#first major point: the change from subject to possession

[nixariel]

46. During the early days of Dr. Bellum's experiments with neural reprogramming, Mime Bomb was a young cryptanalyst-turned-V.I.L.E.-graduate who tried to defect from the organization with the proceeds of a particularly lucrative mission. He was quickly retrieved and brought before the faculty, but was then given to Dr. Bellum (in lieu of the usual punishment of death) as a test subject for what would eventually become V.I.L.E.'s mindwiping device. Although the process did succeed in creating a more loyal operative, it also made him unstable, and too erratic to work unsupervised for long despite his preserved code-breaking skills. Thus his year with the rest of Carmen's original dorm-group is technically his second in the Academy, but Black Sheep doesn't recognize him because of how differently he looks/behaves.

47. It is V.I.L.E. policy to have a spy in every Academy year-group to help them weed out recruits who are morally or mentally unsuitable for operativehood; the task is normally given to graduates who have failed a few too many missions recently and are deemed in need of proving their fitness to continue, or to members of V.I.L.E.'s support staff who want a chance at becoming operatives themselves.

48. Second only to her matryoshka dolls, Carmen's next most prized possession is the first passport Player ever set up for her—the only one actually under the name 'Carmen Sandiego'. In a private joke between the two of them, it lists her birth date as December 1st.

49. Neither V.I.L.E. nor Team Red have any way to know, but Carmen was actually born on March 1st. Coach Brunt had always celebrated the anniversary of Black Sheep's arrival on the island as the girl's birthday growing up but since escaping V.I.L.E., Carmen prefers not to celebrate any day at all (even if she does let Player get away with giving her some small gift on December 1st every year ;D).

50. During high school, Gray was a theatre tech with the drama department who picked up extra cash by using his skills (and sometimes the school's equipment) to manage the lights/audio for underground parties and raves. He liked being the man running the show enough to do a diploma in Live Production and Technical Services after finishing Year 12, and even managed to get a job at the prestigious Sydney Opera House, but still wasn't netting the income he wanted. This dissatisfaction led him to mention to certain connections he'd made via working the underground party circuit that he would be interested in opportunities for a bigger payday, and the thefts he accomplished as a result are what brought him to V.I.L.E.'s notice.

51. Julia did a four-year double major in ancient history and criminology at Oxford University, then decided to go for a Master's degree in Greek and Roman Studies instead of continuing on into law school like she'd originally planned. Encouraged by her academic supervisor, she was at the point of considering PhD options when her mother was unexpectedly diagnosed with end-stage breast cancer. Julia changed course again to look after her but after her mother passed, she couldn't quite face the thought of re-entering the dry confines of academia. Wanting to escape a life spent studying instead of doing, Julia took a chance on her criminology degree and applied to Interpol.

52. As a former enforcer with the yakuza, and having particularly excelled in his stealth classes, Shadow-san had been on a path towards becoming one of the Cleaners before being tasked with tying off Dexter Wolfe as a loose end. In later years—particularly as Black Sheep's presence continued to prod at his conscience—he grew a little uncomfortable around Boris and Vlad as examples of the depths to which he might have sunk in V.I.L.E.'s service. They, however, interpreted his discomfort as standoffishness and arrogance at having jumped past them to faculty instead, making them more inclined to do things like take secret orders from Brunt during the San Francisco caper despite Shadow-san nominally taking point in that operation.

53. Before she became head of V.I.L.E.'s bookkeeping department, Cookie Booker was the accountant who noticed the irregularities in V.I.L.E.'s accounts from Dexter's surreptitious transfers. She took her findings to Maelstrom, who was the one to make the connection to Wolfe's pattern of absences, but he then framed their discovery as mostly his own work when presenting it to the other faculty. Upon learning how he'd cut her out of the credit (and possibly a faculty seat of her own), Cookie's attitude towards Maelstrom took on a distinct chill.

54. Shadow-san stole the Matsumoto katana and ran away from home to join the yakuza when he was only in his second year of upper-secondary school, making him effectively a high school drop-out. However, he quietly rectified this after becoming faculty by, unbeknownst to anyone else, enrolling in an online school in order to finally earn his high school diploma. This contributed to his reputation for being curt and unfriendly because he was too busy trying to balance this secret coursework with his V.I.L.E. responsibilities to be sociable.

55. Against Antonio's protests, Jean-Paul taught Black Sheep how to swear like a sailor in French.

56. Dr. Bellum doesn't truly change the morality of the people she mindwipes as part of V.I.L.E.'s retirement protocol. Instead, she conditions them into feeling a strong sense of apprehension at the thought of breaking rules/getting into trouble, which has the effect of making them more law-abiding but not necessarily better people. As even Bellum wouldn't be able to erase all the memories that led up to them becoming the criminals they were before joining V.I.L.E., this fear is what keeps post-mindwipe operatives from returning to a life where they might either draw legal attention (potentially exposing the cover story for the gap in their memories to outside scrutiny) or stumble across some memory-provoking trace of V.I.L.E.'s presence (potentially prompting their own questioning of that cover story). So the mindwiped version of Gray, for example, would still remember wanting more money than he made as a lighting tech and turning to (non-V.I.L.E.-related) crime to get it, but would no longer feel comfortable with the thought of stealing anything.

Some Carmen Sandiego head-canons, in no particular order:

1. Coach Brunt’s first name is Gloria.

2. Everybody at the academy thinks that that faculty has their favourites, and for the most part that’s true, but Shadow-san has no idea why anyone thought Tigress was his and Countess Cleo doesn’t like any of the students enough to have one. She tolerates Dash Haber because he’s the prettiest. 

3. Graham has always introduced himself as such. Carmen was the one to shorten it to ‘Gray’, and the others picked it up from her.

4. Boris (the shorter Cleaner) is sweet on Cookie Booker. She is completely unaware.

5. Countess Cleo was the most recent elevation to faculty before Shadow-san. Dr. Bellum’s change of hairstyle from bride-of-Frankenstein to actually-pretty-flattering is a direct result of her influence.

6. The academy accepts up to forty students per year; that doesn’t mean there’s forty graduates. Only about sixteen people looked to have made it in Carmen’s original year. Those that fail or are expelled are normally mind-wiped and sent home like Gray. The faculty made an exception for Carmen, another decision Shadow-san opposed.

7. Carmen didn’t know, at least about the mind-wiping. There would just be students who weren’t there the next day.

8. Before they were Tigress and Crackle, Sheena and Graham had a thing in the academy. That’s why she went along with the water balloon prank and didn’t put up more of a fuss about Gray getting them all saddled with detention on Carmen’s behalf. It’s also part of why she has such a grudge against Carmen, because Tigress blames her for Crackle’s dismissal.

9. Lady Dokuso lied about poisoning the chopsticks. She coats the outside of her umbrella with a skin-permeable toxin, which is why she used it to fight Shadow-san. But it takes a little time to work, so she’s not about to tell anyone when they were really exposed to it.

10. Ivy and Zack aged out of the foster care system. Their mom died at least ten years ago, and their dad was never in the picture. 

And last, but not least-

11. Carmen and Player can pun back and forth to each other all day. Literally. It drives the rest of the crew batty, but there’s nothing they can do to make the pair stop. Any reaction only encourages them.

[the-narwhals-awaken]

Bloody Hearts Bingo Day 7

Prompts: Only You, Romance | Their bed/clothes smell like the other after

Kisuke exhaled, slowly straightening and popping his back. He'd done his best to make everything as convenient for him as possible- much easier in a lab meant for him alone than for many people to work in- but the fact remained that the easiest way to work on a specimen on a table involved bending over, and he wasn't quite as young as he used to be.

Even then, he'd still had to face the consequences of spending too long in the same position- he was more built for stillness than the typical soul, but that had its limits and those limits tended to bite back whenever he pushed them. He groaned, twisting to work out the set of kinks that lived just above his hips, then set to work tidying up.

The door to the side chamber was shut and locked properly. The wards were humming, and despite himself Kisuke drifted to the window he'd set in- five layers of reinforced glass, transparent plastic, and thin sheets of kido ensured that it was no weaker than the wall around it- to look at the inhabitants. His four experiments laid there, all sound asleep with a steady dosage of his custom drugs seeping into their veins. Even having just gotten his hands in them not an hour previously- the first of many modifications and experiments, setting the foundations for his great work- a longing to touch, to claim, to make sure his presence was etched into every molecule of their beings was rising.

Kisuke was very, very good at not giving himself what he wanted. He turned away, tugging a curtain across the window to deny himself the temptation. For a few minutes, everything was as it always was after a lengthy experiment or operation, the desire to make sure everything was put away properly and cleaned up so nobody could figure out what he did and his notes would be in order warring against the adrenaline crash and desire for about a dozen dumplings and a long nap.

Benihime stirred, pushing herself closer to his skin, enhancing the senses he usually kept just-slightly-dimmed to be able to function properly. Both of them went still at the new information filtering in- not sight, though Kisuke was aware of a few slight stains that he'd want to get to before Tessai wandered in, not sound, though the quiet humming of his wards and the air filtration system settled his heartbeat, but smell.

The entire lab was filled with the scent of his four experiments, raw and unfiltered. Kisuke buried his nose in his jinbei to try and at least filter it out and found no relief- his lab coat was the same way, utterly saturated in scent. Benihime dug her nails in, not quite drawing blood but ensuring that he was well aware of her desires.

They were Kisuke's desires, too- what few people realized was that Kisuke and his Princess were very, very similar, warped reflections of each other in the kind of twisted feedback loop that had ensured that Yoruichi had never been quite the same after catching a glimpse of her in the aftermath of his work to gain bankai. He leaned into her grip, basking in the unity of purpose for a long moment, then went back to work.

Fortunately, he kept a clean lab (despite what most people thought) unless he was in the middle of a mad research binge, which he was not, and so tidying up didn't take all that long. Benihime was demanding, her quiet song turning sharper and sharper in a way that promised the kind of delicious pain that stripped away all pretense from the world, and Kisuke was more than willing to indulge them both.

Despite his best efforts, though, his bedroom was not directly connected to his lab. Tessai had refused- had demanded that there be a way for him to eat between stumbling out of the lab and collapsing on his futon- and Yoruichi had encouraged it with the development of the necessary warding, and thus Kisuke had to stumble through the kitchen and one of several common rooms to get to his room.

It just so happened that the common room that made up part of his preferred route to his room was the one the teens had taken over as their space to do homework and work on hobbies when they were over, and Kisuke was unable to stop from going entirely still at what he found there.

The scent was present, of course, but he'd grown as accustomed to the sensation of having them all over him and his space as he could manage in the limited time given. What was more shocking was the nest he found, built in a still-mostly-rudimentary fashion out of the blankets that had previously been draped over a pair of low couches and filling a box to the side of one, and lined with two very familiar haori. Kisuke had known that the gaseous drug he'd pumped into what had become 'their' common room relaxed and reduced inhibitions, resulting in very pliant subjects, but he'd evidently not known that the collective desire before he'd called them down to his lab had been to curl up in the safest place they could manage, instincts already running high from his preparatory work, and that the safest place had involved his scent.

Somehow, Kisuke made it to his room, shutting the door and feeling his personal wards engage behind him. Benihime's song was loud in his ears, drowning out the rapid beat of his heart, and she was yanking demandingly even as he peeled himself out of his usual layers, already starting to claw into his skin.

He hadn't realized. Sometime in between when he'd first conceived of the experiment and now, his four subjects once chosen for being unique, powerful, and easy to manipulate had become his, property and possession and far, far more than either of those words conveyed. They were his as he was Benihime's as she was his, and no doubt he'd have to negotiate with Inoue-chan's fairies and Kurosaki-kun's Zangetsu to incorporate them into the network as well.

But they were his now, and his plans shifted even as Benihime drove him to his knees, her needles already prying open the seams she'd made on his soul, shifting and rearranging things. They were his to reshape and his to remake and his to direct, but also his to care for and hone and, perhaps, if things went well and he didn't break them as he did with almost all else that he got too close to, to rest with. The rest, Benihime drove out of his head, and he turned himself over to her.

[phoenixinthefiles]

It’s Called “Self-Reflection”

Hobie x reader🕸️…��💜

(My first ever x reader, be gentle)

“I look done,” you say, frowning as you analyze your reflection in the mirror.

You quickly whip your head around to the bathroom door and sigh in relief when Hobie doesn’t come through the door.

Majority of your reservations for staying the night with Hobie stemmed from your habit of talking to yourself.

It wasn’t even something you knew that you did until your mom caught you one too many times and you finally accepted that you have a problem.

God forbid Hobie walks in on you talking to yourself, you wouldn’t ever live it down.

You finish getting ready quickly, and you actually look like a person who gets a normal amount of sleep (you don’t).

Yawning, you take the few steps into the kitchen.

Hobie’s standing in front of the cooktop cooking bacon, shirtless.

Not that you don’t appreciate the view…

“When you get popped by that grease, I won’t be listening to any complaints.”

He whips his head around with a grin and he turns the heat on the skillet down before turning back to you.

“Yeah you only hear complaints from yourself.”

You tense up immediately and Hobie leans against the counter with an amused smirk on his face.

Your hands come up to cover your face and you groan.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about”

It’s a very pathetic attempt to shake of your embarrassment.

“No? Need me to jog your memory then?”

“Nah my mind’s like a steel trap. So if I can’t remember something you must be making it up.”

He snorts and points at your forehead.

“Must’ve trapped someone up there.”

You sigh, “What’s for breakfast, Hobart?” One last attempt at changing the subject won’t hurt.

He sweeps a hand over the stove, “All the regulars, deary.”

He turns back to grin at you, and you just know he’s gearing up again.

“Your friend up there have any preferences?”

You glare at him and go up to stove, not so gently nudging him out of the way, and ignoring his comment.

“How high do you have this thing?”

He scoffs and nudges you back, “Dictating my cooking now? Better tell your friend up top things don’t work like that round here. ‘S ain’t a democracy, I’m big man.”

“That doesn’t sound like something an anarchist would say.”

He shrugs, “Never good to be too consistent y’know?”

You roll your eyes at him, he only ever uses that line when you trip him up.

He reaches for the skillet on the stove and your brain doesn’t even track the sheer stupidity until he’s already burned himself.

“BLOODY HELL!”

You stand there, your brain still trying to process what he just did, as he turns the tap on and sticks his hand under the water.

Finally, you recover and move to fridge and grab a stick of butter but a sudden bout of laughter stops you before you can put it to use.

Hobie’s finally stopped swearing and now he’s staring at you incredulously.

“Nah, you’re actually mad. I just roasted my hand hand on that pan, and you’re laughing?”

He sounds too shocked to be offended and that makes you giggle even more.

“No, that’s not it,” you gasp out, “I’m just-why would you do that? What possessed you to put your hand fully on the handle of a hot skillet? Palm in perfect position to be burned.”

“Thought I turned the heat down, forgive a man for making a mistake.”

Oh now he wants to advocate graciousness.

You grab a knife and cut a nice sized chunk of butter, before stepping over to Hobie and gently smearing it on his hand.

“I still can’t understand that. You thought you turned the gas down so you touched a hot skillet?”

“You had a full chat to yourself, in a bathroom, while you fancied yourself up?”

“So I’m crazy and you’re stupid?” You retort. “Neither of us comes out on top in this situation.”

His smirk returns and he somehow manages to make the massive burn in the middle of his hand look good.

“Nah, I’m taller, I’ll always come out on top”

You roll your eyes and toss a roll of bandages at him, “Just because you’re a giant means you’re right? This is why I prefer talking to my friend, he always makes sense.”

“Bit hard not to make sense when you’re talking to yourself, isn’t it?”

You don’t even roll your eyes this time, the motion couldn’t show just how exasperated you were with him. (Though that could be the exhaustion, from you not getting enough sleep the past week)

“Fix your hand up and leave me alone, please and thanks.”

“I can only do one of things sorry, and I’m afraid it ain’t gonna be the one you prefer.”

You huff, “Just finish cooking the damn food.”

He clutches his hand dramatically to his chest and looks at you as if you’ve just shown up to some fancy event in your sweats.

“You’d make a man with a burned hand, cook his own breakfast?”

You huff again and push him out of the kitchen forcefully, you barely did anything.

“Fine, I’ll finish it, go water your plants.”

“You talking to me or your friend, y’know-

“Hobart,” you grit out, pinching the bridge of your nose.

He gives you one last smirk as he leans in and kisses your cheek, dashing away before you can swat at him.

“Thank God,” you sigh.

“Gonna assume you were chatting to your friend that time!” Hobie yells.

“HOBART BROWN!”

You can hear him laughing and you flick your middle finger in the direction of the boat he ran off to.

“Gonna find me an actual friend to talk to all the time and see how he likes that.”

Take it I don’t want it anymore @vhstown

[shhrrroooommmmmyyyyyy]

my hc of our birbs

apologies for not posting in a while. adjusting to my new semester has left me quite busy. thought of this prompt last week. this is basically just my interpretations of the dynamics these three have among each other based on their interactions in the show. enjoy!

Stolas and Andrealphus

Easiest start at face value.

Obviously, these two don't like each other. But my biggest question has always been, exactly, why? Now Stella obviously has a big part to play in it, but let's remove her from the picture for a second.

I think Stolas and Andrealphus' relationship says more about Andrealphus than it does Stolas. The way Andrealphus treated Stolas even before Mastermind was with blunt discourtesy. So naturally Stolas, like anyone else would, gave it right back to him like the queen he is. But what about Andrealphus' side of that coin?

His hatred for Stolas, which we really saw the extent of in Sinsmas, cannot simply be just cause he doesn't like him or thinks he's cringe and it's not just Stella's influence. After looking back at their interaction in Western Energy, I think it's envy. It's the way he, when having the room during Mastermind, immediately suggests that he gets everything Stolas has (his title, his house, his servants, literally every possession he owns). He basically becomes Stolas' replacement in the family at that point.

Knowing Viv's writing, Andrealphus is more than likely going to have a sad backstory that connects to why he hates Stolas so much. Now I have nothing to back this up really, other than psychological reasoning and a writer's perspective, but my HC is that Andrealphus may have come second to Stolas in something or had been compared to Stolas in some way that particularly stuck with him early on.

And if his hate for Stolas goes back to childhood, Stella's hate for Stolas would make more sense. Growing up hating someone because it's what her cool -literally- older brother was doing. And then being stuck with said someone for the rest of your life. Cause in the Circus, I didn't get the impression that Stolas reciprocated her impudence before the first full moon. He even said he tried to make it comfortable for them, so I assume he was somewhat nice to her before the divorce.

Anyways, I think there's definitely a reason for Andrealphus' hate for Stolas that will be brought up later on. I'm so excited to see his motives.

Andrealphus and Vassago

I, as well as arguably the majority of the fans, definitely see that these two have a backstory. Their dialogue towards each other and the tone of their voices say it all.

Throughout their Mastermind argument, Vassago's speech definitely has more aggression and spite. His body language almost gives off "accusatory" towards Andrealphus. And Andrealphus responds with a more "change the subject before I look bad" kind of demeanor. And then Vassago just gives up like "i'm done with his bullshit 🙄".

My HC is that this is foreshadowing. I imagine they were friends before and Andrealphus did something that really hurt Vassago's feelings. And when Vassago confronts him about it, he just plays the victim or tries to change the subject. And Vassago said "i'm done fr" and then they weren't friends anymore. And Vassago's still sour abt it to this day -as he should be.

This is definitely the face of "what's he trying to bullshit now?"

And lastly.

Vassago and Stolas

The way Vassago said "Sing it, baby!" and Stolas having an awkward like "who was that?" kinda expression afterwards is where my HC came from.

I've seen a lot of people dismiss Vassago defending Stolas as just him wanting to do the right thing or disliking the clear injustice he was seeing. But I think there's more to it than that. If you look back at the clip, nothing he said really pointed to anything other than Stolas. He didn't say much about the actual trial at all; he just said Stolas should be there. And he was quite persistent about it until Andrealphus stopped arguing and just told him to shut up.

And Stolas's expression was kinda shocked and confused, almost like he didn't really know him that well and wasn't expecting it bc of that.

That's the dynamic I get from these two. I think maybe Vassago might admire Stolas from afar in a way because, while he has to hide it to some extent, he's definitely not consciously stuck-up and snobby like the rest of his family. Maybe he admires how naturally kind of a person he is behind the formalities of the image.

Maybe it was something like a small crush when they were teenagers that Stolas never noticed cause Vassago never told him and eventually grew out of it as an adult. That's my favorite HC. Stolas never noticing him cause he just stuck to himself and thought no one really cared about him, when someone was admiring his every move from a distance.

Bonus points if Vassago and his arranged partner were friends and didn't like-like eachother but were on good terms and whoever she was knew and would make fun of him for it (in a humorous way, not in a rude way).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyways, I need to start my homework. Feedback and/or differing opinions are encouraged and welcome in the comments!

[storgicdealer]

one of my BIGGEST and important rambles on ava that questions a lot of stuff that was accepted as factual a lot of times

dimensions, rocketcorp and virtual reality in ava

initially inspired by these tags from @sticksstonessteel and the thinking about rocketcorp simulations. and a certain hc i saw on ao3 once and remembered

eventually it turned into an existential crisis. im sorry moots

warning: OKAY. so. this is very clumsily made and its an assumption made both of canon info and theories that might feel as a complete reach.

this text touches upon possibility AND obscure ideas that might not have definitive proof in canon. there might be not a direct link of events here. but it is very, VERY long and touches many different subjects at once. takes of this long ramble are bold (i could also mention strangely opposing points in the text because i re-thought many concepts along the process of this ramble and mightve not noticed it)

i was wondering about the way the technical-machine device stuff intermingles with the whole literal mercenaries (and a box used for torture) thing. but these tags made me think not only of that

what we've seen so far is that rocketcorp controls a variety of tech, both pc-like interfaces that only they have access to and more "regular" tech, like tvs on which videos from youtube can be played on. [kings backstory]. we've also seen a variety of different tech in the wanted-the box episodes, but not much of it can be used outside whatever advanced shit theyre doing inside the corporation. one of these things however can be used which is surveillance tech, it feels like an important thing to note given that the importance of the corporation might suggest that rocket is responsible for city surveillance in one way or another as well

yet how exactly does a tech corporation tie in with mercenaries, weaponry (and literal torture)?

• rocketcorp

given, again, the grand variety of tech they possess and advanced technology they use, them using literal devices that real world users/sticks from a pc would use (control panel of the box) and it being restricted to them only made me think of something. the whole story of ava/m is built inside digital realms, outernet and internet. taking that into account, obviously, any kind of technological advances in these worlds are crucial to the way of how sticks in it interact with their already technological reality. which made a tech company like rocketcorp so influental in the first place

due to a piece of rocketcorps existence in the king episode and ava s2 teaser and prior to the release of the box i had a thought that the company specializes and presents itself as a "domestic" tech company. not the kind of company that meddles with grand technology and digital stuff, but the one that is accustoming citizens of the outernet with regular tech such as the mentioned tvs. the work of the mercenaries was always perceived to me as just an underground shady work of a company. but the box and a reminder of the chosens wanted poster made me rethink and question whether rocketcorp specializes on technology that changes and affects the reality they're living in, outernet and dimensions itself

i tried to observe the possibility of it and came around to three big thoughts, the most major one being the last

first thought that can give something to this thought is that mercs tech weapons influence physical properties of their world — ultimately damaging objects and people (like it was with the corndog stand and chosen), rendering the objects out of their usual state and bringing actual pain or messing with the state of a stick.

(its also worthy to mention that in the corndog short, prior to the merc and chosen chase appearing onscreen people in the short were already running away, and it does make me wonder if it happened out of potential fear of these weapons or, maybe, potential fear of the chosen one? bringing me back to my post on thinking how chosen & dark crimes were perceived in the internet and possibly outernet)

the fact that weapons changing literal existence of an object and glitching them are available to mercenaries of rocketcorp is a pretty big thing

another potential argument for it is about the memory scanner itself — a thing used for intrusion into a literal brain (code?) of a person. the obvious thing aside – the scanner literally looks like a vr helmet and i initially thought that it was its function before i saw what it was used for

the whole fact that this kind of advanced technology exists, honestly, surpassing the already existing level of technology in stickcity is something that could potentially connect victim and rocketcorp respectively to an ability to meddle with a literal living being, their memory and potentially their code. victim, aware and knowing the process of being directly created from someone's hand might've acquired the knowledge of influencing a stick's literal process of living over the course of all the years. which brings me to my major point:

• dimensions

we all know about the fact that initial pc programs are able to be used in the outernet, which by itself is an interesting discussion of internet and outernet intertwining once again. we know that rocketcorp and pc sticks use interfaces that real world users use. and we know about the existence of the adobe tool board that agent uses literally all their screentime and the adobeflash instruments in victims office. it wasnt a surprising thing to see given that we have mostly explored the way of how pc and internet programs work throughout the series, and it was thought about that well! nothing surprising about these tools being in the outernet as well, mustve acquired it from somewhere! (and honestly, given all the new insane character plot i didnt think about that deeply either)

over the course of events happening in the outernet we have never really seen pc apps used there physically prior to season 2, except for one time of alan's cursor being used there... that required an insane amount of coding and manifestation of the cursor in the outernet space that couldnt be achieved without a stick that is familiar with with a pc.

not only talking about yellows feats, the creation of darks portals is something worth mentioning as well. we know that he is extremely skilled in coding, with it most likely being his main activity (aside from terrorism) in his life in the outernet. no sticks that we've seen created something like literal dimensional portals, like dark did — and he is a stick that is accustomed to the pc and internet as well. and oh, orange. bringing their stylus to outernet and have it revoked almost immediately when caught (which is not surprising at all anymore, that the mercs and rocket workers took an immediate interest in it given canon information and all these theories lol)

and, unsurprisingly, purple, king and the unknown merchant in "the king" episode as well. we know that the minecraft icon could be accessed through a travel to a pc, and that purple was first introduced literally inside of a mac — and the whole bit of purple coming to alanspc trying to steal the icon that the cg had.

(another thought to mention is about the interdimensional travel — the whole fact that the internet and the pc realm is able to be accessed through programs brought to the outernet. (e.g. minecraft portals). but again, these programs were initially coming from a pc, and didnt exist in the outernet. where the actual hell did the blue merchant in the king episode come from????)

this whole fact shows that the only way to access pc programs in the outernet is for something or someone to bring it there.

and victim, posessing all the tools of the whole program he was created in, wouldnt be able to get it through regular means. whether that means acquiring it from someone's elses hands or going to a pc by themselves.

• virtual reality and the position of rocketcorp in outernet

now, im going to bring up outernet and internet intertwining again. outernet sticks do not interact with pc programs physically, like all avam main characters do.

the only times we've seen pc programs and apps physically interact with outernet were shenanigans with the cg, hollowheads, purple & king. people that actually had access to a pc in one way or another.

(..and the damn merchant.)

the fact that these programs existence is quite rare in outernet and maybe even unknown to some, having rocketcorp being a full-on restricted company with classified information, having high influence over tech, exchange of pc programs being seen as a shady activity(!!!!) (the king episode),

— could rocketcorp be somewhat of a main corporate that controls the fabric of the outernet and internet itself, being some sort of a power force and government-ish corporation to the outernet? perhaps, them being seen as officials that have limited knowledge of unaccessible pc programs and internet itself and exclusive (even divine?) power of it that only they are able to possess, providing it to the outernet, initially making them "the people in power" that stand higher than regular sticks of the outernet?

(essentialy, making victim a literal fucking dimension mastermind)

• important part about outernet sticks (that ill probably ramble about in an another post independently)

supposing that rocketcorp does possess power... would they have control over what they decide to stream and show with their tech?

the tv that we've seen in the king episode didnt show any other episode except for the minecraft one. heck, it could've been the only thing shown there.

and in general, it begs the question: are outernet sticks that never traveled beyond its space even aware of internet?

and could've they interpreted the episode above as just fiction, along with the confirmation that our main characters are the ones that are inherently tied with the pcs and the internet in different ways?

(PLEASE tell me if there's proof that confirms otherwise because its a very bold statement given how much outernet and internet are interlinked in the main story. its 2 am i havent slept sometimes i have amnesia and i might be forgetting something very crucial. this assumption was not fully comprehended by me before specifically because most outernet sticks are the same type with the cg and it was confusing when i was just getting back to avam a few years ago)

we also know about the box itself. or, to be more accurate, the boxes. the ones that both chosen and second were trapped in, at the same time, in different places. the ones that were, quite literally, simulations. the ones that have also used pc programs tools.

simulation isnt something that was seen as an ordinary occurence, but it was literally seen twice in the rocketcorp in the same episode. creation of a simulation doesnt seem like an activity that could be used by ordinary sticks either. giving potential highest influence of rocketcorp over pc and internet technologies and its providence, are they able to give simulation experience to others, allowing regular sticks to experience different dimensions in a controlled way? say, for example, in a game?

whoa finally i got it out of my brain. im going to drop family guy pose style

afterthought rollercoaster:

• as far as i remember we didnt see outernet citizens interact with internet like users do, but we do know they possess tech such as television again, that can be bought. there IS tech such as computers (tdls room) but we havent seen them being used by sticks that werent exposed to the concept of the pc and the internet. there is a possibility i missed out on outernet sticks using phones or other tech, but even with this, its possible that our internet is simply not accesible there

• given the possibility of rocketcorp delegating all technology and simulations, providing it to others, possibly allowing smaller companies to use their resources in different cities... is there a possibility that rocketcorp might've been responsible for the gold simulation incident?

• going back to weapons of the mercs, i do wonder whether, even with the pc apps ability to be used in the outernet, the apps themselves having any kind of influence over processes in the outernet — given the whole glitching thing that literally messes with physical objects and people. it is just my own theory, but i dont believe that the glitch thing that is embedded in these weapons comes from the outernet, either

• okay this is going to be a wild concept you dont have to read it

talking about the creation of outernet and the whole race of stickmen, right now i am tending to believe that outernet is still an extension of internet that might've appeared with its creation. i was always open to accepting it but slightly confused by the concept of outernet being natural (bc i constantly try to find logic in worldbuilding el oh el) and tried to suggest a theory that sticks of outernet might've also been created directly (which does feel like a reach atp). with the concepts i discussed in this ramble i dont really feel that confusion, but im honestly not abandoning the idea of creation at some point, either: specifically i had a thought that when outernet first appeared first sticks of that dimension were also created, potentially them finding a way into outernet in some way. but eventually outernet was built as an independent place for their kind and prospered by itself like any civilization would

oh my god im going to drop with exhaustion. but im so happy i got it out

self portrait of my sticksona right now

[vitiligo-is-not-a-trend]

Hello!! How are you? I’m a writer and I’d like to incorporate someone with vitiligo into my story, however, I don't know much, which is kind of a problem seeing as I want to be sensitive to the community. Would you be so kind as to tell me some things you do/don't want to see in characters that have vitiligo? Thank you so much!

Hi! Im good thanks for asking, hope you're also doing well!

That's a wonderful question! Before I start I'm just gonna say these are my views on the subject so if anyone else with vitiligo wants to chime in please do so! I'm probably gonna miss a few things!

Let's start with the donts first, and I very much appreciate the fact that you also asked for dos!

I think one of the more a major issues I see around vitiligo have to do with the way in which it's designed. I've made a few posts about it in the past with more details, I think theyre tagged under "character design( tips)". So doing things like making repeated shape patterns like hearts or animal prints or like skulls or whatever is Not Great. This includes making humanized versions of animals. Like recently for the new Puss in Boots movie a lot of people were drawing Kitty Softpaws as a human with vitiligo, and that just...does not feel great lmao. I am aware that things like that don't come from malice but it feels like being compared to an animal in a way.

Another issue I've seen is when it comes to how the character developed vitiligo it happened due to some curse or magic or (demonic) possession something along those lines. This is also a very bad idea, seeing as it's basically demonizing the condition.

Vitiligo is also complicated when it comes to its genetic. There are working theories/plausible explanations for how it occurs but there are a lot of varying factors. However, it is NOT passed down genetically (to an extent) so having a child does NOT mean that you're character's child will also have the condition. It is also not something you get get at birth/in the womb.

Don't change the coloration of it! Vitiligo is DEFINED as a lack of pigmentation, not a change in it, so you can't have characters walking around with pink and patches. You could make an argument with yellow if its for legos I guess but unless you're drawing every white person lego as that neon yellow I'd avoid it still.

Don't only give it your characters of color!! Especially if you only have a few! I feel like this is something I see frequently unfortunately, but having a character with vitiligo or albinism or pibaldism or whatever doesnt make a character less or more of one race or another. I saw a post where someone said it's "curing POC" so....yeah big yikes. I know because it's not as visible on white people some people dont think they can have it, and it doesnt get used frequently in examples which doesnt really help so yeah.

Also try not to make them a villian especially if theyre the only character with vitiligo

As for the Dos:

I'd love to see a character embrace this aspect of themselves. I know a lot of people and for a very long time myself include feel a sense of shame about it. It took me years to get to a point where I feel comfortable let alone happy about having it.

I'd love to see another character comment on it with a compliment, and have the majority of other characters reacting positively and/or neutrally towards its.

However this is technically a disability and there are people out there that do make fun of people for having it so maybe lightly touching on that would also be a good idea. if you don't feel comfortable out-right writing a scene like that, mentioning things in passing like "oh yeah I got bullied for it when I was younger" or "I actually used to cover it up with clothes and makeup" are good ideas.

Having your character also be aware of things like the time and UV index and whether or not they have sunscreen on is also important. Vitiligo is essentially the lack of melanin, which means that there's no real natural defense against sun exposure at play so being sensitive/aware of these things is a good idea especially if they're fairly new to the condition.

Maybe there's another character that also has vitiligo present in at least some aspect. Whether its just some person that your character looks up to and doesn't know personally, but knowing that they have it makes them feel better about themselves. For me this was Michael Jackson!

This is technically kind of a dont but vitiligo spots are very different depending on the variation that a person has! Spots seem to have a relatively slow progression and, as I mentioned, depending on variation, might not progress at all past certain areas. So if the character has a more progressing variation like Universal or Segmental maybe another character can note that a patch or few have gotten larger since they've last saw them especially if its been awhile and not like last moth.

That's all I can really think of as of now, but I'll reblog this if I think of anything else to add!

[venaue]

Looking at the first question on the twst OC ask thing for the Ramshackle OCs and bc I like hearing abt ppls OCs, wanted to ask abt if either of ur OCs got magic or overblotted at any point in ur canon for them?

AAHHH TYSM FOR THE ASK ANON IT MEANS ALOT <333

to answer the question , none of my ramshackle ocs have magic !

despite this , they obviously have a lot of interactions with magic , both affecting them and people around them .

since they've come from the world where magic as a concept is only fiction , the effects that magic has on them are unknown .

and will stay unknown until it's gone too far .

in more of a yapping fashion , i haven't fully thought about that concept yet , but i've always wanted the magic to have some kind of effect on them .

i think i'll go down the route of it affecting their physical functioning , specifically draining them of energy faster (since they don't have like 'magical energy' or whatever , it uses mental and physical energy as a substitute , or something , since they aren't from this world , hence having a weaker constitution then the other magic users), causing them to be even more tired than they already are .

this would result in easily recognizable slip ups , and small incidents and injuries that neither of them could really excuse , or explain .

i think a final consequence for this would be something like one of these small incidents causing a major accident in one of the final boss fights or something , and all of the magic surrounding them and all through the atmosphere of a grand battle causing something sort of like a pseudo 'emotional overblot' of sorts .

they'd like - go into a sort of like possessed / zombified state , no one really knowing what's wrong with them . lashing out , and letting the pain and urges overwhelm them , slowly pushing everyone away , because no one really knows they're from another world anyway , so how would they know how to help ? how would they know what was going on ?

eventually , they'd finally let it slip .

yuuto would be begging and crying not to send him back , not wanting to go back to that horrible life , and kiyuu would probably be hyperventilating at the thought of losing all of the progress she'd finally made .

after this 'emotional overblot' , and with the support of everyone , they'd eventually get cured . (uh . somehow .) and get back on their feet . and yk . happy ending stuff . yay .

it would of course be a bit different for each of them , and i haven't quite figured out how their dynamic will be affected by this , but uh . i have a start !

like , the 'emotional overblot' would be the kind of thing that wasn't really an important plot point , until the final incident , but more of like a foreshadowing thing that keeps happening before leading to a big emotional bombshell drop or something :3

uh . i kinda sorta just made that all up on the spot and i didnt rly proof read it so its definitely subject to change and might not make a lot of sense ... so sorry !! and my bad for going on a bit of a tangent there and if it was . a little irrelevant to the question LMAOO :sob:

[crisiscutie]

C.C's Rebirth Check/Wishlist for Sephiroth

Given that Sephiroth's increased screen time has been confirmed for Rebirth, I'm hoping for answers/exploration on the listed subjects below: However, it would be unrealistic to expect that the majority or even half of the items on this list will be addressed. There's also Ever Crisis and 7R3, so there may be opportunities for further exploration.

Sephiroth's mindset changing from thinking himself as a Cetra to the inheritor of JENOVA's will: This is something that could be easily expanded on in Rebirth. Perhaps some cut scenes showing Sephiroth in the Lifestream with JENOVA. It'd be interesting to witness him absorb the planet's memories and watch his madness intensify. This exploration could also be a legit way to woobify Sephiroth without trivializing or undermining the gravity of his horrific actions, since it's something that we already know about, just that there is more explanation on it this time.

2. JENOVA's origins and sapience: Just what exactly is it? Can it still think with Sephiroth in control? Is it an Omega Weapon from a different planet or simply another parasitic virus within its own species? Please, I just want to know what the hell is it exactly. Also, how was it exactly defeated?

3. Confirmation that Sephiroth is in control of JENOVA at the start of FF7: It's been confirmed by AC, the FF7 Ultimania, and the writers themselves several times. Not sure why there's still debates about it in today's time. So maybe this game will be the final nail in the coffin for this debate.

4. Expansion/confirmation if JENOVA was controlling and/or influencing Sephiroth during the Nibelheim Incident: This is a legit debate. My opinion is that it was influencing Sephiroth, judging by the reactions he had the closer he got to its body, both in CC and also possibly at a time in FS. But I do think Sephiroth was acting of his own volition when he committed the horrific crimes at Nibelheim. Even if JENOVA was controlling him, he showed no remorse or acknowledgement of his atrocities once he had full control of it and even committed/planned to do more atrocities.

5. How Sephiroth plans on beating fate with his knowledge of the future? I'm certain that the game will partly address this. But I wonder why he doesn't just kill Aerith and Tifa, break Cloud, and beeline the Black Materia. My theory is that Sephiroth is in a similar predicament to Aerith, where he is limited in what he can do because of the Whispers. He must wait for the right moments to manipulate events to his liking. So he understands he needs to play the waiting game. Why not have some fun with Cloud in the meantime?

6. Sephiroth's Parentage: Does he know Hojo is his father? A certain scene from CC calls to mind. But I think even if he doesn't know, he must have had some inkling or recognized him as the closest person to a father figure in his life. It's also interesting to note that he consistently focuses on a mother figure throughout his entire life, without ever mentioning a "father". I theorized why here.

As for Lucrecia, does he know about her too? We know Sephiroth absorbed the memories of the planet during his four-year Lifestream dive with JENOVA. Will those memories include any hint of his true parentage?

7. Just how much does Sephiroth really know? Yes, he possesses future knowledge, but where does that knowledge begin and end? At one point, he's going to have to start improvising somewhere down the line. I don't expect this to be answered in Rebirth. 7R Sephiroth is trolling us almost as much as he is trolling Cloud. Man is self-aware.

8. The fates of his squad members: Matt, Glenn and Lucia. And here I thought First Soldier would update because of Rebirth, but they seem to holding back on it for now. I wonder if this is because Rebirth would spoil their fates?

9. More characterization of Sephy: We need to see that cold, professional SOLDIER mask cracking more. And it looks like this will be delivered. Such a puppy 😍

10. This is for Rebirth in general: Please don't end on a fucking cliffhanger... It'd just make the nonstop theorizing from the fanbase for the next four years even more painful to endure. I also hate cliffhangers in general.

Again, I'm not even expecting half of these to be answered, especially the point about JENOVA's origins since that'd probably be saved for the 3rd 7R game. The questions about his knowledge of his parentage probably won't be answered either. But I'm hoping for a few at least. Once I have more info on the game, I'll swing back to this list and mentally check off what's confirmed or at least mentioned/addressed.

[capitalism-is-parasitism]

George Monbiot: TAX THE RICH, TAX THEM HARD (Labour is already failing)

We need a genuine levelling up, across regions and across classes. The austerity inflicted on us by the Conservatives was unnecessary and self-defeating and Labour has no good reason to sustain it.

The new government insists it is ending austerity. It isn’t. As the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) pointed out in June, Labour’s plans mean that public services are “likely to be seriously squeezed, facing real-terms cuts”. Similarly, the Resolution Foundation has warned that, with current spending projections, the government will need to make £19bn of annual cuts by 2028-29. However you dress it up, this is austerity.

We are constantly told: “There’s no money.” But there is plenty of money. It’s just not in the hands of the government. The wealth of billionaires in the UK has risen by 1,000% since 1990. The richest 1% possess more wealth than the poorest 70%. Why do they have so much? Because the state does not; they have not been sufficiently taxed.

There are two reasons for taxing the rich and taxing them hard. The first is to generate revenue: this is the one everyone thinks about. But the second is even more important: to break the spiral of patrimonial wealth accumulation. Unless you stop the very rich from becoming even richer, it’s not just their economic power that continues to rise, but also their political power. Democracy gives way to oligarchy, and oligarchy is intensely hostile to everything Labour governments seek to achieve, including robust public services and a strong economic safety net. When oligarchs dominate, you can kiss goodbye any notion of the public good.

Last year, I tried to estimate how much it would cost to restore a viable, safe and inclusive public realm after 14 years of Tory vandalism. While my effort was very rough, the sum came to between £65bn and £100bn of extra spending a year: between seven and 10 times more than Labour’s total. It’s a lot, although it’s dwarfed by the money the previous government spent on the pandemic: between £310bn and £410bn over two years.

While these sums are ambitious, and would require expanded borrowing (which Labour has foolishly ruled out) as well as taxation, there are plenty of opportunities to raise taxes on the rich. The government could, for example, replace inheritance tax with a lifetime gifts tax kicking in at £150,000, a level that would affect only wealthy people. This would increase revenue while ending a major form of tax avoidance. The government should raise capital gains taxes: it’s perverse that unearned income is taxed at a lower rate than earned income. It should close the carried-interest loophole, which ensures that private equity bosses pay less tax than their cleaners: a pledge on which it already seems to be backtracking.

The government could also levy a wealth tax, a luxury goods tax and a tax on second homes and holiday homes. It could make the windfall tax on fossil fuel revenues permanent. It could replace business rates with land value taxation, and council tax with a progressive property tax based on contemporary property values: both shifts would be fairer and would raise more money. But the only extra taxes the government propose are, as the IFS remarks, “trivial”.

By seeking to raise revenue through economic growth rather than redistribution, Labour avoids the necessary confrontation with economic power. Not only is the strategy uncertain of success (economic growth here is subject to global forces); not only does growth load even more pressure on the living planet; but this approach also fails to break the grip of the ultra-rich. Isn’t this the whole damn point of a change of government, after 14 years of Tory appeasement? Unless you seek to change the structures of power and redistribute wealth, the rich will continue to harvest the lion’s share of growth while using some of their money to buy the politics that expands and fortifies their dominion.

[spicykaraage]

Tenipuri Complete Character Profile - Kazuya Tokugawa

[PROFILE]

Birthday: July 27th (Leo)

Blood Type: AB

Birthplace: Ehime

Relatives: Grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, older sister

Father’s Occupation: Diplomat

High School: Unknown

Grade: Second Year

Committee: Student Council (president)

Strong Subjects: Physics, geology

Weak Subjects: Art

U-17 Training Camp Position & Rank: Second String | Court 1 ➜ First String | No.4

World Cup Team: U-17 World Cup Japanese Representatives

Favorite Motto: “To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage.”

Hobbies: Snowboarding, yachting, watching dolphins [TP]

Favorite Color: Ultramarine

Favorite Book: The Analects of Confucius

Favorite Food: Japanese food (especially natto), protein, tomatoes [TP], chicken breast [TP]

Favorite Anniversary: The day he won his first trophy

Preferred Type: He doesn’t think about it

Ideal Date Spot: Yachting in Auckland Harbour

His Gift for a Special Person: “I would like to discuss and decide it with you.”

Where He Wants to Travel: Marina del Rey

What He Wants Most Right Now: A new snowboard ➜ A wetsuit [23.5]

Dislikes: Carbonated drinks, popping candy ice cream [TP]

Skills Outside of Tennis: Waking up early, fingertip handstands

Routine During the World Cup: Early morning running

[DATA]

Height: 189cm | 6’2”

Weight: 79kg | 174 lbs ➜ 71kg | 156 lbs [23.5]

Dominant Arm: Left

Vision: 1.2 Left & Right

Play Style: All-Rounder

Signature Moves: 10 Ball Strike, Black Hole, Premonition (not a technique), Howling, Sixth Sense, Divine Path of the Asura

Equipment Brands:

Racket: BRIDGESTONE X-BLADE FORCE 3.15MID PLUS

Shoes: Prince PRO HOLD TOUR IV CG

Overall Rating: Speed: 4.5 / Power: 4.5 / Stamina: 4.5 / Mental: 4.5 / Technique: 4.5 / Total: 22.5

Kurobe Memo: “After suffering a major setback, he rapidly improved to the point where he’s able to hit his 10 Ball Strike with ease. The biggest concern right now is if he’s severely injured after taking a blow in the abdomen from Byoudouin…” <Official Description>

[POSSESSIONS]

What’s in His Locker at the U-17 Training Camp [10.5 II]:

Wristband: He has a white and black one

Snowboarding magazine: An issue of Snowstyle. He is so skilled at snowboarding that he will spend whole winters just in the mountains. He buys a magazine every month during the season

Sports drink: He made it himself

Supplements: They change each day depending on his condition

What’s in His Travel Bag [23.5]:

Laundry detergent: He washes peoples’ clothes and will neatly fold them

[TRIVIA]

The Prince of Tennis II Official Character Guide: PairPuri Vol. 8 | Publication Date: 08/04/2011

He plays practice matches with Oni during his free time

He has a large motorcycle license and his own motorcycle

The Prince of Tennis II 10.5 Fanbook | Publication Date: 09/04/2013

He is on bad terms with Byoudouin

He has taken a liking to Ryoma since he’s always wanted a younger brother. He’s lately been feeling a sense of rivalry with Ryoga since he feels as if he’s taking Ryoma, a favorite person of his, away from him

He was not aware of Ryoma or Atobe while he was abroad

The Prince of Tennis II 23.5 Fanbook | Publication Date: 05/02/2018

The girl he had picked up on the beach is still in touch with him. He was forced to give his contact info and she messages him often, while he messages her back every now and then

He was in Paris before being invited to the training camp

The Prince of Tennis 20th Anniversary Book: Tenipuri Party | Publication Date: 08/02/2019

His ideal relationship is one where he and his partner are practically married

When he tries thinking of his ideal type, he gives up and states it’s too much of a bother

He, Oni, and Irie spend their vacations together. The previous summer, they had went camping together and discussed their thoughts and feelings about the World Cup around a campfire

He is the only person who will go along with Irie’s performances due to him being so serious that he cannot tell it’s an act

One of His Days Off at the Training Camp:

5:00am - Wakes up, stretches, then goes on a run

6:00am - Does laundry, cleans his and Irie’s room and tries not to wake Irie up

7:30am - Breakfast (a Japanese meal with natto and grilled fish)

8:30am - Voluntary strength training

12:00pm - Lunch (including a large quantity of bread that Irie baked)

1:00pm - Voluntary stamina training

2:30pm - Rests, puts a towel over a sleeping Ryoma

4:00pm - Bathes, looks after an overheated Inui

6:00pm - Dinner (sautéed chicken breast and tomato salad)

8:30pm - Gets a massage

9:00pm - Relaxes while reading yacht magazines

10:30pm - Prepares for tomorrow, then goes to bed

[dojae-huh]

I'm going to write a sad and serious post, so if you are still in the mood to celebrate NY, please skip it and read later.

Doyoung looked happy during the end of year concert, so, touch wood, he wasn't too affected by the MC scandal. I hope he learnt how to withstand and wait out personal attacks by now. He has been an idol for a long time, and had many a trouble.

I was a bit surprised that only 3 people unsubscribed from me in the past days. Either few subscribers read me regularly, or I successfully weed out the weak ones (I have a high subscribe/unsubscribe rate).

I'm not very eloquent with my words. I often come off too harsh and don't deliver my point of view well. I'm coming back to the topic of online virtue-signalling, "do good" pressure, witch-hunting of idols as I need to clarify a few points.

On the first glance it might seem like I'm behaving like a fan who protects one's bias. Actually, I would defend any idol who is accused of things he/she didn't do/that weren't proven. My opposition is to the mob, to the cancelling culture, to the people who use nice pretext to be awful humans. Their power is strong, they crush not only celebreties, but grind in the mix other fans as well. And I want more people to learn how to withstand this type of bullying into complience with the mob's POV.

The masses are often wrong. And a minority often looks like it represents the opinion of the majority, when in reality media and socmed algorythms just favour loud confrontational people and people who earn being "spokepersons". You don't have to pick a side if you don't want to. You don't need and you actually can't have an opinion on every subject. You can and should hear out people you disagree with or who has bad sides to them (like being a homophobe). A person possessing a bad character or view still stays a source of information you can learn from.

You will be pressured by "well-meaning" people into action "for the cause". Not just pressured - bullied. You won't be given a chance to question the cause, its revelance to you, whether there is a point to it, will the associated campaign bring any positive change really. Swear words, accusations of lacking morale, empathy, threats of being cancelled would be thrown at you if you won't comply. So the task is to learn to see through the wall of trigger words and mass histeria, to be able to ask questions and think and decide for oneself.

I didn't follow the Korean fans vs Indonesian fans fanwar. I don't know the specifics. Still, I can comment on absurdity of (some) Indonesians cancelling a Korean idol over a fastfood brand boycott that has little to do with their country. Indoneasia has an ongoing conflict of their own. Papua wants to become independent and is not allowed to. Killing or rebels - check. Denial of self-identification - check. Indonesians from other islands, other ethnicities, coming to the land and using its resources, starting to live there - check (Indonesia populates Papua with other peoples deliberetely, selling of mining and logging rights to foreign companies is rampant). When I went to YT to look for a video on the conflict, I came across the fact that Indonesia has a migrant issue as well. Rohingya refugees, a muslim minority fleeing Myanmar.

It is the truth that athrocities and injustice happen all over the world at the same time. And not only man-made conflicts. Poverty, ilnesses, nature destruction. People suffer and die constantly. People following online mobs that get into a frenzie after media shines light on a particular issue and bully everyone to do the same are hypocritical. The world is big, people in one part of the world deserve peace and to be preoccupied with their mandane lives, celebrate, even if something bad happens in another part of the world.

When Russia-Ukrainian war started I followed it closely. I listened to commentators from both sides and I was watching the videos from the battleground with burnt corpses in tanks, Ukranian drones releasing explosives on the heads of Russian soldiers, child graves dug on playgrounds, leveled to the ground cities (before and after airial photos), as well as humanitarian and volunteer campaigns, etc. I also read comments and observed the wave of hate Russians were getting online from "well-meaning" people. I was stripped off of the ability to use credit cards abroad, ability to enter several European countries, and other issues. It was a very unstable time when everyting changed every day, I was afraid to be locked in Russia like Soviet people were locked in USSR (it's a real concern among Russians, a new iron wall). Back then I constantly switched between reading about the war and writing silly stuff here on this blog. I didn't write about the war not only because I wanted a space to escape to, but also because it was a local problem. Yes, huge, and affecting the whole world (oil, gas, vegetable oil, wheat, more refugees, the disraption of the "peace" in Europe, etc), but still a conflict people in Indonesia, Thailand, India, South America and so on had the right to avert their eyes from.

Right before New Year Russia (nothing sacred for Putin) sent rockets to several large Ukranian cities. You can see Ukranian k-pop cover groups filming dance covers for YT and think that everyrhing has calmed down, that it's only soldiers who fight on the perifery. Well, no. And Ukraine also sent rockets into a Russian town. On both sides civillians died in the buildings during explosions.

Instead of a NY conglaturation, a political oppositioner on YT I watch released a video with information about a couple of people that died. Turned statistics into stories about individual human beings. You can watch it here, it has English subs. The author asked to forgive him for not being in a celebratory mood, so many commented how they too couldn't celebrate the holiday.

The attack angered me, but I didn't dwell on it. I personally did congratulate all my friends with positive words. And I celebrated. War or not war. I want to live. I want my friends to be successful next year despite actually not knowing their onlook on the conflict (I was hesitant to discuss with some). I don't want Putin and his desire to stay in power to ruin more lives than he already has and will continue to do. Certainly not mine. I have my lane, nature conservation. It is as important as other "fields to do good". And to have any positive impact on the world, firstly I need to stay sane and happy myself. And my friends need to stay sane because they will outlive the dictator and be the part of people who will push for democracy.

To sum it up. Don't fall to the mob's pressure on the internet and don't be quick to judge people, cancel them. Don't delegate thinking and decision making to others. Form your own informed opinions. And don't waste your time on trivial things. Fanwars online don't help anything and anyone. It's action in real life that matters. Even if all you do is being kind to your family and people around you, you still do more good than justice-warriers.

Be kind in 2024.

[princehendir]

I'm Adrianmode, and I don't think you've talked abt her much on the new blog: PLEASE talk about his demon girlbestie. I love her.

YAYYYYYY Self-interest :) you're right I haven't talked about her yet, that's crazy. Bullet points because I like those. Some fun facts below, organized into a rough timeline:

if you asked her, she would tell you that she's Adrian's childhood best friend. Adrian does not know what the hell she's talking about. She is extremely offended that he doesn't remember his dreams from when he was 10, which is when & where they actually first met.

as far as Adrian's concerned, they've only functionally "known each other" since the family left Lothering, which is when he started acknowledging her as being a discreet Being as opposed to just some vague dream-figure that his brain cooked up. He then also proceeded to ignore her for a whole year after that while he was trying to be a Good Mage who is Not A Maleficar and Doesn't Consort With Demons. That ends when he finally decides that he's more interested in finding out what she can teach him about magic than he is in respectability and making his dad proud of him.

Anyways

Her appearance changes as the game goes on, depending on what it is she wants and what in general is going on, which I know I've mentioned but it's my favorite part of writing her lol. The simplified appearance timeline is that pre-game, she mostly just chooses to present herself like a slightly less sexy default desire demon, and then during that first year in Kirkwall when she's trying to get Adrian to acknowledge her she's mostly trying to mimic the type of girls that he likes to date, because she's used to that getting results, and then after that it gets... Complicated. A couple of times it's commented that she's starting to look a bit like Bethany, but whether that's because she's actually trying to mimic Bethany or if she's trying to look like Adrian-but-a-girl and as a result ends up looking like Bethany is unclear. Definitely, she is trying to look like a Hawke. But in an elf kind of way? It's weird.

Which leads me to something that I haven't talked about much yet:

After she meets Justice for the first time in Night Terrors she gets really obsessed with what him & Anders have going on, and starts trying to talk Adrian into letting her possess him. He turns her down or changes the subject every time she brings it up, like never even considers it, and this becomes a major source of contention in their relationship and also the main aspect of her character arc for the last half of da2. Elaboration in next point.

Basically the thing about her is that it is inherently in her nature to Want Things. That's what she is, a creature that Wants and wants without regard for what is outside of her. And the thing that she wants right now is to crawl inside Adrian's brain and wear his body like a cheap suit, but unfortunately, more specifically, she also wants him to want that too. So she can't directly manipulate him into it, and she can't force the issue either. And it's SO frustrating for her. Because she's never wanted something that she didn't know how to get before, or something that requires inherently the consent and participation of someone else. It's kind of... Destabilizing, for her. It is implied that this internal conflict is altering her nature in some way, similar to how the mage/templar conflict in Kirkwall is altering Justice's.

Also she kind of exclusively refers to Justice as "Vengeance" lol. Unless she thinks he can hear her. She's not suicidal.

Merrill thinks she's really creepy btw. She generally stays out of it, because it's Adrian's business, and he generally stays out of her stuff with Audacity/the Eluvian/etc, but she does make it clear that she doesn't trust this particular spirit, and thinks that Adrian is wayyyyy too intimate with her. Not in a jealousy way, just in a "I'm worried you're in over your head and not taking proper precautions" way.

Self-interest LOVES Merrill though. It thinks she's so neat, and goes out of it's way to encourage Adrian to spend more time with her before they start dating.

(I'm not saying that the possibility of being closer to Merrill is part of what Self-interest finds so appealing about the possibility of possessing Adrian, but I'm not not saying that either)

Primarily though, Self-interest's role in Adrian's life is as a teacher. She teaches him blood magic, she teaches him spirit healing. Things that Adrian's father couldn't or wouldn't teach him. And in the case of healing, tried but gave up on teaching him while he was growing up. It was a big source of conflict in Adrian's relationship with his father that Malcolm felt he was hard/frustrating to teach, that he didn't learn well, that he wasn't a particularly talented mage in general, etc. So the fact that Self-interest is enthusiastic about teaching him, praises him when he does well, and tells him that he has a lot of potential, is a huge part of what is appealing about her to him. Soothes his daddy issues. He's normal.

[khttrpg]

Witch Job Class in Re:Roll V0.2

Please note that this is playtest material, and subject to change.

LVL 1: ABILITY POOL

At first level, you gain access to the following abilities: Replica Buster, Scan, and Steal.

LVL 1: MANIPULATE SPELLS

You learn magic that can reach into a person’s heart and twist what you find. You gain access to spells with the Manipulate tag.

LVL 2: MEMORIA

At second level, you have gained a deep and immutable connection to the memories of those around you, such that it takes palpable form for you to use.

You treat Recollections as if they were physical items. You can take them from willing creatures or give them away; you can use abilities like Steal and Throw Item to collect or use them. If you have access to synthesis and the proper materials, you can synthesize them, and if someone is willing to sell part of their memory to you, you can purchase them for a price negotiated between you and the seller.

You also learn how to see pieces of others’ memories at a glance. If you have the Scan ability, when you use, you can also learn how many Memories the person has, and whether any of those Memories are false. You can also use this to learn if someone is possessed or sharing a mind with another being.

The way you view the minds of others often changes to reflect your abilities as your memory and mind magic become more powerful. Some begin to see memories as links in a chain which can be separated or reconnected; some think of memories as webs of string connecting people, which can be cut or retied. Think about how your character might conceive of memory as a physical sensation, and how this might change the way they talk about and use their magic.

LVL 3: REMINISCENCE

At third level, your connection with your own memory improves. You gain 3 Gains/Spends in Memories you have access to. You gain 3 overall, not each. For example, you could take 3 Gains, 2 Gains and 1 Spend, etc.

You gain an additional Gain/Spend for each level in Witch. If your Gains/Spends exceeds the number available to you from your Memories, the next time you gain a new Memory, you can immediately apply them in the process of potentially rearranging your Gains/Spends.

You also gain a new way to use Recollections; at any time, you can spend seven Recollections to gain access to a new Memory that you and your MM agree is appropriate to the character.

LVL 4: ABILITY POOL

At fourth level, you gain access to the following abilities: Advanced Specialization, Memorize, and Peep.

LVL 5: MEMORY DEGRADATION

You can take advantage of weak points to tweak the memories of those around you. Given one minute of uninterrupted work, during which you are visibly casting magic on a person you can see, you can change one major detail about one of the memories of a target you can see.

You change a single Gain/Spend to a different Gain/Spend which the target also has access to. This manifests in roleplay – if, for example, you were to trade out a Defector’s Two Timer to Shaky Grounds, the character would become less confident in their persuasion and more uncertain about the path they’re taking.

If targeting a character who does not have any Memories, such as a minor NPC or an Ally, you can instead choose to alter the memory of a person, location, or action that the target has seen or been part of.  When you try to use Memory Degradation on an enemy or someone unwilling, the MM may call for a Competition between your Recall and their Resolve.

You can only use Memory Degradation once per Story, and it only lasts until the next time you use it.

You cannot use Memory Degradation on a fellow PC unless you and the player discuss it beforehand and agree to what will happen.

LVL 6: COGNIZANCE

You have a very sharp mind and face no trouble recalling information. When you attempt to reduce a CR using Recall for something you’ve seen first-hand, instead of succeeding so long as any of your dice roll a 4, you succeed so long as any of your dice roll a 3 or 4.

LVL 7: MANIPULATE SPELLS II

You gain a greater understanding of magic that manipulates the heart. You gain access to spells with the Manipulara tag.

LVL 8: MEMORY LOSS

At eighth level, given enough time, you can modify memories on a large scale. Your Memory Degradation improves in two ways:

When using Memory Degradation, you can exchange a person’s Gains/Spends using Memories that the target doesn’t initially have access to, conjuring memories out of thin air to replace the ones they have.

You can spend additional minutes of uninterrupted work to trade out another Gain/Spend on the same person you initially targeted. This minute does not have to be concurrent with any other minutes you’ve spent doing so. You can still only target a single person per Story, and it still only lasts until you use Memory Degradation on another being. You can only ever exchange Gains/Spends up to your Mind Stat on a single person.

LVL 9: RESTORATION

You know enough about memories to restore them. You are capable of Restoration – an extensive process through which you restore a person’s memories. Restoration is deeply complex, and requires both advanced technology and magic Restoration requires the following:

A functioning science lab in which there is restorative technology, including a container in which the being undergoing Restoration is contained for the duration of the process in a coma-like state.

2,000 hours which you can keep track of as you play, or six months of daily work if you want to timeskip.

The Restore spell.

A Magic Stat of at least 5, and max MP of at least 10.

The process of Restoration may take more time if it is interrupted, if the equipment is subpar, or if the being undergoing Restoration has another version (such as a Nobody).

Restoration has the following effects:

Any “extra” versions of the being (a Lingering Will, a Nobody, etc.) are reintegrated seamlessly back into the main body.

The being regains any memories which it has forgotten or which have been removed through Witch features or magic.

The being cannot remember anything starting between the time they received false memories and waking up from Restoration.

LVL 10: ABILITY POOL

At tenth level, you gain access to the following abilities: Imitate, Power of Waking, and Seal.

LVL 11: INDUCED AMNESIA

At eleventh level, your ability to manipulate memories reaches a peak. When you use Memory Degradation, if you fully transfer one Memory’s Gains/Spends to belong to a different Memory, the effects of Memory Degradation become permanent, and the target sincerely believes that their new Memory has always been true. The target’s mind will automatically fill in the gaps of their personal history to replace one Memory with another with the least possible friction.

A person whose memory has been fully exchanged has not lost the truth forever; the memories remain, but hidden deep inside their heart. These memories can be restored through Restoration.

LVL 12: MEMORY WIPE

At twelfth level, you can make sweeping changes to a large population’s collective memory. You can choose one being or object to target, and a number of beings up to your Mind Stat who know of the target. Over the course of seven days of uninterrupted work, during which time you cannot perform any other tasks or be damaged in any way, the beings involved completely forget the existence of the target. You choose whether they lose the memory entirely or if it is replaced by similar memories with another object/being.

If you choose to impose new memories, the perception of reality warps to match them; anything that might remind the beings of their actual memories will be reinterpreted by their brain to look like a different object. If you choose to simply wipe the memories, the affected beings will still see the object as it is, but will fail to retain any information about it when they are not looking directly at it, and will not recognize it as anything significant even when they are looking at it.

Any effects of a Memory Wipe are direct modifications to a person’s memory, not magical illusion; as such, they cannot be affected by any magic which would normally dispel or pause illusions. Like Induced Amnesia, the memories are not truly lost forever, and they can be restored through the Restoration process.

LVL 13: MANIPULATE SPELLS III

You are a master at mental and emotional magic. You gain access to spells with the Manipulaga tag.

[freddiemercurydaily]

12 November 1977, Queen performed @

This is almost certainly the longest show Queen ever played, clocking in at nearly 2 1/2 hours. They play thirty songs in all, including eight from ‘News Of The World.’

“A Royal Quartet Rules The World of Heavy Metal Rock”

Boston — By New York or even Philadelphia standards, Boston is a generally sedate town, although an an outsider on hand last week at the Boston Garden would be forced to reassess any such generalization. Indeed, the more than 13,000 young rock fans who packed the Garden on the evening of Nov. 12-provided. an awesome example of mass hysteria, as the British rock group Queen unveiled a new stage show of such epic proportion and sustained excitement that there seems no way to adequately describe its impact.

It was only the second performance of the quartet’s current 27-city American tour (which touches down here at the Spectrum for shows Wednesday and Thursday nights), but it was a clear enough indication that Queen has blossomed into the leading practitioner of heavy-metal rock drama, With British kingpins Led Zeppelin temporarily out of the touring picture (due to the sudden death this past summer of singer Robert Plant’s young son), Queen literally reigns, thanks to ah impressive new album — “News of the World” (Elektra Records) — and the sort of non-stop, three-hour, no-opening-act show pioneered by Zeppelin in the early 1970s.

Queen’s triumph — after about five years of increasing popularity and one smash hit single (“Bohemian Rhapsody”) — derives from a wise and welcome change in musical/theatrical direction. Originally a busily theatrical “glitter” band reliant on a multitude of costume changes, smoke, strobe and fire effects, Queen has considerably toned down its flashy excess. With the exception of one major costume change — from stripes to sequins — on the part of lead singer Freddie Mercury, a modicum of smoke and flare, and a massive, 5,000-pound lighting rig in the shape of a queenly crown, the group’s theatrical impact is almost exclusively tied to its music. Noticeably phased from the current repertoireare the rococo, operetta-like tunes of an earlier period, and in their pIace is a masterfully paced program of eruptive yet polished hard rock

With such boldly articulate new, recent and old Queen songs ” We Will” Rock You,” “Keep Yourseif Alive”, “Liar,” “We Are the Champions”, “Tie Your Mother Down,” the group brillantly sates the mass appetite for the surefire basics of modern pop rock: soaring tenor lead and harmony vocals, pungent electric guitar lines, driving yet sophisticated rhythms, evocative Iyric:s and rich melodies.

“I suppose we’ve been leading up to this all long. It certainly feels like the breakthrough we’d never quite made” admitted Freddie Mercury after the Boston Performance. Mercury is tall, dark, muscular yet lean, retiring yet intense in terms of eye contact, and possessed of a rather pronounced overbite. He’s a gifted showman of genuine grace and relentless energy, a first rate vocalist and songwriter, and quite lucid on the subject of Queen.

“I think it got to the point with us where the theatrical tag began to take over our image, but it was only a matter of time before the musci began to come into its own. That’s what’s making the difference on this tour”, he reflects. In a near chair, bassist John Deacon – quietly amiable – nods in agreement.

“What bothers me so often when people discuss rock ‘n roll is their tendency to label it,” continues Mer­cury. “Either it’s ‘glitter’ or ‘punk’ or progressive’ or whatever, and these tend to obscure the fact that you’re really talking about a kind of entertain­ment that often touches on a lot of styles. The last thing l’d want to do is limit our music to a label.”

Speaking of labels, though — and of “punk” rock in particular — one can’t help but note that one of the group’s new tunes, “Sheer Heart Attack,” affects the piledriving intensity of today’s “punk” sound.

“I suppose it does, now that you mention it,” agrees drummer Roger Taylor, who wrote the song. Blond and blue-eyed, Taylor is very much the pretty boy of the band. “But even so, I wrote it a few years back and we only just got around to recording it. I do think, though, that the punk rock scene is still very nascent, and you’re going to see a lot of these young bands making a lot of crappy music before the good stuff comes along, i suppose it has to be that way”.

The nucleus of Queen — Mercury, Taylor and guitarist Brian May — met up in London in 1969 and rounded out in 1971 with John Deacon. Previously, Mercury had been with a group called Wreckage, while May and Taylor had been members of one called Smile. All four are in their late twenties, and each has a college degree, Mercury in graphic design and illustration, Taylor in biology, Deacon in electronics and May in astronomy.

The most accomplished academic of the four, May not only taught astronomy but published a few papers in British scientific journal before forming Smile with Taylor in 1968. Tall, leather Jacket and sporting an abundant mane of curly black hair, May could hardly look less a scientist.

“I was doing research on cosmic dust”, he explains, ” and I really did enjoy my work, in fact I still keep up with the latest developments”.

By now, the party has thinned down and it’s quite late – 3 A.M. – as May and I share an elevator to respective floors. he shakes his head, dazed and happy. “You know”, he odfers, “we’ve played a lot of places, but everytime I hear an audience roine crazy like they were tonight before we even got onstage, I get such a feeling inside, and I know I could never feel that way doing anything else…”

Source: The Sunday Bulletin

[grandhotelabyss]

speaking of Ulysses, on a semi-related note, can you recommend any novels that portray the relationship between a mother and son? Why does it seem there are fewer mother-son novels? For whatever reason, Bovary and Anna Karenina don't feel like strong examples. As I Lay Dying?

As I Lay Dying is good. I guess Sons and Lovers is the canonical example, maybe illustrating why others avoid this subject matter: the canon's incest motif, which Freud hardly invented.

The Greeks give us Oedipus and Medea, the incestuous son and the murderous mother; the Hebrews give us Sarah, Rebecca, Tamar, etc., the mothers ambitious for their sons as proxies; and Christianity, our first pass at synthesizing Athens and Jerusalem, gives us on the one hand Christ's hostility to his mother as a blockage of the universal and on the other hand the mysterious icon of the virgin mother.

So the tradition renders the whole thing difficult from the start, first of all. Then, as long as there were "separate spheres" for men and women, male writers replicated Christ's repudiation and female writers were mostly childless women. In the transition from Stephen Hero to A Portrait, Joyce excises his mother from his bildung only to have Stephen cry out in Ulysses, "No, mother. Let me be and let me live." At the other end of the century, Roth buries his mother's death, however movingly, in the first Zuckerman trilogy, while his father's death gets a whole memoir. Then this, in the second Zuckerman trilogy:

You don't have to murder your father. The world will do that for you. There are plenty of forces out to get your father. The world will take care of him, as it had indeed taken care of Mr. Silk. Who there is to murder is the mother, and that's what he saw he was doing to her, the boy who'd been loved as he'd been loved by this woman. Murdering her on behalf of his exhilarating notion of freedom! It would have been much easier without her. But only through this test can he be the man he has chosen to be, unalterably separated from what he was handed at birth, free to struggle at being free like any human being would wish to be free. To get that from life, the alternate destiny, on one's own terms, he must do what must be done.

Jesus couldn't have said it better. Except for the pointed example of Mary Shelley—and the bitterly ironic one of Charlotte Brontë, who died of morning sickness—Morrison is the first ultra-canonical female writer to have been a mother, and a mother of sons. But though Morrison wrote both the novel of maternity in the American canon and one of the best male bildungsromane, there was never a mother-son novel.

This article tries to "puncture the myth" of the childless female writer, which begins with Woolf, but its examples of female writers who had "plenty of babies" are mostly second-raters, as Woolf could have told them; Gaskell is the best they can do until the Silent Generation. The great male writers who had children, by the way, fucked their kids up pretty much to a man—even Hawthorne, by all accounts a model and devoted father with none of the problems exhibited by Dickens, Tolstoy, Joyce, Hemingway, etc.

Anyway, the thing to keep in mind about the childless writer is the allegorical significance of Homer's blindness: it means that, being blind, he could hardly have been a warrior, but he possessed the poet's second sight to grasp and capture the essence of the warrior's existence. Thus I myself write from the maternal point of view all the time.

Now that men and women no longer live in separate spheres, now that more mothers are major writers, now that fathers are expected to tend infants from birth, now that nobody has any children at all, now that universal queerness obsolesces the very word "mother," etc., the whole structure of the question may change. I am agnostic about whether the social developments of the last half-century are able to be stabilized by technology and economic growth or not; if not, then they mark the end or decadence of an imperial cycle, and we'll return to a barbarous stage when only warriors and mothers will matter at all, and nobody will do much writing, and men like me and women like Woolf will for practical purposes cease to exist, slaughtered on the rocks as useless to the tribe.

Until the grid collapses, though, here's a good idea for a contemporary narrative: a son who wants to be a great artist has a mother who is a great artist, and this in a time when male achievement per se is disparaged. In other words, the mother in the paternal role of the oedipal triangle—or both roles, I guess. Maybe I'll write it!

(It occurs to me—Mr. Rieff, if he reads this, will have to forgive me—that this is part of Sontag's story, too. Perhaps I'll put it in my play.)

[its-just-luci]

Something of an Announcement, Something of a Teaser

Below lies potential spoilers for later chapters of COA, currently un-uploaded, some unwritten. The following is subject to change, but the idea has been so pervasive in my mind, so obsessive and unavoidable that I felt I needed to write something, and ended up finishing a nearly 4200 word first-chapter of my upcoming Alternate-Future(?) novel/story, Fires of Prometheus. The story's set place in the COA universe, and below you'll find the speech that more or less set the gears in motion that the story centers around. Open if you dare >:)

“Ladies and gentlemen, and variations thereof, thank you for having me at this year's assembly. I promise you my speech will be brief, but I assure you, it pertains to the subject at hand.

As you all know, one of tonight's main points of discussion is that of humanity's future in space. No human alive today can possibly perceive the pace at which our species has developed in the past century. Ninety years ago today, our species launched a small metal sphere into the heavens, one which did little more than emit radio signals, but one which dazzled and horrified onlookers and world leaders alike. This was the dawning of the space age, this was the next step in a series of steps that would elevate our species’ capabilities to explore and understand the universe around us, and our place in it.

Nearly fifty years ago, we took another giant leap. Prometheus, the program which powers many of your lives, was this great leap. Like the Titan Prometheus of ancient Greek mythos, ours too delivered a tool to humankind. It wasn’t fire, but the gift of solar power, of energy, the gift of nearly unlimited efficiency in and around space, and the gift to explore it more freely. We’ve made use of this blessing in the years since, and if it wasn’t for the Prometheus program, and the great minds that inspired and drove it further, who knows where this nation, and humanity as a whole may be.

We rode Pegasus atop the fires of Prometheus, delivering crews to the Moon, and later to Mars. We used the solar thermal spacecraft to deliver uncrewed missions farther than ever before, venturing to the orbits of Neptune and Caelus in search of answers to decades old questions. We used the starlight program for peace, delivering interstellar probes to proxima centauri, who in the coming years will finally deliver their data back home. Prometheus was one of these world changing programs, an event in human history on scope with man’s first landing on the moon, and with the invention of the atomic bomb.

I believe it is time for another major decision to be made. I believe that time is of the essence, and that a potential challenge lies ahead that only our willingness to solve prevents us from reaching.

The discovery of genetic material in the sample returned by the ESPR spacecraft in the closing years of the 2020s has undoubtedly shaped not only America’s, but all nation’s space exploration ambitions. I remember being in congress when these findings were presented, hearing the shocked gasps of my fellow congresspeople as it was announced that we did find something.

It is because of that, that I believe now, more than ever, this nation should commit itself to doing the daring, doing the unthinkable, and pursuing the brightest of futures at the edge of our technological capabilities. We possess the capabilities to complete this endeavor. We’ve possessed those capabilities for years now; But I believe that the time is now, that this nation, and the nations of the world, commit themselves fully to the sending of humans to explore the moons of Saturn in the coming decade.

It will be challenging, there is no lack of understanding in my mind on that fact. However, the prometheus program, and the great minds who have furthered its reach, have granted us this capability. Like the delivery of fire from atop mount Olympus, the modern Prometheus program has delivered us power unimaginable, and just in time to explore our solar system with a new hope, and a new goal, one of establishing first contact with whatever may lie ahead. But why go? Some of you may ask. Why now?

I believe the answer to this can be found in our common history. Why venture to the moon nearly eighty years ago? Why attempt to fly at the turn of the 20th century? Why venture across the Atlantic in the 15th century? Why tame the horses? Why attempt to master fire? It is in our nature to venture into the unknown, to reach for what we don’t have, to stick our hands into the abyss, and see blindly what lie ahead. It is human nature to wonder, it is human nature to explore. It is in our DNA to venture out to these untamed frontiers in search of something some uncountable, unmeasurable itch that humans seem to have.

I believe it is in this vain that we must go. We’ve been given evidence that something might await us at our destination. Like the first natives to sail across the oceans connecting Asia and the Americas, we too must venture beyond the horizon. Greener pastures may await. Bountiful and unimaginable scientific treasures may await us there as well. We will not know until we try, and if not now, then when. I will be asking my nation’s congress as I ask you to do the same, to allot my country's space agency an appropriate sum to begin work on sending a human odyssey to the Saturnian system.

We seek blessing on this endeavor, we ask that the smartest minds of all humanity keep the mission's crew safe. We ask, humbly, for your support and cooperation in this endeavor, as the task at hand looms far larger than what one nation alone may tackle. This effort will be a multinational one, one which might take nearly two decades to see completed, however I believe it is worth it, and I hope I have convinced you of the same.

Thank you.”