually helped the story- especially Rebecca’s backstory, which we will get into later.

Later on, after Rebecca and Renfield go to the café to meet up with Rebecca’s sister, Renfield talks about his experience.

He talks about the manipulation Dracula uses to get people under his thumb, and Renfield’s (at that time) greed and desire for more power that got him into this situation.

Rebecca, understanding of this, talks to him about how life can throw you situations that are hard to manoeuvre around.

 After it is revealed that Rebecca’s sister has been captured, the two head to the Lobos’ house, to which a long fight ensues.

Rebecca reaches Dracula first, and he begins trying to manipulate her- it is hard to tell whether or not she is somewhat susceptible, but she definitely does not fall for it.

She had a plan. A plan to trick Dracula.

Now, whether or not Renfield was aware of it or not is also hard to tell, but judging by the way he is portrayed, it appears to be he was unaware.

Instead of overly yelling for her to not fall for it, it almost feels like he’s come to terms with it. Like he knows that she can’t say no. This would make sense, after all; he fell into Dracula’s trap the same way.

And as Rebecca is embraced in Dracula’s arms, Dracula stares at Renfield with a triumphant expression.

To Renfield, it’s over. Dracula won. She’s enveloped in Dracula’s lies too.

However, she turns off the blinds- burning Dracula and accidentally guiding the three of them to the torture room of the house.

Renfield is killed- or at least severely injured- by the bats Dracula turns into temporarily.

Rebecca is left to fight Dracula, and he drags her into the air after taunting her. She shoots him in the foot, causing his blood, which has reviving/healing powers, to revive Renfield. 

To which, he stops Dracula’s fangs with his own hands, drags him to the ground, to which Dracula appears behind him and puts him in a chokehold.

Renfield is (now physically) stuck in the same position he has always been in, controlled by Dracula.

However, now he has himself to guide him- his self-love, his strength.

Dracula asks “Do you know what you are?”, expecting Renfield to give in, to answer with what Dracula wants, to keep Renfield under his thumb.

Instead, Renfield gets out of the chokehold and pins Dracula to the ground, continuously punching his face in while repeating similar lines to that of the earlier scene where Dracula cornered Renfield- but this time, Renfield has all the power. He admits that he was the one to give his power to Dracula; it wasn’t taken from him. While Dracula overpowers him eventually, Dracula is caught in a protection circle laid down by Rebecca.

This is a parallel to the introduction sequence, where Dracula is saved from a protection circle by Renfield- instead, now he’s trapped in it thanks to the both of them.

The two completely destroy the physical body of Dracula, tossing the remains down the drain.

With that, now that Dracula is gone, he uses some of Dracula’s Blood to help Rebecca’s sister and revive his previously-mauled support group.

Finally, after centuries of confinement to Count Dracula, Robert Montague Renfield is free.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

So… how did Rebecca fare through all this?

Her character, upon the release of Renfield, was not entirely liked by most. Oftentimes, people thought her character was annoying and selfish, other times they disliked her being played by an actress who has been in many other movies and was thought of as annoying, once again.

I do not care about the personal strife between people who like/dislike Rebecca or the actress, Awkwafina, who plays her.

However, whether or not you like her character, she is rather nuanced and has trauma of her own, along with her (sadly very rarely seen) sister.

Rebecca is seen as a strong, smart policewoman with an ‘idgaf’ attitude towards most things and people. Despite this, she is given very small jobs within the district.

She is very angered at this (and the police’s corruption and ignorance when it comes to the Lobo family), and continuously calls the police out on their negative aspects.

Part of her anger, however, is due to the loss of her father, who worked as one of the best policemen and was murdered.

We are never entirely told the circumstances of her father’s death, however. It is implied that the police station did nothing about it, and that he was killed by the Lobo family after investigating some of their crimes. Rebecca is fully aware of this, as well as her sister.

While Rebecca is willing to face the corruption head-on, her sister tends to do so silently, being careful with her job.

The two bicker a lot, but it is shown that they care about each other a lot.

So when Rebecca’s sister is captured and then killed, it strikes a nerve.

She seems slightly less careful while fighting the Lobo family (though she wasn’t very careful before), while also very calculative- more than she had shown previously.

So when she talks to Dracula about reviving her sister, both Renfield and the audience feel that she actually will do it.

She doesn’t join him. It’s a shock to most, especially due to her losing an important family figure at such a young age and only having one other person, who at that point, was on the brink of death/already dead.

For her to take that risk so they could take down Dracula is amazing, especially since her character was shown to care about family first, everything else second.

(and I'm still very annoyed she stayed a cop by the end)

[the-silver-chronicles]

So ended up writing another FC5 WIP, in which case my villainous OC, Paul Yellowjack, decided to pull off a Kenjaku move (Jujutsu Kaisen reference + spoilers for the manga and season 2) and hijacked Joseph’s body. If you feel the need to read more, go on ahead and continue on reading below the cut:

For those unaware, here’s a character summary on who Paul Yellowjack is; Paul was the man who adopted and raised a ten-year-old Silva Omar after saving and repeatedly encountering her in the Minas on the Archipelagos. They both lead the Tumultite revolt against their oppressors, the Congregation of Adam’s Guard, and spent almost a decade in this civil conflict. However, not even two weeks after Silva’s daughter Persephone was born, Adam’s Guard committed a massacre against the Tumultites, the violence and warfare separating Paul and Silva as both tried to get as many of their people as they could off the Archipelagos. Silva was only successful with getting her sister and daughter out, and Paul thought Silva had been killed. Between 2010 and 2015, Paul answers what he describes as “The Call”, a supernatural, almost divine contact between himself and some eldritch being, referred to as the Orchestrator, or Zachariah. He soon founded the “Apostles of Zachariah”, and became the “Herald of Suffering”, adopting five other individuals to fill out certain roles. This cult hid behind the façade of just a well connected institute of organised crime, hiding the more pious beliefs from the global government’s attention. Hiding under a radar of predictability and familiarity to turn attention away from the darker truth, almost becoming invisible except for the parts that needed to be seen. In 2015, while scouting out some Apostle spies reports on a local cult's production of some kind of hallucinogenic drug (that one of his fellow heralds, Zhan Tiri, wanted) in Hope County, he encountered Silva and Persephone. He made contact with them and attempted to persuade her to join his community (cult), but Silva declined, though was open to seeing Paul more often. This did not appease Paul, and both himself and the Apostles kidnapped Persephone to push Silva into a chase to force her to see the benefits of the Apostles. All they managed to do was push her to dismantle their operations, kill five of his fellow heralds, and end up driving the Apostles to near extinction. Paul retaliated by killing Persephone (an act he deeply regrets and resents himself for), which in turn caused Silva to kill him, not that he blamed her.

Even at death's doorstep, he found no rest. Zachariah kind of reincarnated/revived him (and the rest of the heralds... though they were tasked with different missions) with the same mind and memories, but a new-ish form. Paul consciousness was forced to become a hivemind of yellowjacket wasps, who's could replicate asexually only if they had a host body to control and turn into a mobile hive, as well as a source of food (they require meat to keep up energy). Usually hosts would be corpses not long after, and though the body will begin to naturally rot, the Paul's wasps can spread out pheromones and whatnot to create the illusion of a regular person who smells good and not like a corpse. Though he avoids cameras and other recording devices as pheromones aren't very effective against electronic devices. The wasps also reconstruct the corpse to at least look like Paul. He's also the main antagonist prominent in the Far Cry New Dawn fic (+ Silva's Hope sequel), Old Dusk.

Anyway, the idea of Paul pulling off a Kenjaku move against Joseph came from a deep pondering on what Paul would have done if he was present in Hope County around the time the Reaping was coming up, three years after Silva "killed" him, especially since Silva would be there as well. And the conclusion I came to was that Paul would win. He would burn down Eden's Gate, destroy and taint Joseph's reputation as the prophet who wanted to save everyone, manipulate Silva to become her best (almost worse) self, use the ruins of Eden's Gate with whatever and whoever remained, then rebuild and crown it as the newest chapter of the Apostles of Zachariah... all as an elaborate plot that ultimately makes Paul the hero Silva remembers and brings her back to his side again, while appeasing Zachariah. And to just punish Joseph (Paul hates prophets).

How in the world does Paul achieve this? Well, he sends one of his wasps to take over Joseph's body (after sufficient recon and observation allows him to have a good idea on how Joseph and his dynamics work), though not kill the brain immediately (as that would cause the body to die and rot, which he can't afford), instead putting Joseph's consciousness in a state of helplessness as patriarch watches and hears everything Paul does and says in his own body. Paul would proceed to puppeteer everyone around him until events unfolded in ways he wanted. And since no one in the county is none-the-wiser on Paul's presence or existence, and with him being a rather gifted leader (plus a cunning strategist), there's literally no one to stop him. The only downsides is that he will have to cause Silva great distress, but he sees it as worth it to make her stronger (he doesn't feel as bad for doing it to Eden's Gate and the Hope County residents), and even as Joseph, he has no clue on how to access or control the Bliss (he can control Joseph's body but has no way of accessing memories), so he kind of needs Faith to stay out of Silva's hit list while also pushing Faith to distrust Joseph enough to feel her life could actually be in danger. He will try to do the same for John (as he does have potential, though depending on his actions and how Silva feels about him, Paul will either recruit him or leave him to his fate), though Jacob to Paul is an impressive pawn, but a lost cause overall (since (a) Jacob would follow only Joseph and Paul doesn't plan to spend the rest of his life as Joseph, (b) out of all the Seeds, Jacob would likely notice something off about how Joseph and might try to expose Paul some way, somehow and (c) Paul needs Silva to be stronger and alive, so may as well play with Jacob's sense of sacrifice in order to improve Silva's chances of living and siding with Paul).

Paul's crafty, and he knows Silva very well, so he'll portray Joseph as someone she would never under any circumstances let live, while secretly spreading worse rumors as himself to ensure Silva kills Joseph's body and accepts the Apostle's creed as she initially refused to and denied it years beforehand.

So yeah, Paul's just gonna put Joseph through the wringer, get Silva back and win for once.

There'll be a snippet of it in the next WIP Wednesday I post.

[bedlamsbard]

If you weren’t constrained by falcon and the winter soldier or other non movie sources, how would you write the history of the super soldier serum post ww2?

Honestly, pretty close to how it was written in Horizon; I split the Army and CIA tracks of serum development there and put Isaiah Bradley in the CIA track, so while it was something that happened, it was not part of the same track that Thaddeus Ross and Bruce Banner worked on. I do need to redo my big flow chart, though that's partially because I made that flow chart before I had decided where Alexei's serum came from, which is that it was developed from a serum that was developed from Steve's blood and either sold or stolen to the Russians. I really, really like the idea that every super soldier serum post-WWII was developed from Steve's blood samples, which is what Horizon uses; I think it's a fun (and horrifying) thing for Steve to have to live with and really have to come to terms with, and also kind of highlights the idea that what happened to him was remarkable and is the ideal that people are always trying to reach, for better or worse, mostly worse. (Bucky and Schmidt both have Erskine-serum derivatives, but theirs are the only ones who DON'T have a Rogers-serum base.)

To sum up what's in Horizon, Steve's the ideal; he's the one that everyone is trying to replicate, but no one has any idea what the fuck Abraham Erskine and Howard Stark did. I think it's important to remember that for Steve, it was a two-part process: Erskine's serum and Howard's vita-rays. But no one knows which parts was responsible for what in Steve, or how much of what happened was dependent on Steve's particulars. (I count out What If and Captain Carter entirely because amongst other things, I hate Captain Carter both in concept and execution.)

Post-war, the U.S. government has Steve's blood samples; I split the tracks, so there's an Army track and a CIA track both working on replicating the serum. The CIA track is the one that does the Korean War experiments that result in Isaiah Bradley and the other tragedies that occur. It's more consistent, in that these experiments are continually going on until the 1980s, while the Army track is very stop-start, and will have bursts of activity, but then will suddenly get shut down. SHIELD never worked on the serum; Howard absolutely refused to let them. In the late '80s, Obadiah Stane and Thaddeus Ross are working on a joint SI-Army project that results in the serum that HYDRA steals in the CACW flashbacks; this was done under Howard's radar and as Horizon says, this is what gets Howard killed. The Army then does not work on the serum again until after 9/11, which is the project that results in the Hulk and later Abomination. You cannot talk about the super soldier serum without talking about the Hulk. It is the big green elephant in the room of the super soldier serum.

Those dual disasters, the Hulk and the Abomination, completely shut all super soldier research down cold in the U.S. until Steve Rogers comes out of the ice in 2012, at which point Nick Fury shuts down all American attempts at super soldier research. (But international attempts pick up again, as do HYDRA's.) After SHIELD goes down and Fury "dies", there's a plateau where there's not any research happening, but there's a rise towards it, and Ross finagles his experience with the Hulk and super soldiers into a cabinet position; however the U.S. does not actively start working on a super soldier serum again until Steve goes rogue in 2016 (which FATWS hints at but doesn't say explicitly).

So that's the U.S. I think internationally there's also a lot of work done on replicating the super soldier serum, but unlike America, no one else has Steve Rogers' blood samples. You have to assume that HYDRA tried to replicate Bucky's serum, but it doesn't seem to have ever worked. (I am also a strong believer that in MCU canon there is no evidence that puts HYDRA and the Red Room in the same context as allies, though one could definitely argue that Alexei's serum is Bucky-derived rather than Steve-derived or even independently developed. I just like it all coming from Steve better than the other options.) At some point, various American serums derived from Steve's blood probably got out on the black market, but any time after 1950 we're talking about failed serums derived from increasingly degraded blood samples, and after that failed serums developed from failed and increasingly degraded serums developed from degraded blood samples that were all used up before 1950. But from 1943 to 2010 (TIH), replicating Steve Rogers' serum was a major part of military research across the world, and there were never any successes on his scale. Bucky, Alexei, Isaiah are all various points of success, but in various ways nowhere near the whole Steve Rogers package.

so, in short: bloody, messy, all coming from Steve, something that resulted in billions of dollars of failed experiments and hundreds or even thousands of people dead in the attempt to replicate it across the world and across seventy years. all the human rights violations you can think of! (you ever want to get really depressed, look up human experimentation on Wikipedia and follow that train down to hell.) MKUltra on steroids, but with a much higher body count.